Life Of Major General Harrison. /

undated circa 1880s blue cloth bound hardback with blind stamped decoration to binding and gilt title to the spine binding good. 273 pages shorr29

Thomas Harrison was born in 1606 and became one of the countries leading army officers. He had a close relationship with Oliver Cromwell and was closely involved in bringing about the execution of King Charles I, being one of the signatories on his death warrant.

Harrison was an important figure in the Fifth Monarchy movement, which was a radical group that believed after the fall of the fourth monarchy there would be a final golden age and that it was their duty to try and speed up its arrival. The Fifth Monarchists believed that when the golden age arrived taxes, tithes and rents would be abandoned and there would be health and prosperity for all.

After the restoration of the Monarchy, King Charles II came to the throne, and Harrison was one of the regicides who were tried, found guilty and then hung, drawn and quartered. One story relates that Thomas Harrison's remains were eventually brought back to Newcastle-under-Lyme and secretly buried in the churchyard of the Parish Church of St. Giles.