Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wogan, Thomas
WOGAN, THOMAS (fl. 1646–1666), regicide, was a member of the Wogan family of Pembrokeshire. He was elected as a recruiter to represent the borough of Cardigan in the Long parliament on 24 Aug. 1646. He is said to have served in the parliamentary army as captain of dragoons, though probably this is a confusion with Edward Wogan [q. v.] On 23 Jan. 1647 he presented to a committee of the House of Lords a petition from the town of Cardigan for the establishment of a free school there. At the end of March 1648 he received the leave of the House of Commons to go to Wales to endeavour to restore peace in Pembrokeshire and the adjoining counties. He then served under Colonel Thomas Horton [q. v.], and in June he was voted the sum of 300l. as part of the arrears due to him.
Wogan was one of the king's judges. He was present at the trial on 18, 22, 23, and 26 Jan. 1649, and was in Westminster Hall on the 29th when sentence was pronounced. He signed the death-warrant. In April 1652 lands belonging to the Commonwealth of England were settled upon Wogan and his heirs in satisfaction of all arrears. He sat in the restored Rump parliament of 1659. At the Restoration he was summoned to trial with other regicides, and on 9 June 1660 was excepted from the Act of Oblivion. He surrendered on 27 June, and, although not within the prescribed period for doing so, his surrender was accepted, and he was one of the nineteen included in the saving clause of suspension from execution in case of attainder till the passing of a future act. His forfeited lands at Wiston, near Haverfordwest, were granted to Robert Werden [q. v.] in August 1662. On 27 July 1664 he was stated to have escaped from York Tower, and a proclamation was issued for his arrest. The last reference that has been discovered to him is dated September 1666, when he is spoken of as ‘at Utrecht, plotting’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1666–7, p. 156).
[Noble's Lives of the Regicides, p. 337; Official List of M.P.'s, i. 498; Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. p. 154; Nalson's Trial of Charles I, passim; Commons' Journal, v. 86, 230, 519, 566, 608, vi. 156, 568, vii. 119, 129, viii. 61, 75, 139; Cal. of State Papers, Dom. 1651; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. iii. 25; Masson's Milton, iii. 720, v. 454, vi. 28, 44, 49, 54, 94, 45 n.]