Oliver Cromwell's Secret Intelligence Network.- Obligation Bond in the name of Gamaliell Capell, obliging him inter alia to "not plot, contrive or act, or cause or consent to be plotted contrived or acted, any thing against the person of his Highness the Lord Protector" and to be let known to "his Highness [Cromwell] or Councell" or others "any certain intelligence of any Plot or Conspiracy, contrived or to be contrived by any person or persons whatsoever, against the person of his said Highness [Cromwell]" or else pay to Cromwell Eight Hundred Pounds, printed document with manuscript insertions, laid down, browned, 285 x 180mm., 1655.

⁂ Rare, we can trace only one other example of such a bond. One of the main issues for Oliver Cromwell's regime in the 1650s was its persistent worries over its own security and that meant gathering secret intelligence using a network of spies and informers. The terms of this remarkable document suggest the punitive economic threats that Cromwell placed on members of that network to force their compliance.