Richard Shaw, chairman of the Battle of Worcester Society, on the life of the 'Angel of Hadley'

THE English Civil War was full of fascinating characters, but perhaps one of the most interesting is the story of Colonel William Goffe, Roundhead, politician and soldier.

He was born in Sussex in 1605 and was a devout Parliamentarian. He married Frances Whalley, the daughter of General Edward Whalley, whom he was to see a lot of in later life.

He was imprisoned for a short while in 1642 for his part in raising a petition to give control of the Militia to Parliament, but when the English Civil War started in 1642 he joined Colonel Harvey’s regiment of the New Model Army and was appointed captain.

He was active in the Parliamentary army that besieged Worcester in July 1646 and rose to the rank of Colonel.

When King Charles I was put on trial in January 1649 he was appointed  as one of the 68 Commissioners who tried and convicted Charles and he was one of the 59 signatories of the King’s death warrant who became known as the ‘regicides’ (Latin for King Killers).

When Charles II returned to Scotland in 1650 Goffe commanded a Parliamentary regiment at the battle of Dunbar on September 3 1650 and also at the battle of Worcester exactly 12 months later. He became a firm favourite of Oliver Cromwell.

He was appointed Member of Parliament for Yarmouth in 1654 and resumed his military career in 1655 to put down Penruddock’s Uprising, an attempted Royalist insurrection led by Colonel John Penruddock.

The Royalists were soundly beaten and Penruddock was executed.

Goffe resumed his political career in 1655 as MP for Hampshire, but when Charles II returned in 1660, the King made it clear that he would pardon all who fought for Parliament during the Civil War, but he would never forgive the regicides.

So William Goffe and his father-in-law Colonel Edward Whalley, both of whom who had signed the King’s death warrant, thought it would be wise to leave the country.

Twenty-nine of the regicides who were still alive in 1660 were hung, drawn, and quartered, and many others fled the country.

Goffe and Whalley reached Boston, Massachusetts on July 27 1660, never to see their families again.

Many of the settlers in Massachusetts were English Puritans and were sympathetic to the plight of Goffe and Whalley, so they were welcomed and well looked after.

However, Charles II appointed agents to track down the regicides and bring them back to England for execution.

A reward of £100 was to be paid for their capture, dead or alive, and they had many narrow escapes avoiding the agents.

They frequently moved around Massachusetts and Connecticut, at one stage they hid in a cave which today is known as ‘The Judges' Cave.’

Whalley died about 1675 but in September 1675 William Goffe was to enter American Folklore as ‘The Angel of Hadley’.

At this time Goffe was living in Hadley, Massachusetts but the settlers were at war with the Native Americans in what became known as King Phillip's War.

King Phillip was the name given to the Indian chief who united the tribes of Massachusetts to drive the white man out of their land.

Hadley was attacked by a large force of Indians and out of the smoke and chaos strode the 70-year-old Colonel Goffe, with long grey hair and a long grey beard, with his English Civil War sword in one hand and a pistol in the other.

It had been 24 years since the Battle of Worcester, but he clearly still had his military skills as he organised the settlers into defending their town and driving off the Native Americans.

Goffe was celebrated as a hero but he could not acknowledge the praise and ‘disappeared’ as there were still agents hunting for him.

Because of his ghost-like appearance he became known as ‘The Angel of Hadley’.

He died of natural causes, still a free man in 1679.

Based on the book Charles’ I Killers in America by Matthew Jenkinson