II. Notes on the Life of Thomas Hainborowe, Officer in the Army and Navy in the Service of the Parliament of England
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II. Notes on the Life of Thomas Hainborowe, Officer in the Army and Navy in the service of the Parliament of England. By EDWARD PEACOCK, Esq. E.S.A. Eead December 14, 1876. THE want of a really good biographical dictionary of Englishmen is, perhaps, more felt by those whose vocation it is to investigate the details of the great civil war of the seventeenth century than by students of any other class. The fame of three or four of the leading spirits of the time has eclipsed in the common memory almost all the other people who took an important part in the struggle between Charles the First and his Parliament. Such must be in a great degree the case whenever the dramatic interest of the story centres in the actions of one commanding intellect or the misfortunes and errors of a single sufferer ; but there is, we believe, no other great crisis in modern history where the less known have been permitted to remain so entirely unknown as the time of which we speak. Thomas Rainborowe, or, as printed books commonly give his name, Rains- borough, has not found his way into our biographical literature, and in the popular histories of the period there is little recorded concerning him save his tragic death. Yet his was a well-known name to contemporaries, and evidence survives to prove that he was one of the most active and energetic of the officers in the service of the Long Parliament; and, furthermore, that, when the split had taken place between the Presbyterians and Independents, he was regarded, alike by foes and allies, as one of the most important members of the latter party. Of his family and ancestors we do not know much. They certainly ranked as gentle, but were probably of little note or distinction. His grandfather, also called Thomas, was the first of the line who has, as far as we have been able to discover, left any record of himself behind him. He was a sailor, and dwelt at Greenwich ; but he possessed a not inconsiderable leasehold estate at Claver- hambury, in Essex, held under " the Right Honourable Edward Lord Denny, VOL. XLVI. c 10 Notes on the Life of Thomas Rainborowe. Baron of Waltham holy Crosse."a It has been suggested that he or his immediate ancestor may have been a Bavarian Protestant exile, but the only ground for the idea is the similarity of his name as commonly spelt with Raynesbury," the old English form of Regensburg, that is, Ratisbon. That foreign settlers in this country sometimes took to themselves surnames from the places from whence they came is probable, could be proved, indeed, if the investigation were worth the labour, which it is not on this occasion, for there seems here nothing but similarity of sound to give countenance to the conjecture that they were not of English blood except the fact that neither the name of Rainborowe, nor any spelling into which it could easily have been corrupted, or of which it might well be a corruption, occurs in any English name-list earlier than the seventeenth century that we have had the opportunity of consulting, and that Johannes Reynberg is mentioned in 1351 as one of the " mercators de hansa Alemannie " in Die Recesse und andere Akten der Sansetage, i. 83. The Rainborowes were, it has also been imagined, of Dutch extraction, and kinsmen or namesakes of a certain ambassador from the Seven United Provinces to Charles I., who is sometimes called Rainsborough.0 The ambassador's real name was John Van Reede, and he was Lord of Renswoude/ and consequently commonly called after his domain, a name quite sufficiently like Rainborowe to account for the mistake. There are two fine medals of him by Simon, on which his titles occur.6 That the Rainborowes were an English family is, if not proven, made highly probable by the arms they bore, which are almost identical with those attributed in the romance to Guy of Warwick and his son Rainburn. " Capten Ransbrowe " bore : Checquy or and azure, a Moor's head proper, wreathed argent, bearded sable/ and Thomas Rainborowe, the Parliamentarian. Colonel, sealed his letters with a signet-ring bearing this coat. The shield of a Will of Tho. Rainborowe, dated 4 December, 1622, as quoted in the will of his wife, Margaret, dated 29 November, 1626, in Archiepisc. Eeg. Cant. b Bayle's Select Works, pp. 449, 525. c Whitelock, p. 148. a Johan van Eeede, Lord of Eenswoude, son of Gerard van Reede, Lord of Nederhorst, by his wife, Machteld van Dirt, born in 1593. In 1611 he was " chanoine," and in 1620 dean of the chapter of Utrecht. In 1623 he bought the seignieury of Renswoude. He was many times a member of the States General of the United Provinces, and frequently employed in embassies. In 1644 he was despatched with Boreel and Joachimi to England with instructions to mediate between the King and the Parliament. He died in February 1682, leaving eight children by his wife Jacoba.—From information furnished by Dr. M. F. A. G. Campbell, Royal Librarian, the Hague. e These medals were executed in 1645 and 1672. See Medallic History of England, pi. xxiv. 4; Vertue, Medals, &c. by Simon, pi. xxii.; Van Loon, ii. 274, iii. 125. Specimens of both are in the British Museum. f Heralds' Coll. Miscell. Grants, iv. 89. Notes on the Life of Thomas Hainborowe. 11 Guy of Warwick, after his assumption of pilgrim's weeds, is represented as bearing Checquy or and azure, a man's head affronte, filleted argent. It is the head of Colbrand, the Danish giant, whom he had slain. Rainburn, Raiburn, or Sir Raynbrown, was Guy's son, and he is said to hare borne the above coat quartered with other imaginary ones.a There is no reason for doubting that Rainborowe is one of the many English family names that have been assumed or given from the possession or home of the family. There is a Rainsbarrow in Cumberland, and a Rainsborough Camp near Charlton in Oxfordshire.11 Thomas Rainborowe, the sailor, had two sons, Thomas, probably an armourer in the city, and William, who seems to have been brought up to the sea. Though not, apparently, in the constant employment of the Crown, William Rainborowe was frequently engaged in the public service, and often consulted when advice on naval matters was required. Lord Clarendon tells us that he was "an eminent commander at sea,"c a compliment which he probably received from having suc- cessfully commanded the English fleet which was sent to attack the Sallee pirates in 1637. His naval instructions on that occasion and several of his letters con- cerning the business are preserved among the State Papers.d There is also a curious journal of the expedition, in the form of a quarto tract, by a certain John Dunton, entitled, " A true journall of the Sally Meet with the proceedings of the voyage, whereunto is annexed a list of the Sally Captives' names, and the places where they dwell." London, 1637. William Rainborowe's conduct in this expedition was thought very praiseworthy, for the King proposed to knight him, but he declined the honour; therefore an order issued that a gold chain and medal should be given to him worth 300Z.e In 1627 we find William Rainborowe living at Wapping, and petitioning with others against the noxious smell of the alum-works there/ In 1640 he was chosen a Member of the Long Parliament for the town of Aldborough, in Suffolk, and on the 12th of December of that year "Mr. Treasurer and Capt. Rains- borow " were appointed to represent to the King that ten sail of Turkish pirates were harassing our western coasts, and to urge upon the King that two ships then riding in the Downs should be forthwith sent to scour the seas.g He never could have taken a very active part in the proceedings of that assembly, for on 14th of February, 1642, a warrant issued for a new writ because his seat had become vacant by death." a Row's Roll, 22, 23. b Fraser's Mag. February 1877, p. 169 ; Proc. Soc. Ant. 2d S. i. 324. c Ed. 1843, chap. xi. 646. a Stat. Pap. Dom. Car. I. vols. cccxxxyii.-cccxxxix. e Stafford's Letters, ii. 129. f Stow's Surrey of London, ed. Strype, 1755, ii. 41. « Com. Jour. ii. 50. h Ibid. ii. 429. c2 12 Notes on the Life of Thomas Rainborowe. "William Rainborowe left at his death several sons and daughters. We are only concerned with Thomas, who was probably the eldest. He, like his father, was a seaman, and there are several obscure notices in the pamphlets and news- papers of the time indicating that he had, before the breaking out of the Civil war, become known as a man serviceable in nautical affairs. Clarendon, who was no admirer of his, says of him that " he had been bred to the sea, and was the son of an eminent commander lately dead." a Perhaps he had gained experience under his father in the African expedition; no record of the fact, if it were so, has yet been discovered. The fisrt time he emerges into daylight is in 1640, when we find him elected member for the borough of Droitwich. There is little evidence that he gave attention to his parliamentary duties in the earlier days of that assembly. After the war-storm had burst it is certain that he was almost constantly occupied in military or naval service.