John Downes (regicide) being found guilty of regicide, John Downes was condemned to death in October 1660 but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment because he had tried to intervene on the King's behalf and only signed the death warrant after being intimidated by the other commissioners. Downes spent the rest of his life a prisoner in the Tower of London. John Downes (regicide) Colonel John Downes (1609 – c. 1666) was a commissioner who signed the death warrant of Charles I of England. After the English Restoration he was found guilty of regicide and was imprisoned until he died. John Downes;
John Phelps (regicide) John Phelps (regicide) John Phelps was a Clerk and Registrar of the Committee for Plundered Ministers and of the High Court which tried Charles I of England for high treason in 1649. Not much is known about John Phelps' early life. He was born in about 1619 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. He matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 20 May 1636, describing himself as age 17, and the son of Robert Phelps of Salisbury. On 1 January 1648-9 he was appointed clerk-assistant to Henry Elsing, clerk of the House of Commons. Says Harper's Pictorial History of England, edition of