Francis Willoughby , 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham Francis Willoughby , 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham ( baptised 1614 – 23 July 1666 ) was an English peer of the House of Lords . He succeeded to the title 14 October 1617 on the death in infancy of his elder brother Henry Willoughby , 4th Lord Willoughby of Parham . Francis Willoughby was second son of William Willoughby , 3rd Lord Willoughby of Parham The young and unexpected death of his elder brother Henry made Francis successor to the hereditary peerage and seat in the House of Lords , the upper house of Parliament . Francis Willoughby was an early supporter of the Parliamentarian cause during the English Civil War but later became a Royalist . He twice served as governor of English colonies in the Caribbean . Francis Willoughby died without male heirs of his body and the title passed to his younger brother William Willoughby , 6th Lord Willoughby of Parham , the third son of William Willoughby , 3rd Lord Willoughby of Parham . Background . Francis Willoughby was born in perhaps 1605 to William Willoughby , 3rd Baron Willoughby of Parham and Frances Manners , daughter of John Manners , 4th Earl of Rutland of Nottingham at Parham in Suffolk . His father died in 1617 , and the barony was held by his older brother Henry for one year until he too died , at which point Francis inherited the seat in the House of Lords and with it the family title . On 16 November 1628 Willoughby married Elizabeth Cecil ( 1606 – 1661 ) , the daughter of the soldier Edward Cecil , 1st Viscount Wimbledon and Theodosia Noel . As tensions between the king and Parliament grew in the 1630s , he found himself opposed to Charles I over the levying of ship money . His loyalty was further strained by the Bishops ' Wars , in which he was reluctant to fight the Scots . Parliamentary Commander . When the king in 1642 issued his Commission of Array to form a loyal army , Willoughby rejected his summons and instead took command of a horse regiment under the Parliamentary commander , the Earl of Essex . By January 1643 he was made commander - in - chief of Lincolnshire . On 16 July of the same year , he led his soldiers in a surprise attack on Gainsborough where he seized the town . Facing a counterattack , Willoughby ' s soldiers fought along with those under Oliver Cromwell to hold off an advancing Royalist force of superior strength . The main body of the Parliamentary army withdrew to Boston with only two dead . That September , Willoughby was a subordinate commander under the Earl of Manchester and Cromwell . He fought at the Battle of Winceby and accepted the surrender of Bolingbroke Castle in November . Willoughby ' s relations with the Parliamentarians began to fray in 1644 . In March he joined with Sir John Meldrum in the assault on Newark , the failure of which has been partially attributed to Willoughby ' s supposed unwillingness to take orders from Meldrum . Willoughby quarrelled with Manchester and was forced to make an apology to the House of Lords as a result . Furthermore , Cromwell himself saw fit to complain about the conduct of Willoughby ' s soldiers . In the next few years , Willoughby became the leader of the Presbyterian force within Parliament , opposed the formation of the New Model Army and was elected as speaker of the House of Lords in July , 1647 . However , when the Parliamentary army took London in September , Willoughby was imprisoned along with six other peers and held for four months at which point he was released without charge , fleeing to the Netherlands to join the Royalists . Royalist Supporter . Now espousing the Royalist cause , Willoughby was promoted to Vice Admiral under the Duke of York , an appointment that may have been designed to engender sympathy among Scots and Presbyterians . He was also assigned a command in the 1648 invasion of England under the Prince of Wales . He later surrendered his naval command to Prince Rupert of the Rhine . When Parliament confiscated his estates , he travelled to the Caribbean . He was appointed Governor of Barbados by Charles II . He arrived at Barbados and took up the appointment in May 1650 and attempted to negotiate the strained politics of that island , which also experienced a division between Royalists and Parliamentarians . During this time he also sent a small colonizing party to Suriname , which established Fort Willoughby ( now Paramaribo ) in honor of the governor . On 25 October 1651 , a seven ship force under Commodore George Ayscue arrived off Barbados , demanding that the island submit " for the use of the Parliament of England " . Willoughby ' s reply ( tellingly addressed to " His Majesty ' s ship " Rainbow " " ) was unyielding , declaring that he knew " no supreme authority over Englishmen but the King " . With some 400 horsemen and 6 , 000 militia , he was prepared to resist any attempt at coercion . Over the next month Barbados was blockaded . In early December , with the Royalist cause defeated in England , Ayscue began a series of raids against fortifications on the island and was reinforced by a group of thirteen ships bound for Virginia . On 17 December a force of more than 1 , 000 Barbadian militia was defeated by one of Ayscue ' s detachments . Governor Willoughby attempted to stem the spread of Parliamentary sympathies by hanging two of the returning militia soldiers and prohibiting the reading of documents from the blockading fleet . The Royalists held out for several more weeks until one of Willoughby ' s own commanders declared himself for Parliament . A battle was averted by a week of rain , after which Willoughby , perhaps having seen the hopelessness of his cause , sought negotiations . He was replaced as governor but Barbados and the Royalists there were not punished . Additionally , Willoughby ' s properties in England were restored . He returned to them in August 1652 . Later years . While he was twice imprisoned during The Protectorate for involvement in Royalist intrigues , Willoughby survived the Cromwell years and after the Restoration in 1660 he was again appointed to a governorship in the Caribbean , administering the colonies at Saint Kitts , Nevis , Montserrat , and Antigua . In June 1664 he organized an expedition from Barbados against the small French garrison at Saint Lucia , expelling it under the pretext that a half - Carib native had effectively " sold " it to England and establishing a short - lived English colony there . During the Second Anglo - Dutch War , Willoughby engaged in another expedition , sailing to the Dutch island of Tobago in July 1665 . Finding a force under the English privateer Robert Searle already looting the settlement there , he put a stop to the destruction and installed a garrison of fifty men to maintain order . His last act on behalf of the English crown came in July 1666 when , having learned of the recent French seizure of Saint Kitts , he formed a relief force of two Royal Navy frigate s , twelve other large vessels ( including commandeered merchant ships ) , a fire ship , and a ketch , bearing over 1 , 000 men . He planned to proceed north to Nevis , Montserrat , and Antigua to gather further reinforcements before descending on the French . Leaving Barbados on 28 July , his force prowled off Martinique and then Guadeloupe , where he sent a frigate to assault the harbor and capture two merchant vessels on 4 August . This success could not be exploited however as that night most of his force was destroyed by a strong hurricane , including the flagship " Hope " , from which Willoughby did not emerge . Will and family relations . Francis Willoughby and Elizabeth Cecil had four children : In his will , he left extensive holdings in Barbados , Antigua , and Suriname to his children and his nephew Henry Willoughby as well as smaller grants of currency or sugar to various associates and servants .