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Myers Literary Guide:
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The North-East
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JOHN RUSHWORTH (c. 1612 - 1690) 'Historical John' as Carlyle called him, was born at Acklington Park, Warkworth. His great claim to fame lies in the 8 volumes of Historical Collections (1659-70), compiled from shorthand notes taken down at actual meetings of the Star Chamber, Exchequer Chamber and Parliament, covering the period down to 1648. Rushworth had been appointed assistant clerk to the Long Parliament in 1640, and was there when King Charles came to arrest the five members; he made notes of the king's speech, which Charles ordered to be published. Rushworth similarly recorded the trial of Strafford. Rushworth was often employed as messenger between king and parliament and was appointed secretary to Sir Thomas Fairfax (1645-48). He wrote an eye-witness account of the Battle of Naseby, and was later secretary to Cromwell for a short time. He sat several times as parliamentary representative for Berwick and was also a freeman of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The Historical Collections are regarded as the most valuable source available for the study of the Civil War, but Rushworth's influence was also present during the constitutional arguments that raged between the American colonists and the British government in the period leading up to the American War of Independence. 'What we did,' said Thomas Jefferson, 'was with the help of Rushworth, whom we rummaged over for revolutionary precedents of those days.' According to the Harleian MS. 7524 (says Isaac D'Israeli in his Curiosities of Literature), when Rushworth presented the king with several of the Privy Council's books, which he had preserved from ruin, he received for his only reward the thanks of his majesty. John Aubrey records seeing Rushworth in 1689: 'He hath quite lost his memory with drinking Brandy... His landlady wiped his nose like a child. He was about 83, onwards to 84. He had forgot his children before he died.'
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