Thom as K elsey ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ by Lorraine Sencicle ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ In some local history books Thomas Kelsey at Marston Moor (2nd July 1644). It was is given as a Lord Warden during the expected that Thomas would be caught in Interregnum , that is between 1649 and 1660 Oxford and compelled to surrender. when England was not a monarchy. In However the king and his cavaliers were other books he does not even get a mention. wily and after providing for the defence of The reason for this is that during that Oxford they eluded the NMA and reached period the office of Lord Warden of the Worcester where they were to hold their Cinque Ports did not exist as such. However own in the ensuing battles. the role of the Captain of Dover Castle was In late November 1644 active warfare created which in many respects emulated paused and Charles re-entered Oxford in that of the Lord Warden. trium ph. By the spring of 1646 though, all Thomas Kelsey came from humble arm ed resistance to the NMA was beaten beginnings. It is said that he was the son of down and on 25th June the royalist forces a poor button maker from Birchin Lane were forced to surrender the city. Thomas within the city of London. How he spent his was appointed deputy Governor of Oxford early life is a mystery, possibly he was and entered into the university life by apprenticed to a trade at an early age. enrolling as a student and gaining his MA Nonetheless on 22 August 1642, w hen in 1648. Moreover as a devout puritan he Charles I raised his standard at Nottingham played a prominent part in supporting the initiating the Civil Wars, Thomas was to be authority of the puritan visitors to the seen on the Parliamentary side. In fact he university and puritan views expressed by had already attained the high office of the university academics. major in the Foot Regiment of Col. Edward In London Parliament, satisfied with Montagu the 2nd Earl of Manchester. The the outcome of the Civil Wars, saw very Earl's Lieutenant-General was Oliver little use for the NMA and sought to disband Cromwell. it. However, the soldiers' pay was in arrears Three years later Thomas's signature and there was a fundamental difference in witnessed the articles for the surrender of the military and religious ideology between Langford House to Oliver Cromwell. By this Parliament and the leading officers of the time the Parliamentary army was being re­ NMA. This came to a head when in formed under Sir Thomas Fairfax and was February 1647, Charles I, who had been to be called the New Model Army (NMA). captured by the Scots, was handed over to The NMA was to be a highly efficient Parliament on condition that his safety was fighting machine, the first 'professional guaranteed. At the time many in army' that England had ever known. This Parliament hoped that Charles would be being so, regiments ceased to be recruited restored as king but with Parliamentary and therefore, aristocrats and also members constraints. The officers of the NMA of Parliament were excluded from however, wished to put the king on trial. command. This meant that the Earl of On the whole the public supported the Manchester ceased to be in command and parliamentary view but it was evident that thus Thomas was transferred to Colonel this might not prevail. Riots and revolts Ingoldsby's regiment and very soon was were becoming commonplace throughout promoted to lieutenant-colonel. the country and Kent was to see the most In the meantime, Charles I was defeated significant one of the whole period. Like 28 many such revolts, it was something was set up to try the king, one of the judges relatively m inor that started it off. The being Dover's MP, Colonel John Dixwell. mayor of Canterbury announced that On the 30th day of that m onth Charles I was Christmas Day 1647 was to be treated as a executed and Cromwell took up the reins of working day. The citizens were angry and power. riots ensued with the ringleaders holding Under the new regime Kent's strategic the reins of power for about a month. When importance increased as the son of the Parliamentary rule was restored retribution executed king, Charles II, and his quickly followed. The ringleaders were to supporters had fled to the continent. At first be tried and the jury was to be drawn from the now quasi-office of Lord Wardenship Kent's squireocracy which, it was thought, was held by a succession of NMA officers. would ensure that an example would be Although, and possibly because, they were made of the ringleaders. repressive, royalist activities increased However, the jury ignored the charges within the county. In 1650 Thomas Peyton and instead petitioned against the of Knowlton Court, near Sandwich, Lord oppressive rule. Some twenty thousand John TUfton, the Earl of Thanet and other people signed the petition so it was county gentlemen such as Arnold Braemes arranged that on May 29th 1648 the of Dover met with other cavalier leaders in petitioners would assemble on Blackheath London. There they surreptitiously to carry the document to Parliament. purchased and conveyed to various Kentish Unfortunately, the County Committee, the manor-houses, arms and ammunition. It administrative body accountable only to was agreed that the neighbouring counties Parliament, ordered that the meeting would stage a rising in March 1651 to draw should be cancelled. the Army away from Kent, when they This led to a county wide rebellion with would seize Dover castle. Walmer, Deal and Sandown castles quickly Although the rising never took place being taken. The fleet, lying in the Downs, because the ringleaders were betrayed, the joined in and soon, only Dover Castle was Council of State felt it necessary to bring in in the hands of the Parliamentarians. One someone more capable. Thomas Kelsey was of the leaders of the rebellion, Sir Richard appointed Captain of Dover castle and he Hardres, marshalled some 2,000 men to meticulously organised a search mount an offensive. They quickly seized throughout the county for royalists. He also the Moat's Bulwark and with the set guards along the Kentish coast and ammunition they found started to bombard arrested anyone it was felt was suspicious the castle. They levelled the artillery arriving from the continent. So successful directly at the towers and the corners of the was Thomas at totally annihilating all castle wall firing some 500 balls but opposition, he was promoted to the 'without doing any material damage! position of Governor of Kent and Sussex. Tb deal with the insurrection, However, there were other threats to the Parliament called in the NMA which, under safety of the country, mainly from Holland. General Fairfax, quickly brought it to an This manifested itself when forty-four ships end. In the north, General Oliver Cromwell of the Dutch fleet in the Downs, under the had routed a rebellion two weeks earlier command of Admiral Von T^omp, refused and in Oxford Thomas Kelsey had to dip their flag in courtesy. At the time successfully nipped a proposed rebellion in Admiral Blake, with some fifteen vessels, the bud. On 6th December that year, 1648, was already in the Downs and ordered a Colonel Thomas Pride purged the House of shot to be fired across Von Tromp's bows. Commons of members unsympathetic to Instead of acknowledging England, the the NMA's views and Charles I was placed Dutchman retaliated with a broadside from under arrest. On 2nd January 1649, a court all his ships and a fierce battle began. At the outset the English were saved only by the one of the Commissioners for the bad gunnery on the part of the Dutch but management of the navy. In 1656. Thomas they sent for reinforcements. These Thomas represented Dover as member of arranged which helped Blake to victory. In Parliament. It was during this session that gratitude, the Council of State wrote to the Thomas publicly proclaimed his undying people of Dover, thanking the Mayor and loyalty to Cromwell. also promising finance to build a new pier. Two years later, on 3rd September 1658, For the next few years the county was Oliver Cromwell died. In his last hours the relatively peaceful and in 1654 Thomas was Lord Protector nominated his eldest son, elected to represent Sandwich in Richard, to succeed him. At first he was Parliament. However, a year later saw an accepted by the Army but when Richard uprising that nearly overthrew the attempted to exercise authority he found protectorate regime and which involved a that he did not have any. At the same time, number of Kent Cavaliers. It was in early the Army was beginning to fractionalise 1655 that Thomas was told by his and many, including Thomas, put their informants that, 'the b' faces and carriages signatures to a proclamation asking for the of the malignants' indicated that new Rump Parliament, which had been storms were rising and that the Cavaliers dismissed in 1653, to be recalled. were only waiting an opportunity to This was seen as a sign of weakness by imbrue their hands with blood'. A date, 13th both others in the army and the cavaliers. February, had already been fixed for the The latter, in August 1659. attem pted yet insurrection and to the cavaliers, it another uprising but Thomas ruthlessly put appeared that Thomas was oblivious to it. it down. Nonetheless, by Christmas General Then, at the eleventh hour, Thomas George Monck, declared himself to be personally arrested, on the road to reconciled with Parliament.