Hugh Speke

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Hugh Speke (1656 – about 1724) was an English writer and political activist. He came from Whitelackington, Somerset, the son of George and Mary Speke. His father supported the Monmouth rebellion and the Whig group known as the Green Ribbon Club. Hugh studied at St John’s College, Oxford, and joined the Green Ribbon Club himself. In 1683 he was jailed for saying that Arthur Capell, Earl of Essex, a Monmouth ally, had been killed by friends of James, Duke of York. He refused to pay the fine and stayed in prison for three years; during Monmouth’s rebellion his brother Charles was hanged at Ilminster. While in prison he ran a printing press and published an appeal urging Protestants in the army to mutiny. He was released in 1687. In 1688 he served James II as a spy with William of Orange’s army. Later that year a document calling Protestants to disarm Catholics circulated in London; it caused damage before being found to be a forgery. Speke is believed to have written it, a claim he did not acknowledge until 1709 in his Memoirs of the Most Remarkable Passages and Transactions of the Revolution. He later issued revised editions, including The Secret History of the Happy Revolution in 1688 (1715). He died in obscurity before 1725, after hoping Queen Anne and King George I would reward him for his services.