Genealogy Richard Remmé, The Hague, Netherlands » Gen. Thomas 'the Regicide' Harrison (1606-1660)

Personal data Gen. Thomas 'the Regicide' Harrison 

• He was born June 1606 in New-Castle-Under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England.
• He died on October 13, 1660 in Beheaded, Drawn And Quartered At Charing Cross, London, Middlesex, England, he was 54 years old.
• A child of Richard Harrison and Mary
• This information was last updated on December 4, 2022.

Household of Gen. Thomas 'the Regicide' Harrison

He is married to Katherine Harrison.

They got married in the year 1647 at Warfield, Berkshire, England, Great Britain, he was 40 years old.

Child(ren):

1. Hannah Churchill  1651-1699 

Notes about Gen. Thomas 'the Regicide' Harrison

1. Baptism; 2 Jul 1606; England.

2. AKA. The Regicide
The Harrisons who deny any connection with the General may be influenced by an unnecessary aversion to the word "regicide". He was an honorable and able man. Although a poor boy, he received a good education, probably at Oxford which was not too far distant. He was studying law at the Inns of Court, London, when the Civil War broke out in 1642. He had already practiced law as a barrister at Westminster Hall. He was one of a group of students who at once joined Essex's Lifeguards to fight on the side of Parliament. Later he joined the New Model Army, the invincible Ironsides. He won distinction at the battles of Marston Moor, Naseby and Winchester, and at the siege of Oxford. He became Cromwell's most dependable general, his right arm.
After his election to Parliament Thomas Harrison was publicly proclaimed for his services in battle. In November of 1647 before the House of Commons he denounced Charles I as "a man of blood who should be called to account." Two years later he voted for the death of the King. Late in 1648, when Charles was a prisoner of Parliament, Harrison was chosen to convey him from the Isle of Wight to London. Charles liked the General's lively manner. If they had known each other for a longer time, the King said, Harrison would have had a better opinion of him. Under the Protectorate Thomas Harrison belonged to the powerful Council of State. It consisted of 15 men and was with the Protector (Cromwell), England's
In religion he was a fanatic, holding many curious views which he refused to denounce. The Puritans were in power and often he was in trouble in a bigoted age. At one point he was arrested and sent to the Towers, only to be released by Cromwell, who never forgot his services."Harrison," Cromwell wrote to a friend, "is an honest man and aims at good things, yet from the impatience of his spirit he will not await the Lord's leisure but hurries on his own way."
At the Restoration in 1660, he became a marked man. Charles II was lenient toward most of those who had condemned his father, but he showed no clemency toward Thomas Harrison, possibly because he had conveyed Charles I to London shortly before his execution. The General could have escaped to America or the West Indies, but did not. Eventually he was arrested at his home in Staffordshire, taken to London, jailed in the Tower. A lawyer, he defended himself at his trial, which was held at Newgate Prison, but his effort was fruitless. He was sentenced to death as a traitor.
From the Diary of Samuel Pepys: "October 13th [1660] To my Lord's this morning, where I met with Captain Cuttance. But my Lord not being up, I went out to Charing-cross to see Major-Generall Harrison hanged, drawn and quartered - which was done there - he looking as cheerfully as any man could do in that condition. He was presently cut down and his head and his heart shown to the people, at which there was great shouts of joy. .... Thus it was my chance to see the King beheaded at White-hall and to see the first blood shed in revenge for the blood of the King at Charing-cross."

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Timeline Gen. Thomas 'the Regicide' Harrison

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