Editing Oliver Cromwell (section)

== Early life ==
Cromwell was born in [[Huntingdon]] on 25 April 1599<ref>{{Cite web |last=Plant |first=David |title=Oliver Cromwell 1599–1658 |url=http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/biog/oliver-cromwell.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130731093538/http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/biog/oliver-cromwell.htm |archive-date=31 July 2013 |access-date=27 November 2008 |publisher=British-civil-wars.co.uk}}</ref> to [[Robert Cromwell]] and his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Steward.<ref>Lauder-Frost, Gregory, F.S.A. Scot., "East Anglian Stewarts" in ''The Scottish Genealogist'', Dec. 2004, vol. LI, no. 4., pp. 158–159. {{ISSN|0300-337X}}</ref> The family's estate derived from Oliver's great-great-grandfather Morgan ap William, a [[brewer]] from [[Glamorgan]], Wales, who settled at [[Putney]] and married Katherine Cromwell (born 1482), the sister of [[Thomas Cromwell]], who would become the famous chief minister to Henry VIII. The Cromwells acquired great wealth as occasional beneficiaries of Thomas's administration of the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]].<ref name="Morrill">{{Cite web |last1=Morrill |first1=John S. |author-link1=John Morrill (historian) |last2=Ashley |first2=Maurice |author-link2=Maurice Ashley (historian) |date=10 February 2025 |title=Oliver Cromwell (English statesman) |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Oliver-Cromwell |publisher=Britannica Biographies}}</ref> Morgan ap William was a son of William ap Yevan of Wales. The family line continued through [[Richard Williams (alias Cromwell)]], ({{Circa}} 1500–1544), [[Henry Williams (alias Cromwell)]], ({{Circa}} 1524 – 6 January 1604),{{Efn|Henry VIII believed that the Welsh should adopt surnames in the English style rather than taking their fathers' names as Morgan ap William and his male ancestors had done. Henry suggested to Richard Williams, who was the first to use a surname in his family, that he adopt the surname of his uncle Thomas Cromwell. For several generations, the Williamses added the surname of Cromwell to their own, styling themselves "Williams alias Cromwell" in legal documents ({{Harvnb|Noble|1784|pp=11–13}})}} then to Oliver's father Robert Williams, alias Cromwell ({{Circa}} 1560–1617), who married Elizabeth Steward ({{Circa}} 1564–1654), probably in 1591. They had ten children, but Oliver, the fifth child, was the only boy to survive infancy.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lroNAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA17 |title=Oliver Cromwell's letters and speeches |date=1887 |editor-last=Carlyle |editor-first=Thomas |volume=1 |page=17 |access-date=6 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230319213122/https://books.google.com/books?id=lroNAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA17 |archive-date=19 March 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Cromwell's paternal grandfather, Henry Williams, was one of the two wealthiest landowners in [[Huntingdonshire]]. Cromwell's father was of modest means but still a member of the [[landed gentry]]. As a younger son with many siblings, Robert inherited only a house at Huntingdon and a small amount of land. This land would have generated an income of up to £300 a year, near the bottom of the range of gentry incomes.{{Sfn|Gaunt|2004|page=31}} In 1654, Cromwell said, "I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in considerable height, nor yet in obscurity."<ref>Speech to the First Protectorate Parliament, 4 September 1654, {{Harv|Roots|1989|p=42}}.</ref>

Oliver Cromwell was baptised on 29 April 1599 at [[All Saints' Church, Huntingdon|St John's Church]],<ref name="BritishCivil">''British Civil Wars, Commonwealth and Proctectorate 1638–1660''</ref> and attended [[Hinchingbrooke School|Huntingdon Grammar School]]. He went on to study at [[Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge]], then a recently founded college with a strong Puritan ethos. He left in June 1617 without taking a degree, immediately after his father's death.<ref>{{Acad|id=CRML616O|name=Cromwell, Oliver}}</ref> Early biographers claim that he then attended [[Lincoln's Inn]], but the Inn's archives retain no record of him.<ref>{{Cite DNB |wstitle=Cromwell, Oliver (1599–1658) |display=Cromwell, Oliver |volume=13 |page=156 |first=Charles Harding |last=Firth |author-link=Charles Firth (historian)}}</ref> [[Antonia Fraser]] concludes that it is likely that he did train at one of the London [[Inns of Court]] during this time.{{Sfn|Fraser|1973|p=24}} His grandfather, his father, and two of his uncles had attended Lincoln's Inn, and Cromwell sent his son Richard there in 1647.{{Sfn|Fraser|1973|p=24}}

Cromwell probably returned home to Huntingdon after his father's death. As his mother was widowed, and his seven sisters unmarried, he would have been needed at home to help his family.{{Sfn|Morrill|1990b|page=24}}