Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Sir Richard Willis (sometimes spelt 'Willys') (13 January 1613/1614 – December 1690) was a notable figure of the English Civil War and its aftermath.
A cavalry officer under Prince Rupert, he had been Governor of Newark but was dismissed by King Charles I in October 1645 after siding with Rupert following his defeat at Bristol. Willis then 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).
However, it seems he 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.
In 1659 Willis was denounced to the future King Charles II by Thurloe’s secretary, Samuel Morland, who accused him of plotting, with Thurloe and Richard 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.
After the Restoration Willis was banned from court and is thought to have lived out the remainder of his life in America.
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.