SIR JOHN LORD LISLE
He was a violent anti-royalist, and active promoter of the King's trial, and drafted the sentence. He was present in Westminster Hall, 27 Jan 1648/9, when the sentence was pronounced, though he did not sign the death-warrant. Lord Commissioner of the Great Seal, 8 Feb 1648/9, 15 June 1655 and 22 Jan 1658/9; and a member of the High Court of Justice, in which Sir Henry Slingsby and other royalists were condemned, 21 Nov 1653; President thereof 1654. He was sum. to the OTHER HOUSE, 10 Dec 1657, and took his seat, as "JOHN LORD LISLE," 20 Jan 1657/8. He was app. Commissioner of the Navy 28 Jan 1659/60. At the Restoration he was absolutely excepted from the Act of Indemnity, 29 Aug 1660, and attainted, but fled to Switzerland, where he was assassinated by Thomas MacDowell, 11 Aug 1664. He married, 27 Oct 1636, at Ellingham, Alice, 1st
daughter of Sir White BECKONSHAW, of Moyles Court, by Edith 1st daughter
of William BOND, of Blackmanston, Dorset. His
widow, Alice, was tried on a charge of High Treason, sentenced to death
by Judge Jeffreys, 28 Aug and beheaded 2 Sep 1685, in the market-place
at Winchester aged 70. FROM THE WEBSITE: Lisle, John 1610?-1664, regicide, born about 1610, was second son of Sir William Lisle of Wootton, Isle of Wight, by Bridget, daughter of Sir John Hungerford of Down Ampney, Gloucestershire (BERRY, County Genealogies, ‘Hampshire,' p. 174). On 25 Jan. 1625-6 he matriculated as a member of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and graduated B.A. in February 1625-6. He was called to the bar from the Middle Temple in 1633 and became a bencher of his inn in 1649 (FOSTER, Alumni Oxon. 1500-1714, p. 917). He was chosen M.P. for Winchester in March 1639-40, and again in October 1640. He advocated violent measures on the king's removal to the north, and obtained some of the plunder arising from the sale of the crown property. In 1644-5 he sat on the committee to investigate the charges preferred by Cromwell against the Earl of Manchester (Commons' Journals, iv. 25). He displayed his inveterate hostility to Charles in a speech delivered on 3 July 1645, before the lord mayor and citizens of London, with reference to the discovery of the king's letters at Naseby. It was printed. In December 1647, when the king was confined in the Isle of Wight, Lisle was selected as one of the commissioners to carry to him the four bills which were to divest him of all sovereignty. He spoke in the House of Commons on 28 Sept. 1648 in favour of rescinding the recent vote, that no one proposition in regard to the personal treaty with the king should be binding if the treaty broke off upon another; and again, some days later, urged a discontinuance of the negotiation with Charles. He took a prominent part in the king's trial. He was one of the managers, was present every day, and drew up the form of the sentence. He was appointed on 8 Feb. 1648-9 one of the commissioners of the great seal, and was placed on the council of state. Lisle became one of Cromwell's creatures. He not only concurred in December 1653 in nominating Cromwell protector, but administered the oath to him; and having been reappointed lord commissioner, was elected member in the new parliament, on 12 July 1654, both for Southampton, of which town he was recorder, and for the Isle of Wight. He selected to sit for Southampton. In June previously he had been constituted president of the high court of justice, and in August he was appointed one of the commissioners of the exchequer. Lisle alone of his colleagues proposed to execute the ordinance for the better regulation of the court of chancery, which was submitted to the keepers of the seal, and owing to his subservience to Cromwell was continued in his office on the removal of his colleagues in June 1655. He was again confirmed in it in October 1656 by Cromwell's third parliament, to which he was re-elected by Southampton. In December 1657 Cromwell summoned Lisle to his newly established house of peers. Richard Cromwell preserved him in his place; but when the Long parliament met again in May 1659, he was compelled to retire. The house, however, named him on 28 Jan. 1660 a commissioner of the admiralty and navy (ib. vii. 825). When the Restoration was inevitable Lisle escaped to Switzerland establishing himself first at Vevay and afterwards at Lausanne, where he is said to have ‘charmed the Swiss by his devotion’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1663-4), and was treated with much respect and ceremony. There he was shot dead on 11 Aug. 1664, on his way to church, by an Irishman known as Thomas Macdonnell. Macdonnell escaped, and Lisle was buried in the church of the city. BACK |
