John Dixwell
| John Dixwell | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1607 
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| Died | 18 March 1689
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John Dixwell (1607 – 18 March 1689) was an English man who sat in Parliament, fought for the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil War, and was one of the Commissioners who sat in judgement on King Charles I and condemned him to death. At the Restoration he fled to Connecticut where he lived out the rest of his life as John Davids untroubled by the authorities who thought him dead.
He was the younger son of Edward Dixwell, but was raised by his uncle Basil Dixwell of Broome Park, near Canterbury in Kent. He became a colonel in the Parliamentary army and was active on various county committees, and was elected to the Long Parliament of 1640 as MP for Dover. He was appointed governor of Dover Castle by Oliver Cromwell. Dixwell was a member of four parliaments. He was one of fifty-nine signatories of the death warrant of King Charles I. After the Restoration, the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion was passed in August 1660, granting pardon to those who supported the Commonwealth and Protectorate, but it specifically exempted those who had played a direct role in the trial and execution of King Charles I eleven years previously.
Dixwell was condemned to death as a regicide, but escaped this punishment by fleeing to New Haven, Connecticut. He assumed the name John Davids and was reunited in 1664 with two other men likewise condemned, William Goffe and Edward Whalley, who had found refuge in Hadley, Massachusetts. The two had initially settled in Massachusetts, but fled for New Haven when their safety was compromised. They were housed by Rev. John Davenport. After a reward was offered for their arrest, they pretended to flee to New York City, but instead returned by a roundabout way to New Haven. In May, the Royal order for their arrest reached Boston, and was sent by the Governor to William Leete, Governor of the New Haven Colony, residing at Guilford. Leete delayed the King's messengers, allowing Goffe and Whalley to disappear. They spent much of the summer in Judges' Cave at West Rock.
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