Background
Edward Whalley was the son of Richard and Frances (Cromwell) Whalley of Kirkton and Screveton, Nottinghamshire, England, and the cousin of Oliver Cromwell. The exact dates of his birth and death are unknown.
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Edward Whalley
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He was a London businessman, probably a woolen-draper by trade. On the outbreak of the Civil War, Whalley entered the army and was in turn major, 1643, lieutenant-colonel, 1644, and colonel, 1645. He took part in the siege of Gainsborough and the battles of Marston Moor and Naseby. Charles I was entrusted to his care in 1647, and Whalley answered before Parliament for the escape of the King from Hampton Court. He was a member of the High Court of Justice appointed to try the King and signed the death warrant. When Cromwell invaded Scotland in 1650, he appointed Whalley his commissary-general. Whalley took part in the battles of Dunbar and Worcester, and the House of Commons settled on him lands in Scotland to the value of £500 a year. He was one of the officers who presented the petition of the army to Parliament in 1652. He represented Nottinghamshire in the parliaments of the Protector of 1654 and 1656. In 1655 he was appointed major-general over the counties of Nottingham, Lincoln, Derby, Warwick, and Leicester. Although not whole-heartedly in favor of the proposal to revive the title of King in 1657, he was, nevertheless, appointed to Cromwell's House of Lords. He was present when the dying Cromwell named his son Richard as his successor and became a staunch supporter of Richard Cromwell. For this reason the restored Long Parliament negatived his appointment as colonel of a regiment of horse in 1659. He was one of those sent by the army to Monck, but Monck refused to negotiate with him. On April 16, 1660, the Council of State issued a warrant for his arrest, and on May 4, with his son-in-law, William Goffe, he fled from Westminster and took passage for New England in the vessel of Captain Pierce. Whalley and Goffe arrived at Boston on July 27, 1660, and took up their residence with Daniel Gookin of Cambridge. On receipt of news that they had been excepted from the act of indemnity, they decided to leave Massachusetts. On Feburary 26, 1660/1661, they set out from Boston and on March 7 were at the home of the Rev. John Davenport in New Haven. Pursuants were sent after them from Massachusetts, but they were secreted by friends and managed to elude arrest. They lived in and near New Haven until August 19, 1661, when they removed to the home of Micah Tomkins in Milford. In the fall of 1664, because of the arrival of royal commissioners to investigate and report on the state of New England, they removed to the home of the Rev. John Russell, in Hadley, Massachussets, where in February 1664/1665, they were visited by their fellow regicide, John Dixwell. Letters of Goffe to his wife in England in 1674 indicate that at that time Whalley was rapidly failing in health, and it seems probable that he died at Hadley late in 1674 or early in 1675.
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He married, first, Judith, the daughter of John Duffell of Rochester. Their daughter married William Goffe. His second wife was Mary Middleton.
