Sir John Lisle (1610 – 11 August 1664) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

at various times between 1640 and 1659. He supported the Parliamentarian cause 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 ...

and was one of the

regicide Regicide is the purposeful killing of a monarch or sovereign of a polity and is often associated with the usurpation of power. A regicide can also be the person responsible for the killing. The word comes from the Latin roots of ''regis'' ...

s of King

Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after hi ...

. He was assassinated by an agent of the crown while in exile in Switzerland.

Education and career

Lisle was educated at

Magdalen Hall, Oxford Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The colleg ...

and graduated with a BA in 1626. He was called to the bar at

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

in 1633. Lee, Sidney (1903), Dictionary of National Biographybr>Index and Epitomep. 781
(also main entry xxxiii 341) In April 1640 he was elected

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for Winchester in the Short Parliament. He was re-elected MP for Winchester for the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

in November 1640. He was master of St Cross Hospital, Winchester from 1644 to 1649. Lisle was a member of the

Rump Parliament The Rump Parliament was the English Parliament after Colonel Thomas Pride commanded soldiers to purge the Long Parliament, on 6 December 1648, of those members hostile to the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason. "Rump" ...

and was one of the managers in the trial of Charles I in 1649. He was appointed one of the commissioners of the great seal, and was placed on the

council of state A Council of State is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head o ...

in 1649. He also became a bencher of his Inn in 1649. In 1654 he was elected MP for

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

for the

First Protectorate Parliament The First Protectorate Parliament was summoned by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell under the terms of the Instrument of Government. It sat for one term from 3 September 1654 until 22 January 1655 with William Lenthall as the Speaker of the Ho ...

and was re-elected for the seat in 1656 for the

Second Protectorate Parliament The Second Protectorate Parliament in England sat for two sessions from 17 September 1656 until 4 February 1658, with Thomas Widdrington as the Speaker of the House of Commons. In its first session, the House of Commons was its only chamber; in ...

. He held various offices in parliaments between 1654 and 1659 when he sat in the Restored Rump. In 1660, he was commissioner of the admiralty and navy. At the

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

of the monarchy Lisle fled to Switzerland. He was assassinated in a churchyard in

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...

on 11 August 1664 by Sir

James Fitz Edmond Cotter Sir James Fitz Edmond Cotter ( ir, Séamus Buidhe Mac Coitir or ''Séamus Mac Éamonn Mhic Coitir''; c.1630–1705) was a soldier, a colonial governor and the commander-in-chief of King James II of England, King James's forces, in the Irish Counti ...

, an Irish soldier and Royalist agent who tracked down regicides and who is said to have used the alias Thomas Macdonnell.

Personal life

Lisle married firstly Elizabeth Hobart, daughter of

Sir Henry Hobart, 1st Baronet Sir Henry Hobart, 1st Baronet (1 Jan 1560 – 29 December 1625), of Blickling Hall, was an English politician who succeeded Sir Edward Coke to become Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. Background and education The son of Thomas H ...

of Intwood, who bore him a son who died in infancy. After her death in 1633, he married Alice Beconshaw, daughter of Sir White Beconshaw of Moyles Court at Ellingham in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

and his wife, Edith, daughter of William Bond of Blackmanston,

Steeple, Dorset Steeple is a hamlet and former civil parish, now in the civil parish of Steeple with Tyneham, in the Purbeck district of the English county of Dorset. It is situated west of the coastal resort town of Swanage at the foot of Ridgeway Hill. In ...

. Alice bore him seven children, one of whom, John, inherited Moyles Court. Alice was executed in 1685 at Winchester on a charge of harbouring fugitives after the

Battle of Sedgemoor The Battle of Sedgemoor was the last and decisive engagement between the Kingdom of England and rebels led by the Duke of Monmouth during the Monmouth rebellion, fought on 6 July 1685, and took place at Westonzoyland near Bridgwater in Somerse ...

. The conduct of the trial, where

Judge Jeffreys George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys, PC (15 May 1645 – 18 April 1689), also known as "the Hanging Judge", was a Welsh judge. He became notable during the reign of King James II, rising to the position of Lord Chancellor (and serving a ...

, presiding, applied intense pressure on the jury to convict, caused much unfavourable comment; and the refusal of King James II to heed pleas for mercy gave rise to a belief that he was taking posthumous revenge on Sir John himself. Another of John's children, Bridget, married

Leonard Hoar Leonard Hoar (1630 – November 28, 1675) was an English-born American Congregational minister and educator, who spent a short and troubled term as President of Harvard College. Life Born in Gloucestershire about 1630, he was the fourth son of ...

, the 3rd President of

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Lisle, John 1610 births 1664 deaths Regicides of Charles I English lawyers Roundheads 17th-century English lawyers English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 English MPs 1648–1653 English MPs 1654–1655 English MPs 1656–1658

Education and career

Personal life

See also

References