Print and lobbying

War widows and revenge in Restoration England

“…The format of this petition -printed on a single sheet with few "decorative devices" -suggests that it was likely intended for private circulation amongst MPs, rather than distributed publically to garner popular support for her appeal. 60 That said, news of Mary's petitioning activity at Westminster soon reached the provinces. On an unspecified day in May 1660, the Worcestershire gentleman Henry Townshend recorded in his diary that: Dr Hewit's widow petitioned the parliament for justice against the illegal president Lisle and that he may be as a murderer excepted from pardon in the act of oblivion.…”

Early modern political petitioning and public engagement in Scotland, Britain and Scandinavia, c. 1550–1795

“…Printing was not necessarily a political act: as printing became more affordable and accessible, private petitioners could make use of print in what Jason Peacey has termed 'discreet' petitioning. 23 Assemblies or authorities could also choose to publish petitions or summaries for their own purposes, as seen in the Swedish Riksdag in the period of limited constitutional monarchy between 1719 and 1772. 24 Recourse to print for oppositional reasons was most visible in England in the 1640s and 1650s, but it was also adopted elsewhere, often through texts disguised as something other than a petition.…”