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 Bicameralism, 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 ...

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

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

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 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 ...

. 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 colle ...

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 entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

in 1633. Lee, Sidney (1903),

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

br>Index and Epitomep. 781
(also main entry xxxiii 341) In April 1640 he was elected Member of Parliament for

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

in the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on 20 February 1640 and sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640. It was so called because of its short session of only three weeks. After 11 years of per ...

. He was re-elected MP for Winchester for 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 ...

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 describes the members of the Long Parliament who remained in session after Colonel Thomas Pride, on 6 December 1648, commanded his soldiers to Pride's Purge, purge the House of Commons of those Members of Parliament, members ...

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 ...

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 status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

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 H ...

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 (United Kingdom), Speaker of the House of Commons. In its first sess ...

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

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

on 11 August 1664 by Sir

James Fitz Edmond Cotter Sir James Fitz Edmond Cotter ( or ''Séamus Mac Éamonn Mhic Coitir''; –1705) was a soldier, a colonial governor and the commander-in-chief of King James's forces in the Irish counties of Cork, Limerick, Tipperary and Kerry. He was a prominent ...

, 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 January 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 Tho ...

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 counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

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 English county of Dorset. It is situated west of the coastal resort town of Swanage at the foot of Ridgeway Hill. In 2013 the estimated popul ...

. Alice bore him seven children, one of whom, John, inherited Moyles Court. Alice was executed in 1685 at

on a charge of harbouring fugitives after the

Battle of Sedgemoor The Battle of Sedgemoor was the last and decisive engagement between forces loyal to James II 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 S ...

. The conduct of the trial, where

Judge Jeffreys George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys (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 as L ...

, 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 education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

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