OGLE, Sir William (d. 1682), of Stoke Charity and Michelmersh, Hants.

It has been asserted that William Ogle was born into a leading Northumberland gentry family, the eldest son of Cuthbert Ogle, who died within the life of his own father, George Ogle, whom William eventually succeeded.27Newman, Royalist Officers, 277-8. However, although there seems little doubt that he belonged to this kinship network, the link between the elusive Northumberland man and the future MP does not emerge conclusively. Nor does the link often associated with it to the youth admitted in 1616 to Jesus College, Cambridge, who graduated in 1620.28Al. Cant. Northumberland Ogles, including a Cuthbert who graduated BA in 1586, went to Oxford, but a William who graduated from Merton College in 1628 did so a few years too late to be the MP, by then a mature married man.29Al. Ox. Given the later military career of Sir William Ogle, it is highly likely that he was one of the Captain Ogles who served in the 1620s (the other being Thomas Ogle), and this puts him into the orbit of Sir John Ogle (1569-1640), the Lincolnshire-born lieutenant-colonel and ‘faithful follower’ of Sir Francis Vere in the Netherlands.30‘Sir John Ogle’, Oxford DNB. Sir John, a kinsman of Thomas Ogle, had a nephew named William, son of his brother Adelard (1563-1615), whom he conceivably took under his wing following Adelard’s death.31Lincs. Pedigrees, 732; Coll. Top. et Gen. vi. 194-6; Newman, Royalist Officers, 277. Whether or not he may be identified with that William, the future MP was plausibly the Ogle (first name not given) who was a captain in the regiment of Vere’s brother-in-law Sir Edward Conway† in the Low Countries from late 1624.32SP84/121, ff. 315; SP16/7, f. 66; SP16/61, ff. 150, 153; SP16/522, f. 22; Harl. 3638, f. 125v. Still a member of Conway’s regiment in the spring of 1627, he avoided disbandment, and was listed in Conway’s regiment for La Rochelle and the Ile de Ré that year.33APC Jan.-Aug. 1627, pp. 189, 299, 473; CSP Dom. 1627-8, pp. 139, 143, 341; Add. 21922, f. 104; SP16/68, f. 122; SP16/116, f. 125. In January 1628, Ogle’s company was billeted in Wiltshire and Hampshire.34APC 1627-8, p. 218. His acquisition of knighthood has been dated to that year, but like Sir John’s, it does not appear in the usual sources, and may have been conferred abroad, possibly somewhat earlier.35Newman, Royalist Officers, 277-8.

Ogle already had connections in Hampshire, where Conway had been lord lieutenant since May 1625. Sometime before 4 April 1627 he married Charity, daughter of William Waller of Stoke Charity in the county, and widow of Sir Thomas Phelips† (d. 29 April 1626). Ogle is mentioned in Phelips’ post mortem inquisition, and in May 1631 purchased the wardship of his son.36C142/432/130; ‘Sir Thomas Phelips’, HP Commons 1604-1629; Coventry Docquets, 323, 472. Ogle also succeeded to Phelips’ interest in Winchester, which the latter had represented in Parliament. He leased property from the corporation in 1629, was made a freeman in January 1630, a captain in the town’s militia and in 1632 was named as a commissioner for gaol delivery.37Hants RO, W/B/1/4, ff. 41v, 62v, 65v, 109v; C181/4, f. 104v; Add. 26781, f. 18. Throughout this period, on the other hand, there is no sign that Ogle had landed or local government interests in Northumberland.

Ogle’s local influence enabled him to secure one of Winchester’s seats in the Short Parliament of 1640, although he made no recorded impression on the proceedings in the Commons.38Hants RO, W/B1/4, f 134. After the dissolution Ogle served in the second bishops’ war as colonel of a regiment of foot drawn from Wiltshire and Hampshire, which was quartered at Selby from June to August.39Add. 28082, ff. 9-12; E351/293; Rushworth, Hist. Collns. iii. 1242-3, 1249; CSP Dom. 1640, pp. 286, 366, 462, 470; 1640-1, pp. 432, 452, 456, 488. On 7 October Ogle was re-elected for Winchester to what became the Long Parliament, albeit in his absence, since he was recorded as assisting Edward Conway†, 2nd Viscount Conway, during the negotiations with the Scots at Ripon later in the month.40Hants RO, W/B1/4, f. 137; HMC Var. Col. I, 106-7; CSP Dom. 1640-1, p. 190.

Diarist Sir Simonds D’Ewes* recorded a ‘Mr Ogle’ testifying at Westminster on 23 November that he had ‘preferred many indictments against’ John Cosin, bishop of Durham, ‘for innovations in the church’, but this looks like a northern witness especially summoned.41Procs. LP i. 265. Sir William first appeared in the Journal on 11 January 1641, when he was nominated, appropriately enough, to the committee providing for the king’s army in the north.42CJ ii. 66a. Sworn as a witness against the 1st earl of Strafford (Sir Thomas Wentworth†), he was added on 29 January to the committee to drawn up the charge against the lord deputy.43LJ iv. 115b; CJ ii. 75a. But there is no sign of him again until 10 May, when he took the Protestation.44CJ ii. 141a. Over the next six weeks he received four committee appointments, three of which concerned arrangements for the disbanding of the northern army (20 May, 10 June, 25 June), only to vanish from the record once again.45CJ ii. 151a, 152a, 172b, 188b.

On 6 January 1642 Ogle was a signatory to the letter sent by Hampshire Members regarding the publication of parliamentary orders in the county.46I.o.W. RO, OG/AA/30. The superior rank he had held, and was soon to hold again, appears to preclude his being the ‘Captain Ogle’ (possibly more than one man; probably sometimes Thomas Ogle) referred to in diaries and other records as proffering information to the House on separate occasions in the early months of the year.47PJ i. 23; ii. 108, 235; CJ ii. 504b. On the other hand, he seems to have been in the House on 28 February, when he was nominated to the committee considering a bill regarding brewers.48CJ ii. 461a. On 23 April the Commons accepted the recommendation by the lord lieutenant of Ireland, Robert Sidney, 2nd earl of Leicester, that Ogle be colonel of a regiment to be sent to help suppress the rebellion there.49CJ ii. 539a. Given leave on 2 May to travel to Ireland and yet remain an MP, he had arrived to join the council of Munster in June.50CJ ii. 552b, 585a; PJ ii. 438; Hogan, Letters and Papers, 26, 42-3.

As encouragement, on 30 July the Commons ordered the payment of Ogle’s arrears from his previous service in the north.51CJ ii. 697a. It rapidly became clear, however, that the force sent to Ireland was undermanned and poorly provisioned: in late August Richard Boyle, 1st earl of Cork [I], informed Parliament that Ogle’s regiment was ‘lessened, weakened and made unserviceable by fluxes, smallpox, fevers, and with long marches, and lying upon the cold ground’, as well as by the want of supplies.52Hogan, Letters and Papers, 62-5; PJ iii. 396; D. Townshend, The Life and Letters of the Great Earl of Cork (1904), 421; Add. 27402, f. 86; [J. Gower], A True Relation out of Ireland (1642), 3-4 (E.107.8). The governor of Munster, Murrough O’Brien, 6th Baron Inchiquin [I], had already sent Ogle to London to report on affairs in Ireland, ‘and to continue his stay for some small time as well to advance the affairs of this province as to acquit the House of the trouble of some despatches which we shall make bold to direct to him’.53Hogan, Letters and Papers, 125. Ogle had arrived at Westminster by 22 August, when he was named to a committee to prepare a declaration regarding events at Coventry, and the next day he delivered reports to both the Commission for the Affairs of Ireland and the House of Commons on the problems with Munster campaign. Ogle was thanked for his services and again promised his arrears of pay, £300 of which was approved by the Commons in mid-September.54CJ ii. 733b, 734a, 735a, 762a, 764a; PJ iii. 425; LJ v. 322a, 351a, 352a; Add. 27402, f. 86.

On 27 August, five days after Charles I had raised his standard at Nottingham, Ogle took the covenant to assist Parliament’s commander-in-chief, Robert Devereux, 3rd earl of Essex, and he later promised to provide £100 for the cause (19 Sept.).55CJ ii. 740a, 772a. He was named to the Committee for Irish Affairs (3 Sept.), acted as manager of at least one conference with the Lords on Ireland (29 Sept.), and played a leading role in procuring money to finance the campaign there.56CJ ii. 750b, 758a, 759b, 787a, 823b; Add. 18777, f. 9; Harl. 163, f. 392b. It was later claimed that Ogle was actually offered, and eventually accepted, the position of ‘governor’ of London, to be in charge of overseeing the capital’s military defences, although this cannot be corroborated from other sources.57Add. 27402, ff. 86v-7.

Nevertheless, some time that autumn Ogle deserted Parliament for the king. He had been named as a commissioner of array in Hampshire, but there no evidence that he acted upon it in 1642.58Northants RO, FH133, unfol. The account of Ogle’s civil war career penned after 1645 suggests that he decided to defect soon after the battle of Edgehill on 23 October, having meditated upon his position as a ‘rebel’. This account implied that Ogle went to Bagshot in Surrey, where he was captured by royalist troops, but that he was able to convince the court of his loyalty to the king. He then proceeded to Hampshire, relying upon his friend, Sir John Evelyn of Surrey*, to make his excuses to Parliament for his absence, in an attempt to conceal his defection for as long as possible.59Add. 27402, ff. 87v-89. However, in December he was compromised as a report circulated that he had sought to betray Winchester to Parliament through his royalist friends. Sir John Oglander was disinclined to believe this story: if true, Ogle would be ‘the greatest knave and traitor in the world’.60Add. 27402, f. 89v; I.o.W. RO, OG/AA/31, p. 1.

The waters may have been muddied by the surfacing in Parliament in February 1643 of the intercepted correspondence between Thomas Ogle (variously described as Captain, Serjeant-major and Colonel, and confusingly a prisoner at Winchester House in the Strand) and the former customs farmer and royalist financier Sir Nicholas Crisp* at Oxford.61CJ ii. 978b; Add. 18779, ff. 53-v; Add. 31116, pp. 221-2; B. M. Gardiner, ‘A secret negotiation with Charles the first, 1643-4’, Cam. Misc. viii. 1, 14-16, 18. In April royalist correspondents were reporting that Sir William Ogle had plotted to betray Winchester to the king, but that the plan was ‘discovered by [Harbert] Morley* who instantly clapped up Ogle close prisoner and with his own hands took the pains to cord him neck and heels together’.62Add. 27402, f. 92; Mems. of Prince Rupert, ii. 165. Whatever the truth of this story, on 24 June Ogle was disabled from sitting in Parliament ‘for being in war’ against it, and his regiment in Ireland was placed under the command of Colonel Thomas Horton.63CJ iii. 142b, 143a; Harl. 164, f. 241a.

On 25 July Ogle was present at the royalist council of war near Bristol which preceded the city’s surrender to Prince Rupert.64Bodl. Firth c.6, f. 206; Add. 27402, f. 92; N. Fiennes, A Relation in the House of Commons (1643), 27. In August he was included among those in Hampshire commissioned to raise £800 per week for the royalist cause, and by October he had finally succeeded in securing Winchester for the king.65Docquets of Letters Patent ed. Black, 68. This provided an important base from which to launch raids in the area, and with which to support Basing House during the lengthy siege to which it was subjected by parliamentarian troops. Ogle, who was listed in the declaration issued by the Oxford Parliament in March 1644 as ‘employed in his Majesty’s service or absent with leave’, was evidently a key member of the royalist council of war in Hampshire, providing information for other royalist garrisons.66The Declaration of the Lords and Commons [1644], 25; Godwin, Civil War, 123, 335-40; Clarendon, Hist. iii. 329, 413; Mercurius Aulicus no. 27 (30 June-6 July 1644), 1065 (E.2.30); Add. 26871. f. 115; CCSP i. 262. In September 1645 it was even reported that he encouraged the activities of the Sussex and Hampshire Clubmen.67Add. 24860, f. 137. Ogle surrendered Winchester to Parliament on 5 October 1645, on terms which enabled him to depart the town with full arms.68Add. 27402, ff. 93-9; Coppie of Lieut. Gen. Cromwels Letter, 3-5; Mercurius Civicus no. 124 (1-8 Oct. 1645), 1087-9 (E.304.8); Sprigge, Anglia Rediviva, 141-3; CSP Dom. 1645-7, p. 179. Once in control, Parliament organised the election of a replacement for Ogle in the Commons.69CJ iv. 320b; C231/6, p. 28.

Ogle, whose wife escaped Winchester only to die, faced a court martial at Oxford, but was exonerated (12 Nov.), ennobled as Viscount Ogle of Catherlough in county Carlow (23 Dec.), and belatedly took his place in the Oxford Parliament.70Add. 27402, ff. 99-100; CJ iv. 352b. He probably remained there until the end of the first civil war. On 14 November 1646 he sought to compound for his delinquency upon the Oxford Articles, even though he had not taken the covenant; his fine was set (at a tenth) at £240. Ogle claimed to have a very meagre estate, £1,000 a year having been lost to him following his wife’s death. It apparently consisted of property in Leckford Abbotts in Hampshire worth only £28 a year. He claimed to have been owed £700, and that goods and cattle worth £8,000 had been taken from his estate by parliamentarians.71SP23/192, pp. 133, 138-9; CCC 1563; Coppie of Lieut. Gen. Cromwels Letter, 3-5. In December 1647 the Commons ordered an investigation into the value of his estate, and in April 1648 he was sequestered.72CJ v. 387b; CCC 105. It is probable that Ogle was unable to pay his fine. By late 1648 he was heavily in debt to men like John Ashburnham*, and although he had married again, to another widow, this does not appear to have improved his financial position.73CSP Dom. 1648-9, p. 334; Brown, Abstracts of Som. Wills, i. 82. On 6 December, the day of Pride’s Purge, he was committed prisoner in the Upper Bench with debts of early £5,000.74A List of All the Prisoners in the Upper Bench Prison (1653), 4 (E.213.8).

Ogle remained in prison throughout the 1650s, and was unlikely to have been able to secure much assistance from royalist friends with whom he corresponded, like Inchiquin and Sir Kenelm Digby.75Add. 38175, f. 35; SP78/114, f. 299. Indeed, although he managed to sign the declaration issued by London royalists in April 1660, and to issue certificates regarding the service of junior royalist officers, he remained in prison until well into the 1660s.76Kennett, Register, 121; Eg. 2979, f. 9. In June 1664 he issued a petition outlining his service to the royal cause, and bemoaning the 15 years he had spent in a ‘loathesome prison’. He also complained that the Act of Indemnity prevented him from recovering portions of his estate lost in the 1640s. In April 1665 his case was referred to the lord treasurer, but the outcome is unclear, as is the date of Ogle’s release.77CSP Ire. 1669-70, pp. 500-1; SP63/346, ff. 36-9; CSP Dom. 1664-5, p. 329. He died without male heirs on 14 July 1682, and was buried at Michelmersh in Hampshire six days later.78CP; Michelmersh par. reg.