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Colonel John Birch | |
|---|---|
 John Birch's monument, St Peter & St Paul's, Weobley [a] | |
| MP for Weobley | |
| In office 1679–1691 | |
| MP for Penryn | |
| In office 1661–1679 | |
| High Steward of Leominster | |
| In office 1648–1660 | |
| MP for Leominster | |
| In office 1646–1660 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 7 September 1615 Ardwick Manor, near Manchester |
| Died | 10 May 1691(1691-05-10) (aged 75) Garnstone Manor, Weobly |
| Resting place | St Peter and St Paul's, Weobley |
| Nationality | English |
| Spouse(s) | Alice Deane (died 1671) Winifred Norris (died 1717) |
| Relations | Thomas Birch (1608-1678) |
| Children | Two sons, three daughters |
| Parent(s) | Samuel and Mary Birch |
| Occupation | Wine merchant, soldier, politician |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  England 1642–1646 |
| Years of service | 1642 to 1646 |
| Rank | Colonel |
| Commands | Governor of Hereford 1645-1646 |
| Battles/wars | |
Colonel John Birch (7 September 1615 – 10 May 1691) was an English soldier and politician from Manchester, who fought for the Parliamentarian cause in the First English Civil War, and sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1646 and 1691.
Excluded from Parliament in Pride's Purge of December 1648, he was also prevented from taking his seat for Leominster under the Protectorate. After the Stuart Restoration in 1660, he sat on over 122 Parliamentary Committees, particularly those connected with finance.
Although Presbyterian by upbringing, he voted in favour of the 1673 and 1678 Test Acts, requiring holders of public office to be members of the Church of England. He himself conformed, supported the exclusion of the Catholic James II in 1679, and backed the 1689 Glorious Revolution.
Considered a "great Parliamentarian", his contemporary Gilbert Burnet summarised him as follows; "He was the roughest and boldest speaker in the House, and talked in the language and phrases of a carrier, but with a beauty and eloquence that was always acceptable. He spoke always with much life and heat, but judgment was not his talent."[1]
Personal details
John Birch was born 7 September 1615, second but eldest surviving son of Samuel and Mary Birch. His father was a wealthy Presbyterian merchant, who owned Ardwick Manor, outside Manchester. He had two brothers, Samuel (1621-1683), and Thomas (1633-1700).[2] He moved to Bristol in 1633, where he set up as a wine merchant.[3]
Birch married Alice Deane (died 1671), daughter of a Bristol merchant. They had five children who lived to adulthood; John (c. 1647 – after 1683), Samuel (died 1704), Mary (ca. 1645–1728), Elizabeth and Sarah (died 1702). There were no children from his second marriage to Winifred Norris, who died in 1717.[3]
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
At the start of the First English Civil War in August 1642, Birch was a captain in the Bristol militia and served with the Parliamentarian garrison. He later recorded that some of his men viewed the war as a break from routine, with better pay and rations than in civilian life and were concerned it might end too soon.[4] After the Royalists captured the town in June 1643, the garrison was given a pass to London. With the help of Sir Arthur Haselrig, Birch was commissioned in the army commanded by William Waller, and quickly proved an energetic and courageous officer. In November 1643, he served in the first Siege of Basing House, and was slightly wounded in the Battle of Alton on 13 December. Less than a week later, he was shot in the stomach in an assault on Arundel Castle, allegedly surviving only because the cold weather stemmed the flow of blood.[5]
Birch recovered from his wounds in time to fight at Cheriton in March 1644, a lesser known Parliamentarian success that forced Charles I onto the defensive in South East England.[6] At Cropredy Bridge in June, he commanded the rearguard that held the bridge long enough to allow Waller's main force to retreat. Shortly after this, Birch raised a regiment of infantry which was shipped to Plymouth to reinforce the garrison and spent the rest of the war in South West England and the Welsh Marches.[7]
Although not part of the New Model Army, his unit took part in its 1645 Western Campaign including the capture of Bridgwater and Bristol. On 17 December 1645, Birch led a surprise night-time attack on the Royalist garrison of Hereford, which had recently repulsed a month-long siege by Scots Covenanters,[8] and the Royalist commander Barnabas Scudamore was later accused of betrayal.[9] Appointed Governor of Hereford, Birch also fought at Stow-on-the-Wold in March 1646, the last major battle of the war, and captured Goodrich Castle in June, just before the war ended.[10]
However, victory resulted in increasingly bitter disputes over the post-war political settlement between radicals within the New Model like Oliver Cromwell, and the moderate party in Parliament, which included his former commander William Waller, and Denzil Holles.[11] At the same time, Parliament's desperate economic position made reductions in the military a matter of urgency. Birch became involved in a struggle with the other regional Parliamentarian commander, Edward Harley, as both men sought to ensure their troops were the ones retained.[12]
Coming from one of the most prominent members of the landed gentry in Herefordshire, and one of the few families to support Parliament in 1642, Harley defeated Birch in 1646 when he stood as MP for Herefordshire. Despite this setback, in September Birch was elected for Leominster, but under the Self-denying Ordinance was required to give up his military commission.[12] Appointed High steward of Leominster in 1648, he also invested heavily in purchasing church lands, which made him extremely wealthy.[13] Disputes over a peace settlement with Charles I and religious policy split Parliament between moderates like Birch, and more radical religious Independents such as Oliver Cromwell, including his cousin Thomas Birch. After the Second English Civil War he was excluded from Parliament in Pride's Purge of 6 December 1648.[14]
1660 Restoration and after
Birch met with Charles II prior to the Battle of Worcester in September 1651 but avoided direct participation, possibly due to the influence of his cousin Thomas, who remained loyal to the Protectorate. He retained his Leominster seat throughout the Commonwealth, although he was not allowed to take his seat, and later claimed to have been arrested 21 times. After the Stuart Restoration in 1660, he was removed as High Steward of Leominster, and forced to sell his lands back to the church, ending his influence in the area. However, in 1661 he was returned as MP for Penryn, in the Cavalier Parliament.[13]
Although he never held high political office, Birch sat on numerous committees, especially those connected to public spending and taxes, where he proved a relentless and astute auditor. His presence on the committee to review naval expenditure after the Second Anglo-Dutch War brought him into contact with Pepys, who noted he "do take it upon him to defend us, and do mightily do me right in all his discourse".[15] According to one commentator, he was "the roughest and boldest speaker in the House, who talked in the language and phrases of a carrier, but with a beauty and eloquence that was always acceptable".[16]
The 1662 Act of Uniformity expelled Presbyterians from the Church of England, who thus became Protestant Nonconformists. They included John, and his brother Samuel (1621-1680), who was evicted from his parish of Bampton, Oxfordshire as a result.[12] However, Birch voted for the 1673 Test Act, which required holders of public office holders to be Anglicans, and became a member of the church. This was largely due to his opposition to Catholicism, and in the Exclusion Crisis, he supported barring Charles' Catholic brother James from the throne.[13]
Birch purchased Garnstone Manor, Weobly, in 1661, giving him control of its Parliamentary seat. First elected in 1679, he held it until his death in 1691, with the exception of 1685, when he stood down following the accession of James II. He regained it after the November 1688 Glorious Revolution, and was prominent in debates over the Bill of Rights and the Revolutionary settlement.[12]
His last recorded Parliamentary appearance was in April 1690; he died at home on 10 May 1691, and was buried at St Peter and St Paul's, Weobley. The railings around his monument extended into the altar space, and were removed in 1694 by Gilbert Ironside, Bishop of Hereford; the holes are still visible.[12] His youngest daughter, Sarah, inherited Garnstone, on condition she marry her cousin, another John Birch; he held the Weobley seat almost continuously from 1701, until his death in 1735.[17]
Notes
- ^ Repaired after being damaged in 1694, this incorrectly gives his date of birth as 1626
References
- ^ Burnet 1734, pp. 90–91.
- ^ Burke 1838, p. 27.
- ^ a b Burke 1838, p. 28.
- ^ Ackroyd 2014, p. 249.
- ^ Plant 2006.
- ^ Royle 2004, p. 288.
- ^ Colonel John Birch’s Regiment.
- ^ Hibbert 1993, p. 235.
- ^ Hopper 2012, p. 186.
- ^ Hull & Whitehorne 2008, p. 38.
- ^ Gentles 2002, pp. 144–150.
- ^ a b c d e Key 2004.
- ^ a b c Ferris 1983.
- ^ Royle 2004, pp. 480–485.
- ^ Pepys.
- ^ Burnet 1734, p. 80.
- ^ Sedgwick 1970.
Sources
- Ackroyd, Peter (2014). Civil War: The History of England Volume III. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0230706415.
- Burke, John (1838). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain, Volume 4. Henry Colburn.
- Burnet, Gilbert (1734). History of My Own Time; Volume II (2015 ed.). Andesite. ISBN 978-1298711793.
- Colonel John Birch’s Regiment. "Colonel John Birch's Regiment of Foot". BCW Project. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
- Ferris, John P (1983). BIRCH, John (1615-91), of The Homme, nr. Leominster and Garnstone Manor, Weobley, Herefordshire in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660–1690. Boydell & Brewer.
- Gentles, Ian (2002). Kenyon, John; Ohlmeyer, Jane (eds.). The Civil Wars in England in The Civil Wars; a Military History of England, Scotland and Ireland 1638-1660. OUP. ISBN 978-0192802781.
- Hibbert, Christopher (1993). Cavaliers and Roundheads; the English at war 1642-1649 (1994 ed.). Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0586090084.
- Hopper, Andrew (2012). Turncoats and Renegadoes: Changing Sides During the English Civil Wars. Oxford University Press.
- Hull, Lise; Whitehorne, Stephen (2008). Great Castles of Britain & Ireland. New Holland Publishers. ISBN 978-1-84773-130-2.
- Key, Newton E (2004). "Birch, John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2429. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- Pepys, Samuel. "Friday 21 February 1668 in The Diary of Samuel Pepys". Pepys Diary Online. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
- Plant, David (23 September 2006). "John Birch". BCW Project. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
- Royle, Trevor (2004). Civil War: The Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1638–1660 (2006 ed.). Abacus. ISBN 978-0-349-11564-1.
- Sedgwick, Romney (1970). BIRCH, John II (c.1666-1735), of Garnstone Manor, Weobley, Herefs. in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715–1754. CUP.
Bibliography
- Willis-Bund, John William (1905). The Civil War In Worcestershire, 1642-1646: And the Scotch Invasion Of 1651. Birmingham: The Midland Educational Company. pp. 176–178.
External links
- John Webb. Military memoir of John Birch
- Brief history of the Life of John Birch (up to the start of his political career)
- Biography on British Civil Wars site
- Battle of Cropredy Bridge
- House of Commons Journal for 22 December 1645 recording the arrival of news of the capture of Hereford
- References to Col Birch in The Diary of Samuel Pepys
- Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
9 Annotations
First Reading
S. Spoelstra • Link
According to "Military memoirs of Colonel John Birch, sometime governor of Herefore in the civil war" in de "The Cornell Library Historical Monographs" Birch was a Bristol merchant who started a regiment of volunteers. Fought on the side of the cavaliers.
Made a nice profit when, on orders of Parliament, the lead covering of Worcester Cathedral, at an estimated value of 1200 lb., was sold to him for 617 lb. 4s. 2d. ("for the repair of certain almhouses and churches in that city").
Signed the Remonstrance in 1656 and present, as Member for Leominster, at the inauguration of the Protector.
Apparently the Restoration did not do him any harm; he seems to be in a position of authority as SP meets him.
Colonel Birch is also recorded as having submitted a plan for the rebuilding of the City after the Great Fire (as did several others of SP's acquintance).
http://historical.library.cornell…
vincent • Link
additional information on Coll: Birch letters by sect:
http://historical.library.cornell…
another page:
S. Spoelstra • Link
This excellent site on the Civil War explains Colonel Birch's role in the "Copredy Bridge" encounter. Obviously I was wrong in my entry above: Birch was a "roundhead" from the start.
http://www.british-civil-wars.co.…
Michael Robinson • Link
Per L&M Companion:
(1619-91). Politician. A self-made Mancunian, originally a carrier. His interests in naval affairs brought him into frequent contact and occasional conflict with Pepys. He had fought for Parliament in the Civil War, and sat for Leominster 1646-60, for Penryn 1661-Jan.79, and for Weobley March 1679-91, serving as a commissioner for paying off the forces 1660-1, as chairman of the Commons' Navy Committee in 1661, and as a member of the Committee on Miscarriages in 1667-8 as well as on numerous committees on financial and commercial maters. He supported the Navy Board against its critics in 1668. In the '60's he accepted office as an Admiralty Commissioner March-July 1660, as Auditor of the Excise 1661-91, and as a member of the Committee for Trade 1688-72.
But in the '70's he was more distrustful of the court, becoming a Whig and exclusionist, and led the outcry in the Commons 1677-8 against the cost of Pepys ship-building programme. A moderate Presbyterian, he supported attempts at union with the Church of England in 1668-9, and himself became an Anglican in 1673. He lived to welcome the Revolution of 1688. Most of his contemporaries, though they might suffer like Pepys from his rough tongue and abrasive manner, could not, any more than Pepys, withhold their admiration of his ability.
Third Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
Col. John Birch MP's Parliamentary bio is llong. I'm only pulling highlights to 1670:
Birch’s father, who claimed descent from a minor gentry family of Lancashire, bought Ardwick Manor, Manchester, in 1636 and became a Presbyterian elder and county committeeman after the Civil Wars.
Col. John Birch (1615 - 1691) liked to boast of humble origins, but by 1642 was trading on his own account as a wine merchant from Bristol to Shrewsbury.
After a brilliant military campaign against the Herefordshire Cavaliers, he invested in church lands, and was appointed high steward of Leominster, Herefordshire, by Parliament in 1648.
Imprisoned as a Presbyterian at Pride’s Purge, he met with Charles II before the 2nd battle of Worcester, and was under constant suspicion during the Interregnum.
He estimated he was imprisoned 21 times, but was not an active Royalist.
Gen. George Monck entrusted Col. Birch with John Lambert’s old regiment of foot in 1660;
but when he returned with the secluded Members and sat on the Council of State, he was suspected of wanting the restoration of Richard Cromwell. (I.E. he was with Monck and the Montagus.)
Edward Massey called him a vile man, but Edward Harley thought he could be brought if Charles II confirmed his church lands.
Whatever his views, Col. John Birch MP was safe in his Leominster seat, although Massey engaged all his friends against him.
In the Convention Parliament, Col. Birch was appointed to 42 committees, made 20 speeches, and 16 reports.
He served on the important committees including the indemnity bill, and acted as chair of those for army commissioners and disbandment.
... During the debates on religion he asserted that the liturgy was not established by law, and spoke in favour of the Covenant.
He seconded the motion for a reward to Sir George Booth.
On 2 Aug. 1660 he was ordered to draw up a statement of the debts of the army and navy.
Inexperienced Samuel Pepys found his ‘scrupulous inquiries’ about the navy accounts ‘very impertinent and troublesome’; ‘a mighty busy man’, he confided to his diary, ‘and one that is the most indefatigable and forward to make himself work’.
On 8 Aug. 1660, Col. Birch MP was appointed chair of the grand committee on excise.
Monck’s asked him to defend his old colonel, Sir Arthur Hesilrige MP, in the debate on the pardon bill.
During Sept. 1660, he was made a commissioner, and acted as chair of the disbandment bill committee.
In the second session Col. Birch MP's time was devoted to finance.
He took no part in the debates on modified episcopacy.
Two of his numerous reports to the House were interrupted by John Knight MP and Edward King MP, who claimed the excise committee didn't knew about his estimated £673,000 deficit nor of his proposed excise on all foreign commodities.
Birch was also in the chair for stating the public debt.
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 2
By the general election of 1661, Col. Birch had lost his stewardship and with it his interest at Leominster; and his ownership of church lands was threatened by the bishop of Hereford. He had not completed buying Garnstone from Roger Vaughan, which was to give him an impressive interest at Weobley.
He won a seat at Penryn, Cornwall, although the Duke of York supported another candidate, Sir William Killigrew.
In the Cavalier Parliament, Col. John Birch MP was on 538 committees and gave around 400 recorded speeches.
He was appointed to one political committee during Clarendon’s administration, that for the execution of those under attainder. Nevertheless Clarendon thought it wise to conciliate him by asking Bishop Croft to renew his leases of church lands without an entry fine, which could have been as much as £2,000.
He was given a life patent as sole auditor of excise at a salary of £500 p.a.
Col. Birch’s work as disbandment commissioner was not over; he reported to the House on 11 July and was made chairman of the navy committee.
After the Christmas recess he was teller on a successful general excise bill on beer and ale, and unsuccessfully on the motion for committing a bill to restrain abuses in its collection.
He was also active in measures to forbid the wearing of gold and silver lace and to encourage the production of flax and hemp, for which he chaired 3 bills in this Parliament.
He was a manager of a conference on repairing and cleaning London and Westminster roads.
On 3 May he reported to the House on customs duties.
On 30 June 1663 he acted as teller for an unsuccessful proviso to the conventicles bill in favour of occasional conformists.
In 1664 Col. Birch opposed giving new powers to the ecclesiastical courts.
But his name appears on the list of court dependents.
In 1666 he regularly attended Anglican services.
In 1667 Col. Birch was teller (with old enemy Massey) for the motion to recommit the bill against cattle imports.
He again clashed with Knight over excise, and his report from committee on 2 Nov. failed to satisfy the House.
Andrew Marvell accused ‘Black Birch’ of nourishing an incestuous passion for his own "offspring", excise.
A few weeks later in the debate on the poll-tax it was moved that whoever kept a nonconformist minister in his house should pay an additional £5 -- which was understood by John Milward to be a jocular hit at Birch.
He was one of the managers of the conference on the Canary patent.
But his proposal for comprehensive redevelopment of the devastated areas of the City of London found little support.
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 3
On the fall of Clarendon, Col. Birch resumed full-scale political activity, and from the 1667 session served on most of the important committees.
He ridiculed the charges against Clarendon and acted as teller for the unsuccessful motion to refer them to a committee. ‘I did not believe one word of that which Clarendon was accused of’, he later said.
Col. Birch was active with a bill against highwaymen and a petition from the silk throwers.
The new treasury commissioners, perhaps at Sir George Downing's suggestion, began to employ Birch as a trouble-shooter over accounts quite unconnected with the excise, such as the Surrey hearth-tax, the London wine duties and the Herefordshire aid.
He was appointed a member of the council of trade, and was most active in the supply debates of 1668, chairing several sub-committees.
He was teller for the motion on 30 Mar. to proceed with supply every day.
Over the inquiry into the mismanagement of the war, Pepys began by grumbling at him as ‘the high man that do examine and trouble everybody with his questions’, but later noted that ‘Birch like a particular friend do take it upon him to defend us’.
Col. Birch was teller against putting the motion for declaring as a miscarriage the delay in ordering Prince Rupert to rejoin the main fleet in 1666.
He told the House that £600,000 over and above the customs receipts had been spent on the navy in the first 4 years of the reign.
Nevertheless he moved for investigations into the mis-spending of revenue and the failure to defend the Medway, which he called the 2 great miscarriages of the war.
Confident of Charles II's dislike of the conventicles bill, he urged that ‘it would prove for the advantage of trade and the interest of religion to comprehend some that were now dissenters’.
The fewer the dissenters, the stronger the church would be, he pointed out rather disingenuously, as in private he was assuring Pepys that episcopacy was doomed and leases of bishops’ lands the best investment going.
On carrying several supply bills to the Lords on 4 May, Col. Birch was maliciously given the additional instruction to remind their lordships of the conventicles bill, which he carried out exactly.
In the supply debate in 1669, he defended the Government with his usual bluntness: ‘The great mismanagement has been in this House; unless some course be taken here that moneys be not at 10 per cent we shall never be safe’.
And so it goes on. I can see why Pepys found him exasperating for 30 years -- bureaucrats who do not understand the accounts they are auditing, and therefore ask deceptively simple questions which confound the "experts" are dangerous, and he did that until he died, still an MP, in 10 May, 1691.
See https://www.historyofparliamenton…
San Diego Sarah • Link
I'm not good at using the Wayback Machine
https://web.archive.org/web/20230…
But no, the Biographies have not been captured. How very, very sad.
I do hope someone can rescue this valuable resource.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Col. John Birch (September 7, 1615 – May 10, 1691) was a soldier in the English civil wars and later a Member of Parliament for Leominster and Weobley, Herefordshire.
Birch played a significant role in the battle of Cropredy Bridge, Oxfordshire on June 29, 1644.
On December 18, 1645, Parliamentarians under the command of Col. John Birch and Col. Morgan captured the City of Hereford.
In 1646 Col. John Birch besieged and captured Goodrich Castle from the Royalist Sir Henry Lingen.
Birch is buried in a monumental tomb in Weobley Church.
https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/e…
@@@
Biography of John Birch -- headline from the defunct BCW Project
Sep 23, 2006 — John Birch, 1615-91. Presbyterian army officer famous for capturing Hereford in a daring midwinter attack in 1645.
@@@
Cropredy Bridge, battle of, 1644.
While waiting for news of Prince Rupert's attempt to relieve York, King Charles' southern army clashed with Sir William Waller at Cropredy Bridge, on the River Cherwell near Banbury, on 29 June.
Waller, seeing the royalist army strung out on the march, hoped to punch a hole between van and rear by taking Cropredy Bridge.
In turn, he found himself facing a battle on 2 fronts, when the royalist van turned, and he was fortunate to extricate himself with the loss of some light guns.
Although little more than a cavalry skirmish, Cropredy sustained royalist morale until the news from Marston Moor came through.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/hist…
Aftermath: The Battle of Cropredy Bridge cost Sir William Waller around 700 killed, wounded, captured, and deserted. Royalist casualties were minimal. The defeat effectively immobilized Waller's army as it was beset with desertions and it ceased to be an immediate threat to Oxford.
What Col. John Birch did on the losing side is not recorded.