ROKEBY, THOMAS [SSNE 6540]

Surname

ROKEBY

First name

THOMAS

Title/rank

MAJOR GENERAL

Nationality

ENGLISH

Religion

CATHOLIC

Text source

Thomas Rokeby was an English Catholic who entered Polish service and fought without pay after 1648 - presumably a refugee from the English Civil War. By 1657 he held the rank of Major-General over Strangers in the Polish army and, along with General John Middleton, Colonel Alex Durhame and Mr Davissone, tried to persuade Cranstoun's Scottish officers in Swedish service to hand over the city of Thorn to the Poles thus proving their loyalty to Charles II. Among the Scots targeted were Major Mercer, Captain Erskine, Captain Ramsay, Captain Lawsone, Captain Edmonstone, and 'honest Archie Stirling'. Henry Gordon, son of the Marquis of Huntly served as lieutenant-colonel of the regiment while Colonel Durhame served as 'regimental major' despite his higher rank

Swedish Riksarkiv, Extranea 135: IX, 4, interciperade brev 1600-talet, II brev till Skotska officerare, including 1) Middleton to Erskine, no date 2 & 3) Alex Durhame to Erskine, 24 October and 28 November 1657 4)Thomas Rokeby to Erskine, 28 November 1657 5) Mr Davissone to 'my honest friends the Scots officers in Torne' no date; A. Grosjean, 'Royalist Soldiers and Cromwellian Allies? The Cranstoun Regiment in Sweden 1655-1658' in S. Murdoch and A. Mackillop (eds.), Fighting for Identity: Scottish Military Experience c.1550-1900 (Leiden, 2002), pp.61-82; R. Frost, "Scottish soldiers, Poland-Lithuania and the Thirty Years' War" in S. Murdoch ed. Scotland and the Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648 (Brill, 2001), p.211; Steve Murdoch, Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (Brill, Leiden, 2006), pp.80, 360.

Service record

POLAND-LITHUANIA, POLISH ARMY, THORN/TORUN

Arrived 1649-01-01, as SOLDIER

Departed 1660-12-31, as MAJOR-GENERAL

Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY