Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Sir Richard Willis, 1st Baronet (sometimes spelt 'Willys') (13 January 1614 – December 1690) was a Royalist officer during the English Civil War,[1][2] and a double agent working for the Parliamentarians during the Interregnum.
[edit] Biography
Willis went up to Christ's College, Cambridge in 1631, and was admitted to Gray's Inn in the same year. He joined the Royalist cause as an officer in the Kings army, being eventually Colonel of a Regiment of Cavalry and Colonel General of the counties of Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and Rutland. He was also Governor of Newark for the King, by whom he was knighted 1 October 1642, at Shrewsbury, and was created a Baronet of Fen Ditton in Cambridgeshire on 11 June 1646.[2]
Sir Richard spent some time in Italy, returning to England in 1652 to join the Royalist underground organisation, the Sealed Knot (his successor as Governor of Newark, John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse, was also one of the members).[citation needed]
However, it seems Sir Richard became a double agent. Although twice imprisoned by the Commonwealth, he established contact with Cromwell’s secret service, led by John Thurloe, in 1656 or 1657, possibly for money (in A Child's History of England, Ch.XXXIV, Charles Dickens wrote that Willis “reported to Oliver everything that passed among them, and had two hundred a year for it”). Alternatively, Willis may have wanted to secure his safety in case the Royalist cause failed.[3]
In 1659 Willis was denounced to the future King Charles II by Thurloe’s secretary, Samuel Morland,[3] who accused him of plotting, with Thurloe and Cromwell, to lure Charles and his brothers to return to England under false pretences (to meet followers in Sussex) and then assassinate them. Morland is said to have learned of the plan while pretending to be asleep in Thurloe's office in Lincoln's Inn.[citation needed]
After the Restoration Willis was banned from court.[citation needed]
He was alive on 9 December 1690, at Fen Ditton. His will dated 16 to 20 May, and probated 10 December 1690.[4]
[edit] Family
He was the younger brother of Thomas Willys, sons of Richard Willys, of Fen Ditton and Horningsey, Cambridgeshire, by Jane, daughter and heir of William Henmaesh, of Balls, in Ware, Hertfordshire. Both were created baronets of Fen Ditton in Cambridgeshire by Charles I.[2]
Sir Richard married in or before 1659, Alice, daughter and sole heir of Thomas Fox, M.D., of Warlies, in Waltham Holy Cross, Essex [bur. there 26 Nov. 1662], and of Shipton, Oxon, by Anne, daughter of Robert Honywood, of Pett, in Charing, Kent. Her will, dated 27 October 1684, prorated 28 March 1688.[2]
The baronetcy passed to Sir Thomas-Fox Willys of Warlies (30 June 1661 – 1701) was said to be "bereft of his wits",[2] and died unmarried and without children at the age of 59. With his death the Baronetcy created for Sir Richard became extinct.[2]
[edit] In literature
Richard Willis appears as a character in Act II of the play Cromwell by Victor Hugo, published in Paris in 1828.[5]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Dates used in this article use the Julian calendar with the start of year adjusted to 1 January (see Old Style and New Style dates)
- ^ a b c d e f Cokayne 1902, pp. 234,235.
- ^ a b New Monthly Magazine 1856, p. 221.
- ^ Cokayne 1902, pp. 235.
- ^ "Art. XIX.—Cromwell, Drome. Par Victor Hugo. 8vo. Paris. 1828.". The Foreign Quarterly Review. 2. London: Treuttel and Würtz. February and June 1828. p. 171.
[edit] References
- Cokayne, George Edward, ed. (1902). Complete Baronetage 1625–1649. pp. 234,235. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924092524382.
- New Monthly Magazine (June 1856). The Mournful Marriage of Sir Samuel Morland. . The Eclectic magazine: foreign literature (Leavitt, Trow & Co) 38: 221.
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Willis, Sir Richard, 1st Baronet |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | English spy |
| Date of birth | 1613 |
| Place of birth | |
| Date of death | 1690 |
| Place of death | |
Annotations
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Willys, Sir Richard
A cavalry officer under Rupert, he had been Governor of Newark in 1644 until dismissed by the King. After a spell in Italy he returned to England in 1652 where he became a member of the royalist underground organisation known as the Sealed Knot. He seems to have played a double game. Though twice imprisoned by the government, he established contact with Cromwell’s secret service in 1656 or 1657, possibly for money - he was very poor - or to secure his safety in case the royalist cause failed. In 1659-60 he was denounced to the King by Samuel Morland, Thurloe’s assistant and Pepys’s old tutor, who accused him of having betrayed Booth’s rising in Aug. 1659 [and of being part of a plot to assassinate the King]. Willys’s fellow conspirators in the Sealed Knot disbelieved the charges, but Clarendon and the King were convinced by the evidence of the handwriting in the letters which Morland sent over. At the Restoration he was forbidden the court.
(from the Companion entry)
-
After Sir Richard Willys retired from his political life in England he allegedly departed to the United States to reside.