Colonel John Hutchinson (1615–1664) was an English politician who sat in the
House of Commons of England
The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England (which incorporated Wales) from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of ...
from 1648 to 1653 and in 1660. He was one of the
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
leaders, and fought in the
parliamentary
A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democracy, democratic government, governance of a sovereign state, state (or subordinate entity) where the Executive (government), executive derives its democratic legitimacy ...
army in the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
. As a member of the high court of justice in 1649 he was 13th of
59 Commissioners to sign the death-warrant of King
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
. Although he avoided the fate of some of the other regicides executed after the
Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
, he was exempted from the
general pardon
Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, ''amnestia'', "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power offici ...
, only to the extent that he could not hold a public office. In 1663, he was accused of involvement in the
Farnley Wood Plot
The Farnley Wood Plot was a conspiracy in Yorkshire, England in October 1663. Intended as a major rising to overturn the return to monarchy in 1660, it was undermined by informers, and came to nothing.
The major plotters were Joshua Greathead a ...
, was incarcerated and died in prison.
He invested very successfully in buying paintings from the art collection of Charles I after his execution, spending very large amounts relative to his wealth. After a few years he resold them for substantial profits.
Life
Hutchinson was the son of
Sir Thomas Hutchinson (1589–1643) of
Owthorpe
Owthorpe is a small English village and civil parish in the Wolds of the East Midland county of Nottinghamshire. The population of about 90 was included in the civil parish of Cotgrave in the 2011 Census.
Location and governance
Owthorpe is a ...
Hall and Margaret Byron, daughter of Sir John Byron of
Newstead and Margaret FitzWilliam (daughter of
Lord Deputy Sir William FitzWilliam and Ann Sidney, daughter of
Sir William Sidney
Sir William Sidney (1482?–1554) was an English courtier under Henry VIII and Edward VI.
Life
He was eldest son of Nicholas Sidney, by Anne, sister of Sir William Brandon. In 1511 he accompanied Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy into Spa ...
).
Hutchinson was baptised on 18 September 1615. He was educated at Nottingham Grammar School, Lincoln Grammar School where he considered John Clarke the Master 'a supercilious pedant',and
Peterhouse, Cambridge
Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...
. In 1636 he entered Lincoln's Inn to study law, but devoted himself to music and divinity rather than the study of law.
Unlike his Royalist father, Sir Thomas Hutchinson, who represented
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...
in the
Long parliament
The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...
, he took the parliamentary side. He first distinguished himself by preventing Lord Newark, the lord-lieutenant of the county, from seizing the county powder-magazine for the king's service. He next accepted a commission as lieutenant-colonel in the regiment raised by Colonel
Francis Pierrepont, and became one of the parliamentary committee for Nottinghamshire.
![St Margaret Commemorative Plaque](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/St_Margaret_Commemorative_Plaque.JPG)
On 29 June 1643, at the order of the committee and of Sir
John Meldrum
Sir John Meldrum ( – died 1645) was a soldier of Scottish origin who spent 36 years in the service of the Stuart kings of Scotland and England, James VI and I and Charles I. In 1636, Meldrum was granted by letters-patent from the king licenc ...
, Hutchinson undertook the command of
Nottingham Castle
Nottingham Castle is a Stuart Restoration-era ducal mansion in Nottingham, England, built on the site of a Norman castle built starting in 1068, and added to extensively through the medieval period, when it was an important royal fortress and o ...
; he received from
Lord Fairfax
Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron
Lord Fairfax of Cameron is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. Despite holding a Scottish peerage, the Lords Fairfax of Cameron are members of an ancient Yorkshire family, of which the Fairfax baron ...
in the following November a commission to raise a foot regiment, and was finally appointed by Parliament governor of both town and castle. The town was unfortified, the garrison weak and ill-supplied, with the committee torn by political and personal feuds.
The neighbouring royalist commanders, Hutchinson's cousin (Sir
Richard Byron), and
William, Marquess of Newcastle, attempted to corrupt Hutchinson. Newcastle's agent offered him £10,000, and promised that he should be made "the best lord in Nottinghamshire", but Hutchinson indignantly refused to entertain such proposals.
The town was often attacked. Sir
Charles Lucas
Sir Charles Lucas, 1613 to 28 August 1648, was a professional soldier from Essex, who served as a Cavalier, Royalist cavalry leader during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Taken prisoner at the end of the First English Civil War in March 1646, ...
entered it in January 1644 and endeavoured to set it on fire, and in April 1645 a party from Newark captured the fort at Trent-bridges. Hutchinson succeeded in making good these losses, and answered each new summons to surrender with a fresh defiance.
The difficulties were increased by continual disputes between Hutchinson and the committee, which were a natural result, in Nottingham as elsewhere, of the divided authority set up by Parliament. But there is evidence that Hutchinson was irritable, quick-tempered, and deficient in self-control. The
Committee of Both Kingdoms
The Committee of Both Kingdoms, (known as the Derby House Committee from late 1647), was a committee set up during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms by the Parliamentarian faction in association with representatives from the Scottish Covenanters, aft ...
endeavoured to end the quarrel by a compromise, which Hutchinson found great difficulty in persuading his opponents to accept.
On 16 March 1646 Hutchinson was returned to Parliament as member for
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...
, succeeding to the seat held by his father, who had died on 18 August 1643. His religious views led him to attach himself to the
Independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
rather than the Presbyterian party. As governor he had protected the separatists to the best of his ability, and now, under his wife's influence, he adopted the main tenet of the Baptists. He was commissioner for exclusion from sacrament in 1646 and commissioner for scandalous offences in 1648.
On 22 December 1648 Hutchinson signed the protest against the votes of the House of Commons accepting the concessions made by the king at the
treaty of Newport
The Treaty of Newport was a failed treaty between Parliament and King Charles I of England, intended to bring an end to the hostilities of the English Civil War. Negotiations were conducted between 15 September 1648 and 27 November 1648, at Newpo ...
, and consented to act as
one of the judges at the
trial of Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
. According to his wife, he was nominated to the latter post very much against his will; "but, looking upon himself as called hereunto, durst not refuse it, as holding himself obliged by the covenant of God and the public trust of his country reposed in him".
[ cites: ''Life'', ii. 152, 155.] After serious consideration and prayer he signed the sentence against the king.
[
From 13 February 1649 to 1651 Hutchinson was a member of the first two Councils of State of ]the Commonwealth
The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the ...
, but he took no very active part in public affairs, and with the expulsion of the Long parliament in 1653 moved back to his family seat at Owthorpe near Nottingham and lived in retirement until 1659 when he was made High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire
This is a list of the High Sheriffs of the English county of Nottinghamshire.
The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuri ...
.
His neighbours thought of electing him to the First Protectorate Parliament
The First Protectorate Parliament was summoned by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell under the terms of the Instrument of Government. It sat for one term from 3 September 1654 until 22 January 1655 with William Lenthall as the Speaker of the Hou ...
in 1656, but Major-general Whalley's influence induced them to change their minds. According to his wife Lucy Hutchinson
Lucy Hutchinson (; 29 January 1620 – October 1681) was an English translator, poet, and biographer, and the first person to translate the complete text of Lucretius's ''De rerum natura'' (''On the Nature of Things'') into English verse, du ...
, Cromwell attempted to persuade her husband to accept office, "and, finding him too constant to be wrought upon to serve his tyranny", would have arrested him had not death prevented the fulfilment of his purpose.
The certificate presented in Hutchinson's favour after the Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
represents him as secretly serving the royalist cause during the Protectorate, but of this there is no independent evidence of this. The real object of his political action seems to have been the restoration of the Long parliament. He took his seat again in that assembly when the army recalled it to power (May 1659), and when John Lambert John Lambert may refer to:
*John Lambert (martyr) (died 1538), English Protestant martyred during the reign of Henry VIII
*John Lambert (general) (1619–1684), Parliamentary general in the English Civil War
* John Lambert of Creg Clare (''fl.'' c. ...
expelled it (October 1659) prepared to restore its authority by arms, he secretly raised men, and concerted with Francis Hacker
Colonel Francis Hacker (died 19 October 1660) was an English soldier who fought for Parliament during the English Civil War and one of the Regicides of King Charles I of England.
Biography
Hacker was third son of Francis Hacker of East Bridgfo ...
and others to assist George Monck
George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle JP KG PC (6 December 1608 – 3 January 1670) was an English soldier, who fought on both sides during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A prominent military figure under the Commonwealth, his support was cruc ...
and Arthur Hesilrige
Sir Arthur Haselrig, 2nd Baronet (1601 – 7 January 1661) was a leader of the Parliamentary opposition to Charles I and one of the Five Members whose attempted arrest sparked the 1642–1646 First English Civil War. He held various military an ...
against Lambert and his party, In his place in parliament he opposed the intended oath abjuring the Stuarts, voted for the re-admission of the secluded members, and followed the lead of Monck and Cooper, in the belief that they were in favour of a Commonwealth. He retained sufficient popularity to be returned to the Convention Parliament as one of the members for Nottingham, but was expelled from it on 9 June 1660 as a regicide
Regicide is the purposeful killing of a monarch or sovereign of a polity and is often associated with the usurpation of power. A regicide can also be the person responsible for the killing. The word comes from the Latin roots of ''regis'' ...
. On the same day he was made incapable of bearing any office or place of public trust in the kingdom, but it was agreed that he should not be excepted from the Act of Indemnity either for life or estate. In his petitions he confessed himself "involved in so horrid a crime as merits no indulgence", but pleaded his early, real, and constant repentance, arising from "a thorough conviction" of his "former misled judgment and conscience", not from a regard for his own safety. Thanks to this submission, to the influence of his kinsmen, Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...
and Sir Allen Apsley, to the fact that he was not considered dangerous, and that he had to a certain extent forwarded the Restoration, Hutchinson escaped the fate of most of the other regicides. Yet, as his wife owns, "he was not very well satisfied in himself for accepting the deliverance. … While he saw others suffer, he suffered with them in his mind, and, had not his wife persuaded him, had offered himself a voluntary sacrifice".
In October 1663 Hutchinson was arrested on suspicion of being concerned in what was known as the Farnley Wood Plot
The Farnley Wood Plot was a conspiracy in Yorkshire, England in October 1663. Intended as a major rising to overturn the return to monarchy in 1660, it was undermined by informers, and came to nothing.
The major plotters were Joshua Greathead a ...
. The evidence against him was far from conclusive, but the government appears to have been eager to seize the opportunity of imprisoning him. Imprisonment restored Hutchinson's peace of mind. He regarded it as freeing him from his former obligations to the government, and refused to purchase his release by fresh engagements. During his confinement in the Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
he was treated with great severity by the governor, Sir John Robinson, and threatened in return to publish an account of his malpractices and extortions. He even succeeded in getting printed a narrative of his own arrest and usage in the Tower, which is stated on the title-page to be "written by himself on the 6th of April 1664, having then received intimation that he was to be sent away to another prison, and therefore he thought fit to print this for the satisfying his relations and friends of his innocence".[ cites: ''Harl. Misc.,'' ed. Park, iii. 33.]
A warrant for Hutchinson's transportation to the Isle of Man was prepared in April 1664, but he was finally transferred to Sandown Castle in Kent on 3 May 1664. The castle was ruinous and unhealthy, and he died of a fever four months after his removal to it on 11 September 1664. His wife obtained permission to bury his body at St Margaret's Church, Owthorpe.
Assessment
In the opinion of the historian C. H. Firth that Hutchinson's defence of Nottingham was a service of great value to the parliamentary cause, but his subsequent career in Parliament and the Council of State shows no sign of political ability. His fame rests on his wife ( Lucy Hutchinson's) detailed biography of his life and commemoration of his character, not on his own achievements.
Family
He was married to Lucy
Lucy is an English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings are Luci, Luce, Lu ...
, daughter of Sir Allen Apsley, Lord Lieutenant
A lord-lieutenant ( ) is the British monarch's personal representative in each lieutenancy area of the United Kingdom. Historically, each lieutenant was responsible for organising the county's militia. In 1871, the lieutenant's responsibility ...
of the Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
. John and Lucy had 9 children, including John and Barbara.
His wife was the author of his biography ''Memoirs of the life of colonel Hutchinson''. Although the book was not published until several years after her death, she had known many of the people in that conflict and was in an ideal position to chronicle the events of the war.
Notes
References
*
* Hutchinson, Lucy, b. 1620; Hutchinson, Julius; Halsall, Edward; Chisenhale, Edward, d. 1654
''Memoirs of the life of Colonel Hutchinson, Governor of Nottingham Castle and Town, representative of the County of Nottingham in the Long Parliament, and of the Town of Nottingham in the first parliament of Charles the Second, with original anecdotes of many of the most distinguished of his contemporaries, and a summary review of public affairs.''
London : H. G. Bohn, 1863
;Attribution
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutchinson, John
1615 births
1664 deaths
Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge
Regicides of Charles I
Roundheads
People from Rushcliffe (district)
High Sheriffs of Nottinghamshire
English MPs 1648–1653
English MPs 1660
English people who died in prison custody
English politicians convicted of crimes
People educated at Lincoln Grammar School