John Fenwicke
Lt.-Col. John Fenwicke (c.1593–1670) was an English soldier who supported the parliamentary cause during the English Civil War. Biography Fenwicke was a younger son of Roger Fenwick (c.1566–1618), gentleman, of Bitchfield, in the parish of Stamfordham, Northumberland, and his wife, Mabel. He served an apprenticeship in Newcastle upon Tyne under a boothman (corn merchant) called Robert Bewick, and then became a merchant of the same city. Fenwicke was successful in trading textiles and by 1633 had an income of £4000 per annum, making him one of Newcastle's wealthiest merchants. His business took him to Scotland and he sympathised with the Presbyterians in Scotland, going so far as to sign the Covenant. On his return to England, the Secretary of State Sir Francis Windebank ordered his arrest for treason. Fenwicke went back to Scotland and accompanied the Covenanter Army when it advanced into England and occupied his home town of Newcastle. In 1641 Fenwicke wrote a pamphlet called The Downfall of the Pretended Divine Authoritie of the Hierarchy into the Sea of Rome. in which he denounced the Arminian clergy of Durham as giving succour and encouragement to the Roman Catholics in the North East of England. His wife Jane sparked