Surnames beginning 'K'

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

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'Surnames beginning 'K'', in The Cromwell Association Online Directory of Parliamentarian Army Officers , (, 2017) pp. . British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/cromwell-army-officers/surnames-k [accessed 11 April 2024]

Surnames beginning 'K'

Katcose, Henry Henry Katcose
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
Keayne, Benjamin Benjamin Keayne
At its muster in Nov. 1643 major – formerly captain, until his promotion in Aug. 1643 – 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
Keckwick, Henry Henry Keckwick
A Cornish gentry family name. Perhaps Thomas Kekewich (baptised 1614, died 1671), fourth son of Edward Kekewich of Trebanke (baptised 1561, died 1620) and his wife Jane, daughter of John Coode of Morval, Cornwall.
Lieutenant in Lord Robartes’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 37; Vivian, Vis. Cornwall, 252, 255.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Keeling, William William Keeling
Captain-Lieutenant, and then after May 1645 captain, of what was the colonel’s company in Anthony Stapley’s regiment of foot until the latter stood down under the Self-Denying Ordinance and the regiment passed to the command of Algernon Sidney.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 121.
Armies: Sussex; Waller (Southern Association)
Keely, - - Keely
Captain in the Sussex Trained Bands who was present at the siege of Chichester.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 126.
Armies: Sussex
Keene [?Reeve], Matthew Matthew Keene [?Reeve]
Lieutenant of the colonel’s company of the Red regiment, London auxiliaries (Colonel Samuel Harsnett), when it mustered on 27 Apr. 1644. (Keene is much the more likely reading, but the name might just be Reeve.)
References: TNA, SP28/121A, ff. 691r.-692v.
Armies: London
Kekewich [Keckwith, Keekwich], George George Kekewich [Keckwith, Keekwich] (1614-61)
Of Catfrench, Cornwall. Lieutenant in troop of Captain Anthony Rous. Officer, parliamentarian garrison, Plymouth, ?c.1642-6; later captain, St Mawes Castle, 1 Sept. 1646-17 June 1647; governor, 17 June 1647-13 July 1660; captain of foot, Cornish militia, 9 Oct. 1650-?; first son of William Kekewich of Catchfrench and Jane, daughter of William Coode of Morval, Cornwall MP for Liskeard from 1647 to Dec. 1648. Underdown, Pride’s Purge, 394, notes that he is difficult to disentangle from his cousin of the same name, one of the Kekewiches of Stonehouse.
References: Peachey and Turton, 3.311; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660, (forthcoming); Vis. Cornwall, 252-6.
Armies: Devon; Cornwall
Kekewich [Kequicke, Carquicke, Cackwick], Thomas Thomas Kekewich [Kequicke, Carquicke, Cackwick]
Captain in the Westminster auxiliaries regiment (Colonel James Prince) on 13 May 1644 (when he appears as Kequicke on a muster roll) and Oct. 1646 (where he appears as Cackwick in the list of officers at the earl of Essex’s funeral).
References: TNA, SP28/121A, Part 4, f. 549r.; Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 11.
Armies: Westminster
Kelke, - - Kelke
Captain in the Orange regiment, London auxiliaries (Colonel Thomas Gower) in Oct. 1646. Identification uncertain, but possibly either Thomas Kelke (1606/7-67) or his brother Nicholas Kelke (1611/12-88), Citizen and pewterer of London, the son of James Kelke of London and his wife Margaret, daughter of Thomas Finch of London. Nicholas was Master of the Pewterers’ Company in 1665, 1681 and 1686 (pewterer was both his City company and trade), and common councilman of Cornhill in 1671-8.
References: Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 11; Vis. London, 1664, 84-5; Vis. London, 1687, 1.151-2; Woodhead, Rulers, 101.
Armies: London
Kelly, Jo. Jo. Kelly
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
Kelsey, - - Kelsey
Captain of a company in Colonel Charles Fleetwood’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army; Kelsey and his company garrisoned Boston, Lincolnshire.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.35.
Armies: Eastern Association
Kelway, - - Kelway
Quartermaster.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 377.
Armies: Dorset
Kem, Samuel Samuel Kem (1604-1670)
Rector of Little Chart, Kent, Albury, Oxfordshire and (by 1643) Low Leyton, Essex. On 11 Aug. 1640 he had preached a sermon in St. Saviour’s, Southwark, to the soldiers ‘exercising armes in the Martiall Garden’, which was published as The New Fort of True Honour Made Impregnable (1640), which used military terms as metaphors for the godly life. With the civil war, he became chaplain first to the earl of Essex.
In Mar. and Apr. 1644 Kem commanded a troop of horse in the force that Sir Thomas Myddelton marched north with from London for service in North Wales. In May and June Ken may have been still formally serving under Myddelton, though as part of Denbigh’s Army. But by July at the latest (if not by May), he had transferred to the earl of Denbigh’s Army as chaplain to, and captain of a troop in, Denbigh’s regiment of horse.
Kem was active in the taking of Oswestry in June 1644, and undertook to guard the Chester passage and road to Chirk Castle with his own troop and those of Colonel Barton, Captain Noakes, Captain Tompson and Captain Broother (all but the last were certainly in Myddelton’s Army), fixing guards and sending out scouting parties. The town was taken on a Saturday, and the following morning Kem took a party of troopers to fire the castle gates with pitch, but on his way there met ‘a party of Women of all sorts down on their knees confounding him with their Welsh howlings, that he was fain to get an interpreter, which was to beseech me to entreat my Lord, before he blew up the Castle, they might go up and speak to their husbands, children, and the officers, which he moves, and my Lord condescended, so that Captain Keme might go with them and a trumpet, which he did courageously, and carried this message. Then my Lord, to avoid the effusion of blood, offered them mercy, if they would accept of it’. The besieged initially demanded generous terms which Denbigh rejected, but at last the women prevailed, and ‘the two brave champions, Colonel Mytton and Captain Keme, went up’, and the royalists accepted terms which granted them their lives, surrendering on 23 June 1644 (J.R. Phillips, Memoirs of the Civil War in Wales and the Marches (1874), II, 173-5, quoting Two Great Victories, 1644).
In Nov. 1644 Kem accompanied Denbigh and other parliamentary commissioners negotiating with the king at Oxford. Following the recapture of Bristol, he took command of the City regiment ‘In Bristol he is said to have preached in a buff coat and scarlet cloak with pistols on the cushions beside him’ (Oxford DNB). Following the reduction of the garrison, he went to sea, and, a Presbyterian and an ally of Sir William Batten’s, took his part in the defection of Batten’s ships to the Prince of Wales. However, by 1654 Kem was Major of horse in the army in Scotland.
He conformed at the Restoration, but absented himself from his living at Albury during the Second Dutch War for privateering.
References: Oxford DNB; TNA, SP28/346/20, 29, 77, 83, 86, 108, [147/8]; Laurence, Army Chaplains, 141; J.R. Phillips, Memoirs of the Civil War in Wales and the Marches (1874), II, 173-5.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Sir Thomas Myddelton (North Wales); Earl of Denbigh; Bristol; Scotland
Keming, - - Keming
Lieutenant in Captain Pritchard’s troop in Nathaniel Whetham’s Northampton-based regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 164.
Armies: Northamptonshire
Kemp, Edward Edward Kemp
Ensign in Captain Wood’s company 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)
Kempson, Nicholas Nicholas Kempson
Captain in Sir William Springate’s regiment of Kentish foot by June 1643 and there until its disbandment early the following year, when, with remaining parts of that regiment he transferred to Ralph Weldon’s regiment of foot, becoming its lieutenant-colonel and staying with that regiment until 1647. By the end of the decade he had settled in Ireland and become major of Edmund Ludlow’s regiment of horse which served in Ireland.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 120.
Armies: Kent; Waller (Southern Association)
Kenarick, Samuel Samuel Kenarick
Ensign in Sir William Fairfax’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 44.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Kendall, George George Kendall
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 later under Colonel Valentine Walton senior, and which probably originated as an auxiliary regiment of the Cambridgeshire militia.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.28.
Armies: Eastern Association
Kendall, Henry Henry Kendall
At the beginning of 1644 but apparently gone by the end of the summer, cornet in Otway’s troop in William Purefoy’s regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 122.
Armies: Warwickshire
Kenell, - - Kenell
Lieutenant [of foot].
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 377.
Armies: Dorset
Kennard, Peter Peter Kennard
A captain in John Moore’s Lancashire regiment of foot.
References: Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 291.
Armies: Lancashire
Kennett, - - Kennett
Lieutenant to Major Puett, ‘who behaved himself very well, was blown up with the powder and slain’ at the taking of Abbotsbury House, Nov. 1644.
References: Christie, Shaftesbury, 1.63.
Armies: Dorset
Kenrick, Job Job Kenrick
Cornet in the colonel’s troop in George Thompson’s/Edward Popham’s regiment of horse. When the command passed to George Starre in late 1645, Kenrick became lieutenant in John Evans’s troop.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 140.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association); Massey Brigade
Kenwricke [Kenrick], William William Kenwricke [Kenrick]
Presumably the son of Colonel William Kenwricke of Boughton under Blean and his first wife Anne, daughter of John Wilkinson of Dedham, Essex.
Captain in Kent, commanding a troop in Scraye Lathe’s regiment of horse from at least Dec. 1643, when he brought his men to the siege of Arundel Castle, until at least 1648; also captain in the Scraye Lathe auxiliary regiment from at least Nov. 1643 to Nov. 1644. He might be the same William Kenrick recorded in spring 1645 as colonel of the Aylesford Lathe’s Kentish regiment of Auxiliaries, though this could be a second and separate man.
References: Spring, Waller’s army,75; Vis. Kent, 1663-68, 90.
Armies: Kent; Waller (Southern Association)
Kern, - - Kern
Quartermaster-General in Staffordshire. Paid £10 for arms out of county funds in May or June 1644.
References: Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 316.
Armies: Staffordshire
Kerr, Robert Robert Kerr
Colonel and military governor of Plymouth from summer 1644. He arrived from London on 14 June 1644, although his predecessor seems still to have been in charge at the time of a royalist assault in early July. Although Lord Robartes was appointed governor by Essex in early Sept. 1644, and remained as such until his removal under the Self-Denying Ordinance in May 1645, Kerr retained military command, and succeeded as governor (confirmed by the Commons, 9 May 1645).
Kerr continued in command until Jan. 1646, although his successor, Ralph Weldon, had been appointed in Sept. 1645.
References: Worth, History of Plymouth, 115, 123, 129; JHC, 4.135-7.
Armies: Devon
Kett, Henry Henry Kett
First identified by pay warrants dating from Apr. and May 1644 as a major of foot in Sir Thomas Myddelton’s brigade, then based and recruiting in the London area. He was either major of Sir Thomas’s own regiment of foot or of Sir William Myddelton’s regiment of foot (Sir Thomas’s cousin) when the brigade invaded Montgomeryshire in early Sept. 1644.
References: TNA, SP28/346, nos. 85, 90, 176; National Library of Wales, Chirk Castle Ms. 1/Biii, 93.
Armies: North Wales
Kettleby, Thomas Thomas Kettleby
Of Overs Hundred, Shropshire. By early 1646 a captain in the Shropshire forces garrisoning Stokesay Castle; an active committeeman later in the 1640s.
References: Bishop’s Castle Heritage Resource Centre, Bishop’s Castle town chest, first corporation minute book, f. 209.
Armies: Shropshire
Key, George George Key
Signatory to the Presbyterian, anti-New Model Army ‘Engagement or Declaration of the Officers and Souldiers of the County Palatine of Lancaster’, May 1648.
References: Lancashire military proceedings, 248-50.
Armies: Lancashire
Keys, - - Keys
Lieutenant in Sir Richard Onslow’s regiment of foot (Surrey auxiliaries) by 25 May 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 114.
Armies: Surrey; Waller (Southern Association)
Kightley, Edward Edward Kightley (died 1643)
Kightley raised a troop of horse in Aug. 1642 which served in the earl of Essex’s army. Later captain in Sir William Waller’s regiment of horse, killed in action on 10 June 1643 at Chewton Mendip. He left a widow, Isobel. He is presumably the Edward Knightley who was an ensign in Sir John Dougless’s regiment of foot in the earl of Northumberland’s Army in 1640.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 7.706, 709; Peacock, Army lists, 52, 88.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller
Kilbee, Richard Richard Kilbee
From Sept. 1642, ensign in Matthew Randall’s company in John Barker’s/Thomas Willoughby’s regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 23.
Armies: Warwickshire
Killiadoe, Peter Peter Killiadoe
Captain in the regiment of dragoons commanded by George Mill (Milne) and later by Sir William Waller. Under the latter, he succeeded to the company previously commanded by John Clifford.
References: Spring, Waller’s army,146.
Armies: Earl of Essex;Waller; Waller (Southern Association)
Killick, - - Killick
Captain in Edward Cooke’s regiment of foot by 4 Jan. 1644 (the regiment was reduced the following May).
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 29.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
King, C. C. King
Cornet in Thomas Temple’s troop of horse in Aug. 1642.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 7.716.
Armies: Earl of Essex
King, Edward Edward King
King had a long and sometimes turbulent military career in the Eastern Association Army, beginning as a dragoon captain in Lord Willoughby’s regiment, then in autumn 1643 becoming colonel and commander of two regiments, a regiment of horse raised in Lincolnshire and a regiment of foot, also raised in Lincolnshire. Parts of both regiments served under King during his time as governor of Boston and Holland in autumn 1643 and as governor of Lincoln from the end of 1643. Although praised by Oliver Cromwell, King repeatedly clashed with Willoughby and his strong Presbyterian faith also caused some ructions. He and his regiments served at the unsuccessful siege of Newark in spring 1644, but he was dismissed in summer 1644, a move confirmed by parliament in early 1645.
References: Holmes, Eastern Association, 108, 185, 188, 199-204; Holmes, ‘Colonel King and Lincolnshire politics, 1642-46’, Historical Journal, 44 (1971).
Armies: Eastern Association
King, John John King
Captain in the Westminster auxiliaries regiment when it was mustered on 13 May 1644. Perhaps the same man as the captain in the Tower Hamlets Trained Bands regiment in 1646, though this is possibly more likely to be the ensign in that regiment in 1644.
References: TNA, SP28/121A, Part 5, f. 592r.
Armies: Westminster
King, John John King
Ensign in the Tower Hamlets Trained Bands regiment when it mustered on 18 Apr. 1644. Probably captain in the Tower Hamlets Trained Bands regiment by 22 Oct. 1646 (though this latter may be the captain in the Westminster auxiliaries regiment in 1644).
References: TNA, SP28/121A, f. 412 r. & v.; Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 12.
Armies: Tower Hamlets
King, Nathaniel Nathaniel King
By July 1643 captain and by Nov. 1643 major in the Surrey and Farnham Castle-based regiment of foot commanded by Samuel Jones and later by John Fielder. As such he was present at several operations in the region in which part of the regiment participated, including the final siege of Basing House. He apparently left the regiment in spring 1646, shortly before it was disbanded.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 74.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association); Surrey
King, Richard Richard King
An officer of the small regiment of reformado horse commanded by Major James Baker which came up from London in late 1645.
On 27 Nov. 1645 he was one of the officers who signed a letter to Brereton explaining the mixture of social slighting and lack of pay and secure quarters which had led the men to disobey a direct order to march.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 2. 275.
Armies: Reformado; London; Cheshire
King, William William King
According to his commission of 2 Apr. 1645, captain in Humphrey Mackworth’s Shrewsbury-based militia regiment of foot.
References: TNA, SP28/174, E121/1/2/44B.
Armies: Shropshire
Kinnersley, - - Kinnersley
Cornet in Staffordshire. He served under Colonel Leigh, and in July 1644 was, or just had been, a prisoner-of-war. On 23 July the county committee ruled that £20 which Mr Lowe of Whitmore was to advance should be paid to Colonel Leigh to satisfy him for £20 which he had sent to Kinnersley to discharge his fees. By Jan. 1645 he was cornet to Lieutenant Wagstaffe’s troop of horse, and refused to pay money over to another lieutenant, Wakefield, when Wagstaffe was cashiered and his troops passed to Wakefield.
References: Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 152, 243.
Armies: Staffordshire
Kint, - - Kint
Cornet in Captain Strick’s troop in Nathaniel Whetham’s Northampton-based regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 164.
Armies: Northamptonshire
Kirk, John John Kirk
Captain in Lord Willoughby’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.111.
Armies: Eastern Association
Kirle, Robert Robert Kirle
In 1642 listed both as lieutenant of Joseph Fleming’s troop of horse and as captain of his own troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 51.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Kittermaster, Richard Richard Kittermaster
Lieutenant in Captain John Andrewes’s company in the Red regiment, London auxiliaries (Colonel Samuel Harsnett), when it mustered on 27 Apr. 1644.
References: TNA, SP28/121A, Part 5, ff. 621 r. & v.
Armies: London
Kittlebutter [Ketelbuter], Richard Richard Kittlebutter [Ketelbuter]
Captain of a company in a Tower Hamlets militia regiment, drawn from Spitalfields and Halowell Street: probably the Tower Hamlets Trained Bands regiment (n.d., but probably 1644), but possibly the Tower Hamlets auxiliaries regiment, in which he was captain on 22 Oct. 1646.
Appointed captain, Tower Hamlets Trained Bands regiment, by the Presbyterian militia committee during its attempted coup in 1647.
References: TNA, SP28/121A, 598 r. & v.; Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 11; TNA, SP28/46, f. 32r.
Armies: Tower Hamlets
Knapman, James James Knapman
Lieutenant in company of Captain Robert Bennett’s Trained Band; dated reference 22 Aug. 1642.
References: Peachey and Turton, 3.308.
Armies: Cornwall
Knapp, James James Knapp
Lieutenant in Captain William Johnstone’s (previously Robert Taylor’s) company in Lawrence Crawford’s regiment of foot by 15 July 1644; he was no longer in the company when it disbanded on 17 Apr. 1645.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.15.
Armies: Eastern Association
Knapp, Joseph Joseph Knapp
Lieutenant in the Southwark auxiliaries regiment (Colonel James Houblon) in autumn 1643; captain in the same regiment by 16 Apr. 1644 and major by 22 Oct. 1646.
References: TNA, SP28/131, Part 13, f. 5v., SP28/121A, Part 4, ff. 569r.-570r.; Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 11.
Armies: London; Earl of Essex
Knight, - - Knight
Major by Jan. 1644 but gone by summer 1644. Commander of a company in Sir Miles Hobart’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.41.
Armies: Eastern Association
Knight, John John Knight
Lieutenant in Captain Talbot’s troop in Sir William Waller’s regiment of horse.
References: Peachey and Turton, VII, 708.
Armies: Waller
Knight, Ralph Ralph Knight
Of Langold, Yorkshire (West Riding), a parliamentarian major in Yorkshire.
References: Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 113 [citing E121/5/5, no. 7].
Armies: Yorkshire
Knight, Ralph Ralph Knight
Originally from Berkshire, he began the civil war as lieutenant in John Okey’s troop in Sir Arthur Heselrige’s regiment of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army. By spring 1644 he was captain in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army. He served as a captain in Pye’s New Model Army horse regiment from its formation in spring 1645, in summer 1647 promoted to major when Tomlinson took over command of the regiment.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.53; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 53, 63, 67, 74, 83, 95, 108.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
Knight, William William Knight
Ensign 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
Knightley, Robert Robert Knightley
Captain 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
Knolly [?Knollys], Richard Richard Knolly [?Knollys]
Lieutenant in, and by 25 July 1644 captain of, the company originally commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Roberts in the Sussex regiment of foot of Anthony Stapley/Algernon Sidney. In 1645 his company served in the West; Knolly was still its captain in Sept. 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 121.
Armies: Sussex
Knowles, William William Knowles
Lieutenant in Captain Kelsey’s troop in Colonel Charles Fleetwood’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army. Probably the same William Knowles in 1647 became a captain in Robert Overton’s New Model Army regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.35; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 91, 103.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
Kynaston [Kinaston], John John Kynaston [Kinaston]
He may have been of one of the many branches of the Shropshire Kynastons, but remains unidentified.
By spring 1644 John Kynaston was captain of a company of foot in Sir William Myddelton’s regiment of Sir Thomas Myddelton's brigade raised in the London area, and his company was at Stafford by mid May. Issues of equipment (on 2 Sept. his company received 60 swords and belts, 60 collars of bandoliers and 24 muskets) show that Kynaston’s company was with Myddelton’s brigade when it invaded Montgomeryshire in Sept 1644. By Mar. 1645 Kynaston had been promoted major. He may by then have transferred to the Shropshire county forces based at Shrewsbury, for in early Nov. the Shropshire committeemen complained to Sir William Brereton that Major Kynaston, with his company, had been ‘drawn away’ to join Colonel (acting Major-General) Thomas Mytton’s Oswestry-based forces, attracted by Mytton’s promise of a lieutenant-colonelcy. (Dore, Brereton letter books, 2. 903). Kynaston appears to have served under Mytton in and around North Wales into 1646 at least.
References: TNA, SP28/45, Part 1, no. 130; SP28/346, no. 283; National Library of Wales, Chirk Castle Ms. 1/Biii, 93; Dore, Brereton letter books, 2. 903.
Armies: North Wales, Shropshire
Kyrle, Robert Robert Kyrle
Kyrle had previously served in the Swedish and Dutch armies. By his own later account, he started as a lieutenant but was soon promoted captain of a troop of horse which he himself raised. He was then made sergeant-major in the earl of Stamford’s regiment of horse.
On 19 Sept. 1642 he wrote from Gloucester that he had almost completed his troop and would march to London tomorrow. By 29 Oct. he was at Hereford, from where his troop raided Presteigne. For some time his troop formed the garrison at Goodrich Castle, where they repeatedly looted the property of a local clergyman.
By 4 Feb. 1643 he had defected to the royalists, and his letter justifying his change of position, dated 6 Mar. 1643, was published (A coppy of a Letter writ from sergeant major Kirle in Windsor). However, in Sept. 1645 Lieutenant-Colonel Kyrle made overtures to Massey to betray Monmouth to him, and on 24 Sept. duly turned up at Monmouth, returning with (he claimed) a large number of captured parliamentarians (in reality the forlorn hope of the attack). The drawbridge was let down and Kyrle and the men let in. Both the royalists were by now suspicious, as were the parliamentarians (‘there wanted not those that kept a strict watch over Kyrle’s deportment, who acted his part with dexterity and valour’, Bibliotheca, 119). The town was taken and Massey chose Edward Harley rather than Kyrle as its governor. Kyrle was with Massey at the battle of Ledbury (22 Apr. 1645). Kyrle also served as a county committeeman.
He was possibly related to the Kyrles of Much Marcle, Herefordshire (for whom see The Visitation of Herefordshire, 1634, ed. M.P. Siddons, Harleian Soc., new ser. Vol. 15, 2002).
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6.654-5; Bibliotheca, ixcvii, ciii, 117-9; Warmington, Glos., 64, 66, 92, 95.
Armies: Gloucestershire