CROMWELL OLIVER: (1599-1658) Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland & Ireland 1653-58.

CROMWELL OLIVER: (1599-1658) Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland & Ireland 1653-58.
Portion of a D.S., Oliver P, as Protector, at the base, one page (vellum), 8vo, n.p. (London), n.d. (1657), to [the Commissioners]. The portion is the left half of a manuscript Warrant instructing the Commissioners to make a payment out of the first moneys received 'by vertue of a certaine Act made in the Parliament… past in the year one thousand Six hundred fiftie & si[x]… in and about the Suburbs of London and within tenn mil[es thereof…to our]… welbeloved Sr. John Wollaston Knight and Alderman ... fyve thousand pounds to our ... Generalls at Sea' and 'foure thousand pounds to William Smithyer'. Lacking the seal and the right half of each line of text. Some overall staining and age wear, largely to the left edge and only slightly affecting a few words of text, Cromwell's signature largely unaffected and perfectly legible. About GThe Parliamentary Act (passed on 26th June 1657) referred to in the present document was created in order to prevent the multiplicity of buildings in and about the Suburbs of London and within ten miles of the same, and commenced 'Whereas the great and excessive number of Houses, Edifices, Out-houses and Cotages erected and new built in and about the Suburbs of the City of London, and the parts thereunto adjoyning, is found to be very mischievous and inconvenient, and a great Annoyance and Nusance to the Common-wealth', It was in effect a barely concealed device to raise money. A Commission was to collect, starting with one half on 29th September 1657, one year's rent of the 'full improved value' of all properties of less than four acres built since 1620, with many interesting exceptions, such as for the Hospitals and for the developments in Covent Garden and Lincoln's Inn Fields.Sir John Wollaston (d. 1658) English Merchant, Lord Mayor of London 1643. He was elected Alderman for Bridge Without ward in 1657.Provenance: The present partial document is accompanied by an 8vo page removed from an album, featuring an image of Cromwell and with a manuscript annotation in the hand of a collector stating, in part, 'This parchment document was sent to me by Rev. Hy Thos Scott M.D. Oxford, England. He obtained it from the famous collection of John Walker, London. Vide Certificate [no longer present] J B Westley.'Oliver Cromwell entered the English Civil War (1642-51) on the side of the 'Roundheads' and quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the principal commanders of the New Model Army, playing an important role in the defeat of the royalist forces, is one of the most controversial figures in the history of the British Isles, considered by some a regicidal dictator (he was one of the signatories of King Charles I's death warrant in 1649), thought of as a military dictator by Winston Churchill, but a hero of liberty by John Milton and Thomas Carlyle, and a class revolutionary by Leon Trotsky. Cromwell was selected as one of the ten greatest Britons of all time in a 2002 BBC poll.