LILBURNE, Thomas (1622-65), of Offerton, Houghton-le-Spring, co. Dur.

In 1637 Lilburne was apprenticed to the godly Newcastle merchant and future alderman George Dawson, the brother of Henry Dawson*.25Supra, ‘Henry Dawson’; Tyne and Wear Archives, GU.MA/3/1, f. 123; Howell, Newcastle, 175. Like his master and other leading parliamentarian townsmen, Lilburne withdrew from Newcastle following its occupation by royalist forces in the autumn of 1642; and the following year he was among those the corporation barred from further involvement in civic affairs for their ‘disaffection to the king and the present government of Newcastle’.26Tyne and Wear Archives, MD.NC/1/1, Newcastle Common Council Order Bk. for Sealing Docs. pp. 110, 113. This was certainly no exaggeration in the case of Lilburne, who had taken up arms against the king, becoming a captain in the regiment that his cousin Robert Lilburne* raised in County Durham in the spring of 1644.27Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. i. 264.

With Newcastle back in parliamentarian hands by 1645, Lilburne apparently considered resuming his mercantile career. Despite having failed to complete his apprenticeship, he was admitted to the Newcastle Merchant Adventurers’ Company gratis in November 1645 on the grounds of his ‘good service to king and Parliament’.28Tyne and Wear Archives, GU.MA/3/3, f. 27v. However, he was evidently more interested in soldiering than commerce, and on those rare occasions he was mentioned in the corporation records it is as ‘Captain Lilburne’.29Tyne and Wear Archives, Ms 543/29, Newcastle Chamberlains’ Acct. Bk. unfol. (entry Aug. 1647). It was perhaps his military duties that prevented him from becoming too closely involved in his father’s various disputes with Sir Arthur Hesilrige* and his northern confederates.

It is not clear whether Lilburne shared George Lilburne’s Presbyterian religious sympathies. But he was certainly no friend of the Scottish Covenanters by May 1646 – supplying information as to their supposedly warlike intentions against the English Parliament.30HMC Portland, i. 360. He and his troop were in the thick of the fighting against the Scots and the northern royalists during the second civil war, and the experience seems to have radicalised him, for it was later alleged that he and his father promoted a petition from County Durham for bringing the king to trial.31CSP Dom. 1660-1, p. 113; S. Wynne-Jones, ‘The diary of Maj. John Sanderson’, Procs. of the Soc. of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, ix. 18, 21; Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. i. 266-7. He certainly supported the Northern Brigade’s declaration in favour of the army’s Remonstrance of November 1648.32York Minster Lib. BB53, pp. 32, 33. His only known contribution to the Lilburne family’s quarrel with Hesilrige occurred shortly afterwards, when he accused one of Hesilrige’s officers, Colonel Francis Hacker*, of dereliction of duty.33[J. Price], Musgrave Muzl’d, or the Mouth of Iniquitie Stoped (1651), 16 (E.625.11); J. Lilburne, A Letter of Lieutenant Colonel John Lilburns (1651) 4-5 (E.626.19). Hesilrige, by way of retaliation, may have been behind the charges levelled against Lilburne in 1649 of inciting mutiny in the ranks over pay and free-quarter.34HMC Leyborne-Popham, 56-7; [Price], Musgrave Muzl’d, 16.

The large purchases that Lilburne made using debentures for arrears of army pay suggest that he remained on active service with his regiment during the campaigns of the early 1650s in northern England and in Scotland.35E121/1/7/57; E121/3/3/23, 24; E121/5/7/27; Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. i. 267-70; Gentles, ‘Debentures Market’, 308. He and another of Robert Lilburne’s officers wrote to Captain Adam Baynes* – London agent for the Northern Brigade – from Dalkeith, Scotland, in June 1653, informing him of their willingness to sell the Nonsuch estate to Major General John Lambert* – ‘hoping it will prove a good pennyworth’.36Add 21422, f. 127. Lilburne had returned to County Durham by the spring of 1655, when he was involved in examining those implicated in Penruddock’s rising.37Add. 4155, f. 185; Add. 4156, f. 164.

Later that year or early in 1656, Lilburne was appointed a commissioner for County Durham to assist his cousin Robert as deputy major-general under Lambert – a task that involved ‘reforming [the] several sad miscarriages relating to alehouses and unlawful pastimes, dishonourable to God’, and also the administration of the decimation tax.38TSP iv. 541. According to one (hostile) commentator, Lilburne acted ‘more violently upon the power given to major-generals’ than any other man in the county.39SP29/7, f. 77. It was no coincidence that he was appointed to the County Durham bench in the summer of 1656, at the height of Robert Lilburne’s influence in the region.40C231/6, p. 346. And the deputy major-general doubtless approved of Thomas’s return in first place for County Durham in the elections to the second protectoral Parliament that August.41Supra, ‘County Durham’. Lilburne was named to 23 committees in this Parliament and made several (mostly minor) contributions to debate.42CJ vii. 427a, 444a, 446a, 446b, 448a, 449b, 456a, 472b, 478a, 493a, 494b, 501a, 514b, 515b, 516a, 519b, 521a, 521b, 528b, 532a, 538a, 540b, 581b.

Surprisingly for an army officer (and one who had asked Baynes for the farm of the excise in County Durham), Lilburne opposed the passing of a bill in April 1657 for continuing all legislation relating to customs and excise – much of the proceeds of which went to pay the armed forces – arguing that it contained many clauses that were ‘grievous to the nation’.43Burton’s Diary, ii. 77; Add. 21426, f. 205. Colonel Philip Jones responded by observing that free quarter and mutiny were even worse.44Burton’s Diary, ii. 77-8. In general, Lilburne spoke to less contentious issues, such as the highways bill, or the customs paid on ‘small coal’ from Scotland and Newcastle, which he argued should be reduced.45Burton’s Diary, i. 294 ii. 57, 158, 213, 238, 272, 273. The parliamentary diarist Thomas Burton accounted him a friend, and the two men were part of a group of northern MPs that drafted a bill for suppressing theft upon the Borders.46Burton’s Diary, i. 175, 296; ii. 158.

Despite upholding the rule of the major-generals (at least in County Durham), and his cordial relations with Robert Lilburne, Adam Baynes and other members of Lambert’s circle, Lilburne was listed among the ‘kinglings’ at Westminster – those Members who supported the offer of the crown to Oliver Cromwell*.47[G. Wharton], Narrative of the late Parliament (1658), 22 (E.935.5). Moreover, he was named to committees for seeking the protector’s consent to the Humble Petition and Advice (3 Apr. 1657), for explaining the House’s adherence to the new constitution following Cromwell’s first refusal of the crown (7 Apr.) and to satisfy his doubts and scruples on this issue (9 Apr.).48CJ vii. 519b, 521a, 521b, 540b.

Why Lilburne broke with his cousin Robert and many of his army friends on the kingship question is something of a mystery. Nevertheless, he was apparently a firm supporter of the reconstituted protectorate, joining George Lilburne, his fellow kingling Anthony Smith* and other County Durham Cromwellians in an address to the protector in April 1658, pledging their lives and estates in the preservation of his person and government.49Durham Dean and Chap. Lib. Allan ms 7, pp. 182-3. Soon after Protector Oliver’s death in September 1658 Lilburne wrote to Secretary John Thurloe* from Dalkeith, professing his loyalty to the person and government of Protector Richard Cromwell*: ‘I am so much fixed for this settlement’, he wrote, ‘that I look upon it as a mighty mercy these nations may enjoy the benefit of it’.50TSP vii. 411. He also expressed a high opinion of General George Monck*, the commander-in-chief in Scotland. He voiced similar sentiments to Thurloe a month later: ‘I am so settled upon this government that I am ready to part with anything for the maintaining of it … more power in his Highness with his council in the intervals of Parliament, and in his Highness and Parliament when they sit, will enable his Highness to prevent disorder and protect his people’.51TSP vii. 436.

In the elections to Richard Cromwell’s Parliament of 1659, Lilburne stood as a candidate for Newcastle. Although not a resident of the town, he had been made a freeman in 1647 and had powerful connections among the mercantile elite. The election, which took place on 18 January, was a hard-fought affair involving four candidates – Lilburne, the town’s recorder Mark Shafto*, ‘Mr Blaxton’ (probably the town clerk John Blakiston, son of John Blakiston MP) and one ‘Colonel Clarke of London’ – almost certainly the London-based army officer and admiralty commissioner Colonel John Clarke II*, who had married Thurloe’s sister. After ‘many high words and discontents’ the contest went to a poll in which Shafto and Lilburne recorded the highest number of votes and were duly returned. 52Supra, ‘Newcastle-upon-Tyne; ‘John Clarke II’. Eager to procure his services in London, the Newcastle Hostmen – the town’s coal-merchant cartel – broke with precedent by admitting him to their company even though he was a ‘stranger’.53Tyne and Wear Archives, GU.MA/3/3, pp. 164, 274; Co. of Hostmen of Newcastle-upon-Tyne ed. Dendy, 116. Lilburne’s non-residence probably helped persuade one of his electoral rivals (the likeliest candidate is Blakiston) to petition the committee of privileges against his return. Lilburne defended his election in the committee, but the matter had not been resolved before Parliament was dissolved in April.54Burton’s Diary, iv. 368, 389. The question mark over his return did not prevent him being named to six committees, including those to supply England and Wales with a pious, learned ministry (5 Feb.) and to consider a petition for the re-enfranchisement of County Durham (31 Mar.).55CJ vii. 600a, 600b, 622b, 637b, 638a.

Following the restoration of the Rump in May 1659, Lilburne was either cashiered or resigned from the army – losing, in the process, his salary as captain of reportedly £273 a year.56[Wharton], Narrative of the late Parliament, 11; Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. i. 274; Wanklyn, Reconstructing the New Model Army, ii. 113. His loyalties by this stage lay firmly with Monck, and it was on the general’s orders that he endeavoured to secure County Durham against Lambert and the committee of safety during the closing months of 1659.57CSP Dom. 1659-60, pp. 294-5; A Narrative of the Northern Affairs (1659), 6 (E.1010.19); T. Gumble, Life of General Monck (1671), 189; W. Dumble, ‘The Durham Lilburnes and the English Revolution’, in The Last Principality ed. D. Markham, 243. Late in December he assumed command of his old troop of horse and marched to assist Thomas Fairfax*, 3rd Baron Fairfax, in garrisoning York for Monck.58CSP Dom. 1659-60, p. 295; Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. i. 275; Dumble, ‘Durham Lilburnes’, 243. Monck wrote to Parliament early in January 1660, praising Lilburne as a ‘true patriot’, and a month later he commissioned him as a major in Robert Lilburne’s remodelled regiment.59Clarke Pprs. iv. 239; Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. i. 276. With Monck as his patron, Lilburne had little difficulty securing the favour of the restored monarchy, which confirmed him in possession of the sequestered estate he had purchased at Holme Cultram, Cumberland – much to the chagrin of some northern royalists, who still regarded him as ‘a violent enemy to the late king’.60CRES6/1, pp. 11, 232; SP29/7, f. 77; CSP Dom. 1660-1, p. 530; 1661-2, p. 399; 1663-4, pp. 196, 360; 1668-9, p. 641. They could console themselves, however, that the crown had heeded their pleas that he be denied any public employment.61SP29/7, f. 77.

Lilburne died, without surviving children, in the spring of 1665 and was buried at Houghton-le-Spring on 25 March.62Houghton-le-Spring par. reg. He was described on his memorial slab as ‘one of the instrumental persons in his Majesty’s happy restoration’.63Surtees, Co. Dur. i. 152. In his will, he made bequests totalling about £250 and left goods and chattels valued at £1,140.64Durham UL, DPR/I/1/1665/L9/1-3. None of his immediate family sat in Parliament.