Thomas Chaloner MP (1595 - 1661).
Thomas Chaloner, the regicide was educated at Exeter College, Oxford and the Inner Temple. In 1637 he had to flee the country for the publication of a seditious pamphlet. In 1644 he was called as a witness at the trial of Archbishop Laud, and he was elected M.P. for Richmond in Yorkshire in the Long Parliament of 1645-1653. In 1647 he held the post of Commissioner in Munster. He sat as judge at the trial of King Charles and although he was absent on the last day, when sentence was given, he signed the death warrant of the unfortunate king. He was appointed Councillor of State in 1651. He was a good scholar and had a reputation as a wit and womanizer and far from being a puritan he was one who enjoyed debauchery and all the pleasures of this life. At the violent dissolution of the Long Parliament in 1653 Oliver Cromwell publicly denounced him as irreligious and as that "drunkard". He left politics in 1654 but was re-elected M.P. for Scarborough in 1659; he supported the return of the Commonwealth and was in favour of the overthrow of Richard Cromwell. At the Restoration in 1660 he surrendered himself in obedience to royal decree, but was excluded from pardon for his part in the regicide, and was sentenced in his absence to be hung, drawn and quartered, and forfeited his estates.
He fled to Holland, and lodged with Constancia Lee, at the Sign of the Red Cross at Middleburg, Zeeland, Holland. This was in the High Street, where he died according to the late Lord Gisborough’s card index on 26th August 1661. He was buried in the Old Church at Middleburg under the alias George Saunders. His Dutch hosts remembered him, apparently with affection, as a square-cut, sober old man, 'full of grey hairs'. The fact that the minister of the British congregation at Middleburg, knowing the deceased's true identity, refused to perform the burial service would have bothered Chaloner not one bit. His “almanac” was returned with his possessions.
The Regicide was known to have married a Miss Southerbie who belonged to an old Yorkshire family and in the Pedigree of the Chaloners of Gisborough, a son of Thomas Chaloner is listed, but without a Christian name. Lord Gisborough said there was at least one son of the marriage, as it seems probable that there were two or more.