The Regicides in Cambridge:
Edward Whalley and William Goffe

The original charter for the Massachusetts Bay Colony had been issued by Charles I in 1629. Charles, however, was no Puritan; his religious policies strongly supported the Anglican faith, and he was actively hostile to those who wished to reform the English church. His civil policies also alienated many—for example, he advocated the divine right of kings and ruled without a Parliament for eleven years from 1629. Eventually, England exploded into civil war between Royalists loyal to the king and reformist Parliamentarians led by the Protector, Oliver Cromwell.

In January 1649, England’s House of Commons—without the assent of either the King or the House of Lords—created a court for the trial of King Charles I. This was an outrageous act--previous monarchs had been deposed, but none had ever been brought to trial as monarchs. The High Court of Justice consisted of 135 commissioners; the king was charged with high treason and other high crimes. Charles refused to enter a plea, insisting that his authority to rule had been given to him by God, and no earthly court had the power to judge him. Fifty-nine of the commissioners signed Charles’s death warrant on January 29, 1649; he was beheaded on January 30th,and the reins of leadership passed to Oliver Cromwell. (Endnote 1)

Lucius Paige wrote in his History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877:

At his ascension, Charles II offered the people a general pardon and granted amnesty to Cromwell's supporters—except those judges and officials directly involved in his father's trial and execution. Some of the regicides were executed in 1660; others were given life imprisonment; still others fled from England. On July 27, 1660, two of the Regicide Judges, Edward Whalley and William Goffe, both Major-Generals under Cromwell, arrived in Boston. Whalley, a military leader of distinction, was cousin to Cromwell; Goffe, one of the most radical officers in Cromwell’s New Model Army, was married to Whalley’s daughter Frances. (Endnote 2)

Paige relied heavily on a history of Massachusetts published by Governor Thomas Hutchinson in 1764, for his account of this time. Hutchinson related that, after the arrival of Whalley and Goffe, they were received "very courteously" by Governor Endicott and were visited by the "principal persons" in town. "Although they did not disguise themselves yet they chose to reside at Cambridge . . . where they went the first day they arrived."

Paige wrote that it was not clear why the two men decided to settle in Cambridge. "A principal inhabitant of the town, Edward Goffe, was the namesake of one of the regicides, and may have been his brother or cousin; but I have found no proof of such relationship." (67) Edward Goffe was a prominent citizen—a large landowner and one of the wealthiest men in Cambridge; he had died at the end of 1658, and his son Samuel, a farmer, inherited the homestead. (In 1909 and 1910, during the excavation of Massachusetts Avenue in Harvard Square for the Cambridge subway, workers uncovered the remains of the foundation of two houses, one of which belonged to the Goffe family. Before 1654 that house had been acquired by Harvard College to be as a dormitory, called Goffe’s College. No one is sure when or how Goffe’s College was removed, but Samuel Eliot Morison speculated that it disappeared before 1677. When the excavations were closed, metal plates were set in the roadway to mark the sites of the two foundations.)

It seems more likely that they came to Cambridge because of their close ties with Captain Daniel Gookin.

Gookin was said to have emigrated from Kent with his father to Virginia in 1621; he may have arrived in Boston in 1644; in that year he was accepted as a freeman. He lived briefly in Boston and Roxbury, but was in Cambridge about 1647, where he lived until his death on March 19, 1686/87, aged 75. He was one of the most active citizens in Cambridge; among many other roles, he was Licenser of the Printing-press; a Selectman; and a long-time Governor's Assistant. Before 1652, he was elected Captain of the Cambridge military company and described as "a very forward man to advance martial discipline, and withal the truths of Christ.".

Gookin was "trusted by Oliver Cromwell as a confidential agent, and was selected by him to assist in executing his favorite project of transplanting a colony from New England to Jamaica." (Paige, 563) He visited England twice; on his second voyage back to the colonies, Whalley and Goffe were fellow passengers and may have stayed with him during their time in Cambridge. In 1660, Gookin was probably living on the easterly side of Holyoke Street, between Harvard and Mount Auburn streets. (He later lived in a grand house on the site of St. Paul’s Catholic Church at the corner of Bow and Arrow streets.)

A fragment of Goffe’s journal was printed in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1863, 1864, in which he described his time in Cambridge. On the 9th of August, he wrote that Gookin had shown a paper brought in a Scottish ship, “wherein ye Lords do order 66 members of ye High court of Justice to be secured, with yr estates,--its dated 18 d. May, 1660. But I will meditate on Hebr. 13. 5.6.” (Endnote 3)

On the 15th, Goffe and others “sup’t at Mr. Chauncey’s.” Reverend Charles Chauncy, a minister and the father of four ministers, was President of Harvard College. Goffe wrote: “ . . the good old servant of ye Lord, still expressing much affection, & telling us, he was perswaded ye Ld had brought us to this country for good both to them and or selves.”

On the evening of August 23rd, they (Goffe and Whalley?) visited Elder Frost. Edmund Frost was the Ruling Elder of the Church in Cambridge; in 1660 he was probably living in a house on the north side of Kirkland Street, near Francis Avenue. Paige wrote of him: “He was reputed to be rich in Faith . . . yet he had trial of earthly poverty, [possessing] little besides his homestead, and his pressing wants were relieved by the Church.” (554) In his journal, Goffe noted:

By February 1661, the Governor seemed to have had second thoughts about harboring the Regicides and on the 22nd summoned a court of assistants “to consult about securing them, but the court did not agree to it.” (Hutchinson) Deciding it was no longer safe in Cambridge, Whalley and Goffe left on the 26th. “Within a few days . . . orders arrived from England for their arrest; and there was at least a show of earnest exertion, on the part of the magistrates, to overtake them; but the effort was in vain.” (Paige, 69)

According to Hutchinson, Gookin was

By the 7th of March, the Regicides had reached New Haven. After many travails, they they made their way to Hadley, Massachusetts, where they found shelter in the home of Reverend John Russell, a former Cambridge resident and Harvard College graduate (1645). The exact dates and circumstances of the deaths of the two Regicides are unknown, and there are many conflicting stories. Many sources agree that Whalley died in Hadley in the mid-1670s and was buried in Rev. Russell’s cellar (or a neighbor’s yard). However, some sources assert that Whalley left Hadley and founded families in Rhode Island, Maryland, or Tennessee. Goffe survived his father-in-law by several years; some sources attest that he, too, was buried in the Russell cellar. Neither man was ever betrayed to the authorities.

Notes:

For further reading:

KLR
9/22/2005