The War of the Three Kingdoms ended with the English declaring their independence from the monarchy, and the descendants of Thomas Fermor had a role in history. Excerpted and edited from the book “Thomas Fermor and the Sons of Witney.”
Americans will celebrate their Independence Day holiday with fireworks as the date English subjects of the Crown declared a government ruled by the people for the people. The resulting Revolutionary War would see William Farmar Deweese playing a role in sheltering General George Washington’s troops at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-78.
It was not the only time the English declared their independence in similar fashion from the monarchy that would see other descendants of Thomas Fermor with a role in history.
Young Duke of Albany visits Sir George Fermor
At the age of three, Prince Charles, the Duke of Albany, reunited with his parents King James VI & I and Anne of Denmark at the home of Sir George Fermor in Easton Neston, Northamptonshire.
The summer after [1604], my Lord Dunfermline and his lady [Grizel Leslie, Seton’s second wife] were to bring up the young Duke. The King was at Theobalds, when he heard that they were past Northumberland ; from thence the King sent me to meet them, and gave me commission to see them furnished with all things necessary, and to stay with them till they had brought the Duke to court. I did so, and found the Duke at Bishops Awkeland. I attended his Grace all his journey up ; and at Sir George Farmor’s (Eaton), in Northamptonshire, we found the King and Queen, who were very glad to see their young son.
There were many great ladies suitors for the keeping of the Duke but when they did see how weak a child he was, and not likely to live, their hearts were down, and none of them was desirous to take charge of him.
After my Lord Chancellor of Scotland and his lady had stayed here from Midsummer till towards Michaelmas, they were to return to Scotland, and to leave the Duke behind them. The Queen (by approbation Of the Scotch Lord Chancellor) made choice of my wife [Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Hugh Trevanion], to have the care and keeping of the Duke [before 19 November 1604]. Those who wished me no good, were glad of it, thinking that if the Duke should die in our charge (his weakness being such as gave them great cause to suspect it), then it would not be thought fit that we should remain in court after. My gracious God left me not, but out of weakness he showed his strength, and, beyond all men’s expectations, so blessed the Duke with health and strength, under my wife’s charge, as he grew better and better every day. The King and Queen rejoiced much to see him prosper as he did… My wife had the charge of him from a little past four, till he was almost eleven years old in all which time, he daily grew more and more in health and strength, both of body and mind, to the amazement of many that knew his weakness, when she first took charge of him.[1]
Bankrupt King
On 27 March 1625, James died of dysentery, and Charles succeeded a nearly bankrupt monarchy due to his father’s extravagant spending on paintings and musicians to entertain his court.
In June 1625, Parliament granted the king the customs duties from tonnage and poundage for one year. Parliament had refused to grant funds to Charles I for his war with Spain until their concerns about his favorite, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, had been addressed. When Christian IV of Denmark was defeated at Lutter in August 1626, Charles needed more funds to aid his uncle. He decided to bypass Parliament by levying a deeply unpopular Forced Loan without their consent. Many leading members of the gentry were appointed commissioners to collect monies, including Sir Richard Verney for Warwickshire. Some Members of Parliament were imprisoned for simply refusing to collect for the loan.
One of those arrested was Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston. For his persistence in refusing to contribute “the shipmoney, coal, and conduct money, and the loan,” he was “committed to prison, at first in the Gatehouse in London, and subsequently in a castle of Lincolnshire.” Five of the men arrested had attempted to bring a test case in November 1627 by suing out writs of habeas corpus. The judges refused to pass judgment, instead remanding the prisoners to custody after being informed by the Privy Council that they had been arrested on the orders of the king.
The Duke of Buckingham was financially restrained from sending a fleet to support the Siege of La Rochelle which had started on 10 September 1627. On 06 November, half of the English sent to fight the war in France were slain, including Richard Leigh. Charles needed more money and reluctantly summoned Parliament.
Parliament of 1628 & Personal Rule
Members returned for Parliament in 1628 were Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston (Suffolk), Thomas Wenman (Brackley), Sir Thomas Lucy (Warwickshire), Francis Lucy (Warwickshire), and James Fiennes (Oxfordshire).
As a gesture of goodwill, and in the hope of defusing some of the expected criticism, Charles ordered in January 1628 the release of those imprisoned for refusing to contribute to the Forced Loan. In March 1628, it was ordered by the king, being present in Council held at Whitehall, certain persons shall be “set at liberty from any restraint put on them by his Majesty’s commandment… Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston, John Hampden, Richard Knightley, &c.”[2] In the same month Sir Nathaniel was returned to Parliament as a representative of Suffolk and greeted with derision that “they would not have been chosen if there had been any gentlemen of note, for neither Ipswich had any great affection for them nor most of the country; but there were not ten gentlemen at this election.”[3]
Once assembled, the House of Commons indicated that it would vote five subsidies in return for the king’s acceptance of a Petition of Right confirming the rights of the individual and protecting them against the divine right of the king. Parliament also mandated that the king could not arbitrarily imprison or levy taxes on his subjects without the consent of Parliament. After much debate and delay, Charles gave his assent to the Petition and the Subsidy Bill passed through its final stage in the House of Lords by 17 June 1628.
Parliament then turned its attention to the taxes of tonnage and poundage, which Parliament considered illegal. Charles brought the session to a rapid close. When Parliament reconvened in January 1629 it returned to the issue of tonnage and poundage, claiming that its continued imposition contradicted the Petition of Right. Matters got so heated that Charles dissolved Parliament by proclamation on 02 March 1629 and arrested nine of the leading protagonists, one of whom, Sir John Eliot, would die in the Tower of London three years later. Charles then dissolved Parliament in person on 10 March, starting the king’s “Personal Rule.”
The king’s finances between 1629 and 1640 were in a precarious condition. Tonnage and poundage, ship money, compulsory knighthood, revival of ancient forest laws, and meaner work by the Court of Wards were all employed to fill the treasury, but by July 1635 Charles was £1,730,000 in debt. With an incompetent government and economic troubles came unceasing demands for more money, fleecing the rich and oppressing the poor, while imprisoning the opposition without trial and then banishing them from their homes as punishment.
First & Second Bishop’s War
For many, Charles and Archbishop William Laud’s 1637 imposition of a new Prayer Book had too many similarities with Catholicism. Riots broke out in Edinburgh as the Scots viewed the royal decree as an attack on Protestantism and their freedom of worship. The Scottish Presbyterians signed a Covenant in 1638 before God to defend and preserve the true national religion.
Although they pledged their loyalty to the king, Charles saw their protests as an attack on his “divine” royal authority with punishments for those who refused the Prayer Book. The next year, Charles personally financed and sent an inexperienced army of twenty thousand to enforce the Prayer Book, thereby declaring war on his subjects. The English army was easily defeated in what is now known as the First Bishop’s War.
Parliament insisted on peace with Scotland, but Thomas Wentworth, Lord Deputy of Ireland, was recalled to England in September 1639 as Charles’ advisor and advocated for a vigorous war having seen the dangers of Irish Puritanism.
“Go on vigorously or let them alone… go on with a vigorous war as you first designed, loose and absolved from all rules of government, being reduced to extreme necessity, everything is to be done that power might admit… You have an army in Ireland you may employ here to reduce this kingdom.”
Charles’ defeat after the Second Bishop’s War forced him to sign the Treaty of Ripon in October 1640 stipulating that the Scottish army were to be paid £850 per day while they occupied northern England. To pay the stipend, Charles called for an assembly of Parliament so that he could make the request for more money.
“Short” Parliament of 1640
Along with Barnardiston who returned on 14 April 1640 for Suffolk, Wenman returned for Brackley, James Fiennes for Oxfordshire, and Sir Thomas Lucy for Warwickshire. Also returned were Sir Thomas’ brother Francis Lucy for Warwickshire, Fiennes’ brother Sir Nathaniel Fiennes for Banbury, and Sir Edward Leigh for Staffordshire. Sir Martin Lister was also returned for Brackley and his brother-in-law Arthur Goodwin for Buckinghamshire, having both married sisters Mary and Jane Wenman, respectively.
After an eleven-year absence, Parliament had a long list of grievances. Nathaniel Fiennes refused to profess their religious loyalty to the king and claimed they were not corresponding with the Scottish rebels.
If the King suspected their loyalty he might proceed against them as he thought fit ; but that it was against the law to impose any oaths or protestations upon them which were not enjoined by the law ; and, in that respect, that they might not betray the common liberty, they would not submit to it.[4]
Nonetheless, the “Short Parliament” was sent home three weeks after they assembled when Charles dissolved it for refusing the funds.
First English Civil War
The dispute between Charles and Parliament reached a crisis in the beginning of 1642. On 04 January, Charles entered the House of Commons with an armed escort of soldiers to arrest John Pym, John Hampden, Denzil Holles, Sir Arthur Haselrig, and William Stode, who having been tipped, were not present.
A week later on 12 January 1642, Thomas Lunsford, a fugitive outlaw appointed by the king to the position of Lieutenant of the Tower of London, was arrested for collecting troops in a plot to capture the magazine at Kingston-upon-Thames. His replacement at the Tower, Sir John Byron, was also questioned for the shipment of arms to Whitehall and the sheriffs of London under the command of Major General Philip Skippon placed a guard around the Tower to prevent the distribution of any arms and ammunition. The plot, whether it was real or imaginary, only stoked tensions around London against the king’s poor decisions and opinion that Charles would try any means possible to obtain money and seize complete power.
On 09 February, the House of Commons proceeded to nominate and recommend persons whom they desired to be entrusted with the militia of the kingdom. Nathaniel Fiennes was named for Oxfordshire, Greville for Warwickshire, and Henry Spencer, 1st Earl of Sunderland, for Northamptonshire. With Charles refusing every demand of the Parliament to limit or suspend his own powers over the militia, Parliament under Oliver Cromwell published their celebrated Militia Ordinance on 05 March appointing lieutenants of the counties to array and arm a militia. With any obedience to the ordinance usurping the king’s authority, Charles reinstated the outdated Commission of Array, and the summer was employed by Parliament’s “Roundheads” and the king’s “Royalist” forces making preparations for war.[5]
On 22 August 1642, Charles erected his Royal Standard at Nottingham demanding the extraordinary aid of his subjects. The king had officially and openly declared war.
The Second English Civil War
The war lasted for almost four years until the king escaped the Siege of Oxford in May 1646 disguised as a servant and fled to the Scottish Presbyterian army. One of the Royalists who fought alongside the king was Francis Plowden, the eldest son of Sir Edmund Plowden, who was earlier besieged in the Battle at Shiplake Court.[6] Francis was allowed to depart with his servants and horses.[7]
After nine months of negotiation and in exchange for £100,000, the Scottish Presbyterian army presented Charles to Parliament in January 1647, who promptly placed him on house arrest. With their king back in the country, the Royalists rose again in May 1648 to start the Second English Civil War.
Nathaniel Fiennes had supported several negotiations toward a settlement with Charles, losing patience when the king escaped to the Isle of Wight in November 1647. On parole, Charles I attended a conference on Newport, Isle of Wight, between 15 and 27 November 1648 in which Fiennes, his father William, and Thomas Wenman were appointed commissioners. Nathaniel sought a compromise between the factions of the civil war, opposing the radical position adopted by the army, and supporting Charles’s final answer to the Treaty of Newport.
With Parliament in negotiations with Charles, senior commanders of Cromwell’s New Model Army on 05 December 1648 took control of London to prevent any interference from the Scottish Covenanters and trained bands sympathetic to the Presbyterians. The next day under the command of Colonel Thomas Pride, soldiers appeared at the House of Commons and arrested one hundred forty Members of Parliament who were in opposition. Among those denied entrance in “Pride’s Purge” was Nathaniel Fiennes, James Fiennes, Sir Edward Leigh, Sir Martin Lister, and Thomas Wenman with the latter briefly imprisoned. The remaining Members of Parliament formed the Rump Parliament, with eighty-three voting to end negotiations. On 13 December 1648, Parliament annulled the treaty and by month’s end, several members were released.
Trial and Death of King Charles I
In January 1649, the Rump Parliament indicted Charles on a charge of treason and a trial began on 20 January. At the end of the five-day trial, the king was declared guilty and sentenced to death. Cromwell spelled out the warrant for his execution in a letter dated 29 January 1649 addressed to Colonel Francis Hacker, Colonel Hercules Huncks,[8] and Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Phaire, but both Phaire and Huncks did not sign the order for the executioner. Colonel James Temple of Surrey, the son of Sir Alexander Temple signed the death warrant.[9] Thomas Herbert as gentlemen of the bedchamber since 1647 was one of the king’s last attendants who accompanied the king to the scaffold.
Charles, who after traveling from Scotland as a sickly child to the home of Sir George Fermor at Easton Neston to be reunited with his parents forty-six years earlier, was beheaded at Whitehall on 30 January. Formal celebrations on the annual 05 November date commemorating the Gunpowder Plot had been suspended, but in 1649 after the king’s execution, the day was again celebrated with bonfires and miniature explosives.[10]
Philip Farmer is the author and publisher of “Thomas Fermor and the Sons of Witney” a 790-page biographical history of the Fermors from 1420 to 1685. The sequel “Edward Farmar and the Sons of Whitemarsh,” follows the family immigration from Ireland into Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Harlan County, Kentucky.
[1] Seton, Memoir of Alexander Seton, Earl of Dunfermline, President of the Court of Session, and Chancellor of Scotland (1882), pp.199-200.
[2] Nichols, “The Institution and Early History of the Dignity of Baronet,” The Herald and Genealogist (1866), pp.210-211.
[3] Lee, “Barnardiston, Nathaniel,” Dictionary of National Biography, vol.3 (1885), p.243.
[4] Beesley, History of Banbury (1841), p.294.
[5] Beesley, History of Banbury (1841), p.298.
[6] Carter et al, “Sir Edmund Plowden and the New Albion Charter, 1632-1785,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol.83 no.2 (April 1959), p.151.
[7] Hamilton, The Chronicle of the English Augustinian Canonesses Regular of the Lateran, at St Monica’s in Louvain, vol.1 (1904), p.226.
[8] Hercules Hunck (b. ca. 1601, d. ca. 1677), son of Sir Thomas Huncks and Catherine Conway, and brother to Sir Henry Huncks (b. ca. 1595), Governor of Barbados (1640-1641) before his involvement with Providence Island. (Green, Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, 1654 (1886), p.377.)
[9] Prime, Some Account of the Temple Family (1887), p.12; Rylands, The Visitation of the County of Buckingham Made in 1634 (1909), p.212. Sir Alexander Temple was the brother of Mary Temple who was the wife of John Fermor of Marlow, and was the father of Susanna Temple, the second wife of Sir Martin Lister after the death of his first wife Mary Wenman.
[10] Ingram, “The Gunpowder Plot in Northamptonshire,” NeneQuirer.com. 26 October 2017.