“ WILDMAN, SIR JOHN (c. 1621–1693) , English agitator, was educated at the university of Cambridge, and during the Civil War served for a short time under Sir Thomas Fairfax. He became prominent, however, not as a soldier but as an agitator, being in 1647 one of the leaders of that section of the army which objected to all compromise with the king. ”

“ He was a large buyer of the land forfeited by the royalists, and in 1654 he was sent to the House of Commons as member for Scarborough. In the following year he was arrested for conspiring against Cromwell, and after his release four months later he resumed the career of plotting, intriguing alike with royalists and republicans for the overthrow of the existing regime. ”