Robert Werden

Robert Werden (c. 1622 – 23 January 1690), was a Royalist officer during the English Civil War. After the Restoration he served as an officer in the English Army, and was a Member of Parliament for Chester during most of the 1670s and 1680s.

Werden was the son of John Werden (died 1646), and his wife Katherine, daughter of Edward Dutton, governor of Barbados.

On the eve of the English Civil War John Werden was appointed a commissioner of array for Cheshire. He exerted his influence in support of the royal cause, and his son Robert was named colonel of a troop of horse under Sir John Byron, 1st Baron Byron. Robert distinguished himself by his activity. He took part in the defence of Chester, but was wounded and taken prisoner in a skirmish on 18 January 1645. His father assisted in the negotiations for the surrender of the town, and signed the articles of surrender on 3 February 1646.

On 26 March John Werden begged to be permitted to compound for his delinquency in being a commissioner of array, pleading that he had never acted against Parliament, and that he had been active in the surrender of Chester. The commissioners for compounding were moved by his representations, and, although he had not come in within the prescribed term, they only imposed on him the small fine of £600, "consideration being had of his great losses and kind offices to members of parliament". Their sentence was confirmed by the House of Commons of England on 9 July, Robert being included in the composition. On 21 July the county committee indignantly remonstrated, declaring Robert was "a most violent enemy, administering general astonishment and terror to the whole country". They were, however, too late; the house declined to recede from its former decision, and as John Werden had died about the close of 1646, Robert Werden was finally cleared by a draft ordinance of the House of Lords on 12 February 1647.

In 1648, Werden's estates were again sequestered on the suspicion that he harboured treasonable designs, a fifth being allowed his wife for maintenance. On 27 January 1652 they were discharged from sequestration, but in 1655 his fidelity was seen to be very doubtful, and in 1659 he took part in the royalist rising under Sir George Booth, 1st Baron Delamer. He was proclaimed a traitor and a rebel on 9 August, and his goods sequestered on 27 August. A few days earlier he was captured and sent to London for examination. He succeeded in making his peace with the Commonwealth, probably at the expense of the Royalists.

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