My family and the English Civil War

Date: 1642 [unknown]
Location: England

The English Civil War took place between 1642 and 1651. It was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads", led by Oliver Cromwell) and Royalists ("Cavaliers", led by Charles I) over, principally, political power and authority. There were three main phases to the war: The first (1642–1646) and second (1648–1649) wars pitted the supporters of Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third (1649–1651) saw fighting between supporters of Charles's son—Charles II—and supporters of the Rump Parliament. The war ended with the Parliamentarian victory at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651.

Agreement on the different causes of the Civil War but debate on empahasis placed on each cause:^[1]

• Religious divisions:
  • The Reformation and religious changes in the 16th century under the Tudors had led to a Protestant Church of England, albeit with a level of ritual and tradition retained in many services. This left the surviving Catholic minority feeling dissatisfied and persecuted, an expression of which was the attempted ‘Gunpowder Plot’ in 1605 to assassinate King James I and his Parliament. Catholics were viewed with deep suspicion and fear.
  • At the other end of the religious divide, some people felt that the Reformation had not gone far enough and wanted the church to be more Protestant. These people collectively acquired the nickname of ‘Puritans’.
  • Many historians now believe that it is religion and not political or social aims which were the driving force behind events in the 17th century.^[2]
• ‘Divine Right’
  • Politically the war was a struggle over how much power parliament should have over the monarchy, challenging the notion that an English monarch had the right to rule without the consent of their people.
  • accession of Charles I in 1625. Like his father James I before him, Charles believed he had the God-given ‘Divine Right’ to rule, but where James had largely worked with Parliament, Charles’ decisions from the outset of his reign antagonised Parliament, from his choice of political advisers, his involvement in expensive foreign wars, to his marriage to a French Catholic princess. Parliament responded in 1628 by forcing the king to agree to ratify the ‘Petition of Right’, a document that outlined specific personal and parliamentary liberties that the king could not infringe. Tensions between the two continued to escalate, until Charles dismissed Parliament in 1628 and would rule without it for the next eleven years.
  • "In the 19th century, the 'Whig view' was that this huge upheaval should be seen as constitutional fight between two sides: an absolutist, reactionary, King and a reforming, democratic Parliament - paving the way ultimately for the liberal democracy, Parliamentary sovereignty and a constitutional monarchy such as the 19th century believed had been established.

"Cromwell was seen as the great liberator of the English people; a hero of democracy.

"This is history seen as an inevitable progress towards a glorious future: a pattern imposed on the past with little thought of anachronism or the subtleties of events and personalities."^[2]

• Taxation without Representation?
  • During his ‘Personal Rule’, Charles used legal loopholes to squeeze money out of his subjects, such as fining those who had failed to attend his coronation and who had been eligible for a knighthood and selling title and honours. He also exploited taxes that had not been used for some time, such as Ship Money, a levy which had been used by tradition on coastal counties to help pay for the upkeep of the Royal Navy. Charles levied it on inland counties by 1635, which many felt was unfair.
• A Matter of Faith
  • Charles’ religious policies also antagonised many. In 1633 he appointed William Laud as Archbishop of Canterbury, a man who shared Charles’ religious views and taste for ‘high church worship’, with the reintroduction of much ritual and ceremony into church services this included a new ‘Book of Common Prayer’ and alterations to church architecture, such as altar rails separating the clergy from the congregation. To many, particularly Puritans, this smacked of Catholicism and many began to fear that Charles meant to reintroduce the ‘old religion’.
• King vs. Parliament
  • Over the next 18 months Parliament passed a multitude of laws cutting back Charles’ power, including giving MPs power over the king’s ministers, making sure Parliament had to approve any changes to taxation, that Parliament had to be called at least every three years, and the King was forbidden from dissolving parliament without its consent.
  • They also impeached Charles’ chief advisor Thomas Wentworth, (Lord Strafford), and had him executed.
• Class war
  • "In the 1940s, another school of thought - espoused by Marxist historians - interpreted the events of the ‘English Revolution' as a class war, with the merchant and commercial classes supporting Parliamentary ‘liberty' and giving rise to a new Parliamentary class linked to protestant economic expansion."^[2]

The Whig Party were ultimately successors to the Roundheads who were supporters of Parliament in the English Civil War (1642 – 1651); the Whigs began as a political faction that opposed absolute monarchy and Catholic emancipation. Rowlland Mainwaring of Whitmore Hall was known to support the Whig Party in 1847.

Parliamentarians

• Edward Mainwaring (1577-1647) 10th great grandfather
  • Edward espoused the cause of the Parliament in the civil war. From The Mainwarings of Whitmore and Biddulph in the County of Stafford.:
    • Edward Mainwaring was elected M.P. for Newcastle in 1601 and again in 1625; and was Mayor of Newcastle in 1609. He was placed on the Commission of the Peace in 1615, and, although he was removed from the bench with the other roundheads in 1642 when King Charles set up his standard at York, he remained chairman throughout the war until his death. He was the leading supporter of Parliament in the county of Stafford, and fortified Whitmore Hall against the royal troops
  • John Ball (abt.1585-1640), Puritan Divine, was curate at Whitmore from 1610 to 1640 under the patronage of Edward Mainwaring
• Edward Mainwaring (1603-1674) 9th great grandfather
  • From The Mainwarings of Whitmore and Biddulph in the County of Stafford.: Edward Mainwaring, like his father, was a supporter of the parliamentary cause; he was Mayor of Newcastle in 1640; Sheriff in 1645-6; Assessment Commissioner in 1656. On the 11th of March 1645 he was ordered by the Stafford Defence Committee to “ take care of the pulling down of the Castle of Heley.” In 1647 he was added to the Staffordshire Bench, and he does not seem ever to have been removed therefrom in any of the revolutions, as his name is still on the list in 1665. He was on the Commission for ejecting ministers in 1647, and, in 1653, with Colonel Watson, M.P. for Lichfield, was notified by the Council of State as to various appointments, as though they were the principal justices. He was elected M.P. for Newcastle at a bye-election in 1660, and again in the “ Pensioner Parliament ” of 1661-79. His name does not appear in any State Papers as a grantee or courtier; he was probably a mild but loyal whig.
• John Mainwaring (abt.1610-1692) 9th great grand uncle
  • From The Borough of Stoke-Upon-Trent by John Ward first published 1843, page 489: John Mainwaring, D.D., who, as appears by entries in the Register,! filled the church from 1633 to 1692, was of the eminent family, seated at Whitmore, of which we shall hereafter speak. During his long incumbency happened those terrible convulsions in the State, and troubles of the Church, by which royalty and prelacy were put down, and after enduring a long season of insult and suffering, and the ascendency of democracy and fanaticism, happily again restored. The Doctor seems calmly to have yielded to the force of circumstances, was probably superseded during the Commonwealth, but on the Restoration became again Pastor of Stoke, and continued so to the period of his death.^[3]
• Randle Mainwaring (abt.1588-1652) 10th great grand uncle
  • London Militia Commissioner 1642/43-1647. In October 1642, Mainwaring raised a regt for the Earl of Warwick's proposed Parliamentarian reserve army, which remained in London for the winter of 1642-43, whilst Mainwaring himself succeeded Phillip Skippen Esq. (abt.1600-1660) (g.u) as Sergeant-Major-General of City.
  • Appointed to the High Court of Justice which tried Charles I
  • Described in the History of Parliament entry for his son George as "His father, ‘a beggarly train-band captain’ and one of the leading City radicals at the outset of the Civil War, rose to command the regiment; but he never achieved much prosperity, and in 1650 he was voted £200 p.a. by the Rump ‘in consideration of his faithful services’."^[4]
• Robert Pye MP (1622-1701) 9th great grandfather
  • In 1642 Robert raised a troop of horse to serve with the Earl of Essex and in 1643 an intercepted letter from his father to Sir Edward Nicholas was read in the House of Commons. In it the elder Robert revealed that he was seeking to make his peace with the King and was contributing money to the royal cause, that he disapproved of his son's conduct and would give him no financial aid. Undeterred Robert continued to serve Parliament rising to a Colonelcy in the New Model Army but, even before the execution of the King there were signs that his support was waning. However in 1654 he was returned to parliament as member for Berkshire. Returned again in 1658 and 1660 he showed little interest in politics after the Restoration thoiugh he did turn out in support of the Prince of Orange in 1688.
  • From Mainwarings of Whitmore page 81:

Edmund Pye, the father of Jemima, was grandson of Sir Robert Pye who purchased the manor of Farringdon early in the seventeenth century, and during the Civil Wars garrisoned his mansion there for the royalists, when it was besieged by his son, another Sir Robert. The latter, who succeeded his father at Farringdon, represented Woodstock in the Long Parliament, and was a Colonel of horse under General Lord Fairfax. During the protectorate he enjoyed many high trusts and was twice returned as M.P. for the County of Berk¬ shire. He engaged in an attempt to restore King Charles II, and was subsequently committed to the Tower for presenting a petition complaining of the want of a settled form of govern¬ ment. Upon General Monk’s coming to London he was released from prison and upon the restoration was appointed Equery to the King. He married Ann, the eldest daughter of John Hampden, the patriot. Edmund, his eldest son succeeded him at Farringdon, and died leaving a widow who married William Rider, Esquire.

• Philip Mainwaring (1591-1647) 3rd cousin 11*removed
  • Phillip, "a ship-money sheriff, fought for Parliament in the Civil War as a colonel of horse.^[5]
• Thomas Mainwaring (1623-1689) 4th cousin 10*removed
  • Upon the outbreak of the civil war, Mainwaring cast in his lot with the parliamentary party, and took the covenant and the engagement oath. He was assiduous in local committee work, becoming a JP in 1649, sitting as a commissioner for assessment, the militia, and the regulation of ministers, and serving as sheriff in 1657-8. He sat for Cheshire in the Convention Parliament. After the Restoration he was reappointed to his local offices, nominated to the order of the Royal Oak, and created a baronet on 22 November 1660.^[6]
• Robert Phaire (abt.1619-1682) associated with Paul Cudmore (abt.1614-abt.1692) my 10th great grandfather
  • a regicide
• Robert Manwaring
  • not sure how he is related
  • a regicide but did not attend any sessions^[7]
• Nathaniel Stephens, M.P., P.C. was the son of Edward Mainwaring's sister-in-law Anne (Stone) Stephens (-aft.1599).^[8]
  • He raised a regiment of horse of which he was Colonel and fought on the side of Parliament against Charles I. At this time, General Henry Ireton (Cromwell's son-in-law) was a guest, being a relation by marriage of Colonel Stephens.^[8]
  • After the cessation of hostilities whilst Charles I was imprisoned, it became apparent to Cromwell that the King would have to be executed in order to stop any form of Royalist uprisings. To this end he sent Ireton to Chavenage, to try to persuade Colonel Stephens to add his support to the regicide. Ireton arrived whilst Colonel Stephens was keeping the festival of Christmas in 1648. Stephens, known as a mild man, had shown much irresolution in deciding upon sacrificing the life of King Charles I and was on the verge of wavering when Ireton reached his destination. It is said that they sat up all night and eventually Ireton obtained from Stephens his very reluctant acquiescence.
    Shortly after his daughter Abigail returned from having passed the New Year elsewhere, she, in a fit of horror and anger, laid a curse on her father for bringing the name Stephens into such disrepute. The story goes that the Colonel was soon taken terminally ill and never rose from his bed again. When the Lord of the Manor died and all were assembled for his funeral, a hearse drew up at the door of the manor house driven by a headless man, and the Colonel was seen to rise from his coffin and enter the hearse after a profound reverence to the headless personage, who as he drove away assumed the shape of the martyr King, Charles I - this being regarded as retribution for the Colonel's disloyalty to the King. Thereafter until the line became extinct, whenever the head of the family died, the same ghost of the King appeared to carry him off. In Cromwell's and Ireton's room there are several relics from the Civil War including horse furniture, a leather hat cover and several swords and pikes.^[8]

Royalists

• Robert Pye (1585-1662) 10th great grandfather
  • During the Civil War, because of Faringdon's strategic position, the Royalist army garrisoned the town with 300 troops from May 1644 and prevented western supplies from reaching Parliamentary Abingdon. Col. Sir George Lisle fortified Faringdon House as his headquarters until, in the following April, Oliver Cromwell arrived on the scene with a force of cavalry supported by 600 foot soldiers from Abingdon. Cromwell overran the town but, despite a ferocious attack, failed to take the house. Soon afterwards, Col. Marmaduke Rawdon replaced Lisle at Faringdon and his troops harassed the Parliamentary soldiers in the nearby towns so much that the taking of Faringdon was ordered. In April 1646, the younger Sir Robert Pye commanded the Parliamentary army that attacked, not only the town, but his father's own house. The assaults were unnsuccessful however and a two month siege ensued. On 24th June, the King ordred his garrison to surrender under the Articles of Oxford. During all this action, the house suffered considerable damage, although descriptions of it as being "in ruins" are probably exagerated.
• Sir Philip Mainwaring (abt.1589-1661) my 2nd cousin 12 times removed
  • In the Civil War he has to be distinguished from his parliamentarian nephew, Philip Mainwaring of Baddiley, the father of Sir Thomas Mainwaring. Nothing is known of his own activity, but under the Commonwealth he was regarded as a royalist delinquent, and imprisoned in 1650 for remaining in London contrary to the Rump ordinance. He was released in October 1651 on £500 bail and took no known part in royalist intrigue.^[9]
  • son of Randle (Mayneringe) Mainwaring (abt.1553-1612). For profile development see https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1660-1690/member/mainwaring-sir-philip-1589-1661 and http://chester.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Mainwaring#Philip_Mainwaring_.281589-1661.29 to start
  • Portrait : Thomas Wentworth,1st Earl of Strafford (1593-1641) with his Secretary Sir Philip Mainwaring (1589-1661) by Sir Anthony Van Dyck
• William Mainwaring (1616-1645)
  • Sir William Mainwaring of West Chester was killed on the walls of Chester, defending the city against the attack of the Parliamentary forces.
  • William's father Edmund Mainwaring (1579-aft.1650); William is the grandson of Randle (Mayneringe) Mainwaring (abt.1553-1612)
• Henry Mainwaring (1587-1653) my 2nd cousin 13 times removed
  • As a Royalist, he served in the King's cause in the English Civil War, was exiled to France, and died in poverty.
• Robert Cholmondeley Bt (1584-1659) 1st cousin 13 times removed
  • son of Lady Mary (Holford) Cholmondeley (bef.1563-1625) and great grandson of Sir Randle Manwaring of Over Peover (1495-1557)
  • From History of Parliament CHOLMONDELEY, Sir Robert, 1st Bt. (1584-1659), of Cholmondeley Hall, Cheshire; later of St. John's Churchyard, Chester and Bickley Hall, Cheshire

In 1641 Cholmondeley supported the petition to Parliament organized by Aston in favour of episcopacy and against puritanism. He was appointed to the commission of array in 1642, and during the Civil War was a strong supporter of the king. He organized the defence of Chester, although this cost him his house in St. John’s Churchyard, which was ‘plucked down and burnt by the parliament party as they lay siege in and about Chester’. Cholmondeley later distinguished himself at the Battle of Tilston Heath, and in 1644 received a commission from Prince Rupert to raise forces in Cheshire, Denbighshire and Flintshire. In the following year he was granted an English peerage, and in 1646 was elevated to the earldom of Leinster. Cholmondeley surrendered at the fall of Oxford, and after compounding for a tenth at £7,742 (the highest in Cheshire) he retired to Bickley Hall.^[10]

Sources

1. ↑ Causes of the Civil War. (n.d.). Cromwell Museum. https://www.cromwellmuseum.org/cromwell/civil-war/causes-of-the-civil-war
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Great rebellion, English Revolution or War of Religion? (2024). UK Parliament. https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/parliamentaryauthority/civilwar/overview/great-rebellion/
3. ↑ The Borough of Stoke-Upon-Trent by John Ward first published 1843, page 489
4. ↑ https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1660-1690/member/mainwaring-george-1642-95
5. ↑ http://chester.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Mainwaring
6. ↑ http://chester.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Mainwaring
7. ↑ https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A63490.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1 8.2} https://www.chavenage.com/history.html
9. ↑ https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1660-1690/member/mainwaring-sir-philip-1589-1661
10. ↑ Kyle, C. (2010). Cholmondeley, Sir Robert, 1st Bt. (1584-1659), of Cholmondeley hall, Cheshire; later of St. John's Churchyard, Chester and Bickley hall, Cheshire. History of Parliament online. https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/cholmondeley-sir-robert-1584-1659