Thomas Rainsborough

Thomas Rainsborough
Thomas Rainsborough
Commander of Parliamentarian navy
Captain of Deal Castle
In office
September 1647 – May 1648
Member of Parliament
for Droitwich
In office
January 1647 – October 1648
Parliamentarian Governor of Worcester
In office
July 1646 – April 1647
Personal details
Born6 July 1610
Wapping, Middlesex, England
Died29 October 1648(1648-10-29) (aged 38)
Doncaster, Yorkshire, England
Cause of deathAssassinated
Resting placeCemetery attached to St John's Church, Wapping[1]
SpouseMargaret Rainsborough
RelationsWilliam Rainsborowe, brother and Ranter
ChildrenWilliam, unnamed daughter
ParentWilliam Rainsborough;
OccupationSoldier, naval officer and radical politician
Military service
AllegianceParliamentarian
Years of service1642–1648
RankVice-Admiral; Colonel
Battles/wars

Thomas Rainsborough, or Rainborowe, 6 July 1610 to 29 October 1648, was an English religious and political radical who served in the Parliamentarian navy and New Model Army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. One of the few contemporaries whose personal charisma and popularity rivalled that of Oliver Cromwell, he has also been described as "a soldier of impressive professional competence and peerless courage".[2]

He is now most famous for his participation in the 1647 Putney Debates, when he argued "the poorest hee ... in England hath a life to live, as the greatest hee."

  1. ^ "Plaque: Thomas Rainsborough". London Remembers. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  2. ^ Gentles 2004.