Narcissus Luttrell (1657–1732) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

diarist A diary is a written or audiovisual record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been handwritten but are now also often digital. A personal ...

, and

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, and briefly

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for two different Cornish

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. His ''Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs from September 1678 to April 1714'', a

chronicle A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...

of the Parliaments of

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and

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, was distilled from his diary and published in 1857, after Macaulay had drawn attention to the manuscript in All Souls College, Oxford. Although Luttrell was for most of his life a private citizen and relied primarily on secondary sources for the workings of Parliament, he is often the best source available for legal and political matters of the time. The legislation itself is covered by the official parliamentary journals, but Luttrell's diary is often the only record of debates within the

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. As a result, Luttrell provides crucial political information which cannot be found elsewhere; as one example out of many, he notes that the debate on

taxation A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal person, legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regiona ...

of 1691 was divided according to geography, with Norfolk and Suffolk arguing against the remainder of the country over methods of taxation.Beckett, J.V. (1985). '"Land Tax or Excise: The Levying of Taxation in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century England." ''The English Historical Review,'' Vol. 100, No. 395 (Apr., 1985), pp. 285–308 Since individual members' votes were not recorded, the political significance of the legislation would be less clear without Luttrell's record. Luttrell's diary also covers major events in diplomacy, literature and the arts, as well as parliamentary proceedings, and is supplemented in those areas by annotations within his massive library. He also compiled a bibliography of texts relating to the

Popish Plot The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy invented by Titus Oates that between 1678 and 1681 gripped the Kingdoms of England and Scotland in anti-Catholic hysteria. Oates alleged that there was an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate C ...

, ''The Compleat Catalogue of Stitch’d Books and Single Sheets, &c.'' Luttrell had one of the most impressive book collections of his time, and it was his wish that the library would be preserved intact, perhaps in an institution such as Gray's Inn (where he was called to the bar in 1680). After the death in 1749 of Luttrell's only surviving son, Francis, the library passed to Luttrell's sister, Dorothy Wynne. Her grandson, Luttrell Wynne, a fellow of All Souls College Oxford, gave Luttrell's MSS to the Codrington Library at All Souls College, but other material was dispersed through sales. On January 21 1694, the future Queen Anne lost another child to stillbirth. Although she had a surviving son named William, she had suffered two stillbirths, three miscarriages, and lost 4 babies within hours, minutes, months, or years after they were born. Some sources say this child was a girl, who was 6 months gestation. Luttrell wrote that Anne “miscarried of a dead child.” He did not specify a gender. Anne would fall pregnant 6 more times, but they would end in miscarriage or stillbirth. Her son William died in 1700 at the age of 11 from an unknown illness. While many pieces from Luttrell's collection were eventually acquired by the British Library, many were not. Material purchased by Professor James Osborn from two sales at Sotheby's (in 1936 and 1957) was later given to Beinecke Library at Yale University. Various portions of the collection are now housed in several libraries in Britain and the United States, notably the

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Newberry Library The Newberry Library is an independent research library, specializing in the humanities and located on Washington Square in Chicago, Illinois. It has been free and open to the public since 1887. Its collections encompass a variety of topics rela ...

and

Huntington Library The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, known as The Huntington, is a collections-based educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927) and Arabella Huntington (c.1851–1924) in San Mar ...

. The whereabouts of other material remains unknown.

Major published works

* * ''The Compleat Catalogue of Stitch’d Books and Single Sheets, &c. Printed Since the First Discovery of the Popish Plot'' (London, 1680). * ''The Parliamentary Diary of Narcissus Luttrell, 1691–1693''; ed. Henry Horwitz (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972, ). * ''Narcissus Luttrell's Popish Plot Catalogues'' (Oxford: Blackwell for the Luttrell Society, 1956).

Major published works

References

Further reading