National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-11-10
CROMWELL'S CORPSE.
THE FATE OF THE PROTECTORS BODY
Mas II Ever Buried In Westminster Abbey and
Hanged at Tyburn when He Died-Em-
balming the Dody-Pritatelt In
terred-The Family Vault.

place Of the remains of Cromwell may be ranked
among the historical vexed questions fated often
70 be discussed, but never satisfactorily decided.
The much travelled ground however, is worth GO
ing over again, i'm view of the recent publication
of several interesting stories concerning his skull
and the place of seputure OF his bones. fasci-
mating book with, inevitably, an epigraph from
"Hamlet') might be written on the fate of the
skulls Of great men. Thatof shakespeare's vlcto-
rious Talbot was turned mp not long ago In the
parish church of White church, in Shropshire
where II had served as the cradle Of three blind
mice. That of Richelieu was picked up by gro
Ger, when the great mans bones were exhumed
and kicked about the streets, and sold, when
THE GRoCRR's NEWLY MARRIED WIFE
objected to the presence Of such relic rs UNI
lucky, to one Armez, who was confident that the
Duke Of Richeieu would ransom It at n steep
prlce-and was disappointed, for the Duke
wouldn't have 1t at any price, Turenne's bones
would have gone tothe four winds had not savant
begged the skeleton for the National Academyof
Anatomy. Milton was dismembered by crew Of
drunken jewellers, lone possessing himself Of
piece ofthe jaw, another of fragment of tho &C.
ciput;" "a select body OF medical gentlemen"
held solemn inquest upon the skull of Swirl and
expressed very lively dissatisfaction with its
formation;" there's "ony too much reason to be-
ieve that Pope's skull has been travelling round
England In the possession of an itlnerant phre-
noogfst" and the head of Henry, Duke ofsufolk,
the father of Lady Jane Grey and one Of the ablest
and most powerful mobiles OF bis time, Is to be seen
to-day, with the print Of the headsman's axe on
the neck, ina
MEAN LITTLE CHURCH IN THE MINoRIEs.
The latest OF the long succession of writers TO dis
cuss the question of the disposition OF Cromwell's
remains divides the subject into three divisions
Was he ever buried In Westminster Abbey at all7
II so, what became of his body when It was ex-
humed aud conveyed to the Red Lion Iun In Hal
born Ifit ever N the Red Lion, what became
oft aftor han ging at Tyburn2 This much Is GER
tain-the Protector died on Friday, September 3,
1858 ct three o'clock In the afternoon, and the
body was then embalmed. As to this all the
thoritics are agreed though Heath says the body
was in such state that the embamng was only
partially performed, and Noble that twas wrapped
up in a sheet Of lead; consequently it was not ex
posed to view for long after de til, circumstance
which tho Public HteiiiOncer also notices. The
body Is said and supposed
TO HAVE REMAINED AT WHITEHALL
until September &c, then to have been conveyed to
Somerset House about ten of the clock at night"
and, after lying in state there, to Westminster
Abbey One thing is sure-after few hours sub
Bequent to death the corpse was never seen, and
IL Is almost certain that the body was privately In
tered soon after DEATH and that the removal to
Somerset House was deception. Heath says an
empty coffin was sent there. Better evidence is
that of Cromwells private physician, Bates, who
buris before the solemnty Of the funeral, testi-
mony in which Noble concurs. But where was II
buried then? Heath is not worth botherng about
where he records divers rumors" that It was
carried Off Sin the tempest the day before by the
Pnlce Of Darkness" oldmlxon says It was
wrapped in lead and sunk in the deepest part of
the Thames by two Of the Protectors near rea
tons an anonymous pampheteer adding
that 1t was thus sunk below Greenwich.
Such st DRY told about the disposition of tho
remains of Wilkes Booth) A story was long current
that Cromwell foreseeing
RESTORATION AND INSULT TO HIS BONES,
ordered the corpse TO be placed In the coffin of
Charles J., but this was fully disposed by the exam.
fnation Of the Royal Martyrs coffin In 1873 Crom.
wells vault is still to be seen In Newburgh Hail.
Yorkshire, the family seat Of Lord Fauconberg
who married as his second wife Cromwell's third
daughter, Mary. The "vault' occupies tho end of
narrow chamber at the head Of long flight of
tItairs, and Is an enormous of stonework built
mud cemented into the walls. According TO local
legend, Lady Fauconberg had the remains removed
to Newburgh from Westminster Abbey by night;
but Sir George Wombwell, her descendant the
present occupant of Newburgh, has refused to
allow any veriAcatioh by opening the mausoleum
Another tradition fixes the place of interment at
Marlborough some twenty-five miles from Hunt
ingdon, and there Is some curious evidence extant
as TO the removal Early in this century the rector
of Marlborough obtained the story from Mr.. Oliver
Cromwell, of Chestnut, the great grandson
of Richard Cromwels son Henry. Mr. Oliver
Cromwells mother who lived to the age of 103l told
herson thatshe was well acquainted when young
girl, with Richard Cromwell and had often talked
with one ofhis servants. who claimed to rocollect
the hearse which conveyed the remains of the
Protector
PASSING THROUGH CHESTNUT AT NIGHT,
and that he had gone on with the post horses as
far as Huntingdon. II Is possible that Cromwell
may havewlshed to be beside his parents in the
family grave but 1t Is certain that no tradition
about his interment there current at the time,
and 1t Is unlikely that such a secret would have
been conided to a mere postboy, or that, having
been conaded to him, 1t would have gone no fur
tn or One Of tho reports most widely circulated at
the time of the restoration, confidently insisted on
in London, and implicitly believed In the vicinity
of Naseby, was that Cromwell's remains were
buried, by his own orders, ON the battle field In
the "Haroian Miscellany is to be found tn Q
statement of the son of the regcide Barkstead,
that he was present with his father when the body
embalmed aud wrapped in lead, was buried a,
midnight IN grave about nine feet deep, the sod
being carefully replaced and the surplus mould
removed, and not long afterward the ground be-
ing plowed up and sown with grain. Barkstead
announced his willingness to swear to this, and
advertised that he frequeuted Richards coffee
house. within Temple Oar, where he was ready
TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS
He may have lied but could not have been mis-
taken. aud the fact remains that he had no motive
for romancng; that he was a serious and respect.
able man, and that those who had an opportunity
of cross. examining him seem to have been salts
fed of his honesty. To sum up the first stage of
the inquiry the Protector and his friends must
certainly have contemplated the contingency of O
restoration, involving insult TO his remains The
evidence isvery strong that the body was buried
long before the public funeral. Tho secret would
not be intrusted to many con1dants and must
have been well kept, for there at the time no
general suspicion that tho funeral was a mock
ceremony. There was no difficulty about rcmoy.
ing the corpse 10 any part of England or buryng
M privately under the pavement of Westminster
Abbey. as tradition In some brahches OF the
Cromwell family has asserted was done. Decem-
Der g. l6G0, the House voted that the bodies oil
Cromwell Ireton, and Bradshaw should be ex.
humed and hanged at Tyburn, and on Saturday
January 20, the Sergeant of the House OF Com.
mons
PROCEEDED TO THE ABBEY
with body Of attendants. According to Noble
they found In vant at the east end of the mid
die aisle magnificent coffin which contained the
body Of Oliver. &c. Tho traditionary account
handed down by the High Sheriff of Middlesex
who superintendent the work, IL that the body was
found In the wall, wrapped In lead and deposited
In half dozen collins, each with cement poured
round II so that several pickaxes were broken be.
fore they got 1.-THE body. The masons receipt for
his fees Is In existence, aud Noble quotes the man
uscript Of Spanish merchant who observed that
the Protectors head was "ln green coreclolh, very
fresh embalmed." This last is eorroboratlye evil
dence; so Is the testimony that the body found