Colonel Adrian Scrope

Colonel Adrian Scrope

Male 1601 - 1660  (59 years)

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    Adrian Scrope
    Adrian Scrope

  • Name Adrian Scrope 
    Title Colonel 
    Born 1601  Oxfordshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Died 17 Oct 1660  Charing Cross, London, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Notes 
    • Adrian Scrope
      From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

      Colonel Adrian Scrope (Circa 1601 - October 17, 1660) was the twenty seventh of the fifty nine Commisoners who signed the Death Warrant of King Charles I.

      From the Scrope family

      Adrian Scrope occupied the Scrope mansion at Wormsley, Oxfordshire and was a member of the extended Scrope/Scroope family, members of which appear in four of Shakespeare's plays and whose descendants retain private ownership of Bolton Castle in the Yorkshire Dales.

      The regicide

      Adrian was the twenty seventh of the fifty nine Commisoners who signed the Death Warrant of King Charles I in January of 1649 after the English Civil War. Eleven years later, during the Restoration of the monarchy, Adrian Scrope was tried and found guilty of being a Regicide and was executed. He suffered the usual cruel punishment for high treason at that time of being hanged, drawn and quartered.

      His portrait

      Adrian's portrait was painted by (or after) Robert Walker and is displayed in the U.K. National Portrait Gallery.

      His son William

      One of Adrian Scrope's sons, William is thought to have come to North America where he changed his name to William Throope presumably to avoid retribution. William’s past and parentage is surrounded in controversy. Throop family tradition held by many branches of the family for generations has maintained William’s real name was Adrian Scrope, youngest son of Sir Adrian Scrope who was executed for regicide. Sir Adrian Scrope is belived to have told his sons to flee the country. William’s will, dated 12 Jun 1704, begins “In the name and fear of God, Amen. I, William Throope, in ye County of Bristol, yeoman, in the sixty-seventh year of my age and being under some indisposition of body,......” If he was in his 67th year in 1704, he would have been born in 1637, pointing to him being the son of William and Isabell (Redshaw) Throope rather than Adrian Scrope. Adrian Scrope's father was Sir Robert Scrope. Both Adrian and Robert are sometimes referred to with the name Scroope. Some of William's descendants are referred to as Throop.

      Descendants

      Adrian Scrope has several notable descendants including Professor Charles W. Woodworth, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Medal of Honor winner Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur, Jr., and California Institute of Technology benefactor Amos G. Throop.

      External links

      * Adrian's portrait painted by (or after) Robert Walker, hanging in the U.K. National Portrait Gallery It is item number NPG4435 there.
      * Robert Walker's (1599-1658) portraits in the U.K. National Portrait Gallery
      * A biography of Adrian with some detail about his trial
      * Some details about his extended family can be found at the following links:
      o http://www.scroope.net/ancestors/cockerington/scropesofcockerington.htm
      o http://www.scroope.net/
      o Family tree of Amos G. Throop

      Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Scrope"

    • Regicide
      From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

      The broad definition of regicide is the deliberate killing of a monarch, or the person responsible for it. In a narrower sense, in the British tradition, it refers to the judicial execution of a king after alleged due process of law.

      The regicide of Charles I of England

      After the First English Civil War, King Charles I was a prisoner of the Parliamentarians. They tried to negotiate a compromise with him, but he stuck steadfastly to his view that he was King by Divine Right and attempted in secret to raise an army to fight against them. When it became obvious to the leaders of the Parliamentarians that they could not negotiate a settlement with him and they could not trust him to refrain from raising an army against them, they reluctantly came to the conclusion that they would have to kill him. On 13 December 1648, the House of Commons broke off negotiations with the King. Two days later, the Council of Officers of the New Model Army voted that the King be moved from the Isle of Wight, where he was prisoner, to Windsor "in order to the bringing of him speedily to justice". In the middle of December, the King was moved from Windsor to London. The House of Commons of the Rump Parliament passed a Bill setting up a High Court of Justice in order to try Charles I for high treason in the name of the people of England. From a Royalist and post-restoration perspective this Bill was not lawful, since the House of Lords refused to pass it and it failed to receive Royal Assent. However, the Parliamentary leaders and the Army pressed on with the trial anyway.

      At his trial in front of The High Court of Justice on Saturday 20 January 1649 in Westminster Hall, Charles asked "would know by what power I am called hither. I would know by what authority, I mean lawful [authority]". In view of the historic issues involved, both sides based themselves on surprisingly technical legal grounds. Charles did not dispute that Parliament as a whole did have some judicial powers, but he maintained that the House of Commons on its own could not try anybody, and so he refused to plead. At that time under English law if a prisoner refused to plead then this was treated as a plea of guilty. (This has since been changed; a refusal to plead now is interpreted as a not-guilty plea.)

      He was found guilty on Saturday 27 January 1649, and his death warrant was signed by 59 Commissioners. To show their agreement with the sentence of death, all of the Commissioners who were present rose to their feet.

      On the day of his execution, 30 January 1649, Charles dressed in two shirts so that he would not shiver from the cold, in case it was said that he was shivering from fear. His execution was delayed by several hours so that the House of Commons could pass an emergency bill to make it an offence to proclaim a new King, and to declare the representatives of the people, the House of Commons, as the source of all just power. Charles was then escorted through the Banqueting House in the Palace of Whitehall to a scaffold. He forgave those who had passed sentence on him and gave instructions to his enemies that they should learn to "know their duty to God, the King - that is, my successors - and the people". He then gave a brief speech outlining his unchanged views of the relationship between the monarchy and the monarch's subjects, ending with the words "I am the martyr of the people". His head was severed from his body with one blow, and a groan went up from the crowd that witnessed the execution.

      One week later, the Rump, sitting in the House of Commons, passed a bill abolishing the monarchy. Ardent Royalists refused to accept it on the basis that there could never be a vacancy of the Crown. Others refused because, as the bill had not passed the House of Lords and did not have Royal Assent, it could not become an Act of Parliament.

      The Declaration of Breda 11 years later paved the way for the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. At the restoration, thirty-one of the fifty-nine Commissioners who had signed the death warrant were living. A general pardon was given by Charles II and Parliament to his opponents, but the regicides were excluded. A number fled the country. Some, such as Daniel Blagrave, fled to continental Europe, while others like John Dixwell, Edward Whalley, and William Goffe fled to New Haven, Connecticut. Those who were still available were put on trial. Six regicides were found guilty and suffered the fate of being hanged, drawn and quartered: Thomas Harrison, John Jones, Adrian Scroope, John Carew, Thomas Scot, and Gregory Clement. The captain of the guard at the trial, Daniel Axtel who encouraged his men to barrack the King when he tried to speak in his own defence, an influential preacher Hugh Peters, and the leading prosecutor at the trial John Cook were executed in a similar manner. Colonel Francis Hacker who signed the order to the executioner of the king and commanded the guard around the scaffold and at the trial was hanged. Some regicides were pardoned, while a further nineteen served life imprisonment. The bodies of the regicides Cromwell, Bradshaw and Ireton which had been buried in Westminster Abbey were disinterred and hanged drawn and quartered. In 1662, three more regicides John Okey, John Barkstead and Miles Corbet were also hanged, drawn and quartered. The officers of the court that tried Charles I, those who prosecuted him and those who signed his death warrant, have been known ever since the restoration as regicides.

      The Parliamentary Archives in the Palace of Westminster, London, holds the original death warrant of Charles I.
    • Adrian Scrope was a son of Sir Adrian Scrope of Hambleden, Bucks. He was born about 12 January, 1600-01. He was a direct descendant of the family of Buckinghamshire, the head of which was ennobled. He himself occupied the Scrope mansion at Wormsley, Oxfordshire, England.

      He married Mary Waller (born 1605; died 1660 in Charing Cross, London, England) on 29 November, 1624 in Southwark, Surrey, England. They had children:

      * Edmund Scrope - born 1626 in Southwark, Surrey, England; died 1658
      * Robert Scrope - born 1628 in Southwark, Surrey, England
      * Thomas Scrope - born 1630 in Southwark, Surrey, England; christened 11 September, 1630 in Bristol; died about 1658
      * Margaret - born 1632 in Southwark, Surrey, England
      * Ann - born 1634 in Southwark, Surrey, England
      * William Scrope - born 19 March, 1636 in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England; possible alias as a Throope who died 4 December, 1704 and was buried in East Burial Ground Cem, Bristol, Rhode Island
      * Margaret - born 6 February, 1639 in Southwark, Surrey, England
      * Mary - born 1640 in Southwark, Surrey, England
      * Margaret - born 1642 in Southwark, Surrey, England
      * Elizabeth - born 1644 in Southwark, Surrey, England
      * Adrian Scrope - born 1646 in Southwark, Surrey, England

      He was believed to be the regicide, Col. Adrian Scrope, whose signature is on the death warrant of King Charles I. Colonel Adrian Scrope was prominent under Cromwell in the Great Rebellion; fought at Edgehill and other battles, was Governor of Bristol Castle, a Commissioner to Scotland, and was appointed one of the High Court of Justice which condemned Charles the First to be beheaded. He attended that Court with exemplary regularity, sat close to Bradshaw, the President, was 37th to sign the death warrant on Jan. 27, 1648. During the political revolutions of 1659-60, he apparently remained neutral and had some prospect of escape at the Restoration of Charles the Second. He surrendered himself in obedience to the King's proclamation; the House of Commons voted he should have the benefit of the Act of Indemnity on payment of one year's rent, but the House of Lords ordered all the King's judges to be arrested and excepted Scrope absolutely from pardon. Later, the Commons reiterated their vote in Scrope's favour, but the Lords remained firm. Taken altogether, this was an inexcusable breach of faith, as Scrope had surrendered in reliance upon the King's proclamation.

      At his Trial, held at Old Bailey, Oct. 12, 1660, Scrope defended himself with dignity and moderation. He admitted, reluctantly, that he had signed the death warrant of Charles the First. Pleaded that "he was not in the parliament, and that which was done in the high court of justice, it was done by a commission from the parliament, and it was that authority that was then accounted the supreme authority of the nation." Answering this plea, the presiding judge gave an exposition of the British Constitution, showed that the so-called Parliament which had appointed the High Court of Justice was not only unconstitutional but unrepresentative, for "there was but forty-six sat, whereas there were above two hundred and forty excluded," and said : "When men shall assume their acts by obeying them, it is an aggravation." Scrope then pleaded : "If I have been misled, I am not a single person that has been misled, for I see a great many faces that were misled at that time as well as myself," and "I hope that an error of the judgement shall not be accounted an error of the will, for I never went to the work with a malicious heart," to which Lord Chief Barron replied : "If a man do an act of this nature, that may be some kind of excuse to God, but towards man you are to look to the fact." Scrope then reminded the Court that he had surrendered himself on the King's proclamation, but Richard Browne, lord mayor elect of London, in whom "there was great meanness, if not worse," certainly a renegade, for he had been formerly a major-general in the parliamentary army and a kind of a friend of Scrope's, now anxious to prove his loyalty to the new regime, swore that since the restoration of Charles the Second, Scrope had used words apparently justifying the late King's execution and had not pronounced it murder, saying "some are of the opinion, and some of another," and this evidence, which also led to the abandonment of Scrope by the Commons, sealed his fate and he was executed at Charing Cross, London, England on Oct. 17, 1660, aged 58.

      The Chief Justice, who treated Scrope with great civility and was as just as could be expected at the time, stated : "Mr. Scrope to give him his due is not such a person as some of the rest, but he was unhappily engaged in this bloody business." Noble in his "Lives of the Regicides," states : "It was a thousand pities that if so many were to die as public examples, some of the others were equally guilty of the King's death, and whose lives were a disgrace to any cause, were not substituted in hes stead." Ludlow, a contemporary, said : "His port and mean were noble, and the endowments of his mind every way answerable," and an account of his behaviour in prison and at the gallows describes him as "a comely ancient gentleman," and dwells on his cheerfulness and courage. The night preceeding his death, a nephew came to him in his dungeon and requested him to repent of the part he acted in the King's death, and submit to the present King's mercy, to which he replied, "avoid satan," and this same night he composed himself and "slept so sound he snored." At the gallows he referred to "him through whose means I was brought here to suffer, I say no more, the Lord forgives him, I shall not name him," and in his last prayer, he asked for "strength to stand and endure the present hour of temptation," after which the executioner performed his bloody office.

      The author of this note is K.E. Scroope from http://www.scroope.net who has reserved a Copyright 2000-2005. This small portion of her excellent family history is presented under the fair use doctrine.
    Person ID I1789  Complete
    Last Modified 3 Sep 2010 

    Father Robert Scrope,   b. 1569, Middlesex, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. WFT Est 1604-1660, Hambleden, Oxford, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 91 years) 
    Mother Margaret Cornwall,   b. Abt 1573, London, Surrey, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. WFT Est 1586-1672  (Age ~ 98 years) 
    Married WFT Est 1601-1627 
    Family ID F819  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Mary Waller,   b. 1605, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. WFT Est 1640-1706  (Age 101 years) 
    Married 29 Nov 1624 
    Children 
    +1. William Throope,   b. 19 Mar 1636, Nottinghamshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 4 Dec 1704, Bristol, Bristol County, Rhode Island Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 68 years)
     2. Asberry Speer,   b. 16 February 1809, Scott County, Virginia, USA Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 6 Mar 1890, Scott County, Virginia, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 81 years)
    Family ID F574  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBorn - 1601 - Oxfordshire, England Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDied - 17 Oct 1660 - Charing Cross, London, England Link to Google Earth
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