John Blakiston was a member of the English parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

, one of the regicide

Regicide

The broad definition of regicide is the deliberate killing of a monarch, or the person responsible for the killing of a monarch. In a narrower sense, in the British tradition, it refers to the judicial execution of a king after a trial...

s of King Charles I of England

Charles I of England

Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

, a prominent mercer and coal merchant, puritan

Puritan

The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...

 and anti-Episcopalian.

Biography

John Blakiston was born in 1603 in Sedgefield, County Durham, as the third son of Marmaduke Blakiston, Prebendary of York and Durham Cathedral.

In 1626 he married Susan Chamber. He was a fervent financial supporter of the Puritans migrating to America, though he himself never left the country. In 1636 he entered into an ideological dispute with Yeldard Alvey, an Arminian vicar at Newcastle, accusing him of heresy. Alvey emerged victorious from the fray, thanks to the support from Archbishop William Laud

William Laud

William Laud was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645. One of the High Church Caroline divines, he opposed radical forms of Puritanism...

. Blakiston was fined and excommunicated.

He served as a member of parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Newcastle

Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK Parliament constituency)

Newcastle-upon-Tyne was a borough constituency in the county of Northumberland of the House of Commons of England to 1706 then of the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1918...

 in the Long Parliament

Long Parliament

The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...

 where he voiced republican ideas early on, but did not take up his seat until 1641 due to a contest over the result. In 1645 he was elected Mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of Newcastle. In January 1649, as a commissioner of the High Court of Justice

High Court of Justice

The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...

 at the trial of King Charles, he was 12th of the 59 signatories on the death warrant of the King.

He died in June 1649. In 1660, following the restoration, his estate was confiscated by the sheriff of Durham.