One of Oliver Cromwell’s foremost henchmen in the Civil War, Daniel Axtell, was born in Berkhamsted and baptised in St Peter’s in 1622. During Cromwell’s Protectorate, he appropriates Berkhamsted Place. After serving in Cromwell’s forces in Ireland, Axtell returns to Berkhamsted in 1656 to live at Berkhamsted Place.
At the Restoration of the Monarchy, Axtell is executed at Tyburn in 1660 for his role in the execution of King Charles I. The Surveyor of Hertfordshire recommends that a new tenant and army officers are needed at Berkhamsted Place “to govern the people much seduced of late by new doctrine preacht unto them by Axtell and his colleagues.”
