Surnames beginning 'R'

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

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'Surnames beginning 'R'', in The Cromwell Association Online Directory of Parliamentarian Army Officers , ed. Stephen K Roberts( 2017), British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/cromwell-army-officers/surnames-r [accessed 31 October 2024].

'Surnames beginning 'R'', in The Cromwell Association Online Directory of Parliamentarian Army Officers . Edited by Stephen K Roberts( 2017), British History Online, accessed October 31, 2024, https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/cromwell-army-officers/surnames-r.

"Surnames beginning 'R'". The Cromwell Association Online Directory of Parliamentarian Army Officers . Ed. Stephen K Roberts(2017), , British History Online. Web. 31 October 2024. https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/cromwell-army-officers/surnames-r.

Surnames beginning 'R'

Radcliffe, Richard Richard Radcliffe (1606/7-1660)
Of the Conduit, Collyhurst township, Manchester. Son of William Radcliffe (died 1645), an active figure in Manchester, and his wife Elizabeth.
Radcliffe was captain and, by May 1645, major in Richard Holland’s regiment of foot in Lancashire. He commanded the town’s forces at the siege of Manchester in Sept. 1642, holding the Market Street Lane. He evidently remained commander of the town’s permanent guard (he was explicitly exempted from a general muster of the county forces on Barlow Moor in May 1645). In May 1648 he was a signatory to the Presbyterian, anti-New Model Army petition of Lancashire officers. He was MP for Manchester in 1656.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 464-5; Lancashire military proceedings, 46, 51, 333, 248-50; TNA, E121/5/7 (Duckenfeild, 6/5/1651); VCH, Lancashire, 4.244-5; Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 289; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming).
Armies: Lancashire
Radford, Thomas Thomas Radford
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
Ragdale, - - Ragdale
In Mar. 1645, ensign in Captain Sawyer’s company in Sir Samuel Luke’s Newport Pagnell-based regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 95.
Armies: Bedfordshire
Raikes, Andrew Andrew Raikes
Captain in Hull garrison in early July 1642. Presumably a kinsman of the mayor, Thomas Raikes, and aldermen Robert and William Raikes.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 398; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 91.
Armies: Yorkshire
Rainborowe [Rainsborough], Thomas Thomas Rainborowe [Rainsborough] (died 1648)
Eldest son of Captain William Rainborowe (died 1642), a merchant and naval officer. Elder brother of William Rainborowe, the New Model Army Major.
Thomas grew up by the Thames in east London and followed his father into trade and maritime business. When the civil war broke out he had just inherited money, property and businesses from his late father.
His military contribution to the civil war was, in part, as a naval man and he served as such during 1643, helping to relieve Hull and supporting Fairfax there. In spring 1644 he was commissioned to raise and command a regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army, raised in and around Lincolnshire and reportedly containing many religious radicals, including some men who had returned from New England.
He transferred to the New Model Army in spring 1645 as an infantry colonel and had a distinguished military career in the New Model, including the capture of Gaunt House, the battles of Naseby and Langport and the sieges and capture of Bridgwater, Sherborne, Bristol, Nunney Castle and Berkeley Castle in 1645 and the capture of Woodstock and Worcester (of which he was then appointed governor) in 1646; in 1648 he supported Fairfax at Colchester and was then sent north to besiege Pontefract Castle, leading to his murder by royalists in Doncaster at the end of Oct. His radical role in army politics, at Putney and elsewhere, during 1646-7 had won him much support in the army, though it led to strained relations with Cromwell and other senior officers, and his sudden and violent death was much mourned, with a huge funeral procession in London.
In the New Model he had commanded in effect a new regiment in that army, comprising parts of several old Eastern Association regiments and fresh recruits; his own Eastern Association regiment of foot did transfer to the New Model in spring 1645, but was placed under a new commander (Colonel James Grey).
References: Oxford DNB; Spring, Eastern Association, 2.88; Holmes, Eastern Association, 135, 163, 176, 236; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 46, 57, 68, 78, 88.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
Rainsborough, William William Rainsborough
Probably a captain in Holborne’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642-3. By the time of Essex’s south-western expedition of summer 1644 and probably by early 1644, captain in Sir William Balfour’s regiment of horse. He had a later career as major in the New Model horse regiments of Thomas Sheffield, but was dismissed in 1649.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 20.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller (Southern Association); New Model Army
Rainsford, John John Rainsford
Lieutenant in Viscount Saye and Sele’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642. By June 1643 captain in the same regiment (by then Edward Aldrich).
References: Peacock, Army lists, 30; TNA, SP28/9/39.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Rainsford, John John Rainsford
Lieutenant 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
Ramsay, Alexander Alexander Ramsay
Captain in Lieutenant-General John Middleton’s regiment of horse (which existed summer 1644 to Apr. 1645). He is possibly the Major Alexander Ramsay who was major in Sir James Ramsay’s regiment of horse in the Army of the Solemn League and Covenant (though if so he joined sometime after its formation early in 1644), and possibly the Major Alexander Ramsay who succeeded to the command of Gilbert Kerr’s troop of horse in the Scottish New Model Army in 1648.
References: Spring, Waller’s army,97; Furgol, Covenanting Armies, 177, 255.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Ramsey, - - Ramsey
By Sept. 1643 lieutenant-colonel in Waller’s regiment of foot, but in Dec. 1643 he was killed in the attack on and recapture of Arundel.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 153.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Ramsey, - - Ramsey
Major in the earl of Denbigh’s regiment of foot. No doubt a Scottish professional soldier. Referred to in entries in Denbigh’s Army accounts (Sept. 1643-May 1644) for 9 Sept. 1643, 16 and 30 Mar., and 28 and 30 Apr. 1644. On 19 May 1644 a parcel of powder with match and ball was delivered to Ramsey for the regiment out of the magazine at Stafford.
References: TNA, SP28/131, Part 12, ff. 11, 16, 20, 24, 25; Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 340.
Armies: Earl of Denbigh
Ramsey, Edward Edward Ramsey
Lieutenant in Captain Nathaniel Tilley’s company in the Tower Hamlets Trained Bands regiment on 16 Apr. 1644.
References: TNA, SP28/121A, Part 5, ff. 587r.-589v.
Armies: Tower Hamlets
Ramsey, George George Ramsey
By spring 1645 and possibly earlier captain in the regiment of foot commanded by Henry/Harry Barclay in the earl of Essex’s Army. Like his colonel and lieutenant-colonel, he was then earmarked for transfer as captain to a New Model Army regiment of foot, but like Barclay and Innes – and probably for the same reason, because as a Scot he had been directed by his government not to take up that service – he did not actually go on to serve in the New Model.
References: Wanklyn, New Model Army, 1. 47-8, 150.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Ramsey, Sir James Sir James Ramsey
A Scottish officer. There were several James Ramseys in Swedish service in the 1630s, and Ramsay may be one of them.
Captain of a troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army by Oct. 1642. By the time of the battle of Edgehill he was commissary-general of horse, and commanded twenty-four troops of horse on the parliamentarian left wing. Rupert’s cavalry rapidly routed Ramsay’s horse, and he had to face charges of himself having fled; according to one sympathetic account, he ‘himself being engaged among the Squadrons of the Enemies Horse, was carryed violently out of the Field’, with Ramsey claiming that he had been carried along at least two miles until he leaped a ditch away from the cavaliers. He made his way to London and on 5 Nov. faced a committee of enquiry at St Albans, where three other Scottish officers defended his conduct. He was vindicated. Sent to fortify Marlborough, Wiltshire, by Essex, he was captured when the royalists took the town on 5 Dec.
Ramsey was freed and serving as colonel of a regiment of horse in Essex’s Army by late May 1643, and he took part in the expedition to relieve Gloucester and the first battle of Newbury in late summer 1643.
Ramsay ceased to serve in Essex’s Army in Nov. 1643. By June 1644 he was colonel of a regiment of horse in the Army of the Solemn League and Covenant and was then appointed sergeant-major-general of horse. That month, he went into England in the army of the earl of Callendar and the following month led an unsuccessful attack against Gateshead. In late 1644 he commanded a force of cavalry quartered in Aberdeenshire, Banffshire and Moray. By spring 1645 he was governor of Berwick-upon-Tweed. In June 1646 his regiment quartering in Yorkshire (North Riding) raised complaints. The regiment was disbanded in Feb. 1647; the following month the Estates formally commended Ramsay’s service.
References: Old DNB [in biography of Sir James Ramsay, 1589?-1638]; Oxford DNB [Sir James Ramsay]; TNA, SP28/2b/490, SP28/7/126, 377, SP28/10/210, SP16/503/62.iv.1; Furgol, Covenanting armies, 177-8; Young, Edgehill, 69, 95, 112, 137, 201-2, 301, 305,307; The vindication and clearing of Sir Iames Ramsey, from those base aspersions cast upon him through mis-information concerning his cariage in the fight at Kyneton, 23 October 1642 (1642); Scotland, Scandinavia and Northern Europe, 1580-1707, www.st.-andrews.ac.uk/history/ssne/index/php
Armies: Earl of Essex
Ramsey, John John Ramsey
Ensign 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
Rance, William William Rance
Quartermaster and later cornet in Major Robert Gibbon’s troop of horse in Henry Ireton’s regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 80.
Armies: New Model Army
Randall, Matthew Matthew Randall
From summer 1642 and still there in summer 1645, captain in John Barker’s/Thomas Willoughby’s regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 23.
Armies: Warwickshire
Randoll, John John Randoll
Ensign in the Orange regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel John Towse) in summer 1642.
References: Thrale 1642.
Armies: London
Randolph, John John Randolph
Randolph served in the defence of Lichfield Close in Apr. 1643 and wrote an account of that action, Honour advanced (1643).
References: J. Randolph, Honour advanced (1643).
Armies: Staffordshire
Ranson, - - Ranson
In the opening months of 1645, shortly before the regiment was broken up, captain in Francis Russell’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.99.
Armies: Eastern Association
Ratcliffe [Radcliffe], John John Ratcliffe [Radcliffe]
A captain in Lancashire, his company in Richard Holland’s regiment of foot is identified from the record of his lieutenant, Richard Halliwell, in Sept. 1650. (Gratton, Lancashire war effort, 289 reads his forename as Joshua.)
References: TNA, E121/3/1.
Armies: Lancashire
Ratcliffe, - - Ratcliffe
A lieutenant in Cheshire in 1645. A pay warrant was issued on 8 Nov. 1645 for officers and soldiers in Northwich Hundred, from a list of names under the hand of Lieutenant Ratcliffe.
References: TNA, SP28/224, ff. 47, 49-50.
Armies: Cheshire
Ratcliffe, - - Ratcliffe
A captain who served under Fairfax in the Huddersfield area in early 1643, defecting to the royalists in Apr. 1643.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 398.
Armies: Yorkshire
Rathbone, - - Rathbone
Probably John Rathbone of Irby on the Wirral, Cheshire, captain in Sir William Brereton’s regiment of foot by Apr. 1645 and sometime commander of the garrison at Upton just outside Chester; he was dangerously wounded at the siege of Chester.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 1.329.
Armies: Cheshire
Raven, John John Raven (died 1643)
Ensign in Cheshire, buried at Nantwich, 12 Mar. 1643.
References: Cheshire tracts, 255.
Armies: Cheshire
Ravenscroft, Thomas Thomas Ravenscroft (died 1682)
Probably of Pickhill, near Wrexham, Flint. Appears as colonel in the Brereton letter books(as such sitting on councils of war, 9 Apr. and 16 and 17 May 1645) and identified by Dore as of Myddelton’s army. He had been a royalist colonel before he betrayed Hawarden Castle to the parliamentarians on 11 Nov. 1643. Dore considers that, ‘Presumably he was left his rank as a reward for his treachery, an encouragement to others to do the same thing and as the visible sign that a cadre for a Flint. regiment on the parliamentary side existed. But, if at this time he had any sizable number of men under his command, their exploits are unrecorded’ (Dore, Brereton letter books, 1.179). A member of the county committee for Flint., 1648, and high sheriff of Denbighshire, 1649. He died on 18 Feb. 1682.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 1.179, 436-7, 445; Tucker, Denbighshire Officers, 81-2.
Armies: North Wales
Rawdon, Marmaduke Marmaduke Rawdon (baptised 1582/3, died 1646)
Son of Ralph Rawdon of Stearsby, Yorkshire, and his wife Jane Brice, daughter of John Brice of Stillington, Yorkshire, a Bordeaux merchant. He married Elizabeth, only daughter and heir of Thomas Thorowgood of Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. His daughter Elizabeth married Edmund Forster [Foster] another City captain.
A member of the Clothworkers’ Company.
A merchant, trading in wines and with France, the Iberian Peninsula and the Canaries, with investments in Barbados and a member of the Levant Company.
Of Water Lane, London, and Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. MP for Aldeburgh, Suffolk in 1628. A Trained Bands captain by 1633.
Lieutenant-Colonel of Red regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Thomas Atkin), Apr. 1642 and still in that position on 29 Sept. 1642.
Rawden opposed change in religion and City government in the early 1640s, and was a leading figure in the ‘peace’ campaign in London in Dec. 1642 and the following year involved with the royalist plot of Edmund Waller. Openly defecting, he became a royalist colonel of horse and of foot, playing a leading role in the defence of Basing House. He was knighted in Dec. 1643 and was later royalist governor of Wallingford Castle and of Farringdon, Berkshire, where he died in Apr. 1646.
References: Oxford DNB; Barriffe, Mars, sig. ¶r; Overton 1642; Thrale 1642; Lindley, Popular politics, 63-5, 166, 174, 175, 189, 192, 208, 214, 241, 246, 341-3, 344; Vis. London, 1633-5, 2.189; Newman, Royalist officers, 311; Shaw, Knights of England, 2.217; Godwin, Hampshire, 91-5, 115, 120, 209, 215-6, 238, 262, 305-7, 316, 344, 366, 372; The life of Marmaduke Rawdon of York [his nephew], ed. R. Davies, Camden Society, old ser., vol. 85 (1863), xvi-xx, xxiii, xli-xlii, 5-7, 17, 22-8, 32; HoP: The Commons, 1604-1629.
Armies: London
Rawlins, Lionel Lionel Rawlins
Captain in Sir Richard Onslow’s regiment of foot (the Surrey Auxiliaries) by 11 Dec. 1642, and who brought his company to the siege of Basing House in July 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 106.
Armies: Surrey
Rawlins, Thomas Thomas Rawlins
Captain in Nathaniel Fiennes’s regiment of horse in 1643. On 20 Apr. 1643 Waller complained of the contempt that Rawlins had shown for his warrant. His troop was quartered at Long Ashton, 3 Mar. 1643-9 June 1643.
Rawlins sat at the court martial on 8 May of the royalist conspirator Robert Yeamans.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6.611-2.
Armies: Bristol
Rawlinson, Leonard Leonard Rawlinson
A captain in John Moore’s Lancashire regiment.
References: Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 292.
Armies: Lancashire
Rawlinson, William William Rawlinson
A captain in John Moore’s Lancashire regiment.
References: Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 292.
Armies: Lancashire
Raymond, George George Raymond (c.1600-1657)
Of Thornbury, Gloucestershire. Lieutenant-Colonel. Eldest son of George Raymond (c. 1574-1642) of Ilchester, Somerset, and afterwards of Thornbury, Gloucestershire and his wife Anne, daughter of Captain Matthew Smith of Cheshire. Captain under Colonel Thomas Morgan who was present at the taking of Berkeley Castle and profited from its spoliation. In turn, he was himself the victim of prosecutions for debts, including for malt which he had taken for the Slimbridge garrison. He was still captain in Morgan’s regiment of foot at its disbanding at the turn of 1647/8. Commissioned colonel of foot in Gloucestershire militia, 8 Feb. 1651.
A loyal supporter of the republican regimes. He was appointed to three commissions in 1650-3, in which role, along with Jeremy Buck, he was the only sequestration commissioner to be ‘guilty of constant partiality and corruption throughout their careers’ (Warmington, Glos.,134); he was recommended as a candidate for Barebone’s Parliament in 1653 by the gathered churches and as a potential militia officer by John Thurloe in 1655. In 1656 he was sheriff, where his behaviour during the elections for Gloucestershire and Tewkesbury to the second Protectorate Parliament was highly dubious. In 1657 he was chosen a commissioner of the Public Faith.
References: Vis. Glos., 1682-3, 141; HMC, Fifth Report, 356-7; HMC, Seventh Report, 68-9; Warmington, Glos., 79. 90-1, 102, 103, 117-8, 124, 126, 134-5; CSPD, 1651, 513,
Armies: Gloucestershire
Raymond, John John Raymond
Possibly ensign in William Lower’s company of firelocks in Lord Kerry’s regiment of foot in Lord Wharton’s Army raised for Ireland in 1642.
By or from 20 Aug. 1642, captain in John Hampden’s (later Thomas Tyrrill’s) regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army. Major in the same regiment, possibly by late June and certainly by mid-Aug.; he may have been promoted Major when his predecessor William Barriffe was made lieutenant-colonel upon the defection of Joseph Wagstaffe in Jan. 1643, but was raised to major in the same round of promotions after Barriffe’s death in summer 1643 which saw his fellow captain of 1642 Richard Ingoldsby made lieutenant-colonel.
Raymond remained major until the debacle of Essex’s Cornish campaign. In mid-Sept. his colonel, Tyrrill, complained that Raymond had been paid £78 15s for the regiment, which he had kept in his hands and was since gone away.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 69-70, 46; TNA, SP28/1a/174, SP28/2a/83, SP28/9/117, SP28/18/81.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Rayner, - - Rayner
By the end of 1644 ensign 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
Rea, Thomas Thomas Rea
Ensign in the Colonel’s company in Edward Harley’s regiment of foot (raised late 1643). Lieutenant in companies of Captains Nicholls and Dutton in James Kerr’s regiment of foot. Captain-Lieutenant to James Kerr and Ralph Weldon in their regiments of foot. Served in Plymouth for a time and probably present with part of the regiment supporting Waller at the battle of Cheriton (Mar. 1644).
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 62.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association); Gloucestershire
Read, - - Read
Lieutenant in Colonel Robert Wood’s Surrey regiment by 12 Sept. 1646, and still there on 30 Jan. 1647.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 68.
Armies: Surrey
Read, John John Read
Captain-Lieutenant. He is not listed as an officer in the earl of Stamford’s regiment of foot in 1642. He was captain-lieutenant by the end of the siege of Gloucester, probably in succession to James Harcus (who was killed on 15 Aug. 1643), commanding the earl of Stamford’s company.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6. 645-6; Bibliotheca, 229.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Read, John John Read
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
Read, Thomas Thomas Read
By the time of the regiment’s disbandment in spring 1645 ensign in Robert Shephard’s company in Sir Miles Hobart’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.42.
Armies: Eastern Association
Read, Thomas Thomas Read
In spring 1645 – and probably from the regiment’s founding in late 1642 – captain in the regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army commanded successively by Colonels Holborne and Davies. Like Davies and some of his fellow-officers, Read transferred to the New Model Army, becoming major in the New Model regiment of foot commanded successively by Aldridge, Lloyd and Herbert and becoming lieutenant-colonel of the regiment in 1646.
References: Wanklyn, New Model Army, 1. 48, 59, 66, 70, 80, 91, 148.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Read, Walter Walter Read
Lieutenant 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
Reade, - - Reade
Captain in the Tower Hamlets auxiliaries regiment on 22 Oct. 1646.
References: Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 11.
Armies: Tower Hamlets
Rede [Read], John John Rede [Read]
Lieutenant-Colonel. 11 Nov. 1647: appointed governor of, and commander-in-chief of the forces defending, Poole and Brownsea Castle. In Apr. 1651, following the complaints of the civic authorities against the then governor of Poole, Lieutenant-Colonel Rede was dismissed following the accusations of the civic authorities that he favoured Levellers, Ranters and Baptists; attempting to impose one Gardiner, ‘a soldier and dipper’, to be pastor and lecturer ‘in opposition’ to the orthodox divines and well-affected ministers as were provided by the magistracy of Poole. Major Skutt was appointed governor of Poole and Brownsea Castle in Rede’s place. In the face of Rede’s resistance, and ‘some recrimination’ against Skutt, the council of state decided to appoint a third party to the post until matters were settled.
References: Bayley, Civil War in Dorset, 343-8.
Armies: Dorset
Redford, Robert Robert Redford
Ensign in Captain Tooley’s company in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.63.
Armies: Eastern Association
Reding [Readinge], John John Reding [Readinge]
Lieutenant to Joseph Holt, captain of firelocks in Sir William Brereton’s Cheshire Army, as revealed by a surviving pay warrant of 26 Nov. 1646.
References: TNA, SP28/224, f. 184.
Armies: Cheshire
Redman, - - Redman
Captain in Nathaniel Whetham’s Northampton-based regiment of horse. Either the same man or perhaps his kinsman was also shown as a captain in Whetham’s regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 164.
Armies: Northamptonshire
Redman, Daniel Daniel Redman
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
Redman, Daniel Daniel Redman
Served as captain in the earl of Manchester’s (then Lord Mandeville’s) regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army during the opening months of the civil war, and then served as captain in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army; also served as captain in the regiment of Colonel Lytcott garrisoning Northampton. As such, he features from time to time in Sir Samuel Luke’s letter books, and a letter to him survives there.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.65; Luke Letter Books, especially no. 171.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Eastern Association
Redough, - - Redough
Lieutenant in Captain William Tatton’s troop in James Holborne’s regiment of dragoons at the time of its disbandment in Apr. 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 146.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Reeve, William William Reeve
In 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, 2.113.
Armies: Eastern Association
Reinking, William [Wilhelm] William [Wilhelm] Reinking
A continent, probably German, mercenary officer. In July 1644 he was sent from London to join the Shropshire county forces to be commissioned by the earl of Denbigh. By Aug. 1644 he may have been a captain at Wem. In Sept. 1644 he held joint command with Captain Colville of Brereton’s Cheshire Army of the operation which captured Moreton Corbet in Shropshire. By then holding the rank of lieutenant-colonel, on the night of 14-15 Feb. 1645 he led what proved to be an abortive attempt on Shrewsbury, though he was one of the principal commanders of the successful attack on the county town a week later. He was governor of Wem by spring 1645, in which capacity he visited London, leading to reports that ‘under his direction Wem is refortified and made more strong than before’. He probably had command at the engagement with royalists at Stokesay on 8 June and he directed the short siege of Caus Castle and the attack upon Moreville later that month. He also had command of the operation against High Ercall in early July 1645, but he was captured on 5 July and held prisoner in royalist Ludlow until Aug. 1645.
References: CSPD, 1644, 353-5; National Library of Wales, Sweeney Hall Ms. A1, f. 24; Kingdom’s Weekly Intelligencer, 26 Apr.-13 May, 24 June-1 July 1645; Perfect Occurrences, 20-27 June 1645; R. Symonds, ed. C.E. Long, Diary of the Marches of the Royal Army During the Great Civil War Kept by Richard Symonds, 172; Colonell Mitton’s Reply to Lieutenant Colonell Reinking’s Relation of the taking of Shrewbury (1645).
Armies: Shropshire
Remington, Sir Thomas Sir Thomas Remington (1610/1611-1681)
Of Lund, Yorkshire (East Riding), eldest son of Richard Remington of Lund (1590-1648) and his wife Mary, sister of Sir John Hotham of Scorborough. He married in Mar. 1632 Hannah, daughter of Sir Edward Gee of Beverley, knight.
He was knighted in July 1633 at Dublin Castle by Wentworth.
By Jan. 1643 he had raised a company of dragoons.
He replaced this with a troop of horse (by 19 May 1643) when he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and immediately went with it into Lincolnshire accompanying his cousin Captain John Hotham. However, he soon returned to Yorkshire and was placed on all East Riding committees between Feb. 1643 and Oct. 1644. In Dec. 1644 he testified on behalf of the Hothams, and perhaps in consequence was left off one committee in Feb. 1645, but in June he was appointed to the Northern Association committee for the East Riding. He withdrew from local government after Pride’s Purge.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 398; Yorks. Vis., 3.494; Underdown, Pride’s Purge, 215; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 100.
Armies: Yorkshire
Renolds, Nicholas Nicholas Renolds
Ensign in the Colonel’s company of the Westminster auxiliary regiment (Colonel James Prince) when it was mustered on 13 May 1644 as part of Sir James Harrington’s London brigade in Waller’s Army.
References: TNA, SP28/121A, f. 646r.; SP28/121A, Part 4, f. 550r.
Armies: Southwark; London; Waller (Southern Association)
Revell [Revel], - Revell [Revel]
Of Brampton or Whiston, Yorkshire (West Riding). An acquaintance of Adam Eyre’s, a captain whom he met with Captains Rich and Barber on 3 Feb. 1648 and who certified with Eyre for the debenture of Edward Haigh on 7 Feb.
References: Eyre, 94, 97.
Armies: Yorkshire
Revell, Edward Edward Revell (died 1647)
Of Ogston, Derbyshire. Eldest son of John Revell of Ogston, Derbyshire, esquire, and his wife Margaret, daughter of Robert Beyghton of Hallam, Sheffield, Yorkshire. His will was proved in 1647.
Revell became captain of a parliamentarian troop of horse, for which he was disinherited by his royalist uncle Edward Revell (died 1653) of Ogston.
Revell was captured in a skirmish with the royalist Colonel John Frescheville of Staveley, Derbyshire, probably in Dec. 1643.
References: Vis. Derbyshire, 83; Turbutt, Derbyshire, 1048, 1060, 1073.
Armies: Derbyshire
Revet, - - Revet
Captain. Lyme Regis volunteers placed under Captain Revet and Lieutenant Astwood, 22 Aug. 1642.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 5.515.
Armies: Dorset
Reymond, John John Reymond
By Aug. 1644, lieutenant-colonel in John Birch’s newly-formed regiment of foot raised in Kent for Waller’s Southern Association Army and still there in late 1645, though he was subsequently succeeded by John Humphreys.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 28.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association); Kent
Reynolds, Thomas Thomas Reynolds
Lieutenant in Captain John Thornton’s company of the Southwark auxiliaries regiment (Colonel James Houblon) when it mustered on 16 Apr. 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 124.
Armies: Southwark
Rice, John John Rice
Lieutenant in the earl of Peterborough’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 28.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Rich, Nathaniel Nathaniel Rich (died 1700x02)
Born probably at start of the 1620s the eldest son of Robert Rich of Felsted, Essex. In 1642-3 he joined the earl of Essex’s Army as a member of Essex’s Lifeguard. In summer 1643 he was commissioned to raise a troop of horse to serve under Manchester and by spring 1644 he was lieutenant-colonel in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army. He became that regiment’s colonel and commander when it was absorbed into the New Model Army in 1645 once Algernon Sidney, who was originally earmarked for that role, proved too weak to take it up, fighting at Naseby, in the South West and at the siege of Oxford. In 1647 he was a moderate and sided with the senior officers at Putney. In 1648 he and his regiment were prominent in quelling royalism and restoring order in Kent.
By the mid-1650s he was associated with the Fifth Monarchists and perhaps on those grounds he lost his army command in 1655. In 1659-60 he supported the Rump and was briefly restored as colonel of his old regiment, but he lost office and was imprisoned at the Restoration. He was free by the mid-1660s and, although he had lost much of the crown and other property he had acquired during the 1640s and 1650s, he lived quietly in retirement in Essex. He was one of very few New Model colonels of the 1645-6 era to live on into the start of the eighteenth century. He died sometime between Oct. 1700, when he made his will, and Mar. 1702, when it was proved.
References: Oxford DNB; Spring, Eastern Association, 1.51; Holmes, Eastern Association, 98, 172-3, 175, 213, 240; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 53, 63, 70, 73, 83, 95, 107.
Armies: Earl of Essex, Eastern Association; New Model Army
Rich, Robert, second earl of Warwick Robert Rich, second earl of Warwick (1587-1658)
Born eldest son and heir of Robert Rich, third Baron Rich and first earl of Warwick. He sat as an MP in 1610 before succeeding to the earldom of Warwick upon his father’s death in 1619. As the second earl, he had a distinguished pre-civil war career as a courtier, patron, supporter of colonial and commercial ventures and, as a prominent member of the Lords, a politician increasingly critical of the policies and government of Charles I.
Although in autumn 1642 he was appointed commander of a second army, over and above that of the earl of Essex, which was to be raised in East Anglia, that initiative proved abortive and instead Warwick’s principal military contribution to the parliamentarian war effort was as a naval officer and admiral of the parliamentarian fleet.
However, he was also colonel of a 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 – though Warwick, who was at sea at the time of most of these operations, generally did not command in person and in the field.
Although he maintained friendly relations with Oliver Cromwell and played a minor role in the Protectoral court, Warwick was largely out of office and living in semi-retirement during the 1650s. He died a few months before Cromwell.
References: Oxford DNB; Spring, Eastern Association, 1.31.
Armies: Eastern Association
Rich, Stephen Stephen Rich
Captain in Mytton’s force at the siege of Chester, confirmed by surviving warrants of spring 1646 to pay him money, as salary and arrears due to him and his men, ‘for the advancement of the present design’ and as a gratuity for their service at the Leaguer of Chester.
References: TNA, SP28/224, ff. 144, 145.
Armies: North Wales
Rich, William William Rich (died 1650)
Of Bullhouse, Thurlstone township, Penistone parish, Yorkshire captain of foot and a friend and neighbour of Adam Eyre, in whose diary he frequently occurs. He served at Penistone and Sheffield in 1642 and 1643, serving in John Bright’s regiment of foot to June 1644, before becoming. Captain in Parson’s regiment of horse. In 1648 he claimed £1,126 in arrears, of which £700 remained unpaid in 1656.
Jones suggests that he was a popular officer, citing the refusal of some Sheffield men recruited in 1648 as cavalrymen to serve under their appointed captain and insisting on serving only under Major Rich. However, to Eyre he always appears as captain, and there is no evidence in Eyre’s diary of Rich returning to active service after the end of the main civil war in 1646.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 398; Eyre, passim; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 117.
Armies: Yorkshire
Richardson, Michael Michael Richardson
Hopper has him as an attorney of Hull, while Dore tenatatively identifies him as of below gentry status from North Bierley, Yorkshire (West Riding). By late 1643 he was an officer in Sir William Fairfax’s and Matthew Alured’s regiment of horse, when he was a signatory to a petition for pay which at once affirmed the godly commitment of the petitioners. In early 1645 he was signatory to the petition of the officers of Alured’s regiment of horse seeking to accompany Fairfax to his new command as generalissimo of all England, but adding that if that is not possible provision be made for their constant pay. By Apr. 1645 he had transferred to Sir William Constable’s regiment of horse, serving at the siege of Chester. He continued a serving soldier and by 1656 he was major in William Mitchell’s (formerly Robert Overton’s) regiment of foot and, in the absence of his superior officers in England, the commander of the regiment’s seven companies stationed at Aberdeen and later at Dundee from where, in Mar. 1658, he sent Cromwell a submission pledging to stand by him in the settlement of the state. In 1659 he was removed from the regiment (now restored to Overton). Monck brought him back into his own regiment of horse as a captain, and in Apr. 1660 he returned to his own regiment (now Daniel’s) as lieutenant-colonel.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 399; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 91; Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 522; Bell, Fairfax, 1.66-7, 214-5; Firth and Davies, Regimental history, 1.139, 142, 2.554-5, 558, 560; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 162.
Armies: Yorkshire; New Model Army
Richbell, Jeffrey Jeffrey Richbell
By spring 1644 captain in the regiment of foot commanded successively by Henry Bulstrode, Adam Cunningham and Richard Fortescue; he was later promoted to major and in spring 1645 became lieutenant-colonel in the regiment, transferring at that rank into the New Model Army in Fortescue’s New Model regiment of foot, but he was killed at Taunton shortly afterwards.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 48.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller (Southern Association); New Model Army
Richmond, John John Richmond
A captain in John Moore’s Lancashire regiment.
References: Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 292.
Armies: Lancashire
Rideout, William William Rideout
First by Essex’s commission made lieutenant to colonel [William] Sydenham to serve as his captain-lieutenant, and afterwards made captain by Sir William Waller and served under his command. The Dorset committee, 28 Jan. 1647 supported indemnifying Rideout over alleged taking of a horse.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 177.
Armies: Dorset
Ridge, Jonathan Jonathan Ridge
Commissioned captain in Robert Duckenfeild’s Cheshire militia regiment of foot, 22 Aug. 1650.
References: CSPD, 1650, 509.
Armies: Cheshire
Ridgewell, Daniel Daniel Ridgewell
Ensign in Captain Henry Ponsonby’s company 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, 1.16.
Armies: Eastern Association
Rigby, Alexander, junior Alexander Rigby, junior (born 1618/9, alive on 19 Sept. 1664)
Of Middleton, Goosnargh parish, Lancashire. Eldest son of Colonel Alexander Rigby (baptised 1594, died 1650) and his first wife Lucie, daughter of Sir Urian Legh of Adlington, Cheshire, knight. He married (1) Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Herrys of Shenfield, Essex and (2) Margaret, daughter of Thomas Legh of Adlington, Cheshire.
Rigby was made lieutenant-colonel when his father Alexander Rigby senior raised a regiment in Amounderness and Leyland Hundreds in summer 1643. By May 1645, when a series of letters discuss his exchange, he was a prisoner of the royalists held at Lathom House. He was evidently released shortly after. He became colonel of a regiment of foot, presumably succeeding his father after the latter stood down under the Self-Denying Ordinance.
On 20 Aug. 1645 Rigby was appointed to the Lancashire county committee. He commanded the horse and foot regiments of Amounderness Hundred in May 1648 in the face of Hamilton’s advancing army (his rank was then given as lieutenant-colonel), although the regiment of foot was in fact commanded by Colonel Standish.
References: Vis. Lancs., 1664, 245-6; Warr in Lancashire, 43; Dore, Brereton letter books, 1. 347, 417, 479, 2. 146-7; Lancashire military proceedings, 249-50; Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 98, 180, 195, 292.
Armies: Lancashire
Rigby, Alexander, senior Alexander Rigby, senior (baptised 1594, died 1650)
Of Middleton, Goosnargh parish, Lancashire, eldest son of Alexander Rigby (died 1621), merchant and gentleman of Wigan and Peel, Lancashire, and his wife, Alice, daughter of Leonard Ashawe of Shaw Hall, Flixton, Lancashire. He married (1) Lucie, daughter of Sir Urian Legh of Adlington, Cheshire, knight, and (2) Anne, daughter of John Gobert of Coventry, widow of Thomas Legh of Adlington, Cheshire. His younger brothers included George Rigby and Joseph Rigby; his eldest son was Alexander Rigby junior. He matriculated from St. John’s College, Cambridge, in 1610 and graduated BA in 1614. A barrister of Gray’s Inn, practising law and maintaining the estates that he had inherited in Lancashire. In 1634 he served in the Lonsdale Hundred Trained Band.
MP for Wigan in the Short and Long Parliaments. He ‘served on so many committees that he was quite possibly the most industrious MP of the 1640s. He was especially noted as a prime leader of the war party in the Commons between 1643 and 1645’ (Oxford DNB), whilst he was an important lobbyist for Lancashire’s needs.
Coming north in spring 1643, Colonel Rigby raised a regiment in the Hundreds of Amounderness and Leyland, of foot and (taking over over Richard Shuttleworth’s troops) horse. He defeated the royalists at Furness on 1 Oct. 1643 and captured Thurland Castle on 7 Oct. He was one of the Lancashire commanders who went to the relief of Nantwich in Jan. 1644, and who went on to besiege Lathom House. He fell back on Bolton at the approach of Rupert’s army, where he escaped in the general destruction of his army. According to one parliamentarian account, ‘being upon his horse back, he thrust himselfe among ther Enemie and at the last larned what was their word, and having that, as the enemies horse entered the towne he hastily put spurs to his horse, and springs up before them like a resolute Commander, calls them up, saying, “March on, the Towne is our owne” and soe riding and bestirring himself amongst them, there was no notice taken on him, but when he saw a fit time for him he tooke it, and with one man went his way towards Yorkshire.’ (Warr in Lancashire, 51).
This was evidently the end of Rigby’s military career, although he was active in preparing Lancashire to resist the Scottish invasion in 1648.
Rigby was very much a war party figure, and by the late 1640s regarded as enough of radical by the Levellers to be proposed by them as a moderator between them and Cromwell and Ireton. A religious Independent, he was nominated a judge at the king’s trial but did not attend.
Rigby was made a baron of the exchequer in June 1649; he died in Aug. 1650 whilst progressing on the home circuit, very possibly from gaol fever caught from prisoners.
References: Oxford DNB; Keeler, Long Parliament, 323; Warr in Lancashire; Lancashire military proceedings; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1659 (forthcoming); Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 292-5 and passim.
Armies: Lancashire
Rigby, George George Rigby (baptised 1602, died 1644)
Fourth, but third surviving, son of Alexander Rigby (died 1621) of Wigan and Peel, Lancashire and his wife, Alice, daughter of Leonard Ashawe of Shaw Hall, Flixton, Lancashire. Younger brother of Colonel Alexander Rigby senior and Major Joseph Rigby; uncle of Colonel Alexander Rigby junior. He married Beatrice, daughter of William Hulton.
He was a lawyer and clerk of the peace for Lancashire. In 1634 he built Peel Hall.
‘In the civil war Rigby, a sound Calvinist, was involved from the start in rallying support for the parliamentary cause, unlike his royalist Burgh cousins’ (Oxford DNB).
Rigby served as a captain, probably in the regiment of his brother Colonel Alexander Rigby, senior. He died in Apr. 1644, during the siege of Lathom House, after an illness of some months.
References: Oxford DNB; Vis. Lancs., 1664, 245.
Armies: Lancashire
Rigby, Joseph Joseph Rigby (died 1671)
Of Aspull, near Wigan, Lancashire, third (but second surviving) son of Alexander Rigby (died 1621), merchant and gentleman, and his first wife, Alice, daughter of Leonard Ashawe of Shaw Hall, near Flixton, Lancashire; he was younger brother of Alexander Rigby, senior Admitted to Gray’s Inn in Feb. 1618; matriculated from St John’s College, Cambridge, Michaelmas term 1618, graduated BA in 1622. He married Margaret, daughter of Gabriel Houghton of Knowsley, Lancashire, a Catholic even though he himself was a committed puritan. He was appointed under-sheriff of Lancashire in Nov. 1640, he also sought to maintain his hold on the county’s clerkship of the peace.
A Lancashire officer. Captain and then (by Mar. 1644) major in his brother Alexander Rigby’s regiment of foot (Oxford DNB also puts him as an officer in George Dodding’s regiment but this does not appear in his own record of his career when claiming for arrears). From 1645 he was captain in Colonel Ughtred Shuttleworth’s regiment of foot. In Sept. 1644 he was commander-in-chief at the siege of Greenhalgh Castle.
Rigby later claimed that he raised a regiment in 1648, but Gratton has found no corroborating evidence, and if it did exist, it was not one of the Lancashire regiments active in the Preston campaign.
Commissioned lieutenant-colonel of Richard Standish’s militia regiment of foot, 16 Aug. 1650. By Nov. 1653 he claimed he was owed arrears of £641 3s 4d, with further arrears claimed in June 1654.
Mayor of Wigan in 1649-50, he was accused of trying to block sequestrators’ agents letting royalist estates at market rates, threatening potential tenants ‘to beat them and cut off their heads if they should offer to bid any mony or more mony than such summe as he mentioned unto them’ (Lancashire composition papers, 5.143).
Rigby produced works of piety in verse, both printed (The Drunkards' Prospective, or, Burninge Glasse (1656)), and in manuscript (‘Pride, Sensualitie, Whoredom and Bloodshed’ (1660)).
References: Oxford DNB; TNA, E121/5/5; E121/3/1; CSPD 1650, 509; Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 30, 110. 180, 196, 237, 287, 293, 297; Lancs. composition papers, 4.76, 5.141-3.
Armies: Lancashire
Rigby, Nicholas Nicholas Rigby (died 1662)
Of Harrock, Wrightington, Lancashire, son of Nicholas Rigby (died 1629) of Harrock and his wife Elianor, daughter of Thomas Starkey of Stretton, Cheshire, esquire. He married (1) Phebe, daughter of William Fox of Toxteth, Lancashire, and (2) Alice, daughter of Peter Warburton of Arley, Cheshire, esquire. He died in Jan. 1662.
Rigby was a captain in Lancashire. Gratton places him in Alexander Rigby’s regiment of foot. He was appointed to the Lancashire county committee in Aug. 1645.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 2. 277-8.; Vis. Lancs., 1664, 243.
Armies: Lancashire
Rigden, George George Rigden
A soldier in the Northern Army. Successively, a trooper in Captain John Hotham’s troop; cornet to Captain John Wittye in Sir Thomas Norcliffe’s regiment of horse; lieutenant to Captain John Green in Lord Fairfax’s regiment of horse; ensign in Captain Todd’s company in Christopher Legard’s and Colonel Charles Fairfax’s regiment of foot.
References: TNA, E121/4/8, no. 5.
Armies: Yorkshire; Northern Army (Fairfax); Northern Army (Poyntz); Northern Army (Lambert)
Ringe, Robert Robert Ringe
On 27 Nov. 1646, the Dorset committee granted a certain mill and lands sequestered from a papist: Ringe ‘hath served the Parliamt. as a leftenant ever sithenc the begininge of this warr and behaved himselfe faythfully’. On 9 Feb. 1647 the committee read a certificate under the hands of Colonels Starre and Bingham, of the good and faithful service of Robert Ringe and his brothers William, James, Josiah, John, Joseph and Nathaniel. Only with Robert can we be certain that he was an officer.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 84-5, 185-6.
Armies: Dorset
Rippon, Thomas Thomas Rippon
Of Lancaster, gentleman, captain of a troop in Colonel Assheton’s regiment in Lancashire and in 1646 appointed to sit on the eighth Lancashire Classis. By Jan. 1648 he was major in Colonel Heane’s regiment in the Weymouth garrison and still listed as an officer there in a vote for the maintenance of garrisons in England, 18 Mar. 1651.
However, on 3 Aug. 1650 the Council of State referred to a committee the offer made by Captain Rippon, late governor of Lancaster, to raise a regiment of horse; on 7 Aug. Major Thomas Rippon was authorised to raise four companies of dragoons, to be admitted to pay for three months, to be employed in keeping open the passages between Berwick and the army in Scotland. On 10 Sept. he and his officers received their commissions. He was owed arrears of £594 10s in Aug. 1651.
References: TNA, E121/3/1; JHC, 4.670;CSPD, 1650, 271, 276, 334-5; Bayley, Civil War in Dorset, 337.
Armies: Lancashire; Dorset
Rippon, Thomas Thomas Rippon
Captain, Weymouth garrison, 1651.
References: Bayley, Civil War in Dorset, 337.
Armies: Dorset
Rippon, William William Rippon
Ensign, Weymouth garrison, 1651.
References: Bayley, Civil War in Dorset, 337.
Armies: Dorset
Rivers, Sir John Sir John Rivers
Colonel of a troop in the Sutton at Hone Lathe Trained Band regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 81.
Armies: Kent
Roads, Edward Edward Roads
Ensign in Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Newton’s company in Henry Bradshaw’s regiment of foot in the Cheshire militia at the battle of Worcester (3 Sept. 1651).
References: Earwaker, East Cheshire, 2.64-8.
Armies: Cheshire
Robartes, John, second Baron Robartes of Truro [and later first earl of Radnor] John Robartes, second Baron Robartes of Truro [and later first earl of Radnor] (1606-1685)
Born eldest son and heir of Richard Robartes, first Baron Robartes (died 1634), an extremely wealthy Truro merchant, who had in quick succession purchased a knighthood, a baronetcy and a peerage. He also purchased Lanhydrock in Cornwall which became his principal seat.
John was given a puritan upbringing and education, reinforced in 1630 by his marriage to a daughter of Robert Rich, second earl of Warwick. He worked closely with Warwick and others in the Lords in 1640-2 in pursuit of reform.
He was appointed colonel of a regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army at the outbreak of the civil war and led it in the campaign and battle of Edgehill in autumn 1642 and in the relief of Gloucester and first battle of Newbury in late summer 1643. In between, in winter 1642-3, he had been given command of a brigade taken from Essex’s Army sent westwards to relieve and reinforce Plymouth and to stabilise parliament’s position in the South West.
His Cornish estate and for a time his children had been seized by the royalists. Accordingly, Robartes probably encouraged as well as accompanied Essex in his march into Cornwall in summer 1644; he was one of those senior officers who escaped with Essex in a fishing boat, but most of his regiment was compelled to surrender. Robartes landed at Plymouth and stayed there as the town’s governor until he had to give up his command in spring 1645 in line with the Self-Denying Ordinance.
He opposed New Model Army radicalism in the later 1640s and by the end of the decade was effectively living in retirement in Cornwall. He was several times suspected of royalism during the 1650s. He supported the Restoration and again became active in the Lords, holding offices in government and at court. Despite proving an unpopular and unsuccessful lord lieutenant of Ireland, quickly recalled, he retained the king’s confidence and favour and near the end of his life was created earl of Radnor. He died a few weeks after Charles II.
References: Oxford DNB.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Robatham, - - Robatham
Captain in the Weymouth garrison in 1644.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 310.
Armies: Dorset
Robathan, - - Robathan
Captain in Thomas Ayloffe’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association in Jan. 1645.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.9.
Armies: Eastern Association
Robbins, Anthony Anthony Robbins
Ensign 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 support the relief of Taunton and the siege of Donnington Castle.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 76.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association); Surrey
Robert [Roberts], William William Robert [Roberts]
Captain in Charles Essex’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 89.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Roberts, - - Roberts
In spring 1645 serving as lieutenant-colonel in Colonel John Browne’s Shepway Lathe Kentish Trained Band regiment of Auxiliaries. This may or may not be the same Lieutenant-Colonel Roberts who was in Anthony Stapley’s regiment of foot down to summer 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 86, 128.
Armies: Kent; Sussex?; Waller (Southern Association)?
Roberts, Sir John Sir John Roberts
Of Cranbrooke and Canterbury, knight, captain. Son of John Roberts. Sir John married Jane, daughter of Stephen Bunce of Throughley. He raised a troop of horse against the royalist uprising in 1643; the mutinous troops at Sittingbourne fled at the approach of his force from Canterbury. The troop came to form one of four in the Kentish regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 69; Everitt, Kent, 137, 180, 183, 196, 199; Vis. Kent, 1663-1668, 139.
Armies: Kent; Waller (Southern Association)
Roberts, Thomas Thomas Roberts
In Apr. 1645, on the eve of its disbandment, ensign of what by then was Robert Dales’s company in the regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army commanded by Sir Thomas Hoogan, previously by Sir John Palgrave.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.81.
Armies: Eastern Association
Roberts, Thomas Thomas Roberts
Ensign in Lord Brooke’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642. In Sept. 1655 Roberts petitioned for arrears and other debts of £3,000. He then stated that he had served faithfully from the first going out of Lord Brooke and at the siege of Gloucester. He had raised a troop at his own charge, serving until Dec. 1646, and also commanded a troop at the battle of Worcester (3 Sept. 1651). In May 1648 Cromwell authorized him to arrest local papists and delinquents and bring them to Gloucester.
The Council of State allowed him repayment of such money as he could prove to be owed, out of his discoveries of concealments which were to be prosecuted by the treasury commissioners.
References: CSPD 1655, 331; Peacock Army Lists, 34.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Lord Brooke; Gloucestershire
Roberts, William William Roberts
Fireworker and petardier in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 25.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Robins, John John Robins
Ensign in Lieutenant-Colonel George Crompton’s company in the Westminster Auxiliaries regiment (Colonel James Prince) on 13 May 1644.
References: TNA, SP28/121A, Part 5, f. 590 r. & v.
Armies: Westminster
Robinson, Daniel Daniel Robinson
Lieutenant in James Brett’s regiment of foot in the earl of Northumberland’s Army against the Scots in 1640.
Lieutenant in Charles Essex’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 89, 45.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Robinson, Edward Edward Robinson (1609/10-1681)
Of Newton-with-Scales, Kirkham parish; later of Westby Hall in the same parish and from 1652 of Euxton, Leyland parish, Lancashire. Son of Richard Robinson of Euxton (died 1657) and his wife Margaret, daughter of Adam Hollamd of Newton, Manchester parish. He married Ellen Browne (died 1670), daughter of John Browne of Scales. On the Lancashire Visitation of 1664-5 he appears as Edward Robinson of Buckshaw in Euxton.
In Apr. 1643 he commanded a force of some ‘volunteers of Amondernes who being exyled from their dwellings by the enimies putting themselves under the leading and command of Captaine Edward Robinson’, which linked up with Ralph Assheton’s army marching against Lathom House. He was captured and briefly imprisoned at Lathom. Having raised a troop of horse in the regiment of Colonel Richard Shuttleworth senior (‘old Colonel Shuttleworth’), he transferred in late spring 1643 to Alexander Rigby. He was at the siege of Thurland Castle (Aug.-Oct. 1643) and probably at the parliamentarian defeat at Bolton (May 1644), by when he was major.
Commissioned major of a militia troop of horse in Lancashire on 22 Mar. 1650.
In exchequer records, where he is described as a major in references to his own and some of his troopers’ arrears, his bill for arrears of £839 5s 1½d records his service as captain of a troop of horse in Colonel Richard Shuttleworth’s regiment, as captain and major of horse under the command of Colonel Alexander Rigby and as captain of a troop of horse in Colonel Nicholas Shuttleworth’s regiment.
He served as a JP in the 1650s (described by Blackwood as a ‘radical’), who bought sequestered estates in Lancashire. In 1660 he was arrested, but released upon taking the oaths of allegiance and supremacy.
References: Warr in Lancashire, xxiv-xxxii, 37, 39, 40, 41, 50, 61; TNA, E121/4/8; Blackwood, Lancashire gentry, 73, 92, 94, 96, 128; Vis. Lancs., 1664, 247; CSPD, 1650, 505.
Armies: Lancashire
Robinson, Leonard Leonard Robinson (1617/18-1673)
Of Kirkby Ravensworth, Yorkshire (North Riding), eldest son of John Robinson (died 1655/56) of Applegarth (who with his brother Jerome had purchased the manors of Kirkby Ravensworth and Washton from the City of London) and his wife Sith, daughter of Leonard Smelt of Kirkby Fletham. Leonard married Lucie, daughter of Percivall Philips of Wensley. He was a cousin by marriage of Thomas Robinson, who had married another of Leonard Smelt’s daughters, whilst Lucie’s father later married a sister of Thomas Robinson.
Leonard Robinson was evidently a captain in Sir William Fairfax’s/Matthew Alured’s regiment of horse, signing a petition in Dec. 1643 asking that Lincolnshire supply the Yorkshire horse.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 399; Yorks. Vis., 3.337.
Armies: Yorkshire
Robinson, Samson Samson Robinson (died 1646)
Captain. Of St Bartholomew Exchange, London. He was elected churchwarden in 1643 and 1644.
Captain in the Yellow regiment, London Auxiliaries (Colonel John Owen in 1646). Chosen churchwarden on 6 Apr. 1644, by 2 May the vestry had to deal with the problem posed by his imminent absence, ‘Cap: Robinson beinge to goe forth Cap: of a company of Auxiliaries’ (Freshfield, Exchange, 2.8). He must have served in Essex’s expedition to the West, but evidently returned to London in Dec. 1644, and was attending to parish business by the middle of the month. He died between 29 Mar. 1646 (when he was as a parish auditor) and 22 Oct. 1646, when he was noted as dead.
References: Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 11; Freshfield, Exchange, 1.147-8, 2.8-11, 15, 17.
Armies: London
Robinson, Thomas Thomas Robinson (died 1643)
Of Rokesby, Yorkshire (North Riding), eldest son of William Robynson, merchant of London, who settled at Rokesby, purchasing the manor of Brignall in 1601 and Rokesby in 1610, and his wife Mary Hill of Thornton, Yorkshire. Thomas’s father briefly outlived him. Thomas married Frances, daughter of Leonard Smelt of Kirkby Fletham, Yorkshire (North Riding). He was a barrister of Gray’s Inn.
He quickly rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel (or possibly colonel) in the Yorkshire forces, and was appointed to the North Riding committee in Feb. 1643.
He was killed near Leeds and was buried in the parish church on 20 June 1643.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 399; Yorks. visitation, 1.285-6; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 95.
Armies: Yorkshire; Northern Army (Fairfax)
Robinson, William William Robinson
A captain in Staffordshire. On 27 Apr. 1644 Robinson was assigned the weekly assessment of Wolverhampton and Pattingham for his troops. In Aug. 1644 there are ambiguous references to money that Colonel Rugeley had borrowed ‘for the dischardge of the quarters of Captain Robinsons troope at London’ (Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 159): presumably Robinson had accompanied Rugeley south in the conflicts before parliament for and against the earl of Denigh, although it may refer back to the troop that Rugeley had raised in London in Dec. 1642.
References: Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 106, 159, 186, 317.
Armies: Staffordshire
Robotham, Robert Robert Robotham (1614-1698)
Son of John Robotham (died 1657) of St Albans, Hertfordshire. Robert was a captain in the Hertfordshire militia in the 1630s.
Captain in John Middleton’s regiment of horse by 20 June 1643. In Apr. 1644 he transferred to Colonel James Sheffield’s regiment of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army (later Thomas Sheffield’s in the New Model Army), transferring with it to the New Model in spring 1645. In 1647 he was one of the officers who sided with Sheffield in supporting parliament’s moves to disband the New Model Army, and who were forced out by the men of their regiment.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 104; Firth and Davies, Regimental history, 1.175, 178-9; A. Thompson, The Impact of the First Civil War on Hertfordshire, 1642-47 (2007), passim but especially 229.
Armies: Essex’s Army; New Model Army
Rocke, - - Rocke
In summer 1643, captain in Sir John Wittrough’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.112.
Armies: Eastern Association
Rockwood, Hogan Hogan Rockwood
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
Rodaway, Thomas Thomas Rodaway
Ensign in Captain Moses Meares’s company, Red regiment, London Auxiliaries (Colonel Samuel Harsnett), a company from Fetter Lane and Holborn (date uncertain, probably 1644).
References: TNA, SP28/121A, Part 5, f. 620 r. & v.
Armies: London
Rodes [Rhodes], Sir Edward Sir Edward Rodes [Rhodes] (1600-1666)
Of Great Houghton, Darfield parish, Yorkshire (West Riding). Eldest son of Godfrey Rhodes (died 1634) and his second wife, Anne, daughter of Sir Edward Lewkenor of Denham, Sussex. He married Mary, daughter of Sir Hamon Whichcote of Harpswell, Lincolnshire. His half-sister Mary was the earl of Strafford’s third wife. Strafford knighted him in 1635 and Rodes supported the earl in 1640. In religion, Rodes was a strong puritan.
In autumn 1642 he defended, but was driven out of, Doncaster. In spring 1643 he was in Beverley with a company of foot and troop of horse. On 28 June he was arrested there and taken to London for suspected complicity in the plotting of the Hothams (another family connection by marriage), but was soon released. On his return to Yorkshire, he became a captain in Lord Fairfax’s own regiment of horse.
He was appointed to all West Riding committees, Feb. 1643 to Oct. 1644, and in June 1645 was made a member of West Riding committee in Northern Association, on which he was very active.
He was high sheriff of Yorkshire in 1650 and MP for Perths. in 1656 and 1659.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 398; Yorks. visitation, I, 90-1; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 107; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming).
Armies: Yorkshire; Northern Army (Fairfax)
Rodes, William William Rodes
Of Streetley, Derbyshire, appointed to replace Robert Cotchett as Captain Sir John Gell’s regiment of Derbyshire horse.
Rodes ‘appears to have been the only supporter of Gell among the officers of horse’ (Brighton, ‘Governor’, 8), and was the only one to continue to serve with Gell after Naseby. Gell conspicuously praised Rodes’s part in the attack on Tutbury, ignoring the more prominent role of his enemy Robert Greenwood.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 1, 96, 527; Turbutt, Derbyshire, 3.1063.
Armies: Derbyshire
Rodway, Giles Giles Rodway
Approved captain in the Orange regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Nathaniel Camfield) by the Presbyterian City militia committee in 1647.
References: Nagel, ‘London militia’, 318.
Armies: London
Roe, Henry Henry Roe
Captain of Pioneers in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 25.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Roe, Henry Henry Roe
Major. Commissioned major of foot in the Bristol militia, 3 Jan. 1651.
References: CSPD, 1651, 513.
Armies: Bristol
Roe, Thomas Thomas Roe
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
Rogers, Edward Edward Rogers
Lieutenant in the Blue regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel Thomas Adams) in summer 1642.
References: Thrale 1642.
Armies: London
Rogers, Francis Francis Rogers
Of Netherthorp, Derbyshire, gentleman, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Francis Stringer of Whiston, gentleman, and Mary, daughter of Christopher Mitchell of Morthen and sister of William Mitchell.
He was ensign in Colonel Richard Feilding’s regiment of foot in the earl of Northumberland’s Army against the Scots in 1640.
Reformado lieutenant of foot on 2 Aug. 1642. Shortly after he became captain in Sir William Fairfax’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army, by or from 20 Aug., and he went north with his colonel at the end of the year to join Lord Fairfax’s Army.
He commanded the foot attempting to escape from besieged Bradford on the night of 2/3 July 1643, but panicked and led the troops back into the town. He was a major by Dec. 1644 when he testified against the Hothams, and soon afterwards became a lieutenant-colonel.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’; Peacock, Army lists, 43; TNA, SP28/1a/191, SP28/1d/481.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Yorkshire; Northern Army (Fairfax)
Rogers [Rodgers], Hugh Hugh Rogers [Rodgers]
Colonel. Of Cannington, Somerset (1622-1654). Colonel of a Trained Band regiment in Aug. 1642. MP for Calne, Wiltshire 1640-1653. Only son of Sir Francis Rogers (died 1638) of Cannington. His wife Anne was the daughter of Sir Edward Bayntun, who included his ‘son Rogers’ when he sued from a pardon from the king in 1643. But Rogers stuck with parliament: in Sept. 1643 he took the Covenant and remained a colonel and (at least early in the war) a committeeman. Secluded in Pride’s Purge, Dec. 1648, but readmitted in Nov. 1650. Not in the Somerset visitations of 1623 or 1672 (although his family is in the former).
References: Keeler, Long Parliament, 325; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming).
Armies: Somerset
Rogers, John John Rogers
Of Hull, alderman and by the end of June 1643 captain of foot in the Hull garrison, possibly having taken over the company of William Legard, as his lieutenant had been Legard’s. From late 1645 he was put on most Hull committees, and in 1660 was placed on the militia committee.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 399.
Armies: Yorkshire
Rogers, Richard Richard Rogers
Captain in the Blue regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel William Underwood) in late 1647, following the failure of the attempted Presbyterian coup.
References: Nagel, ‘London militia’, 319.
Armies: London
Rogers, Thomas Thomas Rogers
Captain 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
Rogers, Wroth Wroth Rogers (died 1683x85)
Apparently from Llanfaches, Monmouthshire, and possibly of humble origins, though little is known about his birth, family background and early life.
By spring 1644, captain in Edward Montagu’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army, transferring in that capacity to the New Model Army in spring 1645, promoted to major by spring 1647 and becoming the regiment’s lieutenant-colonel in summer 1649. For a time he served as governor of Barnstaple in Devon, later becoming long-serving governor of Hereford (until 1660) and building up his power in Herefordshire. He represented that county in the Nominated Assembly, in which he supported (religious) radicalism. He may have sat in the second Protectorate Parliament and certainly sat in the third (Richard Cromwell’s). Little is known of his life after the Restoration. He died between Jan. 1683, when he made his will, at which time he was living in Worcester, and Jan. 1685, when it was proved.
References: Oxford DNB; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 48, 58-9, 70, 80, 87, 90, 102.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
Rokeby [Rookeby], Thomas Thomas Rokeby [Rookeby] (died 1650)
Of Burnby and Cottingham, Yorkshire (East Riding), third son of William Rokeby (born 1555/6, died in or before 1626) of Hotham and his wife Dorothy Rokeby of Hotham and Skires. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Bury of Grantham, Lincolnshire. His sister married the sister of Christopher Legard and his elder brother the daughter of Gervase Bosvile of Warmsworth.
He joined the Northern Army at the start of the war. By early 1643 he was major in Sir Thomas Fairfax’s regiment of horse. He fought at Adwalton Moor, Winceby and Nantwich (where he held off Byron’s cavalry). In late summer and autumn 1644 he served in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. When Sir Thomas Fairfax’s horse was reduced, Rokeby was made captain in Christopher Copley’s regiment of horse. By 1649 he was colonel of a regiment in the Northern Army which was reduced. At Dunbar he served as major of horse under Lambert, where he was killed.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 399; Yorks. visitation, 2.32-4; Firth and Davies, Regimental history, 1. 255; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 98.
Armies: Yorkshire; Northern Army (Poyntz); Northern Army (Lambert); New Model Army
Rolanthe, - - Rolanthe
Captain. An officer in Gloucestershire noted in a 1643 petition.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6. 635.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Rolfe, Edmund Edmund Rolfe
By 1644 a cornet, later a lieutenant, in Oliver Cromwell’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army. In Aug. 1645 he became a captain in Robert Hammond’s New Model Army regiment of foot, promoted to Major in 1648, though he had left the regiment by spring 1649.
References: Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 66, 77, 87, 99.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
Rolfe, William William Rolfe
Captain in the Sutton at Hone Lathe Trained Band regiment of foot by Mar. 1642 and still there at least as late as 1 Apr. 1644. Also captain of a troop of Kentish dragoons which he led at the siege of Arundel Castle (Dec. 1643-Jan. 1644).
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 70, 72.
Armies: Kent; Waller (Southern Association)
Rolle, Robert Robert Rolle (c. 1622-60)
Of Heanton Sackville, Devon. Eldest surviving son of Sir Samuel Rolle (1574/5-1647) and eldest son with his second wife Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Wise of Sydenham, Devon. He married Lady Arabella, da of Theophilus Clinton, earl of Lincoln.
Lieutenant-Colonel in his father Sir Samuel Rolle’s North Devon Trained Band regiment in 1643.
Commissioned colonel in the Devon militia, 2 Mar. 1650.
MP for Devon, 1654 and 1659; MP for Callington, 21 Apr.-18 June 1660 (he may have died before he could take his seat).
References: HoP: The Commons, 1660-1690, 3.349; CSPD, 1650, 504; Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 3.323, 331.
Armies: Devon
Rolle, Sir Samuel Sir Samuel Rolle (c. 1588-1647)
Of Petrockstow, Devon. Eldest son of Robert Rolle (died 1633) and his wife Joan (died 1634), daughter of Thomas Hele of Fleet, Devon. He married (1) Mary (died 1614), daughter and coheir of Sir Edward Stradling of St George’s, Somerset; (2) Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Wise of Sidenham, Devon, Knight Baronet (marriage portion of £2,500); (3) Mary Carew (born 1607; married Mar. 1631). Elder brother of the judge Henry Rolle and merchant John Rolle (for both of whom see Oxford DNB) and father of Colonel Robert Rolle. Sir Alexander Carew was his brother-in-law.
MP for Grampound (1625), Callington (Short Parliament), Devon (Long Parliament, from c. Apr. 1641).
Rolle matriculated from Exeter College, Oxford, in 1605 and entered the Inner Temple in 1609. He lived for a while at Insworke, Cornwall, and was JP in both Devon and Cornwall. He was a loan refuser in 1639, and helped his brother-in-law Sir Thomas Wise in the Long Parliament election when the latter became MP for Devon. Following his death, Rolle acquired the seat, and was appointed to the committees for disarming recusants, the impeachment of the bishops and the framing of the Grand Remonstrance. In 1642 he was named to the Guildhall Committee of Safety and to the Devon committee for scandalous ministers.
In the summer of 1642 Rolle secured the North Devon Trained Band regiment for parliament. Whilst it was one of the deputy lieutenants who persuaded Robert Bennet to become a captain in the regiment in July 1642, it was Rolle himself who persuaded him to resume a command in the same regiment the following Jan. In Nov. 1642 Rolle was one of those specifically excluded from a proposed royal pardon as ‘Traitors and stirrers of sedition against us’ (Wolffe, Devon Gentry, 222). In Dec. 1642 Colonel Rolle was noted as one of the commanders at Barnstaple, and on 30 May 1643 he was one of the officers on the Council of War appointed for the town. (It is possible that in one or both cases Colonel Rolle may be Sir Samuel’s son and lieutenant-colonel, Robert.)
Rolle served at the siege of Exeter, and was evidently in the city when it surrendered as he was one of the parliamentarian commanders granted pardon in the terms of surrender (5 Sept. 1643).
By July 1647 John Rushworth felt able to place Rolle amongst those ‘western gentlemen’ who came within the orbit of the Commons’ penalty against ‘such members who have aided or assisted the King, or sued for, or accepted pardons from the King’ (Bell, Memorials, 1.367). Rolle was mortally ill in Oct. 1647 and was buried at Petrockstow on 7 Dec. 1647.
References: Keeler, Long Parliament, 327-8; Vis. Devon, 654, 142; Wolffe, Devon Gentry, 30, 214, 220, 240; Roberts, Devon, 9-10; Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 3.323, 331; Stoyle, Deliverance, 201-2; HoP: The Commons, 1604-1629, 6.89-90; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming).
Armies: Devon
Rollinson, William William Rollinson
In Nov. 1645, lieutenant in John Halford’s company in Godfrey Bosvile’s regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 31.
Armies: Warwickshire; Waller
Rolt, - - Rolt
Captain in Samuel Luke’s Bedfordshire regiment of dragoons in the earl of Essex’s Army (pay warrant: 10 May 1643).
References: TNA, SP28/7/313, 320; Luke Letter Books, nos. 28, 42, 96, 117, 627, 923, 932, 1346, 1365.

Armies: Earl of Essex
Romitree, Ralph Ralph Romitree
Quartermaster in Alexander Pym’s troop of horse.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6.657-8.
Armies: Somerset
Rooke, Ambrose Ambrose Rooke
In 1642 he is listed as Cornet in John Bird’s troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 50.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Rooper [Roper], Samuel Samuel Rooper [Roper]
Captain of horse in Staffordshire in 1644, until at least May under the earl of Denbigh and Colonel Simon Rugeley (recorded pay warrants and receipts for him run July 1643 to Apr. 1644; he signs his name Rooper). At the beginning of 1644 he was reimbursed £20 for his journey to London on the state’s business. Hughes identifies him as Denbigh’s treasurer, noting, however, that he ‘waived his claims to any salary because he had only received £5 on Denbigh’s behalf’ (Hughes, Warwickshire, 230).
By 10 Aug. 1644 Rooper had been promoted lieutenant-colonel, and the Staffordshire county committee allocated him the weekly assessment of several parishes for his troops, ‘when they shall be in this County service’ (Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 162).
References: TNA, SP28/131, part 12, ff. 20, 22, 28; Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 44, 89-90, 162, 315; Hughes, Warwickshire, 230.
Armies: Earl of Denbigh; Staffordshire
Roper, - - Roper
Of Wakefield, Yorkshire (West Riding), a parliamentarian lieutenant in Yorkshire.
References: Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 119 [citing BL, Add. Ms. 4276, f. 132].
Armies: Yorkshire
Roper, Thomas Thomas Roper
Captain in the Sutton at Hone Lathe (Kent) regiment of Auxiliaries, leading his company at the siege of Arundel Castle.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 72.
Armies: Kent; Waller (Southern Association)
Rose, John John Rose
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
Rose, John John Rose
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
Rose, Stephen Stephen Rose
Captain in an auxiliary regiment of the Kent Trained Bands by Feb. 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 78.
Armies: Kent
Rosewell, Sir Henry Sir Henry Rosewell (1590-1656)
Of Ford, Devon. Only son of William Rosewell (1561-1593) and his wife Anne Walkeden. He married (1) Mary (died 1643), daughter of John Drake (hence uncle of Sir John Drake); (2) Dorothy. Knighted 1619. In the 1630s, although a JP, he was omitted from the quorum (despite having attended the Middle Temple). He was summoned before High Commission for refusing to attend his parish church and having a private chapel in his house which was attended by others than his household, for which he was fined £100 in Jan. 1640. He was an investor in the Dorchester Company.
Colonel of the Trained Band regiment of the East Division, Devon in 1639. The regiment or a successor of it, was active in 1642-3, although it evidently missed the battle of Stratton. By May 1643 Rosewell may have been commanding one of the three volunteer regiments which were raised in Devon during the early 1643 armistice. (Peachey and Turton credit it to Sir William Russell, whilst being aware of problems of phonetic spelling. ‘Sir William’ only comes in one source, and as none of the Sir William Russells in 1643 seem plausible as parliamentarian colonels, the few references to Russell mean Rosewell.)
In Aug. 1648 Rosewell sat on a committee at Exeter formed to raise the militia.
A JP in 1649 and 1654, but not 1653, when his dismissal was ‘pragmatic’, as he had been totally inactive on the Bench for the previous six years (Roberts, Devon, 47).
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 3.322, 4.427; F.B. James, ‘Sir Henry Rosewell: A Devon Worthy’, TDA, 20.113-122; Wolffe, Devon Gentry, 21, 21, 194, 267, 268; Roberts, Devon, 47, 49.
Armies: Devon
Rossiter, Edward Edward Rossiter (1618-1669)
Born the second son of Richard Rossiter of Somerby, Lincolnshire.
Initially, from autumn 1642, captain in a regiment of horse raised by the earl of Lincoln in Lincolnshire to defend the county and which did not form part of the earl of Essex’s marching army. In Apr. 1643 Rossiter, promoted to colonel, took command of the regiment which was first informally and then formally attached to and became part of the Eastern Association Army. The regiment transferred to the New Model Army in spring 1645 and Rossiter continued to serve as its colonel and commander until July 1647, when he was succeeded by his former major, Philip Twistleton.
Rossiter also commanded a probably short-lived regiment of dragoons within the Eastern Association Army, though little is known of the regiment.
As an officer operating for much of the war along the fringes of the east Midlands, he figures quite frequently in the surviving correspondence found in Sir Samuel Luke’s letter books.
He had also been very active in the war-time administration of his native Lincolnshire.
However, his moderation put him at odds with more radical parliamentarians in the later 1640s. In 1646 he had become a Recruiter MP in the Long Parliament, but he withdrew at Pride’s Purge. He was elected to all three Protectorate Parliaments, but he was barred from the long first session of the second and barred again as a suspected royalist from the third (Richard Cromwell’s).
He supported Booth’s Rising, Monck’s seizure of power and the Restoration. He may have been governor of Hull around the time of the Restoration and in 1660 was both a member of the Convention Parliament and knighted by Charles II. However, he was not very active in national or county government thereafter.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.91; Holmes, Eastern Association, 135, 213, 222; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 52, 62, 73, 83.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
Rosworm [Rosworme], John John Rosworm [Rosworme]
A Dutch or German professional soldier, a military engineer who had served on the continent and in Ireland. He was hired by the Manchester citizens to fortify the town and was a leading figure during the siege in late Sept. 1642 and in the defeat of the earl of Derby’s forces at Chowbent on 24 Dec. 1642.
Rosworm was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of Ralph Assheton senior’s regiment of foot on 2 Jan. 1643, and fought at the capture of Preston (9 Feb.). He relinquished his commission to become captain of an infantry company in the Manchester garrison in Mar. 1643 when he signed a new contract with the town. He fell out with the governor, Colonel Richard Holland, whom he accused of cowardice in abandoning Wigan in Apr. 1643, a matter which went as far as a parliamentary committee. In revenge, Rosworm claimed, Holland got his captain’s pay stopped for a year on the pretext that he had not taken the Covenant. He fought at the battle of Nantwich and served at the parliamentarian siege of Liverpool. Despite arrears of pay, and royalist attempts to get him to betray Manchester, he continued to serve the parliamentarian cause, announcing his poverty in pamphlets.
In 1651 Rosworm was appointed engineer-general of all the garrisons and forts in England (in 1659 the title was changed to engineer-general of the army); in 1655 he was promoted to colonel.
References: Oxford DNB; J. Rosworm, Good service hitherto ill rewarded (1649) [reprinted in Lancashire military proceedings, 215-44,with related documents, 244-7].
Armies: Lancashire
Rotherham, George George Rotherham
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
Round, Richard Richard Round
Cornet in John Bridges’s troop of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 32.
Armies: Warwickshire
Rourke, Francis Francis Rourke
Lieutenant. Lieutenant in the earl of Stamford’s regiment of foot serving in the Gloucester garrison. He is not named in the published list of officers in 1642. By 24 Mar. he was lieutenant in Captain Gray’s company.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6. 643, 646.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Rous, Anthony Anthony Rous (c. 1605-1677).
Captain. Son of Robert Rous of Wotton, Landrake, Cornwall, and his wife Jane Pym, and nephew of John Pym (for whom he was one of the pall-bearers) and of Francis Rous, Speaker of the 1653 parliament. Captain of a troop of horse in Cornwall in 1643 and 1644; promoted to colonel 1645; governor of the Scilly Isles, 1646-7. An active committeeman.
References: Oxford DNB.
Armies: Cornwall
Rous, Anthony Anthony Rous (c. 1605-77)
Son of Robert Rous of Wotton, Landrake, Cornwall, and his wife Jane Pym, and nephew of John Pym (for whom he was one of the pall-bearers) and of Francis Rous, Speaker of the 1653 Nominated Assembly. He married Mary, daughter of William Bradshawe of Lancashire.
According to one hostile comment, Rous, the son of a younger son, was ‘of such low fortune in the world that he lived in a barn at Landrake and lodged on straw till he got a commission to be captain in the Parliament army under the Earl of Sussex, which brought him money and credit’ (HoP: the Commons, 1660-1690, 3.352) – whatever the truth of the social sneer, the earl must have been Stamford.
Captain of a troop of horse in Cornwall in 1643 and 1644.
Rous was evidently promoted colonel in 1644: in a series of entries relating to accusations of his affront to the Lords between 31 May and 8 July, he changed from captain to Colonel Rous in mid-June. Captain Rous had been summoned to attend a committee to give evidence about (almost certainly against), the earl of Stamford and his failures in the West. Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Aylworth and Captain John Jessop (Stamford’s provost martial general) told the Lords how they had heard him cast doubts on the loyalty of named peers (including Stamford), who were opposing the Committee of Both Kingdoms:
‘Captain Jessopp said, "That Mr. Rous and he being with others, on Tuesday last, in the Star-chamber, Captain Rouse demanded of him if he heard any Thing concerning some Lords who had protested against the Grand Council of State. He answered, "Not, and did hope no such Thing was done." Mr. Rouse answered, "It was true." Whereupon Jesopp did demand of Rouse who they were; and was by him answered, "I desire not to name them." Then he speaking to Lieutenant Colonel Aylworth said, "Have not you heard of it," He answered, "I have heard of a Difference in the House of Lords, but know not the Matter." Rouse then said, "Who were the Lords you heard caused it?" The Lieutenant colonel answered, "The Earls of Lyncolne and Stamford, the Lord Willoughby of Parham, and the Lord Rochford." Rous said, "It is right; those are the Men, and it is Time for us to look about us, when they shew themselves thus openly; they now begin to declare what their Meanings of long Time have been"’ (JHL, 5.574). For this affront to the House, the Lords fined Rous £100 and sent him to the Fleet Prison.
Brought to the bar of the Lords on 18 June, he refused to accept the verdict of the House: ‘I do desire the Liberty of a Subject, and a Commoner of England; and do cast myself upon the House of Commons’ (JHL, 6.596).The Commons regarded the Lords’ imprisoning someone who had been summoned to give evidence before a Commons committee as a breach of the privilege of their House and contrary to the liberty of the subject; on 5 July the Commons ordered his release.
The conflict with Stamford continued. On 1 Mar. 1645 the earl complained to the House of Lords that, ‘That Colonel Anthony Rous hath spoken scandalous Words of his Lordship, which tends to his great Dishonour’ (JHL, 7.258).
Rous served at Plymouth 1645/6. He was governor of the Scilly Isles, 1646-7.
An active committeeman in Cornwall. MP for Cornwall, 1653, 1654, 1656; Helston, 5 May-27 June 1660.
References: Oxford DNB; Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 4.444-8; Worth, History of Plymouth, 134; HoP: The Commons, 1640-1660 (forthcoming); HoP: The Commons, 1660-1690, 3.352; JHL, 6.574, 596, 605, 621, 623; JHC, 3.329, 544, 547-8, 546, 551.
Armies: Devon; Cornwall
Rous, Edward Edward Rous
Almost certainly a younger son of Sir John Rous (died 1645) of Inkberrow in Worcestershire. Like most of the family may initially have supported the king or at least kept his head down at a time of royalist dominance of Worcestershire. By early 1645 colonel of a regiment of foot in Worcestershire and governor of Evesham after its capture by parliament. He died in 1647.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 2.276.
Armies: Worcestershire
Rous, George George Rous
Lieutenant in the regiment of foot of the earl of Peterborough in the earl of Essex’s Army, 1642. By 23 Jan. 1643 captain in the same regiment and still there on 28 Feb. 1643.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 86, 28; TNA, SP28/5/180, 342.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Rouse, Thomas Thomas Rouse
In 1642, probably at and from its formation, ensign in Lord Robartes’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 37.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Rouswell, - - Rouswell
Lieutenant. An officer fatally wounded at the siege of Bristol on 26 July 1643, defending the breach made in the defences with six or seven musketeers. According to the charges of William Prynne, Nathaniel Fiennes and others had attempted to throw the blame for the royalist success there on Rouswell to preserve the reputation of Hercules Langrish.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6.610; State Trials, 4.222.
Armies: Bristol
Rowden, William William Rowden
Commissioned captain in a regiment of foot in the Yorkshire militia.
References: CSPD, 1650, 506.
Armies: Yorkshire
Rowe [Roe], Francis Francis Rowe [Roe] (died 1649/50)
Son of John Rowe of Bickley, Cheshire, yeoman.
Member of the Clothworkers’ Company (apprenticed 1613).
Of Cheapside, brother to Owen Rowe [Roe]; Symonds (1643) notes that one of them was living in Coleman Street.
Second captain of the Green regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel John Warner) in Sept. 1643. lieutenant-colonel by Aug. 1645 and held that rank in the same regiment (whose colonel was now his brother Owen) at the earl of Essex’s funeral in Oct. 1646.
Francis Rowe was heavily involved as an Irish Adventurer; in late 1645, the parliamentary committee for Ireland placed him on the Committee for Munster which was to go to Ireland, alongside John Booker, and in May 1646 the two men were ordered to give security for their promised raising of a regiment of foot of 1,000 for the Munster army with Roe as colonel. On 15 June 1648 the Committee for Irish Affairs certified that he was owed £1,514 4s. 8d. for his service in Ireland.
Will made 10 Apr. 1649, proved 5 Feb. 1650.
References: BL, Harl. 986, p. 37; Herald and Genealogist, vol. 2 (1865), 62-3; CSP, Ireland, 1633-47, 397, 410, 449, 451, 455, 477, 500, 506, 511, 672, 742; CSP, Ireland, 1647-60, 11, 17,19, 35, 539-40; JHC, 5. 590-1.
Armies: London; Ireland
Rowe, Henry Henry Rowe
Captain of Pioneers in the earl of Essex’s regiment in 1642. By Nov. 1643 he was in James Wemyss’s regiment of foot (the regiment accompanying the ordnance); the following month he was at the siege of Arundel Castle.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 154.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller (Southern Association)
Rowe [Roe], Owen Owen Rowe [Roe] (died 1661)
Son of John Rowe of Bickley, Cheshire, and brother of Francis Rowe [Roe]. Apprenticed to a London haberdasher in 1609 and by the time of his marriage he was working as a haberdasher in Honey Lane, All Hallows. During the 1630s he joined and invested in the Massachusetts Bay Company; he strongly supported colonial ventures and settlement, on both commercial and religious grounds, and traded in colonial goods, such as silk and tobacco. Symonds refers to him as a mercer in Cheapside (BL, Harl. 986, p. 35).
During and after the civil war he played a prominent role in the City’s financial and administrative affairs, including as a member of the militia committee.
Captain in London Trained Bands, 1639; major in the Green regiment, London Trained Bands (Colonel John Warner) by Sept. 1643, and colonel of the Green regiment, London Trained Bands by Oct. 1646, with his brother Francis as lieutenant-colonel.
He was an active member of the court which tried Charles I and he signed the death warrant. He was equally active in trading and colonial companies and ventures during the 1650s, including as (London-based) deputy governor of Bermuda. He was condemned as a regicide at the Restoration, but died in the Tower in 1661 before a decision had been taken whether to execute him.
References: Oxford DNB; Barriffe, Militarie Discipline (1639), sig. ¶ r.; Overton 1642; Thrale 1642; BL, Harl. 986, p. 35; Pearl, Outbreak, 324.
Armies: London
Rowe, Thomas Thomas Rowe
During spring and summer 1644, major of the London-raised regiment of horse originally commanded by Colonel Richard Turner but, during his period in the regiment commanded by George Thompson and, following his serious injury at Cheriton, in effect by Robert Thorpe.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 140.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Rowles, William William Rowles
Captain. In 1643 he was probably an ensign in the regiment of Sir Robert Cooke. In May he received £45 for the Tewkesbury garrison.
Commissioned captain of horse in the Gloucestershire militia, 8 Feb. 1651.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6. 618, 620; CSPD, 1651, 513.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Roye, - - Roye
Captain-Lieutenant in Major Lydcott’s troop in Nathaniel Whetham’s Northampton-based regiment of horse.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 164.
Armies: Northamptonshire
Roye, - - Roye
Captain-Lieutenant in the Colonel’s troop in John Meldrum’s short-lived regiment of horse, 1643-4.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 102.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Rudlands, - - Rudlands
Lieutenant in Linch’s troop in Francis Russell’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.98.
Armies: Eastern Association
Rugeley, George George Rugeley
Lieutenant in Major Francis Whestone’s company in Thomas Ayloffe’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army at the time of its disbandment in Apr. 1645.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.9.
Armies: Eastern Association
Rugeley, Simon Simon Rugeley (1597/98-1665)
Of Hawkesyard and Collingwood (Tattenhill parish), Staffordshire. Eldest son of Richard Rugeley (died 1623) of Shenstone and his wife Mary Rugeley, daughter of Thomas Rugeley of Hawkesyard. He married Anne Skipwith of Leicester. One brother, Benjamin, married a daughter of William Cumberford, the royalist sheriff of Staffordshire in 1643, whilst one sister apparently married Henry Stone.
Listed as captain of a troop of horse in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
By Feb. 1643 Rugeley had raised and was colonel of a regiment of foot. He was a Staffordshire county committeeman from 7 June 1643.
In the politics of the committee, Rugeley very much belonged to the pro-Denbigh, anti-Brereton faction; he was removed and briefly imprisoned when Brereton purged the committee in Dec. 1644. He was sent to London but was released by the Committee of Both Kingdoms after Brereton and the Staffordshire committee failed to bring specific charges against him. Returning to Stafford, he challenged the authority of Captain Henry Stone as governor there, claiming the superiority of his own commission from the earl of Denbigh.
‘[Rugeley] survived the charges of infidelity that were levelled against him at the time of Brereton’s purge of the Committee, but though he continued to receive army pay as Colonel, captain of foot, and captain of horse, he seems to have lived well above his income, and to have been quickly compelled to mortgage parts of his extensive properties’ (Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, xxiii). He was forced to sell his property at Hawkesyard and he retired to Collingwood.
References: Vis. Staffs., 256-7; Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, xxiii, lxiii, lxxix-lxxxi and passim; Dore, Brereton letter books,1.18-9.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Staffordshire
Rugeley, Thomas Thomas Rugeley (born 1618/19)
Of Stafford. Probably the eldest son of Daniel Rugeley (died 1659) of Stapenhill and his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Toone of Burton-upon-Trent, although possibly the younger brother of Colonel Simon Rugeley.
Rugeley was captain of a troop of horse in Staffordshire by Mar. 1644. On 4 Feb. 1645 he complained to the county committee that several of his men had sold their horses and arms and he was empowered to seize them back.
In Jan. 1646 Rugeley was serving as a captain of horse under Colonel John Bowyer. Presented by the constables of Greengate Ward, Stafford, in 1662 as a former active parliamentarian.
References: Vis. Staffs., 257-9; Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 78, 246, 317-8, 353-4; ‘Active Parliamentarians, 1662’, 58; Dore, Brereton letter books, 2.504-5.
Armies: Staffordshire
Rush, Thomas Thomas Rush
Lieutenant in Sir Nicholas Byron’s regiment of foot in the earl of Northumberland’s Army against the Scots in 1640.
Captain in Sir William Fairfax’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 87, 44.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Rushley, John John Rushley
Lieutenant in Captain Joseph Knapp’s company in the Southwark Auxiliaries regiment (Colonel James Houblon) on 16 Apr. 1644.
References: TNA, SP28/121A, Part 4, ff. 569r.-570r.
Armies: Southwark
Russell, - - Russell
Listed in Oct. 1643 as lieutenant serving in the troop (then or later) of Robert Patterson in Oliver Cromwell’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army.
Possibly the same man who appears as lieutenant serving in May 1644 in Major Thomas Harrison’s troop in Colonel Charles Fleetwood’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army. Possibly the same man who appears as lieutenant in Robert Swallow’s troop in Oliver Cromwell’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army in or by Jan. 1645. Given the common surname, it is not clear whether there were one, two or even three different Lieutenant Russells serving in the Eastern Association Army 1643-5.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.22, 23, 34.
Armies: Eastern Association
Russell, - - Russell
Major of foot in Staffordshire. In Apr. 1643 he fought at the defence of Lichfield Cathedral Close against the army of Prince Rupert. In July 1644 he was a senior officer at Stafford, ordered to enforce the county committee’s orders that papists should not come or live within 4 miles of the town and that soldiers attend church on Sundays and sermon days.
In Dec. 1644 the committee ordered that Russell’s company (amongst others) march into Cheshire.
References: Randolph, Honour Advanced (1643), 6; Pennington and Roots, Committee at Stafford, 150, 221, 223, 316, 326.
Armies: Staffordshire
Russell, Francis Francis Russell
In 1643 commissioned to raise and command a regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army, raised in Suffolk. It took part in the campaign and battle of Marston Moor and the second battle of Newbury, as well as in the sieges of Newark, Lincoln and King’s Lynn. At least part of the regiment served with Russell during his time as governor of Yarmouth (down to Feb. 1644) and the Isle of Ely. However, most of the regiment was broken up in spring 1645 at the formation of the New Model Army, part of it absorbed into Rainsborough’s newly-formed regiment, part of it disbanded at that point.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.95.
Armies: Eastern Association
Russell, Henry Henry Russell
Captain.
References: Mayo, Dorset Standing Committee, 377.
Armies: Dorset
Russell, John John Russell
By the beginning of 1645 had succeeded John Fotheringay as captain in Francis Russell’s regiment of horse in the Eastern Association Army; he served in that capacity until the regiment was broken up in spring 1645.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.97.
Armies: Eastern Association
Russell, Thomas Thomas Russell
Ensign. ‘Of the new companies’, Weymouth.
References: Bayley, Civil War in Dorset, 337.
Armies: Dorset
Russell, William, fifth earl [later first duke] of Bedford William Russell, fifth earl [later first duke] of Bedford (1616-1700)
Born eldest son and heir of Francis, Baron Russell, fourth earl of Bedford (died 1641).
William was elected MP for Tavistock in the Short and Long Parliament, moving to the Lords in spring 1641 as the new fifth earl of Bedford upon his father’s sudden death. He supported reform and in spring 1642 was appointed by parliament its lord lieutenant of Somerset and Devon. In summer 1642 he was appointed general of the horse in the earl of Essex’s Army and also colonel of his own regiment of horse. In Sept. he commanded a detached force against the royalist marquess of Hertford in and around Somerset but he and his men performed poorly. After returning briefly to London, he had rejoined Essex’s main army in time for the battle of Edgehill.
During 1643 he strongly supported moves for a negotiated peace and in later summer defected to the king, joining the king’s army in the unsuccessful siege of Gloucester and first battle of Newbury. In winter 1643-4 he returned to London and to the parliamentarian fold, though he was understandably distrusted by many former colleagues and was imprisoned for a time. Even when released, he was not allowed to retake his seat in the Lords. He spent much of the later 1640s and 1650s living in retirement on his estates at Woburn.
He returned to the Lords and to some court offices at the Restoration but he and Charles II kept each other at arm’s length. He was a lukewarm supporter of exclusion and his eldest son and heir was executed in 1683 for his alleged involvement in the Rye House plot. He returned to favour and higher office during the reign of William III, who created him a duke.
References: Oxford DNB.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Ruthen [Ruthin], William William Ruthen [Ruthin]
Colonel. The ‘Scotch General Ruthen’ (Coate, Cornwall, 43, quoting letter of Bevil Grenville). Commission from the Committee of Safety, 7 Oct. 1642, to be colonel of all such forces as the committee of Cornwall, lord lieutenant or deputy lieutenants gave him. ‘By the time he received this commission Cornwall had been lost or was lost within a few days’. Second commission 21 Oct. 1642 made him colonel and commander-in-chief of Hampshire, Wiltshire, Devon and Cornwall until 11 May 1643. Removed, it was reported, for his poor performance as a commander. At Braddock Down (Jan. 1643), Ruthen had attacked Hopton’s army without waiting for arrival of Earl of Stamford’s force, only for the parliamentarians to be routed. A few days later he was forced to retreat after a hard fight.
References: Peachey and Turton, 1.3, 303: Coate, Cornwall, 41-5.
Armies: Cornwall
Ruthen [Ruthin], William William Ruthen [Ruthin]
Lieutenant-General of the Hants, Wiltshire, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall forces. The ‘Scotch General Ruthen’ (Coate, Cornwall, 43, quoting letter of Bevil Grenville). A Scottish professional soldier. He was probably one of the two ‘Scottish men’ sent down as ‘principal commanders’ from London in the autumn of 1642. On 7 Oct. 1642 he was commissioned colonel to command forces given him by the Cornish county committee: ‘By the time he received this commission Cornwall had been lost or was lost within a few days’. On 21 Oct. he was made colonel and commander-in-chief of Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall, nominally retaining this position until 11 May 1643, although he had been displaced as commander by Stamford in Jan. and in May (if not earlier) was replaced as lieutenant-general by Sir George Chudleigh. He never drew more than the pay of a colonel. Peachey and Turton hypothesize that he commanded a regiment at Plymouth from the fact of his rank and the number of Scottish names in the garrison there in the autumn of 1642. In Dec. commanding the parliamentarian forces at Plymouth, Ruthen drove back the royalist incursion against from Cornwall against Exeter. Marching into Cornwall, he advanced against Sir Ralph Hopton without waiting for a juncture with Stamford, and on 19 Jan. 1643 was heavily defeated at Braddock Down when Hopton’s Cornish forces launched a determined attack. His dismissal in May 1643 was reputedly for ill service at Braddock Down.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 1.3, 3.303, 4.418-9, 454-5; Stoyle, Deliverance, 69, 71-2; Coate, Cornwall, 41-5.
Armies: Devon; Cornwall
Ruthven, - - Ruthven
Captain-Lieutenant of the Colonel’s company in Lawrence Crawford’s regiment of foot on the Eastern Association Army. He was possibly one of the officers in the regiment who had previously served in Ormonde’s Army in Ireland.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.11.
Armies: Eastern Association
Rutter, Henry Henry Rutter
Captain in Sir William Waller’s regiment of horse by 30 Oct. 1643; previously captain in George Mills’s regiment of dragoons.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 142, 147.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Rutter, John John Rutter
Cornet in (presumably his kinsman) Captain Henry Rutter’s troop in Sir William Waller’s regiment of horse by 30 Oct. 1643.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 142-3.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Rutton, Thomas Thomas Rutton
Lieutenant 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
Ryley, John John Ryley
Captain in Richard Shuttleworth’s regiment of foot in Lancashire. He was owed £244 15s 3d in arrears in Sept. 1650.
References: TNA, E121/4/8.
Armies: Lancashire