John Wildman
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- This article is about the politician. For the actor, see John Wildman.
Sir John Wildman (c. 1621 - June 2, 1693) was an English soldier and politician.
Wildman was born in the Norfolk town of Wreningham, and was educated at Corpus Christi College University of Cambridge taking an MA in 1644. Sometime later he married Lucy Lovelace, the daughter of the Catholic Lord Lovelace and may have had legal training as he later described himself as an attorney or solicitor.
He became prominent, however, as a civilian adviser to the Army agitators, speaking in favour of the Agreement of the People at the Putney Debates. He was connected by friendship and marriage to the Republican MP Henry Marten and objected to all compromise with the king. In a pamphlet, Putney Projects, he attacked Oliver Cromwell; he may have written parts of The Case of the Army Stated, and he put the views of his associates before the Council of the Army at the Putney Debates that took place in Putney church between 28 October and 11 November 1647. By January 1648 he and the John Lilburne were imprisoned for attempting to build a movement to campaign for the Agreement of the People. Clarendon, alleged that preparations were made "for his trial and towards his execution." However, he was released in the following August, and for a time he was associated with the party known as the Levellers, but he quickly severed his connection with them and became an officer in the army.
He was a large buyer of the land forfeited by the royalists, and in 1654 he entered the House of Commons as member of the First Protectorate Parliament for Scarborough. In the February following year he was arrested at Exton, while dictating A Declaration of the free and well-affected People of England now in Arms against the Tyrant Oliver Cromwell to his secretary . He was incarcerated in Chepstow Castle for four months. After his release four months later he resumed plotting, intriguing with royalists and republicans alike for the overthrow of the existing regime. In 1659 he helped to seize Windsor Castle for the Long Parliament. After the Restoration, in November 1661 he was again a prisoner on suspicion of participating in republican plots. For six years he was a captive, only regaining his freedom after the fall of Clarendon in October 1667. Primarily out of hostility to Clarendon he became associated with the George Villiers the Duke of Buckingham, whose ministry introduced a measure of toleration.
In or before 1681 Wildman became prominent among those who wece discontented with the rule of Charles II, being especially intimate with Algernon Sydney. He was undoubtedly involved in the Rye House Plot, and under James II he was active in the interests of the Duke of Monmouth, but took no part in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685. He found it advisable, however, to escape to Holland, and returned to England with the army of William of Orange in 1688. In 1689 he was a member of the convention parliament.
Wildman was postmaster-general from April 1689 to February 1691, when some ugly rumours about his conduct brought about his dismissal. Nevertheless, he was knighted by King William III in 1692. Sir John, who was the author of many political pamphlets, left an only son, John, who died childless in 1710.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
