Richard Brandon

Richard Brandon (died 20 June 1649) was a 17th-century English hangman who inherited his role from his father Gregory Brandon and was sometimes known as "Young Gregory". Richard Brandon is often named as the executioner of King Charles I.

Brandon was the Common Hangman of London in 1649 and he is frequently cited as the man who executed the death warrant of King Charles I by beheading the King on 30 January 1649, although the precise identity of the executioner is unknown. It is known, however, that when originally approached, Brandon refused to do the job, although he might later have accepted under threat.

A pamphlet purporting to be a confession by Brandon was published posthumously, in which it is stated that he received £30 for performing the execution, which was given to him 'all in half crowns'.

The register of St Mary Matfelon, the parish church of Whitechapel, records "1649. June 2. Richard Brandon, a man out of Rosemary Lane." And to this is added the following memorandum: "This R. Brandon is supposed to have cut off the head of Charles I". This Brandon was the son of Gregory Brandon, and claimed the headman's axe by inheritance – he was even known as "Young Gregory". The first person he had beheaded was the Earl of Strafford, on the orders of Charles I. Rosemary Lane is the modern Royal Mint Street.

Gregory Brandon was said to be the illegitimate grandson or great grandson of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, whose

treatment of his beautiful royal wife was on a par with his low conception of his moral obligations. He neglected her, spent her money, and lived openly with a notorious woman known as Mrs. Eleanor Brandon, by whom he had an illegitimate son, Charles, who is said to have been the well-known jeweller to Queen Elizabeth, and whose son, or grandson, Gregory Brandon, was, according to tradition, the headsman who executed Charles I.

However, an ancestry of Richard Brandon from the Duke of Suffolk's illegitimate son Charles is highly unlikely. Charles Brandon died in 1551, eight years before Elizabeth I's accession to the throne, and therefore cannot be identical with the Charles Brandon who was this Queen's jeweller.

The notoriety of Gregory and "Young Gregory" led to "the Gregory Tree" becoming a euphemism for the gallows, and was one of the reasons for the decline in popularity of the name Gregory. The name "Gregory" became a general nickname for executioners:

Even before the days of Jack Ketch it was customary to affix a contemptuous nickname to the holders of the office throughout the country. In the days of James I., and long afterwards, hangmen went by the name of "Gregory," after Gregory Brandon, the London executioner in the reign of that monarch. Brandon succeeded Derrick, with whose name all readers of the "Fortunes of Nigel" will be familiar.

I had better to have lived in beggary
Than to have fallen in the hands of Gregory,

says a ballad of 1617.

The Brandons were also responsible for the epithet "Squire" used by hangmen (including Jack Ketch) as Gregory acquired a coat of arms and became an esquire, which passed down to his son and their successors.

The two also appeared in satire and works of fiction at the time, like the print "Portrait of Archbishop Laud and Mr. Henry Burton".