Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/239

 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. Wildman, however, was probably satisfied, for he abandoned further agitation. ‘My old fellow rebel, Johnny Wildman, where art thou?’ wrote his former associate, Richard Overton [q. v.] ‘Behold, a mighty stone fell from the skies into the bottom of the sea, and gave a mighty plump, and great was the fall of that stone, and so farewell Johnny Wildman’ (, Defiance of the Act of Pardon, 1649, p. 7). About the beginning of 1649 Wildman was major in the regiment of horse of Colonel John Reynolds, but did not accompany it to Ireland in August 1649 (Clarke MSS.) He preferred money-making to fighting, and became one of the greatest speculators in the forfeited lands of royalists, clergy, and papists. His purchases of land, either for himself or for others, were scattered over at least twenty counties (Cal. of Committee for Compounding, pp. 1653, 1769, 3100, 2201; cf. Life of Colonel Hutchinson, ed. 1885, ii. 174). For himself he bought in 1655 the manor of Becket, near Shrivenham in Berkshire, and other lands adjoining it, from his friend Harry Marten (, Berkshire, p. 366). In 1654 Wildman was elected member for Scarborough, but he was probably one of those excluded for refusing the engagement not to attempt to alter the government (Old Parl. Hist. xx. 305). By the end of 1654 he was plotting the overthrow of the Protector by means of a combined rising of royalists and levellers. Consequently he was arrested on 10 Feb. 1655, and sent prisoner first to Chepstow Castle, and afterwards to the Tower. At the moment when he was seized he was dictating to his servant a ‘Declaration of the free and well-affected people of England now in arms against the tyrant Oliver Cromwell, esq.’ (, iii. 147;, Memorials, iv. 183). 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 10,000l. he was provisionally set free (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1655–6, p. 387).

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 (, Rebellion, xv. 104; Clarendon State Papers, iii. 311, 315, 331, 336). 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 Thurloe. For this reason he was not trusted by Hyde and the wiser royalists (ib. iii. 408, 419; Hist. MSS. Comm. 10th Rep. vi. 197). His 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 December 1659, when the army had turned out the Long parliament, Wildman was employed by the council of officers, in conjunction with Whitelocke, Fleetwood, and others, to draw a form of government for a free state (, Memorials, iv. 385). 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 Dec. 1659 the house promised that the good service of those who had assisted Ingoldsby should be duly rewarded (Commons' Journals, vii. 798; A Letter concerning the securing of Windsor Castle to the Parliament, 1659, 4to).

At the Restoration Wildman, thanks to these recent exploits and to his hostility to Cromwell, escaped untroubled, although an information against him was presented to parliament (Commons' Journals, viii. 66). 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 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1660–1 p. 409, 1661–2 pp. 556, 560). He was also suspected of complicity in the republican plots against the government, and on 26 Nov. 1661 he was examined and