Of the Regiment Then:
Thomas Blackwell (1605-1653) was a gentleman from Mansfield Woodhouse in Nottinghamshire..
Prior to the Civil War he served as an officer in the Trained Bands of the Newark garrison and in August of 1642 was involved in the disarming of their disaffected elements.
He may have been among those who hastened to show their loyalty when the King set up the Royal Standard in Nottingham in August 1642.
He was Knighted in December of that year, probably at Oxford, where the King had set up his Court after his withdrawal from Tumham Green on the Western approaches to London.
Early in 1643, Sir Thomas was a member of the garrison of Newark, a strategically important town which had been secured by forces led by the Earl of Newcastle.
The Royalists in the North received a welcome addition to their strength during February 1643 when Queen Henrietta Maria landed on the Yorkshire coast at Bridlington with a fleet of ships laden with military equipment.
Sir Thomas Blackwell's Regiment was apparently founded soon afterwards. Initially recruits were drawn from the Newark area; although never more than 200 strong, it saw much active service in its relatively brief period of existence.
On July 2nd 1643 the Regiment first saw action in the capture of Burton on Trent and subsequently accompanied the Queen to Oxford, where it became part of the main field army.
Blackwell’s also took part in the siege of Gloucester from the 10th August until, after losing six men, they were withdrawn on the 5th September. The siege of Gloucester was abandoned on the approach of a relieving Parlimentarian army under the Earl of Essex.
With little time to draw breath the Regiment was moved across county to Newbury where, on 20th September 1643, they took part in the first battle of Newbury. As Essex tried to return to London from Gloucester with his army intact, he was brought to battle at Newbury but the battle which followed was bloody and inconclusive, since Essex was able to withdraw with his depleted army towards London.
In the Winter of 1643/44 the Regiment was quartered at Reading, where their numbers were said to have fallen to only thirty men. Twenty new recruits deserted on enlistment but, despite this, Blackwell's took the field with the Oxford Army again in 1644. During the Summer they were on campaign in the army under the King's personal command.
On 29th of June 1644, Blackwell’s took part in the Royalist victory at Copredy Bridge over the Cherwell where Waller suffered one of his worst defeats.
The King's army subsequently marched into the West Country by way of Evesham, Exeter, and Launceston, in pursuit of Essex, who had rashly entered Cornwall without support. The Regiment was involved in the action at Lostwithiel where Essex’s army was eventually trapped and surrendered on September 2nd, so that the Royalists secured the weapons of its 6,000 men and 42 artillery pieces.
As the victorious army returned towards Oxford, they were brought to battle at Newbury on 27th October 1644 by the combined Parlimentarian armies led by Manchester, Waller, and Essex. The Royalists occupied a strong defensive position centred on the mansion at Shaw House (now a school) to the East of the town. Blackwell’s fought in Sir George Lisle's tertio which fortified Shaw House and was involved in the fierce fighting in the defence of this headquarters. The Royalist army carried out the difficult feat of withdrawing through the Parliamentarian lines under cover of darkness.
Sir Thomas Blackwell's Regiment was last heard of in November 1644, after which they were probably amalgamated with other small regiments.
In March 1645, Sir Thomas, himself, took part in a noble exploit carried out by Langdale's Brigade of Horse. Having been given leave to return to their home area, they left the Oxford region in February 1645, inflicting defeats on enemy forces at Daventry and Melton Mobray. With reinforcements from Newbury, they successfully relieved the garrison at Pontefract.
Sir Thomas is known to have been active, in some capacity, in the Royalist forces until the collapse of their military effort. The last army in the field, led by Sir Jacob Astley, surrendered at Stow-in-the-Wold in March 1646.
Sir Thomas was married in November 1645 to the widow of Sir Ferdinando Cary. [Cary had been a professional soldier in the Low Countries, serving as an officer in the defence of Bergen Op Zoom, in 1622, for which he knighted in 1630. He is believed to have died in the 1630's].
Sir Thomas Blackwell remained with the King's Army until the end but like many loyal gentlemen he had been ruined by his support for the King and his last years must have been a constant struggle for survival.
Active Royalists were forced to pay fines out of the revenue from their Estates, under the control of the committee for Compounding, whose records still survive.
In the records, he is referred to as Sir Thomas Blackwall and one of his main assets mentioned was an annuity of £200 a year in his wife's name from the rectory at Pickering, near Scarborough.
After the war he was ordered to pay, as were many other prominent Royalists, a fine for "Delinquency" which caused him much anxiety.
By 1650, Sir Thomas was in poor health and living in York. When he was summoned to London to appear before the committee, his doctors certified him as suffering from asthma and on the 28th September 1650 advised against him making the long journey from York to London, stating that he had not been well enough to travel anywhere for the past six months.
In 1653, ruined like many others by his loyalty to his King, Sir Thomas Blackwell died in poverty, aged 48.
In January 1654, a relative, Richard Blackwall successfully petitioned that, as a result of Sir Thomas's death, his remaining Estate should be discharged from further demands on behalf of the commonwealth.