Compiled between the years 1677 and 1691, the Entring Book is 900,000 words long, with many sensitive passages written in a secret shorthand that has only recently been decoded. This remarkable chronicle of public affairs has remained for nearly three centuries, secure but little known, in Dr Williams's Library, London.

The Entring Book fits no simple definition. It is not just a political diary, nor is it only the newsletter it sometimes resembles. It’s possible that it could have been the material for a history of Morrice’s own times, or it may have been a letterbook, recording correspondence to an unnamed recipient. Writing in great detail, with meticulous regularity, Morrice may have been passing on all he knew to senior figures in the opposition to Charles II and James II. The Entring Book’s enormous scope means it also covers publishing, plays, business, military and religious matters, foreign affairs, public opinion and London life.

The Entring Book is now an essential resource for British history during the later seventeenth century. It records all the important events of the period, parliamentary business, political intrigues, trials and gossip, the wars and skirmishes erupting around England, Ireland and Scotland, and the latest news from continental Europe. Morrice’s entries make clear the uneasy state of the nation, and present an intricate day-by-day account of the crises of Charles II’s last years, the brief reign of James II, and the ‘Glorious’ Revolution. Through it we can trace the transformation of puritanism into Whiggery and Dissent.