Henry Scobell

Henry Scobell (baptised 1610; died 1660 [Sean Kelsey, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/24845 ‘Scobell, Henry (bap. 1610, d. 1660)’] , "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 , accessed 10 Oct 2008] ) was an English Parliamentary official, and editor of official publications. He was clerk to the Long Parliament, and wrote on parliamentary procedure and precedents.

Life

He was initially under-clerk of the parliaments. He became Clerk of the House of Commons from January 5 1649, his predecessor Elsyng having resigned, and also held a position as censor of publications, and then was Clerk of the Parliament for life, in May 14, 1649. [ http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=56673] He was the first editor, from 9 October 1649, of "Severall Proceedings in Parliament", an early official newspaper, and the second of Parliament's publications [ Joad Raymond , "The Invention of the Newspaper: English Newsbooks, 1641-1649" (1996), p. 75.] [ http://www.bartleby.com/217/1504.html] .

In the Rump Parliament, Scobell found himself in the middle of the clashes leading to its dissolution in 1653. [http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/G16.pdf p. 4] He remained Clerk to Barebone's Parliament.

From 1655 he became Clerk to the Council of State, a large jump in status, in succession to John Thurloe and sharing the position with William Jessop. [ Robert Thomas Fallon, Milton in Government (1989), p. 130.] Up to then he had been for a period an assistant secretary to the Council. [ Philip Aubrey, Mr Secretary Thurloe: Cromwell's Secretary of State, 1652-1660 (1990), p. 38.]

In 1658, as a preliminary to the Savoy Assembly, he called together elders of Independent churches from the London area, in the house of George Griffith. [ Richard L. Greaves, Saints and Rebels: Seven Nonconformists in Stuart England (1985), p. 86.] He himself was an elder of the Congregational church of John Rowe, meeting in Westminster Abbey. [http://www.anglicanbooksrevitalized.us/Peter_Toons_Books_Online/History/puritanscalvinism.htm] [ Francis J. Bremer, Tom Webster, Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia (2006), p. 533.]

In October 1659 he was one of those calling on George Monck to intervene, in the vacuum of power after the death of Oliver Cromwell. [ Tai Liu, Discord in Zion: The Puritan Divines and the Puritan Revolution 1640-1660 (1973), p. 165.]

Works

* A Collection of Acts and Ordinances of General Use, Made in Parliament (1656)
* Memorials of the Method and Manner of Proceedings in Parliament in Passing Bills, (1670)
* Power of the Lords and Commons in Parliament (1680)

Notes