RUSHWORTH, Jon, an English author, whose work entitled Historical Collections of Private Passages of State, Weighty Matters in Law, and Remarkable Proceedings in Par liament, is a most important contribution to our knowledge of the civil war and the events that led to it, belonged to an ancient family in Northumberland, and was born there about 1607. He studied at Oxford, but left the university without taking a degree, and settled in London as a barrister. His interest in political affairs was, however, so strong that he appears to have spent a great. deal of his time, for many years, i a attend ing the star-chamber, the court of honor, the exchequer chamber, parliament, etc., and in taking down short-hand notes of the proceedings. When the long parliament met in 1640, Rushworth was appointed assistant to Mr. Henry Elsyngne, clerk of the house of commons, an office which afforded him ample opportunities for adding to his Collections. He rendered a variety of important services to his party during the civil war. The restoration of Charles II., in 1660, Was fatal to his fortunes. Thotrh not molested, he was one of those to whom the " cold shoulder" was shown by the triumphant royalists.
In 1677 sir Orlando Bridgman, lord keeper of the great seal, appointed the old man, now (it is conjectured) in straitened circumstances, his secretary; and curious to say, we find him, two years after, a member of parliament. In 1634, when he had reached the age of 77, he was arrested for debt, and imprisoned in the king's bench, where be died in 1600. His last years were rendered doubly miserable, partly by the loss of his under standing, and partly by his addicting himself to intemperance. Rushworth's Eistorical Col lections were published in four parts. The first, embracing the period from 1618 to 1629, was published in 1659; the second, embracing the period from 1629 to 1640, in 1680; the third, embracing the next five years, in 1692; and the fourth, extending to 1648, in 1701. The whole was republished in 1721. The work has been violently attacked by royalist and-high church writers, as unfair, and even false, but their charges have not been sub stantiated.