Description:

English Civil War 0 - 0 Incredible English Civil War document signed by five regicide Rump Parliament members eight months after Charles I's beheading.

2pp double-sided document signed by eight Rump Parliamentary members in London "Att the Comittee of Parliament for the Army" on August 21, 1649. Identified signees include Edmund Ludlow, William Purefoy, Henry Vane the Younger, John Venn, and Edward Whalley. In near fine condition, with minor overall toning. Document docket has been professionally attached to one end via two tiny tabs and shows more weathering. Two tiny burn marks at center barely affect two signatures. Page measures 7.25" x 11.25".

This English Civil War dated document ordered Treasurer at War "John Wollaston, Knt" to advance £2283, 17 shillings, and eight pence to Colonel Edward Whalley of the Army of Essex. "Orderd ... for the use of the Army pay but Colonell Whalley the Some of two thousand two Hundred Eighty three pounds Seaventeene Shillings & eight pence upon attempt for payment of one month the pay ... for the officers & souldgers in the Regiment of House of the Comons according to their forms ... the said Colonell Whalley shal be this sufficient warrant".

The document is signed by Edmund Ludlow as "E. Ludlowe", William Purefoy as "William Purefoy", Henry Vane the Younger as "H:Vane", John Venn as "John Venn", and another unidentified signee (John Hoyles?)recto as well as by Edward Whalley as "Edw. Whalley" and two unidentified signees verso (William Bingley? Edmund Chillon?).

This 1649 document dates from the middle of the English Civil War, a series of armed conflicts waged between Royalists and Parliamentarians from 1642 to 1651. Fundamental ideas about government were at issue, with the Royalists supporting the "divine right of kings" model advocated by Charles I (1600-1649), and the Parliamentarians headed by Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) lobbying for limited executive powers and a more democratic process. In January 1649, Charles I was tried by Parliament and sentenced to execution. Edward Whalley (#4), Edmund Ludlow (#30), John Venn (#53), and William Purefoy (#26) were among the fifty-nine members of Parliament who signed our document eight months after signing the king's death warrant. (Numbers in parenthesis indicate where the individual's signature appears on the death warrant.)

Our document is significant not only because of who signed it, but also because it underscores a major bureaucratic problem during the English Civil War: the question of pay. In fact, just a year before our document was signed in 1648, an unpaid contingent of Parliamentarian troops in Wales changed sides. A guaranteed salary went a long way in ensuring loyalty, as Colonel Whalley could probably tell fellow Parliamentarians.

Of our document's regicides, only one of our signees, Henry Vane the Younger (bap. 1613-1662), was apprehended during the Restoration. Vane the Younger served as 6th Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, but returned to England after the Anne Hutchinson trial. While he was a Parliamentarian and a close associate of Oliver Cromwell, he did not sign Charles I's death warrant. Nevertheless, he was exempted from the 1660 Indemnity and Oblivion Act, which whitewashed many of the Civil War participants, and was beheaded in June 1662.

Regicides John Venn (1586-1650) and William Purefoy (c. 1580-1659) died before the Restoration. Purefoy's property was confiscated as a punitive measure by the throne.

Regicides Edmund Ludlow (c. 1617-1692) and Edward Whalley (c. 1607-c.1675) both evaded capture during the Restoration. While Ludlow chose exile in Switzerland, our "Colonell Whalley" fled to Boston, and then later New Haven colony. Whalley, along with his son-in-law and fellow death warrant signee John Goffe (1605?-1679?) (#14), hid in a cave on the top of a ridge outside of New Haven. The natural rock formation, now called Judges Cave, can still be visited in West Rock State Park. Evidence suggests that Charles II punished New Haven Colony for having harbored Whalley and Goffe by merging it with its northern neighbor, the Connecticut Colony, in 1664.

An outstanding document signed by many English Civil War celebrities!

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