This month’s highlight focuses on a seemingly ordinary pocket diary and almanack from 1655 (D/ELS/F18). Indeed, it contains normal jottings on estate matters, notes on expenditure, and pages that you would expect to find in an almanack. However, its interest comes from the person who likely owned it, one Henry Marten better known as Henry Marten, regicide.

Henry Marten was born in 1602 in Oxford, the son of Sir Henry and Elizabeth Marten. Sir Henry Marten was a well-respected judge and politician. He sat in the House of Commons and served as Judge of the Admiralty Court and of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. As his wealth grew, he purchased various properties and land in Berkshire including Longworth House in 1618 and Hinton Waldrist Manor in 1627.

Henry Marten (the son) received the education and benefits that his father’s status and wealth attained. He attended Oxford University, went on a grand tour of Europe, and was inducted to the Inns of Court and Inner Temple. He inherited the Berkshire estates after his father’s death in 1641. The relationship between father and son had likely been difficult. They held differing political views with Sir Henry being a strong supporter of the monarchy, whilst his son was a republican. After Sir Henry’s death, it was his daughter-in-law, Henry’s long suffering wife Margaret, that erected a monument to his memory in the local church, not his son.

In 1642, the English Civil War started. Henry Marten was firmly on the side of the Parliamentarians giving money to raise a ‘regiment of horse’. He was also appointed Governor of Reading and whilst he did not take the field to fight, he was involved in an incident whilst governor. Charles I had made his base in Oxford and sent out garrisons to scout the surrounding area. One party, sent out from Abingdon, advanced further than ordered and came into sight of Reading. Marten took fright and ordered a retreat to London leaving the town open to the king’s forces who duly took it.

However, the event he became most famous or infamous for was at the trial of King Charles I in 1649. He was one of the 31 Commissioners to sign the death warrant and sentence Charles I to death. Charles I would later be buried in St George’s Chapel, Windsor, after Parliament had prevented his burial at Westminster Abbey.

This diary is 6 years after this event. By this time Marten’s situation had changed. His style of living had led him to fall into debt which would eventually lead him to spend time in prison and lose the manor of Hinton Waldrist. A hint of this can be seen in the diary with comments about settling debts and arranging monetary affairs.

In 1660 the restoration of the monarchy occurred with King Charles II coming into power. Marten surrendered himself as a regicide and was brought to trial. He was found guilty of taking part in the king’s death but avoided the death penalty. He was instead imprisoned for life eventually ending up in Chepstow, Wales, with his common-law wife, Mary Ward. His legitimate wife, Margaret, remained in Berkshire. Margaret died in January 1680 and was buried in Longworth church, and a few months later her erstwhile husband died whilst still imprisoned at Chepstow Castle.

One diary prompted this research of such a key individual from a turbulent time in England’s past. Archivists handle many different documents on a daily basis. It is important to sometimes stop and remember those who originally possessed them and think about the stories they could tell.