Home > John Thurloe

He was born in Essex in 1616 and was baptized June 12. His father was Thomas Thurloe, rector of Abbot's Roding.

Thurloe was trained as a lawyer in Lincoln's Inn. He was first in the service of Oliver St. John, and, in January 1645, became a secretary to the parliamentary commissioners at Uxbridge. In 1647 he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn as a member.

He remained on the sidelines during the English Civil War but after the accession of Oliver Cromwell, became part of his government. He supported the idea that Cromwell should adopt a royal title, and in 1652 was named a secretary for state.

In 1653 he became head of intelligence and developed a widespread network of spies in England and on the continent. These included mathematician John Wallis, who established a code-breaking department. In this way, Thurloe's service broke the Sealed Knot, a secret society of Royalists and uncovered various other plots against the Protectorate.

In 1654 he was elected to parliament as the member for Ely, and the following year took charge of the post office. His spies were then able to intercept mail, and Thurloe exposed Edward SexbyEdward Sexby ( 1616 January 13 1658) was an English Puritan soldier and Leveller in the army of Oliver Cromwell. Later he turned against Cromwell and plotted his assassination. Edward Sexby was born in Suffolk in 1616 but little else is known about his li's 1657 plot to assassinate Cromwell and captured would-be assassin Miles SindercombeMiles Sindercombe (d. February 13, 1657) was the leader of a group that tried to assassinate Oliver Cromwell in 1657. Sindercombe was born in Kent and had been apprenticed to a surgeon. During the English Civil War he become a Roundhead and a Leveller. and his group.

In 1657 he became a member of Cromwell's second council, as well as governor of the CharterhouseCharterhouse is a Carthusian monastery founded in 1371 by Walter de Manny, in Smithfield in the City of London. Charterhouse is also an English public school., and in 1658 he became chancellorChancellor ( Latin: cancellarius , an official title used by most of the peoples whose civilization has arisen directly or indirectly out of the Roman empire. At different times and in different countries it has stood and stands for very various duties, a of Glasgow University.

After the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658, he supported his son Richard CromwellFor the American actor of the 1930s and 1940s, please see Richard Cromwell (actor Richard Cromwell ( October 4, 1626- July 12, 1712) was the third son of Oliver Cromwell, and was Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland, for little over eight month as Lord ProtectorThe Lord Protector was the de facto head of state during the brief period of the republic or " Commonwealth" in Great Britain and Ireland. Oliver Cromwell and afterwards his son Richard Cromwell were the Lords Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland du and, in 1659, represented Cambridge University in the parliament.

Later that year various parties accused him of arbitrary decisions as head of intelligence, and he was deprived of his offices. Reinstated as a secretary of state in February 27 1660, he resisted the return of Charles II.

After the Restoration, he was arrested for high treason on May 15 1660, but was not tried. He was released on June 29 on the condition that he would assist the new government upon request. He retired from public life but served as a behind-the-scenes authority on foreign affairs and wrote informative papers for Clarendon. However, he did not become part of any new administration.

John Thurloe died in February 21, 1668 in his chambers in Lincoln's Inn and was buried in the chapel.

Thurloe's correspondence is kept in the Bodleian Library, Oxford and in the British Museum. Thomas Birch published part of it in 1742. In his diary, Samuel Pepys spells his name as Thurlow.