Terry Foreman on 19 May 2012  •  Link

Gilbert Mabbot, alternately Mabbott (1622—c. 1670), was the official licenser of the press from 1647 to 1649 and himself a pioneering journalist and publisher of newsbooks during the English Civil War period....After the restoration of King Charles II, Mabbot obtained in January 1661 the office of manager for licences of wines and strong waters in Ireland. He moved to Dublin where his attempts to enforce licensing led to a complaint from members of the Holy Trinity Guild against his aggression. As a result of this complaint he agreed to surrender his office to the crown in June 1664 in return for £4,800. Mabbot appears to have died in around 1670 when he was named in an Irish Chancery suit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilb…

San Diego Sarah on 23 Feb 2023  •  Link

Gilbert Mabbott, son of a Nottingham cobbler and Rushworth’s clerk, was a leveller, and was removed from his post as licenser for this in 1649. He was the writer of The Moderate and of a scurrilous Mercurius Britannicus in 1649. He pretended to hold views in favour of the freedom of the press in 1649, when he found that he was to be removed, but he was restored to his post in 1653.
https://www.bartleby.com/217/1505…

San Diego Sarah on 23 Feb 2023  •  Link

Gilbert Mabbott, son of a Nottingham cobbler and Rushworth’s clerk, was a leveller, and was removed from his post as licenser for this in 1649. He was the writer of The Moderate and of a scurrilous Mercurius Britannicus in 1649. He pretended to hold views in favour of the freedom of the press in 1649, when he found that he was to be removed, but he was restored to his post in 1653.
https://www.bartleby.com/217/1505…

This sells him short: He worked for John Rushworth, MP who has an incredible body of work covering the Interregnum.
https://www.british-history.ac.uk…

As a source of information, Pepys couldn't have gone drinking with a better source. And later Pepys reads Rushworth's work, and found it enlightening.