account given in a letter, written in 1773, by Mr. Mewling
Luson, a well-known resident in Yarmouth, whose father, Mr. William
Luson, was nearly connected the Cromwell family. Nathaniel Carter, the
son-in-law of Ireton, was in the habit of showing the room, and relating
the occurrence connected with it, which happened when he was a boy.
Cromwell was not at that council. He never was in Yarmouth; but that
there was such consultation there is more than probable. Yarmouth was
full of Cromwellites. In the Market Place, now known as the Weavers'
Arms, to this day is shown the panelled parlour whence Miles Corbet was
used to go forth to worship in that part of the church allotted to the
Independents. Miles Corbet was the son of Sir Thomas Corbet, of
Sprouston, who had been made Recorder of Yarmouth in the first year of
Charles, and who was one of the representatives of the town in the Long
Parliament. The son was an ardent supporter of the policy of Cromwell,
and, like him, laboured that England might be religious and free and
great, as she never could be under any king of the Stuart race; and he
met with his reward. 'See, young man,' said an old man to Wilberforce,
as he pointed to a figure of Christ on the cross, 'see the fate of a
Reformer.' It was so emphatically with Miles Corbet. Under the date of
1662 there is the following entry in the church-book:

'1662.--Miles Corbet suffered in London.'

He was a member of the church there, and was one of the judges who sat on
the trial of King Charles I. His name stands last on the list of those
who signed the warrant for that monarch's execution. Corbet fled into
Holland at the Restoration, with Colonels Okey and Barkstead. George
Downing--a name ever infamous--had been Colonel Okey's chaplain. He
became a Royalist at the Restoration, and was despatched as Envoy
Extraordinary into Holland, where, under a promise of safety, he
trepanned the three persons above named into his power, and sent them
over to England to suffer death for having been members of the Commission
for trying King Charles I. For this service he was created a baronet.
The King sent an order to the Sheriffs of London on April 21, 1662, that
Okey's head and quarters should have Christian burial, as he had
manifested some signs of contrition; but Barkstead's head was directed to
be placed on the Traitor's Gate in the Tower, and Corbet's head on the
bridge, and their quarters on the City gates.