Edward Whalley
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Edward Whalley (c. 1615 - c. 1675) was an English military leader during the English Civil War, and was one of the regicides who signed the death warrant of King Charles I of England.
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[edit] Early career
The exact dates of his birth and death are unknown. He was the second son of Richard Whalley, who had been sheriff of Nottinghamshire in 1595, by his second wife Frances Cromwell, an aunt of Oliver Cromwell. His great-grandfather was Richard Whalley (1499-1583), a prominent adherent of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, and a member of parliament. Edward Whalley is said to have started out as a woollen-draper, but on the outbreak of the English Civil War he took up arms for Parliament, became major of Cromwell's regiment of horse, and distinguished himself in the field. His conduct at Gainsborough in 1643 was especially praised by Cromwell; he fought at the Battle of Marston Moor, commanded one of Cromwell's two regiments of cavalry at the Battle of Naseby and at the capture of Bristol, was then sent into Oxfordshire, took Banbury, and was besieging Worcester when he was superseded, according to Richard Baxter, the chaplain of his regiment, because of his religious orthodoxy.
[edit] Regimental officer
He supported his regiment in their grievances against Parliament in 1647. When the king was seized by the army, he was entrusted to the keeping of Whalley and his regiment at Hampton Court Palace. Whalley refused to remove Charles's chaplains, and treated his captive with courtesy, so much so that Charles later wrote him a letter of thanks. In the Second English Civil War, Whalley again distinguished himself as a soldier. He was chosen to be a Commissioner (judge) at the trial of Charles I and was the fourth to sign the king's death-warrant, immediately after Cromwell. The King was executed in London on January 30 1649.
In April 1649 soldiers in his regiment took part in the Bishopsgate mutiny. They refused to go to on the Irish expedition until the Levellers' political demands were met and they received back pay. They were ordered out of London and when they refused to go, fifteen soldiers were arrested and court martialled, of whom six were sentenced to death. Of this six, five were subsequently pardoned while Robert Lockier, a former Levellers agitator, was hanged.
Whalley took part in Cromwell's Scottish expedition, was wounded at the Battle of Dunbar, and in the autumn of 1650 was active in dealing with the situation in the north. The following year, he took part in Cromwell's pursuit of Charles II and took part in the Battle of Worcester. He followed and supported Cromwell in his political career, presented the army petition to parliament (August 1652), approved of the protectorate, and represented Nottinghamshire in the parliaments of 1654 and 1656, taking an active part in the prosecution of the Quaker James Naylor. He was one of the administrative major-generals, responsible for Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, Warwick and Leicester. He supported the "Petition and Advice," except as regards the proposed assumption of the royal title by Oliver Cromwell, and became a member of the newly constituted House of Lords in December 1657.
On Oliver Cromwell's death, at which he was present, he in vain gave his support to Richard Cromwell; his regiment refused to obey his orders, and the Long Parliament dismissed him from his command as a representative of the army. In November 1659 he undertook an unsuccessful mission to Scotland to arrange terms with George Monck.
[edit] Withdrawal to the colonies
At the Restoration, Whalley, with his son-in-law, General William Goffe, escaped to North America, and landed at Boston on July 27, 1660, where they were well-received by Governor Endicott and visited by the principal persons of the town. They went about quite openly, and chose to live in Cambridge, just across the river. It is not clear why the two men decided to settle in Cambridge. An Edward Goffe was a resident, but there is no evidence that William Goffe was related. It seems more likely that they came to Cambridge because of their close ties with Captain Daniel Gookin. Gookin was one of the town's most active citizens; among many other roles, he was a selectman and a long-time Governor's Assistant. He was much involved in military matters and had been elected Captain of the Cambridge military company. He was trusted by Oliver Cromwell and selected by him to assist in transplanting a colony from New England to Jamaica. He visited England twice; on his second voyage back to the colonies, Whalley and Goffe were fellow passengers and may have stayed with him during their time in Cambridge. Later, Gookin appears to have managed the local holdings of the two regicides.
By February 1661, the Governor seems to have had second thoughts about welcoming the regicides so warmly and on the 22nd summoned a court of assistants to discuss their arrest, but the court would not agree to such action. Whalley and Goffe decided they were no longer safe in Cambridge and left on the 26th. Within a few days, orders arrived from England for their arrest.
The two fled for New Haven, Connecticut when their safety was compromised, where John Dixwell, also condemned as a regicide, was living under an assumed name. They were housed by Rev. John Davenport. After a reward was offered for their arrest, they pretended to flee to New York, but instead returned by a roundabout way to New Haven. In May, the Royal order for their arrest reached Boston, and was sent by the Governor to William Leete, Governor of the New Haven Colony, residing at Guilford. Leete delayed the King's messengers, allowing Goffe and Whalley to disappear. They spent much of the summer in Judges' Cave at West Rock. Whalley left New Haven for Hadley, Massachusetts. In Hadley he (some sources say both men journeyed to Hadley) found shelter in the home of Reverend John Russell, who had grown up in Cambridge and graduated from Harvard College in 1645. Every attempt by the British government to procure his arrest failed. He was alive, but in poor health, in 1674, and probably did not live long afterwards.
[edit] His legacy
Whalley was married twice: first to Judith Duffell, by whom, besides other children, he had a son John and a daughter Frances (who married Goffe, another regicide); and secondly to Mary Middleton, sister of Sir George Middleton, by whom he had two sons, Henry and Edward.
The three regicides are commemorated by three intersecting streets in New Haven ("Dixwell Avenue", "Whalley Avenue", and "Goffe Street"), and in some neighboring Connecticut towns as well.
[edit] References
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. An account of Whalley's life is in Noble's Lives of the Regicides, and of his family in Noble's Memoirs of the Protectoral House of Cromwell, vol. ii..
Additions to this entry from Lucius Paige, "History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877"
