Gregory Clement (1594–1660) was an English Member of Parliament (MP) and one of the regicides of King Charles I.
Biography edit
Clement was baptised at St Andrew's, Plymouth on 21 November 1594. His father, John Clement, was a merchant and mayor of Plymouth and his mother was Judith Sparke. After working in India for the British East India Company, Clement returned to London and married Christian Barter at St Dunstan's and All Saints Church in Stepney on 25 June 1630. When the Civil War broke out, he supported Parliament.[1]
In 1648, he became an MP for Fowey in Cornwall. In January 1649, as a commissioner of the High Court of Justice at the trial of King Charles, he was 54th of the 59 signatories on the death warrant of the king—although his signature appears to have been written over an erased signature.[1][2]
He was dismissed from the House of Commons in 1652 over a scandal involving his maidservant.[1] This may have been engineered by Thomas Harrison and other political opponents.[3]
Like all of the other 59 men who signed the death warrant for Charles I, Clement was in grave danger when Charles II of England was restored to the throne. Some of the 59 fled England but Clement went into hiding. He was discovered and, after his identity was confirmed by a blind man who recognised his voice,[4] he was arrested and put on trial. Although he initially pleaded innocent and remained silent while imprisoned, he eventually changed his plea and was found guilty of high treason. He was hanged, drawn and quartered at Charing Cross on 17 October 1660.[1][5][6]
According to Mark Twain's autobiography, an irate Virginian correspondent called Twain a descendant of a regicide (apparently referring to Gregory Clement) and berated him for supporting the—as he called it—aristocratic Republican Party.[7]
References edit
- ^ a b c d Peacey, J. T. (23 September 2004). "Clements, Gregory (bap. 1594, d. 1660)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5602. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 6 May 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ McIntosh, A. W. (1981). "The Mystery of the Death Warrant of Charles I: Some Further Historic Doubts" (PDF). Parliament UK. House of Lords Record Office. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
- ^ Plant, David (31 July 2005). "Biography of Gregory Clement". BCW Project. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
- ^ Spencer, Charles (2015). Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 128. ISBN 978-1-62040-913-8. OCLC 1021806581.
- ^ "Clemint History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms". House of Names. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
- ^ Cobbett, William (1816). Howell, Thomas Bayly (ed.). A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanors: From the Earliest Period to the Year 1783, with Notes and Other Illustrations, Volume 5. T. C. Hansard for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
- ^ Carstens, Larry (1 September 2018). "Chapter 1: The earliest known roots: The Clements and the Garvins". Our Forebears In the American Story - And World History. Lulu Press, Inc. ISBN 9781483486123. Retrieved 7 May 2020.