John Downes (regicide) 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; family had moved southwards from Cheshire to Warwickshire. They were said to be able to trace their Cheshire lineage back to 864 AD, according to John Parsons Earwaker's "History" of East Cheshire families. It is said that when the King came hunting in Macclesfield Forest, a Downes would hold the King's stirrup, whilst he mounted and Lord Stanley would
Henry Marten (regicide) rather the inaction of the House of Lords, he was spared the death penalty, but he remained a captive. Having escaped the death penalty for his involvement in the regicide Marten was sent into internal exile, first in the far north of England and then (1665) to Windsor Castle, where he remained until Charles II ordered him to be moved away from such close proximity to himself. In 1668 Marten was sent to Chepstow, in Wales. Marten's imprisonment there lasted some twelve years but does not appear to have been unduly arduous, at least at first; he had a suite