Theme: King, connection to royalty
Am I descended from Royalty? No, I don’t think so. But I believe that my 9G Grandfather was Lord John Lisle, born about 1609 in Wootton, Isle of Wight in England. His rather infamous association with royalty is quite well documented in the history books, as he was one of Cromwell’s Lords involved in the regicide of King Charles I in 1649. Perhaps this is something I shouldn’t be bragging about, but such is the lure of the famous and privileged, that any kind of connection counts!
One of the advantages of being connected to aristocracy and peerage is that their lives and lineages have been historically documented, hopefully with some degree of reliability. So I will summarize John’s life here from these sources, and provide source links at the bottom for those eager to learn more.
I have documented my long descent from Lord John Lisle, as shown here in part (9G means 9 times great grandfather, etc.):
One of the advantages of being connected to aristocracy and peerage is that their lives and lineages have been historically documented, hopefully with some degree of reliability. So I will summarize John’s life here from these sources, and provide source links at the bottom for those eager to learn more.
I have documented my long descent from Lord John Lisle, as shown here in part (9G means 9 times great grandfather, etc.):
9G - Lord John LISLE (1609-1664) m Lady Alice BECONSHAWE (1617-1685)
8G - Margaret LISLE (1643-1686) m Robert WHITAKER (1637-1683)
7G - Jeremiah WHITAKER (1679-1719) m Ann HASKELL (aft 1681-1718)
6G - Jeremiah WHITAKER (c1707) and Joanna KITTIER (c1710)
5G - Joanna WHITAKER (1730-1790) m Arthur NEWMAN (c1727-1785)
4G - Charlotte Lisle NEWMAN (1760-1789) m Col Harry Childeroy COMPTON (1759-1839)
3G - Major Thomas COMPTON (c1789-1850) m Hannah JEFFERY (1790-1871) …
The Compton line continues in PEI, Canada to which my mother, Mabel Marion ANDREW, has multiple connections.
John Lisle was the son of Sir William Lisle and Bridget Hungerford who married in Ellingham Hampshire in 1598. The name Lisle is short for “de Insula” or “de L’Isle” which refers the Isle of Wight on the south coast of England where this prominent family settled in about the 12th century. Like many of his ancestors, John was a lawyer and a politician, graduating from Oxford in 1626 and called to the bar in 1633. He was elected MP for Winchester, and in Parliament in Dec 1644, he was chairman of the committee that investigated Cromwell's allegations against the Earl of Manchester. In 1648 after the second civil war, John Lisle voted against continuing negotiations with the King. Shortly thereafter he was appointed a commissioner of the High Court of Justice for the trial of the King in January 1649. During the trial he acted in an advisory position and helped to draw up the King’s sentence, but he was not a signatory of the King’s death warrant. He then helped frame the new constitution for the Commonwealth, and was one of five appointed to the new Council of State. He was also made a commissioner of the Great Seal. In 1653 he administered the oath of office when Cromwell became Lord Protector, and became a member of the Upper House in 1657 (aka "Cromwell’s House of Lords”). But the tides turned and in 1659 he was dismissed from office and forced to flee the country. In August 1664, as he was leaving a church service at Lausanne Switzerland, John Lisle was shot dead by an Irish Royalist known as Thomas MacDonnell.
John was obviously an ambitious man with strong convictions, who found himself in the centre of all this intrigue and controversy. Depending on who you read, he was described as having a “reputation for acquisitiveness and sharp practice” or “as President of this [High Court of Justice] he is said to have been 'the most unpopular character in the kingdom’ and 'noted for his idleness and profligacy, and never had any practice or knowledge of the law. ... He was bold, bustling, confident, and unscrupulous’. These contradictory accounts are another indication of the polarization and upheaval in England during this period.
John married twice, first to Elizabeth Hobart , daughter of Lord Chief Justice Hobart, who died in 1633 due to childbirth complications. Then in 1636 he married Alice Beconshaw of Ringwood Hampshire and they had as many as 12 children (depending on the source). Due to the rise and fall of John’s career, his family certainly went from a position of wealth, power and influence to one of disinheritance and ruined status and reputations. One can’t help but feel sorry for them.
On a final note, there are over 20,000 people on ancestry.com who have added John Lisle to their tree. So they're sure to be my distant cousins ! ;o) I wonder if any of them will find this posting?
John was obviously an ambitious man with strong convictions, who found himself in the centre of all this intrigue and controversy. Depending on who you read, he was described as having a “reputation for acquisitiveness and sharp practice” or “as President of this [High Court of Justice] he is said to have been 'the most unpopular character in the kingdom’ and 'noted for his idleness and profligacy, and never had any practice or knowledge of the law. ... He was bold, bustling, confident, and unscrupulous’. These contradictory accounts are another indication of the polarization and upheaval in England during this period.
John married twice, first to Elizabeth Hobart , daughter of Lord Chief Justice Hobart, who died in 1633 due to childbirth complications. Then in 1636 he married Alice Beconshaw of Ringwood Hampshire and they had as many as 12 children (depending on the source). Due to the rise and fall of John’s career, his family certainly went from a position of wealth, power and influence to one of disinheritance and ruined status and reputations. One can’t help but feel sorry for them.
On a final note, there are over 20,000 people on ancestry.com who have added John Lisle to their tree. So they're sure to be my distant cousins ! ;o) I wonder if any of them will find this posting?
Sources and further reading:
"John Lisle, Regicide" Bio, British civil war site
'The Regicides", BCW Project site
"John Lisle" - Wikipedia
Sir John Lisle (1366-1408), History of Parliament site [his ancestor and heritage]
The Complete Peerage, Appendix G, p622 on John Lisle (Burke’s Dormant and Extinct Peerages),
Forgotten Books site
History, De Insula of Wodyton c.1080 – 1837, Wootton Bridge Historical site
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