Can anyone identify this person?

[nwquinn]

Excerpt from The Scots Magazine 1758

December 13, 1758 At Ham Common, near Kingston, Surrey, aged 90, Mr Robert Paddon, Farmer. His grandfather had an estate of 600 l. a year in Lancashire, and being a zealous Republican, raised a troop of horse at his own expense for Oliver Cromwell, who for his faithful services created him a Baronet; but the raising and expense of maintaining his men etc. ruined him; so that his estate was sold, and nothing left to his family. His son had a genteel education and was a great enemy to the Presbyterians and Oliverians. The now deceased was a dissenter, and, by great care and indefatigable industry, had acquired a tolerable fortune.

The paragraph cannot be referring to a paternal grandfather, as no Paddon was made a Baronet and there do not appear to have been any Paddon estates in Lancashire. I would be grateful for any suggestions.

[Kerrywood]

A copy of his will can be downloaded here, in case that helps.

[nwquinn]

Thanks Kerry. We also have his son's will - another Robert Paddon (who married Elizabeth Holland) - and who predeceased him in 1755. The Robert Paddon who died in 1758 would have been born about 1668 but we can't figure out who the grandfather with a 600£ estate was who was also a 'zealous republican' who 'raised a troop of horse for Cromwell'. Blackwood's 'The Lancashire Gentry and the Great Rebellion' provides a comprehensive list of Parlimentary supporters - and calculates the value of their estates (estimated from the Lancashire Lay Subsidy of 1641)- but does not provide the data for individual families so it is difficult to cross reference on the £600.

Blackwell does state that the only Lancashire Parlimentary family known to be ruined by the Civil War (as opposed to being ruined by excessive spending) was Sankey of Sankey. A Hierome Sankey was capatain of a troop of horse and was also knighted by Cromwell - so possibly a contender- but as far as I can see, he died s.p.

The other possibility is the regicide Col John More / Moore of Bank Hall. He was certainly a zealous republican (!) and also commanded a troop of horse. In 1650 he died with significant debts. His son Edward Moore was made a Baronet, but not by Cromwell and certainly not for his father's role in the Civil War. He married Dorothy Fenwick and her family's royalist connections (and I think they were also Catholic) helped secure the Baronetcy which would otherwise have been very unlikely for a regicide. The latter might tie in with the suggesrion that the zealous replublican's son was a 'great enemy to the Presbyterians and Oliverians' reference.

Any further thoughts or suggestions greatly appreciated.