Preview
Creation Date
1680
Description
Petyt, William. The Antient Right of the Commons of England Asserted; or, a Discourse Proving by Records and the best Historians, that the Commons of England were Ever an Essential Part of Parliament. London: Printed for F. Smith, T. Bassett, J. Wright, R. Chiswell, and S. Heyrick, 1680.
William Petyt (1640/41–1707) wrote this treatise to combat the Tory arguments of Sir Robert Filmer (c. 1588–1653) and Robert Brady (1627–1700) which called into question the foundations of the ancient constitutionalist cause. The Ancient Right, a fundamental work from the Whig perspective, counters the Tory position. In it, Petyt defends both the equal standing of the House of Commons and the conviction that the natural rights and liberties of Englishmen were customary rights, immutable and primeval. These assertions, transmitted through The Ancient Right and Petyt's other essays on Whig ideology, would inform the development of similar ideas in the colonies.
Bookplate of Richard Prime, in William Petyt's The Antient Right of the Commons of England Asserted, 1680, available as an additional file below.
Rights
Item from the personal collection of Sid Lapidus, used with permission.
Bookplate, The Antient Right