ABSTRACT
The numerous Chancery proceedings that John Haynes was drawn in to, or connected to, after 1660 give more details to the record of his financial transactions and interaction with kin in the Essex Record Office. These sources allow us to construct a more developed picture of Haynes, his family and his Essex estate in the 33 years of his necessary withdrawal from a formal public role with the re-imposition of monarchy at the Restoration. In the context of Hezekiah’s imprisonment after the Restoration, the survival of anything classed as a Haynes estate was not only an achievement of his management but also a mark of the relative wealth of the Haynes family. Care is obviously needed with the tone and narrative put forward in Chancery proceedings but they reinforce the importance for the gentry of securing and protecting the numerous financial agreements that underpinned kinship networks.
