Colonel Francis Billingsley (1595–1646) was a Royalist officer in the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

. Placed in charge of the defences of

Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079. History B ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

, he was killed in the churchyard of St Leonard's when the town was stormed by Parliamentarian troops on 31 March 1646. His

rapier A rapier () or is a type of sword with a slender and sharply-pointed two-edged blade that was popular in Western Europe, both for civilian use (dueling and self-defense) and as a military side arm, throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Impor ...

was presented to the church by one of his descendants (Lois Astley) and for many years was on display in the church. It was stolen in around 2000 and has not been recovered.

Family and background

Francis was from the Billingsley family of

Astley Abbotts Astley Abbotts is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England, located immediately north of Bridgnorth, and straddling the B4373 Bridgnorth to Broseley road. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 396. The Church ins ...

, Shropshire, and married Eleanor Kerry in 1616. Amongst his siblings was the celebrated horseman Sir

Thomas Billingsley Sir Thomas Billingsley (1600 – c.1670/80) was a noted English horseman in the seventeenth century connected with the families of the Earls of Dorset, Thanet and Prince Rupert of the Rhine. Biography He was born in Astley Abbotts, Shropshir ...

. Another brother was Capt. John Billingsley, who supported Parliament during the Civil War and was brother-in-law to the Regicide

Daniel Blagrave Daniel Blagrave (1603–1668) was a prominent resident of the town of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire. He was Member of Parliament for the Parliamentary Borough of Reading over several periods between 1640 and 1660, and was also on ...

. Amongst the children of Francis and Eleanor were Francis Billingsley who served as a major in the Royalist army, and Capt. Edward Billingsley who married a daughter of another Royalist officer, Francis Sandford, and served in Ireland during the 1640s.Page 1045
A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of ..., Volume 2, By Sir Bernard Burke, ''...WALTER MOSELEY, ESQ...(son of Walter...by Dorothy his wife, dau. of Francis Billingsley, Esq. of Astley Abbots...''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Billingsley, Francis Cavaliers English military personnel killed in action 1646 deaths 1595 births Military personnel from Shropshire