Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 13.djvu/158

 Ardglass (1646) in the Irish peerage. He was a staunch royalist, and died in 1653.

Edward Cromwell's mother married, after her first husband's death, Richard Wingfield, marshal of Ireland, first viscount Powerscourt.

 CROMWELL, HENRY (1628–1674), fourth son of Oliver Cromwell, was born at Huntingdon on 20 Jan. 1628 (, i. 197). Henry Cromwell entered the parliamentary army towards the close of the first civil war, and was in 1647 either a captain in Harrison's regiment or the commander of Fairfax's lifeguard (Cromwelliana, p. 36). Heath and Wood identify him with the commandant of the life-guard (Flagellum, p. 57;, Fasti, 1649). In the summer of 1648 Henry Cromwell appears to have been serving under his father in the north of England (Memoirs of Captain Hodgson, p. 31, ed. Turner). In February 1650 he had attained the rank of colonel, and followed his father to Ireland with reinforcements. He and Lord Broghill defeated Lord Inchiquin near Limerick in April 1650 (, Memorials, f. 432; Cromwelliana, p. 75). On 22 Feb. 1654 Henry Cromwell entered at Gray's Inn. In 1653 Cromwell was nominated one of the representatives of Ireland in the Barebones parliament (Parliamentary History, xx. 1/9). After the dissolution of that parliament and the establishment of the protectorate, his father despatched him to Ireland on a mission of inquiry to discover the feelings of the Irish officers towards the new government, and to counteract the influence of the anabaptists (March 1654, Thurloe, ii. 162). He reported that the army in general, with the exception of the anabaptists, were well satisfied with the recent change, and recommended that Ludlow, of whose venomous discontent and reproachful utterances he complains, should be replaced as lieutenant-general by Desborough. Fleetwood, though a staunch supporter of the protectorate, he regarded as too deeply involved with the anabaptist party to be safely continued in Ireland, and advised his recall to England after a time, and the appointment of Desborough to act as his deputy (ib. ii. 1 49). Before leaving Ireland he held a discussion with Ludlow on the lawfulness of the protectorate, which the latter has recorded at length in his 'Memoirs' (p. 187, ed. 1751). In August 1664 a new Irish council was commissioned, and the council of state voted that Cromwell should be appointed commander of the Irish army and a member of the new council (21-2 Aug. 1654, Cal. State Papers, Dom. pp. 321-8). This appointment seems to have been made at the request of Lord Broghill and other Irish gentlemen (ib. 382; Thurloe, iii. 29). In spite of this pressure it was not till 25 Dec. 1654 that Cromwell became a member of the Irish council, though the date of his commission as major-general of the forces in Ireland was 24 Aug. 1654 (, Life of O. Cromwell, p. 693; 14th Rep, of the Deputy-Keeper of Irish Records, p. 28). The cause of this delay was probably Cromwell's reluctance to advance his sons (see, Cromwell, Letter cxcix.) Whatever the Protector's intentions may have been, and there are several references in the letters of Thurloe and Henry Cromwell which prove that this reluctance was real, Fleetwood was re-called to England very soon after the coming of Henry Cromwell to Ireland. He landed in Ireland in July 1655, and Fleetwood left in September (Mercurius Politicus, 5494, 5620). The latter still retained his title of lord-lieutenant, so that Cromwell was merely his deputy — the position which he had intended Desborough to fill. The object of the change in the government of Ireland was to substitute a settled civil government for the rule of a clique of officers, and to put an end to the influence of the anabaptists, who had hitherto monopolised the direction of the government. The policy of Cromwell towards the native Irish was very little milder than that of his predecessor. His earliest letters show him zealously engaged in shipping young women and boys to populate Jamaica. He suggested to Thurloe the exportation of fifteen hundred or two thousand young boys of twelve or fourteen years of age (, iv. 23, 40). He does not seem to have sought to mitigate the rigour of the transplantation, or to have considered it either unjust or impolitic. On the other hand his religious views were more liberal, and he remonstrated against the oath of abjuration imposed on the Irish catholics in 1657 (ib. vi. 527). What distinguished Cromwell's administration from that of Fleetwood was the different policy adopted by him towards the English colony in Ireland. Instead of conducting the government in the interests of the soldiery, and in accordance with their views, he consulted the interests of the old settlers, the ancient protestant inhabitants of Ireland,' and was repaid by their confidence and admiration. A letter addressed to the Protector by Vincent Gookin, at a time when there was some 