William Rainsborowe was a political and religious radical who prospered during the years of the Parliamentary ascendancy and was an early settler of New England in North America.
19 Facts About William Rainsborowe
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William Rainsborowe's father, William Rainsborough, was a captain and Vice-Admiral in the Royal Navy, and later Ambassador to Morocco.
3.
In later years William Rainsborowe held Property in Wapping and Shadwell London.
4.
William Rainsborowe had a home in Putney London, as his brother Thomas stayed there during the Putney Debates of 1647.
5.
William Rainsborowe moved to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s with his sisters, at one point living in Charlestown and was serving in the militia there in 1639.
6.
William Rainsborowe was tasked with an expedition in 1637 to reclaim English civilians who were enslaved in Sale.
7.
William Rainsborowe eventually made alliances with Sidi al-Ayachi and the Sultan Mohammed esh-Sheikh es-Seghir, the expedition was a success, liberating 348 captives.
8.
William Rainsborowe was called back to England upon the death of his father in 1642.
9.
William Rainsborowe married a woman named Margery Jenney of Suffolk upon his return and almost immediately went to serve in the Navy.
10.
William Rainsborowe subsequently became an officer in a cavalry unit in 1644.
11.
William Rainsborowe was then promoted to the rank of Major under Colonel Thomas Harrison.
12.
William Rainsborowe's cornet, according to the Dictionary of National Biography, was, during this time, a depiction of the severed head of Charles I and the motto salus populi: suprema lex.
13.
In 1649, when issues surrounding the Leveller movement were at a head, William Rainsborowe was removed from command.
14.
William Rainsborowe was recommended for promotion twice in the 1650s, and each time the recommendation was over-ruled by the government.
15.
William Rainsborowe hosted Ranters meetings, and he was arrested for paying for the publication of Laurence Clarkson's The Single Eye.
16.
William Rainsborowe purchased ecclesiastical lands, and he purchased the formerly Crown Estate of Higham Park now Higham Ferrers Northamptonshire.
17.
William Rainsborowe protested against this by signing A Remonstrance and Protestation of the Well-Affected People.
18.
William Rainsborowe tried to sell the arms he had purchased for his militia.
19.
Major William Rainsborowe joins a long List of prisoners of the Tower of London.