Francis Hacker Colonel Francis Hacker ( died 19 October 1660 ) was an English soldier who fought for Parliament during the English Civil War and one of the Regicides of King Charles I of England . Biography . Hacker was third son of Francis Hacker of East Bridgeford and Colston Basset , Nottinghamshire , by Margaret , daughter of Walter Whalley of Cotgrave . From the outbreak of the English Civil War Hacker vehemently supported the Parliamentary cause , though the rest of his family seem to have been royalists . On 10 July 1644 he was appointed one of the militia committee for the county of Leicester , the scene of most of his exploits during the Civil War , On 27 November 1643 he and several others of the Leicestershire committee were surprised and taken prisoners at Melton Mowbray by Gervase Lucas , the Royalist governor of Belvoir Castle . A month later Parliament ordered that he should be exchanged for Colonel Sands . At the capture of Leicester by the king in May 1645 Hacker , who distinguished himself in the defence , was again taken prisoner . Hacker was nevertheless attacked for his conduct during the defence , but he was warmly defended in a pamphlet published by the Leicester committee . His services are there enumerated at length , and special commendation is bestowed on his conduct at the taking of Bagworth House and his defeat of the enemy at Belvoir , where he was in command of the Leicester , Nottingham , and Derby horse ( cavalry ) . Hacker is further credited with having freely given " all the prizes that ever he took " to the state and to his soldiers , and with having , while prisoner at Belvoir , refused with scorn an offer of " pardon and the command of a regiment of horse to change his side " . " At the king ' s taking of Leicester " , the pamphleteer proceeds , he " was so much prized by the enemy as they offered him the command of a choice regiment of horse to serve the king " . At the defeat of the Royalists at the Battle of Willoughby Field in Nottinghamshire ( 5 July 1648 ) Hacker commanded the left wing of the Parliamentary forces . During the trial of Charles I , Hacker was one of the officers specially charged with the custody of the King , and usually commanded the guard of halberdiers which escorted Charles to and from Westminster Hall . He was one of the three officers to whom the warrant for the King ' s execution was addressed , was present himself on the scaffold , supervised the execution , and signed the order to the executioner . According to Herbert he treated the King respectfully . Hacker commanded a regiment under Cromwell during the Invasion of Scotland . Cromwell wrote to Hacker , 25 December 1650 , rebuking him for slightingly describing one of his subalterns as a better preacher than fighter , and telling him that he expects him and all the chief officers of the army to encourage preaching . Hacker was a religious man , but a strict Presbyterian and a persecutor of the Quakers , He confessed shortly before his death " that he had formerly born too great a prejudice in his heart towards the good people of God that differed from him in judgement " . While Cromwell lived he was a staunch supporter of the Protectorate , arrested Lord Grey in February 1655 , and was employed in the following year to suppress the intrigues of the Cavalier s and Fifth Monarchists in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire . In Richard Cromwell ' s Parliament Hacker represented Leicestershire , but was a silent member . " All that have known me " , he said at his execution , " in my best estate have not known me to have been a man of oratory , and God hath not given me the gift of utterance as to others " . During the Second Commonwealth ( the unstable period preceding the Restoration ) he followed generally the leadership of his neighbour Sir Arthur Haslerig , whose " creature " he was ( as Mrs . Hutchinson terms him ) . By Haslerig ' s persuasion he , first of all the colonels of the army , accepted a new commission from the hands of the speaker of the restored Long Parliament , and was among the first to own the supremacy of the civil power over the army , He opposed the mutinous petitions of Lambert ' s partisans in September 1659 , and , after they had expelled the Rump Parliament from Westminster , entered into communication with Hutchinson and Haslerig for armed opposition . After the triumph of the Rump he was again confirmed in the command of his regiment , and seems to have been still in the army when the Restoration took place . On 5 July 1660 he was arrested and sent to the Tower of London , and his regiment given to Lord Hawley . The House of Commons did not at first except him from the Indemnity and Oblivion Act , but during the debates upon it in the lords the fact came out that the warrant for the execution of the King had been in Hacker ' s possession . The Lords desired to use it as evidence against the regicides , and ordered him to produce it . Mrs . Hacker was sent to fetch it , and , in the hope of saving her husband , delivered up the strongest testimony against himself and his associates . The next day ( 1 August 1660 ) the Lords added Hacker ' s name to the list of those excepted , and a fortnight later ( 13 August ) the House of Commons accepted this amendment . Hacker ' s trial took place on 15 October 1660 . He made no serious attempt to defend himself : " I have no more to say for myself but that I was a soldier , and under command , and what I did was by the commission you have read " . The particulars of the share Colonel Hacker had in trial and execution , were related by Colonel Tomlinson , at Hacker ' s trial : Colonel Tomlinson further deposed , " that Colonel Hacker led the King forth on the day of his execution , followed by the bishop of London , and was there in prosecution of that warrant , and upon the same their orders were at an end " . This evidence of Tomlinson was corroborated by Colonel Huncks , who stated that : Hacker was sentenced to death , and was hanged at Tyburn on 19 October 1660 . His body , instead of being quartered , was given to his friends for burial , and is said to have been interred in the church of St . Nicholas Cole Abbey , London , the advowson of which was at one time vested in the Hacker family . As with all convicted traitors , his property was forfeited to the Crown . His estate passed to the Duke of York , but was bought back by Rowland Hacker , and was still in the possession of the Hacker family in 1890 . Family . Hacker married ( 5 July 1632 ) Isabella Brunts of East Bridgeford , Nottinghamshire , by whom he had one son , Francis , an officer in his father ' s regiment , and a daughter , Anne .