Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 40.djvu/166

 school, and at fourteen years of age was sent as a chorister to All Souls' College, Oxford, where he continued till 1637. His name appears in the subscription book under 22 Jan. 1635–6, and he took his bachelor's degree on 24 Oct. 1637 (ib.) After a short stay in St. Mary Hall he left Oxford for ‘an usher's place in Merchant Taylors' School, then presided by one Mr. Will. Staple;’ and later, ‘upon the change of the times, he became an under clerk in Gray's Inn, where, by virtue of a good legible court-hand, he obtained a comfortable subsistence’. He was admitted a member of Gray's Inn on 7 July 1652, as ‘of the city of Westminster, gent’ (, Gray's Inn Register, p. 261). During the early part of his career Nedham also studied medicine, but soon discovered that his natural vocation was journalism.

The ‘Mercurius Britanicus’ (sic) is distinguished by several marked characteristics from other parliamentary newspapers. It professed to ‘communicate the affairs of Great Britain for the better information of the people,’ but was in reality little more than a railing commentary on the news of the day. Its object was to answer the statements of the royalist ‘Mercurius Aulicus,’ and to refute the charges brought there against the parliamentary cause and its leaders. The first number is dated 16–22 Aug. 1643. Of this journal Nedham was from the beginning the chief, if not the sole, author, though its responsible editor seems to have been Captain Thomas Audley, and it is not always easy to decide whether Audley or Nedham is referred to in the attacks of the royalists upon ‘Britannicus.’ The scurrility and boldness of Nedham's writings soon made him notorious. One number parodied Charles I's speech to the inhabitants of Somerset; another commented with the greatest freedom on the king's letters taken at Naseby (Mercurius Britannicus, 6–13 May 1644; 21–8 July 1645). In the number for 4 Aug. 1645 Nedham printed a ‘Hue and Cry after a Wilful King … which hath gone astray these four Years from his Parliament, with a guilty Conscience, bloody Hands, and a Heart full of broken Vows and Protestations.’ For this insult to monarchy Audley was committed to the Gatehouse, and Nedham seems to have shared the same fate (Lords' Journals, vii. 525, 539; Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. p. 74; Aulicus his Hue and Cry after Britannicus, 1645, 4to; Mercurius Anti-Britannicus, or the second part of the King's Cabinet vindicated from the Aspersions of an impotent Libeller … now Prisoner in the Gate-House, 1645, 4to). The author of the second of these pamphlets identifies Nedham with ‘Britannicus,’ and describes him as ‘once a week sacrificing to the beast of many heads the fame of some lord or person of quality, nay, even of the king himself.’ Nedham was soon released, but on 21 May 1646 was complained of for publishing ‘divers passages between the two Houses of Parliament, and other scandalous particulars not fit to be tolerated.’ He was arrested by order of the lords, owned the authorship of the last eighty numbers of ‘Britannicus’ (which seems to show that Audley was the author of the earlier numbers), and was committed to the Fleet (23 May 1646). Nedham appealed to the Earl of Denbigh to present his petition for release, protesting his loyalty to the House of Lords in spite of any errors which might have fallen from his pen, and was released on 4 June 1646. But he was obliged to give bail to the extent of 200l. for his good behaviour, and prohibited from writing any pamphlets in the future (Lords' Journals, viii. 321, 325, 341, 355; Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. iv. 273). Debarred from journalism, Nedham turned to medicine, and describes himself on the title-page of a pamphlet published in 1647 as ‘Med. Pr.’

In 1647 Nedham, for some unexplained reason, resolved to change sides. ‘Obtaining the favour of a known royalist to introduce him into his Majesty's presence at Hampton Court, he then and there knelt before him and desired forgiveness for what he had written against him and his cause; which being readily granted, he kissed his Majesty's hand’. In defence of the king he published a newspaper, entitled ‘Mercurius Pragmaticus,’ ‘communicating intelligence from all parts touching all affairs, designs, humours, and conditions, throughout the kingdom, especially from Westminster and the Head-Quarters.’ The first number is dated 14–21 Sept. 1647. Like ‘Mercurius Britannicus,’ it consists mainly of commentaries on the news of the day, but it does contain a good deal of information not to be found elsewhere, especially with regard to proceedings in the two houses of parliament. It is for that reason frequently quoted by the compilers of the ‘Old Parliamentary History.’ One of the characteristics of this newspaper is that each number begins with four stanzas of verse on the state of public affairs. Its royalism is combined with bitter hostility to the Scots, shown even after they had invaded England to restore the king, and in the scurrility of its attacks on political enemies it matched ‘Britannicus.’ Cromwell, for instance, is referred to as ‘Copper-