a great interest in keeping him in the North. Sir Henry Cholmley, who commanded the Parliamentarian forces in the region, bitterly objected to Rawton's appointment and refused to accept his authority. Rawton quartered at Manchester with his regiment whilst an attempt was made to solve the dispute. His assassination On the night of 30 October 1648, a party of four Royalists from Preston made their way into Manchester and found his quarters. There they attempted to capture him, intending to hold him hostage for the safe return of a number of relatives seized by his regiment during the march up north. Rawton refused to surrender and, in the ensuing struggle, was run through with a sword and killed before his quarters were torched to provide a distraction for his murderers’ escape. Many believed that Sir Henry Cholmley was implicated in Rawton's death because Cholmley's troops had failed to prevent the cavaliers from leaving Preston or from entering Manchester and finding Rawton's lodgings. Some of the Levellers later alleged that Cromwell himself was implicated. Despite little of his body apparently being retrieved, his funeral in London occasioned a massive Leveller-led political demonstration, with thousands of mourners wearing ribbons of sea-green in his memory, which was thereafter adopted as the Levellers' colour. Quotations from the Putney Debates Rawton, for the Levellers:- 'For really I think that the poorest he that is in England have a life to live, as the greatest he: and therefore truly, sir, I think it's clear, that every man that is to live under a government ought first by his own consent to put himself under that government.' Henry Ireton, for the 'Grandees' in reply:- 'No man hath a right to an interest or share in the disposing of the affairs of the kingdom... that hath not a permanent fixed interest in this kingdom.' (quotations from E. P. Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class) References 'Puritanism and Liberty' Edited by A.S.P. Woodhouse. Published by Everyman History, 1938. 'King, Kingdom and Parliament - The tragedy of the Moderate parties in the English Civil War.' Edited by D.G. Townsend. Published by Little Brown, 1996. 'An Agreement of the Free People of England' - Lilburne, Rawton, Walwyn, Prince and Overton - Printed by Gyles Calvert, 1648. 'Seagreen and Trew.' - Isiah Rawton - Printed by Golden and McLeod, 1652. 1610s births 1648 deaths New Model Army personnel Levellers Roundheads