Major-General Thomas Harrison

Millenarianism, Fifth Monarchism and the English Revolution 1616-1660

David Farr

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781409465546
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317102663
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

Thomas Harrison is today perhaps best remembered for the manner of his death. As a leading member of the republican regime and signatory to Charles I's death warrant, he was hanged, drawn and quartered by the Restoration government in 1660; a spectacle witnessed by Samuel Pepys who recorded him 'looking as cheerful as any man could do in that condition'. Beginning with this grisly event, this book employs a thematic, rather than chronological approach, to illustrate the role of millenarianism and providence in the English Revolution, religion within the new model army, literature, image and reputation, and Harrison's relationship with key individuals like Ireton and Cromwell as well as groups, most notably the Fifth Monarchists. Divided in three parts, the study starts with an analysis of Harrison's last year of life, the nature of his response to the political collapse of the Interregnum regimes, and his apparent acceptance of the Restoration without overt resistance. Part two considers Harrison's years of 'power', analysing his political activities and influence in the New Model, especially with regard to the regicide. The final part ties Harrison's political retreat to his initial emergence from obscurity; arguing that Harrison's relative political quietism during the later 1650s was a reflection of the development of his millenarianism. Unlike the only two previous full length studies of Harrison the present work makes use of a full range of manuscript, primary and secondary sources, including the huge range of new material that has fundamentally changed how the early modern period is now understood. Fully footnoted and referenced, this study provides the first modern academic study of Harrison, and through him illuminates the key themes of this contested period.

PART I

Chapter 1

1659–1660: Harrison’s Capture

For the former New Model Army Major-General Thomas Harrison, Fifth Monarchist and the most prominent remaining regicide, the deterioration of political stability in England in 1659, no matter his removal from the centre of power since early 1654, was personally threatening. The New Model, triggered by Parliament’s discussions about settling the army as a militia, forced Richard Cromwell to dissolve Parliament, which brought the end of his Protectorate in May 1659. The restored Rump Parliament (May–October 1659) declared on 30 September 1659 that Harrison should be discharged from being an MP and disabled from ever sitting again, in revenge for his high-profile part, at Cromwell’s side, in the removal of the Rump in 1653.¹ The leading republican politicians of the restored Rump did not, however, recognise their dependence on the New Model Army and sought to assert their political authority. Furthermore, they showed no real inclination to satisfy the soldiers’ material grievances. The Rump, in effect, committed political suicide by alienating the army. On 13 October, troops led by the most charismatic of the New Model generals, John Lambert, surrounded Westminster and removed the Rump. A Committee of Safety (October–December 1659) was set up by the English Council of Officers as a provisional government. However, George Monck, commander of the New Model in Scotland, declared for the removed Rump. Harrison, although not named to the Committee of Safety, was nominated as one of the ‘Conservators’, an indication of how much weight his name still carried after six years out of power.² With the army reluctantly returning again to the Rump politicians (December 1659), Harrison remained in the political wilderness.

On 21 April 1660, the Council of State issued a proclamation requiring Harrison and others, as perceived supporters of Lambert, to surrender at Whitehall within three days.³ Lambert, the architect of the Protectorate and the most influential remaining New Model general, had just escaped from the Tower of London in an attempt to rally republican resistance to the growing reality of a Restoration.⁴ Harrison, as another remaining inspiring former New Model general, was feared as another focal point of resistance. On 27 April, it was reported ‘Harryson & others secured’.⁵ With the Restoration in May 1660, Harrison’s predicament, naturally, only got much worse, as his confinement meant he faced trial and probable execution.

I

Despite the real threat to his own personal safety, occasioned by the changing regimes of 1659–60, Harrison appears to have made no attempt to flee, either from the reinstated Rump or the re-imposed Stuart monarchy. Harrison, in his speech at his execution in October 1660, claimed, ‘I might have had many opportunities, but being so clear in the thing I durst not turn my back nor step a foot out of the way by reason I had been engaged in the service of so glorious and great a God.’⁶

While, unlike Lambert, Harrison had not openly actively opposed the Restoration, he was not prepared to pledge to remain passive. On 11 May 1660, Harrison was in the custody of officers and soldiers under the command of Colonel John Bowyer in Staffordshire. Harrison could have expected to have received no leniency from Bowyer. Nine years previously, in March 1651, Harrison had the task of writing to the governor of Stafford to ‘secure Col. Bowyer’ and ‘such other persons in that county as are dangerous and disaffected’.⁷ Bowyer’s reputation as ‘a great drinker’ was unlikely to have found favour with Harrison.⁸

The comments of republican New Model officer Edmund Ludlow, who had entered Parliament’s army with Harrison as a friend in 1642, offer an interesting later reflection on Harrison’s apparent providential acceptance of his fate, but also may hint at Harrison’s physical inability to take much of a military role by this stage, an impression reinforced by some of the textual accounts of Harrison’s execution.⁹ During one of his imprisonments in the later 1650s, Harrison supplied an ‘ointment and salve’ to his fellow Fifth Monarchist John Rogers for his ‘outward bruises’.¹⁰ Ludlow wrote that Harrison was not

… in a condition to make resistance, and being so fully satisfyed in the justice of the cause which the Lord had honoured him to be an instrument in, and of his duty to seale the trueth thereof with his blood if the enemy durst power it out upon that account, that he was not free to withdraw himselfe out of his howse for the saving of his life, as apprehending his so doing would be a turning of his back upon the cause of God.¹¹

It is clear, however, that the example of Harrison was not followed by all. Harrison’s associate Colonel John Okey fled to the Continent, only to be later captured and brought back for execution in 1662.¹² Ludlow, justifying his own flight, saw his duty to God somewhat differently to Harrison. Ludlow wrote, ‘I am satisfyed, as well from the example as precept of Christ, that it is the duty of the people of God when persecuted in one citty to flee to another.’¹³

On 19 May 1660, a warrant from the Council of State was issued to Colonel Herbert Morley to receive Harrison, committed for high treason, and keep him in safe custody. General George Monck, who from his position as commander-in-chief of the New Model in Scotland had facilitated the return of Charles Stuart to England, was ordered to appoint persons to receive Harrison.¹⁴ Harrison’s horses were seized and Parliament ordered that they were taken for Charles II’s use after being brought to the Mews.¹⁵ Harrison’s estates were also seized.¹⁶ Harrison was also ordered to deliver ‘a Cloth of Estate in his Custody, belonging to His Majesty’, and an examination by the Committee for the King’s Goods into Harrison’s belongings proceeded.¹⁷ Harrison himself was committed to the Tower of London for high treason. He was to be kept a close prisoner, the authorities no doubt cautious in the light of Lambert’s dramatic escape from the Tower in April 1660.¹⁸ Ironically, the first prisoner to be lodged in the Tower after Harrison was the regicide MP he had expelled from the Rump, Gregory Clements. Five days later, he was joined by his long-term comrade and fellow millenarian Colonel John Jones.¹⁹

Harrison, no doubt, knew that he would only leave the Tower to face the revenge of a restored monarchy and indeed, on 5 June, it was decided that Harrison was to be one of seven excepted out of the Act of General Pardon for Life and Estate.²⁰ On 21 June, a warrant was issued for the stricter custody of Harrison in the Tower.²¹ On 9 July 1660, it was ordered that ‘Mr Arthur Jackson, Minister of St Faithe’s under Paul’s, London, have the Leave of this House, from time to time, to go and visit Major General Harrison.’²² It is not clear why Jackson, a Presbyterian, sought out Harrison.²³ It is possible that he was hoping to get Harrison to admit his guilt and repent in preparation for a public pronouncement of his sinfulness at his gallows speech.

II

With the earlier deaths of Henry Ireton, Cromwell and John Bradshaw, it was Harrison who was the most notorious of those captured at the Restoration who were regicides. There was little doubt about the fate that awaited Harrison at the Restoration. Harrison would stand trial with other royalist hate figures like the radical New Model preacher Hugh Peter. Harrison’s notoriety and public image as a religious...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables
• Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I
• Part II
• Part III
• Conclusion: Thomas Harrison, Millenarianism, Fifth Monarchism and the English Revolution
• Appendix 1: Restoration Persecution
• Appendix 2: Harrison’s Parliamentary Committee Work
• Bibliography
• Index