The Glencairn Uprising, 1653-54 Helen Baker Department of ...

King’s army and had served as a royalist spy during the war in London. He arrived in
Paris in September 1653 and was able to send large quantities of information to
Thurloe in England. Although he continued his involvement in Royalist circles until
at least 1655, he provided a persistent source of anxiety for the King who always
doubted his loyalty. 140
However, by choosing policies of incomplete repression or half-hearted conciliation,
the regimes of the Interregnum failed to smother support for the King. The political
instability in the summer of 1653 encouraged Royalist hopes for a turn in fortune. As
in 1649, it was inhabitants of counties in western England who led the Royalist
revival. In August 1653 a plot was uncovered to seize ports in the west, starting with
the garrison at the Dorset town of Poole and extending as far as Portsmouth. The
leading agent in the plot was Robert Phelips of Montacute, who had been involved in
the royal escape after Worcester. The Cromwellian authorities were aware of the
existence of a plan even before the arrival of Phelips in England in early July. He was
duly imprisoned in the tower but it was not long before he escaped. 141
After the discovery of the western plot, the English Royalists again played at
quiescence until the exploits of their Scottish counterparts provided further scope for
optimism. The adventures of Colonel Wogan, described by Underhill as ‘romantically
improbably’ injected some life into the Royalists and provided some publicity
value. 142 In November 1653 Colonel Edward Wogan sailed from France into England
where he recruited twenty-one men in London and rode off with them to join
Glencairn. 143
Edward Wogan was the third son of Nicholas Wogan of Blackhall, County Kildare. In
March 1645, at around the age of twenty, he was commissioned as Captain in a crack
regiment in the New Model Army. However, the release of Charles by the Scots
seems to have marked the beginning of his support for the King. He was ordered to
take his troop into Worcestershire in October 1647 and await its disbandment. Wogan
140 Underdown, D. Royalist Conspiracy in England 1649-1660 , pp.60-3. See p.37 for Bampfield’s
involvement in Scottish conspiracy and the quarrel between Balcarres and Glencairn.
141 Underdown, D. Royalist Conspiracy in England 1649-1660 , pp.57, 67-70.
142 Ibid., p.71.
143 Woolrych, A. Commonwealth to Protectorate (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), p.323.