Gregory Clement, “the Regicide”

Gregory Clemen was a signator on Cromwell's death warrant for Charles I.

Gregory Clement

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gregory Clement (1594–1660) was an English Member of Parliament (MP) and one of the regicides of King Charles I.

Clement was the son of John Clement, a merchant and one time Mayor of Plymouth. After working in India for the British East India Company, Clement returned to London and on outbreak of the Civil War supported Parliament.

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 interestingly his signature appears to have been written over an erased signature.

He was dismissed from the House of Commons in 1652 over a scandal involving his maidservant. This may have been engineered by Thomas Harrison and other political opponents.

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 was arrested, put on trial, and found guilty of high treason. He was hanged, drawn and quartered at Charing Cross on 17 October 1660.

According to Mark Twain's autobiography, an irate Virginian correspondent called him a descendant of a regicide (apparently referring to Gregory Clement) and berated him for supporting the–as he called it–aristocratic Republican Party.[2]

From Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Clements, Gregory (bap. 1594, d. 1660), politician and regicide, was baptized at St Andrew's, Plymouth, on 21 November 1594, the son of John Clement, a local merchant who became mayor of the town in 1614, and his wife, Judith Sparke. Clements's formal education may have been minimal and he followed his father into trade, but although he had no good elocution, yet [he] was of a good apprehension and judgement (Ludlow, 245). By 1616 he was a factor for the East India Company; he subsequently worked in India, where he remained, on a salary of £100, until he was dismissed in 1630, having been fined for engaging in illegal interloping trade. After his return to England and his marriage to Christian Barter at St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney, on 25 June 1630, Clements emerged as a prominent new merchant? alongside Maurice Thompson, trading with the New England colonies.

Citations

• http://bcw-project.org/biography/gregory-clement
• Documents Relating to the Revolutionary History of the State of ..., Volume 1 Page 311 GoogleBooks
• http://genroots.genwatcher.com/getperson.php?personID=I547349748&tr...
• father also seen as Simeon Clement

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From the Memorial Cyclopedia of New Jersey, Vol. 4 - edited by Mary Depue Ogden

Gregory Clement, a member of the English Parliament, and one of the Regicides, was born probably about 1600-1610 [Other sources say 1594-cjm]. He was returned to Parliament in 1646, and sat in the trial of Charles the First, King of England, on January 8th, 22nd, 23rd and 29th, 1648. [ref. 1]

1. Warrant Condemning Charles I:

"Warrant To Execute King Charles I., A. D. 1648. At the high Co r t of Justice for the tryinge and judginge of Charles Steuart Kinge of England January XXIX th Anno Dm 1648.

"Whereas Charles Steuart Kinge of England is and standeth convicted attaynted and condemned of high Treason and other high crymes And sentence uppon Saturday last was pronounced against him by this Co r t to be putt to death by the severinge of his head from his body OF w ch sentence execution yet remayneth to be done. These are therefore to will and require you to see the said sentence executed In the open Streete before Whitehall uppon the morrow being the Thirtieth day of this instante month of January betweene the hours of Tenn in the morninge and (five in the afternoone of the same day w th full effect And for soe doing this shall be yo r sufficient warrant And these are to require All Officers and Souldiers and other the good people of this Nation of England to be assistinge unto you in this Service Given under our hands and Seales.

"To Collonell ffrancis Hather Colonnell Huncks and Lieutenant Colonell Phayre and to every of them."

The above was signed by Gregory Clement and fifty-eight others. (From original document in House of Lords). [ref. 2]

2. Ludlow Narrative:

Ludlow, in his narrative of these dreadful events, says of Gregory Clement : "He was chosen a member of Parliament about the year 1646, and discharged that trust with great diligence ; always joining with those who were most affectionate to the commonwealth, though he never was possessed of any place of profit under them.

Being appointed one of the commissioners for the trial of the king, he durst not refuse his assistance in that service. He had no good elocution, but his apprehension and judgment were not to be despised. He declared before his death, that nothing troubled him so much as his pleading guilty at the time of his trial to satisfy the importunity of his relations; by which he had rendered himself unworthy to die in so glorious a cause."

3. Stiles Narrative:

Stiles, in his "Lives of the Regicides," says: "He was a citizen of London, a merchant, and a trader with Spain. He returned to Parliament in 1646. He sat in the trial of Charles I. on January 8, 22, 23 and 29, 1648. He was expelled from Parliament for some misdemeanor, and

did not return until after Cromwell's death. He secreted himself in a house near Gray's Inn, and was detected by better eatables being carried there than generally went into such humble habitations and, upon search being made, he was discovered and arrested May 26, 1660."

There was much difficulty in identifying him, until a blind man, who happened to hear him speak, said : "That is Gregory Clement ; I know his voice."

The Rev. Mark Noble, in his "Lives of the Regicides," Vol. I, page 145, says of Gregory Clement : "It is probable he was a cadet of a knightly family in Kent, and

that Major William Clement in the London miltia was his son. . . . Immediately after the Restoration, those in authority set about the trial and punishment of the judges of the king's father, using the greatest vigilence to prevent their escape from England. A strange feature is that so few seemed to anticipate the certain consequence of remaining within the realm, and fell an easy prey to their enemies. The shadows of coming events could not have been mistaken, and the wonder is

that all such as participated in the trial of the king, did not flee from their country and avoid what was sure to follow. Much to the credit of Charles II., but six of

those who sat in the trial were executed, while the others were placed in the various prisons of the country, and soon passed into obscurity." These trials began at Hick's Hall, Old Bailey, in the county of Middlesex, October 9th, 1660.

The estate of Gregory Clement being confiscated, his family was scattered, and one of his sons, James, and his wife Jane, emigrated to Long Island in the year 1670. The family is extensive in England, and can be traced from before the tenth century down through the various political and religious changes that have occurred in the nation since that time.

The wife of William Penn was of one of the branches of the family. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania has collected and published some interesting correspondence between the widow of that great man and Simon Clement, her uncle.