Robert Hammond ( English army officer ) Robert Hammond ( 1621 – 24 October 1654 ) was an officer in the New Model Army under Oliver Cromwell during the First English Civil War and a politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1654 . He is best known for his year - long role in keeping Charles I of England in custody . Early life . Hammond was the second son of Robert Hammond of Chertsey , Surrey , and grandson of John Hammond . He matriculated at Magdalen Hall , Oxford on 20 May 1636 aged 15 , but left the university without taking a degree . Service in the Civil War . Royalist pamphleteers state that Hammond began his military career under Sir Simon Harcourt . In the summer of 1642 he was a lieutenant in the list of the army destined for Ireland ; on 6 July he obtained a commission as captain of a foot company of two hundred men , to be levied for the parliament in London and the adjoining counties , and on 11 March 1643 was appointed a captain in Essex ' s regiment of cuirassiers . In June 1644 Hammond , then serving under Edward Massie , distinguished himself at the capture of Tewkesbury . In the following October a quarrel between Hammond and Major Grey led to a duel in the streets of Gloucester , in which Grey lost his life . Hammond was tried by court - martial , and unanimously acquitted ( 28 November 1644 ) , on the ground that he had acted in self - defence . Hammond was in 1645 appointed to the command of a regiment of foot in the New Model Army . At the battle of Naseby Hammond ' s regiment formed part of the reserve . He took part in the storming of Bristol and Dartmouth and in the battle of Torrington , and captured Powderham Castle and St . Michael ' s Mount . In October 1645 , during the siege of Basing House , Hammond was taken prisoner by the garrison , and when that garrison was captured Oliver Cromwell sent him up to London , to give the House of Commons an account of the victory . The commons voted him £200 to recoup his losses as a prisoner . Post - war period . After the close of the war in England Hammond was offered the command of a force destined for the relief of Dublin , but played hard to get . In the struggle between army and parliament over the summer of 1647 , Hammond was initially with the army . On 1 April 1647 he appeared at the bar of the House of Commons to answer for his conduct in permitting the circulation of the army ' s petition in his regiment . Only four hundred of his regiment were willing to serve in Ireland , though Hammond himself had declared his conviction that were Philip Skippon commander - in - chief , the greater part of the army would follow him . He signed the vindication of the officers presented to parliament on 27 April 1647 , and the letter of the officers to the city on 10 June . He was also one of those appointed to treat with the parliamentary commissioners on behalf of the army on 1 July 1647 . Further on into the summer of 1647 Hammond apparently doubted whether the army was justified in using force against the parliament ; he sought and obtained retirement from active military service . On 3 September 1647 Philip Herbert , 4th Earl of Pembroke , who since 1642 had been governor of the Isle of Wight , announced to the House of Lords that Thomas Fairfax , by his authority as commander - in - chief , had commissioned Colonel Hammond to be governor of that island , desired the lords to accept his own resignation , and asked them to pass an ordinance appointing Hammond ( which was done on 6 September ) . In 1648 events rendered weighty the debating point whether Hammond derived his authority from army or parliament . It was then argued by Henry Ireton and the army leaders that the ordinance was a rubber - stamp . The office itself was at this time a sinecure . Hammond was succeeded by his lieutenant - colonel Isaac Ewer in 1647 , who had transferred into the New Model Army in April 1645 . Custodian to the King . Charles I of England fled from Hampton Court on 11 November 1647 , apparently with the intention of crossing to the Isle of Wight and Hammond , for safety and as a staging post to leaving the country . Hammond had been introduced to the King earlier , at an audience where he made such protestations of loyalty that Charles came to believe him sympathetic . According to Anthony Wood , it was Henry Hammond , Robert Hammond ' s uncle , who brought him to the king . The actual circumstances of the escape are known largely through the later accounts of the royalist proponents of the plan . John Ashburnham ( on his own account ) met Hammond as he was going down to his new post , and heard that he went there " because he found the army was going to break all promises with the king , and that he would have nothing to do with such perfidious actions " . On 13 November 1647 Hammond learnt from Sir John Berkeley and Ashburnham that the king had fled from Hampton Court to save his life from the Levellers , and intended to put himself under Hammond ' s protection . Hammond said that he was undone , and between his duty to the king and his obligations to the army would be confounded . Finally , he gave a vague promise to act with honour . Ashburnham took Hammond to the king on the mainland , and the king came to the Isle of Wight . Hammond at once wrote to the parliament announcing what had happened ; and called the gentlemen of the island together , requiring their co - operation for the defence of his majesty ' s person . Parliament then drew up a series of instructions to Hammond , ordering him to set a guard over Charles and keep him on the island ; a second set of instructions came , on the occasion of the Treaty of Newport , dated 17 August 1648 . He was also ordered by the commons to send up Ashburnham , Berkeley , and William Legge as prisoners , and obeyed under protest , obeyed . Thus instead of becoming the king ' s protector , Hammond found himself his gaoler . His relations with the king were at first pleasant , but after the king ' s rejection of the ' Four Bills ' tendered him by parliament at the end of December 1647 , he was more closely confined , and the position of the governor became difficult . Rumours spread of angry scenes ; Thomas Herbert complained that Hammond searched the king ' s cabinet for papers . In the king ' s secret correspondence in the summer of 1648 , he wrote of Hammond ' s incivility . In May 1648 two of the gentlemen attending the king , Osborne and Dowcett , were accused of a plot to abet his escape , and were arrested . Osborne asserted that Hammond ' s second in command , Major Rolph , had plotted against the king ' s life , and that the governor was cognizant of it . He had begged to be relieved from his task . In November 1648 the breach between the army and the parliament involved Hammond . Cromwell , Ireton , and other representatives of the Council of Officers wrote , arguing that his obedience was due to the army rather than to the parliament , and that he should take their side in the struggle . On 21 November he received a letter from Fairfax , ordering him to come to St . Albans , and informing him that Colonel Ewer had been sent to guard the king during his absence . This was followed by the appearance of Ewer himself , with instructions to secure the person of the king in Carisbrooke Castle till it should be seen what answer the parliament would make to the army ' s remonstrance . Hammond felt bound to obey the commander - in - chief , and set out for St . Albans ; but he announced his intention of opposing Ewer by force , if necessary , and left the king in charge of Major Rolph and two other officers , with injunctions to resist any attempt to remove Charles from the island . The House of Lords commanded Hammond not to leave his post , but he had already started , and when he tried to return was detained and put under guard until the king had been seized and carried to Hurst Castle . Hammond ' s custody of the king had lasted from 13 November 1647 to 29 November 1648 , and parliament voted him a pension . Later life . During the earlier part of the Commonwealth Hammond took no part at all in public affairs , but his friendship with Cromwell seems to have been only temporarily interrupted . On 22 July 1651 he wrote to Cromwell to intercede for the life of Christopher Love . In 1654 , he was elected Member of Parliament for Reading for the First Protectorate Parliament . When Cromwell became Lord Protector he brought Hammond again into employment , and in August 1654 Hammond was appointed a member of the Irish council . He went over at once to Dublin , and began reorganising the judicial system , but was seized with a fever , and died early in October 1654 . Simon Ford of Reading is said to have published a book on his death . References .