John Stawell

Who was John Stawell?

Sir John Stawell or Stowell or Stovall was an English Member of Parliament and Royalist governor of Taunton during the English Civil War.

The oldest surviving son of Sir John Stawell of Cothelstone in Somerset, Stawell was educated at Queen's College, Oxford. In 1625, he entered Parliament as member for Somerset, and was knighted at the coronation of Charles I early the following year. He was High Sheriff of Somerset in 1628, and was elected once more to represent the county in the Long Parliament of 1640. On the outbreak of the Civil War he declared for the King and was consequently disabled from sitting in Parliament in August 1642.

Sir John raised five regiments at his own expense for the Royal army, serving under Hertford in his campaign through the West Country, and after the capture of Taunton, he was the appointed its governor. When he was captured on the surrender of Exeter in 1646, he refused to take the covenant or to swear not to bear arms against Parliament in future, and was committed for trial on charges of high treason.