Colonel Francis Thornhagh or Thornhaugh (1617–1648) was a hero of the Parliamentarian cause in the English Civil War, an MP of East Retford and High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, who was killed at the Battle of Preston in 1648.
Francis and Elizabeth lived on St. Mary's Hill, Nottingham and at his wife's property Rushcliffe Hall, Gotham, as his mother continued to reside at the family estate at Fenton until her death in 1661.
After Lord Willoughby panicked and fled at the Siege of Newark, taking most of the Parliamentarian cavalry with him, Thornhagh rallied the remaining troops and charged the royalist line.
Thornhaugh then reinforced Poyntz at the Battle of Rowton Heath in 1645, later leading the regiment to reduce the garrisons of the Nottinghamshire Royalists, ending the First Civil War at the third and final siege of Newark.
"[12] Mrs Lucy Hutchinson describes him as "of a most excellent good nature to all men and zealous for his friend: he wanted counsel and deliberation and was sometimes too facile to flatterers, but had judgment enough to discern his errors when they were represented to him, and worth enough not to persist in an injurious mistake because he had once entertained it.
Cromwell reminded the Speaker of the House of Commons that Thornhagh had always been "faithful and gallant in your service as any", and had left children and "a sad Widow" who, he said, were now "the interest of the Commonwealth".
[14] The House of Commons responded to Cromwell's appeal by an order, 'that it be referred to the committee of the Northern Association to consider and present some way of satisfaction to be given to the wife and children of Colonel Thornhagh'.