Sir William Brereton, 1st Baronet (13 September 1604 – 7 April 1661) was a Parliamentarian general during the English Civil War.
Biography[]
William Brereton was born in Manchester, Lancashire, England on 13 September 1604, and he became a lawyer in 1623, a baron in 1627, and an MP for Cheshire in 1628 and 1640. At the start of the English Civil War in 1642, he sided with the Parliamentarians against King Charles I of England, commanding Parliamentarian forces in Cheshire from Nantwich. In 1644, he routed the Royalists in the Battle of Nantwich; in February 1646, he captured the Royalist stronghold of Chester. He survived Pride's Purge in 1648 and served in the restored Rump Parliament in 1659, and he died in 1661 at the age of 56.