Robert Phayre

Robert Phayre (c.1619-1682) was a soldier and one of the Regicides of King Charles I of England.

Son of a Devonshire clergyman who emigrated to Ireland, Phayre was driven from his farm during the Irish Uprising (1641). He joined the army of Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin to fight the Confederates and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, but did not follow Inchiquin when he declared for the King in 1648. Phayre went to England and joined the New Model Army. He was one of the officers delegated to supervise and carry out the King's execution in January 1649. Phayre signed the general document, along with Cromwell and some 30 others, (his name is on the left side of the document), but like Colonel Hercules Huncks, Phayre refused to sign the order to the executioner.

After the King's execution, Phayre returned to service in Ireland under Lord Broghill. He served as governor of Cork and acquired Irish lands after the defeat of the Confederates. He was associated with Quakers and other religious radicals. At the Restoration, Phayre was arrested and transported to England. Although imprisoned in the Tower of London he was not brought to trial, but paid over a significant sum to the Crown, (some say about two hundred thousand pounds), married the Protestant daughter of the Governor of the Tower of London and was released in 1662.