John Wildman
Encyclopedia
Sir John Wildman was an English
soldier and politician.
town of Wymondham
, the son of Jeffrey and Dorothy Wildman. His father was a butcher. John was educated as a sizar
(a poor scholar who had to work as a servant to pay his way) at Corpus Christi College
University of Cambridge
taking an MA in 1644. Wildman may have had legal training as he later described himself as an attorney or solicitor.
During the Civil War Wildman served for a short time under Sir Thomas Fairfax. He became prominent, however, as a civilian adviser to the Army agitators, being in 1647 one of the leaders of that section of the army which objected to all compromise with the king.
In a pamphlet, Putney Projects, he attacked Oliver Cromwell
; he may have written parts of The Case of the Army Stated, and he put the views of his associates before the Council of the Army at the Putney Debates
that took place in Putney church
between 28 October and 11 November 1647. The soldiers, explained Wildman, "desired me to be their mouth", and he argued on their behalf that the engagements entered into with the king should be cancelled, monarchy and the House of Lords abolished, and manhood suffrage established. He also demanded that the officers should accept an Agreement of the People
just put forth by the five regiments
Wild and John Lilburne
attempted to build a movement to campaign for the Agreement of the People. Clarendon
alleged that preparations were made "for his trial and towards his execution". On 18 January 1648 Wildman and Lieutenant-colonel John Lilburne
were informed against by George Masterson, minister of Shoreditch, for promoting a seditious petition, and summoned to the bar of the House of Commons. The house committed both to Newgate. Bail was refused, and, in spite of frequent petitions for their release, they remained in prison until 2 August 1648. The historian C.H. Firth
stated in the DNB
(1900) that Wildman's speech at the bar of the house was very ineffective, and the pamphlet he published in answer to Masterson's charges, entitled Truth's Triumph, was derisively refuted by Masterson in the Triumph Stained.
On the release of the two prisoners a meeting of the Levellers took place at the Nag's Head tavern, in which, says Lilburne, "the just ends of the war were as exactly laid open by Mr. John Wildman as ever I heard in my life", and the party agreed to oppose the execution or deposition of the king till the fundamental principles of the future constitution were settled. To that end a new Agreement of the People was drawn up by sixteen representatives of different parties, but, after long debates in the Council of Officers, it was so altered by the officers that Lilburne and other leaders of the levellers refused to accept it, and published in May 1649 a rival Agreement, drawn up themselves.
It seems that Wildman was satisfied with what the Council of Officers were suggesting because he abandoned further agitation, and during the winter of 1648/49 and joined the New Model Army as major in the regiment of horse of Colonel John Reynolds
. However did not accompany the regiment to Ireland in August 1649.
Wildman remained in England and became one of the greatest speculators in the forfeited lands of royalists, clergy, and Catholics. His purchases of land, either for himself or for others, were scattered over at least twenty counties. For himself he bought in 1655 the manor of Becket, near Shrivenham in Berkshire, and other lands adjoining it, from his friend Henry Marten
.
In 1654 Wildman was elected to the First Protectorate Parliament
as member for Scarborough
, but he was probably one of those excluded for refusing the engagement not to attempt to alter the government. By the end of 1654 he was plotting the overthrow of the Protector
Oliver Cromwell by means of a combined rising of Royalists and Levellers. Consequently he was arrested on 10 February 1655 at Easton
, a village near Marlborough, while dictating A Declaration of the free and well-affected People of England now in Arms against the Tyrant Oliver Cromwell, esq to his secretary William Parker
. He was sent prisoner first to Chepstow Castle
, and afterwards to the Tower of London
. Nearly a year and a half later, on 26 June 1656 a petition begging for Wildman's release was presented to the Protector by various persons engaged in business speculations with him, and on giving security for £10,000 he was provisionally set free.
For the rest of the Protectorate Wildman kept out of prison, though he still continued to intrigue. He was in frequent communication with Royalist agents, whom he contrived to persuade that he was working for the King's cause, and he signed the address presented to Charles II
on behalf of the Levellers in July 1656. It is pretty certain that Cromwell's government were aware of these intrigues, and it is probable that Wildman purchased impunity by giving information of some kind to John Thurloe
(Cromwell's spy master). For this reason he was not trusted by Edward Hyde
and the wiser Royalists. C.H. Firth speculates that Wildman's political object in this complicated web of treachery was probably to overthrow Cromwell, and to set up in his place either a republic or a monarchy limited by some elaborate constitution of his own devising.
In the late 1650s Wildman was associated with the Commonwealth Club, a Republican club meeting at a Covent Garden
tavern called The Nonsuch in Bow Street. He was also in 1659 a member of James Harrington
's Rota Club
, a Republican debating club which determined its by decisions by ballot.
In December 1659, when the army had turned out the Long Parliament
, Wildman was employed by the Council of Officers, in conjunction with Bulstrode Whitelocke
, Charles Fleetwood
, and others, to draw a form of government for a free state, At the same time he was plotting to overthrow the rule of the army, and offered to raise three thousand horse if Whitelocke, who was constable of Windsor Castle
, would declare for a free commonwealth. Whitelocke declined, and Wildman, seeing which way the tide was running, helped Colonel Henry Ingoldsby to seize the castle for the Long Parliament. On 28 December 1659, the house promised that the good service of those who had assisted Ingoldsby should be duly rewarded,
At the Restoration information against Wildman was presented to parliament, but thanks to these recent exploits and to his hostility to Cromwell, escaped untroubled. In 1661 complaints were made that the officials of the post office were his creatures, and he was accused of suspicious dealings with the letters. He was also suspected of complicity in the republican plots against the government, and on 26 November 1661 he was examined and committed to close imprisonment. For nearly six years he was a prisoner, first in the Tower, then in St Mary's, Isles of Scilly, and finally in Pendennis Castle
. His captivity was shared by his son, and, according to Burnet, he spent his time in studying law and physic.
After the fall of Clarendon, on 1 October 1667, Wildman was released on giving security to attempt nothing against the government. In December it was even rumoured that he was to be a member of the committee of accounts about to be appointed by parliament, through the influence of the George, Duke of Buckingham
. Sir William Coventry
expressed his wonder at the proposal to Pepys, Wildman having been "a false fellow to everybody", and Sir John Talbot openly denounced Wildman to the House of Commons. The scheme fell through, and on 7 July 1670 Wildman obtained a license to travel abroad for his health with his wife and son. His intimacy with Buckingham continued, and he was one of the trustees in whom on 24 December 1675 the unsold portion of Buckingham's estate was vested.
On his return to England Wildman plunged once more into political intrigues, though keeping himself at first cautiously in the background. In the plots for armed resistance to the king which followed the dissolution of Charles II's last parliament
in 1681 he appears to have played a considerable part. Wildman was closely associated with Algernon Sidney, both of whom were distrusted by the leaders of the Scottish malcontents, and by the English noblemen concerned, as too republican in their aims. Wildman drew up a manifesto to be published at the time of the intended insurrection, and, though not one of the "public managers", was privately consulted upon all occasions and applied unto as their "chief oracle"; He was also credited with suggesting the assassination of the King and Duke of York
, "whom he expressed by the name of stags that would not be impaled, but leapt over all the fences which the care and wisdom of the authors of the constitution had made to restrain them from committing spoils". On 26 June 1683 he was committed to the Tower for complicity in the Rye House Plot
, but allowed out on bail on 24 November following, and finally discharged on 12 February 1684. The chief witness against him was Lord Howard
, who testified that Wildman undertook to furnish the rebels with some guns, which the discovery of two small field-pieces at his house seemed to confirm.
When the reign of James II of England
began, Wildman, undeterred by his narrow escape, entered into communication with the Duke Monmouth
, and was his chief agent in England. He sent a certain Robert Cragg, alias Smith, to Monmouth and the English exiles in Holland. According to Cragg, Monmouth complained of Wildman's backwardness in providing money for the expedition,
and that Wildman would hinder the expedition from coming until Wildman judged the time right. Wildman, on the other hand, complained that Monmouth and a little knot of exiles were resolved "to conclude the scheme of the government of the nation without the knowledge of any of the people in England", Other depositions represent him as advising Monmouth to take upon him the title of king, and encouraging him by citing the example of the 2nd Earl of Richmond (who became Henry VII
) and Richard III
. All accounts agree that he drew back at the last moment, did nothing to get up the promised rising in London, and refused to join Monmouth when he landed. At the beginning of June 1685 Wildman fled, and an order for his apprehension was published in the London Gazette
for 4–8 June 1685, followed on 26 July by a proclamation summoning him and others to surrender.
Wildman, who had escaped to the Netherlands, remained there till the Glorious Revolution
, probably residing at Amsterdam. He was dissatisfied with the declaration published by the William, Prince of Orange
to justify his expedition, regarding it as designed to conciliate the church party in England, and desiring to make it a comprehensive impeachment of the misgovernment of Charles and James. The Charles, Earl of Macclesfield
, Lord Mordaunt
, and others supported Wildman's view, but more moderate counsellors prevailed. With Lord Macclesfield Wildman embarked on the prince's fleet and landed in England. He wrote many anonymous pamphlets on the crisis, sat in the Convention Parliament
called in January 1689 as member for Wootton Bassett, and was a frequent speaker.
In the proceedings against Burton and Graham, charged with subornation of evidence in the state trials of the late reign, Wildman was particularly active, bringing in the report of the committee appointed to investigate the case, and representing the commons at a conference with the lords on the subject.
On 12 April 1689 he was made postmaster-general. But ere long loud complaints were made that he was using his position to discredit the Tory adherents of William III by fictitious letters which he pretended to have intercepted; and there were also reports that he was intriguing with Jacobite emissaries. Accordingly he was summarily dismissed from his post about the end of February 1691. Wildman, however, had been made a freeman of London on 7 December 1689, became an alderman, and was knighted by William III in company with other aldermen at Guildhall on 29 Oct. 1692.
Wildman died on 2 June 1693 at the age of seventy-two, and was buried at Shrivenham, Berkshire. By his will, according to the epitaph on his monument in Shrivenham church, he directed "that if his executors should think fit there should be some stone of small price set near to his ashes, to signify, without foolish flattery, to his posterity, that in that age there lived a man who spent the best part of his days in prisons, without crimes, being conscious of no offence towards man, for that he so loved his God that he could serve no man's will, and wished the liberty and happiness of his country and all mankind". Macaulay is less favourable. After describing a fanatical hatred to monarchy as the mainspring of Wildman's career, he adds: "With Wildman's fanaticism was joined a tender care for his own safety. He had a wonderful skill in grazing the edge of treason. … Such was his cunning, that though always plotting, though always known to be plotting, and though long malignantly watched by a vindictive government, he eluded every danger, and died in his bed, after having seen two generations of his accomplices die on the gallows". There is an engraved portrait of Wildman, by Faithorne, with the motto "Nil Admirari".
In the ‘Twelve Collections of Papers relating to the Present Juncture of Affairs in England’ (1688–9, 4to), there are several pamphlets probably written by Wildman, viz.:
Three tracts are attributed to Wildman, jointly with others, in ‘A Collection of State Tracts, published on occasion of the late Revolution and during the Reign of William III’ (1705, 3 vols. fol.), viz.:
Wildman had a son, John, who married Eleanor, daughter of Edward Chute of Bethersden, Kent, in 1676,and died childless in 1710, though he made John Shute, later Viscount Barrington, his chief heir, particularly of Beckett Hall
, which Wildman Sr. had purchased in 1657 from the regicide Henry Marten
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
soldier and politician.
Biography
Wildman was born in the NorfolkNorfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
town of Wymondham
Wymondham
Wymondham is a historic market town and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It lies 9.5 miles to the south west of the city of Norwich, on the A11 road to Thetford and London.- Before The Great Fire :...
, the son of Jeffrey and Dorothy Wildman. His father was a butcher. John was educated as a sizar
Sizar
At Trinity College, Dublin and the University of Cambridge, a sizar is a student who receives some form of assistance such as meals, lower fees or lodging during his or her period of study, in some cases in return for doing a defined job....
(a poor scholar who had to work as a servant to pay his way) at Corpus Christi College
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Corpus Christi College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is notable as the only college founded by Cambridge townspeople: it was established in 1352 by the Guilds of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary...
University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
taking an MA in 1644. Wildman may have had legal training as he later described himself as an attorney or solicitor.
During the Civil War Wildman served for a short time under Sir Thomas Fairfax. He became prominent, however, as a civilian adviser to the Army agitators, being in 1647 one of the leaders of that section of the army which objected to all compromise with the king.
In a pamphlet, Putney Projects, he attacked Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
; he may have written parts of The Case of the Army Stated, and he put the views of his associates before the Council of the Army at the Putney Debates
Putney Debates
The Putney Debates were a series of discussions between members of the New Model Army – a number of the participants being Levellers – concerning the makeup of a new constitution for England....
that took place in Putney church
St. Mary's Church, Putney
St. Mary's Church , Putney is an Anglican church in Putney, London sited next to the river Thames, beside the southern approach to Putney Bridge. There has been a centre of Christian worship on this site from at least the 13th century, and the church is still very active today...
between 28 October and 11 November 1647. The soldiers, explained Wildman, "desired me to be their mouth", and he argued on their behalf that the engagements entered into with the king should be cancelled, monarchy and the House of Lords abolished, and manhood suffrage established. He also demanded that the officers should accept an Agreement of the People
Agreement of the People
An Agreement of the People was a series of manifestos, published between 1647 and 1649, for constitutional changes to the English state. Several versions of the Agreement were published, each adapted to address not only broad concerns but also specific issues during the fast changing...
just put forth by the five regiments
Wild and John Lilburne
John Lilburne
John Lilburne , also known as Freeborn John, was an English political Leveller before, during and after English Civil Wars 1642-1650. He coined the term "freeborn rights", defining them as rights with which every human being is born, as opposed to rights bestowed by government or human law...
attempted to build a movement to campaign for the Agreement of the People. Clarendon
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon was an English historian and statesman, and grandfather of two English monarchs, Mary II and Queen Anne.-Early life:...
alleged that preparations were made "for his trial and towards his execution". On 18 January 1648 Wildman and Lieutenant-colonel John Lilburne
John Lilburne
John Lilburne , also known as Freeborn John, was an English political Leveller before, during and after English Civil Wars 1642-1650. He coined the term "freeborn rights", defining them as rights with which every human being is born, as opposed to rights bestowed by government or human law...
were informed against by George Masterson, minister of Shoreditch, for promoting a seditious petition, and summoned to the bar of the House of Commons. The house committed both to Newgate. Bail was refused, and, in spite of frequent petitions for their release, they remained in prison until 2 August 1648. The historian C.H. Firth
Charles Harding Firth
Sir Charles Harding Firth was a British historian.Born in Sheffield, he was educated at Clifton College and at Balliol College, Oxford...
stated in the DNB
Dictionary of National Biography
The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...
(1900) that Wildman's speech at the bar of the house was very ineffective, and the pamphlet he published in answer to Masterson's charges, entitled Truth's Triumph, was derisively refuted by Masterson in the Triumph Stained.
On the release of the two prisoners a meeting of the Levellers took place at the Nag's Head tavern, in which, says Lilburne, "the just ends of the war were as exactly laid open by Mr. John Wildman as ever I heard in my life", and the party agreed to oppose the execution or deposition of the king till the fundamental principles of the future constitution were settled. To that end a new Agreement of the People was drawn up by sixteen representatives of different parties, but, after long debates in the Council of Officers, it was so altered by the officers that Lilburne and other leaders of the levellers refused to accept it, and published in May 1649 a rival Agreement, drawn up themselves.
It seems that Wildman was satisfied with what the Council of Officers were suggesting because he abandoned further agitation, and during the winter of 1648/49 and joined the New Model Army as major in the regiment of horse of Colonel John Reynolds
John Reynolds
John Reynolds may refer to:* John Reynolds , English writer* John Reynolds , soldier in the English Civil War* John Reynolds , farmer and agricultural innovator from Kent, England...
. However did not accompany the regiment to Ireland in August 1649.
Wildman remained in England and became one of the greatest speculators in the forfeited lands of royalists, clergy, and Catholics. His purchases of land, either for himself or for others, were scattered over at least twenty counties. For himself he bought in 1655 the manor of Becket, near Shrivenham in Berkshire, and other lands adjoining it, from his friend Henry Marten
Henry Marten (regicide)
Sir Henry Marten was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1640 and 1653...
.
In 1654 Wildman was elected to the First Protectorate Parliament
First Protectorate Parliament
The First Protectorate Parliament was summoned by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell under the terms of the Instrument of Government. It sat for one term from 3 September 1654 until 22 January 1655 with William Lenthall as the Speaker of the House....
as member for Scarborough
Scarborough (UK Parliament constituency)
Scarborough was the name of a constituency in Yorkshire, electing Members of Parliament to the House of Commons, at two periods. From 1295 until 1918 it was a parliamentary borough consisting only of the town of Scarborough, electing two MPs until 1885 and one from 1885 until 1918...
, but he was probably one of those excluded for refusing the engagement not to attempt to alter the government. By the end of 1654 he was plotting the overthrow of the Protector
The Protectorate
In British history, the Protectorate was the period 1653–1659 during which the Commonwealth of England was governed by a Lord Protector.-Background:...
Oliver Cromwell by means of a combined rising of Royalists and Levellers. Consequently he was arrested on 10 February 1655 at Easton
Easton Royal
Easton Royal is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England.The United Kingdom Census 2001 recorded a parish population of 283.-Local government:Easton Royal is a civil parish with an elected parish council...
, a village near Marlborough, while dictating A Declaration of the free and well-affected People of England now in Arms against the Tyrant Oliver Cromwell, esq to his secretary William Parker
William Parker
-Sportsmen:* Tony Parker, William Anthony Parker II, , Belgian basketball player* Smush Parker , American basketball player* Sir William Parker, 3rd Baronet , British rower and Olympic medalist*Will Parker, rugby union player...
. He was sent prisoner first to Chepstow Castle
Chepstow Castle
Chepstow Castle , located in Chepstow, Monmouthshire in Wales, on top of cliffs overlooking the River Wye, is the oldest surviving post-Roman stone fortification in Britain...
, and afterwards to the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
. Nearly a year and a half later, on 26 June 1656 a petition begging for Wildman's release was presented to the Protector by various persons engaged in business speculations with him, and on giving security for £10,000 he was provisionally set free.
For the rest of the Protectorate Wildman kept out of prison, though he still continued to intrigue. He was in frequent communication with Royalist agents, whom he contrived to persuade that he was working for the King's cause, and he signed the address presented to Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
on behalf of the Levellers in July 1656. It is pretty certain that Cromwell's government were aware of these intrigues, and it is probable that Wildman purchased impunity by giving information of some kind to John Thurloe
John Thurloe
John Thurloe was a secretary to the council of state in Protectorate England and spymaster for Oliver Cromwell.-Life:...
(Cromwell's spy master). For this reason he was not trusted by Edward Hyde
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon was an English historian and statesman, and grandfather of two English monarchs, Mary II and Queen Anne.-Early life:...
and the wiser Royalists. C.H. Firth speculates that Wildman's political object in this complicated web of treachery was probably to overthrow Cromwell, and to set up in his place either a republic or a monarchy limited by some elaborate constitution of his own devising.
In the late 1650s Wildman was associated with the Commonwealth Club, a Republican club meeting at a Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
tavern called The Nonsuch in Bow Street. He was also in 1659 a member of James Harrington
James Harrington
James Harrington was an English political theorist of classical republicanism, best known for his controversial work, The Commonwealth of Oceana .-Early life:...
's Rota Club
Rota Club
The Rota Club refers to a debate society, composed of learned gentlemen, who debated republican ideology in London between November 1659 and February 1660. The Club was founded and dominated by James Harrington...
, a Republican debating club which determined its by decisions by ballot.
In December 1659, when the army had turned out the Long Parliament
Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...
, Wildman was employed by the Council of Officers, in conjunction with Bulstrode Whitelocke
Bulstrode Whitelocke
Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke was an English lawyer, writer, parliamentarian and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England.- Biography :...
, Charles Fleetwood
Charles Fleetwood
Charles Fleetwood was an English Parliamentary soldier and politician, Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1652–55, where he enforced the Cromwellian Settlement. At the Restoration he was included in the Act of Indemnity as among the twenty liable to penalties other than capital, and was finally...
, and others, to draw a form of government for a free state, At the same time he was plotting to overthrow the rule of the army, and offered to raise three thousand horse if Whitelocke, who was constable of Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
, would declare for a free commonwealth. Whitelocke declined, and Wildman, seeing which way the tide was running, helped Colonel Henry Ingoldsby to seize the castle for the Long Parliament. On 28 December 1659, the house promised that the good service of those who had assisted Ingoldsby should be duly rewarded,
At the Restoration information against Wildman was presented to parliament, but thanks to these recent exploits and to his hostility to Cromwell, escaped untroubled. In 1661 complaints were made that the officials of the post office were his creatures, and he was accused of suspicious dealings with the letters. He was also suspected of complicity in the republican plots against the government, and on 26 November 1661 he was examined and committed to close imprisonment. For nearly six years he was a prisoner, first in the Tower, then in St Mary's, Isles of Scilly, and finally in Pendennis Castle
Pendennis Castle
Pendennis Castle is a Henrician castle, also known as one of Henry VIII's Device Forts, in the English county of Cornwall. It was built in 1539 for King Henry VIII to guard the entrance to the River Fal on its west bank, near Falmouth. St Mawes Castle is its opposite number on the east bank and...
. His captivity was shared by his son, and, according to Burnet, he spent his time in studying law and physic.
After the fall of Clarendon, on 1 October 1667, Wildman was released on giving security to attempt nothing against the government. In December it was even rumoured that he was to be a member of the committee of accounts about to be appointed by parliament, through the influence of the George, Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, 20th Baron de Ros of Helmsley, KG, PC, FRS was an English statesman and poet.- Upbringing and education :...
. Sir William Coventry
William Coventry
-Early life and Civil War:William was the son of the lord keeper Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry, by his second wife Elizabeth Aldersley. Coventry matriculated at Queens College, Oxford, at the age of fourteen...
expressed his wonder at the proposal to Pepys, Wildman having been "a false fellow to everybody", and Sir John Talbot openly denounced Wildman to the House of Commons. The scheme fell through, and on 7 July 1670 Wildman obtained a license to travel abroad for his health with his wife and son. His intimacy with Buckingham continued, and he was one of the trustees in whom on 24 December 1675 the unsold portion of Buckingham's estate was vested.
On his return to England Wildman plunged once more into political intrigues, though keeping himself at first cautiously in the background. In the plots for armed resistance to the king which followed the dissolution of Charles II's last parliament
Oxford Parliament (1681)
An English Parliament assembled in the city of Oxford for one week from 21 March 1681 until 28 March 1681 during the reign of Charles II of England.Succeeding the Exclusion Bill Parliament, this was the fifth and last parliament of the King's reign. Both Houses of Parliament met and the King...
in 1681 he appears to have played a considerable part. Wildman was closely associated with Algernon Sidney, both of whom were distrusted by the leaders of the Scottish malcontents, and by the English noblemen concerned, as too republican in their aims. Wildman drew up a manifesto to be published at the time of the intended insurrection, and, though not one of the "public managers", was privately consulted upon all occasions and applied unto as their "chief oracle"; He was also credited with suggesting the assassination of the King and Duke of York
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
, "whom he expressed by the name of stags that would not be impaled, but leapt over all the fences which the care and wisdom of the authors of the constitution had made to restrain them from committing spoils". On 26 June 1683 he was committed to the Tower for complicity in the Rye House Plot
Rye House Plot
The Rye House Plot of 1683 was a plan to assassinate King Charles II of England and his brother James, Duke of York. Historians vary in their assessment of the degree to which details of the conspiracy were finalized....
, but allowed out on bail on 24 November following, and finally discharged on 12 February 1684. The chief witness against him was Lord Howard
William Howard, 3rd Baron Howard of Escrick
William Howard, 3rd Baron Howard of Escrick was an English Parliamentarian soldier, nobleman, and plotter.-Life:He was the second son of Edward Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Escrick. He matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1646, and was then admitted to Lincoln's Inn...
, who testified that Wildman undertook to furnish the rebels with some guns, which the discovery of two small field-pieces at his house seemed to confirm.
When the reign of James II of England
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
began, Wildman, undeterred by his narrow escape, entered into communication with the Duke Monmouth
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch, KG, PC , was an English nobleman. Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, he was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II and his mistress, Lucy Walter...
, and was his chief agent in England. He sent a certain Robert Cragg, alias Smith, to Monmouth and the English exiles in Holland. According to Cragg, Monmouth complained of Wildman's backwardness in providing money for the expedition,
and that Wildman would hinder the expedition from coming until Wildman judged the time right. Wildman, on the other hand, complained that Monmouth and a little knot of exiles were resolved "to conclude the scheme of the government of the nation without the knowledge of any of the people in England", Other depositions represent him as advising Monmouth to take upon him the title of king, and encouraging him by citing the example of the 2nd Earl of Richmond (who became Henry VII
Henry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
) and Richard III
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
. All accounts agree that he drew back at the last moment, did nothing to get up the promised rising in London, and refused to join Monmouth when he landed. At the beginning of June 1685 Wildman fled, and an order for his apprehension was published in the London Gazette
London Gazette
The London Gazette is one of the official journals of record of the British government, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are required to be published...
for 4–8 June 1685, followed on 26 July by a proclamation summoning him and others to surrender.
Wildman, who had escaped to the Netherlands, remained there till the Glorious Revolution
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...
, probably residing at Amsterdam. He was dissatisfied with the declaration published by the William, Prince of Orange
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
to justify his expedition, regarding it as designed to conciliate the church party in England, and desiring to make it a comprehensive impeachment of the misgovernment of Charles and James. The Charles, Earl of Macclesfield
Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield
Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield PC was an English aristocrat, soldier and courtier.-Life:The eldest son of Sir Charles Gerard, he was a member of an old Lancashire family, his great-grandfather having been Sir Gilbert Gerard of Ince, in that county, one of the most distinguished judges...
, Lord Mordaunt
Charles Mordaunt, 3rd Earl of Peterborough
Charles Mordaunt, 3rd Earl of Peterborough and 1st Earl of Monmouth, KG, PC was an English nobleman and military leader. He was the son of John Mordaunt, 1st Viscount Mordaunt, and his wife Elizabeth, the daughter and sole heiress of Thomas Carey, the second son of Robert Carey, 1st Earl of Monmouth...
, and others supported Wildman's view, but more moderate counsellors prevailed. With Lord Macclesfield Wildman embarked on the prince's fleet and landed in England. He wrote many anonymous pamphlets on the crisis, sat in the Convention Parliament
Convention Parliament (1689)
The English Convention was an irregular assembly of the Parliament of England which transferred the Crowns of England and Ireland from James II to William III...
called in January 1689 as member for Wootton Bassett, and was a frequent speaker.
In the proceedings against Burton and Graham, charged with subornation of evidence in the state trials of the late reign, Wildman was particularly active, bringing in the report of the committee appointed to investigate the case, and representing the commons at a conference with the lords on the subject.
On 12 April 1689 he was made postmaster-general. But ere long loud complaints were made that he was using his position to discredit the Tory adherents of William III by fictitious letters which he pretended to have intercepted; and there were also reports that he was intriguing with Jacobite emissaries. Accordingly he was summarily dismissed from his post about the end of February 1691. Wildman, however, had been made a freeman of London on 7 December 1689, became an alderman, and was knighted by William III in company with other aldermen at Guildhall on 29 Oct. 1692.
Wildman died on 2 June 1693 at the age of seventy-two, and was buried at Shrivenham, Berkshire. By his will, according to the epitaph on his monument in Shrivenham church, he directed "that if his executors should think fit there should be some stone of small price set near to his ashes, to signify, without foolish flattery, to his posterity, that in that age there lived a man who spent the best part of his days in prisons, without crimes, being conscious of no offence towards man, for that he so loved his God that he could serve no man's will, and wished the liberty and happiness of his country and all mankind". Macaulay is less favourable. After describing a fanatical hatred to monarchy as the mainspring of Wildman's career, he adds: "With Wildman's fanaticism was joined a tender care for his own safety. He had a wonderful skill in grazing the edge of treason. … Such was his cunning, that though always plotting, though always known to be plotting, and though long malignantly watched by a vindictive government, he eluded every danger, and died in his bed, after having seen two generations of his accomplices die on the gallows". There is an engraved portrait of Wildman, by Faithorne, with the motto "Nil Admirari".
Works
Wildman was the author of numerous pamphlets, nearly all of them either anonymous or published under pseudonyms:- ‘Putney Projects; or the Old Serpent in a New Form. By John Lawmind,’ 1647.
- ‘The Case of the Army stated,’ 1647 (Clarke Papers, i. 347, 356).
- ‘A Call to all the Soldiers of the Army by the Free People of England, justifying the Proceedings of the Five Regiments,’ 1647 (anon.)
- ‘Truth's Triumph,’ 1648 (answered by George Masterson in ‘The Triumph Stained,’ 1648).
- ‘The Law's Subversion; or Sir John Maynard's Case truly stated. By J. Howldin;’ 1648 (cf. , The Picture of the Council of State, 1649, pp. 8, 19).
- ‘London's Liberties; or a Learned Argument between Mr. Maynard and Major Wildman,’ 1651.
In the ‘Twelve Collections of Papers relating to the Present Juncture of Affairs in England’ (1688–9, 4to), there are several pamphlets probably written by Wildman, viz.:
- v. 8, ‘Ten Seasonable Queries proposed by an English Gentleman at Amsterdam to his Friends in England;’
- vi. 3, ‘A Letter to a Friend advising in this Extraordinary Juncture how to free the Nation from Slavery for ever;’ and,
- viii. 5, ‘Good Advice before it be too late, being a Breviate for the Convention.’
Three tracts are attributed to Wildman, jointly with others, in ‘A Collection of State Tracts, published on occasion of the late Revolution and during the Reign of William III’ (1705, 3 vols. fol.), viz.:
- ‘A Memorial from the English Protestants to the Prince and Princess of Orange’ (i. 1);
- ‘A Defence of the Proceedings of the Late Parliament in England,’ anno 1689 (i. 209); and
- ‘An Enquiry or Discourse between a Yeoman of Kent and a Knight of the Shire, upon the Prorogation of Parliament,’ &c. (ii. 330).
Family
Wildman's first wife was Frances, daughter of Sir Francis Englefield, while the second was Lucy, daughter of Lord Lovelace.Wildman had a son, John, who married Eleanor, daughter of Edward Chute of Bethersden, Kent, in 1676,and died childless in 1710, though he made John Shute, later Viscount Barrington, his chief heir, particularly of Beckett Hall
Beckett Hall
Beckett Hall is a country house at Shrivenham in the English county of Oxfordshire . The present house dates from 1831.-History:...
, which Wildman Sr. had purchased in 1657 from the regicide Henry Marten
Henry Marten (regicide)
Sir Henry Marten was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1640 and 1653...