Thomas Liddell (bef. 1578 - bef. 1652)

Born before 14 Apr 1578 in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England

Ancestors

Husband of Isabel (Anderson) Liddell — married 23 Feb 1595 in St John, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England

Descendants

Died before 2 Jun 1652 at about age 74 in Ravensworth, Durham, England

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Biography

Thomas Liddell is Notable.

Thomas Liddell was born in England.

Sheriff, 1609, Mayor 1625, 1636, Created a Baronet being then stiled of Ravensholme Castle, co, Pal. November, 1642, and one of the loyal defenders of Newcastle on Tyne against the Scots Army.^[1]

Captain Sir Thomas Liddell, 1st Baronet (1578–1652) was an English politician, a member of the Liddell family which monopolized the local government of the North of England during the 16th and 17th centuries. He was one of the leading supporters of the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.

Family Liddell was born in 1578, the son of Thomas Liddell (d.1619) and his wife Margaret Watson, daughter of John Watson, Alderman of Newcastle.

His paternal grandfather, Thomas Liddell of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (d. 1577) was a merchant adventurer who had served as Sheriff of Newcastle in 1563-64 and Mayor of Newcastle in 1572-3. His father, Thomas (d. 1619), also a merchant, made vast profits from corn and coal and bought Ravensworth Castle in 1607 and also served as Sheriff of Newcastle in 1592-93 and Mayor of Newcastle in 1597 and 1609.

Politics and the Civil War Liddell supplied horses to Cavaliers for the Battle of Edgehill, at which he fought for Charles I, who afterwards created him a baronet.

A Catholic Recusant, he succeeded to Ravensworth Castle in 1615 on the death of his father. He also owned the Redheugh estate in County Durham. He was admitted to Gray's Inn on 15 March 1620.

Liddell served as Sheriff of Newcastle in 1609 and Mayor in 1625, 1634, and 1636.

In April 1640, he was elected Member of Parliament for Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the Short Parliament. He was created a baronet on 2 November 1642.

After serving as a Trained band captain, Liddell was commissioned into the Royalist army in August 1642 and served as a Commissioner of Array. He smuggled arms to the Royalist party throughout the Civil War and attempted to disenfranchise Parliamentarian sympathizers amongst the aldermen and merchants of Newcastle. He fought at the Battle of Edgehill, for which he supplied horses to the Cavaliers and was in the Royalist garrison at Newcastle during the Siege of Newcastle by the Parliamentarians and wrote the defiant replies that the Parliamentarian authorities received in reply to their demands for the Royalists to surrender. However, the Royalist garrison was defeated in 1644 and Liddell was taken prisoner by the Parliamentarians and, in London in 1646, fined £4,000 as 'one of the most notorious delinquents in the country'. He was released in 1646 on the condition that he pay a fine. In 1652, he unsuccessfully attempted to convince the Parliamentarian government that he had paid the fine to Sir Arthur Haslerig when he had not. He died later that year.

Issue In 1596, Liddell married Isabel Anderson, daughter of Henry Anderson of Haswell and had 14 children, most of whom predeceased him. His eldest son, Thomas, predeceased him and he was therefore succeeded in the baronetcy by his grandson Sir Thomas Liddell, 2nd Baronet who was a Colonel of Foot for the Parliamentarian regime in 1659. and married a daughter of Parliamentarian Sir Henry Vane the Younger.^{[2] [1]}

THOMAS LIDDELL, Esq. who was much esteemed, and had great interest in the county of Northumberland, which he exerted in support of King Charles I. defending Newcastle against the Scots; and his majesty, as a mark of his favour, conferred on him the dignity of a baronet, by letters patent, bearing date Nov. 2. In the time of the rebellion he was taken prisoner, as Whitlock relates; and that on Feb. 13, 1645, upon a petition of Sir Thomas Liddell, a prisoner, he' was admitted to compound: it appears, that he paid 4000/ to the sequestrators for his estate. He was also so obnoxious to the then powers, that Sir Thomas Liddell, senior, is mentioned among those, in the propositions from the parliament, who were demanded to be removed from his majesty's councils, and to be restrained from coming within the verge of the court; and not, without advice or consent of both houses of parliament, to bear any office or employment. He survived His majesty's councils, and to be restrained from coming within the verge of the court; and not, without advice or consent of both houses of parliament, to bear any office or employment. He survived those troublesome times, departing this life in 1650, and having married Isabel, daughter of Henry" Anderson, Esq. (by a daughter and co-heir of Morland) by whom he had six sons, and three daughters.

Ravensworth Castle & the Liddells^[3] It was Thomas who acquired the manor and castle of Ravenshelm. This Thomas, like his father, became the chief citizen in Newcastle in 1609-10, and in the same year was to have as Sheriff, coincidently, his own son Thomas, this particular Christian name was quite a favourite in the Liddell family. Thomas Liddell on the death of his father in 1619 continued to live in Ravenshelm Castle and as a tradesman speculating in coal and corn and became a very wealthy man. In 1625 King Charles I had just ascended the throne, he was elected Mayor of Newcastle and by all accounts was head of Municipal life during troublesome times.

These were the days of religious persecution, and Thomas Liddell as a Protestant, was expected to assist in seeking out Jesuit priests, treacherous work he found foreign to his honest nature and which he refused to do. During his second term in office as mayor 1636-37 a terrible plague swept Newcastle and Gateshead when thousands perished, and there is still to be seen near Ravensworth Castle the Butter Cross (pictured right) where, so says tradition, trades people left their merchandise and returned to collect the money in payment which was steeped in vinegar, the only disinfectant known at the time. This cross was the market cross of Ravensworth village, a little hamlet swept away when making Ravensworth Park.

From the moment Charles I became King of England he had trouble with his Parliament because of his autocratic demands, and with the Scots because of his determination to impose upon them an Anglican liturgy. In 1639 the Scots broke into open rebellion and the following year an army under the command of General Sir Alexander Lesley crossed the Border.

After the defeat of an English force at Newburn the Scots entered Newcastle, which town they occupied for ten months and only withdrew upon receipt of £60,400 as a war indemnity. In 1642 Charles set up his standard at Nottingham to enforce his will upon the Parliamentary forces which were gathering to defy him. Never was such a noble man misguided by evil advice and so foolish in heaping up trouble. It was in November of this year that Thomas Liddell, who zealously upheld the King's cause, was rewarded by Charles with a baronetcy for his loyalty in keeping Newcastle a Royalist stronghold.

After a number of successes and reverses on either side the English Parliament founding an alliance with the Scots and on February 3rd, 1644, Lesley, now the Earl of Leven, again entered England. But the Great Siege of Newcastle is another story-one of heroism and suffering which, whatever the ideal at stake, showed how stubborn and unwilling the Tyneside people were to accept defeat. For twelve months the gallant defenders fought and starved and successfully repulsed the invaders from their crumbling walls. Side by side with the Governor of Newcastle, Sir John Marley, Sir Thomas Liddell fought and was with those who withdrew to the Keep and continued to defy the Scots when the town was taken.

But courage was of no avail against overwhelming odds and Sir Thomas with other survivors eventually capitulated. The Earl of Crawford, Lords Maxwell and Reed, Sir John Marley, Sir Nicholas Cole and Sir George Baker likewise were forced at last to leave the Old Castle and surrender their swords. Sir Thomas Liddell was detained in " London House " until 1646 when he was released upon payment of a fine of £4,000.

An astute businessman he was, as we have seen, a grand old warrior who had the courage to uphold his convictions. He was also a family man, but in his old age lived to mourn the loss of his entire progeny. His fourteen children all died before him, and when he passed on in 1652 to give a final account of his life and labours he was succeeded by his grandson, another Thomas, who came to dwell at Ravenshelm.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Liddell Pedigree, 'Chapelry of Lamesley', The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham: vol. 2: Chester Ward (1820), pp. 207-218. URL: pp. 207-218 Date accessed: 16 September 2014.
2. ↑ Bacon Family, The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Apr., 1902), pp. 267-271, Published by: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. p. 268
3. ↑ Sunniside Local History Society, found at Sunniside Local History Society.

See also:

• "Liddell, Lords Ravensworth," Arthur Collins, The Peerage of England; Containing a Genealogical and Historical Account of All the Peers of that Kingdom, Now Existing, Either by Tenure, Summons, Or Creation: Their Descents and Collateral Lines: Their Births, Marriages, and Issue: Famous Actions Both in War and Peace: Religious and Charitable Donations: Deaths, Places of Burial, Monuments, Epitaphs: and Many Valuable Memoirs Never Before Printed. Also Their Paternal Coats of Arms, Crests, Supporters and Mottoes, Curiously Engraved on Copper-plates. Collected from Records, Old Wills, Authentic Manuscripts, Our Most Approved Historians, and Other Authorities, which are Cited vol. 7 (1779), p. 399; found at Google Books.
• William Betham, The Baronetage of England, Or The History of the English Baronets, and Such Baronets of Scotland, as are of English Families; with Genealogical Tables, and Engravings of Their Coats of Arms, vol. 1 (1801), p. 505, found at Google Books.
• Wikipedia: Sir Thomas Liddell, 1st Baronet
• Wikidata: Item Q7529187, en:Wikipedia
• The Peerage Thomas Liddell
• "England Marriages, 1538–1973", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N2Y5-F6J: 12 March 2020), Isabell Anderson in entry for Thomas Liddell, 23 Feb. 1595.
• Cokayne Complete Baronetage Page 205: Liddell