John Downes (regicide)

Colonel John Downes (1609 – c. 1666) was a commissioner who signed the death warrant of Charles I of England. After the English Restoration he was found guilty of regicide and was imprisoned until he died.

He was a businessman who did not fight in the English Civil War but amassed a fortune dealing in the confiscated Royalist estates. In 1641, he was elected Member of Parliament for Arundel. He was a close friend of Cromwell and received substantial land grants in Ireland and England.

On being found guilty of regicide, he received the relatively light sentence of life imprisonment, rather than the usual traitor's punishment of being hanged, drawn and quartered, because he tried to intervene on the King's behalf and only signed the death warrant after being intimidated by the other commissioners. Originally the Downes family came from Cheshire but moved southwards to Warwickshire. The Downes of Cheshire were an ancient Forester family. Roger Downes, a friend of Lord Rochester was killed in a London brawl and his head sent to the family home Wardley Hall. The Hall is supposed to be haunted by his ghost. The family were well known for their adherence to the Catholic faith though in later centuries they were Anglican. It was Francis Downes who retrieved the head of his martyred cousin Ambrose Barlow OSB.

External links

• The Trial of King Charles I - Defining Moment for Our Constitutional Liberties, by The Hon Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG