A notable resident of Dinton in the seventeenth century was John Biggs, the Dinton Hermit, who lived in a cave in the village. He was involved in the execution of King Charles I on 30 January 1649 and was reputed to have been the actual executioner. As one of the regicides, Simon Mayne, lived at Dinton, and was after his death in imprisonment buried at Dinton in 1661, it is possible that the executioner would have been given sanctuary and anonymity on one of the regicide's estates.