Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clement, Gregory
CLEMENT, GREGORY (d. 1660), regicide, is described by Ludlow as 'a citizen and merchant of London, who by trading to Spain had raised a very considerable estate' (Memoirs, p. 370). In the spring of 1647 he became member for Camelford, and, according to 'The Mystery of the Good Old Cause, when he had been a member two months protested he had scarcely cleared the purchase money, which was but 60l, but said trading, he doubted not, would mend' (reprint, p. 14). He was one of the members who subscribed their dissent to the vote of 5 Dec. 1648 for an accommodation with the king, and doubtless owed to that circumstance his appointment as one of the king's judges (Parliamentary History, xviii. 482). He attended the high court of justice all the days on which it met in Westminster Hall, and in the Painted Chamber on 8, 22, 23, and 29 Jan., and signed the death-warrant (Nalson, Trial of Charles I). On 11 May 1652 he was expelled from parliament for his 'scandalous carriage;' according to the Rev. Mark Noble, 'not managing his intrigues with secrecy, he was proved to have been frail with his female servant at Greenwich' (Noble, Regicides, p. 143; Heath, p. 476). At the Restoration he went into hiding, but was found concealed 'in a mean house near Gray's Inn,' identified by his voice, 'which was very remarkable,' and sent to the Tower (Ludlow, p. 347; Kennet, Register, 26 May 1660). On 9 June he was absolutely excepted from the Act of Indemnity, both for life and estate; on 12 Oct. he was tried, confessed himself guilty of the fact, and begged for mercy ; and on 16 Oct. he was executed. 'He had no good elocution, but his apprehension and judgment were not to be despised' (Ludlow).
[Noble's Lives of the Regicides; Ludlow's Memoirs, ed. 1751; Complete Collection of Speeches of those Persons lately Executed, 1661, pp. 147-8.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.70
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 32 | ii | 34 | Clement, Gregory: for Camelford read Fowey |