Sir Richard Willis, 1st Baronet (sometimes spelt 'Willys') (13 January 1614 – December 1690) was a Royalist officer during the English Civil War,[1][2] and a double agent working for the Parliamentarians during the Interregnum.
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Willis went up to Christ's College, Cambridge in 1631, and was admitted to Gray's Inn in the same year. He joined the Royalist cause as an officer in the Kings army, being eventually Colonel of a Regiment of Cavalry and Colonel General of the counties of Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and Rutland. He was also Governor of Newark for the King, by whom he was knighted 1 October 1642, at Shrewsbury, and was created a Baronet of Fen Ditton in Cambridgeshire on 11 June 1646.[2]
Sir Richard spent some time in Italy, returning to England in 1652 to join the Royalist underground organisation, the Sealed Knot (his successor as Governor of Newark, John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse, was also one of the members).
However, it seems Sir Richard became a double agent. Although twice imprisoned by the Commonwealth, he established contact with Cromwell’s secret service, led by John Thurloe, in 1656 or 1657, possibly for money (in A Child's History of England, Ch.XXXIV, Charles Dickens wrote that Willis “reported to Oliver everything that passed among them, and had two hundred a year for it”). Alternatively, Willis may have wanted to secure his safety in case the Royalist cause failed.[3]
In 1659 Willis was denounced to the future King Charles II by Thurloe’s secretary, Samuel Morland,[3] who accused him of plotting, with Thurloe and Cromwell, to lure Charles and his brothers to return to England under false pretences (to meet followers in Sussex) and then assassinate them. Morland is said to have learned of the plan while pretending to be asleep in Thurloe's office in Lincoln's Inn.
After the Restoration Willis was banned from court.
He was alive on 9 December 1690, at Fen Ditton. His will dated 16 to 20 May, and probated 10 December 1690.[4]
He was the younger brother of Thomas Willys, sons of Richard Willys, of Fen Ditton and Horningsey, Cambridgeshire, by Jane, daughter and heir of William Henmaesh, of Balls, in Ware, Hertfordshire. Both were created baronets of Fen Ditton in Cambridgeshire by Charles I.[2]
Sir Richard married in or before 1659, Alice, daughter and sole heir of Thomas Fox, M.D., of Warlies, in Waltham Holy Cross, Essex [bur. there 26 Nov. 1662], and of Shipton, Oxon, by Anne, daughter of Robert Honywood, of Pett, in Charing, Kent. Her will, dated 27 October 1684, prorated 28 March 1688.[2]
The baronetcy passed to Sir Thomas-Fox Willys of Warlies (30 June 1661 – 1701) was said to be "bereft of his wits",[2] and died unmarried and without children at the age of 59. With his death the Baronetcy created for Sir Richard became extinct.[2]
Richard Willis appears as a character in Act II of the play Cromwell by Victor Hugo, published in Paris in 1828.[5]