[10] On 23 December 1648, the Army Council ordered him to take charge of the King, then at Windsor, and Charles remained in his custody at St. James's during the trial, and up to the day of his execution.
[11] Thomlinson then delivered Charles up to Colonel Hacker, the bearer of the death warrant, but, at the King's request, accompanied him as far as the entrance to the scaffold.
[17] Henry Cromwell found him rather a thorn in his side, and, in spite of his "sly carriage", suspected him of stirring up disaffection against his government and of secret intrigues with the republican opposition.
[18] Nevertheless, Henry Cromwell, when he became Lord Deputy, selected Thomlinson for knighthood (24 November 1657), in order to show his willingness to be reconciled to old opponents; nor did he hesitate to give him a commendatory letter when he went to England.
[21] In the quarrel which followed between Parliament and the army he was suspected of too great an inclination to the cause of the latter, and was consequently arrested (13 December 1659) and impeached (19 January 1660) by the supporters of the parliamentary party.
He pleaded also that the King had specially recommended him to his son for his civility, and, as this was confirmed by the evidence of Henry Seymour, the Lords agreed with the Commons to free him from any penalty.
Thomlinson's sister Jane was the wife of Sir Thomas Twisden, who, ironically, presided as a judge at the trial of several of Matthew's fellow regicides.