ABSTRACT
Richard Baxter, writing in his autobiography, included in Reliquiae Baxterianae, about the different classes of Englishmen which at the opening of the Civil War adhered to the King and to the Parliament, says of the latter:
On the Parliaments side were (besides themselves) the smaller part (as some thought) of the Gentry in most of the Counties, and the greatest part of the Tradesmen, and Free-holders, and the middle sort of Men; especially in those Corporations and Countries which depend on Cloathing and such Manufactures. 1
