Col. Thomas Walcot (1625 – July 20, 1683) born in Warwickshire, the fourth son of Charles Walcot and Elizabeth Games, was a Puritan and Lt. Col. in the Parliamentary Army.[1] Thomas married Jane Blayney, (daughter of Thomas Blayney, niece of Edward Blayney, 1st Baron Blayney and grand-niece of Adam Loftus (bishop)) purchased Ballyvarra Castle in 1655, and in 1659 was at Dunmurry. He settled at Croagh, Co. Limerick, Ireland where he had an estate of £800 per annum. He also had lands at Amogan in the Barony of Lower Conneloe.[2] He was offered the Governorship of Province of Carolina, but declined it.[3] Arrested in 1672 on allegation of planning a Dutch invasion of Ireland. Spent eight months in Tower of London before being exonerated.

Walcot was arrested on July 8 or 10, 1683 for his part in the Rye House Plot, a conspiracy to assassinate Charles II and his brother, James, Duke of York, as they traveled from the Newmarket races to London past Rye House in Hertfordshire.

Walcot stood trial on July 12, 1683 at the Sessions-House in the Old Bailey London for High Treason[4] Walcot was hanged, drawn and quartered on July 20, 1683 at Tyburn Hill (Marble Arch) in London and head exhibited on spike at Aldgate. He was the last man in England to undergo this punishment.

William Russell, Lord Russell, cousin of Thomas Walcot, was also convicted and executed. Algernon Sidney,[5] was convicted on weaker evidence by Judge George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys, who was brought in as Lord Chief Justice in September 1683.

Thomas Walcot was exonerated by the reversal of attainder in 1696 in favor of his eldest son, John under William III of England.

References

  1. ↑ Ludlow, Edmund, and C. H. Firth. 1894. The memoirs of Edmund Ludlow, lieutenant-general of the horse in the army of the commonwealth of England, 1625-1672 (Volume 1), p 416 Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  2. ↑ Burton, Rev. John, 1930 The History of the Family of Walcot of Walcot, p 24
  3. ↑ The Province of Carolina, originally chartered in 1629, was an English and later British colony of North America. Because the original Heath charter was unrealized and was ruled invalid, a new charter was issued to a group of eight English noblemen, the Lords Proprietors, on March 24, 1663. Led informally by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, the Province of Carolina was controlled from 1663 to 1729 by these lords and their heirs. Thomas Walcott and Robert Ferguson had accompanied Shaftesbury to the Netherlands, in his self-imposed exile of November 1682. They then both returned to London, and associated with West, who learned from Walcott of Shaftesbury's own plan for a general rebellion. Walcott went on to say that he would lead the attack on the royal guards, but he was another of the plotters who drew the line at assassination
  4. ↑ 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 9, p. 519 (Google eBook)
  5. ↑ Algernon Sidney was the great-Grandson of Sir Henry Sidney and Charles Walcot, the grand Father of Thomas Walcot was the ward of Sir Henry the result of the old feudal system
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