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Narcissus Luttrell
b. 1657 d. 1732
Narcissus Luttrell (1657–1732) was an English historian, diarist and bibliographer, and briefly Member of Parliament for two different Cornish boroughs.[1] His Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs from September 1678 to April 1714, a chronicle of the Parliaments of England and Great Britain, was distilled from his diary and published in 1857. (1)
He was born 12 Aug. 1657, being the second but only surviving son of Francis Luttrell of Gray’s Inn and Catherine, daughter of Narcissus Mapowder of Holsworthy, Devon. (2)
Although from a west-country family, Luttrell was born in Holborn and it is clear that he spent most of his life in and around London. A calculation in 1705 revealed his inheritance, initially worth about £205 p.a., to have increased to about £450 p.a., with assets valued at about £12,000.2
Luttrell followed in his father’s footsteps in training to be a lawyer. However, after his admission to Gray’s Inn, he spent five months at Newington Dissenting Academy learning philosophy and logic, and followed this with a sojourn at Cambridge until Christmas 1674. Presumably he then devoted attention to his legal studies until the death of his father, but afterwards, between 1677 and 1680, he recorded 14 journeys around England in a travel diary. He was elected at a young age to the second Parliament of 1679. He was returned to Parliament for Saltash in 1691. (2)
From the day Luttrell took his seat, on 6 Nov. 1691, he kept a parliamentary diary. It is clear that he was in almost daily attendance: indeed, until the end of the 1692–3 session he was only absent for one day (7 Jan. 1693). The diary is comprehensive in its coverage of each parliamentary day, particularly on procedural matters. However, it is singularly uninformative about the political views of its author, being devoid of personal reflections. Although Alexander Luttrell was also a Member of this Parliament, the activity relating to ‘Mr Luttrell’ in the Journals is much reduced after 1695, when Narcissus Luttrell ceased to be an MP, making it almost certain that before then it is he who was intended by most of these references. Although ‘Mr Luttrell’ was appointed to over 140 select committees, including 21 committees of inquiry, his actual involvement in the management of legislation was sparse, being limited to six drafting committees, three conference committees and the steering of one bill through the House. (2)
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 Palace of Westminster. As a result, Luttrell provides crucial political information which cannot be found elsewhere. (3)
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 Compleat Catalogue of Stitch’d Books and Single Sheets, &c. Luttrell had one of the most impressive book collections of his time. (3)
He was a collector by nature, and, for all his learning and industry, published nothing. With a private income of £300-£475 p.a., he soon abandoned ‘the practice of the law’, and amassed a large collection of books, pamphlets, and manuscripts, which John Locke (1632-1704), philosopher and author of the Two Treatises of Government and his patron Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury (1621 – 1683), a prominent English politician during the Interregnum and the reign of King Charles II and founder of the Whig party, both consulted. Proud of his kinship with the Luttrells of Dunster Castle he collated the family muniments. (3)
With increasing prosperity he was able to purchase a house at Chelsea from the third Earl of Shaftesbury in 1710. He died on 27 June 1732 after a long illness and was buried at Chelsea, the last of this branch of the family to sit in Parliament. (3)
The six pall-bearers at his funeral bear testimony to his standing as ‘a gentleman of a plentiful fortune and of very ancient family’, and also to his stature in the legal world: Viscount Falmouth (Hugh Boscawen II*), Viscount Fermanagh [I] (Ralph Verney†), Lord Raymond (Sir Robert*), Lord Chief Justice Eyre (Robert*), Mr Justice Price (Robert*) and Sergeant Bridges (William), all of them together representing a broad political spectrum.(2)
1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissus_Luttrell
2 - The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715, ed. D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, S. Handley, 2002
https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/member/luttrell-narcissus-1657-1732
3 - https://www.manaton.org/copy-of-francis-manaton-1
