Surnames beginning 'B'

The Cromwell Association Online Directory of Parliamentarian Army Officers . Originally published by British History Online, , 2017.

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'Surnames beginning 'B'', in The Cromwell Association Online Directory of Parliamentarian Army Officers , ed. Stephen K Roberts( 2017), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/cromwell-army-officers/surnames-b [accessed 14 October 2024].

'Surnames beginning 'B'', in The Cromwell Association Online Directory of Parliamentarian Army Officers . Edited by Stephen K Roberts( 2017), British History Online, accessed October 14, 2024, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/cromwell-army-officers/surnames-b.

"Surnames beginning 'B'". The Cromwell Association Online Directory of Parliamentarian Army Officers . Ed. Stephen K Roberts(2017), , British History Online. Web. 14 October 2024. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/cromwell-army-officers/surnames-b.

Surnames beginning 'B'

Baas, William William Baas
Lieutenant in Edward Harley’s troop in Sir William Waller’s regiment of horse, 12 Aug. 1643.
References: HMC, Portland Mss, III.114.
Armies: Waller
Babington, - - Babington
Captain in Thomas Waite’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army. Possibly the Thomas Babbington who in Feb. 1645 was co-signatory of a letter from a group of Eastern Association officers to the Northamptonshire county committee.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.103; Luke Letter Books, no. 1118A.
Armies: Eastern Association
Backhouse, Peter Peter Backhouse (born 1614/15)
Of Doxey township, Seighford parish, Staffordshire. Captain and governor of Wrottesley Hall, Staffordshire.
References: Sutton, ‘Cromwell’s commisioners’, 156, 157-8, 160, 171, 172, 175, 178-82.
Armies: Staffordshire
Backhouse, Robert Robert Backhouse (died 1645)
Major. In 1642 Backhouse was first lieutenant, and by 20 Dec. 1642, captain of Gloucester’s city troop of horse. On 20 Dec. he took a party of 200 horse and dragoons to beat up the enemy quarters, and although outnumbered and forced to withdraw, inflicted heavy damage first. In Nov. 1643 the royalists besieging Gloucester, through an old friend, Edward Stanford, attempted to bribe Backhouse to betray the city, who strung them along for ten weeks, distracting the royalists from other strategies and almost leading them into a trap. He later produced an account of the plot to vindicate himself, A True Relation of a Wicked Plot intended and still on Foot against the City of Gloster (1644) (reprinted in Bibliotheca, 283-324), published at the Commons’ direction. In Aug. 1644 he commanded three troops of horse at the battle of Redmarley (Worcestershire), where the royalist Colonel Mynne was killed. In Apr. 1645 Backhouse, by now a major, was mortally wounded when Prince Rupert’s army attacked Ledbury. In June 1645 Massey wrote to the Gloucester authorities commending Backhouse’s widow and children to their care.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6.629; Bibliotheca, xciv, ciii-iv, cvii, 68-87, 283-324, 111-2, 143-4.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Bacockie, - - Bacockie
By early 1645 ensign in Carver’s company in John Pickering’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.86.
Armies: Eastern Association
Bacon, Francis Francis Bacon
A captain of foot in the Yorkshire militia.
References: CSPD, 1650, 506.
Armies: Yorkshire
Bacon, Richard Richard Bacon
In 1642 captain serving in one of the three regiments of foot formed from the Essex militia, part of the Eastern Association Army that contributed to the siege of Reading in spring 1643, the siege of Greenland House in summer 1644 and probably to some other actions in which the army was involved.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.33.
Armies: Eastern Association
Bagley, - - Bagley
In late 1644 serving as ensign in one of the companies – possibly Axtell’s – in John Pickering’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.85.
Armies: Eastern Association
Bagnall, - - Bagnall
Captain. An officer in the Bristol garrison at the time that it was stormed (26 July 1643), who later gave evidence at the trial of Nathaniel Fiennes.
References: State Trials, 4.220.
Armies: Bristol
Bagshawe, Edward Edward Bagshawe (died 1646)
Of The Ridge, Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire. Eldest son of Thomas Bagshawe (died 1632) of The Ridge and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Blackwall of Alton, Derbyshire; elder brother of Henry Bagshawe. A captain under Sir John Gell, and one of the few who remained loyal to Gell. Governor of Chatsworth in 1643, withdrawing at the approach of Newcastle’s army. He was killed at the siege of Tutbury in 1646. In the politics of the parliamentarian cause in Derbyshire, he remained loyal to Sir John Gell.
References: Vis. Derbyshire, 71-2; Turbutt, Derbyshire, 3.1063, 1073, 1083, 1103; Brighton, ‘Governor’, 4.
Armies: Derbyshire
Bagshawe, Henry Henry Bagshawe (died 1660)
Of Shugborough, Staffordshire, third son of Thomas Bagshawe (died 1632) of The Ridge and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Blackwall of Alton, Derbyshire; younger brother of Captain Edward Bagshawe, in whose company of foot he served as lieutenant. After Edward’s death he succeeded as captain of the company. In the politics of the parliamentarian cause in Derbyshire, he remained loyal to Sir John Gell.
References: Vis. Derbyshire, 71; Brighton, ‘Governor’, 4; Turbutt, Derbyshire, 3.1063.
Armies: Derbyshire
Bagster [Baxter], Peter Peter Bagster [Baxter]
Bagster was appointed Exeter’s military engineer in Sept. 1642, required to be permanently resident and train the volunteer captains. As such he directed some of the city’s defence works; he became a captain in the City volunteer regiment. He was described in one parliamentarian pamphlet as ‘a man of upright heart at Exeter’ (Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 3.337.) The accounts collected by John Walker portray him as harsh, almost strangling Dr. William Coxe, a canon of Exeter Cathedral, when interrogating the latter as a possible royalist spy; and threatening a pregnant women, whom he also suspected, with his musket. When the city fell, Bagster helped protect the civic regalia from looting soldiers.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 3.337-8; Stoyle, Deliverance, 64, 87, 180, 185, 190, 193.
Armies: Devon
Bailey, - - Bailey
Identified in payments to Lancashire forces in Dec. 1645 as a lieutenant present at the siege of Chester.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 2. 396.
Armies: Lancashire
Bailey, - - Bailey
Lieutenant-Colonel of the White regiment, London Auxiliaries (Colonel John Bellamy) in Oct. 1646.
References: Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 11.
Armies: London
Bailey, Christopher Christopher Bailey
Captain in Lord Wharton’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 31.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bailey, Edward Edward Bailey
Lieutenant of Captain Seale’s company in Herbert Morley’s regiment of foot, succeeding as captain, possibly in Dec. 1644; he continued to serve until the reduction of the regiment on 30 Apr. 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 101.
Armies: Sussex; Waller (Southern Association)
Bailey, John John Bailey
Captain in Sir John Merrick’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 28.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bailey, Reeve Reeve Bailey
In 1642 he is listed as lieutenant in the troop of horse of Lord Fielding (later the earl of Denbigh) in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 48.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bailey, William William Bailey
Bailey was described on 4 June 1643 as late cornet to Captain Talbot of Sir William Waller’s regiment of horse.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 7.708.
Armies: Waller
Baines, Jeremy Jeremy Baines
Captain in Sir John Seaton’s regiment of dragoons in the earl of Essex’s Army, Nov.-Dec. 1642; major in the same regiment, now commanded by George Melve, by Mar. 1643 and still there 22 June 1643.
References: TNA, SP 28/5/204, SP28/7/444.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Baines, Jeremy Jeremy Baines
He started the civil war as a captain, initially perhaps of dragoons, and was present at the recapture of Farnham Castle at the end of 1642 and the siege of Reading in spring 1643. By summer 1643 he had become lieutenant-colonel in Samuel Jones’s regiment of foot which was based at Farnham Castle, though it was probably him rather than Jones who led companies from that regiment which participated in the siege of Basing, the storming of Alton and the battles of Cheriton and Cropredy Bridge. He remained lieutenant-colonel after Fielder succeeded Jones as colonel in spring 1645 and continued to serve in that capacity until the regiment was disbanded at the conclusion of the war in summer 1646.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 74.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association); Surrey
Baines, Thomas Thomas Baines
In Mar. 1645, lieutenant in Captain Bladwell’s company in Sir Samuel Luke’s Newport Pagnell-based regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 95.
Armies: Bedfordshire
Bainton, Edward Edward Bainton (1618-1679)
Born the eldest son and heir of Sir Edward Bainton (died 1657) of Bromham, Wiltshire, who was MP for Devizes or Chippenham in most early Stuart parliaments, including the Short and Long Parliaments, who broadly supported reform in 1641-2 and took up arms for parliament in his native Wiltshire at the beginning of the war and, despite flirting with royalism in 1643, retained his seat in the Long Parliament and Rump. The Baintons were amongst the wealthiest and most prominent non-peerage families of Wiltshire.
His son Edward was MP for Devizes in the Short and Long Parliaments and also represented either Devizes or Calne in two of the Protectorate parliaments and in the Convention and Restoration parliaments. In the 1642 listing of the earl of Essex’s Army he is shown as captain of a troop of horse, though his military career seems to have been fairly limited. By the latter half of the 1640s he was one of the leading political Presbyterians and an opponent of the New Model Army and he had effectively withdrawn from the House even before Pride’s Purge. Despite his election to two of the Protectorate Parliaments, he was largely out of office during the 1650s.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 54; HoP: The Commons, 1660-1690, 1. 607-9.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Baker, - - Baker
At its muster in Nov. 1643 captain of the earl of Warwick’s regiment of foot formed from the Essex militia, part of the Eastern Association Army that contributed to the siege of Reading in spring 1643, the siege of Greenland House in summer 1644 and probably to some other actions in which the army was involved.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.31.
Armies: Eastern Association
Baker, - - Baker
Captain in Christopher Potley’s/David Leighton’s regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 113.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Baker, Henry Henry Baker
Captain. Captain in Sir Horatio Carey’s regiment of foot which was raised in Gloucestershire in spring 1643 and apparently destroyed at Roundway Down in July.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6.623-4.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Baker, James James Baker
Ensign in the earl of Stamford’s regiment of foot in 1642. Having served as an infantry officer in western England during the opening months of the civil war, including for a time as lieutenant-colonel in Thomas Stevens’s regiment of foot based in and garrisoning Bristol, by spring 1643 he had entered Waller’s Army and his regiment of foot, at the end of the year succeeding Ramsey as the regiment’s lieutenant-colonel. He fought at Cheriton and Cropredy Bridge in 1644, wounded at the former and captured (though quickly exchanged) at the latter. He ended his time in Waller’s Army fighting in the West, including in the relief of Taunton. With the resignation of Waller and the disbanding of his regiments in spring 1645, Baker moved on and slightly later in the year he became Major in the regiment of reformadoes commanded by Colonel Sanderson.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 154; Peacock, Army lists, 30; Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6.646.
Armies: Bristol; Waller (Southern Association); Gloucestershire
Baker, James James Baker
Officer in command of a unit of reformado horse (under the authority of the London militia committee) sent from London in later 1645 to Chester and which fought at the battle of Denbigh on 1 Nov.
Baker’s unit was evidently disgruntled. On 27 Nov. 1645 he defended his men’s refusal to march for want of adequate pay and quarters, having voted unanimously to disobey Sir William Brereton’s orders, ‘saying they were infinitely injured, that inferior men were countenanced and laid in secure quarters, have their pay constantly paid, while they are constantly put upon out quarters, having not wherewithal to cover their nakedness nor a penny money in their pockets’ (Dore, Brereton letter books, 2. 275). By 25 Dec. 1645 Baker and his reformados were stationed at Whitchurch, Shropshire However, on 27 Dec. Brereton wrote to Baker reproaching him for leading the reformados back into Cheshire. Baker blamed uncertain orders while reporting that 40 of his horses were lame for want of shoeing (his being one of three cavalry units then quartered at Whitchurch, together numbering 600-700 men). On 28 Dec. Baker further reported that lack of pay ‘hath so incensed the gents [troopers] that if my life lay at stake I know not how to appease them’. Since Brereton had promised to do what he could for them, ‘I have found such an alteration that either it is that they are jealous of neglect of their officers in not moving you, or else obstinate in respect that they themselves said in my face that they were more disrespected than the private troops belonging to your army.’ These troops (by which Dore suggests Baker meant the troops of horse raised by Cheshire landowners) received the regular pay and free quarter, denied the reformados (Dore, Brereton letter books, 2. 449-50).
Serving under Brereton Baker is generally referred to as major, but may previously have been a lieutenant-colonel.
References: TNA, SP28/224, ff. 76, 85); Dore, Brereton letter books, 2. 266, 275, 383, 434-7, 443, 446-8, 449-50, 453, 504, 511; Symonds, Diary, 258.
Armies: Reformado; London; Cheshire
Baker, James James Baker
Sergeant-Major. Baker was sergeant-major in Sir Horatio Carey’s regiment of foot, raised in Gloucestershire early in 1643. He was one of the officers paid £10 to go down from London on 28 Apr. 1643. the regiment seems to have been destroyed at Roundway Down in July.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6.523-4.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Baker, Robert Robert Baker
Third captain in William Bampfylde’s regiment of foot, raised for Lord Wharton’s Army for Ireland in 1642. He went with the regiment as captain when it became part of Essex’s Army. The regiment fought in the West Country in 1643. At some point he was at Dartmouth.
References: Peacock, Army Lists, 70, 40; Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 4.421-3, 416, 402.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Devon
Baker, William William Baker
Captain. A captain in Gloucestershire who received payments, 26 May-9 June 1643. On the latter date he received £10 prior to marching after Sir William Waller.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6.635.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Baker, William William Baker
Lieutenant in Thomas Temple’s troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army in summer 1642 and still there in Jan. 1643. By May and June 1643 he was a captain, evidently having taken over command of the troop. He was then part of Waller’s command.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 52.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller
Balde, Francis Francis Balde
Captain. An officer in the Gloucester garrison in 1643. On 31 Mar. he received £1 towards the relief of prisoners by Sir William Waller’s order.
References: TNA, SP28/129, Part 5, fol. 3v.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Baldwin, Thomas Thomas Baldwin
By late summer 1644, shortly before the death of Major Pont and the reducation of his troop, cornet in Pont’s troop in William Purefoy’s regiment of horse. He later became cornet of the Colonel’s own troop in the regiment.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 121.
Armies: Warwickshire
Bale [Bailey, Bali], Benjamin Benjamin Bale [Bailey, Bali]
Captain of Dorset foot company, evidently raised at end of May 1643, very possibly as part of regiment of foot raised at that point. He and his men were still being paid by 3 Aug. 1643. On 11 Dec. 1646 his widow Ann, with 5 small children to support, pleaded for payment, as she had been plundered by the enemy after his death, stating that her husband had been slain in the Parliament’s service. A later appeal confirms that he had been a foot officer.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 5.513; Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 112, 379, 502.
Armies: Dorset
Balfour, William William Balfour
Son of Sir William Balfour. He initially fought as a captain in, later major of, Sir James Ramsey’s regiment of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army. But in spring 1644 – or possibly in late 1643 – he transferred to his father’s regiment of horse as its Major and he continued in that role until the regiment was disbanded in spring 1645. At a muster during the campaign in the South West in summer 1644 his troop comprised 9 officers and 77 troopers.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 19; TNA, SP16/513/68; Peacock, Army lists, 54; Symonds, Diary, 73.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller (Southern Association)
Balfour, Sir William Sir William Balfour (died 1660)
Born probably in the 1570s, the son of Henry Balfour of Pitcallo, Fife. By the 1590s he was serving in Scottish units in the Dutch army and he continued in Dutch employ for most of the first quarter of the seventeenth century. In 1628, and at the king’s request, he joined the duke of Buckingham’s expedition to the Ile de Rhe, but he soon returned to continental warfare. However, he returned to England during the 1630s and served as a courtier, commissioner and emissary of Charles I and as lieutenant of the Tower.
In the wake of the king’s two wars against the Scots, Balfour supported parliament in the civil war and, despite his age, had a distinguished military career. In Aug. 1642 he was appointed lieutenant-general of the horse under the earl of Bedford, with his own troop and regiment of horse, and at the head of a brigade of horse he performed very strongly at Edgehill, steadying the parliamentarian position and counter-attacking. Although he spent part of 1643 outside England for health reasons, he was back by spring 1644, when Essex sent him at the head of a brigade to support Waller in southern England, playing a prominent role at the battle of Cheriton. He was with Essex when the latter marched into the South West in summer 1644, though he with his own regiment of horse and other cavalry managed to cut their way out and elude capture. He rejoined Waller and played a leading role in the second battle of Newbury. Illness and old age, together with some suspicions of his loyalty due to his Scottish background, led to him effectively giving up command and leaving the army soon after. His regiment of horse was disbanded around the same time, in spring 1645. On 21 Jan. 1645, as the senior officers of the New Model were being discussed in the Commons, the House also asked the committee for regulating the armies ‘to consider of some fit Recompence to be conferred upon Sir Wm. Balfour in Acknowledgment of the faithful Services done by him to the Publick’ (JHC, 4.26).
He spent his last years in quiet retirement in London and died there a few weeks after the Restoration.
References: Oxford DNB; Peacock, Army lists, 22, 47.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller (Southern Association)
Balfoure [Belfore, Belford], - - Balfoure [Belfore, Belford]
A captain in Devon at the beginning of 1643. In Jan. he was promoted major commanding 100 dragoons, men of Colonel John Were, by the earl of Stamford. He was with the earl at Newbridge on 18 Jan. Existing dragoon units were disbanded at the armistice in Feb. At some point Balfoure changed sides. He was with the royalists in the Cornish campaign of 1644, offering his old colonel, John Were, shelter in the royalist quarters after the surrender at Lostwithiel.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 4.447-8.
Armies: Devon
Ball, - - Ball
Captain in Nathaniel Whetham’s Northampton-based regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 165.
Armies: Northamptonshire
Ball, - – Ball
Lieutenant, possibly to Colonel Richard Cole.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 5.560.
Armies: Somerset: Col. William Strode’s Regt. of Foot
Ball, Andrew Andrew Ball
Lieutenant in William Bampfield’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 40.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Ball, Robert Robert Ball
Ensign in Captain Edward Glegg’s company in Sir William Brereton’s Cheshire forces besieging Lichfield in 1646.
References: Carr and Atherton, Brereton Staffs., 271, 326, 353.
Armies: Cheshire
Ballard, Francis Francis Ballard
Lieutenant in Lord Mandeville’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 36.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Ballard, Philip Philip Ballard
Lieutenant in Lord Grandison’s regiment of foot in the earl of Northumberland’s Army against the Scots in 1640 (probably a kinsman of Thomas Ballard, who was lieutenant-colonel of the same regiment).
Captain in Rochford’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642 (from or by early Oct.) and until its disbandment in May or June 1643.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 77, 32; TNA, SP28/2b/367, SP28/9/122.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Ballard, Thomas Thomas Ballard
Colonel of a regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army from or by 12 Aug. 1642. On 6 Jan. 1643 he was paid a month’s salary as colonel of a brigade from 9 Dec. 1642, and as colonel of a regiment and captain of a company from 24 Dec.
Ballard was still colonel as late as 31 July 1643; however, he left in the summer to campaign instead in the Midlands and the regiment had passed to Francis Martyn by 25 Aug. 1643.
References: TNA, SP28/1a/66, SP28/5/39, SP28/8/224, SP28/9/187.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Balloon, Peter Peter Balloon
Probably from its formation in Aug. 1643 through to its disbandment sometime in 1644, captain in Mazieres’s short-lived regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.67.
Armies: Eastern Association
Balsome [Balsam], Elias Elias Balsome [Balsam (died on or before 1647)
A captain of horse in Yorkshire. In 1648 he sought arrears of £1,073 and £420 for having financed his troop, regiment unidentified.
Jones suggests he came from Surrey. This seems based on information given in July 1649 by administrators of Captain Elias Balsam’s estate regarding a lease on powder mills leased to the crown, mentioning the dead lessee’s brother and executor as being a Surrey man. Arrears of £913 were then owing to Balsam’s estate. However, when probate was granted on 27 June 1647 Balsam was described as of Cawood, Yorkshire.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 369; Index of wills in the York registry, 1627-1636; administrations, 1627-1652, Yorkshire Archaeological Soc., Vol. 35 (1905), 105; CCAM, 2, 1079.
Armies: Yorkshire
Balston, John John Balston
Having served earlier in the civil war as a lieutenant in the earl of Peterborough’s regiment of foot, by Aug. 1643 he was captain in Christopher Potley’s/David Leighton’s regiment of foot, promoted to major in spring 1644 and serving until spring 1645, when the regiment was reduced into a different New Model Army regiment.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 113.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Balston, Robert Robert Balston
Ensign and later lieutenant in John Balston’s company in the regiment of foot of Christopher Potley/David Leighton.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 119.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Balstone, Johan Johan Balstone
Lieutenant in the earl of Peterborough’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 28; TNA, SP28/3b/399.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Baly, - - Baly
Lieutenant in Edward Meredith’s company in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.64.
Armies: Eastern Association
Bamber, Roger Roger Bamber
Of Amounderness, Lancashire. A Captain-Lieutenant and then captain of a troop of horse under Colonel Nicholas Shuttleworth. Claimed arrears of £1,258 19s 4d in May 1659.
References: Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 296;TNA, E121/4/8.
Armies: Lancashire
Bamford, Patrick Patrick Bamford
Bamford was admitted to the Company of the Artillery Garden (now the Honourable Artillery Company), 17 Aug. 1635.
Petitioner in support of the Militia Ordinance, 9 Mar. 1642, and a godly activist in his parish of Christ Church, London.
Bamford was an ensign in the Yellow regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Sir John Wollaston) in summer 1642.
References: Thrale 1642; Lindley, Popular politics, 72, 207-8; Cardew-Rendle.
Armies: London
Bampfield, John John Bampfield
A member of the Devon family of Bampfield. He is possibly John Bampfield (born 1601/2), second son of John Bampfield of Hardington, Devon, and his wife Meliora, daughter of William Webb of Motcombe juxta Shafton, Devon. However, he is perhaps more likely to be nephew to John (born 1601/2), the eldest son and heir of John’s older brother Thomas (died 1656) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Rogers of Cannington, Somerset. This younger John (1620/1-1651 or after) was brother to Warwick Bampfield, a captain in the same regiment in which he served.
Major in the earl of Essex’s own regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army by Sept. 1642. He had succeeded William Davies as lieutenant-colonel by at least 13 July, and possibly by 15 June, 1643. In Sept. he was reimbursed £52 which he had lent to the officers of Essex’s regiment when they lay at Kingston, the money being received by Warwick Bampfield. Succeeded by John Botteler as both major and lieutenant-colonel of the regiment.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 25; Davies, ‘Essex’s army’, 47; TNA, SP28/2a/245, SP28/5/285, 311, SP28/7/307, SP28/9/1; Vis. Devon, 38-9.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bampfield, Warwick Warwick Bampfield (1622/23-1694/95)
Second son of Thomas Bampfield (died 1656) of Hardington, Devon and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Rogers of Cannington, Somerset; possibly nephew, or more likely younger brother, of John Bampfield.
In Essex’s own regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army by 12 Aug. 1643, when he received money for the regiment. Possibly by then captain, his rank by July 1644.
On 13 Mar. 1645 the Commons named him as one of the four captains of Essex’s regiment to be retained in the New Model Army and recommended him as captain in Colonel Richard Ingoldsby’s New Model regiment of foot, which the Lords duly accepted. He left this regiment in or by 1647, before the disruptions to the officer corps caused by the stand-off between parliament and the Army.
References: TNA, SP28/5/2850, SP28/9/17, SP28/17/770, 771; JHC, 4.76, 79; JHL, 7.274, 279; Peacock, Army lists, 105.
Armies: Earl of Essex; New Model Army
Bampfield, William William Bampfield
Third son of Sir Amyas Bampfield (1558/9-1626) of Poltimore, Devon, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Clifton of Barrington, Somerset; uncle of Sir John Bampfield and Warwick Bampfield.
Colonel of a regiment of foot originally raised for service in Ireland under Lord Wharton, and then transferred to the earl of Essex’s Army, where he was colonel from or by 12 Aug. 1642. However, there is no evidence of arms and clothing being provided for it, and by 17 Oct. it was reported that its officers were lying idle at Bath, visiting Bristol to receive their pay and doing nothing for it. However, the regiment moved to Plymouth in Nov. The evidence is stronger on the regiment than on Bampfield himself, and even then requires some conjecture. Perhaps the regiment was part of the force drawn from Plymouth which was defeated at Braddock Down, Cornwall (18 Jan. 1643), and ‘it is possible that only a shattered remnant of the regiment returned to Plymouth’ (Peachey and Turton, War in the West, 4.423). The regiment evidently was at the battle of Beacon Hill (23 Apr. 1643). It may have been part of the force routed at Stratton (16 May 1643), falling back on Exeter, where it was involved in the fighting in July and Aug. 1643. The regiment was probably broken up or disbanded in the course of the summer.
On 18 Jan. 1648 the Commons referred to the committee of the West to pay Bampfield £100, part of the arrears due to him.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 70, 40; TNA, SP28/1a/69; JHC, 5.436; Peachey and Turton, War in the West,4.421-3; Vis. Devon, 39-40.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Somerset; Devon
Bampfylde, Sir John, baronet Sir John Bampfylde, baronet (born c.1610-50)
Of Poltimore, Devon. Third son of John Bampfylde (born 1590), of Poltimore and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Drake of Buckland, Devon. He married Gertrude, daughter of Amias Coplestone and coheir to brother John Coplestone of Warleigh.
Created baronet, July 1641.
MP for Penryn in Long Parliament until his death in 1650.
Colonel of Trained Band regiment in north-east Devon.
Appointed by the House of Commons governor of the Island and Fort of St Nicholas (Plymouth Sound), 10 May 1644.
References: Keeler, Long Parliament, 95;JHC, 3.487-9; History of Parliament, 1640-1660 (forthcoming).
Armies: Devon
Banaster, Richard Richard Banaster
major. Commissioned major of foot in the Gloucestershire militia, 8 Feb. 1651.
References: CSPD, 1651, 513.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Banbery, Joseph Joseph Banbery
A lieutenant in Sir William Brereton’s Cheshire Army, killed in the engagement at Nantwich on 28 Jan. 1643. He was buried at Nantwich two days later.
References: Civil war in Cheshire, 35-6.
Armies: Cheshire
Band, - - Band
A captain in Lancashire wounded in the skirmish at Manchester on 9 July 1642, when royalists under James Stanley, Lord Strange, first attempted to take the town.
References: Lancashire military proceedings, 26.
Armies: Lancashire
Banister, - - Banister
Captain-Lieutenant of Sir William Brereton’s troop of horse in 1646. In Aug. and Oct. 1646 he received pay for the troop and a gratuity for service at the siege of Chester. A further pay warrant dated 20 Aug. 1646 implies that the troop had recently been disbanded.
References: TNA, SP28/224, ff. 155, 162, 269.
Armies: Cheshire
Banks, - - Banks
Captain in Colonel Samuel Jones’s Surrey regiment of foot from at least 27 Oct. 1643 until the regiment was disbanded in spring 1646. He was at the siege of Basing House in 1643 and on Waller’s Oxford campaign in 1644. By 12 Dec. 1646 he was lieutenant with Colonel Robert Wood's Surrey regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 66, 75; TNA, SP28/135/1.
Armies: Surrey; Waller (Southern Association)
Banks, - - Banks
By Apr. 1644 colonel of the Tower Hamlets Trained Bands foot, but by May no longer there and succeeded by Francis Zachary, his former lieutenant-colonel.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 137.
Armies: Tower Hamlets
Banning, Thomas Thomas Banning
By the beginning of 1645 ensign in Robert Shephard’s company in Sir Miles Hobart’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army; at the regiment’s disbandment in spring 1645 he had been promoted to Lieutenant, but he did not transfer to the New Model Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.42.
Armies: Eastern Association
Bannoz, - - Bannoz
Captain, possibly under Colonel John Pyne.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 5.550.
Armies: Somerset: Col. John Pyne’s Trained Band Regt.
Banyard, Edmund Edmund Banyard
Ensign in Captain Spensley’s company in Sir John Palgrave’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.78.
Armies: Eastern Association
Barber, Francis Francis Barber
Ensign in William Bampfield’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 40.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Barber, John John Barber
Captain in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of foot; later captain and then major in Alban Coxe’s regiment of horse (both part of the Eastern Association Army). Possibly the Barber/Barbor who later served as a captain in Thomas Rainsborough’s regiment of foot in the New Model Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.62.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army?
Barber, Richard Richard Barber
Captain of foot in an unidentified regiment, later claimed arrears of pay of £376 5s.
A friend to Adam Eyre, so possibly of Derbyshire rather than Yorkshire, but perhaps of the family of Gawber Hall, Darton, Yorkshire (West Riding). Named Richard in Eyre, although Jones [?in error or from other sources] gives Roger.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 369; Eyre, 97.
Armies: Yorkshire
Barbor, John John Barbor
In summer 1643, captain in Sir John Wittrough’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army; he continued to serve in the regiment, which later passed to Thomas Sadler.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.112.
Armies: Eastern Association
Barbor, William William Barbor
In summer 1643 captain in Sir John Wittrough’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army; he continued to serve in the regiment, which later passed to Thomas Sadler.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.112.
Armies: Eastern Association
Barbour, Leicester Leicester Barbour (baptised 1613, died c.1691)
Of Tamworth, baptised 23 Sept. 1613 the eldest son of George Barbour (died c. 1620) of Tamworth and his wife Mary, daughter of Ralph Rugeley of Dunton, Warwickshire. He married (1) Catherine, daughter of Michael Rowe of Pipe Ridware, and (2) Mary, daughter of Thomas Adshead of Millwich, Staffordshire. Barbour took his forename from the family’s service with Lettice, lady Leicester of Drayton Basset, Warwickshire.
Presented by the constables of Tamworth, Staffordshire, as a former active parliamentarian in 1662, and on 30 Mar. 1663 signed a pedigree of his family at the herald’s visitation.
He was, according to the royalist Sir Simon Degge, ‘in arms for the Parliament all along’ (Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 349). He was captain of a company in Staffordshire by 4 Dec. 1643. On 7 Nov. 1644 his properties, which included the prebend of Coton, were exempted from the weekly assessement, as Barbour ‘is and hath beene in actuall service within this Countie for the space of one yeare and upwards, and hath received no paye from the state, and that a greate part of his lands lye wast’ (Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 203).
The Staffordshire county committee records show him and his troop active in the maintenance of parliamentarian authority during the war.
Barbour was nominated to the committee on 7 June 1643. In 1644 he was a member of its pro-Denbigh faction. In 1646, as well as remain as a committeeman, he stood surety for debts incurred by Sir William Brereton for the war effort. In the 1650s he continued to be nominated to many of the committees for the county.
References: Vis. Staffs., 31; Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, xxii, lxxviii, lxxxii-iii, 6, 349 and passim;‘Active Parliamentarians, 1662’, 61; Carr and Atherton, Brereton Staffs., 279, 293, 347, 353.
Armies: Staffordshire
Barclay, Henry [Harry] Henry [Harry] Barclay
A Scot, he was colonel of a regiment of foot raised in autumn 1645 and which continued to serve as part of the earl of Essex’s Army until spring 1645, taking part at the siege of Reading, the relief of Gloucester, both battles of Newbury and Essex’s march into the South West in summer 1644. He was earmarked as colonel of a New Model regiment of foot, but he was one of a group of Scots who were directed by their government not to take up his command.
References: Wanklyn, New Model Army, 1. 47-8, 150.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bare, - - Bare
A Lancashire captain commissioned in summer 1643 to raise a company to the north of the River Wyre for Colonel Alexander Rigby senior’s regiment of Amounderness and Leyland foot.
References: Warr in Lancashire, 42.
Armies: Lancashire
Barke [Barker], William William Barke [Barker]
In summer 1642 he became a captain in Holles’s short-lived regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army. Like most of his fellow officers and the regiment as a whole, little is heard of him after their shattering defeat at Brentford in Nov. 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 37.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Barker, - - Barker
Captain in Lord Willoughby’s regiment of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army and the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.109.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Eastern Association
Barker, Francis Francis Barker
In spring 1644 Major in Francis Russell’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.96; Holmes, Eastern Association, 146.
Armies: Eastern Association
Barker, Gilbert Gilbert Barker
Captain in Sir John Norwich’s short-lived regiment of dragoons in the Eastern Association Army, which late in 1643 was transferred to Lord Grey of Groby and his army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.76.
Armies: Eastern Association
Barker, James James Barker
In Sept. 1642 ensign in Captain Dobson’s company in the regiment of foot which formed part of the earl of Essex’s Army under the earl of Stamford and which then formed the core of Edward Massey’s garrison and army at Gloucester.
References: Peachey and Turton, War in the West,6.646-7.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Barker, John John Barker (died 1670)
A draper and alderman of Coventry, son of either Thomas or John Barker, both drapers and sometime mayors of Coventry.
Barker was sheriff of Coventry in 1624, mayor in 1634-5 and alderman from then until 1655. Active with others in getting Coventry’s ship money assessment reduced in the mid-1630s. MP for the town in the Long Parliament until temporarily secluded at Pride’s Purge, though he later retook his seat in the Rump.
He spent much of summer 1642 in Coventry working to defend the town and was both governor of Coventry and colonel of Coventry-based forces – both a troop of horse and a regiment of foot – from spring/summer 1642 until June 1645, when he gave up his commands under the terms of the Self-Denying Ordinance, whereupon command of the foot regiment passed to Thomas Willoughby, who was its colonel until it was disbanded in 1647, and command of the troop of horse passed to Captain Henry Flower. Barker’s troop of horse and some of the companies of his foot regiment served elsewhere from time to time – supporting Massey in Gloucestershire in spring 1644 and unher Waller in summer 1644, including at the battle of Cropredy Bridge.
During the 1660s Barker and his wife were still living in Coventry, but in reduced circumstances and partly reliant on support from the town; he died in 1670.
References: Keeler, Long Parliament, 96; Spring, Waller’s army, 21.
Armies: Warwickshire; Waller (Southern Association)
Barlow, - Henry Barlow
Lieutenant in Captain Thomas Evans’s company in the Portsmouth garrison regiment of William Jephson in Jan. 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 71.
Armies: Hampshire
Barlow, Robert Robert Barlow
In 1651 an ensign (brevet) in Captain William Watson’s company in Henry Bradshaw’s regiment of foot in the Cheshire militia at the battle of Worcester.
References: Earwaker, East Cheshire, 2, 64-8.
Armies: Cheshire
Barlow, William William Barlow
Ensign in Captain Hoogan’s company in Sir Miles Hobart’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army; he did not go on to serve in the New Model Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.41.
Armies: Eastern Association
Barnard, Francis Francis Barnard
Commissioned captain of horse under Colonel William Purefoy in the Warwickshire militia, 27 June 1650.
References: CSPD 1650, 507.
Armies: Warwickshire
Barnard, Leonard Leonard Barnard
Of Hull, Yorkshire (East Riding). A younger son and brother of Henry and John Barnard, both aldermen and sometime mayors of Hull, linked by marriage to families of Lister, Legard and Boynton. Gaoled in 1642 for opposing Sir John Hotham’s governorship, but became a captain in the Hull watch and by June 1643 was a captain in the garrison. Later became an alderman of Hull.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 369; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 90.
Armies: Yorkshire
Barne, John John Barne
Captain in James Wardlawe’s regiment of dragoons in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 57.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Barnes [Bernes], Gabriel Gabriel Barnes [Bernes]
Captain in the Plymouth garrison at the time of Prince Maurice’s siege, Sept.-Dec. 1643; he was paid £10 on 17 Oct. 1643. By 1645-6, Major in the same garrison. In July 1645 he was sent by the Plymouth Committee to Colonel Edward Massey. Commissioned captain of foot in the Devon militia, 24 May 1650.
Barnes was appointed to the Devon assessment commission in 1657, one of a group of ‘trusted Rump military men’ (Roberts, Devon, 54).
References: Worth, History of Plymouth, 110, 134; Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 3.364; Worth, ‘Plymouth siege accounts’, 233; CSPD 1650, 507; Roberts, Devon, 54.
Armies: Devon
Barnes, - - Barnes
Lieutenant of Captain Palgrave’s company in Sir John Palgrave’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.77.
Armies: Eastern Association
Barnes, - - Barnes
Cornet in Captain Thomas Bettesworth’s troop in Richard Norton’s regiment of horse, which served with Massey in the West in 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 103.
Armies: Hampshire; Massey Brigade
Barnes, Francis Francis Barnes
By Aug. 1644 and still there in spring 1645 when the regiment was disbanded, captain in the regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army commanded first by Sir John Palgrave and then by Sir Thomas Hoogan.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.81.
Armies: Eastern Association
Barnes, Richard Richard Barnes
In Nov. 1644, ensign in Captain Oxford’s company in Sir Samuel Luke’s Newport Pagnell-based regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 95.
Armies: Bedfordshire
Barnes, Robert Robert Barnes
Possibly Captain Barnes at Plymouth, 1645/6.
Commissioned captain of foot in the Devon militia, 15 July 1650.
References: CSPD 1650, 508; Worth, History of Plymouth, 134.
Armies: Devon
Barnes, Thomas Thomas Barnes
Ensign. Ensign in the earl of Stamford’s regiment of foot in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army Lists, 30; Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6. 646.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Barnes, Thomas Thomas Barnes
In Sept. 1642 ensign in Captain Crispe’s company in the regiment of foot which formed part of the earl of Essex’s Army under the earl of Stamford and which then formed the core of Edward Massey’s garrison and army at Gloucester.
References: Peachey and Turton, War in the West,6.646.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Barnett, Nathaniel Nathaniel Barnett
While not listed in the published alumni records of the universities of Oxford, Cambridge or Dublin, Barnett became chaplain to Colonel Thomas Mytton’s forces in North Wales, and as such was a commissioner for the surrender of Denbigh Castle in 1646. On 5 Mar. 1647 the Lords ordered his reimbursement of 100 marks for bringing two prisoners to London. By 1652 Barnett was rector of Llandyrnog (Denbighshire). Having conformed at the Restoration he became rector of Newtown, Montgomeryshire.
References: TNA, E121/4/8, no. 5; T. Richards, ‘Two studies in the history of the diocese of Bangor, Archaeologia Cambrensis, vol. 5 (1925), 33; JHL, 9, 58.
Armies: North Wales
Barnewell, Edward Edward Barnewell
Lieutenant in George Narrow’s company in Charles Essex’s regiment of foot in Lord Wharton’s Army raised for Ireland in 1642. Later that summer he instead went in the same regiment into the earl of Essex’s Army as lieutenant in Charles Essex’s regiment of foot.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 70, 45.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Barnwall, Edward Edward Barnwall
Lieutenant in the regiment of foot successively commanded by Henry Bulstrode and Adam Cunningham, in whose troop he served for a time.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 48.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller (Southern Association)
Baron, Richard Richard Baron
In 1642, probably at and from its formation, lieutenant in Lord Robartes’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 37.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Barratt, Thomas Thomas Barratt
Ensign in a regiment of foot which served under Oliver Cromwell and later under Colonel Francis Russell in their capacity as governors of the Isle of Ely and which probably originated as an auxiliary regiment of the Cambridgeshire militia.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.28.
Armies: Eastern Association
Barrett, - - Barrett
Captain of the company garrisoning Gurnand Castle, Isle of Wight, in 1642, part of Thomas Carr’s regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 24.
Armies: Isle of Wight
Barrett, - – Barrett
A major in the Plymouth garrison, 1645-6.
References: Worth, History of Plymouth, 134.
Armies: Devon
Barriffe, William William Barriffe (1599/1600-1643)
A London cordwainer, admitted to the Company of the Artillery Garden (now the Honourable Artillery Company), 13 Mar. 1627 and also member of another citizen military volunteer group, the Private and Loving Society of Cripplegate (established c. 1628).
Author of military works: Military discipline (1635, 1639 and several other editions) and Mars, his Triumph (1639), an account of a mock battle between members of the Artillery Garden as Christians v. Saracens.
Captain-Lieutenant in the Colonel’s company in the Yellow regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Sir John Wollaston), Apr.-summer 1642. However, he very soon became major in John Hampden’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army (certainly by the end of Aug.), and as such was second-in-command of the force sent to take Hereford in Oct. 1642. Promoted lieutenant-colonel in 1643, following the defection of Joseph Wagstaffe in Jan., and so probably present with the regiment at the siege of Reading in spring 1643. Probably dead by Aug. 1643 – between 13 July and 17 Aug. – and his will was proved Feb. 1644.
References: Oxford DNB; Thrale 1642; Peacock, Army lists,46; CSPD, 1642-1643, 379, 398; TNA, SP28/8/115, SP28/9/88; Cardew-Rendle.
Armies: London; Earl of Essex
Barrington, - - Barrington
A captain at the siege of Manchester in Sept. 1642.
References: Lancashire military proceedings, 46.
Armies: Lancashire
Barrington, Sir Thomas Sir Thomas Barrington, baronet (c. 1585-1644).
The eldest son of Sir Francis Barrington and his wife Joan, daughter of Sir Henry Cromwell of Hinchingbrooke, Huntingdonshire. A melancholy puritan who through inheritance and marriage acquired property in Essex, Huntingdonshire and elsewhere. He sat in all the parliaments of the 1620s and was critical of aspects of Charles I’s government. Prominent in the Providence Island Company in the 1630s. Elected to both the Short and Long Parliaments in 1640, where he was very active in criticising and opposing religious and other aspects of royal government. In 1642 he was a leading supporter of the Militia Ordinance and under the earl of Warwick served as one of parliament’s deputy-lieutenants in Essex. He was active in both parliament and Essex, where he raised money and troops and supported the fledgling Eastern Association, from the outbreak of the war until his death at Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex, in Sept. 1644.
He might be the Thomas Barrington who appears as an officer in Grey of Groby’s troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army in late summer 1642, though the identification is uncertain.
He was appointed colonel of a regiment of foot which was formed from the Essex militia and which became part of the Eastern Association Army that contributed to the siege of Reading in spring 1643, the siege of Greenland House in summer 1644 and probably to some other actions in which the army was involved. However, given Barrington’s age and political and administrative duties in parliament and Essex it is likely that he did not always personally lead his men in the field and on campaign.
References: Oxford DNB; Spring, Eastern Association, 1.31.
Armies: Eastern Association
Barry, Henry Henry Barry
Captain, he succeeded to James Hopton’s troop in Sir Arthur Hesilrige’s regiment of horse on 6 Dec. 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 56.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Bartholomew, - - Bartholomew
Ensign in the company of Captain-Lieutenant William Keeling, promoted lieutenant when the latter became captain, in the Sussex regiment of foot of Anthony Stapley/Algernon Sidney.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 128.
Armies: Sussex; Waller (Southern Association)
Bartlett, - - Bartlett
Ensign in Randall Mainwaring’s (London) Red regiment of foot, missing, presumed taken, after a skirmish at Olney, Bedfordshire, in Nov. 1643.
References: George Paine, A true relation of all the skirmishes between our forces and the Cavaliers at Owlney (1643), 5.
Armies: London
Bartlett, Henry Henry Bartlett
Quartermaster and then lieutenant in Sir William Waller’s regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 146.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Barton, Nathaniel Nathaniel Barton (1615/16-1672/73)
Son of Edmund Barton, rector of Broseley, Shropshire. Nathaniel matriculated from New Inn Hall, Oxford, in 1634, graduated BA in 1638 and proceeding MA in 1641 and BD in 1649. Chaplain to Sir Thomas Burdett and MP for Derbyshire in the Nominated Assembly and the first Protectorate parliament.
According to one source, on 13 July 1643 Barton and Captain Hope, ‘two martial ministers of Nottinghamshire or Derbyshire coming to Peterborough, break open the Vestery and take away a Fair Crimson Satten Table Cloth and several other things’ (Calamy Revised, 33). However, the date here is dubious. In late spring 1643 Barton was major in Robert Haughton’s regiment of Derbyshire and Staffordshire foot at Burton-upon-Trent (of which Thomas Sanders was lieutenant-colonel), and was captured when the town fell to the royalists on 2 July.
After his release, Sanders appointed him captain in the regiment of horse which he raised, of which Sanders was major and Sir John Gell colonel.
Gell placed Barton in command of the garrison of Barton Blount, from where he could harass the royalists at Tutbury 3 miles away, and from there he reported to Sir William Brereton.
Barton was, however, hostile to Gell, and in Mar. 1645 he was one of those godly Derbyshire captains of horse then serving with Brereton who were more in sympathy with the latter (who in turn described him and Captain Joseph Swetnam as ‘very reverend divines’ (Dore, Brereton letter books, 1.79), and who resented Gell starving their regiment of supply to force their return to Derbyshire. In Dec. 1645 he was one of the officers complaining against Gell to the committee of examinations. In 1645 he became captain in Richard Graves’s regiment of horse in the New Model Army, and in Mar. 1647 he contradicted the claims of another officer that the regiment was not discontented. After Graves was replaced as colonel by Adrian Scrope, Barton was promoted major, and commanded the regiment’s three troops at the battle of St Fagan’s (8 May 1648). He may have been back in the Midlands by the summer. He was present at the Army Council meetings in Nov. and Dec. 1648, and served in Scrope’s regiment of horse until its disbandment after Burford.
On 2 Mar. 1650, as colonel, Barton was commissioned commander-in-chief of the Derbyshire militia horse and foot and seems to have served temporarily the following year as major of Thomas Sanders’s regiment of horse (previously Francis Thornhaugh’s) and fought in the Worcester campaign.
A JP in 1650, and in Oct., when George Fox was arrested after having followed Barton in preaching at St Peter’s, Derby, Barton was one of the magistrates who examined him (his colleague Gervase Bennet was then the first to use the word ‘Quaker’ in relation to Fox).
Barton was a JP in Derbyshire in the 1650s. A moderate in the Nominated Assembly, and a member of the first Protectorate parliament, he was appointed a commissioner for enquiring into the arrears of the excise in Dec. 1654.
When Sanders was re-instated to the command of his regiment after the fall of Richard Cromwell, Barton became its major again until Monck placed other officers in their stead. Barton and Sanders were both arrested in late 1659, apparently for armed resistance; on 27 Dec. the restored Long Parliament ordered their release, and the same day Colonel Hacker released them. Barton was promptly authorized to disarm parliament’s enemies in Staffordshire and a place was found for him as major of Robert Swallow’s late regiment (now under Sanders).
At the Restoration Barton was curate of Caldwell chapel, Stapenhill parish, Derbyshire, but was ejected in 1662. An informer in 1669 accused him of being privy to a conspiracy and described him as ‘Captaine or Major Barton formerly in Armes agt. the late King and a minister att the beginning of the warres…who purchased some of the King’s lands wch he hath lost and is highly discontented’ (Calamy Revised, 33).
He made his will on 30 Mar. 1672, leaving a wife (Sarah), two sons and four daughters; it was proved on 10 Nov. 1673.
References: Calamy Revised, 33; Woolrych, Commonwealth, 121, 313, 384n., 410-11; Turbutt, Derbyshire, 3. 1062, 1070, 1078, 1087, 1093, 1097, 1100, 1133, 1138; Dore, Brereton letter books, 1.79, 498, 524; Firth and Davies, Regimental History, 1.103, 105, 107, 109, 114, 283-4, 288-90; CSPD 1650, 504; Slack, ‘Gell and Sanders’, 137; www.theclergydatabase.org.uk; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming); Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 63, 74, 84, 96, 108.
Armies: Derbyshire; Cheshire; New Model Army
Barton, Thomas Thomas Barton
Commissioned captain of foot in the Devon Militia, 24 May 1650.
References: CSPD 1650, 507.
Armies: Devon
Barton, William William Barton
A senior cavalry officer in Sir Thomas Myddelton’s brigade, identified by warrants from spring 1644 into early 1645 as a colonel. Described by Myddelton as playing a leading role at the battle near Oswestry on 2 July 1644, probably in command of Myddelton's horse. Six days later Barton was present under the earl of Denbigh at the taking of Cholmondeley Castle. However, Barton may then have transferred to Denbigh’s command and returned with him to London (Denbigh had found Myddelton’s cavalry more useful and less mutinous than Myddelton’s infantry), for in letters from mid Wales dated 25 Sept. and 2 Oct. Myddelton begged the Committee of Both Kingdoms to send Barton and Sir William Myddelton to him with a reinforcement of horse. By 17 Apr. 1645 Barton seems to have left the service; then John Jones wrote him a letter from Nantwich, described by Dore as ‘an anti-Brereton tract’, one of several letters written against Brereton by Myddelton’s allies, from which it is clear that Barton was in London: ‘Present my service to your bedfellow, Sir John Maynard and his honourable lady, and be not unmindful of your Welsh friends’ (Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 239-41).
References: TNA, SP28/346, nos. 219, 229, 112; Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 239-41; CSPD, 1644, 533; 1644-5, 3-4, 239-41.
Armies: North Wales
Barton [Burton], - - Barton [Burton]
Captain in the Southwark Trained Bands regiment in later 1643 and on 22 Oct. 1646.
References: TNA, SP28/131, Part 13, f. 5v. [as Barton]; Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 12.
Armies: Southwark
Barwick, - - Barwick
Probably Thomas Barwick, admitted to the Company of the Artillery Garden (now the Honourable Artillery Company), 20 Sept. 1642.
Barwick was lieutenant-colonel of the Blue regiment, London Auxiliaries (Colonel George Langham junior) in Oct. 1646.
References: Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 11; Cardew-Rendle.
Armies: London
Barwicke, Edmund Edmund Barwicke
In 1651 lieutenant (brevet) in Captain William Fitton’s company of Henry Bradshaw’s regiment of foot in the Cheshire militia at the battle of Worcester.
References: Earwaker, East Cheshire, 2.64-8.
Armies: Cheshire
Basden, - - Basden
Captain in a Kent Trained Band regiment, possibly the St Augustine Lathe regiment of volunteers.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 77.
Armies: Kent
Baskervile, - - Baskervile
A captain in Staffordshire, named in the Staffordshire county committee order book, June 1644.
References: Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 126.
Armies: Staffordshire
Baskerville, Walter Walter Baskerville
Captain of a troop of horse billeted in 1642 or early 1643 at Dartmouth. In Jan. 1643 he was paid £30 and £312 16s. In Feb. 1643 the Cornish royalists captured Baskerville’s whole troop of horse.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 4.442.
Armies: Devon
Baskerville, Walter Walter Baskerville
Captain. Captain of a troop of horse in the first half of 1642, although by 7 July commanding a foot company. Perhaps the troop was destroyed when it raided Stow-on-the-Wold at the beginning of July. Otherwise, there may be two Captain Baskervilles.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6. 630.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Baskett, John John Baskett
Captain in the Isle of Wight foot. On 12 Mar. 1644 he was a complainant against his Colonel, Thomas Carr. He was still serving under Colonel Hammond in the late 1640s, commanding the garrison at Cowes Castle.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 24.
Armies: Isle Of Wight
Bassett, Bussy Bussy Bassett
On 2 Aug. 1642 Bassett was a reformado captain. He shortly after became captain in the regiment of foot of Viscount Saye and Sele, later of Sir John Meldrum, in the earl of Essex’s Army. In mid-Dec. he was paying out money for billeting men of Meldrum’s regiment at Stanwell, Middlesex.
By 13 July 1643 Bassett was major in Francis Thompson’s regiment of foot in Essex’s Army, the rank he still held in Jan. 1644.
On 25 Dec. 1645 the Lords responded to Bassett’s widow Susanna’s appeal for payment of arrears: ‘That her Husband was employed in the Parliament’s Service, for which there is Eight Hundred Pounds due to him; but he lying dead, unburied, for Want of Means to bury him, it is desired that some of his Arrears may be paid, for Burial of him’ (JHL, 8.70).
References: Peacock, Army lists, 30; JHL, 8.70; TNA, SP28/4/121, 44, 50-5, SP28/8/165, SP28/12/320.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bastard, William William Bastard (1616-1664)
Of Gerston, Devon. Eldest surviving son of John Bastard (1589/90-1634) and his wife Alice, daughter of Edward Reynell of Malston. He married Johanna, daughter of Sampson Hele in 1635. MP for Devon, 1654.
In 1642/3 Bastard was captain of a company which formed part of the Plymouth garrison, stationed at Stonehouse.
Commissioned captain of foot in the Devon Militia, 24 May 1650.
MP for Devon, 1654.
References: Vis. Devon, 50; Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 3.348; Roberts, Devon, 29, 85; CSPD 1650, 507;
HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming).
Armies: Devon
Batchelor, Elias Elias Batchelor
By Apr. 1644 and, until at least Jan. 1645, captain in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.65.
Armies: Eastern Association
Batelor [Butler], William William Batelor [Butler]
Captain in Cholmley’s probably short-lived regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642-3.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 36-7.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Batten, Robert Robert Batten
Grant of £56 public faith to Richard Vye for sheep and cows driven into Poole for provision of the garrison by Captain Robert Batten. In July 1644 part of a force which came to relieve Dorchester.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 126-7; Bayley, Civil War in Dorset, 204.
Armies: Dorset
Battersby, Nicholas Nicholas Battersby
In 1642 he was listed as lieutenant in Long’s troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army. In 1643 he went with Hesilrige’s regiment of horse into Waller’s Army and by summer 1643 he was the regiment’s major; he left the regiment in spring 1644.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 54.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller
Batton, Robert Robert Batton
Lieutenant in Captain Henry Jarvis’s [Jervoise’s] company in the Portsmouth garrison regiment of foot of Sir William Lewis by 10 Jan. 1643.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 72.
Armies: Hampshire
Batty, John John Batty (baptised 1614, died 1676)
Of Wadworth, Yorkshire (West Riding). Eldest son of John Batty (died 1632) of Alverthorpe, Yorkshire (West Riding), and his wife Dorothy Marshall. He married Mary Pierpont, daughter of John Pierpont of Wadworth.
Batty is identified in May 1644 as a troop captain in Thomas Norcliffe’s regiment in which he served until beyond Norcliffe’s resignation in May 1645. In 1648 Batty claimed arrears of £828 16s.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 369; Vis. Yorks., 1, 263-4.
Armies: Yorkshire; Northern Army (Fairfax)
Baull [Bowell], William William Baull [Bowell]
Captain. Lieutenant to Lieutenant-Colonel Ford in Popham’s regiment of foot. First appearance in regiment recorded at Bristol, Feb. 1643; at Bristol in May 1643 and in Popham’s foot, Apr. 1643 to at least Oct. 1644. Serving as Captain, 1 Apr. 1643-1 Oct. 1644.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 5.553-5.
Armies: Somerset:
Col. Alexander Popham’s Regt. of Foot
Bawden, John John Bawden
A captain in the Plymouth garrison, 1645-6.
References: Worth, History of Plymouth, 134.
Armies: Devon
Bayley, David David Bayley
Captain-Lieutenant of the Colonel’s troop or company in Sir William Waller’s Southern Association Army.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 146.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Bayley, Francis Francis Bayley
Captain in Sir William Waller’s Western Army, recorded 12 Apr.-21 May 1643, probably in Robert Burghill’s regiment of horse.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 7.710-1.
Armies: Waller
Bayley, John John Bayley
Ensign in Major Daniel Crawford’s company in Lawrence Crawford’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army, recorded as there at its disbandment on 17 Apr. 1645.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.13.
Armies: Eastern Association
Bayley, John John Bayley
On 16 Aug. 1650 commissioned a captain in Richard Standish’s regiment of foot in the Lancashire militia.
References: CSPD, 1650, 509.
Armies: Lancashire
Baylife, George George Baylife
Ensign in Captain Thomas Kekewich’s company in the Westminster auxiliaries regiment (Colonel James Prince) at its muster, 13 May 1644.
References: TNA, SP28/121A, Part 4, f. 549r.
Armies: Westminster
Baynard, - - Baynard
Captain, Dorset, paid 3 May 1643.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 5.524.
Armies: Dorset
Baynes, Adam Adam Baynes (baptised 1622, died 1671)
Of Knowsthorpe township, Leeds parish, Yorkshire (West Riding), the son of Robert Baynes, yeoman, and his wife Joan Brown. He possibly was an apprentice in the Leeds cloth trade before the outbreak of the civil war, whereupon he joined the Fairfaxes’ army, serving as a captain in Lord Fairfax’s foot regiment and later in 1643 raising a troop of horse. He fought under the Fairfaxes at Adwalton Moor and Marston Moor and then in 1646-7 served as a captain in John Lambert’s northern brigade, in a regiment of horse which was on the New Model Army payroll; by 1649 he was Lambert’s and the brigade’s financial agent in London, in which capacity he became wealthy and acquired significant property as well as maintaining an extensive correspondence with Lambert and other contacts, the survival of which provides a major source for army politics and financial dealings in the 1650s. As a protégé of Lambert, he was in favour during the opening years of the Protectorate, serving – despite some local opposition – as MP for Leeds in the first and second Protectorate Parliaments. With the kingship controversy and the fall of Lambert, Baynes, too, lost most of his offices and either quit or was removed from the army. After a brief return to favour on Lambert’s coat-tails in 1659, he lost influence and some (though not all) of his offices and property at the Restoration. Despite rumours of financial hardship during the 1660s and a period under arrest on suspicion of treason, he retained considerable land, property and business connections at the time of his death.
References: Oxford DNB; D. Hirst, ‘The fracturing of the Cromwellian alliance: Leeds and Adam Baynes’, English Historical Review, 108 (1993), 868–94; Jones, ‘War in the North’, 369-70; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 114-5; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming); Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 163.
Armies: Yorkshire; New Model Army
Baynes, John John Baynes
A Cornet named in the Baynes correspondence in the British Library, possibly cousin (or, more likely, brother) of Adam and Captain Robert Baynes, and in the 1650s ‘a financial officer of influence in Scotland’, and already such by July 1650 (Firth and Davies, Regimental History, 2, 540). Baynes fought at the battle of Dunbar.
References: Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 115; Firth and Davies, Regimental History, 2, 437, 498, 540.
Armies: Yorkshire
Baynton [Bayntun], Sir Edward Sir Edward Baynton [Bayntun] (1593-1657)
Colonel. Only son of Sir Henry Bayntun (died 1616), knight, of Bromham, and Lucy, daughter of Sir John Danvers (1540–1594) of Dauntsey, Wiltshire MP for Chippenham in the Short and Long Parliaments (also MP for Devizes, 1614; 1624, 1625; Wiltshire 1621 and Chippenham, 1626). Colonel of dragoons and commander of forces in Wiltshire, by Dec. 1642–31 Jan. 1643. A quarrelsome figure, who fought a duel with a fellow MP in Aug. 1641, he was the first commander of the Wiltshire forces but fell out with Sir Edward Hungerford, each in turn arresting the other. Parliament decided in favour of Hungerford, who was appointed commander-in-chief of the Wiltshire forces of two regiments of horse and 1,000 dragoons on 31 Jan. 1643. Baynton withdrew, and in June fled to the Isle of Wight, where he opened negotiations for a pardon from the king. He was brought up to London and briefly a prisoner, but by June 1644 had resumed his seat in the Commons. In 1645 his house at Bromham was destroyed by the royalists. An Independent, he continued to serve in the Rump Parliament. He was named one of the king’s judges, but did not sit as such.
References: See Keeler, Long Parliament, 101-2. Oxford DNB (in Baynton family article);
HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming).
Armies: Wiltshire: Sir Edward Baynton’s Regt. of Dragoons
Beake, Robert Robert Beake
In 1645 lieutenant in Willoughby’s company in John Barker’s/Thomas Willoughby’s regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 23.
Armies: Warwickshire
Beale, - - Beale
Captain in Colonel Richard Turner’s regiment of horse, Aug./Sept. 1643 until its reduction in Mar. 1644.
References: TNA, SP28/132, f. 1v; Spring, Waller's Army, 141.
Armies: London; Waller (Southern Association)
Beale, - - Beale
Colonel in command of a small force shipped to Pembrokshire in Aug. 1644, which in Nov. reinforced Sir Thomas Myddelton in mid Wales. Apart from a dispatch of 8 Jan. 1645, Beale is not certainly heard of again after an action fought in late Nov. when he had finally joined forces with Myddelton. He may have been the Colonel Beale ordered (with Mr Annesley and Sir Robert King) to join with the Scottish commissioners to form a committee in Ireland. If so, his forename was William.
References: CSPD, 1644-5, 34, 238-9, 391; Acts and Ordinances, 1, 677.
Armies: North Wales; Ireland
Beale, Peter Peter Beale
An officer of the Portsmouth garrison regiment commanded by Sir William Lewis/William Jephson/Richard Norton. On 10 Jan. 1643 he was ensign in Captain Paul Watt’s company in the Portsmouth garrison regiment of foot commanded by Sir William Lewis; he is probably the Captain Beale who by 25 Aug. 1645 was commanding a company.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 62-3.
Armies: Hampshire
Beale, Richard Richard Beale (died 1664)
Of Loose next Maidstone, Kent. Son of Richard Beale of Maidstone and his wife Margaret Hickes. He married Susan, daughter of Edward Bennet, deputy to the Merchant Adventurers at Hamburg. Captain in the Sutton at Hone Lathe volunteer regiment by 1 May 1645. Beale became Kent country treasurer.
He was a minor gentleman and one of those ‘relative nouveaux-riches of legal or mercantile origin’, who formed the close allies of Sir Anthony Weldon by the end of the first civil war (Everitt, Kent, 234). Faced with the ‘Remonstrance showing the Occasion of the present Arming of the County of Kent’, a petition protesting against the oppressions of Weldon’s rule, Beale proposed hanging two of the petitioners in every parish. Beale was elected MP for Kent in the first and second Protectorate parliaments, but was excluded from the latter.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 73; Everitt, Kent, 130, 155, 158, 234, 239, 242, 295; Vis. Kent, 1663-68, 11.
Armies: Kent
Beard, Richard Richard Beard
Lieutenant-Colonel. Lieutenant-Colonel of dragoons in Gloucestershire, referred to in a reference dated 9 Feb. 1643 in SP28/298, which also refers to Captain Beard. He then became as sergeant-major in one of the three Gloucestershire regts. raised under Sir William Waller’s commission early in 1643; as such he received payments 14 Apr.-21 June 1643. Possibly a kinsman (or even, though if so, the rather elderly) Richard Beard, alderman of Gloucester whose daughter married William Capell.
References: SP28/298.
Armies: Gloucestershire; Waller
Beaumont, Henry Henry Beaumont
In Dec. 1644, lieutenant in Captain Whitehead’s company in Sir Samuel Luke’s Newport Pagnell-based regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 95.
Armies: Bedfordshire
Beaumont, Richard Richard Beaumont
Having served as captain of foot in spring 1644, in June 1644 he became captain in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of dragoons in the Eastern Association Army. He became a captain in Fairfax’s New Model Army regiment of foot in spring 1645 but seems to have left the regiment a few months later. He was one of the two New Model captains arrested in Newport Pagnell for allegedly unruly preaching by Sir Samuel Luke during the closing weeks of his governorship there in June 1645.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.59; Holmes, Eastern Association, 201-2; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 43, 49, 55, 65; Luke Letter Books, nos. 735, 737, 754, 755, 757, 759, 1411. 1421. 1612. 1614.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
Beckett [Beckit], George George Beckett [Beckit]
Son of George Beckett of Soo [?Sound], Cheshire, a yeoman.
Beckett was a captain in Cheshire wounded at Shocklach in Sept. 1644. He died of his wounds at Nantwich on 17 Nov. 1644, and was 'seemlye buryed the nexte daye in the Heighe Chauncell, neere the Communyon Table’ (Civil war in Cheshire, 153).
References: Civil war in Cheshire, 153.
Armies: Cheshire
Beckett, William William Beckett
Identified by a warrant from Apr. 1644 as a lieutenant in Cheshire.
References: TNA, SP28/225, f. 360.
Armies: Cheshire
Beckwith, Anthony Anthony Beckwith
Of Dacxre-with-Beverley, Yorkshire (West Riding). A captain in Yorkshire.
References: Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 117 [citing TNA, SP24/2/349].
Armies: Yorkshire
Beckwith, Arthur Arthur Beckwith (1615-1642)
Of Aldborough, Yorkshire (East Riding). Baptised 16 Aug. 1615, the second son of Roger Beckwith of Aldborough (died 1634/35). He married Mary, daughter of Sir Marmaduke Wyvill of Burton Constable. Has a monumental inscription at Masham, Yorkshire.
Beckwith was a parliamentary captain killed in 1642.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 370; Vis. Yorks., 2, 110-1: Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 102.
Armies: Yorkshire
Beckwith, Matthew Matthew Beckwith (baptised 1616, died 1679)
Of Tanfield, Yorkshire (North Riding), and Sleningford, Ripon, Yorkshire (West Riding). A gentleman, baptised 24 Aug. 1616, buried 28 Dec. 1679. The third son of Roger Beckwith of Aldborough (died 1634/5), younger brother of Arthur Beckwith and brother-in-law of John Anlaby. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Buck of Filey, Yorkshire.
By Dec. 1642 Beckwith was a captain in Yorkshire, probably of dragoons. He served in the Fairfaxes’ Northern Army, probably in the dragoon regiment of Sir William Constable/Sir William Fairfax/Thomas Morgan. In June 1645 Beckwith was appointed to the North Riding committee of the Northern Association.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 370; Vis. Yorks., 2, 110, 112; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 96.
Armies: Yorkshire; Northern Army (Fairfax)
Bedealls, Thomas Thomas Bedealls
Lieutenant in the regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army commanded by Lord Oliver St John and then Thomas Essex in 1642-3.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 31.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bedel, - - Bedel
A captain in Waller’s Army, possibly in Sir Arthur Hesilrige’s/James Holborne’s regiment of foot. He was captured by the royalist garrison soldiers at Arundel Castle on 20 Dec. 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 59.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Bedford, - - Bedford
Lieutenant. 4 Jan. 1649, when all the commissioned officers in the new-raised companies in Weymouth and Portland were to be reduced, Bedford (along with Captain Richard Channing and Ensign Godfry).
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 489-90.
Armies: Dorset
Bedford, Stephen Stephen Bedford
Ensign.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 387.
Armies: Dorset
Bee, Robert Robert Bee
Began his Eastern Association career as lieutenant and then captain in Lord Willoughby’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army, which seems to have been broken up in spring 1644, then or later transferring as captain to Thomas Rainsborough’s regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.90, 111.
Armies: Eastern Association
Beech, - - Beech
Captain in the Green (Cripplegate) regiment, London Auxiliaries (Colonel William Webb) in Oct. 1646.
References: Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 11.
Armies: London
Beecher [Beacher], Oliver Oliver Beecher [Beacher]
Major in Edward Cooke’s regiment of foot, which existed from Aug. 1643 to May 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 29.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Beecher, Oliver Oliver Beecher
Major. He was a captain in Oliver St. John’s, later Thomas Essex’s regiment of foot, which was left in garrison at Worcester during the Edgehill campaign and fell back on Gloucester in late Nov. In Dec. it went to occupy Bristol. In Apr. 1643 he was paid £2 10s in the Gloucester accounts. By summer 1643 he was major in Sir Robert Cooke’s regiment of foot.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6.648-51, 618.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Beere, John John Beere
Master of the Ordnance, Weymouth and Melcombe Regis garrison, Jan. 1647.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 161-2.
Armies: Dorset
Beeston, - - Beeston
Captain in Nathaniel Whetham’s Northampton-based regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 165; Luke Letter Books, nos. 1043, 1120.
Armies: Northamptonshire
Beeston, Hugh Hugh Beeston
Lieutenant in Lord Mandeville’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 36.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Behre, Hans Hans Behre
Born probably Germany sometime in the early seventeenth century, but his parentage, background and upbringing are largely unknown, though he claimed to have fought in the Swedish army and was in the Spanish army in the Thirty Years War. At some stage, by summer 1643, but probably not much earlier, commissioned by the earl of Essex as a colonel of horse and his regiment reputedly included many ill-disciplined European troops. The regiment was reported in 1644 by a parliamentarian witness as ‘all Dutchmen’, and by a royalist as ‘most of them Dutch’ (Stoyle, Soldiers and strangers, 95, 246); in Nov. 1643 a London newsletter singled out the outrages committed by Behre’s troopers in and near Harrow–on-the-Hill and the regiment became notorious, reportedly in ‘disorder and outrage’, Behre’s and John Dalbier’s men ‘whoe were many of them Dutch and Walloones) [are] the most exorbitant of all’ (Stoyle, Strangers and soldiers, 105-6 [citing Whitaker, f. 193]).
In autumn 1643 Essex had also made him Commissary General of the Horse. In Dec. 1643 he and part of his regiment were sent to reinforce Waller and as such took part in the siege of Arundel. In spring 1644 he and at least part of his regiment were ordered to join the earl of Denbigh in supporting Gloucester, though Behre seems to have fallen out with Denbigh; indeed, around the same time he was involved in a bitter dispute with John Middleton, with accusations and counter-accusations in print (Declaration of Commissary Generall Hans Behr, countered by There Hath Bin a Paper). He rejoined Essex in summer 1644, his regiment at its muster comprising 5 troops and 371 troopers, and so took part in the doomed march into the South West, cutting his way out of Cornwall with most of the horse. In autumn 1644 he left England and returned to the continent; thus he was probably not present at, and no longer in command of his regiment when it fought in, the second battle of Newbury. Without him, his regiment became increasingly fragmented and mutinous; in early 1645 most of its foreign troops were dismissed and the remaining English troops sent West to support Massey where they were absorbed into his regiment of horse.
References: Oxford DNB; TNA, SP28/9/65, SP28/12/328; Symonds, Diary, 73; Stoyle, Soldiers and strangers, 88-90, 95-6, 102, 105-7, 119-20, 126-7, 131, 138, 201, 213-4; CSPD, 1644, 97.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller (Southern Association)
Belks, Michael Michael Belks
Captain in a Kent Trained Band regiment, possibly the St Augustine Lathe regiment of volunteers; a muster survives for his company on 2 Jan. 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 77.
Armies: Kent
Bell, - - Bell
Cornet in Captain Thistlethwaite’s troop in Richard Norton’s regiment of horse by 4 Nov. 1643.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 103.
Armies: Hampshire; Waller (Southern Association)
Bell, Arthur Arthur Bell
Ensign in Sir Thomas Hoogan’s company in Sir John Palgrave’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.77.
Armies: Eastern Association
Bellamy, Edward Edward Bellamy
In 1643 Bellamy was a fishmonger in Thames Street near London Bridge (BL, Harl. 986, p. 28, which also has underlined – almost certainly to mean an erasure – ‘a Vintner at the Rose on Fleet bridge’).
Bellamy was admitted to the Company of the Artillery Garden (now the Honourable Artillery Company), 10 July 1627.
Bellamy was captain-lieutenant of the Colonel’s company in the Blue regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Thomas Adams) in summer 1642. First captain of the same Blue regiment in Sept. 1643. In 1647 he was approved as lieutenant-colonel of the same Blue regiment, London Trained Bands by the ‘Presbyterian’ militia committee.
Bellamy was a common councilman from 1639 to at least 1647; a militant figure in 1642 and a leading Presbyterian by 1647, when he sat on the militia committee.
References: Overton 1642; Thrale 1642; BL, Harl. 986, p. 28; Nagel, ‘London militia’, 318; Lindley, Popular politics, 141, 143, 375, 376; Cardew-Rendle.
Armies: London
Bellamy, John John Bellamy
Bellamy was made free of the Stationers’ Company in 1620. A bookseller and publisher, in 1644 he was co-publisher of Thomas Edwards’s attack on Independency, Antapologia.
Bellamy was elected common councilman in Cornhill Ward in Dec. 1642, and was an active committeeman in the City, joining the militia committee in 1645. Despite having been a member of Henry Jacob’s semi-separatist congregation in his younger years, he became a leading figure in the City’s Presbyterianism.
Bellamy was admitted to the Company of the Artillery Garden (now the Honourable Artillery Company), 15 Apr. 1628.
He was a lieutenant-colonel, probably of the White regiment, London Auxiliaries, on 11 Nov. 1644: his company was drawn from the first precinct of Dowgate Ward. He was colonel of the White regiment, London Auxiliaries, on 22 Oct. 1646.
References: TNA, SP28/121A, ff. 677Ar.-682Bv.; Nagel, ‘London militia’, 517; Marshall, Essex funeral, 11; Lindley, Popular politics, 191, 193-5, 212, 215, 230, 368; D.F. McKenzie, Stationers’ Company apprentices, 1605-1640 (1961), 47;
Cardew-Rendle.
Armies: London
Bellamy, Joseph Joseph Bellamy
Lieutenant in Robert Colemore’s company in John Barker’s/Thomas Willoughby’s regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 23.
Armies: Warwickshire
Bellfield, Anthony Anthony Bellfield
Of Studham, Hertfordshire, a captain in one of the militia-based regiments of foot in Hertfordshire.
References: A. Thompson, The Impact of the First Civil War on Hertfordshire, 1642-47 (2007), xxxiv.
Armies: Hertfordshire
Bellingham, James James Bellingham (1621-1650)
Of Levens, Westmorland. Son of Sir Henry Bellingham of Helsington and Over Levens (c. 1594-1650), first baronet, and his wife Dorothy, sister of Sir Matthew Boynton of Barmston, knight. Sir Henry was MP for Westmorland in 1625 and 1626, and in the Short and Long Parliaments. After first attempting to remain neutral, Sir Henry became a royalist, in 1644 sitting in the Oxford Parliament and later commanding a regiment against the Scots in the wake of Marston Moor. He compounded for his delinquency in 1646 and took the Covenant, but in 1648 joined the royalists when Sir Marmaduke Langdale’s force entered Westmorland (because, he later claimed, otherwise his home would have been plundered) and had to compound again.
James Bellingham through his mother was first cousin to the parliamentarian officers Francis and Matthew Boynton. He married the daughter and coheir of Sir Henry Willoughby, knight, of Risley, Derbyshire.
Bellingham was commissioned by parliament as a colonel of foot on 1 May 1644, and in Sept. raised a troop of horse. For much of 1644 he was based in Rystone, Yorkshire (West Riding) and collected taxes in Kirkby Malhamdale. In 1645 he was appointed to Westmorland and Northern Association committees, and relinquished his military positions on 12 June. He was elected as the Recruiter MP for Westmorland on 1 Jan. 1646, and, according to Underdown, was secluded at Pride’s Purge. However, in May 1648 James, like his father, was compounding for his delinquency during the second civil war, as a member of the Commons having deserted and taken up arms for the king. James Bellingham died on 26 Oct. 1650 having outlived his father by a few days.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 370; HoP: The Commons, 1604-1629, 3, 194; Underdown, Pride’s Purge, 366-7; CCC, 2, 1136-7; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming).
Armies: Westmorland; Northern Army (Fairfax)
Benbow, John John Benbow
Probably of the Benbow family of Newport and Bolas, Shropshire. As a lieutenant of Shropshire horse, he led 30 dismounted troopers at the taking of Shrewsbury in Feb. 1645. Probably the Captain ‘Benby’ at the battle of Stokesay on 8 June 1645 and the Captain ‘Bowe’ captured at High Ercall on 5 July 1645.
References: A True and Full Relation of the manner of the Taking of the Towne and Castle of Shrewsbury (1645); Perfect Passages, 26 June 1645; BL, Harl. Ms., 6852, f. 274.
Armies: Shropshire
Benbricke, - - Benbricke
Ensign in Sir Richard Onslow’s regiment of foot (Surrey auxiliaries) by 24 Feb. 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 107.
Armies: Surrey; Waller (Southern Association)
Benfield, Anthony Anthony Benfield
Ensign in Henry Slade’s company in Godfrey Bosvile’s Warwick-based regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 31.
Armies: Warwickshire; Waller
Bennet, - -Bennet
In 1642 a captain in Colonel Denzil Holles’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army.
In the absence of a forename, he may instead have been the Captain Richard Beaton with Holles’s regiment at its founding in July 1642.
References: Peacock, Army Lists, 39.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bennet, - Bennet
Captain. An officer in Nathaniel Fiennes’s regiment of foot in 1643.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6.608-9.
Armies: Bristol
Bennet, John John Bennet
Captain, probably in Sir William Waller’s regiment of dragoons by Sept. 1643.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 146.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Bennet, William William Bennet
At its muster in Nov. 1643 and still in the regiment in summer 1644, captain in Sir Thomas Barrington’s regiment of foot formed from the Essex militia, part of the Eastern Association Army that contributed to the siege of Reading in spring 1643, the siege of Greenland House in summer 1644 and probably to some other actions in which the army was involved.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.32.
Armies: Eastern Association
Bennett, Robert Robert Bennett (1605-1683)
Captain. Eldest son of Richard Bennett, esquire, of Hexworthy and Mary, daughter of Oliver Clobery of Bradstone, Devon. Commissioned to command a Cornish Trained Band company, 22 Aug. 1642, and went to Launceston. However, in July he had been invited to command the Devon Trained Band company of his choice and on 12 Aug. he was summoned to appear at Great Torrington with his Devon company. His command in Cornwall was brief as thereafter he was an officer in Devon forces.
Captain, Sir John Bampfylde’s Devon regiment of foot, c. Nov. 1642-Jan. 1643; Colonel, regiment of foot, parliamentarian forces in Devon, July-Sept. 1644; treasurer, commissioner and muster-master of Western (Massey’s) Brigade, 1 May 1645-1 May 1647; colonel of foot, 6 July 1646-c.1649; governor St Michael’s Mount and Dennis Fort, 3 Aug. 1647-12 Mar. 1660; Captain Cornish militia, 14 Feb. 1650; colonel, regiment of foot, 14 June 1650-2 Oct. 1651; captain of horse, 1 Sept. 1659-Jan. 1660. He became significant in Cornwall in the later stages of the first civil war, taking the surrender of Pendennis Castle on 15 Aug. 1646, becoming governor of St Michael’s Mount and an important local boss for parliament and suppressing the royalist rising in Cornwall during the second civil war. MP for West Looe 1651, and for Cornwall 1653, 1654, 1659.
References: Oxford DNB;Peachey and Turton, 3.308-9, 323-5; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660, (forthcoming).
Armies: Cornwall; Devon; Massey’s Brigade
Bennett, William [?] [?]William Bennett
In summer 1642 he became a captain in Holles’s short-lived regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army. Like most of his fellow-officers and the regiment as a whole, little is heard of him after their shattering defeat at Brentford in Nov. 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 37.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Benson, - - Benson
Captain of one of two companies sent by Barnstaple in Jan. 1643 to relieve Plymouth, and which fought at Modbury (21 Feb. 1643).
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 3. 331, 333; Cotton, Barnstaple, 125.
Armies: Devon
Benson, Richard Richard Benson
Fifth Captain, for firelocks, in William Bampfield’s regiment of foot, raised for Lord Wharton’s Army for Ireland in 1642. Instead, served as captain in William Bampfield’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 40.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Berksley, Henry Henry Berksley
Ensign in Cholmley’s probably short-lived regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642-3.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 36-7.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bernard, Francis Francis Bernard
By the beginning of 1644, Cornet in Wells’s troop in William Purefoy’s regiment of horse. He was still there in summer 1645, shortly before the regiment was broken up.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 121.
Armies: Warwickshire
Bernard, John John Bernard
Captain in Colonel John Fiennes’s regiment of horse in Oxfordshire, summer 1644-summer 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 54.
Armies: Oxfordshire
Bernard, Theo. Theo. Bernard
Cornet in Edmund Harvey’s regiment of London horse, at least from Dec. 1643 to May 1644, most probably in the Colonel’s own troop, though possibly in that late of Captain John Juxon.
References: TNA, SP28/131, Part 7, ff. 3r, 17v.
Armies: London
Berrow, John John Berrow
Of Awre, Gloucestershire. Colonel. Colonel of a Gloucestershire regiment of foot raised in the Forest of Dean. His sergeant-major served from 1 Nov. 1642. On 12 Dec. the mayor of Gloucester paid out about £1,000 for raising the regiment. In mid-Feb. 1643 the regiment, which had ‘made a kind of loose garrison for the defence of the forrest in an open towne’ at Coleford, were beaten back by the Welsh royalists, who reportedly took heavy losses in the fight. Berrow’s regiment lost their lieutenant-colonel and some inferior officers, whilst some 40 privates were taken prisoner. In Sept. 1643 Berrow received a further commission to raise a regiment of foot in the Forest.
In 1646 Berrow was made governor of Berkeley Castle at the behest of Lord Berkeley.
One of the ‘second-rank gentlemen with a proven track record’ appointed to the Gloucestershire County Committee in the late 1640s (Warmington, Glos. 91). He was accused as one of a group of profiteers who profited from spoiling ship timber in the Forest of Dean in the late 1640s. In 1659 Berrow took part in Massey’s royalist rising in the county.
For the Berrow family, see Vis. Glos., 1623, 18-20.
References: Vis. Glos., 1623, 18-20; Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6.615; Warmington, Glos.,42-4, 47, 79, 91, 159-60, 193.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Berry, Edward Edward Berry
In 1642 listed as captain of a troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 51.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Berry, James James Berry (died 1691)
His birth, family background and upbringing are obscure. By the late 1630s he was a clerk in the West Midlands ironworks. A godly colleague of Richard Baxter.
In 1643-4 he was captain-lieutenant in Oliver Cromwell’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army. He went on to serve in the New Model Army, first as a captain in Fairfax’s regiment, then as major in Twistleton’s regiment and, from 1651, colonel of his own New Model horse regiment; he fought at the battle of Preston, in Scotland and possibly with Cromwell in Ireland. By the early 1650s he had acquired property in Lincoln,
He served as one of Cromwell’s major-generals, 1655-7, overseeing Wales and the Marches. He sat in the second Protectorate parliament and in the Other House. He was arrested at the Restoration and imprisoned in Scarborough Castle. After his release in the early 1670s, he seems to have become a market gardener in Stoke Newington.
References: Oxford DNB; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming).
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
Best, Thomas Thomas Best
Lieutenant in Sir William Constable’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 42.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Beswicke, - - Beswicke
A captain in the Derbyshire regiment of horse in early 1645. Unlike most of the other captains in this regiment, who on 19 Mar. 1645 complained about how Sir John Gell, their nominal commander, had persuaded troopers of captains Watson and Swetnam to desert and had formed a troop for these runaways, providing a captain for them, Berwicke remained loyal to Gell and may have been earmarked by him as commander of the troop of deserters: ‘This is one Beswicke, a man infamous in Cheshire, his debauched demeanour is so well known in these parts that we shall but diminish truth in undertaking to blazon him’. Dore suggests that he may be the Captain John Bexwicke who was given the freedom of Liverpool on 22 July 1643 (when the Lancashire parliamentarians were establishing their hold on the town).
References: Dore, Brereton Letter Books, 1.96 (for quotation), 527.
Armies: Derbyshire
Beswicke [Bexwicke], John John Beswicke [Bexwicke]
Of Failsworth, Manchester, a gentleman, in 1642 and 1643 probably constable of Droylsden, Lancashire.
Beswicke was a troop captain in Sir Thomas Stanley’s regiment of Lancashire horse; his troop was later commanded by Captain Edward Mosley. The merchant and charitable benefactor Humphrey Chetham spent £66 2s 6d on furnishing Beswicke's troop, levied on his estate at Clayton, Manchester. Beswicke probably served with the Manchester forces that took Liverpool in summer 1643; on 22 July, as the parliamentarians were strengthening their hold on the town, he was made a freeman of Liverpool. He may have been ‘one Beswicke’, condemned in Mar. 1645 by captains of the Derbyshire horse then present at the siege of Chester, as ‘a man infamous in Cheshire. His debauched demeanour is so well known in these parts that we shall but diminish truth in undertaking to blazon him’ (Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 96). The Derbyshire officers complained that their colonel, Sir John Gell, with whom they were at odds, had persuaded troopers under captains Watson and Swetnam to desert, and had formed a troop for the runaways under Beswicke’s command.
In 1651 Beswicke changed sides and was an officer in the earl of Derby’s royalist army in Lancashire, and so was sequestered in 1653.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 96, 527-8.
Armies: Lancashire
Bethal [Bethel], Christopher Christopher Bethal [Bethel]
Captain of a troop in Oliver Cromwell’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army from the raising of the troop in spring 1644 until its absorption into the New Model Army in spring 1645, whereupon he became major in Colonel Edward Whalley’s regiment of horse. Killed at the siege of Bristol in Sept. 1645.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.22; Holmes, Eastern Association, 176, 201; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 53, 63.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
Bethell, Hugh Hugh Bethell (baptised 1615, died 1679)
Of Rise in Holderness, Yorkshire (East Riding). Bethell was baptised 2 Oct. 1615, the eldest son of Hugh Bethell of Rise (baptised 1589, buried 1659) and his wife Mary Johnson (buried 1648). He married Mary, daughter and coheir of Thomas Mitchelbourne of Carleton, Yorkshire, in Jan. 1661. Hugh's brothers John and Christopher also fought for parliament, (the latter killed in 1645 at the storming of Bristol). His kin included the Bethells of Alne, Yorkshire (North Riding) (including the royalist Sir Walter Bethell and his son the parliamentarian Captain Walter Bethell and the republican Whig Slingsby Bethel, for whom see Oxford DNB).
In Nov. 1642 Hugh Bethell lent Lord Fairfax 215 ounces of plate. Early in 1643 he was a captain of foot in the Hull garrison, then briefly captain-lieutenant to Francis Boynton’s troop, which he took into Lincolnshire accompanying Captain John Hotham. By 9 June 1643 Bethell was captain in Lord Willoughby’s regiment of horse, and that autumn transferred as captain into Sir Thomas Fairfax’s regiment. By year end he was major in Sir William Constable’s regiment of horse in the East Riding.
In Apr. 1644 Bethell became colonel of a regiment of horse of six troops, which he led at the battle of Selby that month. In May he helped suppress royalists in County Durham, fought and was wounded at Marston Moor, and in the autumn was also wounded at Scarborough. Bethell served at the siege of Pontefract and in the pursuit of Sir Marmaduke Langdale’s Northern horse to Leicester.
In Mar. 1645 he joined Sir William Brereton in besieging Chester, but had returned to Pontefract by mid-Apr. due to logistical problems in Cheshire. Bethell's regiment was retained in the re-organised Northern Association Army, and he was named on the East Riding committee of the Northern Association. At the battle of Rowton Heath on 24 Sept. 1645 Bethell led his regiment in the van of Poyntz’s army and was blinded in one eye. In 1646 he was at the surrender of Newark. Bethell's regiment was disbanded in 1649 and drafted into Lambert’s horse.
From c. 1649 to 1651 Bethell was governor of Scarborough Castle; was high sheriff of Yorkshire for 1652-3; was a commissioner for scandalous ministers for the East Riding and Hull; and was a JP for the East Riding from 1649 to 1676, and for Beverley in 1657. Bethell was the East Riding MP in the first and second Protectorate Parliaments, and in 1658 was knighted by Richard Cromwell. He joined in Fairfax’s rising at the turn of 1659-60. Monck reinstated Bethell as colonel of Lambert’s regiment of horse, recommending him as ‘a person of great interest in the northerne parts, and often in the time of the Protector Oliver was offred commission but refused it, and the regiment was much of it his before Lambert had it, and hee is of unquestionable courage and faithfullnes, which hee eminently testified in the late interrupcion by rasing the county for yow’ (Firth and Davies, RegimentalHistory, 1, 261). When Lambert escaped from the Tower of London in Apr. 1660 Bethell forestalled a rising in York by arresting potential ringleaders. He was MP for Hedon in the parliaments of 1660, 1661-79 and in the first Exclusion Parliament. He was listed as a court dependant in 1664, but by 1679 was a member of the Green Ribbon Club and reckoned by Shafestbury as ‘worthy’. He was buried on 6 Oct. 1679.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 371; Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 517-21 and passim; Vis. Yorks., 3, 471; Firth and Davies, RegimentalHistory, 1, 261-3; HoP: The Commons, 1660-1690, 1.648; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming); Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 101.
Armies: Yorkshire; Northern Army (Fairfax); Northern Army (Poyntz)
Bethell, John John Bethell (baptised 1620, died 1651/2)
Of Skirlaugh township, Swine parish, Yorkshire (East Riding), a gentleman. Third son of Hugh Bethell of Rise and younger brother of Hugh Bethell and Christopher Bethell. His first wife (of two) was Mary, daughter of the royalist Richard Hildyard of Ottringham.
John was probably the Lieutenant Bethell serving in Hull in autumn 1642. In Apr. 1644 he became major in his brother Hugh's regiment of horse and held the commission for some time.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 370-1; Vis. Yorks., 3, 471-2; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 102.
Armies: Yorkshire
Bethell, Walter Walter Bethell (1615/1617-1686)
Of Heslington and Ellerton, Yorkshire (East Riding), a gentleman Third son of Sir Walter Bethell of Alne, North Riding, esquire (died 1623) and his wife Mary, daughter of Sir Henry Slingsby of Scriven. Walter’s maternal uncle, who acted much like a guardian to his nephews after their father’s death, was the royalist Sir Henry Slingsby, baronet (1602-58). Walter’s younger brother was Slingsby Bethel, the future republican and radical Whig. Walter was related to the parliamentarian Bethells of the East Riding.
By Oct. 1643 a captain of horse at Hull, where he distinguished himself; Bethell's troop also took part in the attack on Bridlington in Jan. 1644. That Apr. he joined Hugh Bethell’s regiment of horse as a captain, and remained until June 1645. He later joined the New Model Army, and in 1646 was a captain in Colonel John Butler’s regiment of horse. In Apr. 1647 he was signatory to the regiment's petition protesting against Butler's proposal to persuade his men to volunteer for Ireland, leaving the question of their arrears to parliament. When Butler left the army in June 1647 Bethell was promoted to major under the regiment’s new Colonel Thomas Horton. In May 1648 Bethell commanded the parliamentarian right wing at the battle of St Fagan’s. In Aug. 1649 Bethell resigned and about half the regiment disbanded rather than be posted to Ireland. In Feb. 1660 Walter became a captain in his kinsman Hugh Bethell’s regiment of horse (late Lambert’s).
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 371; Vis. Yorks., 3, 133; Firth and Davies, RegimentalHistory,1, 83-6, 262; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 99.
Armies: Yorkshire; New Model Army
Betsworth, Benjamin Benjamin Betsworth
Ensign in Thomas Grantham’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 41.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bettesworth, Benjamin Benjamin Bettesworth
Ensign in Thomas Grantham’s regiment of foot in Essex’s Army in 1642. Lieutenant in Captain Henry Jervoise’s company in the Portsmouth garrison regiment of foot of William Jephson by 15 May 1645.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 41;Spring, Waller’s army, 72.
Armies: Essex; Hampshire
Bettesworth, Thomas Thomas Bettesworth
Captain in Richard Norton’s horse regiment in 1643 and in autumn 1644 took part in the siege of Winchester and the second battle of Newbury. He later served under Massey in the Western Association and as a colonel in the Hampshire Trained Bands.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 110.
Armies: Hampshire;
Waller; Waller (Southern Association);
Massey Brigade
Betton, John John Betton
An officer in Thomas Mytton’s Oswestry-based forces at the taking of Shrewsbury in Feb. 1645. As a Shrewsbury alderman, in 1647 he was appointed captain of a company in the town’s militia.
References: Colonell Mitton’s Reply to Lieutenant Colonell Reinking’s Relation of the taking of Shrewbury (1645); National Library of Wales, Aston Hall estate records, DI, Ms. 2469.
Armies: Shropshire
Bettridge, Robert Robert Bettridge
Captain in the earl of Essex’s own regiment of foot in 1642 in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 25.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Beurey, - - Beurey
Captain-Lieutenant in Lord Brooke’s Association Army, mentioned in a later examination of Rowland Wilson, the army’s treasurer, where ‘Berry’ is struck out and corrected to Beurey.
References: TNA, SP28/253B.
Armies: Lord Brooke
Bexwick, Thomas Thomas Bexwick
Possibly a captain of a troop of horse in the Lancashire regiment of Sir Thomas Stanley. However, because there may be a clerical error in the sources, he may in fact have been John Bexwicke.
References: TNA, E121/5/7.
Armies: Lancashire
Bexwicke, John John Bexwicke
Captain of a troop of Lancashire horse that passed to Captain Edward Mosley. However, because there may be a clerical error in the sources, he may in fact have been Thomas Bexwick. If he is correctly John, then he may have been the same John Bexwick, constable of Droylsden parish, Manchester, in 1642 and 1643.
References: Raines and Newton, Chetham, 1, 145, 146.
Armies: Lancashire
Bidgood, Andrew Andrew Bidgood
Bidgood was admitted to the Company of the Artillery Garden (now the Honourable Artillery Company), 14 July 1635.
Lieutenant in the Blue regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Thomas Adams) in summer 1642.
References: Thrale 1642; Cardew-Rendle.
Armies: London
Billiard, Thomas Thomas Billiard
In 1642 listed as cornet in Edward Berry’s troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 51.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Billiers, Julius Julius Billiers
Ensign in the Colonel’s company in John Barker’s/Thomas Willoughby’s regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 22.
Armies: Warwickshire
Billingsley, Henry Henry Billingsley
At its formation in late summer 1642 lieutenant-colonel of Holles’s short-lived regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army. In fact, he may have been removed and superseded even before the regiment saw much action that autumn.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 37.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Billopps, Christopher Christopher Billopps
A maltster of Beverley, Yorkshire (East Riding), an alderman and the mayor in 1644-5.
By Jan. 1643 Billopps was a captain in the Hull garrison, his commission reaffirmed in July 1643 as a result of having sided with the Hothams against Oliver Cromwell.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 371.
Armies: Yorkshire
Billopps, Robert Robert Billopps
Of Hull, Yorkshire (East Riding). A parliamentary captain in Yorkshire.
References: Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 90 [citing TNA, SP23/99/299-319].
Armies: Yorkshire
Bingham, John John Bingham (1610-1675)
Colonel and governor of Poole, and Feb. 1646, with a force of 400 men, took Corfe Castle (by June 1647 – and possibly well before – he had been replaced at Poole by William Skutt and then by John Rede. In 1651 the townsmen of Poole, attacking Rede, recalled how Bingham ‘possessed the town when all the country round was lost to Parliament’.
James Heane records that he was captain in Bingham’s regiment of foot, 7 Sept. 1643-27 Dec. 1643, whilst Mr Sprinte that he served under Colonel Bingham as ensign in the Poole garrison, 1 Aug. 1643-late June 1645. William Every states that he was quartermaster in a troop of horse under Bingham’s command. Presumably John Bingham of Quarleston (1610-1675), MP for Shaftesbury, Nov. 1645-1653; MP for Dorset, 1653, 1654, 1656, 1659. A leading figure on the Dorset committee, late 1648 onwards.
References: Bayley, Civil War in Dorset, 296-303, 327, 343; Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 73, 277-8; Dorset Standing Committee, 123-4; Pride’s Purge, 33, 49, 308; Vis. Dorset, 1677, 3.
Armies: Dorset
Bingley, Richard Richard Bingley
In 1642 is listed as cornet in the earl of Stamford’s troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 48.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Birbeck, Richard Richard Birbeck
Probably from County Durham.
By Sept. 1644 a captain in Robert Lilburne’s regiment of horse, raised in County Durham in 1644-5. Birbeck was no longer with the regiment when Lilburne resumed command in 1647/8.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’; 371; Firth and Davies, RegimentalHistory, 1, 264; Hill and Watkinson, major Sanderson’s war, 27-9.
Armies: County Durham; Northern Army (Fairfax)
Birch, John John Birch (1615-91)
Second, but eldest surviving, son and heir of Samuel Birch (died in or after 1648) of Ardwick Manor, near Manchester, and Mary (died 1659/60), daughter of Ralph Smith of Doblane House, Lancashire. Elder brother of Samuel Birch.
By 1633 Birch was a Bristol wine merchant, and in 1642 he commanded a company of volunteers active in the defence of the city in 1643 (helping foil a royalist plot). With the fall of the city, he sold up and raised a regiment of foot as lieutenant-colonel to Sir Arthur Hesilrige in Waller’s army, and fought with distinction at Alton and Arundel Castle in Dec. 1643 (he was badly wounded at the latter) and in 1644 at Alresford, the siege of Winchester, and at Cropredy. Hesilrige converted the regiment into a dragoon regiment and Birch was commissioned colonel of a Kentish regiment. Waller commanded the regiment to march to Weymouth in Sept. 1644, but following Essex’s defeat Birch was ordered to take it to Plymouth, which had been stripped of men for Essex’s march into the west. He led his men in a strong counter-assault against two outworks captured by the royalists in the night in Jan. 1645. With Fairfax’s advance into the west his regiment marched from Plymouth and helped the New Model Army to take Bridgwater and Bath. He was appointed governor of Bath, then Bristol. After he took Hereford on 18 Dec. 1645, he was appointed governor there. In summer 1646 he besieged Goodrich and Raglan Castles. In 1647 his regiment mutinied when he planned to send it to Ireland and he and his brother (and major) Samuel Birch were briefly imprisoned by his men.
Shortly after he ceased his military command. Oxford DNB provides an account of his career in Herefordshire and Westminster from the late 1640s through to beyond the Revolution of 1688.
MP for Leominster, 11 Sept. 1646-6 Dec.1648 (secluded at Pride’s Purge), 1654-55, 1656-58, 1659, 1660; MP for Penryn, 1661-Jan. 1679; MP for Weobley, Mar. 1679-Mar. 1681; MP for Weobley, 1689-10 May 1691.
Birch died 10 May 1691.
References: Oxford DNB; Military Memoir of Colonel John Birch, eds. J. and T.W. Webb, Camden Society, new ser., vol. 7 (1873); History of Parliament: the Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming); History of Parliament: The Commons, 1660-1690, 1.653-60; History of Parliament, The Commons, 1690-1715, 2.216-8
Armies: Bristol; Waller (Southern Association); Devon; Herefordshire
Birch, John John Birch (1615-1691)
Born a younger but became the eldest surviving son and heir of Samuel Birch of Ardwick Manor, near Manchester, a cadet branch of a Lancashire gentry family. Elder brother of Samuel Birch.
By the 1630s he was a wine merchant working in Bristol. From the outbreak of the civil war he was captain in a unit of Bristol volunteers and as such probably took part in its defence when it was stormed. He left Bristol and lost much of his property when the town fell to the king in summer 1643. Later that summer he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel in Sir Arthur Hesilrige’s regiment of foot, and was in effect commander of the regiment in Heselrige’s absence; as such, he saw action at Alton, Arundel Castle (where he was badly wounded) and elsewhere during winter 1643-4. He recovered to fight at the battles of Cheriton and Cropredy Bridge in spring and summer 1644. In July he was promoted to colonel and given command of a new regiment of foot to be raised in Kent. Birch and his new regiment campaigned under Waller in the West and he was sent to Plymouth by boat to reinforce the beleaguered parliamentarian garrison, where his men remained until spring or summer 1645. Part or all of the regiment then supported the New Model Army campaign in the West, including the capture of Bridgwater and Bristol; in due course Birch was appointed governor of Bristol and Bath. In autumn 1645 Birch led part of his regiment to campaign in the southern Marches, the high point of which was his daring capture of Hereford mid-winter and amidst heavy snow; he was appointed governor of Hereford Castle. He took part in the battle of Stow in Mar. 1646 and then helped to mop up other Marcher strongholds, such as Raglan, Goodrich and Ludlow.
In the mid-1640s he acquired a property in Herefordshire – his enemies accused him of corruption and greed – and was soon engaged in a local power struggle with the Harley family. Returned as an MP to the Long Parliament around the same time, he effectively left the army in the later 1640s and focused on building up his position within Herefordshire, acquiring more property and local offices. He was secluded and imprisoned at Pride’s Purge and elected to but excluded from the second Protectorate Parliament. He was out of favour and under suspicion of royalist leanings during the 1650s, though he retained local office and was elected to and active in the third Protectorate parliament. He returned to favour and higher office at the Restoration and sat in most parliaments of the Restoration era, down to his death.
His civil war military career can be reconstructed in part from the later and rather self-serving and laudatory biographical sketch which was written by his secretary but which was evidently heavily dependent upon Birch’s own account, memories and perspectives.
References: Oxford DNB.
Armies: Waller; Waller (Southern Association)
Birch, Samuel Samuel Birch (baptised 1621, died 1680)
A younger son of Samuel Birch (died in or after 1648) of Ardwick Manor, Manchester, and Mary (died 1659/60), daughter of Ralph Smith of Doblane House, Lancashire His elder brother was John Birch, parliamentarian army officer and later Whig politician (for whom see Oxford DNB).
Samuel was captain of a company of foot in Colonel Assheton’s Lancashire regiment (although uncertain under which Colonel Assheton). References to a Major Burch in Colonel Assheton’s regiment probably refer to Samuel's cousin Thomas Birch. In May 1648 Samuel was signatory to the Presbyterian, anti-New Model Army ‘Engagement or Declaration of the Officers and Souldiers of the County Palatine of Lancaster’. He later relinquished his commission: ‘when he found things were run to extremity, he quitted it and returned to Oxford’ (where he had matriculated from Brasenose College in Mar. 1637). He was created MA from St Mary Hall and made chaplain of Corpus Christi College in 1655. In 1658 he was appointed to second portion of Bampton vicarage, Oxfordshire. Ejected in 1662, Birch became a nonconformist minster and schoolmaster.
References: Oxford DNB; Calamy revised, 356; TNA, E121/5/7; Lancashire military proceedings, 248-50.
Armies: Lancashire
Birch, Thomas Thomas Birch (baptised 1608, died 1678)
Of Birch parish, Manchester. Only son of George Birch (died 1611) of Birch, near Manchester, and his wife Anne, daughter of Ellis Hey of Monkshall, Eccles parish. On 21 Oct. 1623 Thomas married Alice (died 1697), eldest daughter of Thomas Brooke of Norton, Cheshire.
Birch was appointed by parliament a deputy-lieutenant in Lancashire in Mar. 1642 and in June received a commission to raise a regiment of foot. In mid-July he helped oppose Lord Strange’s attempt to secure Manchester for the king; according to royalist accounts, when the rain put out the musketeers’ matches and the pikemen were unwilling to advance, Birch ignominiously hid under a cart. In Oct. he joined in the siege of Manchester and also took possession of Townley Hall.
Birch was an officer, first a captain, then, in Dec. 1642, promoted major, in Ralph Assheton senior’s regiment of Lancashire foot. He was at the storming of Preston in Feb.1643, and with the force occupying Lancaster. That Mar. Ferdinando, Lord Fairfax, promoted Birch with the colonelcy of a regiment of foot. From 1644 he was an active and radical member of the Lancashire county committee. On 7 Sept. 1649 Birch was appointed governor of Liverpool, and on 24 May 1650 was commissioned colonel of a regiment of foot in the Lancashire militia. In 1651 he commanded the force that occupied the Isle of Man. As a politician, in 1649 Birch was elected Recruiter MP for Liverpool, was a member of the Nominated Assembly, and was elected MP for Liverpool in the first and second Protectorate Parliaments (and was possibly MP for Clitheroe in the third in 1659). An active committeeman and sequestrator, Birch became a leading figure in the county as more moderate leading gentry withdrew, and was a firm supporter of the regimes of the 1650s. ‘With the collapse of the traditional leadership within the county community of Lancashire Birch established a remarkable ascendancy, underpinned by parliamentary, administrative, and military office.’ (Oxford DNB). An Independent in the early 1650s, Birch veered towards Presbyterianism by the later 1650s. In 1659 he assisted Lambert in suppressing Booth’s Rising.
He lived quietly in Liverpool after the Restoration, though he was several times suspected – perhaps correctly – of supporting non-conformists there.
References: Oxford DNB; Lancashire military proceedings; CSPD, 1650, 506; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming); Gratton, Lancs. war effort, passim.
Armies: Lancashire
Birchall, Jeffrey Jeffrey Birchall
A captain in John Booth’s Lancashire regiment.
References: Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 286.
Armies: Lancashire
Bird, John John Bird
Captain. Captain in the earl of Stamford’s regiment of foot in 1642, although he does not appear in the records of its officers in the Gloucester garrison in 1643.
References: Peacock, Army Lists, 29; Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6. 642, 646.
Armies: Gloucestershire; Earl of Essex
Birkenhead, Henry, junior Henry Birkenhead, junior
Of Backford, Wirral, Cheshire. Like his father Henry, prothonotary of the County Palatine of Chester, Henry the younger was arrested and removed to Shrewsbury at the beginning of the war as a signatory to the Grand Remonstrance.
By Apr. 1645 Birkenhead was a captain in Sir William Brereton’s regiment of foot, and in July probably assumed command of the garrison at Hooton House. By 1650 he was lieutenant-colonel of Duckenfield’s regiment of Cheshire militia.
References: BL, Harl. 2128, no. 174; Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 329, 2. 113, 255-6.
Armies: Cheshire
Birkett [Brockett], Charles Charles Birkett [Brockett]
By spring 1645 a major of foot in John Mauleverer’s garrison regiment at Hull, Yorkshire (East Riding), Birkett later became a major of dragoons in the Northern Association Army.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 371.
Armies: Yorkshire; Northern Army (Fairfax); Northern Army (Poyntz)
Birkhead, Edward Edward Birkhead
At its muster in Nov. 1643, lieutenant-colonel in Sir Thomas Barrington’s regiment of foot formed from the Essex militia, part of the Eastern Association Army that contributed to the siege of Reading in spring 1643, the siege of Greenland House in summer 1644 and probably to some other actions in which the army was involved.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.32.
Armies: Eastern Association
Birkhead, [?]Richard [?]Richard Birkhead
Rank unknown. He was probably the officer sent, after Leeds fell on 23 Jan. 1643, with three troops of horse and about 1400 foot from Almondbury to hold Wakefield. However, he could be the Edward Birkhead of Morley township identified by Hopper (‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 104, citing TNA, SP23/135/539).
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 371; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 104 [citing TNA, SP23/135/539].
Armies: Yorkshire
Birtles, Hugh Hugh Birtles
By Apr. 1645 a lieutenant in Colonel John Leigh’s regiment of foot in Cheshire commanding a company of eighty men. Birtles’s origins are unclear, but fellow officers of the regiment came from central Cheshire. He served at the siege of Chester until its fall in Feb. 1646 and later with the Cheshire forces besieging Lichfield Close, where he was described as captain or captain-lieutenant of a company of fifty-two. A Hugh Birtles was a captain in William Daniell’s regiment of foot, raised during May to July 1650. He may also have been the Captain Birtle of one of the companies from Robert Duckenfeild’s disbanded regiment ordered to Ireland on 23 Jan. 1652 to complete Hardress Waller’s regiment of foot.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 326, 331, 2. 402, 511; Carr and Atherton, Brereton Staffs., 241-2, 271, 325, 328, 330, 349, 354; Firth and Davies, Regimental History, 2, 489; CSPD, 1651-2, 117-8.
Armies: Cheshire
Birtwistle, Richard Richard Birtwisle
A lieutenant of foot in Lancashire, of a company under Lieutenant-Colonel John Rosworm (probably in the Manchester garrison), and later in Colonel Shuttleworth’s regiment. In Oct. 1650 Birtwistle claimed arrears of £131 14s.
References: TNA, E121/4/8.
Armies: Lancashire
Biscoe, John John Biscoe
He probably began the civil war as a captain in Ingoldsby’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army. By spring 1644 and continuing to serve after the regiment transferred to the New Model Army in spring 1645, captain in Edward Montagu’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army, continuing to serve as captain after Lambert replaced Montagu as colonel. In 1649 he was promoted to major in what was then Barkstead’s New Model regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.71; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 48, 58, 70, 77, 80, 87, 90, 99, 103.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Eastern Association; New Model Army
Bishop, Robert Robert Bishop
At its muster in Nov. 1643, lieutenant in Captain Henry Perry’s company in Sir Thomas Barrington’s regiment of foot formed from the Essex militia, part of the Eastern Association Army that contributed to the siege of Reading in spring 1643, the siege of Greenland House in summer 1644 and probably to some other actions in which the army was involved. Bishop had succeeded Perry as captain of the company by summer 1644.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.32.
Armies: Eastern Association
Bix, John John Bix
Possibly either John Bix of Babchild Court or John Bix of Canterbury. Captain in the Scraye Lathe (Kent) auxiliary regiment by 19 Nov. 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army,76; Vis. Kent, 1663-68, 14-5.
Armies: Kent; Waller (Southern Association)
Blachford, Richard Richard Blachford
He is possibly the Captain Blackford whose troop was ordered to rejoin Sir William Waller in the West. From Nov. 1646 is a note of money owing arising from broadcloth that Blachford had taken up 2 years before, and in Dec. 1646 from other cloth delivered to Blachford at the committee’s appointment for clothing his soldiers. In Mar. 1648 he provided a certificate for a man who had supplied horses for parliament’s service.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 68, 117, 361; Spring, Waller’s army, app. 2, p. 3.
Armies: Dorset; Waller (Southern Association)
Blachford, Robert Robert Blachford
Captain. Notes in Nov. 1646 of transactions involving Blachford two years earlier, and in Dec. 1646 relating to cloth delivered to him on the committee’s order to clothe his soldiers. In Mar. 1648 he provided a certificate for a man who had supplied horses for parliament’s service.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 68, 117, 361.
Armies: Dorset
Blacker, Ferdinand Ferdinand Blacker
Of Blacker Hall, Criggleston township, Sandal Magna, Yorkshire (West Riding). A captain-lieutenant in Yorkshire.
References: Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 118.
Armies: Yorkshire
Blacker, George George Blacker
Of Blacker Hall, Criggleston township, Sandal Magna, Yorkshire (West Riding). A captain-lieutenant in Yorkshire.
References: Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 118 [citing TNA, E121/2/5, no. 35].
Armies: Yorkshire
Blackmore, John John Blackmore
Captain in Sir Arthur Hesilrige’s/James Holborne’s regiment of foot, taking command of the company of John Birch in July 1644. In the original officer list for the New Model Army, he was named as captain in the regiment, but does not appear to have served there. However, in May 1648, when Cromwell recommended him to Fairfax for the position of Adjutant-General to the New Model Army as ‘a godly man and a good souldier’ (Firth and Davies, Regimental history,1.202), he called him lieutenant-colonel. However, on 14 June 1648 Blackmore was commissioned major of Cromwell’s regiment of horse. He became a stalwart of the republic and of the Protectorate in Devon, a loyal Cromwellian who was knighted and served as militia commissioner, JP and sheriff. The government’s attempts to get him elected for Tiverton in 1654 failed, but he became MP for East and West Looe, c. Aug. 1654.
References: Spring, Waller’s army,59; Firth and Davies, Regimental history, 1.202, 206-7, 209; 2.550; Temple, ‘New Model Army’, 56; Roberts, Devon, passim.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association); New Model Army
Blackwall [Blackwell], Richard Richard Blackwall [Blackwell]
A captain of Cheshire horse taken prisoner on 18 Jan. 1645 during a sortie by the Chester royalists against parliamentarians quartered at Christleton (Dore includes later correspondence regarding his negotiated exchange). Blackwall was paroled and in May acted as a messenger to London for Sir William Brereton. The exchange of Blackwall and a captain Evan Vaughan for the royalist Lieutenant-Colonel Vane was agreed on 18 Aug. 1645.
References: Dore, Brereton letter looks, 1. 95, 359-61, 403, 2. 69; Cheshire tracts, 157.
Armies: Cheshire
Blackwell, Jarvis Jarvis Blackwell
Blackwell was admitted to the Company of the Artillery Garden (now the Honourable Artillery Company) on 22 Apr. 1642.
By 1647 he was a captain in the London Trained Bands: a pay warrant issued by the Presbyterian militia committee of 1647 is too damaged to be sure whether he continued to serve under them or was put out and paid off by them. However, he was evidently put out by them, and then re-instated after the failure of the attempted Presbyterian coup. A hostile pamphlet commented that he was then appointed by the Independent militia committee captain in the Yellow regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Ralph Harrison), having previously been put out: ‘that Kickshaw Blackwell, a fellow infinitely below the place as man, never capable of it as a Souldier, of his Colonells complexion, taketh it merely for profit. This is he that cried that he was undone when turned out last; that put Fines for Delinquency and his Officers Pay in his own pocket (get it out when they can) a cowardly Fop, a silly Goose, that if he had a will, hath not parts to acquire any thing in the Art Militarie’ (A paire of spectacles for the Citie, (1648), 1).
References: TNA, SP28/46, Part 1, f. 4r.; A paire of spectacles for the Citie, (1648), 1; Cardew-Rendle.
Armies: London
Blackwell, John John Blackwell
A John Blackwell junior was captain in Edmund Harvey’s regiment of London horse, 9 May 1644, and still there when the regiment was disbanded in spring 1645.
References: CSPD, 1644, 155.
Armies: London
Blackwell, John John Blackwell
Ensign in the Blue regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Thomas Adams) in summer 1642.
References: Thrale 1642; Lindley, Popular politics.
Armies: London
Blackwell, Robert Robert Blackwell
Probably the Robert Blackwall of Blackwall, Derbyshire,
identified holding the rank of quartermaster of Lord Fairfax’s own regiment of foot from Feb. 1644 to May 1645, and as quartermaster-general of foot from 5 Apr. 1644 to 1 Mar. 1645.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 371.
Armies: Yorkshire
Blades, - - Blades
A cornet in Waller’s Southern Association army, captured at the battle of Cropredy Bridge (29 June 1644). Possibly the Ralph Blades who served in Massey’s Western Brigade until its disbandment.
References: Spring, Waller’s army,app. 2, p. 3; Temple, ‘Massey Brigade’, 438, 441.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association); Massey Brigade
Bladwell, James [John] James [John] Bladwell
Captain in Sir Samuel Luke’s Newport Pagnell-based regiment of foot. As such he features from time to time in Luke’s surviving letter books, including a letter to him and a letter from him.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 95; Luke Letter Books, especially nos. 1069, 1555.
Armies: Bedfordshire
Blair, William William Blair
In spring 1645 lieutenant in the major’s troop in the earl of Essex’s own regiment of horse, commanded by Colonel Stapleton. Unlike several other officers of that regiment, he did not transfer to the New Model Army.
References: Wanklyn, New Model Army, 1. 150.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Blake, - - Blake
Captain. Probably Robert Blake, the future general-at-sea (baptised 1598, died 1657). Peachey and Turton very tentatively suggest Samuel Blake, the source being a reference in SP28/298/378, 8 Feb. 1643: Pay by Colonel Strode to Captain Blake’s soldiers received by Samuel Blake. Samuel was Robert Blake’s brother and later commanded a company in a regiment in which Robert was lieutenant-colonel. The entry seems much more likely to imply that Robert is the captain. This would also be consistent with the account of the regiment in Peachey and Turton. Blake, unlike some other captains, only appears once, very early in the records, and Peachey and Turton suggest that the regiment may have effectively disbanded in spring in 1643, and then reformed in Apr./May. By Mar. 1643, Robert Blake was in Bristol, where he was a signatory to the death warrants of those who had plotted to betray the city to the royalists, and during the siege defended Prior’s Hill Fort. He reputedly raised a troop of horse when Sir William Waller marched into the west and was notable in the defence of Prior’s Hill Fort during the siege of Bristol.
Prominent in defence of Lyme Regis, Apr.-May 1644, where Lieutenant-Colonel Blake ‘was officer in chief of Colonel Popham’s regiment in the town’.
Three times defender of Taunton (Oct-Dec. 1644, Mar.-May 1645, June 1645). MP for Bridgwater from 1646 and in 1654; for Somerset in 1653, and for Taunton 1656 until his death in 1657. Buried Westminster Abbey until he was disinterred in Sept. 1661.
References: Oxford DNB; Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West I, 5, 559; Bayley, Civil War in Dorset, 153.
Armies: Somerset: Col. William Strode’s Regt. of Foot
Blake, - - Blake
Ensign in Lord Wharton’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 31.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Blake, Alexander Alexander Blake
Captain, later major, of a company in a regiment of foot which served under Oliver Cromwell and later under Colonel Francis Russell in their capacity as governors of the Isle of Ely and later under Colonel Valentine Walton senior, which probably originated as an auxiliary regiment of the Cambridgeshire militia. He may be the same Alexander Blake who earlier in the war had served as lieutenant of a company in Colonel Henry Barclay’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.28.
Armies: Eastern Association; Earl of Essex?
Blake, Samuel Samuel Blake (1608-1643)
Younger brother of Robert Blake. Ensign in Hugh Rogers’s Trained Band regiment in Aug. 1642. Probably acting for his brother in Feb. 1643 in receiving pay for latter’s company in William Strode’s regiment of foot. Later captain in Alexander Popham’s regiment of foot. Killed in skirmish in attack on Bridgwater.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 5.550, 556: Old DNB (Robert Blake).
Armies: Somerset:
Col. William Strode’s Trained Band Regt.; Col. Alexander Popham’s Regt. of Foot
Blake, William William Blake
Ensign in William Bampfield’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 40.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bland, Francis Francis Bland (born 1619/20)
Of Habblesthorpe, Nottinghamshire. Second son of Michael Bland of Habblesthorpe (died c. 1633) and his wife Rebecca, daughter of Robert Somerscall of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire.
In 1642 Bland was a lieutenant in Sir William Fairfax’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army, probably in his brother Michael’s company. He was among those officers who went north with Fairfax in Dec. 1642, and may have continued as lieutenant to his brother in Sir William’s regiment of foot in Lord Fairfax’s Northern Army. By Dec. 1643 Francis was a captain in Colonel [John or Matthew] Alured’s regiment of horse, and in 1648 claimed expenses of £412 for raising his troop. He was also a committeeman in Nottinghamshire, and as such in 1651 faced accusations of corrupt activities. Aged 43, Bland was still alive in Mar. 1663, and by then had married Jane, daughter of Robert Cracroft of Hackthorne, Lincolnshire.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 44; Jones, ‘War in the North’, 371; Vis. Notts., 1662-1664, 80.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Yorkshire; Northern Army (Fairfax)
Bland, Michael Michael Bland (born 1615/1616)
Eldest son of Michael Bland of Habblesthorpe. Nottinghamshire (died c. 1633) and his wife Rebecca, daughter of Robert Somerscall of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. Elder brother of Francis Bland.
In 1640 Michael was ensign in Sir Nicholas Byron’s regiment of foot in the earl of Northumberland’s Army raised against the Scots, and in 1642 lieutenant to Captain Robert Baker in Colonel William Bampfield’s regiment of foot in Lord Wharton’s Army raised for Ireland.
Bland became a captain in Sir William Fairfax’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army, which fought at Edgehill. In Dec. 1642 he returned north with Fairfax and fellow officers to serve in Sir William’s new regiment recruited in the Bradford area. Bland was taken prisoner at Bradford on 2/3 July 1643. He is very probably the Michael Bland who in the latter half of 1645 became a captain in Fairfax’s New Model Army regiment of foot and who served in that regiment until 1647.
Bland is identified in Apr./May 1649 when commissioned a captain in Robert Phayre’s regiment of foot sent to Ireland. In Dec. 1654 he was Major in Anthony Buller’s regiment of foot raised for service in the West Indies. In Apr. 1655 Bland transferred to Richard Holdep’s regiment of foot at Jamaica, promoted lieutenant-colonel (his son James was an ensign in the regiment). After the Spanish surrender on 17 May, Bland, ‘was sent into the country to secure the plantations from destruction, seize cattle, horses and provisions, and block up the enemy in the hills. All this he performed very inefficiently’ (Firth and Davies, RegimentalHistory, 2, 728).
In 1661 Bland was among several officers petitioning for arrears, claiming that upon the reduction of two regiments in Jamaica to one they had been discharged and sent to England. Aged 47, Bland was still alive in Mar. 1663, by when he was married to Mariana.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 87, 70, 44;Jones, ‘War in the North’, 371-2; Firth and Davies, RegimentalHistory, 2, 655, 708, 728-9; Vis. Notts., 1662-1664, 80.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Yorkshire; Northern Army (Fairfax); New Model Army
Bland, Richard Richard Bland
Ensign in Lord Wharton’s regiment of foot in Wharton’s army raised for service in Ireland in 1642; later that summer he instead went with the regiment as ensign in Lord Wharton’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 31.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Blandon, John John Blandon
Lieutenant in Thomas Grantham’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 41.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Blanshard, Herbert Herbert Blanshard
Lieutenant in the earl of Peterborough’s troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642, signing for a pay warrant on 11 Nov.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 48;TNA, SP28/3b/298.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Blathing, Francis Francis Blathing
In 1643-4, ensign in Major John Lilburne’s company in Edward King’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army. Possibly the same officer as Francis Blethin.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.47.
Armies: Eastern Association
Blethin, Francis Francis Blethin
By spring 1644 and continuing to serve in the regiment after it transferred to the New Model Army in spring 1645, captain in Edward Montagu’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army. Possibly the same officer as Francis Blathing. Either way, he continued as captain in the regiment of foot after Lambert replaced Montagu, but left in 1647, perhaps then serving in the army or militia in South Wales.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.72; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 48, 58, 70, 80, 90-1.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
Blewin, Peter Peter Blewin
Ensign in Rochford’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 32.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Blith, Walter Walter Blith (baptised 1605, died 1654)
Fourth and youngest son of John Blith (died 1626), a prosperous yeoman of Hollyfax in Allesley, Warwickshire and his wife Ann, daughter of Barnaby Holbeche of Birchley, Fillongley, Warwickshire. He married Hannah, daughter of John Waker of Snitterfield, near Stratford upon Avon, and Fillongley, Warwickshire.
Commissioned captain of horse in Colonel William Purefoy’s Warwickshire regiment of horse, 14 June 1643.
Blith was a sequestrator in Warwickshire and Coventry, and in 1649 and 1650 a surveyor of confiscated crown lands. When he bought crown lands at Potterspury, Whittlewood Forest, Northamptonshire, he described himself as a gentleman of Cotesbach, Leicesterhire, but spent the last four years of his life in Lincolnshire.
He was a member of the Hartlib circle and a writer on agricultural improvement, especially The English Improver, or, A New Survey of Husbandry (1649), the substantially revised third edition of which was dedicated to Cromwell.
References: Oxford DNB; TNA, SP28/7/496.
Armies: Warwickshire
Blithe, John John Blithe
Captain in the regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army commanded successively by Hampden, Tyrrill and Ingoldsby. He was still there in spring 1645 but did not transfer to the New Model Army.
References: Wanklyn, New Model Army, 1. 148.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Blodwell, James James Blodwell
Lieutenant in Lord Mandeville’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 36.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Blowe, Robert Robert Blowe
Captain in Viscount Saye and Sele’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 30.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Blucke, - - Blucke
Captain-Lieutenant in the colonel’s company in Sir William Springate’s regiment of foot in Dec. 1643, who served there until its disbandment a few months later.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 119.
Armies: Kent; Waller (Southern Association)
Bluett, - - Bluett
Lieutenant in Captain Fulke Greville’s troop in Sir William Waller’s regiment of horse by 25 Oct. 1643.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 148.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Blundell, - - Blundell
By early 1645 ensign in Captain Cromwell’s company in John Pickering’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.86.
Armies: Eastern Association
Blundell, Henry Henry Blundell
Ensign in Francis Hamond’s regiment of foot in the earl of Northumberland’s Army against the Scots in 1640.
Captain in Thomas Grantham’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 90, 41.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Blundell, Thomas Thomas Blundell
Ensign in Thomas Grantham’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 41.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Blunt, Charles Charles Blunt
Colonel. Captain in the earl of Stamford’s regiment of foot, one of the Gloucester garrison regiments from late 1642. During the siege of Gloucester he led small party of horse in a sally on 8 Aug. 1643, and on 21 Aug. he and Captain White took a party by boat down the Severn to attack the enemy lines, which did some damage although the failure of the other prong of the attack meant that the main aim, to destroy the enemy cannon, was unsuccessful. He led the infantry at the storming of Malmesbury (25 May 1644). By 29 May he had been promoted lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, and on that day the Commons voted that he be commissioned colonel of that regiment. With Massey’s departure he was the professional military commander left at Gloucester and on 3 June the Commons delegated to him the governorship (shared with two civic figures) pending the arrival of Massey’s successor.
On 4 Aug. 1646 the Commons resolved that Blunt’s regiment of foot be sent to Ireland, but this evidently did not happen.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6.641-6; Bibliotheca, 49, 208, 218, 333; JHC, 4.156-7, 160-1, 632-3; HMC, Seventh Report, 68.
Armies: Gloucestershire Earl of Essex
Blunt [Blount], George George Blunt [Blount]
Captain in the regiment of foot of the earl of Peterborough in the earl of Essex’s Army, summer 1642, and still there in Feb. 1643.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 28; TNA, SP28/5/41, 138, 314.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Blunt [Blount], Thomas Thomas Blunt [Blount]
By spring 1645 colonel of the Sutton at Hone Lathe Trained Band regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 81.
Armies: Kent
Bock [Boge], James James Bock [Boge]
Lieutenant in the earl of Stamford’s regiment of foot in 1642. Lieutenant in the Gloucester garrison in 1643. Probably captain-lieutenant in the regiment of foot of the earl of Stamford. On 8 Apr. he was amongst the list of commanders—the rest all certainly officers in Stamford’s regiment of foot—receiving payment for their new men. He had been replaced as captain-lieutenant by James Harcus by Aug. 1643.
References: Peacock, Army Lists, 29; TNA, SP28/129, part 5, fol. 4r.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Bock, James James Bock
In Sept. 1642 lieutenant to Captain Grey in the regiment of foot which formed part of the earl of Essex’s Army under the earl of Stamford and which then formed the core of Edward Massey’s garrison and army at Gloucester.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 29.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bodley, John John Bodley
By Mar. 1643 major and in summer 1644 succeeded Roberts as lieutenant-colonel of Anthony Stapley’s regiment of foot, serving with part of the regiment in the West in 1644-5.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 128.
Armies: Sussex; Waller (Southern Association)
Boffo [?], - - Boffo [?]
Ensign in the company of Captain Edward Gray in the earl of Stamford’s regiment of foot in June 1643, when he was ill and physic was provided for him. He had not been in the regiment at the time of the published list of officers of 1642.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6. 644, 646.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Bolt, - - Bolt
Ensign.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 377.
Armies: Dorset
Bolt, Robert Robert Bolt
By early 1644, cornet in Hawkesworth’s troop in William Purefoy’s regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 121.
Armies: Warwickshire
Bolton, Robert Robert Bolton
By spring 1645, major in Sir Samuel Luke’s Bedfordshire-based regiment of horse. Both as major and earlier as captain he is referred to frequently in Luke’s letter books, and several letters by him survive there.
References: Luke Letter Books, especially nos. 857, 1012, 1027. 1615.
Armies: Bedfordshire
Bolton, Roger Roger Bolton
In Aug. 1644 lieutenant in the company of Captain Nicholas West in a regiment of foot which served under Oliver Cromwell and later under Colonel Francis Russell in their capacity as governors of the Isle of Ely and later under Colonel Valentine Walton senior, which probably originated as an auxiliary regiment of the Cambridgeshire militia.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.29.
Armies: Eastern Association
Bond, Elias Elias Bond (1596-1680)
MP for Wareham, 1659. Second son of John Bond of Lutton in the Isle of Purbeck and younger brother of Dennis Bond, MP for Dorchester.
Probably the Captain Bond under whom Sergeant Robert Burt had served (as well as under Captain Channing) in Weymouth and Portland.
Appointed lieutenant of the Isle of Portland and captain of its castle upon its fall in Apr. 1646; confirmed as captain of Portland Castle, 17 June 1647. It is not clear how much he should be regarded as a soldier. Except in the context of Portland, he appears as Mr. (as in his frequent appearances on the county committee).
References: Oxford DNB; Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 401; Bayley, Civil War in Dorset, 311, 327; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming).
Armies: Dorset
Bonner, Jarvis Jarvis Bonner
In 1642 he is listed as lieutenant in Walton’s troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 54.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Booker, John John Booker
He is probably the John Booker admitted to the Company of the Artillery Garden (now the Honourable Artillery Company) on 13 Sept. 1634.
In Sept. 1643 Booker was Register to the Commissioners of Bankruptcy, living in Walbrook. He was the second captain of the Blue regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Thomas Adams).
In Apr. 1644 Booker was a strong supporter of the earl of Essex when he came to the City to appeal for men: he ‘had been a relatively prosperous merchant before 1640 but by 1643 he was facing severe financial difficulties, to which the war had clearly contributed’ (Lindley, Popular politics, 321).
Booker was a major in Aug. 1645, when he was ordered by parliament’s Irish Committee to the Committee of Munster which was to go to Ireland; in May 1646 he was lieutenant-colonel of Colonel Francis Rowe’s regiment of foot, to be raised for service in Munster.
References: BL, Harl. 986, p.29; CSP, Ireland 1633-47, 410, 449, 451, 455, 456; Cardew-Rendle.
Armies: London; Ireland
Boone, - - Boone
Cornet in Captain Redman’s troop in Nathaniel Whetham’s Northampton-based regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 164.
Armies: Northamptonshire
Booth, - - Booth
Doubts remain about the rank of this Lancashire officer present at the siege of Chester. He appears as Lieutenant Booth (18 Dec. 1645) or Sergeant Booth (20 Dec. and 12 Jan. 1646) in Sir William Brereton’s letter books. Dore suggested that ‘Sergeant’ in this sense could mean sergeant-major, i.e. major. Dore further suggested that as Booth was an auxiliary officer unknown personally by him, that the Cheshire county treasurer may have just guessed his rank.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 2. 382, 396-7, 510.
Armies: Lancashire
Booth, Anthony Anthony Booth
In Apr. 1645 a captain in Robert Duckenfeild’s regiment of foot. Booth was mayor of Macclesfield for 1640-1, in 1645 and for 1649-50.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 331.
Armies: Cheshire
Booth, George George Booth (1622-1684)
He was the second son of William Booth and his wife Vera, daughter of Sir Thomas Egerton, and was thus born into the Booth family of Dunham Massey, Cheshire. In 1639 he married (1) Katherine, daughter of the earl of Lincoln; following her death, in 1644 he married (2) Elizabeth, daughter of the earl of Stamford. Prominent in the parliamentarian cause in Cheshire throughout the civil war, Booth was however more moderate than and often at odds with parliament’s county boss, Sir William Brereton. As such, although a colonel of a regiment of foot, his active military role was quite limited, but he was governor of Nantwich for much of the war and he did play a prominent part in 1645 in the siege of Chester. He resigned his commission towards the end of the war and became MP for Cheshire, though he was excluded at Pride’s Purge. He was returned for the county again to the first and second Protectorate Parliaments, though again excluded from the second. He represented Lancashire in the third Protectorate Parliament (Richard Cromwell’s) and, having failed to regain his seat when the Rump returned, in summer 1659 he led a failed rising in Cheshire. He returned to office and to favour at the Restoration and was raised to the peerage as first Baron Delamer, though he became increasingly disillusioned by and opposed to some of the policies of Charles II.
References: Oxford DNB; Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 329, 371.
Armies: Cheshire
Booth, John John Booth (c. 1621-1678)
Youngest but only surviving son of George Booth of Dunham Massey, Cheshire.
In 1642 John brought his father’s tenants to the defence of Manchester. According to the hostile John Rosworm, during the siege Richard Holland persuaded Booth to align with the party favouring negotiating a parley with the earl of Derby. He became a captain in Richard Holland’s regiment of foot, and was reportedly the first to scale the walls of Preston during the assault on 13 Feb. 1643. Booth became colonel of a regiment raised in July 1643 to secure Warrington and the surrounding area (he was governor of the town in 1645 and possibly before) and to support Sir William Brereton in Cheshire. Debenture evidence shows both foot and horse were under Booth's command. During 1644, in Jan. he fought at the battle of Nantwich, and in Aug. his foot helped put to flight the royalists at Ormskirk. Booth's regiment joined in both sieges of Lathom House, and in Dec. 1645 he accepted its surrender. In Feb. 1646 Booth was a commissioner for the surrender of Chester, and his regiment later served under Thomas Mytton in North Wales. Even during the first civil war Booth’s parliamentarian commitment was doubted. During the 1650s he was deeply involved in royalist conspiracies and in 1659 joined George Booth’s Rising. He was knighted at the Restoration.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 55; Lancashire military Proceedings, 45, 52, 72, 74, 204, 333; Cheshire tracts, 117, 255; Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 284-5 and passim.
Armies: Lancashire
Booth, William William Booth
Commissioned captain of horse under Colonel William Purefoy in the Warwickshire militia.
References: CSPD 1650, 513.
Armies: Warwickshire
Boothby, William William Boothby
By the end of 1643 and still there in 1646-7, colonel of the Sutton at Hone Lathe Trained Band regiment of auxiliaries.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 81.
Armies: Kent
Bootle, William William Bootle (died 1644)
Of Melling, West Derby Hundred, Lancashire.
A captain in Lancashire, identified by Gratton as an officer in Alexander Rigby’s regiment.
Bootle was slain during the storm and 'massacre' at Bolton on 28 May 1644. His death, allegedly at the earl of Derby's own hands after quarter had been granted, became notorious: in revenge, it was claimed, for Bootle’s betrayal, as a former servant (a porter), of the Stanleys, having turned against them and served at the siege of Lathom House. The story – in its fullest form describing Derby killing Bootle in cold blood whilst soldiers pinioned his arms – was an atrocity tale related by parliamentarian pamphleteers. A royalist account of the siege of Lathom also claimed that Derby had killed Bootle, but in the hot blood of battle: ‘At his first passe into the towne, closely followinge the foote at their entrance, his Lopp. met with Captain Bootle, formerly one of his owne servants, and the most virulent enemye agt. His Lady in the siege. Him hee did honor of too brave a death to dye by his Lords hand, wth some others of his good countreymen, that had 3 monethes thirsted for his Lady’s and his children’s blood’ (Lancashire military proceedings, 183). In 1651 Derby was executed at Bolton Market Cross near the alleged murder spot. Derby maintained his innocence of the killing.
References: Warr in Lancashire, 51, 82, 134-142; Lancashire military proceedings, 183, 189, 194, 313; Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 293.
Armies: Lancashire
Bosa, Samuel Samuel Bosa
A Dutchman, and probably captain of a Dutch troop of mercenaries in Essex’s Army, which came to form part of Han Behre’s regiment of horse.
In the published list of officers in Essex’s Army in 1642, Bosa is named as lieutenant in two different troops of horse, those of the earl of Stamford and John Bird. In Nov. 1642 he was a reformado captain of a troop of horse, attending the earl of Essex. His troop continued in Essex’s Army and by June 1643 was part of Hans Behre’s regiment of horse. His actions at the skirmish at Chalgrove, Oxfordshire (18 June 1643) were commended by the earl of Essex. By 9 Nov. 1643 Bosa was a major. He served in Essex’s campaign into the South West in 1644: when his troop mustered it consisted of 10 officers (including NCOs) and 77 troopers.
The Committee of Both Kingdoms on 29 Aug. 1645 noted Bosa’s valour and faithfulness whilst he served parliament, and commended him to the committee of the army, so he should not lose out from having been at Gloucester in spring 1645 when the armies were being reduced and reduction money being certified.
On 11 June 1647 Bosa was the treasurer of the Dutch officers who were to be paid from the excise. In Apr. 1649 £100 arrears was allocated to him from the sale of dean and chapter lands. In July 1649 the committee for the advance of money, on parliament’s order, issued a warrant to Bosa for £500 for the use of the Dutch officers.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 25; TNA, SP28/3/a/275, SP28/4/175, SP28/7/5, SP28/9/65, SP28/11/386; Peacock, Army lists, 49, 50; Robert Devereux, earl of Essex, A letter written from his excellency Robert Earle of Essex unto the speaker of the House of Commons, relating the true state of the late skirmish at Chinner (1643), 6; Symonds, Diary, 73; JHL, 9.254; JHC,4.427; CSPD, 1644-45, 497; CSPD, 1645-47, 95, 272; Calendar of the Committee for the Advance of Money, 3.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller (Southern Association)
Boscawen, Nicholas Nicholas Boscawen (born 1623)
Captain. Eldest son of Hugh Boscawen of Tregothnan (died 1641). For his father, a ship money sheriff and anti-Laudian, see Oxford DNB, which places the Boscawens as one of the eight leading families in the county. Captain of a troop of horse active in 1643; county committeeman Mar. 1646. Died without issue and perhaps young; it was his younger brother Hugh who was elected to Parliament in Dec. 1646.
References: Vis. Cornwall, 47; Peachey and Turton, 1.3, 311; Coate, Cornwall, 224.
Armies: Cornwall
Bosom, - - Bosom
Identified by a payment of 20s dated 5 Apr. 1644 as a lieutenant in the Cheshire forces.
References: TNA, SP28/225, f. 352.
Armies: Cheshire
Bostocke, Cheany Cheany Bostocke
In 1646 a lieutenant in Captain Thomas Walley’s company in Sir William Brereton’s Cheshire forces at the siege of Lichfield (a John Bostocke was Sergeant in the same company). On 22 Aug. 1650 Cheany was commissioned a captain in Colonel Henry Brooke’s Cheshire militia regiment of foot.
References: Carr and Atherton, Brereton Staffs., 270, 350; CSPD, 1650, 509.
Armies: Cheshire
Bosvile [Bossevile], Godfrey Godfrey Bosvile [Bossevile] (1596-1658)
Son of Ralph Bosvile of Gunthwaite, Yorkshire (died 1600) and his wife Mary, daughter of Christopher Coply of Wadsworth, Yorkshire. She married (2) Fulke Greville. Thus her son from this second marriage, the parliamentarian commander Robert Greville, second Baron Brooke (died 1643 at Lichfield) was Godfrey’s step-brother. Another parliamentarian commander, Sir Arthur Hesilrige, married one of his half-sister – his mother’s daughter from her second marriage.
Although he held property in Warwickshire, including Wroxall, he seems to have lived mainly in Yorkshire before the civil war and was active in county government there.
Elected to the Short Parliament, in Feb. 1641 he was elected to the Long Parliament as MP for Warwick in 1641. Although he declined to serve at the trial of the king, he continued to sit in the Rump.
In early 1643 he helped raise and was given command of a regiment of foot, raised largely in Warwickshire and earmarked to defend the town and castle of Warwick, though in 1643-4 Waller used part of the regiment as reinforcements, including at the battle of Cropredy Bridge and the siege of Banbury. Bosvile gave up command in spring 1645 in line with the Self-Denying Ordinance, but his regiment of foot survived him for more than a year, effectively now under the command of John Bridges, down to the regiment’s disbandment in summer 1646.
References: Keeler, Long Parliament, 111-12; Spring, Waller’s army, 29-30.
Armies: Warwickshire; Waller
Bosvile, William William Bosvile
Of Gunthwaite, Penistone, Yorkshire (West Riding). A parliamentarian captain in Yorkshire.
References: Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 1016 [citing TNA, SP19/130/20].
Armies: Yorkshire
Boswell, James James Boswell
By summer 1644 and still there in spring 1645, on the eve of the regiment’s disbandment, captain in Sir William Balfour’s regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 20.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller (Southern Association)
Boswell, Walter Walter Boswell
From June 1644, until the regiment was disbanded the following year, captain in the major’s troop in Sir William Balfour’s regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 19.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller (Southern Association)
Boswell, Walter Walter Boswell
In 1643 Boswell was a tailor in the Old Bailey.
Boswell was admitted to the Company of the Artillery Garden (now the Honourable Artillery Company) on 18 Aug. 1629. He was ensign in the Orange regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel John Towse) in summer 1642, and captain-lieutenant in the same regiment by Sept. 1643.
In 1647, after the defeat of the Presbyterian counter-revolution, Boswell was appointed captain in the Orange regiment (by then Colonel Rowland Wilson), abused by a Presbyterian satire as ‘Young Captain Hey-day Boswell, a fellow lately put out for caning Train Band Souldiers’ and a ‘Prick-louse’ (A paire of spectacles for the Citie, (1648), 8).
References: Thrale 1642; BL, Harl. 986, p. 40; A paire of spectacles for the Citie, (1648), 8; Cardew-Rendle.
Armies: London
Bosworth, - - Bosworth
By June 1643 major in John Middleton’s regiment of horse, probably badly or even fatally wounded at the battle of Cheriton in Mar. 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 104.
Armies: Essex’s Army; Waller (Southern Association)
Botteler [Butler], John John Botteler [Butler]
Lieutenant in Sir John Merrick’s regiment of foot in the earl of Northumberland’s Army against the Scots, 1640.
He began the civil war as captain in the earl of Peterborough’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in late summer 1642. By mid-Dec. 1642 he had been promoted major of that regiment, when he was paid a month’s pay for his company (with an annotation on the payment warrant, dated 18 Dec., stating that the earl of Essex wanted him paid promptly so that he could be ready to march on the following day). He remained in Peterborough’s regiment until its disbandment in May/June 1643. He then transferred to the earl of Essex’s own regiment of foot (by 24 June), where he became major. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel of that regiment between 24 Aug. and 14 Oct. 1643, probably on or shortly after the death of Lieutenant-Colonel Davies.
In the Cornish debacle of 1644, Botteler’s actions came under suspicion, and – whatever the truth of the allegations – he became a scapegoat for the disaster. He and Colonel Edward Aldrich had been captured by the royalists at Boconnoc, Cornwall, on 14 Aug. 1644. In the hostile account of the diarist Thomas Juxon, he was rapidly exchanged for an important royalist whom Essex had earlier begged parliament not to exchange, and on his return brought propositions from the king, which he gave to Colonel Thomas Tyrrell who passed them on to Sir Philip Stapleton, ‘and so they were dispersed into the army without acquainting the parliament and contrary to the ordinances of war’. After this, Botteler was several times in the king’s quarters, it was claimed and afterwards both he and Aldrich, with their regtiments, ‘were commanded to several ports of importance, basely quitted them and run away, which produced our so great loss there’ [the surrender at Lostwithiel on 2 Sept. 1644] (Juxon, Diary, 59).
Botteler offered to stand trial for his actions and was sent up on his parole to London by Essex, ‘who declared that he had always esteem’d him as a stout Man, but would freely leave him to justice’ (Rushworth, Historical collections, 7.7). On 27 Sept. the Commons referred the matter to Zouch Tate’s committee for the reformation of the Lord General’s Army; on 30 Sept. the House ordered that Botteler be committed to the Tower upon suspicion of betraying the army.
Examinations taken before the Committee of Both Kingdoms on 3 Dec. 1644 were perhaps more ambiguous as to actual disloyalty, but damning as to his military conduct. Philip Skippon told how when Tyrrell read him the propositions that Botteler brought from the king’s army, he ‘told Colonel Tyrrel that they were not fit to be concealed; Colonel Tyrrel reply’d, that he understood as much, and that he had sent, or would send a Copy of them to Sir Philip Stapleton’ (Rushworth, Historical collections, 7.7). In the last fight, Botteler had withdrawn from the position he had been ordered to hold, claiming he could not keep above 200 men together. He had not been seriously attacked, and had let the royalists get between the parliamentarian army and Fowey: ‘the withdrawing from this Post was one of those things which necessitated them to enter into so sudden a Treaty’ (Rushworth, Historical collections, 7.7). Other witnesses (including Thomas Tyrrell) blamed him for the distribution of the propositions and supported the allegation that he had given up the post assigned to him, reporting that he had claimed that there was too much ground for his men to hold, and similarly concluding that his defection had led directly to the surrender of the infantry.
In Feb. 1645 the Commons resolved that he be referred to trial at a council of war for deserting his posts, whilst the suspicion of his being an incendiary and the words he was alleged to have spoken against parliament should be further investigated. Nevertheless, despite Essex in the Lords moving that Botteler and John Dalbier be brought to trial, and Botteler himself demanding to be tried, the Commons chose to leave him in the Tower untried and in want for himself, his wife and children. The Commons finally bailed him on 29 July 1645, in response to a further request from the Lords: ‘They desire to put you in mind of Colonel Boteler. He hath lain long a close Prisoner. He hath been twice plundered by the King’s Forces: They desire he may be brought to a speedy Tryal; or that you will take care he may be maintained in Prison, his Wife and himself being ready to starve’ (JHC, 4.224).
On 20 Oct. 1645 the Commons ordered that the report on Botteler be made the first business the following Saturday, but this did not happen; on 2 Dec. 1645 the House ordered the committee of accounts to cast up his accounts.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 28, 81;TNA, SP28/4/251; SP28/7/ 59, 291, 370, 385; SP28/9/174; SP28/10/153; Juxon, Diary, 58-60; HMC, Sixth report, 37; Rushworth, Historical collections, 7.7; JHC, 4.60, 61, 162, 224, 316, 363; JHL, 7.77, 341, 439, 517.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bough, - - Bough
Captain-Lieutenant of the colonel’s troop in Sir William Waller’s regiment of horse by late 1643 and until at least 31 July 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 141.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Bough, Samuel Samuel Bough
Captain in Edward Rossiter’s probably short-lived regiment of dragoons in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.93.
Armies: Eastern Association
Boughty, William William Boughty
Lieutenant in the regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army commanded by Lord Oliver St John and then Thomas Essex in 1642-3.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 31.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bourne, Nehemiah Nehemiah Bourne
Major in Thomas Rainsborough’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.89.
Armies: Eastern Association
Bovett, Richard Richard Bovett
Committee order for partial payment of arrears in pursuance of order of Lords and Commons, dated 5 May 1648, for the safety of the western counties. Bovett, the committee noted, had done faithful service for Parliament in Dorset.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 506.
Armies: Dorset
Bowditch, - - Bowditch Captain. Dorset committee order of 6 Apr. 1648 to county treasurer to pay him £46, delivered by him to the governor of Lyme for the use of that garrison, as by the certificate from the committee of safety of the Western Associated Counties. Possibly of family of Bowdich of Chardstock.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 379; Vis. Dorset, 1677, 5.
Armies: Dorset
Bowen, - - Bowen
Captain of a company in Richard Whitehead’s regiment of foot, which formed part of the garrison at Portsmouth, Southampton and Lyme. The same Captain Bowen was also in Richard Norton’s Hampshire regiment of foot by Oct. 1643, and also part of the Portsmouth garrison, and whose company took part in the raid on a royalist encampment at Romney in Dec. 1643.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 162.
Armies: Hampshire;Waller (Southern Association)
Bowen, Maurice Maurice Bowen
By 1643 captain in Skippon’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army and still there in spring 1645. He transferred to the New Model Army and became a captain in Skippon’s New Model regiment of foot, serving there until late 1649, when he moved to another regiment.
References: Wanklyn, New Model Army, 1. 44, 55, 148.
Armies: Earl of Essex; New Model Army
Bowen, William William Bowen
Ensign in the earl of Essex’s own regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 26.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bower, Nathaniel Nathaniel Bower
Of Halifax (Jones) or Bradford (Hopper), both Yorkshire (West Riding).
Bower was evidently the Halifax officer who helped in the defence of Bradford on 18 Dec. 1642. He was either a captain by then or was commissioned upon Sir Thomas Fairfax’s arrival. During 1643 Bower fought at Leeds, under Major William Forbes, and at Adwalton Moor.
In Jan. 1644 Sir Thomas Fairfax posted him to Manchester where he was attached to John Bright’s newly-raised regiment of foot, in which he served for several years. In 1648 Bowers claimed £502 16s in arrears and £31 in expenses. He was possibly the Captain Nathaniel Bowers of Colonel Andrew Carter’s regiment of foot who died in Jamaica before the end of 1656 (Carter had also served in the Northern Association Army).
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 372; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 105-6 [citing TNA, E121/5/5 no. 41]; Firth and Davies, Regimental History, 2, 712.
Armies: Yorkshire; Northern Army (Fairfax); Northern Army (Poyntz)
Bowes, George George Bowes (baptised 1620, died 1656)
Of Elford, Staffordshire. Eldest surviving son of John Bowes of Elford and his wife Anne, daughter of Robert Burdett of Bramcote, Derbyshire. He married Mary (died 1699/1700), daughter of Sir Thomas Burdett of Foremark, Derbyshire.
Bowes was captain of a troop of horse: on 5 Apr. 1644 he was paid £20 under the earl of Denbigh’s warrant towards completing his troop.
In 1644 Bowes was for some time stationed at Tamworth, but on 27 Oct. 1644 the council of war there ordered him and his troop to depart and not return without permission, an order arising from conflicts between Warwickshire and Staffordshire over pay assignments for the garrison. In Dec. he was one of the captains ordered to provide troopers to the scoutmaster at Stafford for night patrols. In May 1645 he was one of the Staffordshire officers sent for service under Sir William Brereton at the siege of Chester.
Bowes was killed by a fall from his horse.
References: Vis. Staffs., 46-7; Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 136, 194, 202, 220, 281, 308; Brereton letter books, 2.136-7; TNA, SP28/131, Part 12, f. 21.
Armies: Earl of Denbigh; Staffordshire
Bowkey, Wiliam William Bowkey
In spring 1644, ensign in Matthew Bridges’s company in Godfrey Bosvile’s Warwick-based regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 31.
Armies: Warwickshire; Waller
Bowles, - - Bowles
Captain in a Kent Trained Band regiment, possibly the St Augustine Lathe regiment of volunteers.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 77.
Armies: Kent
Bowman [Bowerman], Thomas Thomas Bowman [Bowerman]
Captain of a company garrisoning Gurnand Fort and Cowes Castle, Isle of Wight, part of Thomas Carr’s regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 24.
Armies: Isle of Wight
Bowyer, Sir John, first baronet John Bowyer, first baronet (1623-1666)
Of Knypersley (near Leek), Staffordshire, later knight and first baronet.
Fifth son of Sir William Bowyer (1588-1641), knight, of Knypersley and his wife Hesther (died 1657), daughter of Sir William Skeffington of Fisherwick, Staffordshire. His father was a JP and five times MP for Staffordshire (see HoP: The Commons, 1604-1629, 3.281-3) whilst his mother was a sister of Sir William Brereton’s second wife. He married Mary, daughter and heir of Robert Millward of Bradlow Ashe, Derbyshire, esquire.
Captain of foot, 1642-4; Colonel, 1644-7; governor of Leek, Staffordshire, 1644-6.
Bowyer served in various Staffordshire operations in 1643, including alongside Sir William Brereton’s force at Hopton Heath (19 Mar. 1643).
By Feb. 1645 he was serving under Sir William Brereton, who sent him as commander of a force of about 400 Staffordshire and Cheshire horse and 500 Staffordshire foot to join with Mytton’s forces at Wem and Oswestry and took part under the latter in the taking of Shrewsbury.
In the politics of the Staffordshire county committee, Bowyer was strongly pro-Brereton, and in Oct. 1645 was that faction’s choice for commander of the Staffordshire horse sent to serve under his kinsman at the siege of Chester. He became one of Brereton’s trusted officers. In Jan. 1646 Brereton ordered him into Staffordshire with the Warwickshire and Staffordshire horse to counter royalist movements there. In Mar. Brereton sent him with a small detachment to take Tutbury Castle. ‘Bowyer’s forces apparently comprised three under-strength foot companies from the Moorlands, and two small foot companies from the trained bands: in all, 220 foot. In addition, Bowyer could call on some horse as required, and 130 Derbyshire foot’ (Carr and Atherton, Brereton Staffs., 35). Bowyer’s own company was just 35 men strong. Bowyer had to deal not only with the royalists, but with the more generous surrender terms that Sir John Gell was offering the garrison (his ‘private plots’, as Bowyer called them), but the castle surrendered to Brereton and Bowyer on 20 Apr. In early May Bowyer was ordered to oversee the slighting of the castle.
Brereton backed Bowyer strongly in the Recruiter election for Staffordshire: he was elected MP on 13 Aug. 1646 and sat until his seclusion at Pride’s Purge; in 1651 he was ordered to be arrested as ‘disaffected and dangerous’.
He was elected MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme in 1656 (when he was not allowed to take his seat) and in 1660. Active in the Convention Parliament, his commitment to the restoration of the king was rewarded with a knighthood and baronetcy; deputy-lieutenant in Staffordshire in Aug. 1660-1, and sheriff 1662-3.
Bowyer was buried at Biddulph, Staffordshire, on 18 July 1666.
References: Vis. Staffs., 50-1; Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, liv, lxxi, lxxiv, lxxxii-iii, 8, 26, 32, 36, 40, 144, 275, 304, 343, 356; HoP: The Commons, 1604-1629, 3.281-3;HoP: The Commons, 1660-1690, 1.697-8; Dore, Brereton letter books, passim, 1.45, 136-7; 2.183, 436, 482, 499, 504, 558; Carr and Atherton, Brereton Staffs., 19, 34-5, 56-7, 96, 98, 119-20, 123-5, 140-1, 143, 144, 146-7, 152-4, 157-9, 176, 218-9, 257, 342; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming).
Armies: Staffordshire
Bowyler, Francis Francis Bowyler
Lieutenant in Thomas Ballard’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 43.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Boyce, - - Boyce
Lieutenant in the company commanded by Captain Southcote in 1644 in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army. He may well be the John [?] Boyce who later served as a captain in Richard Hammond’s foot regiment in the New Model Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.64; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 45, 56, 77.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army?
Boyes, - - Boyes
Captain in the Aylesford Lathe volunteer regiment.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 75.
Armies: Kent
Boynton, Francis Francis Boynton (baptised 1619, died 1695)
Of Barmston and later of Burton Agnes, Yorkshire (East Riding).
Eldest son of Sir Matthew Boynton (1592-1647), first baronet of Barmston and Burton Agnes, MP for Hedon (1621) and Scarborough (1645-7), and his wife Frances, daughter of Sir Henry Griffith of Burton Agnes, baronet Francis married Constance (died 1692), daughter of Viscount Saye and Sele, at whose house he lived in the 1630s (other members of his family had moved to the Low Countries). One of his sister married John Anlaby of Etton.
In 1642 Boynton and his brother Matthew raised a regiment of foot and a troop of horse at their own expense. He was active in the East and North Ridings before joining Lord Fairfax at Selby in Dec. 1642. At Beverley on 29 June Boynton arrested his kinsman Sir John Hotham, and the following day commanded the defence of the town against another defector, Sir Hugh Cholmley. He was a colonel of horse from mid-1643, when he handed the foot regiment to Matthew. He went with Sir Thomas Fairfax into Lincolnshire in Sept. 1643 and in Feb. 1644 (where at one point he was injured in a quarrel with the Wray family over the relative merits of Lord Willoughby of Parham and the earl of Manchester as commanders of the Eastern Association). On 17 June 1644 Boynton captured Mulgrave Castle, Yorkshire (North Riding), and in following weeks took Whitby and fought at Marston Moor. His regiment later campaigned in the East Midlands, Shropshire and North Wales, while being defeated by Langdale at Newark on 27 Feb. 1645. Boynton’s regiment was reduced on 24 June 1645, the same day he was appointed to the Northern Association committee for the East Riding (he had been on all North Riding committees since Feb. 1643 and those for the East Riding since Aug. 1643). He joined in Fairfax’s rising for a free parliament in Dec. 1659/Jan. 1660 and signed the Yorkshire petition to Monck. He served on the lieutenancy after the Restoration.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 372; Vis. Yorks., 2, 147-8; HoP: the Commons, 1660-1690, I, 704.
Armies: Yorkshire
Boynton, John John Boynton (died 1689)
Of Rawcliffe township, Snaith parish, Yorkshire (West Riding). A barrister, the eldest son of Thomas Boynton of Rawlcliffe (died 1656) and his wife Jane Awnby (died 1634) of Sherwood, Yorkshire (the parents married in 1619). John married Frances, daughter of Alderman John Bernard of Hull.
Boynton was a major in Yorkshire.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 373, Vis. Yorks., 2, 154; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 119.
Armies: Yorkshire
Boynton, John John Boynton (baptised 1626, died 1651)
Of Barmston and later of Burton Agnes, Yorkshire (East Riding). A younger son of Sir Matthew Boynton (1592-1647), first baronet of Barmston and Burton Agnes, MP for Hedon (1621) and Scarborough (1645-7), and his wife Frances, daughter of Sir Henry Griffith of Burton Agnes, baronet Younger brother of Francis and Matthew Boynton.
In Feb. 1645 John was a captain in Lord Fairfax’s regiment of horse when the unit was posted to Cheshire and later became its major.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 373; Vis. Yorks, 2, 147, 154; Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 522; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 97 [citing TNA, SP28/265/369; SP23/188/322; E121/4/8, no. 5; E121/5/6, no. 15; East Riding Antiq. Soc., 9 (1901), 82].
Armies: Yorkshire
Boynton, Matthew Matthew Boynton (1620-1651)
Second son of Sir Matthew Boynton (1592-1647), first baronet of Barmston and Burton Agnes, MP for Hedon (1621) and Scarborough (1645-7), and his wife Frances, daughter of Sir Henry Griffith of Burton Agnes, baronet. Brother of John and Francis Boynton. Matthew married Isabell, daughter of Robert Stapleton of Wighill, Yorkshire.
In 1642 Matthew and his brother Francis raised a regiment of foot and a troop of horse at their own expense, and he took command of the foot in mid-1643. On 26 Aug. 1651 Matthew was killed at the battle of Wigan Lane.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 373, Vis. Yorks.,3, 147-8; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 97.
Armies: Yorkshire
Boys [Boyce], Vincent Vincent Boys [Boyce]
By spring 1644 captain in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army. He went on to serve in Fairfax’s regiment in the New Model Army, until he left the regiment in 1647.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.64; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 43, 55, 65, 76, 85.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
Bradbury, Francis Francis Bradbury (died 1645).
Major in Thomas Ayloffe’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army from 18 Mar. 1643; he was killed in a skirmish when the royalists attempted to attack Abingdon on 11 Jan. 1645.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.8; CSPD, 1644-45, 246.
Armies: Eastern Association
Bradbury, Francis Francis Bradbury
Lieutenant to Captain Marine in John Browne’s regiment of dragoons in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642-3.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 57.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bradford, William William Bradford (died 1657)
Of Holme, on Spalding Moor, Yorkshire (East Riding), an esquire.
William probably knew Sir William Constable, who had an estate at Holme until 1633. In 1642 Constable made him quartermaster of his regiment of foot and quickly promoted him captain. Bradford went north with the regiment in autumn 1643, and soon after was made a captain in Constable’s regiment of dragoons and then a captain in Constable’s regiment of horse. By Feb. 1645 Bradford had transferred to Christopher Copley’s regiment of horse. In Sept. 1645 he joined Robert Lilburne’s regiment of horse, in which he was still serving at the time of the second civil war. Politically Bradford was a republican who objected to the Protectorate, and on leaving the army became a Quaker.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 373; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 100.
Armies: Yorkshire; Northern Army (Poyntz)
Bradley, John John Bradley
‘A citizen of obscure origins, Bradley was a leader in the trade with the Americas, having imported sixty thousand pounds of Virginia tobacco in 1640’ (Brenner, Merchants, 338).
Bradley was admitted to the Company of the Artillery Garden (now the Honourable Artillery Company) on 10 Feb. 1626. He was a captain of the Trained Bands, 1639. In Apr. 1641 he and John Venn were two of the three City Captains who presented citizens’ petitions to parliament against the earl of Strafford. In June 1641 he was a representative of the commonalty asserting their right to a broader role in the election of sheriffs. Both Brenner and Lindley portray Bradley as a leading figure in City militancy in the early 1640s.
Bradley was probably the major of the Yellow regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Sir John Wollaston, and in which John Venn was Lieutenant-Colonel) in Apr. 1642, but evidently left the Trained Bands shortly after. By 16 Aug. 1642 he was evidently a captain in Essex’s Army, when a warrant was issued to reimburse him
£210 8s. for carbines, pistols and arms for the cuirassiers.
On 26 Jan. 1644 Bradley and Owen Roe bought 500 arquebuses from a merchant by the appointment of the Committee for the Safety of the Kingdom.
References: Barriffe, Mars, sig. ¶r.; Overton 1642; TNA, SP28/1a/119; SP28/12/59; Lindley, Popular politics, 20, 32-3, 172-3, 222; Brenner, Merchants, 183, 338, 343,435; Cardew-Rendle.
Armies: London; Earl of Essex
Bradley, Luke Luke Bradley
Bradley was a wool-stapler living in Barnabe [Bermondsey?] Street, St Olave’s parish, Southwark in Sept. 1643. He was then a captain in the Southwark auxiliaries regiment. As such he was placed with the other captains of that regiment by the royalist Richard Symonds: ‘all these violent [○ i.e. roundhead]’ (BL, Harl. 986, p. 66).
On 16 Apr. 1644 Bradley was still captain in the Southwark auxiliaries regiment, but he was not there by Oct. 1646.
References: BL, Harl. 986, pp. 66-7; Nagel, ‘London militia’, 94, 96; TNA, SP28/121A, Part 4, ff. 567r.-568r.
Armies: Southwark
Bradley, Walter Walter Bradley
Lieutenant in Rochford’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 32.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bradshaw, - - Bradshaw
Of Manningham township, Bradford parish, Yorkshire (West Riding). A captain in Yorkshire.
References: Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 106.
Armies: Yorkshire
Bradshaw, Henry Henry Bradshaw (baptised 1601, died 1662)
Of Marple, Stockport parish, Cheshire. Baptised at Stockport, 23 Jan. 1601. Eldest son of Henry Bradshaw (died 1654) of Marple Hall and Wibersley, Cheshire, and Catherine Winnington (died 1604) of Offerton, Cheshire. The elder brother of John Bradshaw, the regicide. Henry married (1) Mary, daughter of Bernard Wells of Stoke, Derbyshire, and (2) Anne, daughter, of George Bowdon of Bowdon.
Henry Bradshaw was, by his own account, an officer in the Cheshire forces: ‘Captain of a Company of foote souldiers in the regiment of Collonell Robt. Duckenfeild, in actuall service for the parlt. from the 13th. Day of May, 1643, to the 10th. day of March the same year being 301 dayes; he was Serjeant Major to the foresaid regiment from the said 10th. of March, by vertue of a Commission from the late Ferdinando Lord Fairfax until the 3rd. day of Feb., 1645 [/46], being 695 dayes, and was in both these commaunds in actuall service’, and had not received more than £50 in all for both offices (Earwaker, East Cheshire, 62-3). During the second civil war Bradshaw (fruitlessly) attempted to raise a regiment for parliament in Macclesfield Hundred.
On 22 Aug. 1650 Bradshaw was commissioned colonel of a militia regiment of foot in Cheshire. The regiment formed part of the Cheshire brigade that fought at the battle of Worcester, where he was slightly wounded.In 1652 he sat on the court martial which tried the earl of Derby.
In religion Bradshaw seems to have been a strict Presbyterian, signing the petition for establishing a Presbyterian structure in Cheshire in 1646. Of middling gentry class, he gained prominence with Sir William Brereton’s militant faction. He was one of the most active JPs in Cheshire 1646-59. In 1651 he prosecuted at Quarter Sessions one Joshua Gerrard for saying, ‘a strangr would not thinke hee the said Colonel Henry Bradshaw were a man of that eminency in the country, hee goeing soe plaine in apparell’ (Morrill, Cheshire, 227). He also served as a sequestrator in Macclesfield Hundred.
In Aug. 1659, faced with the Booth Rising, the Rump commissioned Bradshaw to command a regiment of volunteer foot, ‘on consideration of his past fidelity and good services’ (CSPD, 1659-1660, 74). However, he remained neutral, protesting to Booth that he had not acted against him and objecting to the search of his house for arms. Nevertheless, he advised Booth to desist, ‘and submit to the all-seeing decree and providence of or mercifull God’ (Morrill, Cheshire, 312-3). As the rebellion collapsed Henry was one of those who advised Booth to appeal to parliament’s mercy.
At the Restoration, Bradshaw was arrested for his part in Derby’s trial: his defence was that he had not constantly attended the court; that he had not signed the death warrant; that he had interceded with the president of the court and with his brother John for Derby’s life to be spared; and that he was a poor man with small estate and eleven children. He was released on bail after a month.
Bradshaw died at Marple on 11 Mar. 1662, and was buried at Stockport four days later.
References: Earwaker, East Cheshire, 2.61-2, 64-8; CSPD, 1650, 507. 509; Oxford DNB [under his brother John Bradshaw]; Morrill, Cheshire, 52, 187, 188, 219-20, 224, 227, 235, 257, 258, 262, 264-288, 291-3, 295-9, 312-3, 323, 327-8; Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 181-2, 325, 377-8, 330-1, 2. 487, 496-8; Carr and Atherton, Brereton Staffs., 170.
Armies: Cheshire
Bradshaw, Hugh Hugh Bradshaw
An officer of unknown rank in Lancashire, in May 1648 signatory to the Presbyterian, anti-New Model Army ‘Engagement or Declaration of the Officers and Souldiers of the County Palatine of Lancaster’.
References: Lancashire military proceedings, 248-50.
Armies: Lancashire
Bradshaw, John John Bradshaw
Of Bradshaw Hall, Bolton parish, Lancashire.
Either John Bradshaw (1582/3-1665), eldest son of John Bradshaw of Bradshaw and his wife Isabel Assheton of Chaderton; or his eldest son, John Bradshaw (born 1614), whose first wife was Alice, daughter of Sir George Leycester of Toft, Cheshire. A strongly puritan family, and either father or son (presumably the former) was in 1641 worth only £100 per annum.
In 1642 a John was a deputy-lieutenant and in June signatory to a pro-parliamentarian petition. That autumn he was one of six parliamentarian representatives appointed to broker a local peace pact that never came into effect after parliament forbade such truces. He was appointed by ordinance high sheriff in 1645, and in 1646 was an elder of the Presbyterian classis.
John the army officer was by Apr. 1645 lieutenant-colonel of Ralph Assheton’s regiment of foot. Dore suggests he may have been the Captain Bradshaw who led Assheton’s tenants at the siege of Manchester rather than Robert Bradshaw, uncle or brother of John (identified as the latter from one pamphlet only).
Lieutenant-Colonel Bradshaw’s military career seems to have ended after Assheton’s regiment withdrew from Cheshire in 1645.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 189, 487; Vis. Lancs., 1664, 1, 50; Lancashire military proceedings, 340; Blackwood, Lancashire gentry, 49, 56, 65, 84, 105; VCH Lancs., 5, 271; Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 281 and passim.
Armies: Lancashire
Bradshaw, Nathaniel Nathaniel Bradshaw
Lieutenant in John Desborough’s troop in Cromwell’s horse regiment in the Eastern Association Army, listed as serving in Jan. 1645.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.19.
Armies: Eastern Association
Bradshaw, Robert Robert Bradshaw (died 1643)
Identified as a younger brother of John Bradshaw of Bradshaw (1582/3-1664) and hence brother-in-law of the MP William Asshurst. The 1664 Lancashire Visitation described this Robert Bradshaw as a citizen of London. In Sept. 1642 Bradshaw led 150 of Ralph Assheton of Middleton's tenants at the defence of Manchester, where he and his men fought bravely. (Note, however, that Dore reckons this may have been his elder brother John). He is probably the Captain Bradshaw who, with Captain Robert Venables, was captured in a skirmish at Westhoughton in Dec. 1642. He was taken prisoner to Lathom House and was soon released; but ‘not long after died being a very moderate man and of good parts’ (Warr in Lancashire, 20).
References: Lancashire military proceedings, 46, 49, 51, 63, 333; Warr in Lancashire, 9, 20, 97, 108; Vis. Lancs., 1664, 1, 50.
Bradyll, John John Bradyll (died 1643)
Of Whalley, Lancashire. Eldest son of John Bardyll (died 1656) and his first wife Milicent, daughter of John Talbot of Bashall. John elder was made a JP in Oct. 1642 and in Apr. a commissioner for punishing scandalous ministers.
In 1642 John Bradyll the younger had a captain's commission from Colonels John Starkie and Richard Shuttleworth, senior, to recruit in Blackburn Hundred. He and Nicholas Starkie ‘were the first Captaines in the Parliament Service in that Hundred and they raisede Companies which proved stout men and were of good repute for hardness and manhood every where they came’ (Warr in Lancashire, 15). In July 1643 Bradyll was mortally wounded at the siege of Sir William Leslie’s house in Thornton-in-Craven, Yorkshire. He was buried on 27 July.
References: Vis. Lancs., 1664, 1, 47-8; Warr in Lancashire, 15, 106.
Armies: Lancashire
Brag [Bragg, Brage], Edward Edward Brag [Bragg, Brage]
Captain of foot, second-in-command of garrison of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis.
On 25 Mar. 1647, Captain Brag [?definitely Edward] was suspended and disbanded, but stated to be serving in the Portland garrison (apparently part of the Weymouth force), 21 Dec. 1648. Mayo gives him as of Dorchester, and Underdown as a trooper in Erle’s troop of horse in 1643.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 162, 208, 486, 578; Bayley, Civil War in Dorset, 97, 207, 325-6; Underdown, Fire from Heaven, 201.
Armies: Dorset
Bragg, - - Bragg
Quartermaster.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 377.
Armies: Dorset
Bragg, Nicholas Nicholas Bragg
In spring 1645 he was a captain of what had formerly been Skippon’s troop in the earl of Essex’s own regiment of horse, commanded by Stapleton, and like several officers from that regiment he transferred to the New Model regiment of horse initially commanded by Richard Graves. Bragg left the regiment and the army in summer 1647.
References: Wanklyn, New Model Army, 1. 53, 63, 74, 84, 150.
Armies: Earl of Essex; New Model Army
Braine [Brayne], William William Braine [Brayne] (died 1657)
Son of Thomas Braine of Whixhall, near Wem, Shropshire, though almost nothing is known of his early life. He was a servant to the recorder of Shrewsbury before the civil war. A captain at Apley Castle when it fell to the royalists in Mar. 1644. He was probably promoted to major upon being given command of the garrison at Wem in Aug. 1644, in place of Colonel Thomas Mytton who had been promoted to the governorship of Oswestry. He took part in the capture of Shrewsbury in Feb. 1645. In summer 1645 he was active in attacks on remaining royalist basis in the county, including High Ercall and Lilleshall, and in Mar. 1646 he commanded one of the parties which stormed Bridgnorth.
His Oxford DNB biography focuses on his later military career during the 1650s, when he became lieutenant-colonel to William Daniel’s regiment campaigning in Scotland and by summer 1655 was governor of Inverlochy, authorised to enforce martial law over a wider region. In 1656 he was appointed commander-in-chief of newly-conquered Jamaica, arriving (via Barbados) at the head of a body of troops mainly drawn from Scotland and Ireland at the end of the year. He seems to have been very active and efficient during his time in Jamaica, but, like so many of his men and other settlers, he died of fever at the beginning of Sept. 1657.
References: Oxford DNB; Dore, Brereton letter books, 2. 188; National Library of Wales, Sweeney Hall Ms., A1, f. 21; W. Phillips, ‘The Ottley papers relating to the civil war’, Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, VIII (1896), 230-1; The Scottish Dove, 23-29 Aug. 1645; Heads of some Nortes for the City Scout, 28 Aug. 1645; The Weekly Account, 6 Apr. 1646; R. Symonds, ed. C.E. Long, Diary of the Marches of the Royal Army During the Great Civil War Kept by Richard Symonds.
Armies: Shropshire
Bramhall, - - Bramhall
A major in Staffordshire. On 19 Feb. 1644, the county committee ordered ‘That the souldiers which came from Maior Bramhall and have listed themselves under several Capts. Shall soe remayne as they are, until Maior Bramhall com hither to shew his interest in them’. There is no further reference to Bramhall in the county committee records.
References: Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 55.
Armies: Staffordshire
Bramhall [Bromwell], Francis Francis Bramhall [Bromwell]
Of Nantwich, Cheshire. By Apr. 1645 a captain in Colonel Henry Brooke’s regiment of foot in Sir William Brereton’s Cheshire Army.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 324-32.
Armies: Cheshire
Bramman, Robert Robert Bramman
Lieutenant in Edward Harley’s regiment of foot in Gloucs. in Nov. 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 63; HMC, Portland Mss, III, 130
Armies: Gloucestershire
Bramston, Jo. Jo. Bramston
Ensign in Rochford’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 32.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Brand, Jasper Jasper Brand
Captain in Rochford’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642 by or from 6 Sept.
This is possibly the Joseph Brand who was ensign in George Goring’s regiment of foot in the earl of Northumberland’s Army against the Scots in 1640.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 32, 77; TNA, SP28/2a/207.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Brandwood, Edward Edward Brandwood
Brandwood was admitted to the Company of the Artillery Garden (now the Honourable Artillery Company) on 19 Apr. 1642. In summer 1642 he was an ensign in the Yellow regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Sir John Wollaston).
References: Thrale 1642; Cardew-Rendle.
Armies: London
Brandy, Thomas Thomas Brandy
Lieutenant in Thomas Ballard’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 43.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bray, Edward Edward Bray
Lieutenant in Captain Seward’s company. Named in order, Jan. 1643, for raising of 80 men, part-time service, in Dorchester. This could be Edward Brag, later captain in the Weymouth garrison. However, Underdown, Fire from Heaven, 201, places Edward Brag in Erle’s volunteer troop of horse. Given that Bray can only be placed in the foot company in Jan. 1643, and the greater prestige of Erle’s Troop, it is very possible that they are the same man.
References: Underdown, Fire from Heaven, 201.
Armies: Dorset
Bray, Richard Richard Bray
Captain of horse in the earl of Denbigh’s Army. On 19 Apr. 1644 he was paid £20 for his troop.
References: TNA, SP28/131, Part 12, f. 23r.
Armies: Earl of Denbigh
Braycey, Benjamin Benjamin Braycey
A captain in the earl of Denbigh’s Army, who appointed him deputy general adjutant, 13 May 1644 (draft warrant).
References: Warws. RO, CR 2017/C9/99.
Armies: Earl of Denbigh
Brayfield, Alexander Alexander Brayfield
Lieutenant in Richard Beaumont’s company in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of dragoons in the Eastern Association Army. In spring 1645 he became a lieutenant, and later a captain, in the New Model Army foot regiment commanded initially by Pickering and later by Hewson.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.59; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 49, 60, 81, 91, 104.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
Brayne, James James Brayne
Presumably a kinsman of John Brayne and part of the cousinage of the Harleys of Brampton Bryan, Herefordshire. When the officers of Edward Harley’s regiment of foot, en route for Plymouth in Dec. 1643, appealed for supplies to their Colonel, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Rea sent a similar letter to Captain James Brayne.
References: HMC, Portland Mss, 3.120.
Armies: Devon; Herefordshire
Brayne, John John Brayne
A kinsman of the Harleys of Brampton Bryan. In Nov. 1644 Brayne was listed as lieutenant of Edward Harley’s troop of horse in Gloucs. By 3 Dec. Captain Brayne was gone, the troop was down to 36 men, and the only officer left was the quartermaster.
References: HMC, Portland Mss, 3.130-1, 248, 259.
Armies: Gloucestershire; Waller (Southern Association)
Brayne, John John Brayne
Captain. Captain in John Berrow’s Gloucestershire regiment of foot raised in the Forest of Dean. On 24 Dec. 1642 he was paid £100.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6. 615.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Brean, - - Brean
A colonel mentioned in the Staffordshire county committee records on 26 Feb. 1644, when a repayment was made to a Uttoxeter man for six horses which had been taken by his and Major Medhope’s troops.
References: Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 57.
Armies: Staffordshire
Breare, Robert Robert Breare
Of Yorkshire, probably from the East Riding.
He served as a captain in Sir William Constable’s regiment of dragoons, and stayed with the regiment when it passed to Sir William Fairfax and later to Thomas Morgan. Breare was promoted major, possibly as early as Jan. 1644, in which month he led the vanguard at Bridlington. In 1648 he discovered four undervalued delinquent estates in the East Riding and petitioned for some of the money to be applied to his arrears.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 374.
Armies: Yorkshire
Breckham, James James Breckham
Captain in Sir William Constable’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 41; Davies, ‘Essex’s Army’, 47.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Breres, Edward Edward Breres (died 1643)
A captain of Preston volunteers (possibly part of Alexander Rigby’s regiment) killed at the siege of Thurland Castle (Aug. to Oct. 1643).
References: Warr in Lancashire, 41; Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 293.
Armies: Lancashire
Brereton, Anthony Anthony Brereton
Of Edge near Malpas, Cheshire. Probably from a junior (possibly illegitimate) branch of the Breretons.
An officer of Sir William Brereton’s regiment of foot, identified in Oct. 1645 as jointly commanding a company with Captain Thomas Hulse. From probably Apr. 1645 Brereton had also been governor of Cholmondeley Castle. By 27 Oct. 1645 he was a prisoner held at Denbigh Castle (that day Sir Richard Lloyd granted parole to parliamentarian Captain Luke Lloyd to negotiate an exchange for himself and Brereton) and was exchanged in Nov. In a note of payment for himself and his men for serving in the leaguer of Chester dated 12 Jan. 1646 he is incorrectly named Andrew.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 175-5, 2. xix, 111-3, 155, 243, 511.
Armies: Cheshire
Brereton, Richard Richard Brereton
An officer in Cheshire. His relationship to Sir William Brereton, commander-in-chief in Cheshire, is uncertain: the baronet did have a younger brother called Richard, but there were too many Brereton branches to be secure in the identification.
Richard Brereton’s career can be traced through a series of certificates submitted to the committee of accounts, dated between 26 June 1647 and Dec. 1648. From 13 Dec. 1642 to 13 Nov. 1643 he was cornet of Colonel Robert Duckenfeild’s troop of horse, during which time he constantly mustered three horses of his own completely equipped, until on 1 Dec. 1643 he was commissioned captain of a company of foot, probably in Sir William Brereton’s own regiment, in which he served until 4 July 1644. From then he served as a reformado, until on 9 Dec. 1645 becoming captain of a troop of harquebusiers in Brereton’s own regiment of horse in which he served until early Oct. 1646, replacing the troop’s previous commander Hugh Culmes or Coolham, killed at Rowton Heath. Richard served at the siege of Chester and with Brereton’s forces at Lichfield until the disbandment of the regiment in late 1646. Jerome Sankey later certified in support of Richard’s claims, that when Sir Thomas Fairfax, from Leighton Buzzard, on 30 July 1647 ordered him to go to Cheshire, Brereton volunteered himself and his men ‘and ingaged himselfe, as farre as in him laye to observe what ever orders I should receive’ from Fairfax, and continued under Sankey’s command until his troop was disbanded on 9 Jan. 1648.
References: BL, Harl. 2128, ff. 73r.-78r.; Carr and Atherton, Brereton Staffs., 58, 349.
Armies: Cheshire; Reformado
Brereton, Thomas Thomas Brereton
Apparently no relation to Sir William Brereton. By May 1645 and still there in Oct., governor of the newly-installed parliamentarian garrison at Benthall Hall, Shropshire.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, I. 395; R. Symonds, ed. C.E. Long, Diary of the Marches of the Royal Army During the Great Civil War Kept by Richard Symonds, 172.
Armies: Shropshire
Brereton, Sir William Sir William Brereton, first baronet (1604-1661)
Born 13 Sept. 1604, eldest son of William Brereton (1584-1610) of Handforth, Cheshire, and Margaret Holland (1585-1609), daughter of Richard Holland of Denton, Cheshire. He married (1) in 1623 Susanna, daughter of Sir George Booth of Dunham Massey, Cheshire (whose ward he had been); (2) in 1637 Cicely, daughter of Sir William Fisherwick, baronet, of Skeffington, Leicesterhire, widow of Edward Mytton of Weston, Staffordshire. Brereton was MP for Cheshire in 1624, 1628, and in the Short and Long Parliaments.
Having failed in summer 1642 to seize Chester for parliament Brereton returned to London. He later recorded that he had first led his own troop at Brentford – by which he presumably meant not the engagement itself (on 12 Nov. 1642) but in the manoeuvres as the king’s approach threatened London. In Dec. he raised a number of dragoons. Brereton returned to Cheshire in Jan. 1643 leading 500 soldiers, and joined forces with 2,000 volunteers raised by five leading local gentry. He made Nantwich his headquarters and later was appointed commander-in-chief of parliamentarian forces in Cheshire, gaining further powers by ordinances of 9 Jan. and 15 Mar. 1643, and 26 Mar. and 7 May 1644. Brereton was exempted from the Self-Denying Ordinance in Feb. 1645 in order to bring to a successful conclusion the lengthy siege of Chester. His exemption was rescinded in June, when the city was still untaken, but reinstated that Sept. Having accepted the surrender of Chester on 1 Feb. 1646, in the spring Brereton advanced into the Midlands, in Staffordshire besieging Lichfield and the castles at Dudley and Tutbury. The castles fell quickly, Lichfield held out into July. Units under Brereton formed one of three task forces (with those of Colonels Thomas Morgan and John Birch) which together defeated the last royalist field army at Stow-on-the-Wold in Mar. 1646.
Brereton was colonel of regiments of Cheshire horse and foot. (For his account of the history of these formations see Dore, Brereton letter books, 2, 204-5.) As a commander, he adopted a regional rather than just a county approach and thus repeatedly in 1643-5, once most of Cheshire was fairly secure, he dispatched some of his troops to support and to reinforce parliamentarian operations in neighbouring counties, including Lancashire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Montgomeryshire, Denbighshire and Flint., sometimes commanding his men in person, sometimes deploying one of his senior officers to lead them. In consequence, he often struggled with more localist or moderate parliamentarians in Cheshire and neighbouring counties (see Morrill, Cheshire, 139-79; Dore, Brereton letter books, 1.11-25.2.13-25; Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, lxxiv-lxxxii). Brereton 'was involved in more than thirty engagements in which blood was shed, he stormed eleven garrisoned towns, and was on six battlefields in which more than 2,000 men were engaged – Middlewich and Hopton Heath (Mar. 1643), Middlewich (Dec. 1643), Nantwich (Jan. 1644), Montgomery (Sept. 1644), and Stow-on-the-Wold (Mar. 1646)’ (Oxford DNB). His surviving letterbooks allow us to reconstruct his campaigns during the last eighteen months of the main civil war in great detail and provide a wealth of information.
Once the main civil war was ended, Brereton became for a time a London-based politician, active in the Commons and, while he absented himself during the period of the regicide, he was a fairly active Rumper. He also acquired the former archbishop’s palace at Croydon, Surrey, which thenceforth became his main residence, and he played a minor role in Surrey administrative affairs during the 1650s. But despite his dominant position in Cheshire in 1642-6, he was never a real political heavyweight in parliament or on the national stage and his star quickly waned after the war. He lost some of his property but was otherwise unmolested at the Restoration and he died shortly afterwards at Croydon, presumably still there as a tenant of the new archbishop who had regained ownership of the palace.
References: Oxford DNB; Brereton letter books; Carr and Atherton, Brereton Staffs.; R. N. Dore, ‘The early life of Sir William Brereton’, Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 63 (1952-3), 1-26; J. S. Morrill, ‘Sir William Brereton and England's wars of religion’, Journal of British Studies, 24 (1985), 311-32; W. Brereton, Travels in Holland, the United Provinces, England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1634-5, ed. E. Hawkins, Chetham Society, 1 (1844); Morrill, Cheshire; Firth and Rait, Acts and Ordinances, 1, 409-13; Keeler, Long Parliament, 114-5; HoP: The House of Commons, 1604-1629, 3, 302-3; HoP: The House of Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming); Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, lxxiv-lxxxii.
Armies: Cheshire
Brett, John John Brett
Brett was described by the royalist spy Richard Symonds in 1643 as ‘a Grocer. Sells painting Colors. at the Rose & Crowne in Cornhill’ ( BL, Harl. 986, p. 17).
He was lieutenant in the Orange regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel John Towse) in summer 1642. Captain-Lieutenant of the Colonel’s company in the Yellow regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Sir John Wollaston) in Sept. 1643. In 1647 he was lieutenant-colonel of the Red regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Edward Hooker), approved by the Presbyterian militia committee, but put out after the failure of the Presbyterian coup. A satire claimed that he was ‘no Presbiterian, but I suppose he is too much a man, too much a Souldier to act in these base unworthy wayes now of foote’ (A paire of spectacles for the Citie, (1648), 9).
There were two John Bretts, one of them the grocer of Cornhill, identified by Lindley as signatory to the petition of Feb. 1642 which challenged the change in control from the lord mayor (and therefore opposed to the seizure of control of the City by parliament’s supporters). The other John Brett, a Merchant Taylor and colonial trader, was a parish activist in St Benet Gracechurch in the early 1640s and later a common councilman. It is possible that Richard Symonds may have confused the two men as he was making his notations some years later, although in different ways both identifications are problematic. Both were members of the Company of the Artillery Garden (now the Honourable Artillery Company). The Cornhill John Brett was admitted on 10 Aug. 1635; the other, of the Star, Gracechurch Street, and captain in 1642, was admitted on 20 May 1642.
References: Thrale 1642; BL, Harl. 986, p. 17; Nagel, ‘London militia’, 318; Lindley, Popular politics, 69, 67, 69, 73, 140, 225, 331-2; Cardew-Rendle.
Armies: London
Brett, John John Brett
Captain in the earl of Denbigh’s regiment of foot, later serving in the Shropshire county forces until May 1645. His accounts and accompanying correspondence survive in TNA.
References: TNA, SP28/34, part 4, ff. 468, 470, 471, 471.
Armies: Earl of Denbigh; Shropshire
Bretten, - - Bretten
Ensign in Captain Lloyd’s company in the Worcestershire regiment of foot (Colonels Edward Rous/William Dingley [Dineley]), 11 Apr. 1646.
References: TNA, SP28/138, Part 16, f. 46r.
Armies: Worcestershire
Brettergh, James James Brettergh
Presumably James Brettergh (born 1626/7) of Brettergh Holt, near Liverpool, Lancashire, eldest son of Nehemiah Brettergh (died 1659) and his wife Catherine, daughter of Edward Smith of Knowsley, who was step-son of the godly Catherine Brettergh (née Bruen), for whom see Oxford DNB.
On 24 May 1650 Brettergh was commissioned captain of foot in the Lancashire militia in place of Peter Seddon.
References: CSPD, 1650, 506; Vis. Lancs., 1664, 1, 57.
Armies: Lancashire
Brewer, William William Brewer
Captain-Lieutenant of the Colonel’s company in Samuel Jones’s (later John Feilder’s) regiment of foot for much of 1643. By 11 Dec. 1643 he had taken over the command of the company commanded previously under Major Forbes, and continued its captain until the regiment’s disbandment in 1646. By June 1645 he was also captain of a company of dragoons also in the Farnham garrison (possibly in the regiment of Colonel Robert Wood). In July 1645 he received £10 for commanding a force of dragoons at the relief of Taunton and in Oct. his company was at the siege of Donnington Castle.
References: Spring, Waller’s army,66, 68; TNA, SP28/135/1.
Armies: Surrey; Waller (Southern Association)
Brews, Thomas Thomas Brews
Captain in Colonel John Fiennes’s regiment of horse in Oxfordshire in summer 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 54.
Armies: Oxfordshire
Brewster, Humphrey Humphrey Brewster
Captain in Lieutenant-Colonel Woods’s company in Sir Miles Hobart’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army; in summer 1644 he replaced Woods as the regiment’s lieutenant-colonel.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.40.
Armies: Eastern Association
Brickingham, - - Brickingham
Captain in the White regiment, London Auxiliaries (Colonel John Bellamy) in Oct. 1646.
References: Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 11.
Armies: London
Bridge [Bridges], Tobias Tobias Bridge [Bridges]
Younger son of John Bridge of Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex, Tobias was apprenticed to the Merchant Taylors’ Company of London in the late 1630s and became free of that Company in 1646.
By 1644 he was lieutenant in Isaac Ewer’s company in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of dragoons in the Eastern Association Army; he then succeeded Ewer as company commander. He served under Okey in his New Model Army regiment of dragoons, and as such probably fought at the battle of Naseby and in the New Model’s south-western campaign of 1645-6, as well as in the renewed war of 1648 and in the Scottish campaign of the early 1650s. Still in Scotland, in 1655 he replaced Okey as colonel.
He became deputy major-general (under Fleetwood) later in 1655, with oversight of the south Midlands, but in summer 1656 he succeeded the late Charles Worsley as major-general of the North West. He was an MP in the second Protectorate Parliament but was also active in the North West well after the formal ending of the system of the major-generals. He sat in the third (Richard Cromwell’s) Protectorate Parliament. He became an officer in the Dunkirk garrison in 1659 and continued in that role after the Restoration, and when that town was returned to the French he went on to serve at Tangiers. Around this time he was knighted. Later in the 1660s he campaigned as colonel of foot in the West Indies, particularly on Barbados, which is probably where he died sometime in the 1670s. The island’s capital is probably named after him.
References: Oxford DNB; Spring, Eastern Association, 1.57; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 50, 60, 71, 81, 92, 104.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
Bridges, - - Bridges
Captain of a company in St Augustine Lathe regiment of auxiliaries garrisoning Canterbury by 26 Jan. 1648.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 77.
Armies: Kent
Bridges, - - Bridges
Chaplain. The Worcestershire County Treasurer paid ‘Mr Bridges minister in full for his serving at Strensham garrison’.
References: TNA, SP28/138, Part 16, f. 38v.
Armies: Worcestershire
Bridges, John John Bridges (born 1610, died in or after 1663)
‘Bridges came of a quasi-gentle family, from the Greville town of Alcester [Warws.], which made its way in the world through more than half a century of service to successive lords Brooke. John Bridges had been the second lord’s solicitor and was an executor of his will; his father and four brothers also served the Grevilles as legal advisers or estate managers’ (Hughes, Warwickshire, 178).
Brother of William Bridges and Matthew Bridges.
Captain in Lord Brooke’s regiment of foot in Essex’s Army by 5 Sept. 1642. He was made governor of Warwick Castle (probably from 30 Dec., but also he was probably involved in the castle’s garrison before then) and promoted major in late 1642 or early 1643. Bridges became governor of Warwick town and colonel of the Warwick foot from 1645, after Godfrey Bosvile had stood down under the Self-Denying Ordinance. In that capacity he maintained a correspondence with Sir Samuel Luke, governor of Newport Pagnell garrison, and many letters to and from Bridges survive in Luke’s letter books. Bridges’s accounts (largely for 31 Dec. 1644-18 Oct. 1646, and so omitting earlier service) record his commands as:
Captain of a troop of harquebusiers, 5 Jan. 1644-22 Aug. 1646; major of foot and captain of a foot company, 31 Dec. 1644-17 Mar. 1645; colonel of a regiment of foot and captain of a foot company, 17 Mar. 1645-22 Aug. 1646; governor of Warwick Castle (to 22 Aug. 1646); governor of Warwick town, 28 June 1645-22 Aug. 1646.
In Feb. 1643 Bridges was part of Brooke’s Army when it drove the royalists out of Stratford-upon-Avon. A Letter from Collonell Bridges (1645) is his account of his routing of a force of marauding royalists from Prince Maurice’s army outside Warwick with a scratch force.
Bridges’s period as governor led to charges of extensive plundering and kidnapping in both Warwickshire and Oxfordshire, and embezzlement, including withholding his men’s pay and making away with goods taken from the king’s baggage train before Edgehill. Eventually, in 1651, he was cleared and his claims that such goods as were taken had been used for his garrison accepted. Some of these accusations may have been politically motivated, and the subcommittee of accounts at Warwick, which entertained these complaints so intently, may have been encouraged by their hostility to him as a social upstart and as the county commitee’s candidate for Warwickshire in the recruiter election. Nevertheless, one of the main witnesses against him was Andrew Yarranton whose later career suggests his hostility to Bridges was personal and professional rather than political. Yarranton complained that when he confronted Bridges over the pay that he was withholding, Bridges cashiered him and put him under house arrest, but refused to allow him a court martial to clear his name. Yarranton claimed:
‘That it was usuall maner of Colo. Bridges, that when any officer or souldier under him, were he never soe faithfull or valiant, came to demand his pay, he would not only check him for it, but also give him such harshe and discouraging language that most mens spirites could not beare it, and by that means many of them went away from his service in discontent and left their pay in his handes’ (TNA, SP28/253B). Moreover, Yarranton claimed that in the nine months that he served in Bridges’s troop, the latter had only once marched out with it, to join Waller at Cropredy Bridge (29 June 1644), when he had made his excuses and left. Bridges ‘stayed with his Troope till the Armyes faced one another, and he being then in the van of his Troope into battalia, he left his Troope before the fight began’; about four hours later his officers learnt that Bridges had ridden to Warwick (TNA, SP28/253B).
In 1645 Bridges was unsuccessful in the recruiter election to the county seat, despite his troops’ intimidation of voters. One of their victims, who was imprisoned by them, later reflected how Bridges’s men had tried ‘by violence to wrest their voices from them’; Bridges was ‘no gentleman by birth, a man of mean fortune and of mean abilities to perform so great a trust’ (Hughes, Warwickshire, 248).
Bridges prospered, in both Worcestershire (where he was able to set up as a gentleman) and Ireland. He was MP for Worcestershire, 1654 and for counties Sligo, Roscommon and Leitrim, 1656. He supported the kingship petition addressed to Cromwell in 1657. In England he was a member of Richard Baxter’s congregation; Irish historians identify him as an Independent.
In Dec. 1659 Bridges was a leading figure in the seizure of Dublin Castle which marked the beginning of the counter-revolution in Ireland, and by Mar. 1660 was talking to (the long royalist) Edward Massey who answered his anxieties about Charles II.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 34; TNA, SP28/2a/77, SP28/4/71-96, SP28/201, Part 2 (accounts); SP28/253B (esp. examination of Andrew Yarranton); Hughes, Warwickshire, 76, 178, 194n. 195-6, 199, 202, 215-6, 235, 243, 247-9, 253n., 270, 308, 340n., 353, 357; Clarke, Prelude to Restoration, 109, 113n., 118, 121, 143, 153, 279; T.C. Barnard, Cromwellian Ireland (1975), 145, 205, 208n., 210n.; A Letter from Collonell Bridges (1645); A True Relation of the Death of Lord Brooke (1643), sig. A2r.; HoP: the Commons, 1640-1660(forthcoming); Luke Letter Books, especially nos. 304, 363, 422, 461, 517, 544, 582, 593, 605, 616, 630, 669, 754, 801, 809, 813, 919, 940, 1128, 1168, 1179, 1244, 1251, 1260, 1285, 1288, 1297, 1305, 1390, 1417, 1586..
Armies: Warwickshire; Ireland
Bridges, Matthew Matthew Bridges
Of Alcester. Brother of Colonel John Bridges and Captain William Bridges. Like his brothers, he was a servant of the Greville family, acting as Lord Brooke’s rent receiver; in 1658 he was a pall-bearer at the funeral of Francis, third Lord Brooke.
Bridges served as ensign to Captain Cooke in Colonel Harry Barclay’s regiment in the earl of Essex’s Army from 19 Nov. 1642, for about nine months.
In summer 1643 Bridges raised a company at Warwick Castle, drawing 30 men out of Colonel John Bridges’s company, and this company continued in existence to (probably) Aug. 1646, apparently for much of that period attached to or forming part of Godfrey Bosvile’s Warwick-based regiment of foot.
Bridges was commissioned major of foot, probably under Colonel Joseph Hawkesworth in the Warwickshire militia, 9 July 1650.
In Sept. 1653 Bridges, a man ‘of undoubted parliamentarian zeal and unimpressive social origins’, was appointed a JP (Hughes, Warwickshire, 273), and was active throughout the 1650s as a JP and assessment commissioner in Warwickshire
References: Hughes, Warwickshire, 196, 199, 272-3, 295, 297, 301, 353, 357; TNA, SP28/253B (examination of Ensign John Bridges); TNA, SP28/201, ff. 11r.-17r. (Matthew Bridges’s account); CSPD 1650, 507.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Warwickshire
Bridges, William William Bridges
Of Alcester, Warwickshire. Brother of Colonel John Bridges and Captain Matthew Bridges.
Lieutenant in his brother John’s company in Lord Brooke’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
Bridges became captain of a troop in Colonel William Purefoy’s Warwickshire regiment of horse. In Aug. 1643 Bridges ‘turned of’ the troop and it passed to the command of Captain-Lieutenant Cheshire and (by summer 1644) to George Purefoy, as the Colonel’s troop of William Purefoy’s regiment of horse.
Like his brothers and earlier generations of his family, Bridges was tied by the service of the family of the Grevilles, lords Brooke, and he is probably the William Bridges who collected on pay warrants in Aug. 1642 when Brooke was raising his regiment. His service as an army officer may have been relatively brief, as he then returned to the management of the family estates for Brooke’s widow However, he is probably the Major William Bridges who commanded in the Worcestershire regiment of foot (Edward Rous/William Dingley [Dineley]) in 1645-6. In 1658 he and his brother Matthew were pall-bearers at the funeral of Francis, third Lord Brooke.
References: Hughes, Warwickshire, 196n., TNA, SP28/1a/77, 118, 189, SP28/136, Part 44; SP28/136, Part 40, ff. 2r., 4r.; Peacock, Army Lists, 35.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Lord Brooke; Warwickshire
Bridges, William William Bridges
Lieutenant in Lord Wharton’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 31.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Briggs, Edward Edward Briggs
From Westmorland and below gentry class.
Briggs served first with John Lambert at Thornton in Craven but soon went into the West Riding. Despite having been wounded badly at Leeds on 23 Jan. 1643, on 20 Mar. 1643 Briggs became a captain in John Lambert’s regiment of foot and later fought at Adwalton Moor. At Hull in Sept. 1643 Briggs transferred to Sir William Fairfax’s regiment of horse as a captain. By later Aug. 1644 Briggs had raised a regiment of Westmorland foot that served in Yorkshire. He was appointed to West Riding committees in May 1643 and Oct. 1644, and in Jan. 1645 to the West Riding sequestration committee. From mid-1644 Briggs with his regiment campaigned mainly in Westmorland under Lord Fairfax and later the Northern Association. He served on the county committee and on the Northern Association committee for Westmorland By Nov. 1645 Briggs had overall command of the Westmorland foot.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 374.
Armies: Yorkshire; Westmorland; Northern Army (Fairfax)
Briggs, Joseph Joseph Briggs
Of Sowerby township, Halifax parish, Yorkshire (West Riding), a clothier.
By early 1644 he had mortgaged his land for £400 to raise a troop of horse, and by early 1645 was in command of 16 troops containing the royalist garrison of Halifax. He later claimed allowable arrears of £306 12s.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 374; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 111.
Armies: Yorkshire
Bright, John John Bright (baptised 1619, died 1688)
Of Carbrook, Attercliffe-with-Darnall township, Sheffield parish, Yorkshire (West Riding), born the third but only surviving son of Stephen Bright and Joan Westby; his father did well working as bailiff in the Sheffield area and bought land there. John was active in the parliamentarian cause in Yorkshire from the outbreak of the civil war, raising troops and prominent in the defence of Sheffield in early 1643. Lord Fairfax commissioned him captain in early 1643 and in May Colonel. He fought under the Fairfaxes at the battles of Adwalton Moor, Nantwich and Marston Moor and later became governor of Sheffield and York. During the second civil war he served alongside and under his friend John Lambert at the battle of Preston and siege of Pontefract. In 1649 he was given command as colonel of a northern regiment of foot which was on the New Model Army payroll. Although he did not support the regicide, had misgivings about the proposed English invasion of Scotland in 1650 and resigned his commission around that time, he broadly supported the various regimes of the 1650s, became colonel of a Yorkshire militia regiment and served as governor of Hull during the latter half of the decade, supporting both Major General Lilburne and his old friend John Lambert. He supported the Restoration, obtained a baronetcy and retained the extensive properties he had acquired in northern England; indeed, he gained a reputation for acquiring property both by purchase and through a string of marriages to often younger wives and he died a very wealthy man.
References: Oxford DNB; Jones, ‘War in the North’, 374-5; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 118; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 161.
Armies: Yorkshire; Northern Army (Lambert); New Model Army
Bristow, - - Bristow
By autumn 1644 lieutenant in the company of Robert Ware (down to Aug. 1644) and thereafter of John Carter in John Pickering’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.87.
Armies: Eastern Association
Bristow, - - Bristow
Lieutenant in Sir Richard Onslow’s regiment of horse (Surrey auxiliaries), who was at the siege of Basing House in July 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 114.
Armies: Surrey; Waller (Southern Association)
Broadhurst, Richard Richard Broadhurst
Lieutenant in Captain William Foxall’s company of foot in Staffordshire. He appears in the latter’s accounts (which cover Dec. 1643-May 1647). On 8 Jan. 1644 he was given £61 19s. pay for the officers and men. Probably in Mar. 1644, he received £2 from the constable of Gnosall.
References: Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 328-9.
Armies: Staffordshire
Broadhurst, Thomas Thomas Broadhurst
Noted as a quartermaster when presented by the constable of Bradnip in 1662 as a former active parliamentarian.
References: ‘Active Parliamentarians, 1662’, 48.
Armies: Staffordshire
Broadnax, Thomas Thomas Broadnax
Captain in Colonel Richard Hardy’s Kentish regiment, possibly the Scraye Lathe regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 75.
Armies: Kent; Waller (Southern Association)
Brocket, Thomas Thomas Brocket
Brocket was lieutenant in Captain Edward Thomas’s company, which mustered on 16 Apr. 1644. From the date of the muster, the regiment was either the Southwark auxiliaries regiment or the Tower Hamlets Trained Bands regiment.
References: TNA, SP28/121A, Part 5, ff. 600r.-601v.
Armies: London
Brockhurst, [?]Thomas [?]ThomasBrockhurst
Lieutenant, evidently of Colonel John Fiennes’s regiment of horse in Oxfordshire and certainly present at the siege of Banbury. On 11 Sept. 1644 Fiennes paid him 6s. 8d. to buy provisions for 27 troopers upon the guard at Banbury. He probably became a captain in the regiment.
References: TNA, SP28/139, Part 19, f. 205r.
Armies: Oxfordshire
Broderip, - - Broderip
Captain. References to his Trained Band Company, 30 Aug. 1642-31 Dec. 1642, he had not commanded a Trained Band in 1641. In Dec. some of his men were ordered to Dorchester. Presumably either Colonel Richard Brodrippe [Brodrepp] of Maperton or Captain John Brodrepp, listed in disbanded officers, 6 Apr. 1648 [see below].
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 5.503.
Armies: Dorset
Brodrepp, John John Brodrepp
Despite appearing on list of reduced officers, 6 Apr. 1648, on 14 July 1648 order for a horse taken from a malignant to be delivered to William Lane, who was to serve under Captain Brodrepp.
Possibly John Brodrepp (died 1690) of Yondover in Netherbury, second son of Richard Brodrepp of Maperton.
References: Mayo,Dorset Standing Committee, 377, 409.
Armies: Dorset
Brodrepp [Brodrippe], Richard Richard Brodrepp [Brodrippe]
Of Maperton (will proved Feb. 1658). Although he has been identified as a colonel, he usually appears in Dorset committee records (where he is very active) as ‘Mr’ and little sign of a previous military role. Possibly Trained Band captain in 1642.
References: Vis. Dorset, 1677, 7.
Armies: Dorset
Brome, Thomas Thomas Brome
By Jan. 1645 a captain in command of a troop of horse numbering 30 men, all ranks, serving with Sir Thomas Myddelton’s brigade based in Montgomeryshire.
References: National Library of Wales, Chirk Castle Ms. 1/Biii, 93.
Armies: North Wales
Bromfield, - - Bromfield
Captain in Samuel Jones’s regiment of foot garrisoning Farnham, 5 July 1643-30 Sept. 1644.
References: TNA, SP 28/135/1 (accounts of Colonel Samuel Jones).
Armies: Surrey; Waller (Southern Association)
Bromfield, Lawrence Lawrence Bromfield (died 1666x1668)
Bromfield was a member of the Cutlers’ Company.
He was admitted to the Company of the Artillery Garden (now the Honourable Artillery Company) on 6 Oct. 1632. In Sept. 1643 he was third captain in the Red regiment, London Trained Bands.
In the early 1640s Bromfield was a godly activist in his parish of St Dunstan in the East, London (classified by Lindley as a ‘parish zealot’). He was a common councilman during the war. He was appointed to the Presbyterian militia committee in May 1647, which promoted him colonel of the Yellow regiment, London Trained Bands in the place of Ralph Harrison. After the failure of the Presbyterian coup, he had been displaced by Dec. with Harrison’s re-instatement. He returned as colonel of the Yellow regiment in Mar. 1660.
Bromfield remained ‘a civic Presbyterian’ into the Restoration period (De Krey, Restoration, 81). In Feb. 1660 he was committed for high treason, but in Mar. he was re-instated as colonel of the Yellow regiment, London Trained Bands. He was knighted in May 1660, and that year he was elected common councilman for Tower Ward and appointed to the City’s lieutenancy commission. His will recorded an estate of £12,750.
References: BL, Harl. 986, p. 6; Nagel, ‘London militia’, 316, 318; Lindley, Popular politics, 71, 73, 224, 232, 375, 376; Brenner, Merchants, 482, 483, 484, 489, 491;Woodhead, Rulers of London, 38; De Krey, Restoration, 81; A paire of spectacles for the Citie (1648), 10; Cardew-Rendle.
Armies: London
Bromfield, Robert Robert Bromfield
Identified by issues of equipment to his men as a captain of a company of foot in Sir Thomas Myddelton’s brigade when Myddelton invaded Montgomeryshire in Sept. 1644.
References: National Library of Wales, Chirk Castle Ms. 1/Biii, 93.
Armies: North Wales
Bromhall [Broomhall, Bromehall, Bramhall], John John Bromhall [Broomhall, Bromehall, Bramhall] (baptised c. 1617/18)
Of Nantwich, Cheshire, probably a mercer. He may have been the John Bromhall, son of Robert Bromhall, baptised at Nantwich on 22 Mar. 1617/18.
In Sept. 1642 Bromhall was a captain in John Hampden’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army. He left Hampden’s regiment on 28 Nov. 1642 to join Sir William Brereton’s forces as captain of one of three companies of dragoons. Although Bromhall lost a number of his men for service in the Home Counties, he led the remainder to Cheshire, reaching Nantwich by 3 Feb. 1643. By his accounts, Bromhall was captain of a company of dragoons from 21 Nov. 1642 into Apr. 1644. He was an active officer. According to Thomas Malbon, Stafford was taken by surprise on 15 May 1643 by Brereton’s horse and dragoons largely by ‘the pollicey and manhood of Major Broomehall and a few other…without losse of any man.’ (Cheshire tracts, 54). Bromhall was captured in a skirmish near Wem, Shropshire on 28 Sept. 1643 but was exchanged in Apr. 1644. In the meantime Brereton’s dragoon regiment had been disbanded, and so on 30 Apr. Bromhall was given command of a troop of horse with the rank of major. However, he did not regain his former prominence and resigned his commission in early Feb. 1645. That May Bromhall was a signatory to the anti-Brereton petition. Bromhall’s accounts show that his command was effectively being subsidised not only by himself but also by his widowed mother. On 5 Jan. 1647 a warrant was directed to pay Major John Broomhall and his mother £306 out of sequestration money, to reimburse them for the expenditure from their estates in the public service: ‘unlesse the same bee repayd them they shall bee forced to sell that little Estate they have for the payment of those ingagements which lye upon them’ (TNA, SP28/224, f. 225). In Aug. 1650 Bromhall was commissioned major in Colonel Henry Brooke’s militia regiment of foot, but it is not known whether he fought with the regiment at Worcester the following year.
References: TNA, SP28/2b/378, 701; SP28/3a/157; SP28/4/266; SP28/224, f. 225; BL, Harl. 2128, ff. 20-33; Cheshire tracts, 54, 76, 77, 103; Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 352, 354, 2. 204-5; CSPD, 1650, 509; Carr and Atherton, Brereton Staffs., 303.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Cheshire
Bromhall, John John Bromhall
Captain in John Hampden’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army from or by 1 Sept. 1642. He left the regiment on 28 Nov. 1642.
References: TNA, SP28/2b/378, SP28/4/266.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bromount, James James Bromount
An ensign in Sir Thomas Myddelton’s brigade, identified by a warrant signed by Myddelton on 29 Mar. 1644 to pay Bromount’s wife Ellen £10 towards her heir’s pay.
References: TNA, SP28/346, no. 44.
Armies: North Wales
Broogy, Humphrey Humphrey Broogy.
Lieutenant in Sir Horatio Carey’s regiment of foot, raised in spring 1643. On 28 Apr. 1643 he was one of several of Carey’s officers paid to go down from London [?].
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6. 623-4.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Brookbank, Humphrey Humphrey Brookbank
Lieutenant in the colonel’s troop in Lord Willoughby’s regiment of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army and the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.107.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Eastern Association
Brooke, - - Brooke
Captain in the Aylesford Lathe volunteer regiment.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 75.
Armies: Kent
Brooke, Henry Henry Brooke (1609/10-1664)
Of Norton Priory, near Runcorn, Cheshire. Eldest son of Sir Richard Brooke, knight, (died 1632) and his second wife Katherine, daughter of Sir Henry Nevill of Billingbear, Berkshire.
During the early stages of the war in Cheshire, Henry’s younger brothers Richard and John were active whilst he remained in Nottinghamshire with his wife’s kin. However, Brooke rose to prominence in the war effort during 1644 after the battle of Nantwich, when he joined Sir William Brereton in London. An ordinance of 7 May 1644 made Brooke high sheriff of Cheshire and voted £1,000 towards the completion of his regiment of foot and troop of horse. He was also a deputy-lieutenant and county committeeman. By Apr. 1645 Brooke’s regiment of foot was 570 strong and his troop formed part Sir William Brereton’s regiment of horse. Brooke’s brothers Richard and John were respectively lieutenant-colonel and captain in his regiment.
Brooke remained High Sheriff into 1647, and politically, with some wavering, generally supported Brereton’s activism: ‘He was probably the leader of a middle group of Cheshire Parliamentarians poised between Brereton’s closest allies and his opponents led by the Booths’ (Carr and Atherton, Brereton Staffordshire, 89). In July 1650 Brooke was commissioned colonel of a Cheshire militia regiment of foot. In 1654 he was MP for the county and in 1659 played a leading role in Booth’s Rising. At the Restoration he was created a baronet.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, esp. 1. 232-3, 324-5, 330;Carr and Atherton, Brereton Staffs., esp. 89; CSPD, 1650, 507, 509; Vis. Cheshire, 1613, 45; Morrill, Cheshire, 3, 52, 83, 86, 152-3, 185, 186, 196, 295, 311; History of Parliament: The Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming).
Armies: Cheshire
Brooke, John John Brooke
Fifth son of Sir Richard Brooke, knight (died 1632), of Norton Priory, Cheshire and his second wife Katherine, daughter of Sir Henry Nevill of Billingbear, Berkshire. Younger brother of Henry and Richard Brooke and nephew of Peter Brooke.
John was originally more active in the parliamentarian cause than eldest brother Henry. John raised a volunteer company that became the Trained Band of Bucklow Hundred. As brother Henry Brooke’s regiment was recruited from that hundred, this may also be the company that Brooke was captain of in Henry’s regiment of foot by Apr. 1645 during the siege of Chester. On 9 May he reported that one of his corporals had been beaten up in attempting to collect taxes for the unit’s pay in the Daresbury area. On 22 Aug. 1650 John Brooke was commissioned lieutenant-colonel in Henry Brooke’s militia regiment of foot.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 30, 267, 325, 330, 379-80, 2. 168, 402-3, 511; Vis. Cheshire, 1613, 45; TNA, SP28/224, f. 218; CSPD, 1650, 509.
Armies: Cheshire
Brooke, Peter Peter Brooke
Son of Thomas Brooke of Norton, Cheshire, and his third wife, and so great-uncle to Henry Brooke, sheriff of Cheshire in 1645.
By 1645 Peter Brooke was a major in the garrison at Warrington, Lancashire. He was the Recruiter MP for Newton, Lancashire, and remained in the Rump after Pride’s Purge. He was MP for Cheshire in 1656. In 1659 Brooke supported Booth’s Rising and was knighted in 1660. In 1652 he purchased the manor of Mere, Cheshire.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 2. 393.
Armies: Lancashire
Brooke, Richard Richard Brooke
Captain in the Sutton at Hone Lathe volunteer regiment by Mar. 1642 and still there at least as late as Mar. 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 72.
Armies: Kent
Brooke, Richard Richard Brooke
Third son of Sir Richard Brooke, knight (died 1632) of Norton Priory, Cheshire, and his second wife Katherine, daughter of Sir Henry Nevill of Billingbear, Berkshire. Younger brother of Henry and elder brother of John Brooke and nephew of Peter Brooke.
By Apr. 1645 Richard was lieutenant-colonel of his brother Henry Brooke’s regiment of foot serving at the siege of Chester. Richard had originally been more active in the parliamentarian cause in Cheshire than Henry. By Dec. 1645 he was a sequestrator for Northwich Hundred.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 325, 328, 2. 402-3, 367-9;Vis. Cheshire, 1613, 45.
Armies: Cheshire
Brooke, Sir William Sir William Brooke
By spring 1643 and still there in 1646-7, colonel of the Sutton at Hone Lathe regiment of Kentish Trained Band volunteers.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 82.
Armies: Kent
Brookes, Thomas Thomas Brookes (died 1644)
A lieutenant in Cheshire buried at Nantwich on 28 Jan. 1644, three days after the battle there. On 3 Oct. 1646 his widow, Mrs Jane Brooke, was granted £20 due to her late husband ‘for provision by him brought into Norton house for the use of the Souldiors there when the same was a Garrison’ (TNA, SP28/225, f. 519r.).
References: Civil war in Cheshire, 257; TNA, SP28/225, f. 519r.
Armies: Cheshire
Brooking, - – Brooking
Colonel in the Plymouth garrison, 1645-6. Possibly Captain William Brooking.
References: Worth, History of Plymouth, 134.
Armies: Devon
Brooks, - - Brooks
Lieutenant probably in Captain William Brewer’s company in the Surrey regiment of dragoons commanded first by Edmund Jordan and then by Sir Robert Wood. He was with the company when it was sent to the siege of Donnington Castle.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 78.
Armies: Surrey; Waller (Southern Association)
Broome, Thomas Thomas Broome
Identified by a pay warrant dated 19 Dec. 1645 as a reformado captain in Cheshire.
References: TNA, SP28/224.
Armies: Cheshire
Broomer, John John Broomer
Lieutenant in Captain John King’s company in the Westminster auxiliaries regiment (Colonel James Prince) at muster on 13 May 1644.
References: TNA, SP28/121A, Part 5, f. 592r.
Armies: London
Broother, - - Broother
A captain of horse whose troop was involved in the operations at Oswestry in June 1644. An officer serving under Sir Thomas Myddelton or perhaps the earl of Denbigh.
References: Phillips, Wales, 2, 173.
Armies: North Wales
Brothers [Bernard], William William Brothers [Bernard]
Captain in Colonel Thomas Stephens’s regiment of foot, 26 Mar.-5 July 1643; captain in Edmund Ludlow’s regiment of horse, 13 Sept. 1644-20 Apr. 1645; then captain with Colonel Nicholas Devereux in the Malmesbury garrison until 27 Jan. 1646.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 83.
Armies: Gloucestershire; Wiltshire; Waller; Waller (Southern Association)
Brotherton [Bretherton], William William Brotherton [Bretherton]
Captain. Captain in a Gloucestershire regiment early in 1643, referred to in an account for 14 Apr.: possibly the regiment of Thomas Stephens. In Sept. 1645 he was present at the taking of Berkeley Castle and profited from its plundering. He was in the regiment of Colonel Thomas Morgan when it was disbanded under the Ordinance of 24 Dec. 1647.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6. 621; HMC, Fifth Report, 356-7; HMC, Seventh Report, 68-9.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Brown, - - Brown
A captain in Sir Michael Livesay’s Kentish regiment of horse, possibly in 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 81.
Armies: Kent; Waller (Southern Association)
Brown, John John Brown
In spring 1644 and still there in autumn 1645, ensign in John Halford’s company in Godfrey Bosvile’s regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 31.
Armies: Warwickshire; Waller
Browne, - - Browne
Identified among pay warrants dated 8 Nov. 1645 as a captain-lieutenant in a company of foot from Nantwich Hundred, Cheshire.
References: TNA, SP28/224, ff. 47, 49-50.
Armies: Cheshire
Browne, - - Browne
Lieutenant serving with Colonel Robert Wood by 18 July 1646.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 78.
Armies: Surrey
Browne, Edward Edward Browne
Lieutenant in Major Owen Parry’s company in Lord Wharton’s regiment of foot in Wharton’s Army raised for service in Ireland in 1642. Instead, later that summer he went as lieutenant in Wharton’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army, in which he served until 19 Jan. 1643, evidently the date of the regiment’s final disbandment.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 68, 31; TNA, SP28/5/192.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Browne, James James Browne
A captain in Colonel Edward Brigg’s regiment of Westmorland foot from 23 Aug. 1644 to 2 Sept. 1645, serving in Yorkshire, Westmorland and Cumberland.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 375.
Armies: Westmorland; Cumberland; Yorkshire
Browne, John John Browne
Captain of a troop in the Sutton at Hone Lathe Trained regiment of horse by 26 Mar. 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 72.
Armies: Kent
Browne, John John Browne
Colonel of a regiment of dragoons in the earl of Essex’s Army which was formed in Sept. 1642 and which continued until probably autumn 1643.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 57; TNA, SP28/2a/43.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Browne, John John Browne
Succeeded Oliver Cromwell [junior] in spring 1644 as captain of a troop in Cromwell’s horse regiment in the Eastern Association Army and stayed with that regiment until it was absorbed into the New Model Army in spring 1645, whereupon he transferred to Fairfax’s regiment, serving first as captain, then from 1648 as major; he seems to have left the regiment and the army in 1652, after the Worcester campaign.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.20; Holmes, Eastern Association, 176; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 50, 61, 72, 82, 92, 105.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
Browne, John John Browne
The 1642 list of the earl of Essex’s Army shows two John Brownes – an ensign in William Bampfield’s regiment of foot and a cornet in Arthur Goodwin’s troop of horse – either the same man appearing twice or two separate men of the same name.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 40, 51.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Browne, Sir John Sir John Browne
In the 1642 army list, he is shown as a captain in John Browne’s regiment of dragoons in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 57.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Browne, [?]John [?]JohnBrowne
Major of horse, probably in the Staffordshire forces. In Apr. 1644 one of his troopers, a prisoner at Chester, was to be exchanged for a royalist prisoner at Stafford. Browne received £1 5s from the Staffordshire funds in May or June 1644. He may well be the Major John Browne owed £3 at the siege of Chester in (probably) Oct. 1645.
References: Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 100, 317; Dore, Brereton Letter Books, 2.186.
Armies: Staffordshire
Browne, Lionel Lionel Browne
Lieutenant, of Bridport. Order of 23 Sept. 1646 to pay him £5 12s. 0d. for ‘reduce money’.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 4.
Armies: Dorset
Browne, Sir Richard Sir Richard Browne (c. 1602-1669)
In some sources he appears as Richard Browne alias Moses [Moises], son of John Browne alias Moses of Wokingham, Berkshire, and London and his wife Anne, daughter of John Beard of Wokingham. He married Bridget, daughter of Robert Brian of Henley-upon-Thames, Oxfordshire, mercer, c. 1631.
Member of the Woodmongers’ Company, translating to Merchant Taylors’ in 1656.
He was admitted to the Company of the Artillery Garden (now the Honourable Artillery Company) in 1622. Became a wealthy merchant trading in timber and coal, but sneered at by his royalist opponents on the grounds of his modest background.
Of Whitefriars: the location given on a picture of the flag of Captain Richard Browne in a volume of parliamentarian regimental flags, 1642-3. The flag has a laurel wreath beside a skull (i.e. ‘Honour or Death’) above the words, ‘ONE OF THESE’ (BL, Add. 5247, f. 39).
Captain in the Orange regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel John Towse) in 1642 (in summer noted as senior captain).
Commissioned by the earl of Warwick (as captain-general of the army to be levied in London and the counties thereabouts) as colonel of all the companies of dragoons raised by the City of London on 17 Nov. 1642.
His subsequent and very active military career flourished outside London – he campaigned in Kent and Hampshire in 1642-3, commanded a brigade which formed part of Waller’s southern army during the first half of 1644 and from early summer 1644 was commander-in-chief of parliament’s forces in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, based at and becoming governor of Abingdon – in which capacity he may have taken over some elements of the late Arthur Goodwin’s regiment of horse. A recruiter MP from 1645 and again in the second and third Protectorate parliaments. By the late 1650s he had become a royalist and was knighted and granted a baronetcy at the Restoration. In the early 1660s he again held senior office in the London militia.
References: Oxford DNB; Overton 1642; Thrale 1642; CSPD, 1642, 407; Woodhead, Rulers, 39-40; BL, Add. 5247, f. 39.
Armies: London
Browne, Thomas Thomas Browne
An officer in the small regiment of reformado horse that Major James Baker led from London to the siege of Chester in late 1645. On 27 Nov. 1645 Browne with fellow officers was signatory to a letter to Brereton, explaining that social slighting and a lack of pay and secure quarters had caused their men to disobey a direct order to march.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 2. 275.
Armies: Reformado; London;
Cheshire
Browne, Thomas Thomas Browne
Ensign in Thomas Grantham’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 41.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Browne, Thomas Thomas Browne
Captain in Thomas Ballard’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642. The printed list of Essex’s officers calls him John, but he is more likely the Thomas Browne who on 17 Oct. and 9 Nov. 1642 received the pay for Colonel Thomas Ballard’s regiment of foot. It was Thomas Browne, by then a major – in succession to Lower [Lowther] – who claimed for the pay of the regiment late Ballard’s (by then Francis Martyn’s) in Aug. 1643. He evidently was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel before losing his place with the re-organization of Martyn’s regiment and its transfer from Essex’s field army to garrison duty at Aylesbury: on 22 May 1644 he was named, as lieutenant-colonel, on a pay warrant for reformado officers. He may, therefore, be the Thomas Browne who was serving as lieutenant-colonel of Richard Ingoldsby’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in spring 1645, though he did not transfer with that regiment to the New Model Army – but as the name is so common, this remains possible but not proved.
References: TNA, SP28/2b/382, SP28/3a/216, SP28/9/91, 187; SP28/15/200; Wanklyn, New Model Army, 1. 148.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Browne, William William Browne
At its muster in Nov. 1643 lieutenant in Captain Baker’s company in the earl of Warwick’s regiment of foot formed from the Essex militia, part of the Eastern Association Army that contributed to the siege of Reading in spring 1643, the siege of Greenland House in summer 1644 and probably to some other actions in which the army was involved.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.31.
Armies: Eastern Association
Browne, William William Browne
Lieutenant in Lord Wharton’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642, in which he served until 19 Jan. 1643, evidently the date of the regiment’s final disbandment.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 31; TNA, SP28/5/192.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Brownell, John John Brownell
In 1645 captain-lieutenant in the colonel’s company in John Barker’s/Thomas Willoughby’s regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 22.
Armies: Warwickshire
Browning, - - Browning
Lieutenant in John Edwards’s troop in Francis Russell’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.99.
Armies: Eastern Association
Browning, William William Browning
Ensign in Lyme garrison who in 1650 signs a petition for maimed soldier. Cannot sign name.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 5.516.
Armies: Dorset
Brownside, James James Brownside
Lieutenant in Captain Walter Sterling’s company of foot in Lawrence Crawford’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army at the time of its disbandment on 17 Apr. 1645.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.14.
Armies: Eastern Association
Bruce, Robert Robert Bruce
A Scot. During the opening years of the war he served as lieutenant in several troops of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army, including those of John Neal and John Innes. In summer 1644, by which time he was Essex’s Adjutant General of horse, he transferred to Waller’s Army, serving as captain in the regiment of horse formerly of Sir Richard Grenville but by then, following Grenville’s defection, commanded by Colonel Edward Cooke. He continued to serve in that capacity until spring 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 60.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller (Southern Association)
Brudenall [Brudenell], [?] Thomas [?] Thomas Brudenall [Brudenell]
Captain-Lieutenant of the Colonel’s troop in John Middleton’s regiment of horse by 13 Mar. 1644. Possibly the same man, there identified as Thomas Brudenell, who in 1642 was listed as cornet in the troop of horse of Lord Fielding (later earl of Denbigh) in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 95; Peacock, Army lists, 48.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Brundell, Thomas Thomas Brundell
By Oct. 1643, but later superseded by Oliver Ingoldsby, captain in Sir John Norwich’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.73.
Armies: Eastern Association
Brune [Bruen], - - Brune [Bruen]
Colonel. Probably of family of Brune of Athelhampton. 22 Sept. 1644-4 May 1646, Joseph Underwood served in various ranks in Colonel Brune’s regiment of horse (his superior officers within the regiment including Captain Dewy and Major Heane). Joseph Cuffe of Dorchester claimed arrears having served for a year under Colonel Brune. Brune, with Colonel Starr, had also been a commander at Wareham (Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 240-1, 32, 309.)
References: Vis. Dorset, 1623, 21-2; Vis. Dorset, 1677, 9-10, 22-3?
Armies: Dorset
Bryan, William William Bryan
In Mar. 1644 captain of a company in a regiment of foot which served under Oliver Cromwell and later under Colonel Francis Russell in their capacity as governors of the Isle of Ely and which probably originated as an auxiliary regiment of the Cambridgeshire militia.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.28.
Armies: Eastern Association
Buchan, William William Buchan
In the 1642 army list he is shown as a captain in John Browne’s regiment of dragoons in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 57.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Buck, - - Buck
By autumn 1643, captain in Francis Russell’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.99.
Armies: Eastern Association
Buck, Jeremy Jeremy Buck (died 1653)
Of Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire. Lieutenant-Colonel. Buck was a captain in the First Civil War and, according to a royalist account, ‘a busie mercer of Hampton-rode’, Gloucestershire (Bibliotheca, 164). In Dec. 1642-Feb. 1643 he was stationed at Cirencester. On 30 Dec. 1642 he led a dragoon raid on Burford. He escaped from the sack of Cirencester and in Mar. was at Bristol where he was one of the officers to arrested royalist conspirators. He was sufficiently prominent in his activism that he was excepted from pardon in the king’s proclamation in Feb. 1643 (the only man from outside the county elite to be so singled out), and beat up and ransacked the house of his rector at Minchinhampton. He threatened to hang the vicar of South Cerney from the sign of the King’s Head in Cirencester for preaching against parliament.
Commissioned lieutenant-colonel of foot in the Gloucestershire militia, 8 Feb. 1651.
He was an active (and corrupt) sequestration commissioner and local agent of the republic in the 1650s, and was recommended by local gathered churches for Barebone’s Parliament.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6.617; Warmington, Glos., passim; Bibliotheca, 164; CSPD, 1651, 513.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Buckany, - - Buckany
Captain in Edward Rossiter’s probably short-lived regiment of dragoons in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.93.
Armies: Eastern Association
Bucke, - - Bucke
Captain-Lieutenant in the colonel’s company in Sir John Palgrave’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.76; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 50.
Armies: Eastern Association
Buckenfield, John John Buckenfield
Captain in the regiment of foot commanded successively by Henry Bulstrode, Adam Cunningham and Richard Fortescue.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 48.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller (Southern Association)
Buckle, Austin Austin Buckle
Captain-Lieutenant in Weymouth garrison, 18 Mar. 1651.
References: Bayley, Civil War in Dorset, 337.
Armies: Dorset
Buckler, Andrew Andrew Buckler
Cornet.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 387.
Armies: Dorset
Bulkeley [Buckley], - - Bulkeley [Buckley]
Of Whitfield, Crompton parish, Oldham, Lancashire.
In Feb. 1643 Bulkley fought in the first defence of Bolton, and in May 1644 with the force Prince Rupert defeated at Stockport. Possibly the James Bulkeley [Buckley] who Gratton lists as a captain serving in the Lancashire regiment of Ralph Assheton senior.
References: Lancashire military proceedings, 81, 182, 340; Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 282.
Armies: Lancashire
Bulkeley, Humphrey Humphrey Bulkeley (1618-1678)
An esquire of Cheadle, son of Richard Bulkeley of Cheadle, Cheshire, and his wife Katherine, daughter of George Needham of Thornset, Derbyshire. Succeeded his elder brother and his young son to the Cheadle estates. Bulkeley was of the senior (but by the mid-seventeenth century less significant) branch of the Bulkeleys of Cheadle and Beaumaris.
In 1643 Bulkeley was with the force ambushed at Hanmer on 20 June. On the night of 29 Apr. 1645 Welsh royalists attacked Bulkeley’s troop and he was captured along with about 40 of his men. In the list of officers in Sir William Brereton’s Army dated 30 Apr. Bulkeley is noted as being ‘Taken’. On 5 May he wrote to Brereton seeking an exchange for Colonel Werden, a proposal that Brereton resisted given the disparity in rank (and perhaps also because he blamed Bulkeley for negligence of duty). The exchange was eventually completed on 13 Jan. 1646. In 1659 Bulkeley actively participated in Booth’s Rising.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. xxx, 2. 27; Earwaker, East Cheshire, I, 179, 182-3, 213, 227-9; Civil war in Cheshire, 62.
Armies: Cheshire
Bull, Samuel Samuel Bull
Quartermaster.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 114-5, 377.
Armies: Dorset
Buller, - - Buller
Captain in Sir Arthur Hesilrige’s regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 56.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Buller, Anthony Anthony Buller (1613-1679)
Fifth son of Sir Richard Buller of Shillingham, (1578/9-1642), knight, MP, sheriff of Cornwall in 1637, and his wife Alice, daughter of Sir Rowland Hayward of London; younger brother of Francis Buller. Sir Richard had helped secure East Cornwall for parliament before his death.
Baptised 4 Nov. 1613 at Saltash. He married Anne, daughter of Sir John Wyndham of Orchard Wyndham, Somerset.
Captain of a troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army by May 1643. He is identified as in Hans Behre’s regiment of horse in Essex’s Army in a pay warrant for Oct. 1643 and a note of Essex’s cavalry when the regiment mustered during the South West campaign of 1644, commanding a troop of 10 officers and 80 men.
With Behre’s loss of command and the dissolution of Essex’s Army, Buller proposed that he take his troop and other forces to join Edward Massey at Gloucester. The Committee of Both Kingdoms backed the plan, commending him as a captain whose valour was well known. In Apr. 1645 Buller was duly ordered to lead the remnants of Hans Behre’s and John Dalbier’s regiments of horse, about 400 men, to reinforce Edward Massey’s Brigade in the West. He was promoted major at the same time. In May 1645, given the shrunken state of the regiments, the Committee of Both Kingdoms directed Massey to reduce them alongside his own regiment of horse into one regiment of 600 men, with Buller to remain as major. Buller had taken two regiments known for disorder and plunder to a brigade which had, or was to earn, the same reputation. He was expressly ordered to maintain good discipline on the march and ensure that the people where they came were not to be oppressed. Once arrived in the West, the Committee of Both Kingdoms ordered Buller to take care to regulate his troops, and Massey to inflict exemplary punishment on the worst offenders amongst Buller’s troopers, whose robbing, plundering, swearing, drunkenness and debauchery made them ‘now looked upon as the greatest enemies in those places they come’ (CSPD, 1644-45, 561-2).
Buller appears in pay records as lieutenant-colonel and captain of a troop of horse in the Massey Brigade in Aug.-Nov. 1645.
Buller, now a colonel, was governor of the Scilly Isles from their capture in 1646 until he was taken prisoner when his officers and men seized the castle of St Mary for the king in Aug. 1648. They described him and Captain Augustine Nicoll as ‘gentlemen of honour and gallantry well meriting their command but tainted with a [blank] from the wrong spring’, whilst the new royalist governor noted that all fitting kindness was being be shown them as gallant men (HMC, Pepys manuscripts, 274, 230).
Buller was living in London in Apr. 1654, when, by his own account to the authorities, one Dr Naudin came to his lodgings, and walking alone with him in St James’s Park, tried to draw him into a French conspiracy to assassinate Cromwell. In the intended ensuing chaos, as one commander after another rapidly failed, ‘all the common soldiers … and all other discontented persons’ would join with him. The flattery which Buller ascribed to Naudin is interesting both for implying that Buller was an experienced professional soldier and for its rhetoric:
‘he began to praise and extol me with great admiration, admiring that a person of my quality and experience, with my travels and languages, and so great a soldier, and a person of so much courage and resolution, would suffer myself and services to be so slighted and abused, and myself and country to be enslaved; and that I would not think of a way to make me great, which was in my power to do; and how fit a person I was for it; expressing how much it was for God's glory, and freeing my country from this slavery they were now under, saying, Portugal, Naples, and divers others had thrown off their tyrants, and had and did keep their country ever since to themselves; and that it was in my power, not only to make myself great now, but to posterity for ever; and that I was not less in the world than any other, and had as much right for to govern as any man; and that giving liberty of conscience, I might be sure of all the Anabaptists, Levellers, and Independents would be for me, and stand to me, besides all discontented persons, and many presbyterians and cavaliers.’
Nevertheless, and perhaps in part because of the information of conspiracy, within months Buller was given command of a regiment of foot in the expedition to the Caribbean. He was at odds with General Robert Venables. The scoutmaster, an ally of Venables, wrote of Buller that, ‘The gentleman himself is stout, loves applause and flattery, and if there be any persons that would seeme to disrelish our general proceedings, something he hath to say on their behalfs, and all the reason I could ever find, he judgeth himself the elder collonel’ (Thurloe state papers, 3.159). Venables blamed Buller for disobeying orders by moving against San Domingo before the rest of the army had landed, and so marching into an ambush; claimed that the ill-disciplined plundering of his men had led other soldiers into another ambush and accused him of insubordination and conspiring against him with other discontented officers. Defending himself, Venables commented that Buller had, ‘never yet clear’d himself about the loss of Scilly’ (Venables, Narrative, 93). Buller was sent back to England by the council of war in July 1655 to represent the state of the army to Cromwell, and when Venables himself attended Cromwell, he was told that Buller was its agent, not him. His lieutenant-colonel, Francis Barrington, described him as ‘a gentleman of experienced fidelitie to us, and hath stood up faythfully for the advancement of the present expedition, yet whatsoever he or the other two colllonels sayd or desyred, yet the general would do what he pleased’ (Thurloe state papers, 3.647).
Buller did not suffer Venables’s disgrace, but he did not return to Jamaica. In June 1657 reports that he and other officers who had returned to England had had their arrears paid in full caused discontent amongst the officers still in Jamaica.
MP for Callington, Cornwall, in 1659, and for Saltash, Cornwall, in the Convention Parliament.
In Nov.-Dec. 1660 parliament allowed Buller £3,436 16s 10d out of the excise for his expenses as governor of the Scillies; in 1694 his daughter Wyndham was petitioning for payment, as the interest had only been paid to 1678.
In 1661 Buller was commissioned captain in the Duke of York’s Horse Guards. In 1667 he raised 300 men for the defence of the Scillies and was commissioned in the Admiralty (Duke of York’s foot) regiment, and the command of a sloop, ‘though despite his long experience he remained an ineffective disciplinarian’ (HoP: The Commons, 1660-1690, 1.747-8).
References: TNA, SP28/7/44, SP28/144, Part 10, ff. 103v., 111r., 115r.; CSPD, 1644-45, 401, 407, 414, 417, 423, 427, 436, 443, 445, 452, 453, 457, 458, 519, 553, 560, 561-2, 599, 602, 603 Symonds, Diary, 73; Stoyle, Soldiers and strangers, 201-2; Firth and Davies, Regimental history, 2.70; R. Venables, The narrative of General Venables, ed. C.H. Firth, Camden Society, new ser. 60 (1900), esp. xix-xx; Vis. Cornwall, 36-7;HMC, Seventh report, 571-5; Thurloe state papers, 2.352, 3.12, 159, 447, 6.391; JHL, 11.205; JHC, 8.188-9; HMC, Pepys manuscripts, 230, 273, 274; Calendar of Treasury papers, 1556-1696, 390; HoP: The Commons, 1660-1690, 1.7437-8; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660 [forthcoming]; Luke Letter Books, especially nos. 575, 588, 592, 1264, 1274.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller (Southern Association); Massey Brigade
Buller, Francis Francis Buller (c. 1603-77)
Of Shillingham, Cornwall. Eldest son of Sir Richard Buller (c. 1579-1642), who helped secure east Cornwall for Parliament before his death, and his first wife Alice, daughter of Sir Rowland Haward of London, knight. He married Thomasine, daughter of Sir Thomas Honywood of Elmstead, Kent, in 1625.
MP for Saltash in 1624, 1625 and the Short Parliament (Apr. 1640) and East Looe in the Long Parliament (Nov. 1640), secluded at Pride’s Purge.
Captain of a company of Trained Bands, 1633, 1637. A ‘man of fortune and honesty to the Parliament’ (Stamford’s Proceedings, 4). He was appointed sergeant-major-general to William Ruthen, colonel and commander-in-chief of the forces of Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall and colonel of a Cornish regiment of foot. Buller’s regiment probably lost many men at Braddock Down (19 Jan. 1643), and may have effectively ceased to exist. At some point in (presumably early) 1643, Colonel Buller was discharged at his own request, either causing his displacement (or as a consequence of it) as sergeant-major-general by James Chudleigh. He remained active as a committeeman throughout the war. Secluded because he ‘had not heart’ for the king’s trial, he remained in retirement thereafter (Keeler, Long Parliament, 120).
References: Vis. Cornwall, 57; Keeler, Long Parliament, 120-1; Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 3.303-4; 4.454-5; HoP: The Commons, 1604-1629; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660, (forthcoming).
Armies: Cornwall; Devon
Bulstrode, Henry Henry Bulstrode (1578-1643)
Born eldest son and heir of Edward Bulstrode of Upton, Buckinghamshire. Henry served as a J.P. in and as sheriff of Buckinghamshire in the pre-war period; he also sat in the parliaments of 1614 and 1625. In autumn 1642 he was appointed colonel of and helped raise a regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army which was present at the stand-off at Turnham Green in Nov. 1642 and which took part in the siege of Reading, the relief of Gloucester and the first battle of Reading during 1643. The extent to which Bulstrode led it in person in the field is not clear, however, for early in 1643 he was appointed governor of Aylesbury and part of the regiment probably served under him there as a garrison force. He died in summer 1643 and was buried at Upton on 10 Aug. His regiment of foot survived him, commanded first Adam Cunningham and later by Richard Fortescue, who led much of it into the New Model Army.
References: HoP: The Commons, 1604-1629, 3.357-8.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bulstrode, Thomas Thomas Bulstrode
By autumn 1643 major in the regiment of foot commanded successively by Henry Bulstrode, Adam Cunningham and Richard Fortescue.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 48.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller (Southern Association)
Bunbury, Richard Richard Bunbury
Cornet in Captain Edward Scott’s troop in the Kentish horse in 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 70.
Armies: Kent; Waller (Southern Association)
Bunce, James James Bunce (died 1670)
Eldest son of James Bunce of London, younger son of James of Otteringden, Kent, and his wife Mary, daughter of George Holmeden of Brookehouse, Kent. By 1633 James had married Sarah, daughter of Thomas Gipps of London. His father was MP for London in 1628.
Of St Benet Gracechurch (in 1638). He was a member of the Leathersellers’ Company (and Master 1643-4).
Bunce was admitted to the Company of the Artillery Garden (now the Honourable Artillery Company) on 12 Feb. 1627, and elected its president 1645. He was captain in the Red regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Thomas Atkin) in Apr.-summer 1642 (he was the senior captain in summer 1642).
Bunce was a common councilman, appointed to the militia committee in Jan. 1642; he was alderman, Bread Street Ward, 1642-9; and sheriff of London and Middlesex, 1643-4. A prominent political Presbyterian, in 1646 he stood as a mayoral candidate. In 1647 he was one of five aldermen gaoled in the Tower of London for the attempted Presbyterian coup, and in Apr. 1649 he was discharged as alderman by order of the House of Commons. In 1651 the Council of State declared that he was guilty of high treason.
At the Restoration, Bunce was knighted and created baronet. He was restored as alderman of Bread Street on 4 Sept. 1660, and discharged on 25 Sept.
He died on 13 Dec. 1670.
References: Overton 1642; Thrale 1642; Vis. London, 1633-5, 1.120; Pearl, Outbreak, 313-4;Lindley, Popular politics, 200, 371, 387; Beaven, Aldermen, 2.66; Woodhead, Rulers, 41; Cardew-Rendle.
Armies: London
Bunting, Paul Paul Bunting
Cornet in James Hopton’s troop in Sir Arthur Hesilrige’s regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 56.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Burbeck [Burbank, Burbanck], - - Burbeck [Burbank, Burbanck]
An officer under the earl of Denbigh. His name is recorded in an account of free quarter imposed on named villages in Warwickshire by the earl of Denbigh and his officers.
References: TNA, SP28/136, Part 28.
Armies: Earl of Denbigh
Burchell [Burchall], - - Burchell [Burchall]
A captain in Colonel Ralph Assheton’s regiment of Lancashire foot, also identified as a captain in Colonel John Booth’s regiment of foot (the latter entry only says Colonel Booth, but he is most probably John in Lancashire rather than George in Cheshire). Burchell in both cases is known from soldiers’ arrears. These may, of course, be two different men, but more likely the same officer transferring between regiments.
References: TNA, E121/5/7.
Armies: Lancashire
Burdett, Leicester Leicester Burdett
By 1645 captain in the earl of Essex’s own regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army and still there when the regiment and army was disbanded.
References: Wanklyn, New Model Army, 1. 147.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Burgess, - - Burgess
Captain in the Aylesford Lathe volunteer regiment. On 2 July 1645 he carried a dispatch to London from Colonel George Newman.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 75.
Armies: Kent; Waller (Southern Association)
Burgess [Burgis], Benjamin Benjamin Burgess [Burgis]
Lieutenant in Captain Edward Foley’s troop in Arthur Hesilrige’s/John Butler’s (later Thomas Horton’s) regiment of horse in the New Model Army. About June 1647 he succeeded Foley as Captain. In Nov. 1648 he attended two of the meetings of the Council of Officers. In Aug. 1649 he probably left the regiment; certainly it was reported that he was one of the captains who were refusing to go to Ireland.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 55; Firth and Davies, Regimental history,1.85-6.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association); New Model Army
Burgh, Christopher Christopher Burgh
Captain in Viscount Saye and Sele’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 30.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Burgis, Robert Robert Burgis
Burgis was a lieutenant in 1647, presumably a London militia officer, and very possibly lieutenant in the Blue regiment, London auxiliaries, as he was a witness to a written statement which reports the words of the Presbyterian militia committee appointee to that regiment, Captain Waynd/Wane, to his ensign.
References: Clarke Papers, 1.154.
Armies: London
Burgis, Samuel Samuel Burgis
A captain in John Birch’s newly-formed regiment of foot raised in Kent for Waller’s Southern Association army by 20 July 1644. Probably the Captain Burgess in the Plymouth garrison, of which that regiment formed a part, in 1645-6.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 16; Worth, History of Plymouth, 134.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association); Kent; Devon
Burgoyne, Peter Peter Burgoyne (died c. 1654)
Of Coventry. A younger son of the Burgoynes of Sutton, Bedfordshire and Wroxall, Warwickshire.
Captain of foot in the Warwickshire militia in 1635. He was part of Lord Brooke’s social circle in the 1630s. After a fortnight as a ‘privatt Captayne’ (TNA, SP28/136, part 22, f. 5r.), he became major of the Coventry foot regiment (Colonel John Barker) on 9 Aug. 1642 and served as such until 4 June 1646, and as governor of Kenilworth Castle, July 1645-June or Aug. 1646.
On 10 Aug. 1648 Burgoyne was again commissioned major, and commanded a company until 11 Nov. 1648.
Burgoyne was an active county committeeman from 1643 and a JP from 1646.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 1.211; TNA, SP28/136, Part 22; Hughes, Warwickshire, 61, 122, 138n., 173, 177, 195, 354, 357, 360-3.
Armies: Warwickshire
Burkett, - - Burkett
Captain in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of dragoons in the Eastern Association Army. Possibly the Burkham/Bulkham who later served as a captain in Okey’s New Model Army dragoon regiment.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.58.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army?
Burleigh, Jeremiah Jeremiah Burleigh
Cornet in John Butler’s troop in Sir Arthur Hesilrige’s regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 55.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Burles, William William Burles
In summer 1642 he became a captain in Holles’s short-lived regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army. Like most of his fellow-officers and the regiment as a whole, little is heard of him after their shattering defeat at Brentford in Nov. 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 37.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Burley, - - Burley
Captain of the company in Thomas Carr’s regiment of foot garrisoning Yarmouth Castle, Isle of Wight.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 24.
Armies: Isle of Wight; Waller (Southern Association)
Burlz [Burles], William William Burlz [Burles]
Burlz was admitted to the Society of the Artillery Garden (now the Honourable Artillery Company) on 7 Mar. 1625. He was a lieutenant in the Yellow regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Sir John Wollaston) in early summer 1642.
Burlz then became an officer in the earl of Essex’s Army. He was captain in Colonel Denzil Holles’s regiment of foot from at least 30 July until the regiment’s disbandment on 22 Nov. He had become lieutenant-colonel in Colonel Philip Skippon’s regiment of foot by the beginning of 1643, and served as such until at least 26 May 1643; by 20 June another veteran of Holles’s regiment held that rank.
References: Thrale 1642; Peacock, Army lists, 39; TNA, SP28/4/3745; SP28/5/110, 339; SP28/7/100; Cardew-Rendle.
Armies: London; Earl of Essex
Burrell, Bartholomew Bartholomew Burrell
Ensign in Cholmley’s probably short-lived regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642-3.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 36-7.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Burrell, Daniel Daniel Burrell
Chaplain. Not in Foster or Venn.
Armies: Somerset: Col. William Strode’s Regiment of Foot
Burrell, George George Burrell
Ensign in Rochford’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 32.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Burrell, James James Burrell
Lieutenant in Charles Essex’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 45.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Burrill, James James Burrill
By the beginning of 1644 captain of a company in Sir Miles Hobart’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army; however, sometime around or after summer 1644 he was succeeded by Captain Puckle.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.42.
Armies: Eastern Association
Burroughs, Ralph Ralph Burroughs
In Dec. 1642 lieutenant in John Bromhall’s company of dragoons. By 20 May 1643 Thomas Mainwaring had replaced Burroughs as Lieutenant.
References: BL, Harl. 2128, ff. 20r.-21r.
Armies: Cheshire
Burscoe, William William Burscoe
An officer serving in Sir William Brereton’s Cheshire forces. On 8 July 1650 the commissioners for stating of accounts and giving forth debentures for Cheshire noted that Lieutenant William Burscue was owed £120 17s for having served 143 days [at 18d per day] as a sergeant in Captain Edward Minshall’s company of foot; for serving 736 days [at 18d] as a sergeant in Captain Thomas Malbon’s company of foot; and for serving 528 days [at 4s] as lieutenant in Captain John Crew’s company of foot.
References: TNA, SP28/224, f. 327.
Armies: Cheshire
Burton, - - Burton
Captain in Edward Rossiter’s probably short-lived regiment of dragoons in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.93.
Armies: Eastern Association
Burton, - - Burton
Lieutenant in the Sussex Trained Bands.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 131.
Armies: Sussex
Burton, Humphrey Humphrey Burton
Ensign in Captain Horatio Carey’s company in William Bampfield’s regiment of foot in Lord Wharton’s Army raised for Ireland in 1642. Instead, served as lieutenant in Bampfield’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 70, 40.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Burton, Thomas Thomas Burton
An officer in Lancashire, a captain of a company of foot of John Moore’s regiment in the Liverpool garrison.
References: TNA, E121/5/7; Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 291.
Armies: Lancashire
Burton, Thomas Thomas Burton
Identified by a warrant dated 28 Aug. 1644 as a major in Sir Thomas Myddelton’s brigade, probably in Colonel William Barton’s unit.
References: SP28/346, no. 210.
Armies: North Wales
Burton, Thomas Thomas Burton
Lieutenant to Captain John Barber in his company and troop respectively, in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of foot and Alban Coxe’s regiment of horse (both in the Eastern Association Army).
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.62.
Armies: Eastern Association
Bury, John John Bury
Began the civil war as captain-lieutenant in Lord Brooke’s troop of horse, then major in Bosseville’s regiment of foot. Became lieutenant-colonel in Edward King’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army, though he clashed with King and was dismissed by him. That did not end Bury’s military career, however, for in summer 1645 he succeeded Hopkins as a captain in Ireton’s New Model Army horse regiment, but he soon left that regiment and became lieutenant-colonel of Colonel’s Hammond’s regiment while it was serving at Exeter. For a time he was the Army’s adjutant-general. He died in the early 1650s.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.47; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 64, 74.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
Bury, John John Bury
Captain in Cholmley’s probably short-lived regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642-3.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 36-7.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bus, Robert Robert Bus
A major in the Plymouth garrison. Payment made to him at Plymouth, 10 Apr. 1643.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 4.436.
Armies: Devon
Bush [Bushell], Thomas? Thomas? Bush [Bushell]
Captain in Batholomew Vermuyden’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army; transferred with the regiment to the New Model Army in spring 1645 but was killed at Naseby in June 1645.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.102; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 52, 62.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
Bushell, - - Bushell
Lieutenant in the colonel’s (Algernon Sidney’s) troop in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.50.
Armies: Eastern Association
Bushell, Bridges Bridges Bushell
Lieutenant in Lord Mandeville’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 36.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bushell, Browne Browne Bushell (1609-1651)
Born the eldest son of Nicholas Bushell (died 1632) of Bagdale Old Hall, Whitby, Yorkshire (East Riding).
During the 1630s he worked as a merchant and mariner based in and sailing out of Newcastle upon Tyne, trading coal and other goods with Dunkirk, and he also probably gained experience fighting in continental naval wars. Indeed, it was as a daring naval commander rather than as a land-based officer that he contributed to the civil war. He initially fought for parliament, playing a prominent role in the capture of Southsea Castle and the recovery of Portsmouth in late summer 1642, before moving north to join his kinsman Sir Hugh Cholmley at Scarborough, where he oversaw the strengthening of the castle and the creation of a naval base. When Cholmley defected to the king in spring 1643, Bushell initially and with some success sought to retake Scarborough for parliament, but Cholmley persuaded him to come out for the king as well and to hold Scarborough in the royalist cause. Thereafter he was a firm royalist, leading destructive raids against parliamentarian vessels and supporting royalist ports and coastal towns, based for much of the war at Scarborough and after its loss in the Channel Islands, at Dunkirk and other French Channel ports. He was captured in 1648, held prisoner for nearly three years and then in spring 1651 was tried, convicted and executed for treason springing from his betrayal of Scarborough.
References: Oxford DNB.
Armies: Hampshire; Yorkshire
Bushell, Thomas Thomas Bushell
Captain (captain-lieutenant) of the earl of Essex’s own regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army from or by 2 Sept. 1642, and evidently throughout the existence of Essex’s Army (pay warrant for him as captain of Essex’s company, 23 Oct. 1644, and his name heads a column of the list of captains signing petition of Essex’s infantry officers on 21 Dec. 1644).
References: TNA, SP28/2a/58, 350, SP28/19/89; HLRO, Main papers, 21 Dec. 1642.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Bushy, Christopher Christopher Bushy
Captain in Edward Rossiter’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army and initially transferred with that regiment into the New Model Army, but he resigned or was dismissed shortly afterwards.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.92; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 52, 62, 73.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
Butcherfield, John John Butcherfield
Ensign in Viscount Saye and Sele’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 30.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Butler, - - Butler
Captain in Nathaniel Whetham’s Northampton-based regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 164.
Armies: Northamptonshire
Butler, Edmund Edmund Butler
Captain in a troop of horse in regiment of Colonel Robert Butler (arrears claim of his cornet covers 1 Feb. 1645-16 Aug. 1645).
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 67.
Armies: Dorset
Butler, Henry Henry Butler
A captain in John Booth’s Lancashire regiment.
References: Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 285.
Armies: Lancashire
Butler, John John Butler
Captain and then, later in 1642 and following the promotion of Francis Fairfax, his successor as major, in the regiment of foot of the earl of Peterborough in the earl of Essex’s Army, 1642-3.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 28.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Butler, John John Butler
Captain in Sir Arthur Hesilrige’s regiment of horse in Waller’s Army 1643-5, also becoming adjutant general of Waller’s Army. He transferred to the New Model Army in the equivalent regiment of horse, initially envisaged as a captain in the regiment to be commanded by Middleton, but when the latter withdrew he became its colonel. He led the regiment for two years, until he left the army in summer 1647.
References: Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 50, 61, 71, 82, 93.
Armies: Waller; New Model Army
Butler, Nathan Nathan Butler
Captain in the Sutton at Hone Lathe Trained Band regiment of foot by Apr. 1644. Also captain of a company of dragoons present at the siege of Arundel Castle. His company fought with Waller in the western relief expedition and at the second battle of Newbury.
References: Spring, Waller’s army,70.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association); Kent
Butler, Robert Robert Butler
Colonel, though records suggest both of foot and of horse (and for the latter at the least that he had a troop of horse). Governor of Wareham, where his accounts cover 19 Aug. 1644-30 Apr. 1646, although an entry in Dorset committee minutes place him as governor in Dec. 1643.
Possibly Robert Butler of Almer, esquire, died 1 Oct. 1661.
References: Vis. Dorset, 1677, 11; Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 21, 27, 42, 74, 67-8, 122.
Armies: Dorset
Butler, Thomas Thomas Butler
Lieutenant. Butler lost the sight of both eyes in parliament’s service. Orders made on 27 July 1648 and 13 Oct. 1648 to secure the annuity awarded him of £40 per annum from sequestered lands.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 417, 476.
Armies: Dorset
Butterworth, - - Butterworth
A captain in Peter Egerton’s Lancashire regiment.
References: Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 288.
Armies: Lancashire
Butterworth, Edward Edward Butterworth
Lieutenant-Colonel of Peter Egerton’s Lancashire regiment.
References: Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 288 [citing TNA, SP28/300/414].
Armies: Lancashire
Butterworth, Henry Henry Butterworth
Of Rochdale, Lancashire. Captain-Lieutenant and later captain of troops of horse in Colonel Ralph Assheton senior’s regiment in Lancashire. By Oct. 1650 Butterworth had accrued arrears of £531 14s 8d. Other references, to arrears owed to men who had served under him, indicate that Butterworth was later a captain in Colonel Nicholas Shuttleworth’s regiment of Lancashire horse. Formed in June 1644, this later became the county regiment of horse.
Perhaps (assuming a typographical or clerical error) he may have been the J. Butterworth signatory to the Presbyterian, anti-New Model Army ‘Engagement or Declaration of the Officers and Souldiers of the County Palatine of Lancaster’ of May 1648. In 1651 Butterworth was sympathetic to the earl of Derby’s royalist rising in Lancashire.
References: TNA, E121/4/8; Lancashire military proceedings, 248-50; Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 216, 296.
Armies: Lancashire
Buttery, Francis Francis Buttery
Captain in the Surrey regiment of foot of Colonel Edmund Jordan in Aug. 1644, when he led his company to the siege of Basing.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 68.
Armies: Surrey
Buxton, Thomas Thomas Buxton
Buxton was admitted to the Company of the Artillery Garden (now the Honourable Artillery Company) on 6 Mar. 1620.
In Apr. 1642 Buxton was captain in the Orange regiment, London Trained Bands; he was promoted major in the same regiment later that year, but was no longer in the Trained Bands by Sept. 1643. He went as major into John Venn’s regiment of foot, garrisoning Windsor Castle.
References: Thrale 1642; Overton 1642; Nagel, ‘London militia’, 67, 315; Vis. London, 1633-5, 1.130; Cardew-Rendle.
Armies: London
Byard, George George Byard
From Yorkshire, probably the West Riding.
A captain in Christopher Copley’s regiment of horse from 1644 into 1648. During 1645 Byard was also governor of Tickhill Castle, and in the later 1640s sat regularly on West Riding committees.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 375.
Armies: Yorkshire
Byfield, John John Byfield
Lieutenant in Twistleton’s troop in Edward Rossiter’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army. He may be the John Byfield who shows up as a lieutenant in Cromwell’s New Model Army regiment of horse later in the 1640s.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.91; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 124-5.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army?