On 9 March 1659, the speaker of Richard Cromwell's parliament, Chaloner Chute, suddenly became indisposed as a result of being "tired out with the long debates and late sitting" (Diary of Thomas Burton, 4.92). This was after a long nine days debate, during which the House sat through one entire night up to 10 p.m. As a tribute to the high regard in which he was held, Sir Lislebone was duly elected ‘by general consent of the House’ (JHC, 7.612) to take the chair during the speaker's illness. Just one week later on 16 March, Burton notes in his diary that Long "being very sick, could not attend". He died later the same day and was buried at Stratton on the Fosse, leaving an estate which included a number of ecclesiastical and royalist lands purchased after confiscation by parliament.