DUCKINFIELD, John (1626-78), of Duckenfield Hall, Cheshire, and Carrickfergus, co. Antrim.

John Duckinfield was the scion of an ancient Cheshire family, which had been seated at Duckenfield Hall since the thirteenth century.11Sig. 27 June 1657, Lansdowne 822, f. 114. His elder brother, Robert Duckenfeild, came to prominence during the first civil war as a trusted subordinate of Sir William Brereton*; during the 1650s served as governor of the Isle of Man; and after the Restoration became an important patron for the surviving Independent congregations in north-west England.12Lancs. and Chesh. Wills and Inventories, vol. ii. ed. G.J. Piccope (Chetham Soc. 1860), 24-8; Vis. Chesh. 1618 (Harl. lix), 87-9. The early career of John Duckinfield (who was barely 16 at the outbreak of civil war) is uncertain. In July 1649 he joined the advance guard of Cromwell’s expedition to Ireland, as a captain of foot under Colonel Robert Venables, and he probably took part in the battle of Rathmines and the sieges of Drogheda and Wexford, where the regiment saw distinguished service.13Wanklyn, New Model Army, ii. 184; Bodl. Tanner 56, f. 87. Immediately afterwards, Venables’ regiment was sent north, to collaborate with Sir Charles Coote* in subduing the royalist and Irish Catholic forces in Ulster.14SP28/67, ff. 253, 259, 271; Mercurius Politicus no. 1 (6-13 June 1650), 9 (E.603.6). Over the next two years Duckinfield received rapid promotion: by April 1651, although still holding the rank of captain, he had become town major of the important garrison town of Carrickfergus; in the following June he was promoted as major in Venables’ regiment; and by 1653 he had succeeded Robert Barrow* as lieutenant-colonel.15SP28/76, f. 380; SP28/78, f. 521; Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. ii. 668.

During the protectorate, Duckinfield remained heavily involved in the government of Ulster. He was appointed to the assessment commissions of cos. Down and Antrim in the winter of 1654-5.16An Assessment for Ire. In the following spring he organised the transportation of part of Venables’ regiment to Scotland, as a precautionary measure after Penruddock’s royalist rising in the west of England.17CSP Dom. 1655, p. 340. After the disgrace of Venables in September 1655, Duckinfield came under the command of the new governor of Ulster, Thomas Cooper II*, who was also governor of Carrickfergus. When Cooper went to England in early 1657, Duckinfield took control of the town as acting governor, reporting to Henry Cromwell* on military matters.18Ire. under the Commonwealth, i. 664; Henry Cromwell Corresp. 290, 383. In the same year, he was appointed a justice of the peace in co. Antrim, and he was involved in the administration of the region for the remainder of the protectorate.19CSP Ire. 1647-60, pp. 623, 660. In Cooper’s absence, Duckinfield was the only regular soldier on the Antrim bench, and there seems to have been an element of friction between him and the Old Protestant majority. In September 1657, for example, the magistrates were called upon to investigate the activities of the local Presbyterian synod, whose members had violently evicted an Independent minister, William Dix, from the pulpit at Derryaghy near Belfast. The Old Protestant justices having taken no action against the Presbyterians, Duckinfield delivered Dix’s complaint to the Irish council in person – an action which suggests that he shared his brother’s support for religious sectaries.20Ire. under the Commonwealth, i. 670-2. Duckinfield’s local influence, as garrison commander and justice, no doubt explains his election as burgess for Carrickfergus and Belfast in 1659. Although he attended the session at Westminster, and was named to the committee of Irish affairs on 1 April, there is no other record of his activity in this Parliament.21CJ vii. 623a.

After the fall of the protectorate, Duckinfield sided with the army interest. In June 1659 he transferred to England, where he became lieutenant-colonel of John Hewson’s* regiment, and, in his colonel’s absence, commanded the regiment when it was involved in the suppression of Sir George Boothe’s rebellion in the north west.22CJ vii. 682b, 684a. In August he negotiated the surrender of Chirk Castle, which earned him the thanks of Parliament and a reward of £250.23CJ vii. 769b; CSP Dom. 1659-60, p. 583. It was during this campaign that Duckinfield became involved with the militant faction in the army led by John Lambert*, and he went on to play an important part in promoting the petition of Lambert’s brigade at Derby in September.24Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. ii. 412-3. Duckinfield was one of the officers who presented the petition to Parliament on 22 September, and on 13 October he was involved in the army’s attempt to close Parliament by force – stopping the Speaker’s carriage outside the gate of the Palace Yard, and forcing him to turn back 25Whitelocke, Diary, 531; Clarke Pprs. iv. 57-8; Ludlow, Mems. 139. In the next few weeks, as tensions continued to rise, Duckinfield became one of Lambert’s staunchest allies. Once Hewson had resumed command in December 1659, the regiment garrisoned London, and only withdrew once it was clear that Lambert’s coup had failed. On 24 December Hewson capitulated to Parliament, and in January 1660 all the officers, including Duckinfield, were cashiered.26Clarke Pprs. iv. 146; Mordaunt Letterbk. 75-6; Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. ii. 414-5.

In the early years of the Restoration period, Duckinfield was unable to reconcile himself to the new regime. In November and December 1660 he was implicated in a plot to capture the new king, and to execute the queen mother.27CSP Dom. 1660-1, p. 414; Ludlow, Mems. ii. 328. In June 1662, and again in October 1663, he was arrested for involvement in other plots in Ireland and Cheshire, and was listed as a ‘dangerous person’.28CSP Dom. 1661-2, p. 399; 1663-4, p. 298. In the autumn of 1665, when another insurrection was feared in the north west of England, suspects were questioned about their connections with John Duckinfield and his brother, Robert – who were still considered the most serious risks to security in the region.29CSP Dom. 1665-6, pp. 8, 47. In the later 1660s, as the likelihood of revolution receded, Duckinfield became a merchant. By 1669 he had moved south, becoming resident of Butsbury in Essex, and had married the daughter of a London merchant, Edward Francklin. On his death in 1678, he owned property in London, a merchant ship, and over £3,000 in capital (including £1,200 invested in the East India Company). He died childless, his heir being his nephew, Sir Robert Duckenfield, who had been created a baronet by Charles II in 1665.30PROB11/356/91.