James Temple

James Temple (1606 - c. 1674) was a puritan, civil war soldier and regicide. Following the death of his elder brother in 1627, he became the only surviving son of Sir Alexander Temple. His sister, Susan Temple, was the grandmother of Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough.

Early life

Temple was born in Rochester, Kent, to Sir Alexander Temple and Mary Sommer. He was born into a gentry family. His uncle was Sir Thomas Temple, 1st Baronet, of Stowe. He moved to Longhouse Place (now known as Chadwell Place) in Chadwell St Mary, Essex in 1607. Both he and his older brother John, were admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1622. Shortly afterwards, as a result of his father's marriage to Mary Bankworth (who was previously married to John Busbridge), he moved again to Haremere Hall in Etchingham, Sussex. In March 1627, Temple married his step-sister, Mary Busbridge. A few months after his marriage, he participated in the Duke of Buckingham's ill-fated expedition to the Isle of Rhé [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography] , during which his brother was killed. During the 1630s, he was associated with the Puritan gentry of Sussex [Anthony Fletcher, "A County Community in Peace and War: Sussex, 1600-1660"] and in due course became a Sussex Justice of the Peace (JP).

Civil War

Temple was related to Oliver Cromwell via his kinsman Edward Whalley who was the brother-in-law of Temple's step sister. When the First English Civil War broke out in 1642, he served as captain of a troop of horse under his uncle Lord Saye and Sele in the Midlands and fought at the battle of Edgehill. By December 1643, he had returned to Sussex and played a major part in the defence of Bramber Castle against a Royalist attack during Lord Hopton's advance into Sussex. [Henry Cheal, "The Story of Chorham", 1921] He was subsequently appointed governor of Tilbury Fort in Essex.

During the Second Civil War, he secured Tilbury Fort, which was of vital strategic importance against the Royalist uprisings in Kent and Essex.

Trial of Charles I

Elected recruiter Member of Parliament (MP) for Bramber in September 1645, Temple emerged as a strong supporter of the group known as Independents. As a result he was one of the MPs allowed to remain after Pride's Purge. In January 1649, Temple was appointed to the High Court of Justice that brought Charles I to trial, and was the 28th of the 59 signatories of the King's death warrant. [House of Lords Record Office, "The Death Warrant of King Charles I"] With the establishment of the Commonwealth, he served on various parliamentary committees, but came under suspicion of corruption, which led to his dismissal from the governorship of Tilbury in September 1650. It was probably around this time that he married his second wife, Joanna van Tromp.

Restoration

Following the Restoration in 1660, Temple was excluded from the Indemnity and Oblivion Act, because of his role in the trial and execution of Charles I. He attempted to escape to Ireland but was arrested in Warwickshire and was held in the Tower of London before being brought to trial as a regicide. He claimed that he had sat on the High Court of Justice in order to pass information to the King's friends and that he had begged Oliver Cromwell not to execute the King. However, he was sentenced to life imprisonment initially in Mont Orgueil, and subsequently in Elizabeth Castle (both on Jersey) where he died around 1674.

References

This article contains text under a Creative Commons License by cite web
url = http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/biog/temple-james.htm
title = The British Civil Wars and Commonwealth website
accessdate =
accessdaymonth =
accessmonthday =
accessyear =
author = David Plant
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
date =
year =
month =
format =
work =
publisher =
pages =
language =
doi =
archiveurl =
archivedate =
quote =

Persondata
NAME=Temple, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=English regicide
DATE OF BIRTH=c. 1606
PLACE OF BIRTH=Rochester, Kent, England
DATE OF DEATH=c. 1674
PLACE OF DEATH=Jersey, Channel Islands