CROMWELL, OLIVER. 



CROMWELL, OLIVER. 



essays, Ac., accuinpanUng Roberts'* 'Holy Land.' Hi poetical worki 

 bave been published in 2 voU Svo, Dr. Cruly'* raro talent ** a 

 j.ul|.it orator however bai acquired for him a iuor.> extended fame 

 tliin hi* poetical and imaginative writings. Several of his more remark 

 able sermons hare be-n published. 



CROMWELL. OLIVER, the ton of Robert Cromwell, M.P. for 

 Huntingdon in the parliament of 1593, and hi* wife Klizabetb, 

 daughter of Sir Richard Stuart, was born in St. John's parith in the 

 town of Huntingdon, on the 2ith of April, 1599, and named after his 

 uncle and godfather, Sir Oliver Cromwell, a worthy member of his 

 ancient and mpectable family. Many idle stories of his childhood 

 and early youth are related by Noble and some others of his bio- 

 grapher*, but without any sufficient authority, and there is really 

 nothing authentic known respecting him prior to April 23, 1616, 

 when, having left school at Huntingdon, he was entered at Sidney 

 Collec^, Cambridge ; hii tutor being Mr. Richard Howlett He 

 remained at college little more than a year. At the death of his 

 father, which occurred in June 1617, he was removed from the 

 university by his mother, who U said to have thought it more prudent 

 to enter her sou at Lincoln's Inn, that he might follow the profession 

 of the law, but there is no entry of his name on the registers of that 

 or eitbrr of the other inns of court. The old account of him goes on 

 to any that Oliver, with little intention to use them for their proper 

 purpose, took possession of his chambers, but being no longer 

 restrained by the vigilance of his father, he gave himself up to profli- 

 gate habits, and became addicted to gambling; and that continuing 

 for the next two or three yean to live thia dissolute life he forfeited 

 the friendship of his uncle Sir Oliver Cromwell. But the only autho- 

 rity for such statement* ore the royalist writers, who seem to have 

 taken a strange delight in vilifung the man who had wrought such 

 ruin to their cause. All that is certain is that soon after having 

 completed hi twenty-first year, he was married August 22, 1620, to 

 Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir James Bourchicr, and that at this time 

 be was closely united with the puritan party, and himself, in their 

 phraseology, " a profeuor of religion." The next clearly ascertained 

 circumstance in his history is his election as member for the borough 

 of Huntingdon in 1628 a proof that be had thus early succeeded in 

 gaining the confidence of his neighbours, perhaps also that he had 

 already brgun to take an active part in local politics. In February 

 18*29 the House of Commons having resolved itaelf into a grand 

 committee on religion, Cromwell made a speech calling attention to 

 the encouragement by the Bishop of Winchester of the " preaching 

 of flat popery," and steps were in consequence ordered to be taken 

 for procuring evidence against the bishop ; but before any further 

 proceedings could be taken the king dissolved the parliament 

 (March 2;. The king, by this impolitic dissolution, still further irri- 

 tated his enemies. Cromwell returned home certainly no more loyal 

 a subject, while hu puritauism had been not a little strengthened 

 by his contact with cpiacopney. It has been said that his house 

 now became the common resort of those who were of the same way 

 of thinking, and that his hospitality to them increased his expenses 

 until his circumstances became so much embarrassed that a portion 

 of hu property was necessarily sold. But this again appears to be 

 only a late acandaL He did however it is certain in 1631 sell his 

 property in Huntingdon, of which place he had been made a justice of 

 the IK ace in the previous year, and take a grazing farm at St. Ivcs, 

 where ha resided for the next four yean, diligently pursuing hi* new 

 occupation, acting as overseer of the parish, and evidently the leading 

 man among his co-religionists in that part of the country. In January 

 1636, by this death of Sir Thomas Stuart, his maternal uncle, he became 

 ponssssd under his uncle's will of property in the lale of Ely amounting 

 to nearly 6001. a year. Here he continued to reside till 1640, and bin 

 family for some years longer. But disgusted with the proceedings of 

 the court, he had determined in 1637 to emigrate to America, and 

 having taken a passage to New England in a ahip then lying in the 

 Thame*, embarked with his whole family. The vessel wan however 

 detained by a proclamation forbidding such embarkation*, unlets 

 under a licence from the government, which he knew that he should 

 be unable to procure. He returned therefore to Ely ; hut notwith- 

 standing be saw few persona of importance, the activity and vigour of 

 hi* un<l. rttandm,' became generally known : his open advocacy of 

 principle* opposed to the government, and the teal with which he 

 resisted an atu-mpt of certain proprietors to drain some of the neigh- 

 bouring Cambridgeshire fen*, and seonre to themselves the drained 

 land, attracted the favourable regard of many public men, and made 

 him so popular in the district that he was commonly spoken of as 

 " Lord of th* Kens." In such e-teem was be held, that he was elected 

 rsuisssutativs of the town of Cambridge, in opposition to Counsellor 

 Mewtis, the court candidate, both to the short-lived parliament of 

 140, and afterward* to the Long Parliament, by which it was speedily 

 followed. 



.well was now in the middle age of life: his health was strong, 

 and bis judgment matured : so far cTrcumsUncos were favourable to 

 his further rlevation. But he had deficiencies not only in fortune but 

 in person and in manner, which precluded all forcriiiht of th< 

 to which be would rise. The description given of him by Sir Philip 

 Warwick on hi* entrance to the House of Commons, at the beginning 

 of the Long Parliament, displays in a striking manner bis uncourtly 



rusticity : "The first time that ever I took notice of him wa in tin- 

 very beginning of tbe parliament held in November 1640, when I 

 vainly thought myself a courtly young gentleman (for we courtiers 

 valued ourselves much upon our good clothe*). I came one morning 

 into the house well clad, nud perceived a gentleman speaking (whom 

 I knew not i, very ordinarily appareled ; for it was a plain cloth suit, 

 which seemed to have been made by an ill country tailor; his linen 

 wo* plain, and not very clean ; and I remember a speck or two of 

 upon bis little band, which was not much larger than hi* collar ; hi* 

 hat was without a hat-band; his stature was of a good size; his sword 

 stuck close to his side ; his countenance swollen and reddish, his voice 

 sharp and untunable, and hi eloquence full of fervour ; for the subject- 

 matter would not bear much of reason." And Sir Philip protests that 

 " it lessened much my reverence unto that great council, for be was 

 very much hearkened to. And yet," be continues, " I liv, d to see 

 this very gentleman, whom out of no ill-will to him I thus describe, 

 by multiplied good successes, and by real but usurped power, having 

 hud a better tailor and more converse among good company, in my 

 own eye, when for six weeks together I was a prisoner in his sergc.int's 

 hands, aud daily waited at Whitehall, appear of a great and majestic 

 deportment and comely presence." (' Memoirs,' p. 247.) This descrip- 

 tion of Warwick's as to his rude presence at this time is strongly 

 corroborated by a coarse passage in an intemperate sermon preached 

 after tbe Protector's death by Dr. South, in which ho thus speaks of 

 Cromwell's appearance when attending the Long Parliament : 

 " Who," says hu, " that beheld such a bankrupt beggarly fellow as 

 Cromwell first entering the parliament house, with a threadbare torn 

 cloak and a greasy hat {aud perhaps neither of them paid for), could 

 have suspected that in the space of so few years he should, by th-) 

 murder of one king and tbe banishment of another, ascend the throne, 

 be invested in the royal robes, and want nothing of the state of a king 

 but the changing his hat into a crown." He had as yet had no 

 opportunity for displaying the extent of his energy and abilities; 

 the time was at hand when they were to bo proved. It is plain 

 however that Cromwell was taking his place as a leader in the great 

 popular movement. His disregard of courtly manners was not likely 

 at such a time to be any hindrance to the earnest men now resolutely 

 bent on having their 'grievances' redressed. His fervid eloquence, 

 however unpolished, found eager listeners, and his sagacious counsels 

 ready acceptance. 'Mr. Cromwell' was soon a marked man in the 

 great council of the nation ; and ho was one of the very first to con- 

 tribute in pocket and person to tbe active resistance which soon wus 

 raised to the royal measures. The tyranny and maladministration of 

 the weak aud obstinate Charles had become the subject in 1641 of a 

 strong remonstrance from his parliament, which at onco insured tli<-ir 

 rupture with the king. Cromwell, now associated in the councils of 

 Uampdeu, Pvrn, and tbe rest of the popular lenders, strenuously 

 supported this remonstrance; and in 1642, when the civil war com- 

 menced, he eagerly raised a troop of hone, under the authority of the 

 parliament, with which he immediately took the field in their cause; 

 and ' Cromwell's Ironsides ' were the tirat of tbe parliamentary horse 

 who successfully withstood Rupert's cavalry. From the first moment 

 of receiving his commission he was one of the most active and energetic 

 of the parliamentary officers, and he was rapidly promoted to be colonel, 

 governor of l.ly, and otherwise plnced in posts of honour and 

 In numerous skirmishes in which he engaged he only once met with 

 any serious misadventure. This was at the ' fight of Wiuceby,' in 

 Lincolnshire, when his horse being shot under him, on attempting to 

 rise be was knocked down by a cavalier, and with difficulty rescued by 

 bis own party. 



Notwithstanding the comparatively advanced age at which Cromwell 

 first buckled on the sword, all writers bear testimony to the military 

 abilities that he displayed throughout the succession of battles between 

 the parliamentary and royalist forces. At Marstou Moor, at Stamford, 

 and in the second battle of Newbury, he was especially distinguished. 

 With the title of lieutenant-general of the horse ho soon became, under 

 Fairfiix, the chief mover of a victorious army ; and so valuable were 

 his services considered hy the parliament, that he was exempted from 

 obedience to the 'self-denying ordinance' an injunction which 

 excluded tbe members of either house from holding any comma', .1 in 

 the army. Thia measure was brought forward by Cromwell's ft : 

 who trusted to his popularity in the parliament, and the necessity that 

 it bod for his services, to procure an exception in his favour. The 

 result fully answered their expectations : his rivals were set aside, his 

 power more widely spread, and a greater scope given to his ambition. 

 At the battle of Naseby (June 1615) Cromwell commanded tho 

 right wing, and Ireton, his son-in-law, the left; tho main body of tho 

 royalists was commanded by the king in person. As the troops were 

 nearly equal, tbe event of the day wa* looked for by each side with 

 anxious hope. Ireton was rcpuluc I early iu the day ; but Cromwell 

 and Fairfax, taking advantage of Prince Rupert's temerity, totally dis- 

 persed tho king's infantry, and took his artillery and ammunition. 

 Elated with victory, the parliamentary army, under tbe same leaders, 

 vigorously prosecuted tlnir Hiicrem, until they had reduced most of 

 tbe royalmtft in tbe went, Cromwell at the storming of Bristol aud on 

 various other important occasions taking the principal part. Having 

 in 1646 found leisure to return to London, the thanks of the parliament 

 were voUd to him; his services were publicly acknowledged, and 



