Thomas Blood

Colonel Thomas Blood (1618 – 24 August 1680) was an Anglo-Irish officer and self-styled colonel best known for his attempt to steal the Crown Jewels of England from the Tower of London in 1671. Described in an American source as a "noted bravo and desperado," he was also known for his attempt to kidnap and, later, to kill, his enemy James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond. Early life Sources suggest that Blood was born in County Clare, in the Kingdom of Ireland, the son of a successful land-owning blacksmith of English descent, and was partly raised at Sarney, near Dunboyne, in County Meath. He was apparently a Presbyterian. His family was respectable and prosperous (by the standards of the time); his father held lands in Counties Clare, Meath and Wicklow. His grandfather was a member of the Irish Parliament, and had lived at Kilnaboy Castle (also in County Clare). He received his education in Lancashire, England. At the age of 20, he married Maria Holcroft, the daughter of John Holcroft of Holcroft Hall, Culcheth, Cheshire, and Golborne, Lancashire, and returned to Ireland. At the outbreak of the First English Civil War in 1642, Blood returned to England and initially took up arms with the Royalist forces loyal to Charles I. As the conflict progressed he switched sides and became a lieutenant in Oliver Cromwell's Roundheads. In 1653 at the cessation of hostilities Cromwell awarded Blood land grants as payment for his service and appointed him a justice of the peace. Following the Restoration of King Charles II to the Crowns of the Three Kingdoms in 1660, Blood fled with his family to Ireland. The confiscations and restitutions under the Act of Settlement 1662 (which sought to cancel and annul some of the grants of land and real properties allocated as reward to new holders being Cromwellians under the Act of Settlement 1652) brought Blood to financial ruin, and in return Blood sought to unite his fellow Cromwellians in Ireland to cause insurrection. Irish discontent As part of the expression of discontent, Blood conspired to storm Dublin Castle, usurp the government, and kidnap the 1st Duke of Ormond, who was the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, for ransom. On the eve of the attempt, the plot was foiled. Blood managed to evade the authorities by hiding with his countrymen in the mountains, and ultimately managed to escape to the United Dutch Provinces in the Low Country. A few of Blood's collaborators were captured and executed.