Descendants of John Phelps, Scty. to Cromwell
1. JOHN2 PHELPS, SCTY. TO CROMWELL (ROBERT1)1,2 was born Abt. 1619 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England3,4,5, and died Aft. 1666 in Vevey, Switzerland6,7.
Notes for JOHN PHELPS, SCTY. TO CROMWELL:
1619 Born abt. 1619 in Salisbury, County Wilts, England
1636 May 20, matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford
1648-9 Jan 08, Clerk of High Court, Trial King Charles I
1650 Called to the bar at the Middle Temple
1652 Oct 14, Clerk to the committee of Parliament
1654 Purchased and sold the manor and royalty of Hampton Court on the Thames
1654 Official note-taker at the trial of Vowell and Fox
1658 Concerned in the trial of Slingsby and Hewitt
1659 7 to 14 May he again acted as clerk of the House of Commons
1660 14 May the House of Commons voted the arrest of Phelps and his fellow clerk Broughton
1662 Evaded pursuit and was at Lausanne in the company of Ludlow.
1666 21 July John Phelps was in Holland
John Phelps, in 1649 was joint-clerk of the Court that tried and condemned to death King Charles I, having such zeal as to sign each record with his full name. To escape the terrible penalty imposed on the regicides for their act, John Phelps became an exile in Vevery, Canton de Vaud, Switzerland, where he died. In the ancient church of St. Martin, in Vevery, a black marble monument, inscribed to the memory of John Phelps, exiled in the cause of human freedom, was erected in 1882 by two American descendants of the same English Phelps family of Tewkesbury.[remains unestablished]
--Judge Oliver Seymour and Andrew T. Servin, The Phelps Family of America and their English Ancestors, (Eagle Publishing Company of Pittsfield, Mass., 1899), Volume I, Page 8, 22, 54-57,
PHELPS, JOHN (A. 1649) regicide, matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 20 May 1636, describing himself as age 17, and the son of Robert Phelps of Salisbury (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1st ser. p. 1155). His first employment seems to have been that of clerk to the committee for plundered ministers. On 1 Jan. 1648-9 he was appointed clerk-assistant to Henry Elsing, clerk of the House of Commons, and on 8 Jan. was selected as oneof the two clerks of the high court of justice which sat to try Charles I (Commons' Journals, vi. 107; Nalson, Trial of Charles I, 1682, pp.7,9). The original journal of the court, attested under the hand of Phelps, and presented by the judges to the House of Commons, was published by Nalson in 1682 (ib. p. xiv; Commons' Journals, vi. 508). In 1650 Phelps was called to the bar at the Middle Temple. On 14 Oct. 1652 he was made clerk to the committee of parliament chosen to confer with the deputies of Scotland on the question of the union (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1651-2, p. 439).
He was employed as official note-taker at the trial of Vowell and Fox in 1654, and was also concerned in the trial of Slingsby and Hewitt in 1658 (ib. 1654 p. 235, 1654 p. 235, 1658-9 p. 11). From 7 to 14 May 1659 he again acted as clerk of the House of Commons (Commons' Journals, vii. 644, 650). By these different employments Phelps made sufficient money to purchase a part of the manor of Hampton Court, which was bought from him in 1654 for the use of the Protector (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1654, pp. 180, 223).
At the Restoration the House of Commons included Phelps and his fellow clerk Broughton among the regicides, and on 14 May 1660 voted their arrest (Commons' Journals, viii. 25). Prynne was ordered to secure all the public documents which were among the papers of Phelps, and his goods were also seized (ib. pp. 27, 32, 43, 47). On 9 June it was further voted that he should be excepted from the Act of Indemnity for future punishment by some penalty less than death; and on 1 July 1661 he was attainted, in company with twenty-one dead regicides (ib. pp. 60, 286). Phelps however, succeeded in evading all pursuit, and in 1662 he was at Lausanne in company with Ludlow. At the close of that year he and Colonel John Biscoe bought goods at Geneva and other places, and resolved to try to make a livelyhood by trading in Germany and Holland (Ludlow, Memoirs, ii, 344, ed. 1894). In 1666 he appears to have been in Holland, and his name was included in a list of exiles summoned on 21 July to surrender themselves within a given time to the English government (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1665-6, pp.342, 348, 358). The date and place of his death are unknown.
A tablet to his memory was erected a few years ago in St. Martin's Church, Vevay (Ludlow, ii. 513; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. Vi.13).
-- George Smith, The Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. XV, (1917), Page 1031-2.
Phelpes, John, s. Robert, of Salisbury, Wilts, pleb. Corpus Christi Coll. matric. 20 May, 1636, aged 17; bar.-at-law, Middle Temple, 1650. See Foster's Judges and Barristers.
-- Joseph Foster, Alumni Oronienses: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1500-1714, (Reprinted 1968), 1st ser. p.1155.
More About JOHN PHELPS, SCTY. TO CROMWELL:
Burial: Vevey, Switzerland, next to Edward Ludlow8,9
Occupation: 1654, Private secretary to Cromwell10,11
Endnotes
1. George Smith, The Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. XV, (1917), Page 1031.
2. Phelps George Family.FTW, Date of Import: Jul 16, 1999.
3. Joseph Foster, Alumni Oronienses: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1500-1714, (Reprinted 1968), 1st ser. P.1155.
4. George Smith, The Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. XV, (1917), Page 1031-2.
5. Phelps George Family.FTW, Date of Import: Jul 16, 1999.
6. Judge Oliver Seymour and Andrew T. Servin, The Phelps Family of America and Their English Ancestors, (Eagle Publishing Company of Pittsfield, Mass., 1899), Volume I, Page 8, 22, 54-57, John Phelps fled with Gen. Ludlow to Vevey, Switzerland.
7. Phelps George Family.FTW, Date of Import: Jul 16, 1999.
8. Judge Oliver Seymour and Andrew T. Servin, The Phelps Family of America and Their English Ancestors, (Eagle Publishing Company of Pittsfield, Mass., 1899), Volume I, page 8.
9. Phelps George Family.FTW, Date of Import: Jul 16, 1999.
10. Letter from Art & Joy Morton dated Jan. 19, 1998.
11. Phelps George Family.FTW, Date of Import: Jul 16, 1999.