Cromwell's Edinburgh Press and the Development of Print Culture in Scotland

Abstract

Alasdair Mann, the noted scholar of book culture in early modern Scotland, has suggested that a significant change had occurred in Scotland's relationship with the printed word by the late seventeenth century. This study sets out to explain how the interregnum served as a ‘watershed’ during which a consumer demand was created for popular print and how this in turn necessitated a significant increase in the production and distribution of printed material. Beginning with the sale of the press and patent of Evan Tyler to the London Stationers’ Company in 1647, the article charts the key factors that transformed Scotland's printing industry from the production of official declarations and works for foreign markets to the production of polemical texts for a Scottish audience. These developments also witnessed publication of the first serial news journal and the growth of a competitive market for up-to-date printed news. More than just an anomaly that flourished during a decade of occupation, these fundamental changes altered Scotland by introducing the large-scale consumption of chapbooks and printed ephemera, thereby initiating the nation's enduring print culture.

Review of periodical literature published in 2011

“…The earl's nemesis, Oliver Cromwell, would have been pleased. Spurlock details Cromwell's role in shaping the printing industry in Scotland. Spurlock focuses on the sales of presses in Edinburgh.…”

“…Spurlock details Cromwell's role in shaping the printing industry in Scotland. Spurlock focuses on the sales of presses in Edinburgh. Apparently, the book trade expanded during a period of general economic decline.…”

Polemic and Apocalyptic in the Cromwellian Invasion of Scotland

“…Perhaps most significantly, this article will argue against assumptions that Cromwellian justifications for the invasions of Ireland and Scotland were prompted and guided by 'regionally distinctive approaches,' 12 which assumptions imply that the invasion of Ireland was driven by an apocalyptic anti-Catholicism while the invasion of Scotland proceeded with a cautious and nuanced appreciation of its Reformed heritage. 13 In fact, an under-noticed strand of apocalyptic thinking in the Cromwellian justifications for the Scottish invasion illustrates the extent to which English military and religious leaders were prepared to use apocalyptic language to denounce Scottish Protestants.…”

“…14 Charles, who had been secretly negotiating with the Covenanters during Montrose's campaign, continued his political manoeuvring, and agreed a draft of the Treaty of Breda while resisting pressure to subscribe to the covenants. These manoeuvrings were not necessarily understood by his enemies: English observers reported that the king 'behaves himself like an obedient Son of the Kirk, is very modest, and as silent as midnight; He never moves but like a Puppet, upon the wire of the Covenant, and ambles altogether after their 4 Interpretation.' 15 The Kirk party agitated for the expulsion of 'Malignants' from Charles' court, meanwhile, and succeeded in removing former Engagers from the army, with disastrous effects on morale.…”

“…There is some justification for thinking of Scottish print culture in those terms, for after 1638, when the Kirk began to use mass printing to influence public opinion, religious publications were censored by the General Assembly and there were periodic purges of whatever unauthorised material had managed to enter the country. 4 But this system of control began to break down in summer 1650. In England, by contrast, throughout the period, army political publications continued to be 'remarkably sophisticated, their manifestos mature, and their sense of justice white hot,' 5 even as newsbooks and pamphlets continued to offer competing perspectives upon and interpretations of 'the Onions and Leeks of a Scotish…”