Robert Venables
Robert Venables | |
---|---|
General | |
Unit | Jones' Regiment of Horse |
Commands held | Governor of Tarvin Western Design, 1654–1655 Governor of Chester, 1660 |
Battles/wars | Wars of the Three Kingdoms Chester; Rowton Heath; Oxford; Cromwellian conquest of Ireland Rathmines Drogheda Lisnagarvey Scarrifholis Charlemont Anglo-Spanish War Santo Domingo Jamaica |
Robert Venables (ca. 1613–1687), was an English soldier from Cheshire, who fought for Parliament in the 1638 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and captured Jamaica in 1655.
When the Anglo-Spanish War began in 1654, he was made joint commander of an expedition against Spanish possessions in the West Indies, known as the Western Design. Although he captured Jamaica, which remained a British colony for over 300 years, the project was considered a failure, ending his military career.
Appointed Governor of Chester shortly before the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, his religious views made him unacceptable to the new regime. He returned to private life and in 1662 published a treatise on fishing, The Experienced Angler, which went through five editions in his lifetime. Arrested but released without charge after the Farnley Wood Plot in 1663, in 1668 he purchased an estate at Wincham, Cheshire, where he lived quietly until his death in 1687.
Personal details
Robert Venables was the son of Robert Venables (c. 1579–1643) of
His first wife was Elizabeth Rudyard; the date of their marriage is unknown, but appears to have been sometime in the mid 1630s, and she died before 1649. Only two of their five children survived into adulthood; Thomas (1640–1659), and Frances (1638–1692).[3]
Shortly before Venables went to Ireland in 1649, he became engaged to Elizabeth Lee (1614–1689), mother of seven and widow of Thomas Lee of Darnhall, Cheshire. They finally married on his return in 1654; at the same time, her son Thomas married his daughter Frances, while his son, also Thomas, married her daughter Elizabeth, breaking a prior engagement to another girl.[3] Their marriage was not a success; she allegedly "disliked his politics, disdained his religion, and disapproved of his manners."[1]
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
Almost nothing is known of his career prior to the beginning of the First English Civil War in August 1642, when he raised a company for the Manchester garrison. In December, he was captured in a skirmish near Westhoughton, Lancashire but quickly released.[4] The Venables family had long-standing connections to the Breretons, one of the most powerful families in Cheshire, and for the rest of the war he served under Sir William Brereton, the senior local Parliamentarian. Despite lacking military experience, Brereton proved an energetic and resolute commander, winning minor victories in March 1643 at Middlewich and Hopton Heath.[5]
Brereton established his headquarters at Nantwich and quickly attained superiority over Arthur Capell, Royalist commander in Shropshire, Cheshire, and North Wales.[6] From August to September 1643, Venables was based at Cholmondeley, which he used as a base for attacking nearby Royalist garrisons. These supported the blockade of Chester, a town essential for funnelling men and material from Royalist areas in Ireland and North Wales. Their success led to Capell's replacement by Lord Byron in October 1643.[7]
Byron assembled an army of over 5,000, many of whom were veterans from the
Despite victory, the cost of the war, a poor 1646 harvest, and a recurrence of the plague left Parliament unable to pay their soldiers. In summer 1647, the garrison of Nantwich mutinied; Venables restored order, and was made governor of Liverpool in January 1648, a position he held during the Second English Civil War.[1] Promoted colonel in 1649, he raised a regiment of Cheshire veterans sent to reinforce Michael Jones, newly appointed Parliamentarian Governor of Dublin. They arrived in time for the Battle of Rathmines on 2 August, a decisive victory over a Royalist/Confederate force under the Marquess of Ormond.[9]
On 15 August,
Venables spent the next two years fighting an often brutal counter insurgency war in north
The Western Design
Venables left Ireland in May 1654 and was appointed commander of land forces for the
Given the distances involved, Venables insisted on flexibility of objectives; Cromwell agreed and his instructions were simply "to gain an interest in that part of the West Indies in possession of the Spaniards". Leadership was shared with Admiral William Penn, who commanded the fleet, and two civilian commissioners, Edward Winslow, former Governor of Plymouth Colony, and Gregory Butler, who were to supervise colonisation of the captured lands. The fleet departed Portsmouth at the end of December 1654, with Venables accompanied by his new wife Elizabeth.[14]
Few veterans of the New Model were willing to serve in an area notorious for disease and on an expedition with such vague objectives, so many of the 2,500 troops brought from England were untrained, as well as poorly equipped.[15] They reached Barbados at the end of January and spent the next two months recruiting another 3,500 from indentured servants on the island and elsewhere in the region. The Spanish had been aware of the project for some time and this additional delay allowed them to send reinforcements to Hispaniola; the plan assumed secrecy and superior English forces, neither of which were true.[16]
The attack on Santo Domingo in April was disastrous; the troops raised in Barbados proved little more than a rabble, and after suffering nearly 1,000 casualties, mostly from disease or heatstroke, they were evacuated on 30 April. Despite opposition from Penn, Venables attacked Jamaica in late May; primarily a resupply point for Spanish ships, the main settlement of Santiago de la Vega was poorly defended and quickly surrendered, although resistance by Jamaican Maroons continued in the interior for several years.[17]
By this time the relationship between the two commanders had deteriorated completely, and on 25 June Penn sailed for England hoping to ensure his version of why the expedition failed was heard first. He was followed by Venables, who arrived on 9 September, emaciated and sick; Cromwell accused them both of desertion and threw them both in the Tower of London. Although soon released, they were both cashiered; Penn returned to the Royal Navy after the 1660 Restoration, but this ended Venables' military career.[1]
Later career
Cromwell died in September 1658 and was replaced as
In 1662, he published a treatise titled The Experienced Angler, with a preface by
In 1668, he purchased an estate at Wincham where he died on 10 December 1687, leaving his property to his daughter Frances.[19]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Morrill 2004.
- ^ Cox & Hopkins 1975, p. 75.
- ^ a b Townshend & Venables 1872, p. 7.
- ^ Broxap 1910, p. 61.
- ^ Morrill 2013.
- ^ Hutton 2003, p. 62.
- ^ Hutton 2003, pp. 125–126.
- ^ Robinson 1895, p. 147.
- ^ Hayes-McCoy 1990, p. 210.
- ^ Clavin, Terry (2009). "Venables, Robert | Dictionary of Irish Biography". www.dib.ie. Retrieved 5 March 2024.
- ^ Dunlop 1913, pp. 245–246.
- ^ Kupperman 2007.
- ^ Plant "The Western Design".
- ^ Harrington 2004, pp. 42–43.
- ^ Harrington 2004, pp. 48–49.
- ^ Harrington 2004, p. 55.
- ^ Campbell 1988, pp. 14–17.
- ^ Cox & Hopkins 1975, pp. 104–105.
- ^ Lysons 1810, p. 534.
Sources
- Broxap, Ernest (1910). The Great Civil War in Lancashire. Manchester University Press.
- Campbell, Mavis (1988). The Maroons of Jamaica 1655-1796: a History of Resistance, Collaboration & Betrayal. Bergin & Garvey.
- Cox, Marjorie; Hopkins, LA (1975). A History of Sir John Deane's Grammar School, Northwich, 1557-1908. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0719012822.
- OCLC 473591132.
- Harrington, Matthew Craig (2004). "The Worke Wee May Doe in the World": the Western Design and the Anglo-Spanish Struggle for the Caribbean, 1654–1655 (PDF) (PHD). Florida State University.
- ISBN 0-86281-250-X.
- Hutton, Ronald (2003). The Royalist War Effort 1642–1646. Routledge. ISBN 9780415305402.
- Kupperman, Karen (2007). "Providence Island Company". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/95346. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Lysons, Daniel (1810). Magna Brittanica: Volume II The county palatine of Chester. Cadell & Davies.
- Morrill, John (2013). "Brereton, Sir William, first baronet". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/3333. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Morrill, John (2004). "Venables, Robert". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28181. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Plant, David. "The Western Design 1655". BCW Project. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
- Robinson, AM (1895). Cheshire in the Great Civil War (PDF). Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
- Townshend, Lee Porcher; Venables, Mrs. Elizabeth Aldersey Lee (1872). Some Account of General Robert Venables, of Antrobus and Wincham, Cheshire (with an Engraving from His Portrait at Wincham): Together with the Autobiographical Memoir, Or Diary, of His Widow, Elizabeth Venables. Chetham society.