Thursday, April 7, 2016

British Civil Wars, 1638-1651

War is defined as a contest between nations or states, carried on by force, either for defense, or for revenging insults and redressing wrongs, for the extension of commerce or acquisition of territory, or for obtaining and establishing the superiority and dominion of one over the other. [Webester : 1828]  Now "Civil War" is the above activity between people of the same state or city.  It was certainly the case for the people of England starting 1638. 

My genealogy tree climbing bought me to this period.  To sort through this social quagmire was necessary for me to get around a number of brick walls.  The following book was one of many that lead the way.


First published by Routledge in 1992, and written by Charles Carlton, it is basically a social history of the conflicts that were shared by the participants.  Primary sources were the foundation to this writing, and provides a solid description of the events involved by many of these days.  Colonel Thomas Lundsford had an influential role from the very beginning, and was to provide a connector to my own Jones family as they came to Virginia [1649 -1650] with essentially "the cloths on their backs".  A series of brick walls indeed.