DESBOROUGH, JOHN (1608-168o), English soldier and politician, son of James Desborough of Eltisley, Cambs., married in 1636 Eltisley Jane, daughter of Robert Cromwell of Hunting don, and sister of the future Protector. He fought on the parlia mentary side in the Civil War, but avoided all participation in the trial of the king in Jan. 1649, being employed in the settle ment of the west of England. He fought at Worcester as major general and nearly captured Charles II. near Salisbury. During the Commonwealth he held many high offices and was a member of the parliaments of 1653, 1654 and 1656. In spite of his near relationship to the Protector's family, he violently opposed the assumption by Cromwell of the royal title, and after the Protec tor's death he was, with Fleetwood, the chief instigator and or ganizer of the hostility of the army towards Richard Cromwell's Administration, and forced him to dissolve his parliament in April 16S9. He was chosen a member of the council of State by the restored Rump, but presenting with other officers a seditious petition from the army council, on Oct. 5, was dismissed. On the return of the Rump, Desborough was ordered to quit London. The reign of the new military Government was brief and in glorious, and after the Restoration he escaped to Holland where he engaged in republican intrigues. He was ordered home, in April 1666, on pain of incurring the charge of treason, and was im prisoned in the Tower till Feb. 1667. Desborough's rough person and manners are the constant theme of ridicule in the royalist ballads, and he is caricatured in Butler's Hudibras and in the Parable of the Lion and Fox.