ABSTRACT
Blackwell, a Puritan, a soldier and an administrator, perhaps more than anything else, from these, was a broker. Blackwell acted as broker in the development of various kinship networks from the 1640s to the 1680s. These show him bound with prominent figures in the Interregnum world, the Major-Generals John Lambert and Hezekiah Haynes, and the republican regicide Colonel John Okey, connections that continued after 1660 despite the various forms of Restoration persecution that they all suffered. The record of Blackwell’s interaction with these figures shows him as an active broker trusted by comrades from the civil wars with the management of their personal affairs but denounced by others for what they regarded as his manipulation for his own advantage. The establishment of a kin link and his work with Lambert since the 1650s seems to have given Blackwell a fresh impetus to explore new opportunities after 1670. Blackwell’s brokerage also reinforces the examples of the importance of women, from his mother to his second wife and second mother-in-law, in facilitating the functioning and development of kin networks, whether in the context of religion, finance or politics.
