Nicholas Ferrar's fame in the twentieth century rests largely upon religious foundations – as a saint of the Church of England and as one of the moving spirits at Little Gidding – but in fact his historical importance is more than merely religious, and indeed religion did not dominate his life before 1625. Born in London in February 1593, the youngest but one of a family of six, Nicholas was named for his father, a highly successful Merchant Adventurer who was also a Master of the Skinners Company. Small, fair-haired, precocious and frail, Nicholas was always his mother's favourite, and it was she who largely influenced his development. At the age of seventeen he was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, but soon after his twentieth birthday he left Cambridge for the sake of his health, spending the years 1613–17 on the continent, chiefly at Padua, where he studied medicine. On his return to England he did not resume his fellowship at Clare, but remained in London with his parents, attending to his now elderly father's business affairs which included membership of the East India and Virginia Companies – and acting as his executor upon his death in 1620.

Sir Cheney Culpeper (1611–1663) was a lawyer and gentleman from the north Kentish Weald. Yet he never rose to prominence in the legal profession. Nor did he take up public office either as an MP or as a diplomat – although he occasionally entertained the possibilities of both. Such aspirations would not have been surprising in someone who was the eldest son of a family which enjoyed connections to the wheels of power in Stuart England. He expected to inherit a considerable portion of the family's not inconsiderable estates – which included Leeds Castle. Yet he was, at a critical juncture, in effect disinherited by his father. Although a committed Parliamentarian, Culpeper did not play a major part either in county or national politics during the Civil War and the Interregnum. His career was, in worldly terms, hardly a success: if success alone were the criterion to justify the publication of his letters over three hundred years later, this volume would not see the light of day.

The Decimation Lists

The royalist uprising of March 1655 led the Protector to adopt a number of measures aimed at improving internal security, in particular the appointment of major generals, each with responsibility for a particular region; the establishment of a new county militia; and the introduction of an extraordinary or decimation tax which was intended to provide the necessary funding for the militia troops. Unlike the monthly assessment for the support of the regular army the decimation tax was a discriminatory tax in the sense that it was specifically designed as a levy on royalists or suspected royalists. In the event, however, it proved to be one of the most short-lived of taxes. On Christmas day 1656 Major General John Desborough introduced a parliamentary bill for its continuation and in a first reading debate on 7 January declared that

I believe no man has come under a decimation but such as have either acted or spoken bitterly against the Government, and for their young king, and drank his health. Many have escaped that have done such things. I hope they shall come under decimation I think it is too light a tax, a decimation; I would have it higher.