Sir John BARKSTEAD [26259]

  General Notes:

John Barkstead (died 1662) was an English Major-General and Regicide.
Barkstead was a goldsmith in London; captain of parliamentary infantry under Colonel Venn; governor of Reading, 1645: commanded regiment at siege of Colchester; one of the king's judges, 1648; governor of Yarmouth, 1649, Lieutenant of the Tower of London, 1652; M.P. for Colchester, 1654, and Middlesex, 1656; knighted, 1656: escaped to continent, 1660; arrested, 1661; brought to England and executed.
Biography:
The date of Barkstead's birth is unknown, was originally a goldsmith in the Strand, and was often taunted by Robert Lilburne (a leveller) and the royalist pamphleteers with selling thimbles and bodkins. "Being sensible of the invasions which had been made upon the liberties of the nation, he took arms among the first for their defence in the quality of captain to a foot company in the regiment of Colonel Venn". On 12 August 1645 he was appointed by the House of Commons governor of Reading, and his appointment was agreed to by the Lords on 10 December. During the Second Civil War he commanded a regiment at the siege of Colchester.

In December 1648 Barkstead was appointed one of the judges of King Charles I. Referring, at his own execution, to the king's trial, he says: "I was no contriver of it within or without, at that time I was many miles from the place, and did not know of it until I saw my name in a paper . . . what I did, I did without any malice". He attended every sitting during the trial except that of 13 January. During the year 1649 he acted as governor of Yarmouth, but by a vote of 11 April 1650 his regiment was selected for the guard of parliament and the city, and on 12 August 1652 he was also appointed Lieutenant of the Tower of London. Cromwell praised his vigilance in that capacity in his first speech to the parliament of 1656: "There never was any design on foot but we could hear of it out of the Tower. He who commanded there would give us account, that within a fortnight, or such a thing, there would be some stirring, for a great concourse of people were coming to them, and they had very great elevations of spirit". As Lieutenant of the Tower Barkstead's emoluments are said to have been two thousand a year.

In the parliament of 1654 Barkstead represented Colchester, in that of 1656 Middlesex. In November 1655, during the Rule of the Major Generals he was appointed major-general of the county of Middlesex and the assistant of Sir Philip Skippon in the charge of London. His services were rewarded by knighthood (19 January 1656) and by his appointment as steward of Cromwell's household.
Barkstead's conduct as Lieutenant of the Tower was attacked by all parties, and he was charged with extortion and cruelty. In February 1659 he was summoned before the committee of grievances, was obliged to release some prisoners, and was in danger of a prosecution.

At the Restoration Barkstead was one of the seven excepted both for life and estate (6 June 1660), but he contrived to escape to Germany, "and to secure himself became a burgess of Hanau. In 1661, however, he ventured into Holland to see some friends, and Sir George Downing, the king's agent in the United Provinces, having obtained from the states a warrant for his apprehension, seized him in his lodgings with John Okey and Miles Corbet. The three prisoners were immediately sent to England, and, as they had been previously outlawed, their trial turned entirely on the question of identity. Barkstead, with his companions, was executed on 19 April 1662. He showed great courage, thanked God he had been faithful to the powers he had served, and commended to the bystanders "the congregational way, in which he had found much comfort."

At the end of 1662 Samuel Pepys was commissioned by Earl of Sandwich and Sir Henry Bennet, Secretary of State, to search the Tower of London for £7,000, supposed to have been the proceeds of Barkstead's corrupt Governorship and hidden by him in or near the Governor's Lodgings. Pepy's four searches of the Bell Tower cellars and garden yielded nothing.
Ref: Wikipedia

Frith Family Tree: http://www.beanweb.net/ft/frippuk/pafn146.htm#3836
Surname also spelt BAXSTEAD & BARSTEAD. Diarist, Samuel Pepys, referred to him as BAXTER.
John's parents married July 1598, and he was an apprentice goldsmith by 1627. He was probably aged between 14-18, when he became an apprentice, so was probably born between 1609 - 1613.

He fought with Cromwell's army during the Civil War, and was one of the signatories on the death warrant of King Charles I. Praised by Cromwell, he was appointed lieutenant of the Tower of London in August 1652, and later became military governor of Westminster and Middlesex. In January 1656, he was given a Knighthood by Cromwell and appointed to the Upper House.

In 1660, the Monarchy was restored and John fled to Germany, where he was given the freedom of the city of Hanau. In 1662, he travelled to Holland to meet his wife. While there he was arrested by Sir George Downing and forced to return to England. Here he was found guilty of Regicide and was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn in April 1662. Cromwell's body had been exhumed and hung here the previous year.

Before he fled England, he is said to have hidden a huge amount of gold in the Tower of London. It would seem likely that he managed to take some of this to Germany, and could have used it to buy his freedom of the city at Hanau. A mistress of John had reported that he extracted £50,000 worth of gold from his previous prisoners at the tower and had buried it in the bell tower. Samuel Pepy's wrote of this in his diary and even helped to dig for it, but it has never been found.

It is possible that Sir George Downing was his cousin, as John's grandfather was John Downing, a skinner of St. Clement Danes, Westminster, who is possibly a son of George Downing, Sir George's grandfather. John Downing's son or grandson Richard, also a skinner, supplied furs for the King's royal robes. Richard & John are also most likely ancestors of the Fripp family of Bristol, whose descendants include artists, George & Alfred Downing Fripp, and the royal surgeon, Sir Alfred Downing Fripp. These links are currently under research.

It is claimed that one of the sons of John Barkstead had a manuscript with instuctions of where Oliver Cromwell wished to be buried. Cromwell had told Barkstead that he wished to be buried at Naseby, Northamptonshire, the site of his greatest battle. The manuscript has since been lost and has also been disputed. See: http://www.olivercromwell.org/faqs2.htm

See wife's notes for details of possible children.
Article from: http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/biog/barkstead.htm

John Barkstead, Regicide, d.1662
A London goldsmith and congregationalist, Barkstead joined Parliament's army as a captain of foot in Colonel Venn's regiment at the start of the civil wars. He was governor of Reading from July 1644 until January 1647, when he was commissioned colonel of an infantry regiment in the New Model Army. Barkstead's regiment occupied Whitehall during the political disturbances of January 1648 and was active in suppressing rioters and Royalist insurgents in London during April and May. In June 1648, Barkstead marched a brigade of infantry fifty miles from London in forty-eight hours to join General Fairfax at the siege of Colchester.

In December 1648, Barkstead was one of four officers assigned to secure the captive King Charles at Windsor and to prevent his escape. The following month, he was one of the hard core of Army officers who sat on the High Court of Justice. He attended every session of the King's trial and was a signatory of the death warrant.

During the 1650s, Barkstead worked closely with Cromwell's spymaster John Thurloe in intelligence work and in maintaining London's security. Praised by Cromwell for his efficiency, Barkstead was appointed lieutenant of the Tower of London in August 1652. He was elected MP for Colchester in the First Protectorate Parliament and In 1655 became military governor of Westminster and Middlesex during the Rule of the Major-Generals. As deputy to Philip Skippon, Barkstead was also effectively Major-General for the city of London. He was zealous in suppressing immorality and ungodliness in the city and surrounding districts, ordering his soldiers to suppress bear-baiting and wrestling at Moorfields, horse-racing at Lambeth Marshes and to arrest all vagrants and immoral persons. Barkstead was knighted by Cromwell in January 1656. He sat as MP for Middlesex in the Second Protectorate Parliament and was appointed to Cromwell's Upper House.

Barkstead was elected to the Third Protectorate Parliament under Richard Cromwell, but came under attack by republicans for his conduct as lieutenant of the Tower. He was called before the Committee of Grievances in February 1659 to answer accusations that he had mistreated prisoners and amassed a large fortune by charging extortionate fees. When the Rump Parliament was recalled in May 1659, Barkstead was dismissed from the lieutenancy of the Tower and from command of his regiment.

At the Restoration, Barkstead fled to Germany where he was welcomed and given the freedom of the Lutheran city of Hanau. However, when he travelled to the Netherlands to meet his wife, he was arrested by the English ambassador Sir George Downing and returned to England to be brought to trial as a regicide. He was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn in April 1662.

Sources:
Christopher Durston, John Barkstead, Oxford DNB, 2004
Christopher Durston, Cromwell's Major-Generals (Manchester 2001)
C.H. Firth & G. Davies, The Regimental History of Cromwell's Army vol. i (Oxford 1940)

John married Elizabeth [26260] [MRIN: 9440].