REDMAN, Daniel (1617-aft. 1674), of Ballylinch, co. Kilkenny.

Daniel Redman was the son of a Westmorland clergyman.16Burke’s Landed Gentry of Ire. 455. He first comes to attention in 1642, when he was a captain in the foot regiment of Edward Montagu†, Lord Mandeville (later 2nd earl of Manchester) in the main parliamentarian army commanded by Robert Devereux, 3rd earl of Essex; and he continued to serve in Manchester’s regiment when it was part of the Eastern Association army.17Spring, Eastern Association, ii. 65. In the summer of 1644 Redman moved to the regiment of Colonel Lytcott, which formed the garrison of Northampton, and in the winter of 1644-5 he was on secondment to Sir Samuel Luke* at Newport Pagnell, and had been promoted to the rank of major.18SP28/16, f. 24; Luke Letter Bks. 100, 102, 169, 362, 405, 431, 433, 603; Brereton Letter Bks. ii. 106-7. In September 1649 he was appointed major in Oliver Cromwell’s* horse regiment – a position which he retained until the lord protector’s death.19SP28/62, f. 408; Henry Cromwell Corresp. 411. During the early 1650s, Redman was on active service in the north of Ireland, and in May 1652 was one of the army officers who petitioned Parliament against ‘our general lenity towards (and composure with) this enemy’.20SP28/63, f. 19; SP28/68, f. 466; SP28/72, ff. 67, 95; SP28/77, f. 94; SP28/82, f. 101; Bodl. Tanner 53, f. 20. In the summer of 1653 he was appointed commissioner to arrange the transplantation of the Ulster Scots into Leinster, and by the end of 1654 he had been appointed commander of the English forces in co. Down, and assessment commissioner for co. Antrim.21Ire. under the Commonwealth, ii. 360; An Assessment for Ire.

Redman’s importance to the security of Ulster at this time no doubt influenced his election as burgess for Carrickfergus and Belfast in the 1654 Parliament.22Mercurius Politicus no. 219 (17-24 Aug. 1654), 3710 (E.809.5). It also ensured he was one of the six officer-MPs kept in Ireland at this time by the lord deputy, Charles Fleetwood*, as a safeguard against native unrest.23TSP ii. 558. In early 1655 Redman again proved his loyalty to the regime, when he was put in charge of the Irish troops sent to Scotland during the security crisis which followed Penruddock’s royalist rising in the west of England. Under Colonel Thomas Sadleir’s* overall command, these troops remained on the mainland throughout the summer of 1655, and on their return to Ireland, in September, Redman’s loyal service was recognised by the protectoral council, which ordered a medallion and chain to be presented to him as a reward.24CSP Dom. 1655, pp. 166, 265, 278, 357, 440; CSP Ire. 1647-60, p. 817.

After 1655, Redman’s sympathies started to change. The new lieutenant general of the army in Ireland, Henry Cromwell*, moved him from Ulster to Leinster, and by the spring of 1656 he was acting as the government’s ‘local commander’ in Kilkenny, Carlow and Queen’s County.25Ire. under the Commonwealth, ii. 623. The geographical move was matched by a shift in Redman’s political allegiances. Having been a solid supporter of the army interest, Redman now became an ally of Henry Cromwell. In May 1656 he was working closely with Henry in the management of the armed forces garrisoned in co. Kilkenny, and in November Henry wrote to Secretary John Thurloe* on behalf of Redman and others who ‘are very deserving, and have made as little advantage to themselves by serving the public, as I know’.26Henry Cromwell Corresp. 133-4; TSP v. 653. In March 1657 Redman intervened to prevent a mass gathering of Quakers at Waterford, and expressed disapproval of the officers, including William Allen and John Vernon – who had tried to stir up trouble in the region.27Henry Cromwell Corresp. 226. A few months later he sent Henry Cromwell detailed reports of the activities of Irish tories in co. Kilkenny.28Henry Cromwell Corresp. 278. In January 1658 Henry Cromwell recommended Redman to Lord Broghill (Roger Boyle*) as a man of ‘constant and faithful service’ who had deserved better than ‘his very small and encumbered lot’.29TSP vi. 744. Not that Redman needed special pleading: having received an estate at Ballylinch, co. Kilkenny, as part of his arrear payment, he went on to purchase lands across the Irish midlands.30Irish Landed Gentry ed. MacLysaght, 420. In December 1658 he was engaged in a boundary dispute with the marchioness of Ormond over lands on the borders of Queen’s County and Kilkenny; and the fate of this substantial set of land-acquisitions would remain one of Redman’s greatest concerns in later years.31NLI, D.1999; CCSP iv. 582, 629; P. Barwick, Life of Dr John Barwick (1724), 498.

Redman’s connections with Henry Cromwell also influenced his political career in the second half of the 1650s. In September 1656 he was elected MP for the combined counties of Carlow, Wexford, Kilkenny and Queen’s for the second protectorate Parliament.32Ire. under the Commonwealth, ii. 624n. Redman does not appear to have attended the first sitting of this Parliament – his correspondence with Henry Cromwell shows that he was in Ireland between March and June 1657 – but he travelled to Westminster in time for the opening of the second sitting in January 1658, when he and Colonel Sadleir were added to the committee for Irish affairs.33Henry Cromwell Corresp. 226, 265, 278; CJ vii. 580b. In August 1658 he accompanied Henry Cromwell on his progress through Munster, and the following month he was rewarded with command of the horse regiment formerly commanded by Henry’s brother-in-law, Sir John Reynolds*, who had died a few months earlier.34Chatsworth, CM/29, unfol.: 2 Aug. 1658; Henry Cromwell Corresp. 411; Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. ii. 594-5; Wanklyn, New Model Army, ii. 245. With his growing local land-holdings and his favour with Henry Cromwell, Redman easily secured re-election for the four south-eastern counties in January 1659. Taking ship in early February, in the company of such government supporters as Henry* and George Ingoldsby* and Dr Dudley Loftus*, he had probably taken his seat by the beginning of March, although he was only mentioned in the Journals on 1 April, when he was named to the committee of Irish affairs.35CSP Dom. 1658-9, p. 522; CJ vii. 623a.

By the spring of 1659, Redman’s political fortunes had become entirely dependent on the survival of the Cromwellian regime. The collapse of Richard Cromwell’s* government, and the ousting of Henry Cromwell as lord lieutenant of Ireland shortly afterwards, left Redman exposed to his rivals in the army, who made sure he was ‘turned out with his general’ in the purge of the army in the following July.36Life of Dr John Barwick, 162. Cashiered for his ‘zeal to the usurpation of Cromwell’, Redman remained in London, acting as Henry Cromwell’s agent ‘to give him a true account how things stand here’.37Ludlow, Mems. ii. 203; TSP vii. 686. It was in this period of uncertainty that Redman was approached by a group of royalist agents which was operating in London. Redman’s principal contact within this ‘cell’ was his brother-in-law, John Otway, but comments of another royalist agent, Dr John Barwick, to Charles II in late June 1659, suggest that Barwick and other plotters had ‘known Redman for several years past, and have always found him to be a civil and sober person, and not prodigal of his expressions’.38TSP vii. 685-6. Otway and Barwick worked on Redman throughout the summer, and, even after the failure of Sir George Boothe’s* rising in August, the three men continued to meet secretly with Colonel John Clobery and other discontented officers in London. During the autumn Redman had promised Barwick that he would ‘use his endeavours to draw away from [John] Lambert’s* army the Irish forces’ – meaning the Irish brigade under Colonels Daniel Axtell* and Jerome Sankey*, currently based in northern England – but while the army still maintained a united front, such schemes were far too dangerous to implement.39Life of Dr John Barwick, 223.

It was only with George Monck’s* military challenge to Lambert, in the winter of 1659-60, that Redman was able to put his plan into action. In late December, Parliament ordered Redman and another Irish officer, Lieutenant-colonel John Brett*, to take control of the Irish brigade, based at York, and Redman went north expecting to have to win them over piecemeal.40Ludlow, Mems. ii. 203; CSP Dom. 1659-60, p. 294. On his arrival, however, the Irish soldiers ‘bade their new commanders, Axtell and Sankey, to shift for themselves, openly protesting that they would serve hereafter none but Colonel Redman’. The decision of the Irish brigade to join Redman proved decisive: Lambert’s forces were thoroughly demoralised by the defection, and there were no longer any hostile troops between Monck and London.41Life of Dr John Barwick, 224; CCSP iv. 550, 561.

From late January 1660 Redman worked with Monck in quelling unrest in the north west of England, and the general, impressed by his new subordinate, asked Parliament to consider giving him a regular command, as ‘you have few better horse officers in your service, and he is sober and well principled’.42Clarke Pprs. iv. 251-2. In the following weeks, Redman reduced the garrisons at Shrewsbury, Denbigh, Carnarvon and Chester.43TSP vii. 854, 861. During the crucial early months of 1660, he remained in close contact with his royalist friends and relatives in London, and he was evidently seen as an important influence on Monck, whose intentions towards the Stuarts were still unclear. In early March 1660 Sir Edward Nicholas† received reports that Redman and Clobery were ‘officers of most esteem with [Monck]’; and Barwick concurred, telling Hyde that ‘[Monck] hath a high esteem of Redman, and that justly’.44Nicholas Pprs. iv. 195; TSP vii. 854. But Monck also had great influence over Redman, and there are signs that Barwick and his friends began to fear that the latter was not entirely reliable either. In the new year of 1660 efforts were taken that ‘[Redman] shall not find his fortune the worse for serving the king’ once the Irish land settlement was reviewed, as Barwick realised that ‘the shoe will pinch hardest with him on the point of the purchased lands’.45Life of Dr John Barwick, 498; CCSP iv. 582, 649. There was also a moment of panic in March 1660, when a secret letter from the king to Charles Stanley, 8th earl of Derby, was mistakenly delivered to Redman, who was still evidently considered unreliable.46TSP vii. 871.

Any such caveats were soon forgotten after the Restoration, when Redman reaped the benefits of his earlier dealings with the royalist underground. He continued to hold a commission in the Irish army from 1660, as captain of horse in the earl of Orrery’s regiment, performing garrison-duties at Kilkenny and Waterford.47CSP Ire. 1647-60, p. 288; HMC Ormonde, i. 241, 244, 279, 352; ii. 180. Redman’s connection with Kilkenny increased in the next few months. He served as poll-money commissioner for the city and county in 1661, and in the elections for the Irish Parliament later in the year, he was returned as MP for the county.48Irish Census, 1659, 640; CJI i. 591. During the 1660s and early 1670s, Redman continued to augment his landed estates, purchasing land in the barony of Ikerrin, co. Kerry, for £5,200 in 1669, which he then demised in 1674, probably as part of the marriage portion for his daughter and heiress, who married a future Jacobite, James Butler, 3rd Viscount Ikerrin, in the same year.49NLI, D.8775-6; Irish Statute Staple Bks. 281. When Redman died shortly afterwards, the estate at Ballylinch passed into this branch of the Butler family, whose descendants were created earls of Carrick in 1748.50Lodge, Peerage, ii. 226, 228.