Roger Morrice and His Entring Book
Mark Goldie reveals some vivid insights into London life before and during the Glorious Revolution, from a little-known contemporary of Pepys.
'I had it from a person present’ who did ‘with his own hand feel the afterbirth, and it was perfectly warm’. It was June 1688, and Roger Morrice, like other Protestant Englishmen, was profoundly disturbed by news of the birth of a Catholic heir to the throne. Yet, within months, national deliverance came. On December 17th, Morrice watched Dutch troops marching through London. In Fleet Street women shook the soldiers’ hands, crying ‘God bless you, you come to redeem our religion, laws, liberties, and lives’. James II fled, and the Dutch stadholder, William of Orange, became king. On February 4th, Morrice strolled in Westminster Hall. Not since 1662, he wrote, had he walked there ‘without fear’, but today ‘I walked with true liberty’.
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