GILL, Edward (1610-75), of Carr House, Rotherham, Yorks.

Gill belonged to an old Sheffield family that had settled at nearby Norton, Derbyshire, during Elizabeth’s reign.21Hunter, Hallamshire, 143; Dugdale’s Vis. Yorks. i. 152. Although the Gills were only minor gentry, Gill’s father – who was styled ‘yeoman’ as well as ‘gentleman’ before the 1630s – had built up a sufficently large estate in southern Yorkshire and northern Derbyshire by 1633 to enable Gill to marry into one of the Sheffield area’s leading godly families, the Brights of Carbrook.22Sheffield City Archives, CM/1756, 1768; JC/5/2, 22-3; OD/833, 844, 848, 899-903; PR2/11/3/9. Gill’s first marriage, to a sister of the future parliamentarian colonel John Bright*, would be the making of his parliamentary career. Gill remained on close terms with the Brights after his first wife’s death in 1635 and was subsequently appointed a trustee of their estate by Bright’s father.23Supra, ‘John Bright’; Sheffield City Archives, WWM/D132, 601; WWM/Br P78/10, 185a(vi-vii)/16. By his second marriage in 1638 – to the daughter of another future parliamentarian, Henry Westby – Gill acquired an estate at Carr House, in Greasbrough, near Rotherham, which he made his principal residence.24Hall, Sheffield and Rotherham, 227-8.

At some point during the first half of 1642, Gill signed the petition from the Derbyshire gentry, urging Charles to return to Westminster ‘for the reformation of those great grievances which had crept both into the church and commonwealth’.25G. Sitwell, ‘The Derbys. petition of 1641’, Jnl. of the Derbys. Arch. and Natural Hist. Soc. xix. 23. As one of Rotherham’s leading parliamentarians, he was forced to take refuge in the Pennine clothing district (the stronghold of the Fairfaxes) when the town fell to the royalists in 1643.26Jones, ‘War in north’, 384. It has been conjectured that Gill was the ‘Captain Gell’ who led an attack on royalist-held Leeds in February 1644. After the Restoration, however, Gill was to claim (probably truthfully) that he had not been made a captain in Parliament’s northern army, commanded by the 2nd Baron Fairfax (Sir Ferdinando Fairfax*), until 1645.27The Kingdomes Weekly Intelligencer no. 46 (29 Feb.-6 Mar. 1644), 372 (E.35.25); Jones, ‘War in north’, 384. The officer who led the attack against Leeds was more probably George Gill, who had been a captain in the northern army since 1643 and who had close ties with Leeds.28D. Hirst, ‘The fracturing of the Cromwellian alliance: Leeds and Adam Baynes’, EHR cviii. 870.

More important than when Gill received his commission was the fact that he became a captain in the regiment of foot commanded by John Bright. Evidently trusted by his former brother-in-law, Gill succeeded him as governor of Sheffield Castle following Bright’s appointment as governor of York early in 1645.29Supra, ‘John Bright’; SP20/11/8; E113/7, pt. 2. As governor of Sheffield Castle, Gill apparently enjoyed the brevet rank of either a lieutenant-colonel or colonel.30CSP Dom. 1648-9, p. 8. On relinquishing his governorship, which he did in about June 1647, he seems to have returned to the rank of a captain. Whether Gill resigned his post as governor or was dismissed is not known. Certainly the timing of his departure from office suggests that there was some friction between him and the militants in the Northern Association army, who attempted (successfully in the case of Major-general Poynts, the commander of the Northern Association forces) to remove Presbyterian officers from key positions during the summer of 1647.

Gill remained a captain in the army until at least March 1648, when he paid £100 to Thomas St Nicholas*, the receiver-general for the West Riding, in full of the arrears of a £25 annuity ‘due for the delinquency of Mr. Freshville’.31SC6/CHASI/1190, unfol. (entry for 19 Mar. 1648). This payment probably relates to various property transactions before the civil war between Gill and the future royalist John Freschville† of Staveley, Derbyshire.32Sheffield City Archives, JC/5/48; Borthwick, Prob. Reg. 57, f. 660v. Whether Gill was connected with the Freschvilles – one of Derbyshire’s leading royalist families – on a more personal level is not known. If Gill did remain in Bright’s regiment, he would have acquired considerable military experience. During the second civil war, the regiment fought under Oliver Cromwell* at the battle of Preston (August 1648) and, at the end of this campaign, accompanied him to Scotland. It is likely that Gill had resigned his commission before the summer of 1650, when Bright was replaced by Major-general John Lambert*.33Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. ii. 525-6. That he had been appointed steward of the estates in the Rotherham area of Elizabeth, countess dowager of Kent, by late 1651 certainly suggests that he was at home in south Yorkshire rather than on active service. The countess’s principal steward was her de facto husband John Selden*, who was apparently in regular correspondence with Gill during the early 1650s.34Belvoir, Original letters, Members of the Long Parliament, PZ 1, f. 5; CCC 2474.

Although Gill was named to successive Derbyshire assessment commissions under the Rump, it is likely that he had little sympathy with the commonwealth regime. This would probably account for his removal from the Derbyshire bench in July 1651.35C231/6, p. 221. Given his relative obscurity in Yorkshire, it is difficult to account for his selection as one of the county’s eight representatives in the Nominated Parliament in 1653. A clue may lie in the manner of his nomination. He was one of 19 men who appear to have been nominated at a later stage than the majority of MPs, which may well indicate that he and the other 18 were chosen because some of the original nominees had been considered politically unreliable, or, more likely, because they had refused to sit. Significantly, one of the men who had originally been considered for a place, but who for some reason was dropped from the final line-up, was John Bright.36Woolrych, Commonwealth to Protectorate, 138, 139. Another of Bright’s former officers, Captain Roger Coates, was also one of the 19 later nominees. It is possible that Bright refused to sit, recommending Coates and Gill as substitutes.

Perhaps daunted by his lack of political experience, Gill contributed very little to the Nominated Parliament’s proceedings. He received only three appointments – the first of which, on 19 July, was to a committee to consider ‘the propriety of incumbents in tithes’.37CJ vii. 286a. Tithes were a highly contentious issue in this Parliament, with a sizeable minority of Members demanding their abolition. As his appointment in 1654 as a Cromwellian ejector clearly indicates, Gill favoured some form of publicly-maintained ministry, which suggests that nomination to the July 1653 committee was intended to bolster the ranks of the moderates. On 20 July, he was named to a committee for reform of the law; and on 28 October, he was added to a committee for ‘the advancement and best managing of the treasure of the commonwealth’.38CJ vii. 286b, 341b.

Gill negotiated the transition from commonwealth to protectorate with some success. On 28 January 1654, he was named to the protectorate’s first Army Committee – an appointment he may well have owed to Bright, who appears to have been an influential figure in the early years of the Cromwellian regime. And in July 1654, he was returned for both the West Riding and Derbyshire in the elections to the first protectoral Parliament.39C219/44/1, 3, unfol. His interest in Derbyshire derived mainly, it seems, from his estate in the north of the county – which included his residence at Brimington Hall – and his standing as one of its leading parliamentarians. His interest in the West Riding was probably similar in nature, but may well have been strengthened by John Bright’s presence among the six successful electoral candidates. On polling day (12 July), five of the six places went, without any dispute, to Thomas 2nd Lord Fairfax, Lambert, Tempest, Bright and Gill. However, a fierce contest developed over who should take the last seat, with part of Gill’s and Tempest’s followings combining with that of Sir Edward Rodes – a prominent Yorkshire Presbyterian – in an attempt to defeat the Republican, Martin Lister*. In the event, the contest went to a poll, in which Lister, with the help of Lambert’s supporters, defeated Rodes. The support that Gill’s followers gave to Rodes is perhaps further evidence of his Presbyterian leanings.40Supra, ‘Yorkshire’. Returned for two constituencies, Gill does not appear to have specified which he intended to sit for and may in fact have served both. He received no committee appointments in this Parliament and was apparently entirely inactive in the House.

In the elections to the second protectoral Parliament in the summer of 1656, the West Riding returned Lambert, Francis Thorpe, Tempest, John Stanhope, Henry Arthington and Gill – apparently in that order. But while Lambert and Gill duly took their seats, the other four successful candidates were among the 100 or so Members who were excluded from the House by the protectoral council as opponents of the government.41Supra, ‘Yorkshire’. On 22 September, Gill was one of 29 MPs who voted against a motion that the excluded Members apply to the council for approbation to sit – which was interpreted as support for ‘the bringing in of the excluded Members into the House’ and was comprehensively defeated.42Bodl. Tanner 52, f. 166; CJ vii. 426b. Most of these 29 Members have been accounted Presbyterians.43M.J. Tibbetts, ‘Parliamentary Parties under Oliver Cromwell’ (Bryn Mawr Univ. PhD thesis, 1944), 127-9. After losing this vote, Gill appears to have abandoned his seat, receiving no committee appointments in this Parliament and making no recorded contribution to debate.

Gill apparently took no further part in national politics after 1656. As a likely opponent of the republican interest and its sectarian allies, he probably supported the Restoration, although he was evidently not trusted by the crown, for he was omitted from all local commissions during the course of 1660. In 1662, he was required by the government to account for any public revenues that had passed through his hands in the previous two decades, and, like Bright, he retained Lord Fairfax’s former military secretary, John Rushworth*, to represent him.44Sheffield City Archives, WWM/D729.

Gill died in the summer of 1675 and was buried at Rotherham on 28 August.45Dugdale’s Vis. Yorks. i. 152. In his will, he left the bulk of his estate to his wife and eldest son. His bequests amounted to less than £200.46Borthwick, Prob. Reg. 57, f. 660v-661v. He was the first and last of his line to sit in Parliament.