Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Sir Arthur Haselrig, 2nd Baronet (d. January 7, 1661), English parliamentarian, is best remembered as one of the five members of parliament whom King Charles I of England attempted to arrest in 1642, an event that helped precipitate the English Civil War.
He was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Haselrig (alternative spellings "Hesilrige" and "Haselrigge"), 1st baronet (c. 1622), of Noseley, Leicestershire, a member of a very ancient family settled in Northumberland and Leicestershire, and of Frances, daughter of Sir William Gorges, of Alderton, Northamptonshire.
He early imbibed strong puritanical principles, and showed a special antagonism to Laud. He sat for Leicestershire in the Short and Long Parliaments in 1640, and took a principal part in Strafford's attainder, the Root and Branch Bill and the Militia Bill of December 7, 1641, and was impeached on January 3, 1642, along with John Hampden, Denzil Holles, John Pym and William Strode. He showed much activity in the Great Rebellion, raised a troop of horse for Essex, fought at Edgehill, commanded in the West under Waller, being nicknamed his fidus Achates, and distinguished himself at the head of his cuirassiers, the London lobsters at Lansdown on July 5, 1643, at Roundway Down on July 13, at both of which battles he was wounded, and at Cheriton, March 29, 1644.
On the occasion of the breach between the army and the parliament, Haselrig supported the former, took Cromwell's part in his dispute with Manchester and Essex, and on the passing of the Self-denying Ordinance gave up his commission and became one of the leaders of the Independent party in parliament. On December 30, 1647 he was appointed governor of Newcastle, which he successfully defended, besides defeating the Royalists on July 2, 1648 and regaining Tynemouth. In October he accompanied Cromwell to Scotland, and gave him valuable support in the Scottish expedition in 1650.
Hesilrige, though he approved of the king's execution, had declined to act as judge on his trial. He was one of the leading men in the Commonwealth, but Cromwell's expulsion of the Long Parliament threw him into antagonism, and he opposed the Protectorate and refused to pay taxes. He was returned for Leicester to the parliaments of 1654, 1656 and 1659, but was excluded from the two former. He refused a seat in the Lords, whither Cromwell sought to relegate him, and succeeded in again obtaining admission to the House of Commons in January 1658.
On Cromwell's death Haselrig refused support to Richard, and was instrumental in effecting his downfall. He was now one of the most influential men in the council and in parliament. He attempted to maintain a republican parliamentary administration, "to keep the sword subservient to the civil magistrate," and opposed Lambert's schemes. On the latter succeeding in expelling the parliament, Haselrig turned to General George Monck for support, and assisted his movements by securing Portsmouth on December 3, 1659. He marched to London, and was appointed one of the council of state on January 2, 1660, and on February 11 a commissioner for the army. He was completely deceived by Monck, and trusting to his assurance of fidelity to the "Good Old Cause" consented to the retirement of his regiment from London. At the Restoration his life was saved by Monck's intervention, but he was imprisoned in the Tower.
Clarendon describes Haselrig as "an absurd, bold man." He was rash, "hare-brained," devoid of tact and had little claim to the title of a statesman, but his energy in the field and in parliament was often of great value to the parliamentary cause. He exposed himself to considerable obloquy by his exactions and appropriations of confiscated landed property though the accusation brought against him by John Lilburne was examined by a parliamentary committee and adjudged to be false.
Haselrig married (1) Frances, daughter of Thomas Elmes of Lilford, Northamptonshire, by whom he had two sons and two daughters, and (2) Dorothy, sister of Robert Greville 2nd Lord Brooke, by whom he had three sons and five daughters The family was represented in 1907 by his descendant Sir Arthur Grey Hazlerigg of Noseley, 13th Baronet.
| Baronetage of England | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Thomas Hesilrige |
Baronet (of Noseley Hall) |
Succeeded by Arthur Hesilrige |
He was the member of Parliament for Leicester and Cromwell’s commander in Newcastle. After the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 he was given charge of the prisoners. “Haselrigge forced the 5,000 Scottish POWs to march 120 miles in eight days with little food from Dunbar through Berwick, Morpeth, and Newcastle, to Durham. Any who tried to escape, any who fell behind, any who became sick were shot. In his article Derek Bell called this the “Durham Death March,” and likened it to Bataan. Some 1500 Scots died on the march.
In Durham the survivors were confined in the abandoned cathedral where they were kept in unsanitary conditions with little food and no medical attention. The prisoners were reduced to robbing the old crypts for bits of interred jewelry to bribe their English guards for better food. In two months by the end of October out of the original 5,000 only 1,400 Scottish prisoners survived. In 1946 while installing new heating pipes, workmen unearthed a long forgotten ditch extending from the cathedral’s north door straight for several hundred feet. It contained thousands of skeletons, piled like cord wood, presumably the remains of the Durham Death March.” (from: http://www.tarasthistle.org/dunbar.html )
http://www.open.org/~glennab/abernathyhistory.htm : “The English Council of War in London discussed what to do with the prisoners of war [apparently from the Battle of Worcester in 1651], and decided to continue the policy of sending prisoners to the Colonies. The top Scottish officers were either executed or imprisoned, as was Lord Leslie, but the minor officers were given the choice of prison in England or servitude in the Colonies. Robert Abernethy chose the latter, and was shipped with a group of 1610 men to Charles City in Virginia in early 1652, by an order of the Council to Sir Arthur Haselrigge, in charge of prisoners, to deliver them to Samuel Clarke, for transportation to Virginia. This order included 900 Scotsmen for Virginia, and 150 more to be sent to New England.”