Thomas Rainsborough

Col. Thomas Rainsborough.

Thomas Rainsborough (1610 – 30 October 1648), or Rainborough or Raineborough or Rainborowe or Rainbow or Rainborow, was a prominent figure in the English Civil War, and was the leading spokesman of the Levellers in the Putney Debates.

Life

He was the son of William Rainsborough, a captain and Vice-Admiral in the Royal Navy, and Ambassador to Morocco (for his services to end white slavery he was offered a baronetcy, which he declined)^[1]. Before the war, Thomas and his brother, William Rainsborowe, were both involved in an expedition to the Puritan colony of Providence Island, off the coast of Nicaragua.^[2] Rainsborough commanded the Swallow and other English naval vessels in the first civil war. By May 1645, he was a colonel in the New Model Army, taking an active part in the battles at Naseby and at Bristol. Later that year, he captured the symbolic stronghold of Berkeley Castle. In 1646, he helped conclude the Siege of Worcester.

In January 1647, Rainsborough became a member of parliament for Droitwich. He was the highest ranking supporter of the Levellers in the New Model Army and one of the speakers for the Leveller side in the Putney Debates (July 1647), where he opposed any deal with the King.

In early 1648, he was due to return to the Navy as a Vice-Admiral, but his Leveller sympathies were unpopular with some officers, and a mutiny ensued. He was returned to Army service.

In October, Rainsborough was sent by his commander, Sir Thomas Fairfax, to the siege at Pontefract Castle, where he was killed by four Royalists during a bungled kidnap attempt. His funeral was the occasion for a large Leveller-led demonstration in London, with thousands of mourners wearing the Levellers' ribbons of sea-green and bunches of rosemary for remembrance in their hats. After his death, his brother, William Rainsborowe continued in the Leveller (and Ranter) cause.

Quotations from the Putney Debates

Rainsborough, for the Levellers:- "For really I think that the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest he; and therefore truly, sir, I think it's clear, that every man that is to live under a government ought first by his own consent to put himself under that government; and I do think that the poorest man in England is not at all bound in a strict sense to that government that he hath not had a voice to put himself under." (Transcribed verbatim from Clarke's manuscript record of the debates in the collection of Worcester College, Oxford)

Henry Ireton, for the 'Grandees' in reply:- "no man hath a right to an interest or share in the disposing of the affairs of the kingdom... that hath not a permanent fixed interest in this kingdom"

(From E. P. Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class)

In popular culture

Thomas Rainsborough is portrayed by Michael Fassbender in the Channel 4 drama, The Devil's Whore. The Sealed Knot, the English Civil War re-enactment group, had a Rainsborough's Company, now disbanded, in the early 1980s that was named for Colonel Thomas Rainsborough.

Notes and references

1. ^ The Medallic History of England
2. ^ The Surnames of Scotland, Their Origin, Meaning, and History - by George Fraser Black, Ph.D. (1866-1948)

Further reading

• fuller biography of Rainsborough

Persondata
Name	Rainborowe, Thomas
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1610
Place of birth
Date of death	30 October 1648
Place of death