The Bourchier and Bowker Pages

Discovering the ancestry of the South African Bowkers, and the English Bourchiers

Sir John Bourchier, - the regicide

Sir John Bourchier, - the regicide

Male Abt 1595 - 1660  (65 years)

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  • Name John Bourchier  [1
    Title Sir 
    Suffix - the regicide 
    Birth Abt 1591  Beningborough, Yorkshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Birth Abt 1595  [1
    Gender Male 
    Death 5 Dec 1659  London, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2
    Death 1660  [1
    Person ID I311  Bourchiers
    Last Modified 13 Apr 2020 

    Father William Bourchier,   b. 1559, Beningborough, Yorkshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Mother Katherine Barrington,   b. 1565, Essex Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1630 (Age 65 years) 
    Marriage Abt 1584  Barrington Hall, Yorkshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Family ID F194  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Anne Rolfe 
    Marriage 1617  Hadley, Suffolk, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Children 
    +1. Bridget Bourchier,   b. 1620, Beningborough, Yorkshire, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 12 Sep 1662, Kirkby Overblow, Yorkshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 42 years)
    +2. Sir Barrington Bourchier,   b. 1627   d. 29 Oct 1695 (Age 68 years)
     3. Elizabeth Bourchier
    Family ID F196  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 31 Jul 2015 

  • Photos
    Bourchier,John(Sir) regicide
    Bourchier,John(Sir) regicide
    Keywords: Picture

  • Notes 
    • regicide; Member of Parliament for Ripon, 1645; one of Charles I's judges, 1648; signed death-warrant; member of Council of State, 1651 and 1652; surrendered as regicide, 1660, but died before settlement of exceptions to Act of Indemnity.

      From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bourchier_%28regicide%29
      "
      Sir John Bourchier or Bourcher (c. 1595 – August 1660) was an English parliamentarian, Puritan and one of the regicides of King Charles I.


      John Bourchier was the son of William Bourchier of Beningbrough and grandson of Sir Ralph Bourchier. He was probably educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, and was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1609/10. He was knighted in 1609.[1]

      In 1625, Bourchier was appointed as a Justice of the Peace for the three Yorkshire Ridings. When Charles dissolved Parliament and sought to raise money through the forced loans in 1627, Sir John was one of those who refused. At the outbreak of the English Civil War, he was arrested and imprisoned in York until 1643. He was elected Member of Parliament for Ripon in 1647; at Pride's Purge, he was one of the MPs permitted to keep his seat in Commons.

      As a judge at the trial of King Charles, he was one of the signatories of the King's death warrant. After the Restoration, May 1660, Bourchier was too ill to be tried as a regicide, and died, unrepentant, a few months later.

      "During these contests between the two Houses, toufhing the exceptions to be made, Sir John Bourchier, who had been one of the King's judges, and had rendered himself within the time limit by the proclamation, being of a great age and very infirm, was permitted to lodge at a private house belonging to one of his daugheters. In this place he was seized with so dangerous a fit of illness, that those about him who were his nearest relations, despairing of his recovery, and presuming that an acknowledgment from him of his sorrow, for the part he had in the condemnation of the King, might tend to procure some favour to them from those in power, they earnestly pressed him to give them that satisfaction. But he being highly displeased with their request, rose suddenly from his chair, which for some days he had not been able to do without assistance; and receiving fresh vigour from the memory of that action, said, 'I tell you, it was a just act; God and all good men will own it.' And having thus expressed himself, he sat down again, and soon after quietly ended his life."[2]

      Bourchier was a great-grandson of Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury who had been beheaded by order of King Henry VIII; Charles I was a great-great-grandson of Margaret Tudor-a sister of King Henry VIII. He was the great-great-great-grandson of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, who was known as the "Kingmaker" for helping to place both Edward IV and Henry VI upon the throne during the War of the Roses.
      "

      from http://bcw-project.org/biography/sir-john-bourchier
      "
      Yorkshire Puritan who signed the King's death warrant and died unrepentant before being brought to trial as a regicide.

      John Bourchier was the eldest surviving son of William Bourchier of Beningborough in Yorkshire, who was certified a lunatic in 1598, after which Bourchier was brought up under the wardship of his mother and uncle. After attending Cambridge and Gray's Inn, he was knighted in 1619 and appointed Justice of the Peace for all three Yorkshire Ridings in 1625.

      A devout Puritan, Bourchier refused to pay the forced loans demanded by King Charles I in 1627, and clashed with the Council of the North in a dispute over royal enclosures in the Forest of Galtres near York in 1633, for which he was heavily fined. When King Charles summoned the Yorkshire gentry to attend him on Heworth Moor in June 1642, Bourchier argued violently with the Royalist Lord Savile. On the outbreak of civil war, he was arrested and imprisoned at York until June 1643. He made his way to Hull, where he was involved in the arrest of Sir John Hotham and his son.

      In the spring of 1647, Bourchier was elected MP for Ripon and was one of the Members allowed to retain their seats after Pride's Purge in 1648. He sat as one of the King's judges and signed the death warrant. During the Commonwealth, he was active on various committees and was appointed a Trier and Ejector in 1654. Too ill to be brought to trial as a regicide, Bourchier died unrepentant in August 1660.
      "

  • Sources 
    1. [S6] Tudor Place Website, (http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/BOURCHIER1.htm).

    2. [S7] The Wiki Tree, (http://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/Plantagenet-Family-Tree-114).