William Cawley

William Cawley (1602 – January 1667) was a regicide and seventeenth century English politician.

He was born in Chichester in 1602, the son of John Cawley, a wealthy brewer, and was educated at The Prebendal School,[1] Oxford University and Gray's Inn.

[2] In 1625, he provided funds for the erection of almshouses on the east side of New Broyle Road.

In 1649, Cawley was appointed to the High Court of Justice and after attending all the sittings in Westminster Hall signed King Charles I's death warrant.

[2] After the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660, Cawley was exempted from pardon and fled abroad first to the Netherlands and then to Switzerland, where he joined fellow regicides Edmund Ludlow and Nicholas Love.

William Cawley, MP
Mural monument in Chichester Cathedral to John Cawley (d.1621), thrice Mayor of Chichester, and to his son William Cawley, the regicide