Okey, John
People > Okey, John
John Okey (baptised) 1606 - 1662
John Okey was born in London to a relatively comfortable home. He had a radical view of religion and at the start of the Civil War he enlisted in the Parliamentarian Army. When the New Model Army was formed in 1645 he was appointed Colonel of a Regiment. He fought in a number of battles including Naseby and, at the end of the Civil War was one of the signatories to the king's death warrant. After the execution of Charles I, Okey worked for Cromwell, retiring to Bedfordshire after being tried for a breach of army discipline in 1654.
Okey had substantial properties in Bedfordshire including the honour of Ampthill, the manor of Millbrook, Brogborough Park and Lodge and lands in Leighton Buzzard.
Okey lived in the Round House at Brogborough during the 1650s and was active as a Justice of the Peace and was probably involved in the establishment of John Bunyan's first Baptist church in Bedford.
In 1658 he was elected to Richard Cromwell's parliament for Bedfordshire. After the restoration he fled to Germany and then the Netherlands but was arrested and returned to England. He was betrayed by his former friend George Downing (after whom Downing Street is named) who had changed his allegiance to Charles II. Only passionate Royalists thought that Downing had behaved acceptably and Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary "all the world takes notice of him for a villaine for his pains." He was executed following a brief trial on 19th April 1662. When he was taken to his death he was asked how he was and he replied "I bless the Lord, I am very well, and do no more value what I am now going about, than this show.".
Sources:
- Cuttings and pamphlets in the collections at Bedford Central Library
- Dictionary of National Biography
More information
- Firth, Sir Charles The regimental history of Cromwell's army, Vol. 1 OUP, 1940
- Tibbutt, H.G. Colonel John Okey 1606-1662, BHRS Vol. XXXV, 1955
- Tibbutt, H.G. The Judas of Downing Street, Bedfordshire Magazine, Vol. 1 p46-48
- Tibbutt, H.G. Resolute regicide, the story of Col. John Okey of Bedfordshire who signed the death warrant of King Charles I, Northants. and Beds. Life, Vol. 2, No. 24, 1973
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Page last updated: 30th January 2014