In 1685, at the Battle of Sedgemoor, in Somerset, England, the troops of King James II defeated the mainly peasant supporters of the Duke of Monmouth.

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Jonathan Trelawny who was ordained in 1673, was one of seven bishops charged with high treason and imprisoned in the Tower of London for refusing to implement King James II's Declaration of Indulgence granting religious tolerance to Catholics.

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Although few details of the book's creation are known, it is generally believed to have been the work of an English bookseller, publisher, journalist, and staunch antipapist named Benjamin Harris, who fled London for Boston in 1686 following the ascent of King James II to the British throne.

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