Henry Muddiman

Who was Henry Muddiman?

Henry Muddiman was an English journalist and publisher active after the restoration of the monarchy, in 1660.

Muddiman was born in the Strand, London. He was educated in St Clement's Temple and at St John's College, Cambridge, after which he worked as a school teacher. He began producing two regular newsbooks - Parliamentary Intelligencer and Mercurius Publicus - in late 1659 on the proceedings of the newly reconvened Rump Parliament. This seems to have been at the suggestion of George Monck, who also received good publicity. On 16 April 1660 this role was secured when all other such journals were banned particularly those of Marchamont Needham the chief Cromwellian publisher. Muddiman received a monopoly of print along with arch-royalist John Birkenhead as a supervising editor.

Muddiman lost the right to publish the journals three years later when it was handed to Roger L'Estrange. He would transform the subtle propaganda of the newsbooks into heavy-handed political polemics leading to the rights being returned to Muddiman in 1665.