Edmund Chillenden was an English soldier, known as an agitator and theological writer. At different times he was a Leveller and a Fifth Monarchist.

Life

With 60 others, he was arrested at a religious meeting in London in January 1641 at the house of Richard Sturges. He was a prisoner of war in 1642 in Oxford Castle

Oxford Castle

Oxford Castle is a large, partly ruined Norman medieval castle situated on the west edge of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. The original moated, wooden motte and bailey castle was replaced with stone in the 11th century and played an important role in the conflict of the Anarchy...

, and wrote a pamphlet on the terrible conditions of his confinement, against William Smith.

He was an officer in the parliamentary New Model Army

New Model Army

The New Model Army of England was formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, and was disbanded in 1660 after the Restoration...

, in 1646 a Lieutenant and intelligence officer in Whalley's Regiment

Edward Whalley

Edward Whalley was an English military leader during the English Civil War, and was one of the regicides who signed the death warrant of King Charles I of England.-Early career:The exact dates of his birth and death are unknown...

. He was on the army's General Council in 1647, and a supporter of the Levellers.

Jason Peacey writes of

Works

He published :

• Preaching without Ordination, London, 1647. Lazarus Seaman
  Lazarus Seaman
  Lazarus Seaman , was an English clergyman, supporter in the Westminster Assembly of the Presbyterian party, intruded Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and nonconformist minister.-Life:...
  
   wrote a brief answer to this work, appended to his Vindication of the Judgment of the Reformed Churches and Protestant Divines from Misrepresentations concerning Ordination and Laying on of Hands, London 1647. Another reply appeared under the title of Church Members set in Joynt, by Filodexter Transilvanus, (Benjamin Woodbridge
  Benjamin Woodbridge
  Benjamin Woodbridge was an English clergyman and controversialist, Harvard College's first-ever graduate, and participant in the Savoy Conference.-Life:...
  
  ), London, 1648.
• Nathan's Parable; with a Letter to his Excellency the Lord General Cromwell, London, 1653, 4to.

Further reading

• Michael A. Norris, Edward Sexby, John Reynolds and Edmund Chillenden : agitators, "sectarian grandees" and the relations of the New Model Army with London in the spring of 1647. Historical Research, 76:191 (2003), 30-53