John Blakiston (c. 1603–1649), was a member of the English parliament, 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 Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland from 27 March 1625 until Execution of Charles I, his execution in 1649. Charles was born ...

, a prominent

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and coal merchant,

puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

and anti-Episcopalian.

Biography

John Blakiston was born in 1603 in Sedgefield, County Durham, as the third son of Marmaduke Blakiston, Prebendary of York and Durham Cathedral. In 1626 he married Susan Chamber. He was a fervent financial supporter of the Puritans migrating to America, though he himself never left the country. In 1636 he entered into an ideological dispute with Yeldard Alvey, an

Arminian Arminianism is a movement of Protestantism initiated in the early 17th century, based on the Christian theology, theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed Church, Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius and his historic supporters known as Remo ...

vicar at Newcastle, accusing him of heresy. Alvey emerged victorious from the fray, thanks to the support from Archbishop

William Laud William Laud (; 7 October 1573 – 10 January 1645) was a bishop in the Church of England. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I of England, Charles I in 1633, Laud was a key advocate of Caroline era#Religion, Charles I's religious re ...

. Blakiston was fined and excommunicated. He served as a member of parliament for

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

in the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an Parliament of England, English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660, making it the longest-lasting Parliament in English and British history. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened f ...

where he voiced republican ideas early on, but did not take up his seat until 1641 due to a contest over the result. In 1645 he was elected

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

of Newcastle. He was voted an allowance of 4''l''. a week, from 3 June 1645, until 20 Aug. 1646. According to Noble, he was given the post of coal meter at Newcastle, worth 200''l''. a year. He was appointed one of the king's judges, was present at every sitting during the trial. In January 1649, as a commissioner of the

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at the trial of King Charles, he was 12th of the 59 signatories on the death warrant of the King. He died in June 1649. In 1660, following the restoration, his estate was confiscated by the sheriff of Durham.''The Battle of Floddon Fields'', printed for Emerson Charnley, Newcastle, 1822, p. 20

In popular culture

He's a minor character in Robert Wilton's novel ''Traitor's Field'', published in May 2013 by Corvus, an imprint of

Atlantic Books Atlantic Books is an independent British publishing house, with its headquarters in Ormond House in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden. It is perhaps best known for publishing Aravind Adiga's debut novel '' The White Tiger'', which re ...

References

;Attribution Endnotes: *Brand's ''History of Newcastle''; *Surtees' ''History of Durham'', iii. 165–402; *Noble's account in his ''Lives of the Regicides'' is full of errors.

Bibliography

*Stephen Foster (1991), ''The Long Argument: English Puritanism and the Shaping of New England Culture, 1570-1700'', UNC Press, {{DEFAULTSORT:Blakiston, John 1600s births 1649 deaths People excommunicated by the Church of England English MPs 1640–1648 Regicides of Charles I 17th-century English Puritans 17th-century English merchants People from Sedgefield Mayors of Newcastle upon Tyne 17th-century English businesspeople