NEN Gallery

"I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in any considerable height, nor yet in obscurity" - Oliver Cromwell.

Cromwell was born on 25th April 1599 in Huntington, where he went to school. He went to study at Cambridge but returned on his father's death. He studied at the Inns of Court in London and married in 1620. He lived in St Ives and then inherited estates just outside Ely where he was also responsible for taxes. He championed the cause of the fenlanders. He was born into a puritan household and held puritan beliefs including the belief in Parliament's right to govern which led to civil war. On the execution of Charles I in 1649, he became Head of State and Lord Protector. Picture taken Cromwell's House Museum, Ely.