LAGOE, Waldive (1617-68), of Manchester, Lancs.

Waldive Lagoe was the youngest son of a modest Warwickshire family.17Kingsbury par. regs.; sig. SP28/61/4, f. 703: 28 Aug. 1649. A young man at the start of the civil wars, he soon joined the parliamentarian army. He served as a lieutenant and then captain in Henry Barclay’s regiment in Essex’s army from 1642, and he was probably present at the surrender of Essex’s foot at Lostwithiel in 1644.18SP28/265, ff. 210-3; SP28/267/3, ff. 158-60; Wanklyn, New Model Army, 59. In 1645 the regiment was reassigned to the New Model, and on Barclay’s refusal to serve, Edward Harley* became the new colonel.19Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. i. 359. In 1645, during the New Model’s siege of Bristol, the regiment (under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Thomas Pride*) distinguished itself at the storm of the Prior’s Hill earthwork, and Lagoe was reputedly ‘the first man that laid hold on the colours of the fort’.20Sprigge, Anglia Rediviva, 117; HMC Portland, i. 269. In the spring of 1647 the regimental command passed to Thomas Pride as a full colonel, and Lagoe soon became his right-hand man. This was reflected in Lagoe’s involvement in the politics of the army: he was present at the council of war held at Reading in July 1647 (prior to the army’s march on London); in October 1647 he was chosen by the regiment as one of the agitators in the army debates; and after the second civil war he attended the officers’ council and committee meetings.21Clarke Pprs. i. 176, 437. By the end of 1648, Lagoe, promoted to the rank of major, had also begun to organise the regiment’s pay, countersigning (and, from November 1649, signing independently) receipts for amounts issued by the treasurers-at-war.22SP28/61/4, f. 703; SP28/62/2, f. 301; SP28/63/2, f. 265; SP28/63/3, f. 477; SP28/64/1, f. 216; SP28/64/3, f. 514. Although the regiment played an important part in suppressing unrest in London in December 1648, there is no evidence to suggest that Lagoe was directly involved in Pride’s purge of the Commons.

In the summer of 1650 Pride’s regiment marched north against the Scots, and Lagoe was almost certainly present at the battle of Worcester in September 1651, and took part in the stamping out of Scottish resistance thereafter.23SP28/69/1, f. 35; SP28/70/1, ff. 18-19; SP28/74/3, f. 478. He was made lieutenant-colonel in June 1653, taking effective command of the regiment, which was stationed at Aberdeen.24Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. i. 367-9. Lagoe was willing to serve the protectorate, and in December 1654 was a key player in suppressing Colonel Robert Overton’s conspiracy. The regional commander, George Monck*, reassured Oliver Cromwell that he was ‘much assured of Lieutenant-Colonel Lagoe’s firmness to us’.25TSP iii. 55. Lagoe’s reputation as a loyal Cromwellian no doubt influenced his appointment in late 1655 or early 1656 as lieutenant-colonel of the protector’s own foot regiment. At this time, Lagoe acquired property in Essex, becoming a commissioner for gaol delivery in Havering-atte-Bower and a commissioner for securing the peace of the commonwealth in Essex.26C181/6, pp. 105,185, 272. In the latter capacity he worked with the local major-general, Hezekiah Haynes*, and was involved in identifying royalists liable for the decimation tax.27TSP iv. 317, 435. Lagoe’s identification with major-generals explains his role in the exclusion of over 100 suspect MPs from the second protectorate Parliament in September 1656.28Abbott, Writings and Speeches, iv. 281. Similar incidents followed. In December 1657 a group of ‘divers gentlemen’ were arrested by Lagoe at the tennis courts at St James’s, on suspicion of fomenting unrest against the government.29TSP vi. 716. At the opening of Richard Cromwell’s* Parliament in January 1659 Lagoe was again on hand at the door of the Commons to administer the oath to Members before they were allowed to sit in the House, although on this occasion he was acting as a Member himself, not as an army officer.30CJ vii. 593a-b.

Lagoe’s election for the 1659 Parliament is rather mysterious. A native of Warwickshire, with property interests in London and Essex, he seems to have had no immediate connection with Dorset, yet was returned as one of the four who sat for the double-borough of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis. Seven candidates had been nominated, and two outsiders – Colonel John Clerke II* and Lagoe himself – were elected in preference to local figures such as Richard Burie and Henry Waltham. The presence of John Trenchard* as another successful candidate may indicate a factional interest in the election, but no firm connection can be established between him and the two colonels.31Weymouth Charters, 119; Weymouth Min. Bks. 105. Apart from his activity in vetting the members on their entry to the House, Lagoe played no part in the proceedings at Westminster.

With the collapse of the protectorate and the return of the commonwealth in the spring of 1659 Lagoe began to court his old comrades in the army. When the committee of safety debated the new Irish officer list, Colonel Robert Barrow objected to Lagoe and other potential officers because he doubted their loyalty to Parliament’s cause; but they were defended by Colonel Richard Lawrence and the appointments were approved.32CSP Dom. 1659-60, p. 3. When the list of Irish regiments was confirmed on 8 July, Lagoe was included as adjutant-general.33CSP Dom. 1659-60, p.13. A fortnight later he was appointed lieutenant-colonel to Sir Thomas Fairfax’s* regiment.34CSP Dom. 1659-60, p. 13; Clarke Pprs. iv. 25. The army’s acceptance of Lagoe may have been encouraged by his second marriage, which took place at about this time, to the widow of the eminent New Model colonel and Lancashire grandee, Charles Worsley*.35Lancs. RO, DDKE/9/91/5; Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. ii. 488. During the turbulent weeks of December 1659, Lagoe confirmed that his loyalties now lay with the army. The seizure of Portsmouth by republicans such as Sir Arthur Hesilrige* and Harbert Morley* brought a speedy response from the council of officers, who sent Lagoe and Major Cadwell to blockade the town.36Clarke Pprs. iv. 188; CCSP, iv. 481. An attempt to reinforce the malcontents, led by Colonel John Fagge* in Sussex, was foiled by his timely arrest by Lagoe.37Mercurius Politicus no. 598 (8-15 Dec. 1659), 946 (E.773.26). Despite Lagoe’s best efforts, within a few weeks the intervention of George Monck had broken the army’s power, and restored the MPs secluded by his old colonel, Thomas Pride, in 1648.

The restoration of the monarchy brought an abrupt end to Lagoe’s military career, but otherwise he seems to have survived unscathed. He continued to hold the property which he had acquired in Piccadilly, which he now held on lease from the earl of St Albans (Henry Jermyn*), and maintained his landed interests in Essex, but his will, drawn up in 1668, shows that the family possessions were in general very modest.38PROB11/326/522. He seems to have spent much of his time in Lancashire, and surviving correspondence shows he was close to his second wife’s family, the Kenyons of Parkhead.39Lancs. RO, DDKE/9/35/5, 8, 39; 9/36/19; 9/37/5, 6, 13; 9/38/40; 9/73/40. In a letter to his father-in-law in June 1667, Lagoe complained of lameness, for which he was undergoing a course of treatment.40Lancs. RO, DDKE/9/38/18. He died in February 1668, and was buried by his brother-in-law, Edward Kenyon BD, in the parish church at Prestwich.41Lancs. RO, DDKE/9/39/12; Manchester par. regs.; Prestwich par. regs. He was succeeded by his son, also Waldive, who died in London in 1677.42PROB4/5820.