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Wikipedia
Miles Corbet (1595 – 1662) was an English politician, recorder of Yarmouth and Regicide.
[edit] Life
He was the son of Sir Thomas Corbet of Sprowston, Norfolk and the younger brother of Sir John Corbet, 1st Baronet, MP for Great Yarmouth from 1625 to 1629. He entered Lincoln's Inn and was appointed Recorder of Great Yarmouth.
Miles succeeded his brother John as MP for Yarmouth, England, serving from 1640 to 1653, and was the very last of the signatories of Charles I's death warrant.[1]
In 1644 he was made clerk of the Court of Wards. In 1655 he was appointed Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer.
After the Restoration of Charles II of England in 1660, all the 59 men who had signed the death warrant for Charles I were in grave danger as they were considered regicides. Miles Corbet, like many of the 59, fled England. He went to the Netherlands where he thought he would be safe. However, with two other regicides (John Okey and John Barkstead) he was arrested by the English ambassador to the Netherlands Sir George Downing and returned to England under guard. After a trial, he was found, guilty, and then hanged, drawn and quartered on 19 April 1662.
[edit] Miles Corbet's ghost
During the reign of Cromwell, Corbet was in charge of Malahide Castle north of Dublin, Ireland. Local legend has it that each year, on the anniversary of Corbet's death, his ghost can be seen riding across parts of the castle ground.
[edit] References
- ^ Sarah Barber, Corbett, Miles (1594/5–1662), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
[edit] External links
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Corbet, Miles |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | 1595 |
| Place of birth | Sprowston, Norfolk |
| Date of death | 19 April 1662 |
| Place of death | Tyburn gallows |
Annotations
-
Miles Corbet was a Puritan from a “knightly Norfolk family.” He was Cromwell’s lawyer, and MP from Great Yarmouth. He served on the Parliamentary Committee that arranged the trial of Charles I: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=25555&strquery=wm#s2
…and subsequently became the last of the 59 signatories of the King’s death warrant. Very short biographical paragraph at: http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/biog/index_c.htm#corbe