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 TRAVEL ^ SCIENCE ^ FICTION 
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 London: J. M. DENT & CO. 
 New York: E. P. DUTTON & CO. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/memoirsoflifeofc00hutc_1 
 
MEMOIRS ^ 
 
 t/ie Li/e 
 
 COLONEL'c^ 
 HUTCHINSON 
 written ^ His 
 Widow vjjOi’ 
 
 LONDON : PUBLISHED 
 ^ J* M'D E N T- &-CO 
 AND IN NEW YORK 
 BY E P- DUTTON SfCO 
 
B 
 
 /f/- 
 
 vN. 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 
 On the 29th January, 1620, five years before Charles I. 
 mounted the throne, there was born in the Tower of London 
 Lucy Apsley (afterwards Mrs. Hutchinson), daughter of 
 Sir Allen Apsley, Lieutenant-Governor of the Tower, who 
 ^ was a devoted servant of the King, and whose sons, when 
 V the war declared itself between the King and Parliament, 
 ^ ranged themselves among the most loyal Cavaliers. 
 
 “ My mother,” says Mrs. Hutchinson, in her Memoirs, 
 while she was with child of me, dreamed that she was 
 walking in the garden with my father, and that a star came 
 down into her hand, with other circumstances, which, 
 though I have often heard, I minded not enough to re- 
 member perfectly; only my father told her, her dream 
 signified she should have a daughter of some extraordinary 
 eminency, which thing, like such vain prophecies, wrought 
 as far as it could its own accomplishment; for my father 
 \ and mother, fancying me then beautiful, and more than 
 X ordinarily apprehensive (quick to learn), applied all their 
 4 cares and spared no cost to improve me in my education, 
 ^ which procured me the admiration of those that flattered 
 my parents. . . . When I was about seven years of age, 
 I remember I had at one time eight tutors in several 
 qualities, languages, music, dancing, writing, and needle- 
 work; but my genius was quite averse from all but my 
 ^ book, and that I was so eager of, that every moment I 
 ^ could steal from my play, I would employ in any book I 
 ^^could find. . . . My father would have me learn Latin, 
 and I was so apt that I outstripped my brothers who were 
 ^ at school, although my father’s chaplain, that was my 
 ^ tutor, was a pitiful dull fellow. My mother would have 
 ..Keen contented if I had not so wholly addicted myself to 
 learning as to neglect my other qualities. As for music 
 and dancing, I profited very little in them, and I would 
 ^ never practise my lute or harpsichords but when my 
 
 vii 
 
Vlll 
 
 Introduction 
 
 masters were^^^with me; and for my needle, I absolutely 
 hated it. Play among other children I despised, and when 
 I was forced to entertain such as came to visit me, I tired 
 them with more grave instructions than their mothers, and 
 plucked all their babies to pieces, and kept the children in 
 such awe, that they were glad when I entertained myself 
 with graver company; to whom I was very acceptable, and 
 living in the house with many persons that had a great 
 deal of wit, and very profitable serious discourse, being fre- 
 quent at my father’s table, and in my mother’s drawing- 
 room, I was very attentive to all, and gathered up things 
 that I would utter again, to great admiration of many that 
 took my memory and imitation for wit. It pleased God 
 that, through the good instructions of my mother, and the 
 sermons she carried me to, I was convinced that the know- 
 ledge of God was the most excellent study, and accordingly 
 applied myself to it, and to practise as I was taught. I 
 used to exhort my mother’s maids much, and to turn their 
 idle discourses to good subjects; but I thought when I had 
 done this on the Lord’s Day, and every day performed my 
 due tasks of reading and praying, that then ^ I was free 
 to anything that was not sin ; for I was not at that time 
 convinced of the vanity of conversation which was not 
 scandalously wicked. I thought it no sin to learn or hear 
 witty songs and amorous sonnets or poems, and twenty 
 things of that kind, wherein I was so apt that I became the 
 confidant in all the loves that were managed among my 
 mother’s young women; and there was none of them but 
 had many lovers, and some particular friends beloved 
 above the rest.” 
 
 During the time that Lucy Apsley was growing up, her 
 time taken up with study, exercises of piety, and romantic 
 sentiments, a young man, John Hutchinson, born four 
 years before her, in i6i6, at Owthorpe, in the county of 
 Nottingham, was also developing, unknown to Lucy and 
 her parents, but given to the same ideas, the same habits, 
 and the same tastes. “ He was of a middle stature, of a 
 slender and exactly well-proportioned shape in all parts; 
 his complexion fair ; his hair of light brown, very thick set 
 in his youth, softer than the finest silk, and curling into 
 loose, great rings at the end ; his eyes of a lively grey, well- 
 shaped, and full of lively vigour, graced with many be- 
 
Introduction 
 
 IX 
 
 coming motions; his visage thin; his mouth well made, 
 and his lips very ruddy and graceful, although the nether 
 chap shot over the upper, yet it was in such a manner as 
 was not unbecoming; his teeth were even, and white as 
 the purest ivory; his chin was something long, and the 
 mould of his face ; his forehead was not very high ; his nose 
 was raised and sharp; but withal he had a most amiable 
 countenance, which carried in it something of magnanimity 
 and majesty mixed with sweetness, that at the same time 
 bespoke love and awe in all that saw him.” 
 
 Then comes John Hutchinson’s moral portrait, his fine 
 natural disposition, his acquired virtues, his character, his 
 piety, all his religious, worldly, political, and domestic 
 merits; and at the end of this long and loving effusion of 
 admiration and respect, we find in Mrs. Hutchinson’s hand: 
 
 All this, and more, is true, but I so much dislike the 
 manner of relating it, that I will make another essay.” 
 She did in fact start again, but, according to the Editor of 
 her Memoirs, her second work in drawing the picture of her 
 husband was not equal to the first, and the first only was 
 published. 
 
 The association of these two persons which brought 
 about their intimate union was bound to be accompanied 
 by some of those singular circumstances which seize lively 
 imaginations and guide passionate wills. Lucy Apsley’s 
 family was, in 1637, living for a time at Richmond, near 
 London ; Mr. Hutchinson, on his side, was asked by one of 
 his friends to come and spend the fine season there also in 
 a house where he would find, they said, good company and 
 amusements of all kinds. He spoke of his project to a 
 gentleman of his acquaintance, and of where he was going 
 to stay, but the latter advised him to be careful, saying that 
 there was a sort of love fatality about the house, so that no 
 young man could leave it without an engagement, though 
 he had entered it perfectly free. Mr. Hutchinson treated 
 the matter as a joke and went to Richmond, where he found, 
 indeed, very good company. At this time Miss Apsley was 
 not there, but Mr. Hutchinson often heard her spoken of. 
 “ One^day when he was at her mother’s house, some half a 
 mile from Richmond, looking upon an odd by-shelf in a 
 closet, he found a few Latin books ; asking whose they were, 
 he was told they were Miss Lucy Apsley’s; whereupon. 
 
X 
 
 Introduction 
 
 inquiring more after her, he began first to be sorry she was 
 gone before he had seen her, and gone upon such an account 
 that he was not likely to see her. Then he grew to love to 
 hear mention of her, and the other gentlewomen who had 
 been her companions used to talk much to him of her, 
 telling him how reserved and studious she was, and other 
 things which they esteemed no advantage. But it so much 
 inflamed Mr. Hutchinson’s desire of seeing her, that he 
 began to wonder at himself, that his heart, which had ever 
 entertained so much indifference for the most excellent of 
 womankind, should have such strong impulses towards 
 a stranger he never saw. One day there was a great deal 
 of company at Mr. Coleman’s, the gentleman’s house, 
 where he tabled, to hear the music; and a certain song was 
 sung which had been lately set, and gave occasion to some 
 of the company to mention an answer to it, which was in 
 the house, and upon some of their desires read. A gentle- 
 man saying it was believed that a woman in the neighbour- 
 hood had made it, it was presently inquired who; where- 
 upon a gentleman, then present, who had made the first 
 song, said there were but two women that could be guilty 
 of it; whereof one was a lady then among them, the other 
 Miss Apsley. Mr. Hutchinson, fancying something of 
 rationality in the sonnet, beyond the customary reach of a 
 she-wit, addressed himself to the gentleman, and told him 
 he could scarcely believe it was a woman’s ; whereupon this 
 gentleman, who was a man of good understanding and 
 expression, and inspired with some passion for her himself, 
 told Mr. Hutchinson that though, for civility to the rest, 
 he entitled another lady to the song, yet he was confident 
 it was Miss Apsley’s only, for she had sense above all the 
 rest; and fell into such high praises of her, as might well 
 have begotten those vehement desires of her acquaintance, 
 which a strange sympathy in nature had before produced. 
 
 Before many days had passed, a footboy of my lady 
 her mother’s came to young Miss Apsley as they were at 
 dinner, bringing news that her mother and sister would in 
 a few days return ; and when they inquired of him whether 
 Miss Apsley was married, having before been instructed to 
 make them believe it, he smiled, and pulled out some bride- 
 laces, which were given at a wedding in the house where 
 she was, and gave them to the young gentlewoman and the 
 
Introduction 
 
 XI 
 
 gentleman's daughter of the house, and told them Miss 
 Apsley bade him tell no news, but give them those tokens, 
 and carried the matter so, that all the company believed 
 she had been married. Mr. Hutchinson immediately turned 
 pale as ashes, and felt a fainting to seize his spirits in that 
 extraordinary manner, that he was fain to retire. When he 
 was alone he began to recollect his wisdom and his reason, 
 and to wonder at himself why he should be so concerned in 
 an unknown person; he then remembered the story that 
 was told him when he came down, and began to believe 
 there was some magic in the place, which enchanted men 
 out of their right senses. Having fortified himself with 
 resolution, he got up the next day ; but yet could not quit 
 himself of an extravagant perplexity of soul concerning 
 this unknown gentlewoman, which had not been remarkable 
 in another light person, but in him, who was from his child- 
 hood so serious and so rational in all his considerations, it 
 was the effect of a miraculous power of Providence, leading 
 him to her that was destined to make his future joy. While 
 she so ran in his thoughts, meeting the boy again, he found 
 out, upon a little stricter examination of him, that she was 
 not married, and pleased himself in the hopes of her 
 speedy return.” 
 
 Miss Apsley returned; Mr. Hutchinson saw her; they 
 pleased each other very much and quickl}^ showed it by 
 that mixture of frankness and timidity which characterises 
 the sentiments of serious, virtuous, and passionate youth. 
 Divers obstacles placed themselves for some time in the 
 way of their happiness — family hesitations, jealous young 
 men, envious young ladies. Miss Apsley was struck down 
 by small-pox, and first her life and then her beauty 
 was feared to be in danger. But she recovered her health, 
 and also remained beautiful. Mr. Hutchinson’s constancy 
 overcame all obstacles. “ I shall pass by,” says Mrs. 
 Hutchinson, “ all the little amorous relations which, if I 
 would take the pains to relate, would make a true history 
 of a more handsome management of love than the best 
 romances describe; but these are to be forgotten as the 
 vanities of youth, not worthy of mention among the greater 
 transactions of his life.” 
 
 Happily, Mrs. Hutchinson did not, when she began to 
 write her Memoirs, experience that Puritanical rigidity 
 
Xll 
 
 Introduction 
 
 towards the tender recollections of her youth; her first 
 feeling was to allow herself to relate them with a grave and 
 touching sincerity, although mixed with a little vain com- 
 placency, and even after she had prescribed herself silence 
 upon this subject, her account of the great events in which 
 her husband had been concerned remains rather a biography 
 than a history. In this lies its peculiar merit and interest. 
 Most of the memoirs relating to the English Revolution 
 are characterised by the narrator saying very little about 
 himself and that which only interests himself. Royalists, 
 Parliamentarians, or Republicans all seem to forget them- 
 selves, and are occupied only with the general destinies of 
 their cause; it is the history of their time, not their own 
 history, which they relate; each describes and judges facts 
 according to the opinions and passions of his party; but 
 the only anxiety of all is for the political interests which 
 they defend and they hardly ever stray to enter into details 
 foreign to the narration of great events. In Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son’s Memoirs, on the contrary, public history is less in 
 evidence; it was the remembrance of Colonel Hutchinson 
 himself, his situation, his actions, the incidents and trials 
 of his life, that his wife desired to preserve. Sir John 
 Hutchinson’s role was not an important one — the trial of 
 Charles I. was the only important act in which he had 
 taken a part; and yet he had done much; around him, in 
 his county, within the walls of the town of Nottingham, of 
 which he was governor, all the passions, all the vicissitudes, 
 of the struggle which was disturbing England were felt. 
 The same cause which, at London and in the parliamentary 
 sphere produced historical events, brought about municipal, 
 or even simply domestic, events at Nottingham, which 
 excited as powerful emotions, and called for as many and 
 as strenuous efforts from the men who held authority in 
 the locality as were made by the chief men of the nation at 
 Westminster. These are the scenes which Mrs. Hutchinson 
 shows us, living pictures, which are an essential part of 
 history, although history says almost nothing about them. 
 Hampden, Pym, Strafford, Fairfax, Ireton, Cromwell him- 
 self, only appear in Mrs. Hutchinson’s Memoirs from time 
 to time and then in the distance ; the persons who act, speak, 
 and occupy the foremost place are Mr. Millington, the 
 parliamentary representative of Nottingham ; Dr. Plumptre, 
 
Introduction 
 
 Xlll 
 
 a doctor at Nottingham; Mr. Chadwick, a clerk; Mr. 
 Hooper, an engineer; Mr. Palmer, a preacher, and twenty 
 others as active, as obscure, and who really brought about 
 and directed, in their district or in their town, the revolution 
 the history of which, a few years later, contained no trace 
 of their names. Mrs. Hutchinson passed her life in the 
 midst of these unknown revolutionaries ; she describes their 
 rivalries, their intrigues, their characters; the efforts of 
 the parties, or fractions of parties, to conquer, supplant, or 
 injure each other. We enter, with her, into their family 
 life, and whilst she makes these personages live again, true 
 pictures of that time, though consigned to oblivion, she 
 has this very rare merit, that neither the interests of her 
 cause nor her own passions blind her concerning the vices 
 or absurdities of the small heroes and unworthy servants of 
 her party. With regard to general events, she shares the 
 prejudices and passionate ignorances of the Puritan and 
 Republican fanaticism of her time; but the moment she 
 speaks of that which she has really seen, of that which has 
 taken place around her, independence and rectitude of 
 mind hardly ever fail her, and she attacks and annihilates 
 without hesitation anything that has excited her virtuous 
 reprobation. In the county of Derby, which is next to 
 that of Nottingham, a gentleman named Sir John Gell had 
 raised a regiment of infantry for the Parliament: “ These,” 
 says Mrs. Hutchinson, '' were good, stout, fightingmen, but 
 the most licentious, ungovernable wretches that belonged 
 to Parliament. As regards (Sir John Gell) himself, no man 
 knew for what reason he chose that side, for he had not 
 understanding enough to judge the equity of the cause, nor 
 piety nor holiness; being a foul adulterer all the time he 
 served the Parliament, and so unjust that, without any 
 remorse, he suffered his men indifferently to plunder 
 both honest men and Cavaliers. . . . This man kept the 
 journalists in pension, so that whatever was done in the 
 neighbouring counties against the enemy was attributed to 
 him ; and thus he hath indirectly purchased himself a name 
 in story which he never merited. He was a very bad man, 
 to sum up all in that word, yet an instrument of service to 
 the Parliament in those parts.” 
 
 In Nottingham, Chadwick, the clerk, and Palmer, the 
 minister, were amongst the most important persons in the 
 
XIV 
 
 Introduction 
 
 Parliamentarian party. '' Chadwick/' says Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son, “ was a fellow of a most pragmatical temper, and, to 
 say truth, had strangely wrought himself into a station 
 unfit for him. By flatteries and dissimulations he kept up 
 his credit with the godly, cutting his hair, and taking up a 
 form of godliness, the better to deceive. He was very poor, 
 although he got abundance of money by a thousand cheats 
 and other base ways, wherein he exercised all his life; but 
 he was as great a prodigal in spending as knave in getting. 
 Among other villainies which he secretly practised, he was 
 a libidinous goat, for which his wife, they say, paid him 
 with making him a cuckold ; yet were there not two persons 
 to be found that pretended more sanctity than these two." 
 
 As to the minister. Palmer, this man had a bold, ready, 
 earnest way of preaching, and lived holily and regularly as 
 to outward conversation, whereby he got a great reputation 
 among the godly; and this reputation swelled his spirit, 
 which was very vainglorious, covetous, contentious, and 
 ambitious. The Newarkers plundered all the country even 
 to the walls of Nottingham; upon which some godly men 
 offered themselves to bring in their horses, and form a 
 troop for the defence of the country, and Mr. Palmer had a 
 commission to be their captain. He would have it believed 
 that it was rather pressed upon him, than he pressed into 
 it; and, therefore, being at that time in the castle, he came 
 to the governor and his wife, telling them that these honest 
 people pressed him very much to be their captain, and 
 desiring their friendly and Christian advice whether he 
 should accept or refuse it. They freely told him, that 
 having entered into a charge of another kind, they thought 
 it not fit for him to engage in this, and that he might as 
 much advance the public service, and satisfy the men, in 
 marching with them in the nature of a chaplain as in that 
 of a captain. He, that asked not counsel to take any con- 
 trary to his first resolve, went away confused when he 
 found he was not advised as he would have been, and said 
 he would endeavour to persuade them to be content; and 
 afterwards said, they would not be otherwise satisfied, and 
 so he was forced to accept the commission." 
 
 In the presence of these base and shameful practices of 
 minor revolutionaries it is impossible not to feel a lively 
 interest — I should willingly say a certain affection for 
 
Introduction 
 
 XV 
 
 Colonel Hutchinson and his wife, for that household, so 
 pious, so noble, so grave, so tender, in which the deepest 
 domestic feelings were combined with those of the sincerest 
 patriotism, and in which puritanical rigidity did not exclude 
 either the passionate exaltation of the love of a wife for her 
 husband, or the elegant nobility of manners of a gentleman 
 who is devoted to the popular cause without experiencing 
 feelings of hatred, envy, greed, thirst for vengeance, or any 
 of the passions of the multitude : brutal and hideous 
 
 passions, even during the short and rare intervals in which 
 the multitude is right. In 1646, Colonel Hutchinson, with- 
 out leaving Nottingham altogether, moved to a wider 
 sphere of action. He was elected a member of the House 
 of Commons, and from that time forward spent part of the 
 year in London. There he came across the same selfish 
 passions, the same secret intrigues, and the same moral 
 depravity that he had deplored and fought against in his 
 own county, but neither he nor his wife suffered themselves 
 to be influenced in London, any more than at Nottingham, 
 by the surrounding corruption. Mrs. Hutchinson displays 
 the same upright and unprejudiced judgment in her ac- 
 count of the scenes and actors in the great world of which 
 she now made one as when relating the petty intrigues 
 and corrupt practices of the little town in which she had 
 previously resided. “ It was a misery to be bewailed in 
 those days,” she says, “ that many of the Parliamentary 
 party exercised cruelty, injustice, and oppression to their 
 conquered enemies. . . . Almost all the Parliament- 
 garrisons were infected and disturbed with factious little 
 people, insomuch that many worthy gentlemen were 
 wearied out of their commands, and oppressed by a certain 
 mean sort of people in the House, whom to distinguish 
 from the more honourable gentlemen, they called Worsted- 
 stocking Men. . . . Crom weirs wife and children were 
 setting up for principality, which suited no better with any 
 of them than scarlet on the ape; only, to speak the truth 
 of himself, he had much natural greatness, and well became 
 the place he had usurped. His daughter, Fleetwood, was 
 humbled, and not exalted with these things; but the rest 
 were insolent fools. Claypole, who married his daughter, 
 and his son, Henry, were two debauched, ungodly Cavaliers. 
 Richard was a peasant in his nature, yet gentle and virtuous, 
 
XVI 
 
 Introduction 
 
 but became not greatness. His court was full of sin and 
 vanity, and the more abominable, because they had not 
 yet quite cast away the name of God, but profaned it by 
 taking it in vain upon them. True religion was now almost 
 lost, even among the religious party, and hypocrisy became 
 an epidemical disease, to the sad grief of Colonel Hutchinson, 
 and all true-hearted Christians and Englishmen.’’ 
 
 Even when it is a question of the most fanatical followers 
 of the cause to which her husband and herself were so 
 passionately devoted, Mrs. Hutchinson does not allow her- 
 self to be biassed in her judgment, but speaks of them and 
 their weaknesses with remarkable keenness of observation, 
 not entirely unmixed with irony. Major-General Harri- 
 son,” she says, “ who was but a mean man’s son, and of 
 a mean education, and of no estate before the war, had 
 gathered an estate of two thousand a year besides engrossing 
 great offices, and encroaching upon his under-officers; and 
 maintained his coach and family at a height as if they had 
 been born to a principality. About the same time a great 
 ambassador from the King of Spain was to have public 
 audience in the House, and was the first who had addressed 
 them, owning them as a republic. The day before his 
 audience. Colonel Hutchinson was sitting in the House, 
 near some young men handsomely clad, among whom was 
 Mr. Charles Rich, since Earl of Warwick; and the colonel 
 had on that day a habit that was pretty rich but grave, 
 and no other than he usually wore. Harrison, addressing 
 himself particularly to him, admonished them all, that now 
 the nations sent to them, they should labour to shine before 
 them in wisdom, piety, righteousness, and justice, and not 
 in gold and silver, and worldly bravery, which did not 
 become saints; and that the next day, when the ambas- 
 sadors came, they should not set themselves out in gorgeous 
 habits, which were unsuitable to holy professions. The 
 colonel, although he was not convinced of any misbecoming 
 bravery in the suit he wore that day, which was but of sad- 
 coloured cloth trimmed with gold, and silver points and 
 buttons ; yet, because he would not appear offensive in the 
 eyes of religious persons, the next day he went in a plain 
 black suit, and so did all the other gentlemen ; but Harrison 
 came that day in a scarlet coat and cloak, both laden with 
 gold and silver lace, and the coat so covered with clinquant 
 
Introduction 
 
 xvii 
 
 (foil), that one scarcely could discern the ground, and in 
 this glittering habit he set himself just under the Speaker’s 
 chair; which made the other gentlemen think that his 
 godly speeches the day before were but made that he 
 alone might appear in the eyes of strangers. But this 
 was part of his weakness. The Lord at last lifted him 
 above these poor earthly elevations, which then and some 
 time afterwards prevailed too much with him.” 
 
 Colonel Hutchinson and his wife were too proud and 
 well-nurtured ever to practise the little meannesses of 
 which some of their party were guilty; but they were not 
 behind them in their blind and passionate political parti- 
 sanship, and they shared their unhappy fate. The Colonel 
 sat as one of the judges at Charles I.’s trial and signed the 
 sentence of death — a sin as regards morals and a mistake 
 of the worst kind in respect to policy for which the republic 
 and its partisans suffered a just retribution. Not one of the 
 men who shared in this fatal act was more single-minded, 
 disinterested, or courageous than Hutchinson. Not that he 
 made any claim to exceptional courage. '‘It is certain,” 
 says Mrs. Hutchinson, “ that all men herein were left to 
 their free liberty of acting, neither persuaded nor com- 
 pelled; and as there were some nominated on the com- 
 mission who never sat, and others who sat at first but durst 
 not hold on, so all the rest might have declined if they 
 would.” Hutchinson did not refuse to sit or shrink from 
 pursuing the deplorable course to which he had engaged 
 himself. It was not long, however, before the revolutionary 
 forces, the Long Parliament, Cromwell, the army, and the 
 Rump, had one after the other succumbed in their attempts 
 to establish a republic in England. The restoration of 
 Charles II. became an absolute necessity, and the whole 
 nation were in favour of it. “ The last remnant of the 
 House of Commons,” says Mrs. Hutchinson herself, “ was 
 divided into miserable factions, among whom some would 
 then have violently set up an oath of renunciation of the 
 king and his family. The colonel, thinking it a ridiculous 
 thing to swear out a man, when they have had no power to 
 defend themselves against him, vehemently opposed that 
 oath, and carried against Sir Arthur Haselrig and others, 
 who as violently pressed it, urging very truly that those 
 oaths that had been formerly imposed had but multiplied 
 
XVI 11 
 
 Introduction 
 
 the sins of the nation by perjuries; instancing how Sir 
 Arthur and others, in Oliver’s time, coming into the House, 
 swore on their entrance they would attempt nothing in the 
 change of that government, which, as soon as ever they 
 were entered, they laboured to throw down. Many other 
 arguments he used, whereupon many honest men, who 
 thought till then he had followed a faction in all things and 
 not his own judgment, began to meet often with him, and 
 to consult what to do in these difficulties, out of which their 
 prudence and honesty would have found a way to extricate 
 themselves; but that the end of our prosperity was come, 
 hastened on partly by the mad, rash violence of some that, 
 without strength, opposed the tide of the discontented, 
 tumultuous people; partly by the detestable treachery of 
 those who had sold themselves to do mischief; but chiefly 
 by the general stream of the people, who were as eager for 
 their own destruction as the Israelites of old for their 
 quails.” 
 
 Among the republicans of this period, there exists no 
 example of greater firmness of mind and patriotic disin- 
 terestedness, in conjunction with the honest avowal of his 
 past conduct and the maintenance of his personal dignity. 
 Colonel Hutchinson for some time reaped the reward of his 
 courageous moderation. Among the Royalists there were 
 many men of note who did their utmost to procure his 
 exemption from the measures taken against the other regi- 
 cides; his wife displayed extraordinary presence of mind 
 and energy in face of the danger which threatened her hus- 
 band. He was allowed to retire to his patrimonial estate 
 of Owthorpe, and for three years was left undisturbed, 
 enjoying the pleasures of a domestic life and devoted to 
 his family. But there are terrible reactions during revolu- 
 tionary periods; very soon the evils of the Restoration 
 became only too apparent; party animosities and court 
 intrigues quickly developed, and secret conspiracies were 
 hatched among the people. Hutchinson, however, kept 
 himself apart from all these disturbances, notwithstanding 
 the persuasions of his friends and enemies who wished to 
 induce him to enter once more into public life. He made 
 no effort to hide his opinions or his possible hopes. At 
 first only a close watch was kept upon him, but he was 
 subsequently made the victim of continual annoyances; 
 
Introduction 
 
 XIX 
 
 finally on the nth of October, 1663, he was arrested in his 
 house at Owthorpe, and carried to London, where he was 
 imprisoned in that same Tower of London in which his 
 wife had been born; later on he was removed to Sandown 
 Castle, on the sea coast, near Deal, in Kent. In vain his 
 wife besought permission to share his imprisonment with 
 him; being refused, she took up her abode at Deal, with her 
 son and daughter; every day they walked to Sandown and 
 had dinner with the colonel, returning to Deal in the even- 
 ing. This solitary confinement lasted for ten months, and 
 was made doubly wretched by the dampness of his lodging, 
 the severity of the winter, and the avarice of the governor, 
 added to which he had to bear the society of another 
 prisoner whom he suspected of being a spy. Hutchinson, 
 however, never lost his serenity of temper ; he passed most 
 of his time in the perusal of religious works, affectionately 
 supporting the courage of his wife, whose chief anxiety was 
 concerned with his health. To his son Thomas, as they 
 walked together by the sea, he gave some last paternal 
 advice. The courses which the king and his party take 
 to establish themselves,'^ he said, “ will be their ruin; the 
 ill-management of the state will cause discontented wild 
 parties to mutiny, and rise against the present powers ; but 
 they will only put things in confusion; it must be a sober 
 party that must then arise and settle them. Let not my 
 son, how fairly soever they pretend, too rashly engage with 
 the first, but stay to see what they make good, and engage 
 with those who are for settlement, who will have need of 
 men of interest to assist them.” There is something affect- 
 ing in this anxiety of the father to prevent his son falling 
 into those errors of which he was conscious he had himself 
 been guilty. 
 
 The colonel’s health began gradually to fail more and 
 more as the winter drew near; Mrs. Hutchinson was obliged 
 to leave him in order to fetch her younger children, and 
 some furniture, which she thought necessary for her hus- 
 band’s comfort. She hesitated to take this journey; for 
 she was assailed with gloomy forebodings. The colonel, 
 however, seemed full of hope, and at times was almost gay ; 
 he gave his wife written instructions regarding his planta- 
 tions at Owthorpe, and the arrangement of his house and 
 gardens. “You give me,” said she, “ these orders, as if 
 
XX 
 
 Introduction 
 
 you were to see the place again.” “ If I do not,” said he, 
 
 I thank God I can cheerfully forego it; but I will not 
 distrust that God will bring me back again, and therefore I 
 will take care to keep it while I have it.” 
 
 Mrs. Hutchinson left her husband under the care of his 
 daughter and his brother, George Hutchinson. A few days 
 after her departure his disease grew rapidly worse; death 
 seemed imminent, and his physician, a pious man like him- 
 self, warned him of it, at the same time asking him if his 
 peace were made with God. “ The will of the Lord be 
 done,” said the colonel. “ I am ready for it. I hope you 
 do not think me so ill a Christian, to have been thus long in 
 prison, and have that to do now! ” Then they asked him 
 where he would wish to be buried. He replied, “ At 
 Owthorpe.” His brother remarked that would be a long 
 way to carry him; “ Let my wife,” he said, '' order the 
 manner of it as she will, only I would be there. I would have 
 spoken to my wife and son, but it is not the will of God. 
 Let my wife, as she is above other women, show herself, 
 on this occasion, a good Christian, and above the pitch 
 of ordinary women.” He passed the day of the nth of 
 September, 1664, very tranquilly, only speaking occasion- 
 ally. Towards evening he grew silent; one of those with 
 him spoke of Mrs. Hutchinson, and said, Alas! how will 
 she be surprised! ” The Colonel made a slight movement, 
 gave a sigh, and expired. 
 
 Mrs. Hutchinson did not succumb to the blow; she was 
 courageous as she was passionate, and she was upheld by 
 that deep-rooted faith which converts hope into certitude 
 and reduces the anguish of death into the sorrow of absence. 
 In the assurance that she would one day be re-united to 
 her beloved husband, her chief thought now was to hold 
 him up as an example to her children and to preserve his 
 memory. They who dote on mortal excellencies,” she 
 says, when by the inevitable fate of all things frail, their 
 adored idols are taken from them, may let loose the winds 
 of passion to bring in a flood of sorrow, whose ebbing tides 
 carry away the dear memory of what they have lost; and 
 when comfort is essayed to such mourners, commonly all 
 objects are removed out of their view, which may, with 
 their remembrance, renew the grief; and in time these 
 remedies succeed, and oblivion’s curtain is by degrees 
 
Introduction 
 
 XXI 
 
 drawn over the dead face, and things less lovely are liked, 
 while they are not viewed together with that which was 
 most excellent. But I, that am under a command not to 
 grieve at the common rate of desolate women, while I am 
 studying which way to moderate my woe, and if it were 
 possible to augment my love, can for the present find out 
 none more just to my dear husband, nor consolatory to 
 myself, than the preservation of his memory.” 
 
 Inspired with these feelings, and with a sense of duty, 
 Mrs. Hutchinson began her Memoirs. They remained 
 hidden away for nearly a century and a half among the 
 family papers of Colonel Hutchinson’s descendants, and 
 were only published in 1806 by the Rev. Julius Hutchinson. 
 
 Rather less than a century before Colonel Hutchinson 
 and his wife played their part in the history of their coun- 
 try, there was a household in France similar to theirs, of 
 more account as regards worldly rank, and undoubtedly of 
 greater piety and virtue in the sight of God : Philip Duples- 
 sis Mornay, for long the intimate friend and through life 
 the faithful servant of Henry IV., and Charlotte Arbaleste 
 de la Borde, his wife. Madame de Mornay, more fortunate 
 in this respect than Mrs. Hutchinson, was spared the sorrow 
 of losing her husband ; she was the first to seek her eternal 
 home. But like Mrs. Hutchinson, and with the similar 
 intention of giving instruction to her son, she determined 
 to write the Memoirs of her husband. She sent them 
 expressly to him, as she stated in a letter written from 
 Saumur, on the 25th of April, 1595; he was then hardly 
 sixteen years old. “ I see you,” she says, ready to start 
 off and see the world, and to make yourself acquainted 
 with the manners of men and the state of nations. You 
 are young, my son, and youth is subject to many fancies; 
 bear ever in mind the words of the Psalmist: ‘ Thy testi- 
 monies, O Lord, shall be the men of my counsel.’ That 
 you may never lack a guide, here is one that I give you 
 with my own hand, written by my own hand* to be always 
 with you. I beseech you always to keep before your eyes 
 this example of your father, as far as I have been able to 
 show you of his life, for our intercourse with one another 
 was frequently interrupted by the troubles of the times. I 
 am weak and ill, I do not therefore think that God will 
 leave me long in this world; you will keep this writing in 
 
XXll 
 
 Introduction 
 
 memory of me. And the day coming when it shall please 
 God to take me from you, I desire that you should finish 
 what I have begun to write of the history of our life ; but 
 above all, my son, I shall believe that you do not forget 
 me when I hear it said that, in whatsoever place you find 
 yourself, you serve God and imitate your father.’' 
 
 God chose to inflict on Madame de Mornay the unutter- 
 able sorrow of concluding the record of her husband’s life 
 with the death of that son for whom it was begun. Young 
 Philip de Mornay, who was serving in the Netherlands, in 
 the army of Prince Maurice of Nassau, was killed on the 
 23rd of October, 1606, at the siege of Guelders. The cruel 
 news reached his father on the 24th of November, and, says 
 Madame de Mornay, “ knowing well that it was impossible 
 for him to disguise his countenance from me, he determined 
 that we should from the first mingle our lamentations. 
 ' My dear,’ he said, as he came in, ‘ God now calls upon us 
 to make proof of our faith and obedience; since it is His 
 doing, we must hold our peace.’ On hearing him so speak, 
 I, already full of doubts and weakened by long illness, fell 
 into a swoon and convulsions ; for some time I was unable 
 to speak, and seemed likely to succumb, and the first words 
 that I uttered were, ‘ The will of God be done ! We might 
 have lost him in a duel, and then, what consolation would 
 there have been for us ? ’ Silence best expresses what fol- 
 lowed to all who own a heart. We felt as if our entrails were 
 torn from us, our hopes cut off, and our plans and wishes 
 frustrated ; we could not converse with one another for a long 
 while, or think of anything else, for, next to God, he had 
 been our one subject of speech and thought; our daughters, 
 notwithstanding our lack of favour at court, being happily 
 married and settled elsewhere after much trouble so as to 
 leave the house in his sole possession, all our thoughts had 
 thenceforward centred round him; we felt that God, in 
 taking him, had taken everything from us, no doubt to detach 
 us from the world and to save us from all regret at parting, at 
 whatsoever hour he might choose to call us. And here it 
 seems only reasonable that I should finish my book with 
 him for whom it was undertaken, wishing to describe to 
 him our pilgrimage in this life. And since it has so pleased 
 God, his life has come more quickly and more sweetly to 
 an end. It would trouble me greatly to survive him if I 
 
Introduction 
 
 xxni 
 
 did not fear to add to M. Duplessis' affliction, who in 
 measure, as mine increases, makes me the more sensible of 
 his affection.” 
 
 She did not long outlive him. I have no son,” said 
 Duplessis Mornay, “ and, therefore, I have no wife.” Six 
 months after she had received the news of her son’s death, 
 Madame de Mornay was taken violently ill, and died on 
 the 15th of May, 1607, after eight days of acute suffering. 
 “ Through all her agony, M. Duplessis never left her; and 
 whenever, either to pray to God for her or overcome with 
 grief, he withdrew to some corner of the room, she would 
 ask for him, and immediately hold out her hand to him, 
 speaking a few words to let him understand that the grief 
 he felt on her account was more pain to her than that 
 which she was suffering personally.” 
 
 I shall add nothing to these quotations: what could I 
 say to set forth more distinctly the admirable union of 
 these two excellent persons, each of whom was a model of 
 piety, virtue, and good sense ? Politics held a more im- 
 portant place in the life of Duplessis Mornay than in that 
 of Colonel Hutchinson; and Duplessis Mornay was a man 
 of more prominent position in the political world of that 
 time. Hutchinson, nevertheless, who was of a chimerical 
 turn of mind, although sincere, let himself be tempted, by 
 politics, into the basest extremes, mixing himself up with 
 factions and revolutions. Duplessis Mornay, on the con- 
 trary, persistently withstood their influence, in spite of all the 
 causes and temptations which seemed ready to give him 
 over into their power. This inflexible Protestant, who had 
 been as influential as any man in raising Henry IV. to the 
 throne — who, next to Sully, had been admitted into the 
 closest confidence of the king — who bitterly lamented 
 Henry IV. ’s abjuration of his faith, and who was prepared 
 to face all dangers and disgraces rather than not preserve 
 his own — Mornay, though discontented, unhappy, banished 
 from the court, and assailed by the discontents and suffer- 
 ings of his cause and his friends, never entered into any 
 faction or intrigue against a king whom he blamed, and 
 against whom he had as he thought grave cause to com- 
 plain; but remained, on the contrary, resolutely faithful 
 to him, and was unceasingly occupied in maintaining or 
 restoring a little order and peace in the Protestant Church 
 
XXIV 
 
 Introduction 
 
 of France, and in bringing Henry IV. and his Protestant 
 subjects into more friendly and confidential relations 
 with one another. Mornay was ardently devoted to his 
 faith, but his devotedness never led him to forget his 
 duty to his country or to his king, who had been the 
 saviour of his country. He continued settled and active 
 in his belief, without falling under the yoke of any fixed 
 or exclusive idea; preserved his patriotic good sense and 
 his fervent piety, bearing with melancholy endurance the 
 anger of his friends and the ingratitude of his king. A life 
 laborious and full of sorrow, effort, and disappointment, 
 but one worthy to serve as an example to men of up- 
 rightness and good sense during a time of civil discord and 
 revolution. 
 
 Madame de Mornay was at once similar and superior 
 to Mrs. Hutchinson. She resembled her in her domestic 
 affections and virtues, and in her passionate piety; she 
 excelled her, not in mental gifts, but in rectitude of judg- 
 ment and moral gravity. Mrs. Flutchinson had a strong 
 and lively imagination, an extensive and varied intellectual 
 culture, a secret taste for surprising adventures, whether in 
 public or private life, and a self-absorption which caused 
 her to make some mistakes, or, at least, made her appear 
 somewhat pedantic and vain. Less highly educated, less 
 brilliant, less rich in learning and in mental gifts, Madame 
 de Mornay had on her side a stricter sense of right and a 
 simpler heart. There was not the least shade of romance in 
 her feelings or desires; not the slightest vain complacency 
 either in talking of herself or of what concerned her; far 
 from amplifying or glorifying, she always made things look 
 less than they were, and said less than she thought. The 
 most important events, when related by her, and the most 
 powerful sentiments, when uttered by her, were expressed 
 and related in a reserved manner, free from all fictitious or 
 premeditated ornament. It was the pure truth, reduced 
 to its most simple expression, and related casually, accord- 
 ing as strict necessity required, for the information and 
 edification of that son to whom she addressed her narrative, 
 without other design or any personal consideration. 
 
 Among many proofs which I could bring of this difference 
 between the characters and works of the two ladies, I will 
 choose one only which is sufficiently convincing. I have 
 
Introduction 
 
 XXV 
 
 quoted elsewhere Mrs. Hutchinson’s account of her first 
 acquaintance with the Colonel and the preliminaries of 
 their marriage. Here is how Madame de Mornay relates 
 the same event in her own life. She was twenty-six years 
 of age, and had been a widow for seven years, M. de 
 Feuguieres, whom she had married at seventeen, having 
 died eighteen months after his marriage. She chanced to 
 be at Sedan when Duplessis Mornay was stationed there. 
 “ M. Duplessis,” she says, '' continued to come to see me, 
 and, for nearly eight months, not a day passed in which we 
 did not spend two or three hours together ; what is more, 
 he had written to me since his journey to Cleves. I was 
 arranging to pay a visit to France on business, and I 
 hastened my journey, fearing that our familiarity might 
 give rise to evil comments. Whilst I was in this state of 
 mind he made known to me that he was desirous of marrying 
 me, which I received as an honour, but nevertheless told 
 him that I could not let him know my decision until I first 
 heard by letter what the wishes of his mother, Madame de 
 Buhy, and his brother, M. de Buhy, might be, as I desired 
 to be assured that our marriage would be agreeable to them. 
 
 . . . After having told him that I should esteem myself 
 happy if God should permit those on whom I depended to 
 think well of the matter, I requested time, before coming 
 to a resolution, so that I might write to Madame de la 
 Borde, my mother, and my other relations, so as to ascertain 
 their will. So I wrote to them all that it was matter on 
 which my heart was set, but that nevertheless I would do 
 nothing without their consent. God so showed us that He 
 had ordained our marriage for my great happiness, that we 
 received unanimous consent from all those of whom we 
 asked it. Some time elapsed during these negotiations, 
 and many at Sedan, seeing that M. Duplessis contrived to 
 visit me, began to think that he intended to marry me; 
 some even spoke to him of other matches, of rich girls and 
 heiresses, and would have liked to be able to turn his 
 thoughts from me elsewhere, seeing that, besides the graces 
 he had received from God and which were natural to him, 
 he was destined to rise in life. But after he had opened 
 his mouth to me, he would never lend his ear to any other 
 proposition that was made him. Some even offered to 
 find out what he thought of me, in case he wished to marry 
 
XXVI 
 
 Introduction 
 
 me, to inform him of my true condition as regarded fortune. 
 But he answered that when he wished to be enlightened he 
 would apply to myself, and that riches were the last thing 
 he should think of in marriage ; the principal was the char- 
 acter of the person with whom he would have to pass his 
 life, and, above all, the fear of God and a good reputation.'’ i 
 
 The woman who spoke with so much simplicity and 
 austere reserve of that which was of such vital interest to 
 her and the most important event in her life was a woman 
 passionate in feeling as she was grave; who followed her 
 husband in all his dangers, took part in all his labours, 
 lived for him alone, received from him alone all her 
 happiness, and died of grief at the death of their son. 
 
 There is no need to carry this comparison any further; 
 its essential feature, I consider, is that M. and Madame 
 Duplessis Mornay were not only virtuous and pious, they 
 were modest; and modesty is a virtue unknown to revo- 
 lutionaries. This is the real and chief difference between 
 them and Colonel Hutchinson and his wife. Revolutions 
 are set on foot by presumptuous men, and beget presump- 
 tion. Even the best revolutionaries have a vain confidence 
 in themselves, and in all they think and all they desire, 
 which urges them to rush headforemost along the path 
 they have once chosen, and to shut their eyes to everything 
 that might arrest or turn them from their purpose. 
 Modesty is a great light; it keeps the mind open and 
 the heart ready to listen to the teachings of truth. As 
 Christians and strangers to revolutionary feeling and 
 action, M. and Madame Duplessis Mornay possessed this 
 precious safeguard of good sense and virtue. It was lacking 
 in Colonel and Mrs. Hutchinson, who were revolutionaries, 
 notwithstanding their Christianity. Hence arose their 
 delusions, their blind infatuation, and their misfortunes, 
 which, though worthy of sympathy, were natural, and, I 
 say it with sorrow, merited. The world and, if I may 
 be allowed a conjecture concerning supreme justice, God 
 himself is severe in punishing the faults of the good. They 
 have no right to complain; rather let them consider it an 
 honour. 
 
 FRANCOIS P. G. GUIZOT, 
 
 1 Memoirs of Duplessis Mornay ^ Vol. I. pp. 86-89. 
 
EDITOR’S NOTE 
 
 Guizot in the course of his researches into the History of 
 the Revolution d' Angleterre , and the reign of Charles I. and 
 the succeeding Commonwealth, made in 1827 a collection 
 of Memoirs in twenty-five volumes relative to the time and 
 preliminary to the history itself. Two volumes of the 
 twenty-five were devoted to the Hutchinson Memoirs ; 
 and at a later date Guizot published the essay here re- 
 printed in a separate volume of studies on Monk and his 
 contemporaries. Professor Firth, in his introduction to the 
 1897 edition of the Memoirs, specially mentions Guizot's 
 essay ; and indeed it is one well calculated to set the reader 
 thinking on the characters of Colonel Hutchinson and 
 Mistress Lucy, and on the part they took in the Civil War 
 and its tragic climax. 
 
 The following is a complete list of her published works : — 
 
 Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, Governor of Nottingham 
 Castle and Town ... to which is prefixed the Life of Mrs. Hutchinson, 
 written by herself, a Fragment, first published by the Rev. Julius 
 Hutchinson, 1806; other editions followed; fifth edition, to which is 
 added an account of the siege of Lathom House (Bohn), 1846; with a 
 collection of Colonel Hutchinson’s letters and extracts from an earlier 
 account of the Civil War in Nottinghamshire, by Mrs. Hutchinson, 
 ed. C. H. Firth, 1885; with introduction and notes by H. Child, 1904 
 (Dryden House Memoirs) ; ed. from the original manuscript, with addi- 
 tional notes by Prof. Firth, 1906 (London Library) ; On the Principles 
 of the Christian Religion, addressed to her daughter; and On Theology, 
 1817; Translations from Lucretius and the iFneid and other works are 
 extant in manuscript. 
 
 XXVll 
 
PREFACE 
 
 It is conceived to be necessary, for the satisfaction of the 
 public, to prefix to this work some account of the manu- 
 scripts from which it has been printed, and of the manner in 
 which they came into the hands of the editor; which we 
 shall accordingly do, interweaving therewith such subse- 
 quent information as we have been able to collect respecting 
 the families and descendants of Colonel and Mrs. Hutchinson. 
 
 The memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson had been 
 seen by many persons, as well as the editor, in the possession of 
 the late Thomas Hutchinson, Esq., of Owthorpe, in Notting- 
 hamshire, and of Hatfield Woodhall, in Hertfordshire; and 
 he had been frequently solicited to permit them to be pub- 
 lished, particularly by the late Mrs. Catharine Maccaulay, 
 but had uniformly refused. This gentleman dying without 
 issue, the editor, his nephew, inherited some part of his 
 estates which were left unsold, including his mansion-house 
 of Hatfield Woodhall. In the library he found the following 
 books, written by Mrs. Lucy Hutchinson. First. The Life 
 of Colonel Hutchinson. Second. A book without a title, but 
 which appears to have been a kind of diary made use of when 
 she came to write the Life of Colonel Hutchinson. Third. 
 A Fragment giving an account of the early part of her own 
 life. This book clearly appears to have been Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son’s first essay at composition, and contains, besides the 
 story of her life and family, several short copies of verses, 
 some finished, some unfinished, many of which are above 
 mediocrity. And, Fourth. Two books treating entirely of 
 religious subjects; in which, although the fancy may be 
 rather too much indulged, the judgment still maintains the 
 ascendency, and sentiments of exalted piety, liberality, and 
 benevolence, are delivered in terms apposite, dignified, and 
 perspicuous. 
 
 These works had all been read, and marked in several 
 places with his initials, by Julius Hutchinson, Esq., of 
 Owthorpe, the father of the late Thomas Hutchinson, Esq., 
 
 xxix b 
 
XXX 
 
 Preface 
 
 just mentioned, and son of Charles Hutchinson, Esq., of 
 Owthorpe, only son of Sir Thomas Hutchinson by his second 
 wife, the Lady Catharine Stanhope. Lady Catharine 
 Hutchinson lived to the age of 102, and is reported to have 
 retained her faculties to the end of her life. Some remarks 
 made by the above-mentioned Julius Hutchinson, which 
 will be found in their proper places in the body of the work, 
 are declared by him to have been communicated by his 
 grandmother Lady Catharine; and as this lady dwelt in 
 splendour at Nottingham, and had ample means of informa- 
 tion; as there is only one instance wherein the veracity of 
 the biographer is at all called in question, and even in this, 
 it does not appear to the editor, and probably may not to 
 the reader, that there was sufficient ground for objection; 
 the opposition and the acquiescence of her grandson and 
 herself seem alike to confirm the authenticity and faithful- 
 ness of the narrative. 
 
 Colonel Hutchinson left four sons, of which the youngest 
 only, John, left issue, two sons; and there is a tradition in 
 the family, that these two last descendants of Colonel 
 Hutchinson emigrated, the one to the West Indies or America, 
 the other to Russia; the latter is said to have gone out with 
 the command of a ship of war given by Queen Anne to the 
 Czar Peter, and to have been lost at sea. One of the female 
 descendants of the former the editor once met with by acci- 
 dent at Portsmouth, and she spoke with great warmth of 
 the veneration in which his descendants in the new world 
 held the memory of their ancestor Colonel Hutchinson. Of 
 the daughters little more is known than that Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son, addressing one of her books of devotion to her daughter, 
 Mrs. Orgill, ascertains that one of them was married to a 
 gentleman of that name. 
 
 The family of Mr. George Hutchinson likewise became 
 extinct in the second generation. 
 
 Charles Hutchinson, only son of Sir Thomas Hutchinson 
 by Lady Catharine Stanhope, married one of the daughters 
 and co-heiresses of Sir Francis Boteler, of Hatfield Wood- 
 hall, Herts; which family being zealous royalists, and he 
 solicitous to gain their favour (which he did so effectually, 
 as in the end to obtain nearly their whole inheritance), it is 
 probable that he gave small encouragement or assistance to 
 the elder branch of the family while they suffered for their 
 
Preface 
 
 XXXI 
 
 republican sentiments ; on the contrary, it is certain that he 
 purchased of Mrs. Hutchinson and her son, after the death 
 of Colonel Hutchinson, their estate at Owthorpe, which, 
 joined to what his father had given him, and what he ob- 
 tained by his marriage, raised him to more opulence than 
 his father had ever possessed; and he seems not to have 
 fallen short of him in popularity, for he represented the town 
 of Nottingham in parliament from the year 1690 (being the 
 first general election after the accession of King William) till 
 his death. 
 
 His son Julius returned into that line of conduct and con- 
 nexions which was most natural for one of his descent, for 
 he married Betty, daughter of Colonel Norton, of Wellow, 
 of the well-known patriotic family of that name in Hamp- 
 shire, and whose mother was a Fiennes. He seems to have 
 bestowed a very rational and well-deserved attention upon 
 the writings of Mrs. Hutchinson, and there is a tradition in 
 the family, that although he had many children of his own, 
 he treated with kindness and liberality the last descendants 
 of his uncle, and assisted them with money to fit them out 
 for their emigration. The editor has seen a written memo- 
 randum of his, expressing his regret at hearing no more of 
 them after their departure. 
 
 From the circumstance of these, the only grandchildren of 
 Colonel Hutchinson, standing in need of this pecuniary assist- 
 ance, from the mention Mrs. Hutchinson makes of her hus- 
 band’s debts, and from an expression contained in that book 
 Vv^hich she addresses to her daughter, Mrs. Orgill, desiring 
 her not to despise her advice though she sees her in adversity, 
 it is highly probable that, even after selling her husband’s 
 estates, the sum to be divided left each member of the family 
 in strait circumstances. 
 
 The affection and well-merited esteem with which Mrs. 
 Hutchinson speaks of her brother Sir Allen Apsley, will 
 excite an interest in the reader to know what became of him 
 and his posterity; the short pedigree subjoined will show, 
 that by two marriages, and by the death of his grandson in 
 his minority, the family of Apsley entirely merged in the 
 noble family of Bathurst, who have adopted the name Apsley 
 as their second title; there are five or six of the family of 
 Apsley entombed in Westminster Abbey, near to the entrance 
 of Henry the Seventh’s Chapel. 
 
 h 2 
 
XXXll 
 
 Preface 
 
 Having traced the manuscript from the hands of the 
 writer to those of the editor^ in such a manner as to establish 
 its authenticity beyond all doubt; the next^ and that not a 
 less important pointy is to remove those objections which 
 may be raised against the tendency of a work of this nature^ 
 and to show that the assumption of any evil tendency is 
 groundless. 
 
 That avowed predilection for a republican government, 
 which is conspicuous in this history, as it was in the lives of 
 the persons who are the principal subj ects of it, may perhaps 
 give a momentary alarm ; but a little reflection will dissipate 
 it. At the time when Colonel Hutchinson first entered on 
 the great theatre of life, the contest was just begun between 
 the partisans of the divine right of the sovereign, and the in- 
 dispensable obligation of the subject to a passive obedience 
 and nonresistance, on one side; and the assertors of the 
 claims of the people to command, through their representa- 
 tives, the public purse, the freedom of debate in parliament, 
 and the responsibility of ministers, on the other. When the 
 sword, the ratio ultima regum, the last appeal of kings, was 
 resorted to by the former, and the latter gained the victory, 
 they very naturally adopted the republican system, as con- 
 cluding, that persons holding such opinions as the princes of 
 the House of Stuart and their adherents did, would never 
 concede to them their franchises, but with a full intention to 
 resume them, whenever they should recover power enough 
 to attem.pt it with success. The event fully justified this 
 conclusion,^ and it is now evident to all, that the only thing 
 which could ever give this nation permanent tranquillity, 
 and put an end to those heartburnings which either openly 
 or covertly had existed even from the time of the Norman 
 conquest, was an explicit compact between king and people, 
 which took its date indeed from the revolution in 1688, but 
 obtained its consummation at the fortunate accession of the 
 house of Brunswick, when the title of the monarch, and the 
 rights of the people, became identified and established on 
 one common basis. Of this truly may be said. 
 
 Quod optanti Divum permittere nemo 
 
 Auderet, volvenda dies en attulit iiltro. — Virg. Mn. ix. 6, 7. 
 
 What to his vot’ry not a God dared promise, 
 
 Revolving years spontaneously produced. 
 
 1 In the reigns of Charles II. and James II. 
 
Preface 
 
 XXXllI 
 
 No one will pretend that such an occasion was within the 
 reach of human foresight; of course the only remedy then 
 attainable was applied to the disorder of the state. Upon a 
 fair review of the contest it will be seen, that what the tory 
 and the courtier of the present day, the friend or even the 
 flatterer of kingly power admits as axioms, were the grand 
 desiderata of the whig and the patriot of those times; and 
 that what were then cried out upon as daring encroach- 
 ments, now pass as the most moderate and unquestioned 
 claims. Not to deceive ourselves then with words, nor 
 attach our minds to names instead of things, although the 
 government under which we prosper be termed Imperial; 
 yet the greater part of the legislative power resting with the 
 people, and the executive being vested in a chief magistrate^ 
 who is under so many limitations that he seems placed in 
 that situation very much more for the common weal, the 
 public benefit, than his own ease or advantage, it must be 
 allowed to come up to Colonel Hutchinson’s favourite idea 
 of a republic for all beneficial purposes, and would assuredly 
 be not less acceptable to him, for that the hereditary suc- 
 cession would be found to repress that effervescence of 
 individual ambition which was the study and the labour of 
 his life to keep down. Possessing himself, but finding not 
 in others, the virtue worthy of and essential to a republic^ 
 he would gladly have taken shelter under a well-limited 
 monarchy, and of such a one he would unquestionably have 
 been a lo}^al subject, a vigorous assertor. 
 
 The Puritanism which appears in the story, and actuated 
 the conduct of Colonel Hutchinson all through life, may be 
 accounted for on almost a similar ground with his predilec- 
 tion for a republic. 
 
 The puritanic turn of thought and style of expression had 
 been adopted by the vindicators of religious freedom and 
 right of inquiry, with whom the champions of civil liberty 
 naturally made common cause. Divinity as a science was 
 a study then in vogue, and seems to have tinctured the con- 
 versation and writings of the greater part of society.^ In 
 
 ^ From the practice of dragging religion or religious phraseology 
 into the service of politics, none, not even the king, was exempt, who, 
 making a speech to his small army in the year 1642, to animate them, 
 tells them they will have none to encounter but rebels, most of them 
 Brownists, Anabaptists, and Atheists ! who would destroy both church 
 and commonwealth. 
 
XXXIV 
 
 Preface 
 
 this Mr. Hutchinson had been encouraged by his father^ 
 whose library subsisted at his family seat of Owthorpe till 
 about the year 1775^ and contained a vast number of folio 
 volumes of polemical divinity. A study environed with 
 many dangers! and which led Colonel Hutchinson into 
 whatever errors he was guilty of. On another hand, the 
 ministers of the established church in those times preached 
 up the prerogative in all its extravagance, and endeavoured 
 to establish, jointly and inseparably, implicit faith in, and 
 unqualified obedience to, the church and king (still giving 
 the church the precedency); whilst the laymen of their 
 party practised, and even professed, a total dissoluteness of 
 life ; so that those who were slaves in principle were libertines 
 in practice, while those who were deemed rebels by the 
 court, and latitudinarians by the hierarchy, were rigorists 
 in religion and morality. 
 
 This contrariety produced a constant and incessant op- 
 position, augmented the vehemence of antipathy, fortified 
 prejudice, and seemed almost to justify bigotry.^ But from 
 this (bigotry) we are bound to exculpate Colonel Hutchinson. 
 The Independents, to whose party, if a man of so much 
 candour and liberality can be said to be of any party, he 
 belonged, proceeded upon that principle, which, however 
 general soever it ought to be, is however unfortunately very 
 uncommon, of allowing to all that liberty of conscience they 
 demanded for themselves. Accordingly, they began by 
 desiring only an act ^ to be passed '' for taking away all 
 coercive power, authority, and jurisdiction, from bishops, 
 extending to civil penalties,” etc. It was not till after they 
 saw the extreme pertinaciousness of the king to retain the 
 bishops as instruments at a future opportunity for remount- 
 ing his system of arbitrary sway, and that the prelatical 
 party about him prevailed with him to refuse an accommoda- 
 tion, and hazard his crown and life, rather than diminish 
 their greatness and power to persecute others,” that they 
 insisted on the abolition of the order.^ It was quite a 
 
 ^ The flower of the French democrats avoided all such inconsistency 
 and paradox, by discarding at once their king, their God, and their 
 morality. 
 
 2 Articles of the army, Rushworth, vol. vii. p. 731. 
 
 3 The words of Whitelocke, p. 340, where he regrets that the king’s 
 chaplains prevailed with him beyond the parliament’s commissioners 
 or his own judgment. 
 
Preface 
 
 XXXV 
 
 different party^ that of the rigid Presbyterians^ and peculiarly 
 their ministers, who cried out against the tyranny of the 
 bishops only that they might get the power into their own 
 hands, and, without the name, might exercise the authority ^ 
 of popes.” That instead of this power being irrevocably 
 and immovably established over us, we are now governed 
 by the mildest church discipline in the universe, we owe to 
 these Independents ! Colonel Hutchinson in particular, if he 
 had lived in times like ours, “ when bishops and ministers 
 desire only to be helpers,^ not lords over the consciences of 
 God’s people,” would either have been a conforming member 
 of the church of England, or at most have only dissented 
 from it in few things, and that with modesty and moderation. 
 For it is v/ell worthy of notice, that after having suffered 
 provocation and persecution from catholic, episcopalian, 
 and presbyterian, when power came into his own hands he 
 treated ail with lenity, and to the worthy persons of all sects 
 and parties extended his protection. 
 
 We have next to consider a part of the conduct of Colonel 
 Hutchinson, which will be the most generally blamed, and is 
 the least capable of defence, the condemnation of Charles 
 the First. To speak of the justice of such a measure in a 
 legal point of view would be a mockery; nothing but the 
 breaking up of the very foundations of the state, and a war of 
 its elements, could let in the possibility of such a procedure. 
 Amidst the tempest and darkness which then involved the 
 whole political horizon, it savours of presumption to decide 
 v/hat measures were right, expedient, or even necessary: 
 this much alone may safely be asserted, that the king and his 
 friends during the contest, and still more after it was virtually 
 ended by the battle of Naseby, maintained such a conduct 
 as rendered his destruction inevitable: but the remark of 
 Whitelocke, p. 363, seems no less just than ingenious: that 
 
 such an irregular and unheard of business should have been 
 left to that irregular set of men — the army, who urged it on.” 
 They, however, were determined to throw the odium on 
 others, or at least draw others in to share it. 
 
 Be it as it may, though some may blame, many more will 
 pity a man such as Colonel Hutchinson, who found or con- 
 
 ^ Vide Letter of Irving, laird of Drum, and his appeal to Colonel 
 Overton: Whitelocke, p. 526. 
 
 ^ Words of Cromwell in his letter to the Scots ministers: Whitelocke, 
 P- 473. 
 
XXXVl 
 
 Preface 
 
 ceived himself reduced to the cruel alternative of permitting 
 all that system of liberty^ civil and religious^ to the estab- 
 lishment of which he had devoted all his faculties^ and was 
 ready to sacrifice his existence^ to be risked upon the good 
 faith of a man whose misfortune it was^ to say no worse^ to 
 be environed by designing and ambitious persons, who 
 rendered all his virtues abortive, and made all afraid to trust 
 him, or of signing a sentence which has since been called a 
 murder, and the undergoing it a martyrdom ! at any rate, it 
 would be highly ungracious and ungrateful in us, while we 
 enjoy in our v/ell-balanced constitution, the benefits derived 
 to us from the virtue, the energy, the sufferings, and even 
 the faults of our ancestors, to pass a severe censure on their 
 conduct ; for it will hardly be denied, that the remembrance 
 of his father’s fate influenced James the Second to yield so 
 easy and bloodless a victory to his opponents, and leave 
 them to settle the constitution amidst calm and sober 
 councils. On the contrary, we are bound to ascribe many of 
 the oversights of those first founders of our liberties, to a 
 precipitancy forced on them by urgent circumstances, to 
 cast a veil over their imperfections, and cherish their memory 
 with thankfulness. 
 
 So much having been said for the purpose of obviating 
 misapprehension as to the effect of this work, it may be 
 further expected that some merit or utility should be shown, 
 to justify the editor in presenting it to the public notice. 
 Being not the child of his brain and fancy, but of his adoption 
 and judgment, he may be supposed to view it with so much 
 the less partiality, and allowed to speak of it with so much 
 the more freedom. 
 
 The only ends for which any book can reasonably be 
 published are to inform, to amuse, or to improve : but unless 
 many persons of highly reputed judgment are mistaken as 
 well as ourselves, this work will be found to attain all three 
 of them. In point of amusement, perhaps novelty or 
 curiosit}^ holds the foremost rank; and surely we risk little 
 in saying that a history of a period the most remarkable in 
 the British annals, written one hundred and fifty years ago 
 by a lady of elevated birth, of a most comprehensive and 
 highly cultivated mind, herself a witness of many of the scenes 
 she describes, and active in several of them, is a literary 
 curiosity of no mean sort. 
 
Preface 
 
 XXXVll 
 
 As to information^ although there are many histories of 
 the same period^ there is not one that is generally considered 
 satisfactory; most of them carry evident marks of prejudice 
 or partiality; nor were any of those which are now read 
 written at or near the time^ or by persons who had an oppor- 
 tunity of being well acquainted with what was passing, 
 except that of Clarendon. But any one who should take the 
 pains, which the editor has done, to examine Clarendon’s 
 State Papers, would find therein documents much better 
 calculated to support Mrs. Hutchinson’s representation of 
 affairs than that which he himself has given. Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son writing from a motive which will very seldom be found 
 to induce any one to take so much trouble, that of giving her 
 children, and especially her eldest son, then about to enter 
 on the stage of life, a true notion of those eventful scenes 
 which had just been passing before her eyes, and which she 
 well judged must be followed by others not less interesting 
 to the same cause and persons, will surely be thought to 
 have possessed both the means and the inclination to paint 
 with truth and correctness: in effect, she will be seen to 
 -exhibit such a faithful, natural, and lively picture of the 
 public mind and manners, taken sometimes in larger, some- 
 times in smaller groups, as will give a more satisfactory idea 
 to an observant reader than he will anywhere else discover. 
 He will be further pleased to see avoided the most common 
 error of historians, that of displaying the paradoxical and 
 the marvellous, both in persons and things. But surely the 
 use of history being to instruct the present and future ages 
 by the experience of the past, nothing can be more absurd 
 than a wish to excite and leave the reader in astonishment, 
 which instead of assisting, can only confound his judgment. 
 Mrs. Hutchinson, on the contrary, has made it her business, 
 ;and that very successfully, to account by common and easy 
 causes for many of those actions and effects which others 
 have left unaccounted for, and only to be gazed at in un- 
 meaning wonder; or, in attempting to account for them, 
 have employed vain subtlety or groundless conjecture. She 
 has likewise not merely described the parties in the state by 
 their general character, but delineated them in their minute 
 ramifications , and thus enabled us to trace the springs, and 
 discover the reasonableness of many of those proceedings 
 which had hitherto seemed incongruous and inconsistent. 
 
xxxviii Preface 
 
 Many of these instances will be pointed out in the notes as 
 the passages arise. 
 
 But the greater merit shall appear in this work as a history^ 
 the greater will be the regret that the writer did not dedicate 
 more of her attention to render it complete and full, instead 
 of summary. 
 
 However, the most numerous class of readers are the 
 lovers of biography, and to these it has of late been the 
 practice of historians to address themselves, as Lyttleton in. 
 his Life of Henry the Second, Robinson of Charles the Fifth, 
 Roscoe of Leo the Tenth, and many minor v/riters. Perhaps 
 the prevalence of this predilection may be traced to the 
 circumstance of the reader’s thus feeling himself to be, as 
 it were, a party in the transactions which are recounted. A 
 person of this taste will, it is hoped, here have his wishes 
 completely gratified; for he will, in fancy, have lived in 
 times, and witnessed scenes the most interesting that can 
 be imagined to the human mind, especially the mind of an 
 Englishman; he v/ill have conversed with persons the most 
 celebrated and extraordinary, whom one party represent as 
 heroes and demi-gods, the other as demons, but whom, having 
 had opportunity to view close at hand, he will judge to have 
 been truly great men, and to have carried at once to a high 
 degree of perfection the characters of the warrior, the 
 politician, the legislator, and the philosopher; yet to have 
 had their great qualifications alloyed by such failings, and 
 principally the want of moderation, as defeated their grand 
 designs. He will have accompanied the hero of the tale, 
 not only through all the ages of life, but through almost 
 every situation in society, from the lowest that can become 
 noticeable, which Mrs. Hutchinson calls the even ground of 
 a gentleman, to the highest which his principles permitted 
 him to aspire to, that of a counsellor of state, in a large and 
 flourishing republic; he will have seen him mark each with 
 the exercise of its appropriate grace and virtue, and so com- 
 pletely to have adapted himself to each department, as to 
 a,ppear always to move in the sphere most natural to him: 
 and, finally, to have maintained so steady a course through 
 all the vicissitudes of prosperity and adversity, as enabled 
 him, though he could neither control the conduct of his 
 coadjutors, nor stem the fluctuating tides of fortune or 
 popular opinion, yet to preserve for himself not only the 
 
Preface 
 
 xxxix 
 
 great and inexhaustible resource of a good conscience, but 
 even the unanimous esteem of the great assembly of the 
 nation, when they agreed in no other thing ; he will no doubt 
 be sensible that such a character is rare, but he will perceive 
 such a consistency and harmony of parts as to make him 
 deem the whole easy of belief, and conclude that such an 
 one would be even more difficult to feign than to find; he 
 will hence be led to concur with us in asserting, that it is 
 much more efficacious and conducive to improvement and 
 to the advancement of morality thus to hold forth a great 
 example in real life, and to elicit principle from practice, 
 than first to feign a sentiment, and then actions and events 
 to support it, as has been done both by ancients and moderns, 
 from the Hercules of Prodicus to the Grandison of Richard- 
 son. Nor has the skill and attention of our author been 
 confined to the portraying of her principal character, she has 
 equally succeeded in the delineation of the subordinate 
 ones ; so that whenever their speeches or actions are brought 
 afresh before our view, we need not that they should be 
 named in order to recognise the personage ; and both in this 
 department, and in that of the development of the intrigues 
 which she occasionally lays open to us, we shall acknowledge 
 the advantage of her adding to the vigour of a masculine 
 understanding, the nice feeling and discrimination, the 
 delicate touch of the pencil of a female. 
 
 As to the style and phraseology, there are so few prose 
 writings of a prior or coeval date now read, that we should 
 be at a loss to point out any which could have served her for 
 models, or us for a standard of comparison; nor does it so 
 much appear to us to bear the stamp of any particular age, 
 as by its simplicity, significancy, and propriety, to be worthy 
 of imitation in all times. Some expressions will be found 
 that are uncommon, or used in an uncommon sense, but 
 they are such as are justified by classical propriety, and, had 
 her book been published, would probably have been adopted 
 and brought into general use. 
 
 We conclude with expressing a confident hope, that the 
 public will find this memoir to be such as we first announced 
 it, — a faithful image of the mode of thinking in those days 
 of which it treats, an interesting and new specimen of private 
 and public character, of general and individual biography; 
 and that recommended as it comes by clearness of discern- 
 
xl 
 
 Preface 
 
 ment, strength and candour of judgment, simplicity, and 
 perspicuity of narrative, pure, amiable, and Christian 
 morality, sentiments at once tender and elevated, conveyed 
 in language elegant, expressive, and classical, occasionally 
 embellished with apposite, impressive, and well-supported 
 figures, it will be found to alfford pleasure and instruction to 
 every class of readers. 
 
 The ladies will feel that it carries with it all the interest of 
 a novel, strengthened with the authenticity of real history; 
 they will no doubt feel an additional satisfaction in learning, 
 that though the author added to the erudition of the scholar, 
 the research of the philosopher, the politician, and even the 
 divine, the zeal and magnanimity of a patriot; yet she de- 
 scended from all these elevations to perform, in the most 
 exemplary manner, the functions of a wife, a mother, and 
 mistress of a family. 
 
THE LIFE OF 
 
 MRS. LUCY HUTCHINSON 
 
 WRITTEN BY HERSELF 
 
 A FRAGMENT 
 
 The Almighty Author of all beings/ in his various provi- 
 dences^ whereby he conducts the lives of men from the 
 cradle to the tomb^ exercises no less wisdom and goodness 
 than he manifests power and greatness, in their creation ; but 
 such is the stupidity of blind mortals, that instead of employ- 
 ing their studies in these admirable books of providence, 
 wherein God daily exhibits to us glorious characters of his 
 love, kindness, wisdom, and justice, they ungratefully regard 
 them not, and call the most wonderful operations of the great 
 God the common accidents of human life, especially if they 
 be such as are usual, and exercised towards them in ages 
 wherein they are not very capable of observation, and where- 
 on they seldom employ any reflection; for in things great 
 and extraordinary, some, perhaps, will take notice of God’s 
 working, who either forget or believe not that he takes as 
 well a care and account of their smallest concernments, even 
 the hairs of their heads. 
 
 Finding myself in some kind guilty of this general neglect, 
 I thought it might be a means to stir up my thankfulness for 
 
 1 That noble turn of thought which led Mrs. Hutchinson to open her 
 work with thanks to her Maker, instead of apologies to the readers, 
 besides the claim it has to their respect instead of their indulgence, 
 will probably by its originahty recommend itself, and prevent the dis- 
 taste which the air of religion it wears might give to many, in times 
 when it is so little in fashion. It should be borne in mind that the 
 usage of the times in which it was written was so very different from 
 the present, that those who wish to read with pleasure the works then 
 written, will do well to set their taste according to that standard. 
 
 Through the whole of both these works, moral and religious reflec- 
 tions wiU be seen to abound, but so as neither to confuse nor fetter, but 
 rather elevate the mind. 
 
 A 
 
2 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 things past^ and to encourage my faith for the future, if I 
 recollected as much as I have heard or can remember of the 
 passages of my youth, and the general and particular provi- 
 dences exercised to me, both in the entrance and progress of 
 my life. Herein I meet with so many special indulgences as 
 require a distinct consideration, they being all of them to be 
 regarded as talents intrusted to my improvement for God’s 
 glory. The parents by whom I received my life, the places 
 where I began and continued it, the time when I was brought 
 forth to be a witness of God’s wonderful workings in the 
 earth, the rank that was given me in my generation, and the 
 advantages I received in my person, each of them carries 
 along with it many mercies which are above my utterance, 
 and as they give me infinite cause of glorifying God’s good- 
 ness, so I cannot reflect on them without deep humiliation 
 for the small improvement I have made of so rich a stock; 
 which, that I may yet by God’s grace better employ, I shall 
 recall and seriously ponder : and, first, as far as I have since 
 learnt, set down the condition of things in the place of my 
 nativity, at that time when I was sent into the world. It 
 was on the 29th day of January, in the year of our Lord 
 1619-20, that in the Tower of London, the principal city of 
 the English Isle, I was, about four of the clock in the morn- 
 ing, brought forth to behold the ensuing light. My father 
 was Sir Allen Apsley, lieutenant of the Tower of London; 
 my mother, his third wife, was Lucy, the youngest daughter 
 of Sir John St. John, of Lidiard Tregooze, in Wiltshire, by his 
 second wife. My father had then living a son and a daughter 
 by his former wives, and by my mother three sons, I being 
 her eldest daughter. The land was then at peace (it being 
 towards the latter end of the reign of King James), if that 
 quietness may be called a peace, which was rather like the 
 calm and smooth surface of the sea, whose dark womb is 
 already impregnated with a horrid tempest. 
 
 Whoever considers England will find it no small favour of 
 God to have been made one of its natives, both upon spiritual 
 and outward accounts. The happiness of the soil and air 
 contribute all things that are necessary to the use or delight 
 of man’s life. The celebrated glory of this isle’s inhabitants, 
 ever since they received a mention in history, confers some 
 honour upon every one of her children, and with it an obli- 
 gation to continue in that magnanimity and virtue, which 
 
Life of Mrs. Hutchinson 3 
 
 hath famed this island, and raised her head in glory higher 
 than the great kingdoms of the neighbouring continent. 
 Britain hath been as a garden enclosed, wherein all things 
 that man can wish, to make a pleasant life, are planted and 
 grow in her own soil, and whatsoever foreign countries yield, 
 to increase admiration and delight, are brought in by her 
 fleets. The people, by the plenty of their country, not being 
 forced to toil for bread, have ever addicted themselves to 
 more generous employments, and been reckoned, almost in 
 all ages, as valiant warriors as any part of the world sent 
 forth: insomuch, that the greatest Roman captains thought 
 it not unworthy of their expeditions, and took great glory in 
 triumphs for imperfect conquests. Lucan upbraids Julius 
 Caesar for returning hence with a repulse, and it was two 
 hundred years before the land could be reduced into a Roman 
 province, which at length was done, and such of the nation, 
 then called Piets, as scorned servitude, were driven into the 
 barren country of Scotland, where they have ever since re- 
 mained a perpetual trouble to the successive inhabitants of 
 this place. The Britons, that thought it better to work for 
 their conquerors in a good land, than to have the freedom to 
 starve in a cold or barren quarter, were by degrees fetched 
 away, and wasted in the civil broils of these Roman lords, 
 till the land, almost depopulated, lay open to the incursions 
 of every borderer, and were forced to call a stout warlike 
 people, the Saxons, out of Germany, to their assistance. 
 These willingly came at their call, but were not so easily sent 
 out again, nor persuaded to let their hosts inhabit with them, 
 for they drove the Britons into the mountains of Wales, and 
 seated themselves in those pleasant countries which from the 
 new masters received a new name, and ever since retained it, 
 being called England; and on which the warlike Dane made 
 many attempts, with various success, but after about two or 
 three hundred years’ vain contest, they were for ever driven 
 out, with shame and loss, and the Saxon Heptarchy melted 
 into a monarchy, which continued till the superstitious prince, 
 who was sainted for his ungodly chastity, left an empty 
 throne to him that could seize it. He who first set up his 
 standard in it, could not hold it, but with his life left it again 
 for the Norman usurper, who partly by violence, partly by 
 falsehood, laid here the foundation of his monarchy, in the 
 people’s blood, in which it hath swam about five hundred 
 
4 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 years, till the flood that bore it was ploughed into such deep 
 furrows as had almost sunk the proud vessel. Of those 
 Saxons that remained subjects to the Norman conqueror, my 
 father’s family descended; of those Normans that came in 
 with him, my mother’s was derived; both of them, as all 
 the rest in England, contracting such affinity, by mutual 
 marriages, that the distinction remained but a short space; 
 Normans and Saxons becoming one people, who by their 
 valour grew terrible to all the neighbouring princes, and have 
 not only bravely acquitted themselves in their own defence, 
 but have showed abroad how easily they could subdue the 
 world, if they did not prefer the quiet enjoyment of their own 
 part above the conquest of the whole. 
 
 Better laws and a happier constitution of government no 
 nation ever enjoyed, it being a mixture of monarchy, aristo- 
 cracy, and democracy, with sufficient fences against the pest 
 of every one of those forms — tyranny, faction, and confusion; 
 yet is it not possible for man to devise such just and excellent 
 bounds, as will keep in wild ambition, when prince’s flatterers 
 encourage that beast to break his fence, which it hath often 
 done, with miserable consequences both to the prince and 
 people; but could never in any age so tread down popular 
 liberty, but that it arose again with renewed vigour, till at 
 length it trod on those that trampled it before. And in the 
 just bounds, wherein our kings were so well hedged in, the 
 surrounding princes have with terror seen the reproof of 
 their usurpations over their free brethren, whom they rule 
 rather as slaves than subjects, and are only served for fear, 
 but not for love; whereas this people have ever been as 
 affectionate to good, as unpliable to bad sovereigns. 
 
 Nor is it only valour and generosity that renown this 
 nation; in arts we have advanced equal to our neighbours, 
 and in those that are most excellent, exceeded them. The 
 world hath not yielded men more famous in navigation, 
 nor ships better built or furnished. Agriculture is as in- 
 geniously practised; the English archers were the terror of 
 Christendom, and their clothes the ornament; but these low 
 things bounded not their great spirits, in all ages it hath 
 yielded men as famous in all kinds of learning, as Greece or 
 Italy can boast of. 
 
 And to complete the crown of all their glory, reflected 
 from the lustre of their ingenuity, valour, wit, learning. 
 
Life of Mrs. Hutchinson 5 
 
 justice^ wealthy and bounty^ their piety and devotion to God^ 
 and his worship^ hath made them one of the most truly noble 
 nations in the Christian world. God having as it were en- 
 closed a people here^ out of the waste common of the worlds 
 to serve him with a pure and undefiled worship. Lucius the 
 British king was one of the first monarchs of the earth that 
 received the faith of Christ into his heart and kingdom; 
 Henry the Eighth, the first prince that broke the antichris- 
 tian yoke off from his own and his subjects’ necks. Here it 
 was that the first Christian emperor received his crown ; here 
 began the early dawn of Gospel light, by Wickliffe and other 
 faithful witnesses, whom God raised up after the black and 
 horrid midnight of antichristianism ; and a more plentiful 
 harvest of devout confessors, constant martyrs, and holy 
 worshippers of God, hath not grown in any field of the 
 church, throughout all ages, than those whom God hath 
 here glorified his name and gospel by. Yet hath not this 
 wheat been without its tares ; God in comparison with other 
 countries hath made this as a paradise, so, to complete 
 the parallel, the serpent hath in all times been busy to 
 seduce, and not unsuccessful; ever stirring up opposers to 
 the infant truths of Christ. 
 
 No sooner was the faith of Christ embraced in this nation, 
 but the neighbouring heathens invaded the innocent Chris- 
 tians, and slaughtered multitudes of them ; and when, by the 
 mercy of God, the conquering Pagans were afterwards con- 
 verted, and there were none left to oppose the name of 
 Christ with open hostility, then the subtle serpent put off his 
 own horrid appearance, and comes out in a Christian dress, 
 to persecute Christ in his poor prophets, that bore witness 
 against the corruption of the times. This intestine quarrel 
 hath been more successful to the devil, and more afflictive to 
 the church, than all open wars ; and, I fear, will never happily 
 be decided, till the Prince of Peace come to conclude the 
 controversy, which at the time of my birth was working up 
 into that tempest, wherein I have shared many perils, many 
 fears, and many sorrows ; and many more mercies, consola- 
 tions, and preservations, which I shall have occasion to 
 mention in other places. 
 
 From the place of my birth I shall only desire to remember 
 the goodness of the Lord, who hath caused my lot to fall in a 
 good ground; who hath fed me in a pleasant pasture, where 
 
6 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 the well-springs of life flow to all that desire to drink of them. 
 And this is no small favour^ if I consider how many poor 
 people perish among the heathen^ where they never hear 
 the name of Christ; how many poor Christians spring up 
 in countries enslaved by Turkish and antichristian tyrants, 
 whose souls and bodies languish under miserable slavery. 
 None know what mercy it is to live under a good and whole- 
 some law, that have not considered the sad condition of 
 being subject to the will of an unlimited man; and surely it 
 is too universal a sin in this nation, that the common mercies 
 of God to the whole land are so slightly regarded, and so in- 
 considerately passed over; certainly these are circumstances 
 which much magnify God’s loving-kindness and his special 
 favour to all that are of English birth, and call for a greater 
 return of duty from us than from all other people of the 
 world. 
 
 Nor is the place only, but the time of my coming into the 
 world, a considerable mercy to me. It was not in the mid- 
 night of popery, nor in the dawn of the gospel’s restored 
 day, when light and shades were blended and almost un- 
 distinguished, but when the Sun of truth was exalted in|his 
 progress, and hastening towards a meridian glory. It was, 
 indeed, early in the morning, God being pleased to allow me 
 the privilege of beholding the admirable growth of gospel 
 light in my days : and oh ! that my soul may never forget 
 to bless and praise his name for the wonders of power and 
 goodness, wisdom and truth, which have been manifested in 
 this my time. 
 
 The next blessing I have to consider in my nativity is my 
 parents, both of them pious and virtuous in their own con- 
 versation, and careful instructors of my youth, not only by 
 precept but example ; which, if I had leisure and ability, I 
 should have transmitted to my posterity, both to give them 
 the honour due from me in such a grateful memorial, and 
 to increase my children’s improvement of the patterns they 
 set them; but since I shall detract from those I would cele- 
 brate, by my imperfect commemorations, I shall content 
 myself to sum up some few things for my own use, and let 
 the rest alone, which I either knew not, or have forgotten, or 
 cannot worthily express. 
 
 My grandfather by the father’s side was a gentleman of a 
 competent estate, about £700 or £800 a year, in Sussex. He 
 
Life of Mrs. Hutchinson 7 
 
 being descended of a younger house^ had his residence at a 
 place called Pulborough; the family out of which he came 
 was an Apsley of Apsley^ a town where they had been seated 
 before the conquest^ and ever since continued, till of late 
 the last heir male of that eldest house, being the son of Sir 
 Edward Apsley, died without issue, and his estate went with 
 his sister’s daughters into other families. Particularities 
 concerning my father’s kindred or country I never knew 
 much of, by reason of my youth at the time of his death, 
 and my education in far distant places ; only in general I have 
 heard, that my grandfather was a man well reputed and 
 beloved in his country, and that it had been such a continued 
 custom for my ancestors to take wives at home, that there 
 was scarce a family of any note in Sussex to which they were 
 not by intermarriages nearly related; but I was myself a 
 stranger to them all, except my Lord Goring, who living at 
 court, I have seen with my father, and heard of him, because 
 he was appointed one of my father’s executors, though he 
 declined the trouble. My grandfather had seven sons, of 
 which my father was the youngest ; to the eldest he gave his 
 whole estate, and to the rest, according to the custom of those 
 times, slight annuities. The eldest brother married to a 
 gentlewoman of a good family, and by her had only one son, 
 whose mother dying, my uncle married himself again to one 
 of his own maids, and by her had three more sons, whom, 
 with their mother, my cousin William Apsley, the son of the 
 first wife, held in such contempt, that a great while after, 
 dying without children, he gave his estate of inheritance to 
 my father, and two of my brothers, except about £ioo a year 
 to the eldest of his half brothers, and annuities of £30 a piece 
 to the three for their lives. He died before I was born, but 
 I have heard very honourable mention of him in our family. 
 The rest of my father’s brothers went into the wars in Ireland 
 and the Low Countries, and there remained none of them, 
 nor their issues, when I was born, but only three daughters 
 who bestowed themselves meanly, and their generations 
 are worn out, except two or three unregarded children. My 
 father, at the death of my grandfather, being but a youth 
 at school, had not patience to stay the perfecting of his 
 studies, but put himself into present action, sold his annuity, 
 bought himself good clothes, put some money in his purse, 
 and came to London; and by means of a relation at court, 
 
8 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 got a place in the household of Queen Elizabeth^ where he 
 behaved himself so that he won the love of many of the 
 court; but being young, took an affection to gaming, and 
 spent most of the money he had in his purse. About that 
 time, the Earl of Essex was setting forth on a voyage to 
 Cadiz, and my father, that had a mind to quit his idle court 
 life, procured an employment from the victualler of the navy, 
 to go along with that fleet. In which voyage he demeaned 
 himself with so much courage and prudence, that after his 
 return he was honoured with a very noble and profitable 
 employment in Ireland. There a rich widow, that had many 
 children, cast her affections upon him, and he married her; 
 but she not living many years with him, and having no 
 children by him, after her death he distributed all her estate 
 among her children, for whom he ever preserved a fatherly 
 kindness, and some of her grand-children were brought up 
 in his house after I was born. He, by God’s blessing, and 
 his fidelity and industry, growing in estate and honour, re- 
 ceived a knighthood from king James soon after his coming 
 to the crown, for some eminent service done to him in Ire- 
 land, which, having only heard in my childhood, I cannot 
 perfectly set down. After that, growing into a familiarity 
 with Sir George Carew, made now by the king Earl of Totness, 
 a niece of this earl’s, the daughter of Sir Peter Carew, who 
 lived a young widow in her uncle’s house, fell in love with 
 him, which her uncle perceiving, procured a marriage be- 
 tween them. She had divers children by my father, but only 
 two of them, a son and daughter, survived her, who died 
 whilst my father was absent from her in Ireland. He led, all 
 the time of his widowhood, a very disconsolate life, careful 
 for nothing in the world but to educate and advance the son 
 and daughter, the dear pledges she had left him, for whose 
 sake he quitted himself of his employments abroad, and pro- 
 cured himself the office of Victualler of the Navy, a place then 
 both of credit and great revenue. His friends, considering 
 his solitude, had procured him a match of a very rich widow, 
 who was a lady of as much discretion as wealth; but while 
 he was upon this design he chanced to see my mother, at the 
 house of Sir William St. John, who had married her eldest 
 sister; and though he went on his journey, yet something in 
 her person and behaviour, which he carried along with him, 
 would not let him accomplish it, but brought him back to my 
 
Life of Mrs. Hutchinson 9 
 
 mother. She was of a noble family, being the youngest 
 daughter of Sir John St. John, of Liddiard Tregooze in the 
 county of Wilts; her father and mother died when she was 
 not above five years of age, and yet at her nurse’s, from 
 whence she was carried to be brought up in the house of the 
 Lord Grandison, her father’s younger brother; an honour- 
 able and excellent person, but married to a lady so jealous of 
 him, and so ill-natured in her jealous fits, to anything that 
 was related to him, that her cruelties to my mother exceeded 
 the stories of step-mothers. The rest of my aunts, my 
 mother’s sisters, were dispersed to several places, where they 
 grew up till my uncle. Sir John St. John, being married to 
 the daughter of Sir Thomas Laten, they were all again 
 brought home to their brother’s house. There were not in 
 those days so many beautiful women found in any family as 
 these, but my mother was by the most judgments preferred 
 before all her elder sisters, who, something envious at it, used 
 her unkindly. Yet all the suitors that came to them still 
 turned their addresses to her, which she in her youthful inno- 
 cency neglected, till one of greater name, estate, and reputa- 
 tion than the rest, happened to fall deeply in love with her, 
 and to manage it so discreetly, that my mother could not but 
 entertain him. My uncle’s wife, who had a mother’s kind- 
 ness for her, persuaded her to remove herself from her sisters’ 
 envy, by going along with her to the Isle of Jersey, where her 
 father was governor; which she did, and there went into the 
 town, and boarded in a French minister’s house, to learn the 
 language, that minister having been, by the persecution in 
 France, driven to seek his shelter there. Contracting a dear 
 friendship with this holy man and his wife, she was instructed 
 in their Geneva discipline, which she liked so much better 
 than our more superstitious service, that she could have been 
 contented to have lived there, had not a powerful passion in 
 her heart drawn her back. But at her return she met with 
 many afflictions; the gentleman who had professed so much 
 love to her, in her absence had been, by most vile practices 
 and treacheries, drawn out of his senses, and into the marriage 
 of a person, whom, when he recovered his reason, he hated. 
 But that served only to augment his misfortune, and the 
 circumstances of that story not being necessary to be here 
 inserted, I shall only add that my mother lived in my uncle’s 
 house, secretly discontented at this accident, but was com- 
 
lo Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 forted by the kindness of my uncle’s wife, who had contracted 
 such an intimate friendship with her, that they seemed to 
 have but one soul. And in this kindness she had some time 
 a great solace, till some malicious persons had wrought some 
 jealousies, which were very groundless, in my uncle concern- 
 ing his wife; but his nature being inclinable to that passion, 
 which was fomented in him by subtle wicked persons, and 
 my mother endeavouring to vindicate injured innocence, she 
 was herself not well treated by my uncle, whereupon she left 
 his house, with a resolution to withdraw herself into the 
 island, where the good minister was, and there to wear out 
 her life in the service of God. While she was deliberating, 
 and had fixed upon it in her own thoughts, resolving to im- 
 part it to none, she was with Sir William St. John, who had 
 married my aunt, when my father accidentally came in 
 there, and fell so heartily in love with her, that he persuaded 
 her to marry him, which she did, and her melancholy made 
 her conform cheerfully to that gravity of habit and conversa- 
 tion, which was becoming the wife of such a person, who was 
 then forty-eight years of age, and she not above sixteen. 
 The first year of their marriage was crowned with a son, 
 called after my father’s name, and born at East Smithfield, 
 in that house of the king’s which belonged to my father’s 
 employment in the navy. The next year they removed to 
 the tower of London, whereof my father was made lieu- 
 tenant, and there had two sons more before me, and four 
 daughters, and two sons after; of all which only three sons 
 and two daughters survived him at the time of his death, 
 which was in the sixty-third year of his age, after he had 
 three years before languished of a consumption, that suc- 
 ceeded a fever which he got in the unfortunate voyage to the 
 Isle of Rhee. 
 
 He died in the month of May, 1630, sadly bewailed by not 
 only all his dependants and relations, but by all that were 
 acquainted with him; for he never conversed with any to 
 whom he was not at some time or in some way beneficial; 
 and his nature was so delighted in doing good, that it won 
 him the love of all men, even his enemies, whose envy and 
 malice it was his custom to overcome with obligations. He 
 had great natural parts, but was too active in his youth to 
 stay the heightening of them by study of dead writings ; but 
 in the living books of men’s conversations he soon became so 
 
Life of Mrs. Hutchinson 1 1 
 
 skilful that he was never mistaken, but where his own good 
 would not let him give credit to the evil he discerned in 
 others. He was a most indulgent husband, and no less kind 
 to his children; a most noble master, who thought it not 
 enough to maintain his servants honourably while they were 
 with him, but, for all that deserved it, provided offices or 
 settlements, as for children. He was a father to all his 
 prisoners, sweetening with such compassionate kindness their 
 restraint, that the affliction of a prison was not felt in his 
 days. He had a singular kindness for all persons that were 
 eminent either in learning or arms, and when, through the 
 ingratitude and vice of that age, many of the wives and 
 children of Queen Elizabeth’s glorious captains were reduced 
 to poverty, his purse was their common treasury, and they 
 knew not the inconvenience of decayed fortunes till he was 
 dead : many of those valiant seamen he maintained in prison, 
 many he redeemed out of prison, and cherished with an extra- 
 ordinary bounty. If among his excellencies one outshined 
 the rest, it was the generous liberality of his mind, wherein 
 goodness and greatness were so equally distributed that they 
 mutually embellished each other. Pride and covetousness 
 had not the least place in his breast. As he was in love with 
 true honour, so he contemned vain titles; and though in his 
 youth he accepted an addition to his birth, in his riper years 
 he refused a baronetcy, which the king offered him. He 
 was severe in the regulating of his family, especially would 
 not endure the least immodest behaviour or dress in any 
 woman under his roof. There was nothing he hated more 
 than an insignificant gallant, that could only make his legs 
 and prune himself, and court a lady, but had not brains to 
 employ himself in things more suitable to man’s nobler sex. 
 Fidelity in his trust, love and loyalty to his prince, were not 
 the least of his virtues, but those wherein he was not ex- 
 celled by any of his own or succeeding times. The large 
 estate he reaped by his happy industry, he did many times 
 over as freely resign again to the king’s service, till he left 
 the greatest part of it at his death in the king’s hands. All 
 his virtues wanted not the crown of all virtue, piety and true 
 devotion to God. As his life was a continued exercise of 
 faith and charity, it concluded with prayers and blessings, 
 which were the only consolations his desolate family could 
 receive in his death. Never did any two better agree in mag- 
 
12 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 nanimity and bounty than he and my mother, who seemed 
 to be actuated by the same soul, so little did she grudge any 
 of his liberalities to strangers, or he contradict any of her 
 kindness to all her relations; her house being a common 
 home to all of them, and a nursery to their children. He ‘ 
 gave her a noble allowance of £300 a year for her own private 
 expense, and had given her all her own portion to dispose of 
 how she pleased, as soon as she was married; which she 
 suffered to increase in her friend’s hands; and what my 
 father allowed her she spent not in vanities, although she had 
 what was rich and requisite upon occasions, but she laid 
 most of it out in pious and charitable uses. Sir Walter 
 Raleigh and Mr. Ruthin being prisoners in the Tower, and 
 addicting themselves to chemistry, she suffered them to 
 make their rare experiments at her cost, partly to comfort 
 and divert the poor prisoners, and partly to gain the know- 
 ledge of their experiments, and the medicines to help such 
 poor people as were not able to seek physicians. By these 
 means she acquired a great deal of skill, which was very 
 profitable to many all her life.^ She was not only to these, 
 but to all the other prisoners that came into the Tower, as a 
 mother. All the time she dwelt in the Tower, if any were 
 sick she made them broths and restoratives with her own 
 hands, visited and took care of them, and provided them all 
 necessaries; if any were afflicted she comforted them, so 
 that they felt not the inconvenience of a prison who were in 
 that place. She was not less bountiful to many poor widows 
 and orphans, whom officers of higher and lower rank had 
 left behind them as objects of charity. Her own house was 
 filled with distressed families of her relations, whom she 
 supplied and maintained in a noble way. The worship and 
 service of God, both in her soul and her house, and the 
 
 ^ This anecdote of Sir Walter Raleigh will no doubt attract the notice 
 of the observant reader: it merits to be borne in mind, as it will ac- 
 count for a passage in the memoirs, where Mrs. Hutchinson is repre- 
 sented as acting the part of a surgeon in the siege of Nottingham 
 Castle; and as the treatment Sir Allen Apsley and his lady gave their 
 prisoners forms a striking contrast with that which it will appear at 
 the end of the history was practised by some of his successors, at a 
 time when mildness seemed most requisite, and was most professed. 
 Perhaps prejudice will render it incredible, that in the Bastile of Paris, 
 which has become a proverbial expression to signify cruel durance, 
 the conduct of the murdered governor resembled that of Sir Allen 
 Apsley; it is nevertheless true. 
 
Life of Mrs. Hutchinson 
 
 ^3 
 
 education of her children^ were her principal care. She was a 
 constant frequenter of week-day lectures, and a great lover 
 and encourager of good ministers, and most diligent in her 
 private reading and devotions. 
 
 When my father was sick she was not satisfied with the 
 attendance of all that were about him, but made herself his 
 nurse, and cook, and physician, and, through the blessing of 
 God, and her indefatigable labours and watching, preserved 
 him a great while longer than the physicians thought it 
 possible for his nature to hold out. At length, when the 
 Lord took him to rest, she showed as much humility and 
 patience, under that great change, as moderation and bounty 
 in her more plentiful and prosperous condition, and died in 
 my house at Owthorpe, in the county of Nottingham, in the 
 year 1659. The privilege of being born of, and educated by, 
 such excellent parents, I have often revolved with great 
 thankfulness for the mercy, and humiliation that I did no 
 more improve it. After my mother had had three sons, she 
 was very desirous of a daughter, and when the women at my 
 birth told her I was one, she received me with a great deal 
 of joy; and the nurses fancying, because I had more com- 
 plexion and favour than is usual in so young children, that I 
 should not live, my mother became fonder of me, and more 
 endeavoured to nurse me. As soon as I was weaned a French 
 woman was taken to be my dry-nurse, and I was taught to 
 speak French and English together. My mother, while she 
 was with child of me, dreamed that she was walking in the 
 garden with my father, and that a star came down into her 
 hand, with other circumstances, which, though I have often 
 heard, I minded not enough to remember perfectly; only 
 my father told her, her dream signified she should have a 
 daughter of some extraordinary eminency; which thing, 
 like such vain prophecies, wrought as far as it could its own 
 accomplishment: ^ for my father and mother fancying me 
 
 ^ This is an ingenious way of accounting for the fulfilment of super- 
 stitious predictions and expectations, which might frequently with 
 close attention be traced to their source, as is here done. It is clear 
 that in the present case it occasioned a peculiar care to be taken of her 
 education ; and this again caused her mind and disposition to take that 
 singular stamp which attracted the notice of Mr. Hutchinson, and led 
 her to the highest situation that she could wish for, that of the lady of 
 a counsellor of state in her beloved, but short-lived, republic. When the 
 reader shall have followed her to the end of her labours, let him judge 
 whether there could be any situation to which she was not adequate. 
 
14 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 then beautiful, and more than ordinarily apprehensive, 
 applied all their cares, and spared no cost to improve me in 
 my education, which procured me the admiration of those 
 that flattered my parents. By the time I was four years old 
 I read English perfectly, and having a great memory, I was 
 carried to sermons; and while I was very young could 
 remember and repeat them exactly, and being caressed, the 
 love of praise tickled me, and made me attend more heed- 
 fully. When I was about seven years of age, I remember I 
 had at one time eight tutors in several qualities, languages, 
 music, dancing, writing, and needlework; but my genius 
 was quite averse from all but my book, and that I was so 
 eager of, that my mother thinking it prejudiced my health, 
 would moderate me in it; yet this rather animated me than 
 kept me back, and every moment I could steal from my play 
 I would employ in any book I could find, when my own were 
 locked up from me. After dinner and supper I still had an 
 hour allowed me to play, and then I would steal into some 
 hole or other to read. My father would have me learn Latin, 
 and I was so apt that I outstripped my brothers who were 
 at school, although my father’s chaplain, that was my tutor, 
 was a pitiful dull fellow. My brothers, who had a great deal 
 of wit, had some emulation at the progress I made in my 
 learning, which very well pleased my father; though my 
 mother would have been contented if I had not so wholly 
 addicted myself to that as to neglect my other qualities. As 
 for music and dancing, I profited very little in them, and 
 would never practise my lute or harpsichords but when my 
 masters were with me ; and for my needle I absolutely hated 
 it. Play among other children I despised, and when I was 
 forced to entertain such as came to visit me, I tired them 
 with more grave instructions than their mothers, and 
 plucked all their babies to pieces, and kept the children in 
 such awe, that they were glad when I entertained myself 
 with elder company; to whom I was very acceptable, and 
 living in the house with many persons that had a great deal 
 of wit, and very profitable serious discourses being frequent 
 at my father’s table and in my mother’s drawing-room, I 
 was very attentive to all, and gathered up things that I 
 would utter again, to great admiration of many that took my 
 memory and imitation for wit. It pleased God that, through 
 the good instructions of my mother, and the sermons she 
 
Life of Mrs. Hutchinson 15 
 
 carried me to, I was convinced that the knowledge of God 
 was the most excellent study, and accordingly applied my- 
 self to it, and to practise as I was taught. I used to exhort 
 my mother’s maids much, and to turn their idle discourses 
 to good subjects; but I thought, when I had done this on 
 the Lord’s day, and every day performed my due tasks of 
 reading and praying, that then I was free to anything that 
 was not sin; for I was not at that time convinced of the 
 vanity of conversation which was not scandalously wicked. 
 I thought it no sin to learn or hear witty songs and amorous 
 sonnets or poems, and twenty things of that kind, wherein 
 I was so apt that I became the confidant in all the loves 
 that were managed among my mother’s young women; and 
 there was none of them but had many lovers, and some 
 particular friends beloved above the rest. Among these I 
 have ^ . . . Five years after me my mother had a daughter 
 that she nursed at her own breast, and was infinitely fond of 
 above all the rest; and I being of too serious a temper was 
 not so pleasing to my ^ . . . 
 
 ^ At this place is a great chasm, many leaves being torn out, ap- 
 parently by the writer herself. 
 
 ^ Here the story of herself abruptly ends. 
 
MRS. HUTCHINSON TO HER CHILDREN 
 CONCERNING THEIR FATHER 
 
 TO MY CHILDREN ’’ 
 
 They who dote on mortal excellencies, when by the inevit- 
 able fate of all things frail, their adored idols are taken from 
 them, may let loose the winds of passion to bring in a flood 
 of sorrow; whose ebbing tides carry away the dear memory 
 of what they have lost ; and when comfort is essayed to such 
 mourners, commonly all objects are removed out of their 
 view, which may with their remembrance renew the grief; 
 and in time these remedies succeed, and oblivion’s curtain 
 is by degrees drawn over the dead face, and things less lovely 
 are liked, while they are not viewed together with that which 
 was most excellent. But I that am under a command not to 
 grieve at the common rate of desolate women,^ while I am 
 studying which way to moderate my woe, and if it were pos- 
 sible to augment my love, can for the present And out none 
 more just to your dear father nor consolatory to myself than 
 the preservation of his memory ; which I need not gild with 
 such flattering commendations as the hired preachers do 
 equally give to the truly and titularly honourable. A naked, 
 undressed narrative, speaking the simple truth of him, will 
 deck him with more substantial glory, than all the pane- 
 gyrics the best pens could ever consecrate to the virtues of 
 the best men. 
 
 Indeed, that resplendent body of light, which the begin- 
 ning and ending of his life made up, to discover the deformi- 
 
 ^ The command of her husband at his death. It will be readily ad- 
 mitted that she does indeed not grieve after any common rate, but 
 with that noble sorrow which raises instead of depressing the soul: it 
 would be an affront to the reader’s taste to point out the beauties of 
 this dirge; but it is only a just commendation of our authoress’s judg- 
 ment and modesty to observe, that having shown her ability to orna- 
 ment and embellish, she confines herself to such occasions as are most 
 suitable, and employs the greatest simplicity in her narrative. 
 
 i6 
 
Mrs. Hutchinson to Her Children 17 
 
 ties of this wicked age^ and to instruct the erring children of 
 this generation^ will, through my apprehension and expres- 
 sion, shine as under a very thick cloud, which will obscure 
 much of their lustre; but there is need of this medium to 
 this world’s weak eyes, which I fear hath but few people in 
 it so virtuous as can believe (because they find themselves 
 so short), that any other could make so large a progress in the 
 race of piety, honour, and virtue: but I am almost stopped 
 before I set forth to trace his steps; finding the number of 
 them, by which he still outwent himself, more than my im- 
 perfect arithmetic can count, and the exact figure of them 
 such as my unskilful pen cannot describe. I fear to injure 
 that memory which I would honour, and to disgrace his 
 name with a poor monument; but when I have beforehand 
 laid this necessary caution, and ingenuously confessed that 
 through my inability either to receive or administer much of 
 that wealthy stock of his glory that I was intrusted with for 
 the benefit of all, and particularly his own posterity, I must 
 withhold a great part from them, I hope I shall be pardoned 
 for drawing an imperfect image of him ; especially when even 
 the rudest draft that endeavours to counterfeit him, will 
 have much delightful loveliness in it. 
 
 Let not excess of love and delight in the stream make us 
 forget the fountain; he and all his excellencies came from 
 God, and flowed back into their own spring: there let us 
 seek them, thither let us hasten after him; there having 
 found him, let us cease to bewail among the dead that which 
 is risen, or rather was immortal. His soul conversed with 
 God so much when he was here, that it rejoices to be now 
 eternally freed from interruption in that blessed exercise ; his 
 virtues were recorded in heaven’s annals, and can never 
 perish; by them he yet teaches us and all those to whose 
 knowledge they shall arrive. It is only his fetters, his sins, 
 his infirmities, his diseases, that are dead never to revive 
 again, nor would we have them; they were his enemies and 
 ours; by faith in Christ he vanquished them. Our conjunc- 
 tion, if we had any with him, was indissoluble; if we were 
 knit together by one spirit into one body of Christ, we are so 
 still; if we were mutually united in one love of God, good 
 men, and goodness, we are so still. What is it then we wail 
 in his remove ? the distance ? Faithless fools ! sorrow only 
 makes it. Let us but ascend to God in holy joy for the 
 
I 8 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 great grace given his poor servant^ and he is there with us. 
 He is only removed from the malice of his enemies^ for which, 
 in being afflicted, we should not express our love to him we 
 may mourn for ourselves that we come so tardily after him; 
 that we want his guide and assistance in our way; and yet 
 if our tears did not put out our eyes we should see him even 
 in heaven, holding forth his flaming lamp of virtuous ex- 
 amples and precepts, to light us through the dark world. It 
 is time that I let in to your knowledge that splendour which, 
 while it cheers and enlightens your heavy senses, should 
 make us remember to give all his and all our glory to God 
 alone, who is the father and fountain of all light and excel- 
 lence. 
 
 Desiring, if my treacherous memory have not lost the 
 dearest treasure that ever I committed to its trust, to relate 
 to you his holy, virtuous, honourable life, I would put his 
 picture in the front of his book, but my unskilful hand will 
 injure him. Yet to such of you as have not seen him -to 
 remember his person, I leave this — 
 
 HIS DESCRIPTION 
 
 He was of a middle stature, of a slender and exactly well- 
 proportioned shape in all parts, his complexion fair, his hair 
 of light brown, very thick set in his youth, softer than the 
 finest silk, and curling into loose great rings at the ends ; his 
 eyes of a lively grey, well-shaped and full of life and vigour, 
 graced with many becoming motions; his visage thin, his 
 mouth well made, and his lips very ruddy and graceful, al- 
 though the nether chap shut over the upper, yet it was in 
 such a manner as was not unbecoming; his teeth were even 
 and white as the purest ivory ; his chin was something long, 
 and the mould of his face; his forehead was not very high; 
 his nose was raised and sharp; but withal he had a most 
 amiable countenance, which carried in it something of mag- 
 nanimity and majesty mixed with sweetness, that at the same 
 time bespoke love and awe in all that saw him; his skin 
 was smooth and white, his legs and feet excellently well- 
 made ; he was quick in his pace and turns, nimble and active 
 and graceful in all his motions; he was apt for any bodily 
 exercise, and any that he did became him; he could dance 
 
Mrs. Hutchinson to Her Children 19 
 
 admirably well^ but neither in youth nor riper years made 
 any practice of it; he had skill in fencings such as became a 
 gentleman ; he had a great love of music^ and often diverted 
 himself with a viol^ on which he played masterly; and he 
 had an exact ear and judgment in other music; he shot 
 excellently in bows and guns^ and much used them for his 
 exercise; he had great judgment in paintings^ graving, 
 sculpture, and all liberal arts, and had many curiosities of 
 value in all kinds; he took great delight in perspective 
 glasses, and for his other rarities was not so much affected 
 with the antiquity as the merit of the work; he took much 
 pleasure in improvement of grounds, in planting groves, and 
 walks, and fruit-trees, in opening springs and making fish- 
 ponds; of country recreations he loved none but hawking, 
 and in that was very eager and much delighted for the time 
 he used it, but soon left it off; he was wonderfully neat, 
 cleanly, and genteel in his habit, and had a very good fancy 
 in it, but he left off very early the wearing of anything that 
 was costly, yet in his plainest negligent habit appeared very 
 much a gentleman; he had more address than force of body, 
 yet the courage of his soul so supplied his members that he 
 never wanted strength when he found occasion to employ it; 
 his conversation was very pleasant, for he was naturally 
 cheerful, had a ready wit and apprehension ; he was eager in 
 everything he did, earnest in dispute, but withal very rational, 
 so that he was seldom overcome; everything that it was 
 necessary for him to do he did with delight, free and uncon- 
 strained; he hated ceremonious compliment, but yet had a 
 natural civility and complaisance to all people ; he was of a 
 tender constitution, but through the vivacity of his spirit 
 could undergo labours, watchings, and journeys, as well as 
 any of stronger compositions; he was rheumatic, and had a 
 long sickness and distemper occasioned thereby, two or three 
 years after the war ended, but else, for the latter half of his 
 life, was healthy though tender; in his youth and childhood 
 he was sickly, much troubled with weakness and toothaches, 
 but then his spirits carried him through them; he was very 
 patient under sickness or pain, or any common accidents, 
 but yet, upon occasions, though never without just ones, he 
 would be very angry, and had even in that such a grace as 
 made him to be feared, yet he was never outrageous in 
 passion; he had a very good faculty in persuading, and 
 
20 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 would speak very well^ pertinently^ and effectually without 
 premeditation upon the greatest occasions that could be 
 offered^ for indeed^ his judgment was so nice, that he could 
 never frame any speech beforehand to please himself; but 
 his invention was so ready, and wisdom so habitual in all 
 his speeches, that he never had reason to repent himself of 
 speaking at any time without ranking the words beforehand ; 
 he was not talkative, yet free of discourse; of a very spare 
 diet, not given to sleep, and an early riser when in health; 
 he never was at any time idle, and hated to see any one else 
 so; in all his natural and ordinary inclinations and com- 
 posure, there was something extraordinary and tending to 
 virtue, beyond what I can describe, or can be gathered from 
 a bare dead description ; there was a life of spirit and power 
 in him that is not to be found in any copy drawn from him. 
 To sum up, therefore, all that can be said of his outward 
 frame and disposition, we must truly conclude, that it was a 
 very handsome and well furnished lodging prepared for the 
 reception of that prince, who in the administration of all 
 excellent virtues reigned there a while, till he was called back 
 to the palace of the universal emperor. 
 
 HIS VIRTUES 
 
 To number his virtues is to give the epitome of his life, 
 which was nothing else but a progress from one degree of 
 virtue to another, till in a short time he arrived to that 
 height which many longer lives could never reach; and had 
 I but the power of rightly disposing and relating them, his 
 single example would be more instructive than all the rules 
 of the best moralists, for his practice was of a more divine 
 extraction, drawn from the word of God, and wrought up by 
 the assistance of his Spirit; therefore in the head of all his 
 virtues I shall set that which was the head and spring of them 
 all, his Christianity — for this alone is the true royal blood 
 that runs through the whole body of virtue, and every pre- 
 tender to that glorious family, who hath no tincture of it, is 
 an impostor and a spurious brat. This is that sacred foun- 
 tain which baptiseth all the gentle virtues that so immor- 
 talise the names of Cicero, Plutarch, Seneca, and all the old 
 philosophers; herein they are regenerated, and take a new 
 
Mrs. Hutchinson to Her Children 21 
 
 name and nature. Dug up in the wilderness of nature, and 
 dipped in this living spring, they are planted and flourish in 
 the paradise of God. 
 
 By Christianity I intend that universal habit of grace 
 which is wrought in a soul by the regenerating Spirit of God, 
 whereby the whole creature is resigned up into the divine 
 will and love, and all its actions directed to the obedience and 
 glory of its Maker. As soon as he had improved his natural 
 understanding with the acquisition of learning, the first 
 studies in which he exercised himself were the principles of 
 religion, and the first knowledge he laboured for was a know- 
 ledge of God, which by a diligent examination of the Scrip- 
 ture, and the several doctrines of great men pretending that 
 ground, he at length obtained. Afterwards, when he had 
 laid a sure and orthodox foundation in the doctrine of the 
 free grace of God given us by Jesus Christ, he began to survey 
 the superstructures, and to discover much of the hay and 
 stubble of men’s inventions in God’s worship, which his spirit 
 burned up in the day of their trial. His faith being estab- 
 lished in the truth, he was full of love to God and all his 
 saints.^ He hated persecution for religion, and was always 
 a champion for all religious people against all their great 
 oppressors. He detested all scoffs at any practice of worship, 
 though such a one as he was not persuaded of it. Whatever 
 he practised in religion was neither for faction nor advantage, 
 but contrary to it, and purely for conscience’ sake. As he 
 hated outsides in religion, so could he worse endure those 
 apostacies and those denials of the Lord and base compli- 
 ances of his adversaries, which timorous men practise under 
 the name of prudent and just condescensions to avoid perse- 
 cution. Christianity being in him as the fountain of all his 
 virtues, and diffusing itself in every stream, that of his 
 prudence falls into the next mention. He from a child was 
 wise, and sought to by many that might have been his fathers 
 for counsel, which he could excellently give to himself and 
 others; and whatever cross event in any of his affairs may 
 give occasion to fools to overlook the wisdom of the design, 
 yet he had as great a foresight, as strong a judgment, as 
 clear an apprehension of men and things as any man. He 
 had rather a firm impression than a great memory, yet he 
 
 1 Saints. An expression commonly used in that time to signify good 
 and religious people. 
 
2 2 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 was forgetful of nothing but injuries. His own integrity 
 made him credulous of other men’s^ till reason and experience 
 convinced him; and he was as unapt to believe cautions 
 which could not be received without entertaining ill opinions 
 of men ; yet he had wisdom enough never to commit himself 
 to a traitor^ though he was once wickedly betrayed by friends 
 whom necessity and not mistake forced him to trust.^ He 
 was as ready to hear as to give counsel^ and never pertina- 
 cious in his will when his reason was convinced. There was 
 no opinion which he was most settled in, either concerning 
 divine or human things, but he would patiently and impar- 
 tially hear it debated. In matters of faith his reason always 
 submitted to the Word of God, and what he could not com- 
 prehend, he would believe because it was written ; but in all 
 other things, the greatest names in the world could never 
 lead him without reason: he would deliberate when there 
 was time, but never, by tedious dispute, lost an opportunity 
 of anything that was to be done. He would hear as well as 
 speak, and yet never spoke impertinently or unseasonably. 
 He very well understood his own advantages, natural parts, 
 gifts, and acquirements, yet so as neither to glory of them to 
 others, nor overvalue himself for them ; for he had an excel- 
 lent virtuous modesty, which shut out all vanity of mind, 
 and yet admitted that true understanding of himself which 
 was requisite for the best improvement of all his talents. 
 He no less understood and was more heedful to remark his 
 defects, imperfections, and disadvantages, but that too only 
 to excite his circumspection concerning them, not to damp 
 his spirit in any noble enterprise. He had a noble spirit of 
 government, both in civil, military, and domestic adminis- 
 trations, which forced even from unwilling subjects a love and 
 reverence of him, and endeared him to the souls of those who 
 rejoiced to be governed by him. He had a native majesty 
 that struck an awe of him into the hearts of men, and a sweet 
 greatness that commanded love. He had a clear discerning 
 of men’s spirits, and knew how to give every one their just 
 weight. He contemned none that were not wicked, in what- 
 ever low degree of nature or fortune they were otherwise: 
 
 ^ It is not known what peculiar transaction this refers to, though it 
 may be conjectured to refer to the false protestations of Monk and Sir 
 Ashley Cooper at the Restoration ; whom he and many others trusted 
 much against their will. 
 
Mrs, Hutchinson to Her Children 23 
 
 wherever he saw wisdom, learning, or other virtues in men, 
 he honoured them highly, and admired them to their full 
 rate, but never gave himself blindly up to the conduct of the 
 greatest master. Love itself, which was as powerful in his 
 as in any soul, rather quickened than blinded the eyes of his 
 judgment in discerning the imperfections of those that were 
 most dear to him. His soul ever reigned as king in the 
 internal throne, and never was captive to his sense; religion 
 and reason, its two favoured counsellors, took order that all 
 the passions kept within their own just bounds, did him good 
 service there, and furthered the public weal. He found such 
 felicity in that proportion of wisdom that he enjoyed, as he 
 was a great lover of that which advanced it — learning and 
 the arts; which he not only honoured in others, but had by 
 his industry arrived to be himself a far greater scholar than 
 is absolutely requisite for a gentleman. He had many excel- 
 lent attainments, but he no less evidenced his wisdom in 
 knowing how to rank and use them, than in gaining them. 
 He had wit enough to have been subtle and cunning, but he 
 so abhorred dissimulation that I cannot say he was either. 
 Greatness of courage would not suffer him to put on a vizor, 
 to secure him from any; to retire into the shadow of privacy 
 and silence was all his prudence could effect in him. It will 
 be as hard to say which was the predominant virtue in him, 
 as which is so in its own nature. He was as excellent in 
 justice as in wisdom; nor could the greatest advantage, or 
 the greatest danger, or the dearest interest or friend in the 
 world, prevail on him to pervert justice even to an enemy. 
 He never professed the thing he intended not, nor promised 
 what he believed out of his own power, nor failed the per- 
 formance of anything that was in his power to fulfil. Never 
 fearing anything he could suffer for the truth, he never at 
 any time would refrain a true or give a false witness; he 
 loved truth so much that he hated even sportive lies and 
 gulleries. He was so just to his own honour that he many 
 times forbore things lawful and delightful to him, rather than 
 he would give any one occasion of scandal. Of all lies he 
 most hated hypocrisy in religion; either to comply with 
 changing governments or persons, without a real persuasion 
 of conscience, or to practise holy things to get the applause 
 of men or any advantage. As in religion so in friendship, he 
 never professed love when he had it not, nor disguised hate 
 
24 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 or aversion, which indeed he never had to any party or person, 
 but to their sins : and he loved even his bitterest enemies so 
 well, that I am witness how his soul mourned for them, and 
 how heartily he desired their conversion. If he were de- 
 fective in any part of justice, it was when it was in his power 
 to punish those who had injured him; whom I have so often 
 known him to recompense with favours instead of revenge, 
 that his friends used to tell him, if they had any occasion to 
 make him favourably partial to them, they would provoke 
 him by an injury. He was as faithful and constant to his 
 friends as merciful to his enemies : nothing grieved him more 
 than to be obliged where he could not hope to return it. He 
 that was a rock to all assaults of might and violence, was the 
 gentlest, easiest soul to kindness, of which the least warm 
 spark melted him into anything that was not sinful. There 
 never was a man more exactly just in the performance of 
 duties to all relations and all persons. Honour, obedience, 
 and love to his father, were so natural and so lasting in him, 
 that it is impossible to imagine a better son than he was ; and 
 whoever would pray for a blessing in children to any one, 
 could but wish them such a son as he.^ He never repined at 
 his father’s will in anything, how much soever it were to his 
 prejudice, nor would endure to hear any one say his father 
 was not so kind to him as he might have been; but to his 
 dying day preserved his father’s memory with such tender 
 affection and reverence as was admirable, and had that high 
 regard for his mother-in-law and the children she brought his 
 father, that he could not have been more dearly concerned 
 in all their interest if she had been his own mother — which, 
 all things considered, although they were deserving persons, 
 was an example of piety and goodness that will not easily be 
 matched. For conjugal affection to his wife, it was such in 
 him, as whosoever would draw out a rule of honour, kindness, 
 and religion, to be practised in that estate, need no more, but 
 exactly draw out his example; never man had a greater 
 passion for a woman, nor a more honourable esteem of a wife; 
 yet he was not uxorious, nor remitted he that just rule which 
 it was her honour to obey, but managed the reins of govern- 
 ment with such prudence and affection that she who would 
 not delight in such an honourable and advantageable sub- 
 
 ^ This we shall find called in question by his mother-in-law, and will 
 be discussed in the course of the history. 
 
Mrs. Hutchinson to Her Children 25 
 
 jection, must have wanted a reasonable soul. He governed 
 by persuasion^ which he never employed but to things 
 honourable and profitable for herself ; he loved her soul and 
 her honour more than her outside^ and yet he had even for 
 her person a constant indulgence, exceeding the common 
 temporary passions of the most uxorious fools. If he es- 
 teemed her at a higher rate than she in herself could have 
 deserved, he was the author of that virtue he doted on, 
 while she only reflected his own glories upon him; all that 
 she was, was him, while he was here, and all that she is now 
 at best is but his pale shade. So liberal was he to her, and 
 of so generous a temper, that he hated the mention of severed 
 purses; his estate being so much at her disposal, that he 
 never would receive an account of anything she expended; 
 so constant was he in his love, that when she ceased to be 
 }mung and lovely, he began to show most fondness ; he loved 
 her at such a kind and generous rate as words cannot express ; 
 yet even this, which was the highest love he or any man 
 could have, was yet bounded by a superior, he loved her in 
 the Lord as his fellow-creature, not his idol, but in such a 
 manner as showed that an affection, bounded in the just rules 
 of duty, far exceeds every way all the irregular passions in 
 the world. He loved God above her, and all the other dear 
 pledges of his heart, and at his command and for his glory 
 cheerfully resigned them. He was as kind a father, as dear 
 a brother, as good a master, and as faithful a friend as the 
 world had, yet in all these relations, the greatest indulgence 
 he could have in the world never prevailed on him to indulge 
 vice in the dearest person ; but. the more dear any were to 
 him, the more was he offended at anything that might take 
 off the lustre of their glory. As he had great severity against 
 errors and follies pertinaciously pursued, so had he the most 
 merciful, gentle, and compassionate frame of spirit that can 
 be imagined to those who became sensible of their errors and 
 frailties, although they had been ever so injurious to himself. 
 
 Nor was his soul less shining in honour than in love. 
 Piety being still the bond of all his other virtues, there was 
 nothing he durst not do or suffer, but sin against God; and 
 therefore, as he never regarded his life in any noble and just 
 enterprise, so he never staked it in any rash or unwarrantable 
 hazard. He was never surprised, amazed, nor confounded, 
 with great difficulties or dangers, which rather served to ani- 
 
26 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 mate than distract his spirits; he had made up his accounts 
 with life and death, and fixed his purpose to entertain both 
 honourably, so that no accident ever dismayed him, but he 
 rather rejoiced in such troublesome conflicts as might sig- 
 nalise his generosity. A truer or more lively valour there 
 never was in any man, but in all his actions it ever marched 
 in the same file with wisdom. He understood well, and as 
 well performed when he undertook it, the military art in all 
 parts of it ; he naturally loved the employment, as it suited 
 with his active temper more than any, conceiving a mutual 
 delight in leading those men that loved his conduct; and 
 when he commanded soldiers, never was man more loved and 
 reverenced by all that were under him; for he would never 
 condescend to them in anything they mutinously sought, nor 
 suffer them to seek what it was fit for him to provide, but 
 prevented them by his loving care; and while he exercised 
 his authority no way but in keeping them to their just duty, 
 they joyed as much in his commands as he in their obedience. 
 He was very liberal to them, but ever chose just times and 
 occasions to exercise it. I cannot say whether he were more 
 truly magnanimous or less proud; he never disdained the 
 meanest person, nor flattered the greatest; he had a loving 
 and sweet courtesy to the poorest, and would often employ 
 many spare hours with the commonest soldiers and poorest 
 labourers, but still so ordering his familiarity as it never 
 raised them to a contempt, but entertained still at the same 
 time a reverence with love of him ; he ever preserved himself 
 in his own rank, neither being proud of it so as to despise any 
 inferior, nor letting fall that just decorum which his honour 
 obliged him to keep up. He was as far from envy of superiors 
 as from contemning them that were under him ; he was above 
 the ambition of vain titles, and so well contented with the 
 even ground of a gentleman, that no invitation could have 
 prevailed upon him to advance one step that way ; he loved 
 substantial not airy honour. As he was above seeking or 
 delighting in empty titles for himself, so he neither denied nor 
 envied any man’s due precedency, but pitied those that took 
 a glory in that which had no foundation of virtue. As little 
 did he seek after popular applause, or pride himself in it, if 
 at any time it cried up his just deserts; he more delighted 
 to do well than to be praised, and never set vulgar com- 
 mendations at such a rate, as to act contrary to his own 
 
Mrs. Hutchinson to Her Children 27 
 
 conscience or reason for the obtaining them ; nor would he 
 forbear a good action which he was bound to^ though all the 
 world disliked it, for he ever looked on things as they were 
 in themselves, not through the dim spectacles of vulgar esti- 
 mation. As he was far from a vain affectation of popularity, 
 so he never neglected that just care that an honest man ought 
 to have of his reputation, and was as careful to avoid the 
 appearances of evil as evil itself; but if he were evil spoken 
 of for truth or righteousness’ sake, he rejoiced in taking up 
 the reproach; which all good men that dare bear their testi- 
 mony against an evil generation must suffer. Though his 
 zeal for truth and virtue caused the wicked, with the sharp 
 edges of their malicious tongues, to shave off the glories from 
 his head, yet his honour springing from the fast root of virtue, 
 did but grow the thicker and more beautiful for all their en- 
 deavours to cut it off.^ He was as free from avarice as from 
 ambition and pride. Never had any man a more contented 
 and thankful heart for the estate that God had given, but it 
 was a very narrow compass for the exercise of his great heart. 
 He loved hospitality as much as he hated riot ; he could con- 
 tentedly be without things beyond his reach, though he took 
 very much pleasure in all those noble delights that exceeded 
 not his faculties. In those things that were of mere pleasure, 
 he loved not to aim at that he could not attain; he would 
 rather wear clothes absolutely plain, than pretend to gal- 
 lantry; and would rather choose to have none than mean 
 jewels or pictures, and such other things as were not of abso- 
 lute necessity. He would rather give nothing than a base 
 reward or present, and upon that score he lived very much 
 retired, though his nature was very sociable, and delighted in 
 going into and receiving company ; because his fortune would 
 not allow him to do it in such a noble manner as suited with 
 his mind. He was so truly magnanimous, that prosperity 
 could never lift him up in the least, nor give him any tincture 
 of pride or vain-glory, nor diminish a general affability, 
 courtesy, and civility, that he always showed to all persons. 
 When he was most exalted, he was most merciful and com- 
 passionate to those that were humbled. At the same time 
 that he vanquished any enemy, he cast away all his ill-will to 
 him, and entertained thoughts of love and kindness as soon 
 as he ceased to be in a posture of opposition. He was as far 
 
 ^ Samson and Delilah. 
 
2 8 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 from meanness as from pride^ as truly generous as humble^ 
 and showed his noble spirit more in adversity than in his 
 prosperous condition; he vanquished all the spite of his 
 enemies by his manly sufferings and all the contempts they 
 could cast at him were their shame not his. 
 
 His whole life was the rule of temperance in meat^ drink^ 
 apparel, pleasure, and all those things that may be lawfully 
 enjoyed; and herein his temperance was more excellent than 
 in others, in whom it is not so much a virtue, but proceeds 
 from want of appetite or gust of pleasure; in him it was a 
 true, wise, and religious government of the desire and delight 
 he took in the things he enjoyed. He had a certain activity 
 of spirit which could never endure idleness either in himself 
 or others, and that made him eager, for the time he indulged 
 it, as well in pleasure as in business ; indeed, though in youth 
 he exercised innocent sports a little while, yet afterwards his 
 business was his pleasure. But how intent soever he were in 
 anything, how much soever it delighted him, he could freely 
 and easily cast it away when God called him to something 
 else. He had as much modesty as could consist with a true 
 virtuous assurance, and hated an impudent person. Neither 
 in youth nor riper age could the most fair or enticing women 
 ever draw him into unnecessary familiarity or vain converse 
 or dalliance with them, yet he despised nothing of the female 
 sex but their follies and vanities; wise and virtuous women 
 he loved, and delighted in all pure, holy, and unblamable 
 conversation with them, but so as never to excite scandal or 
 temptation. Scurrilous discourse even among men he ab- 
 horred; and though he sometimes took pleasure in wit and 
 mirth, yet that which was mixed with impurity he never 
 would endure. The heat of his youth a little inclined him 
 to the passion of anger, and the goodness of his nature to 
 those of love and grief, but reason was never dethroned by 
 them, but continued governor and moderator in his soul.^ 
 
 ^ In this place Mrs. Hutchinson has written, “ All this and more is 
 true, but I so much dislike the manner of relating it, that I will make 
 another essay.” And accordingly she proceeds to write his character 
 over again, but it has the appearance of being much more laboured, and 
 much less characteristic, and therefore the former is preferred. 
 
 At the same place is written: “ This book was written by Lucy, the 
 widow and relict of Col. John Hutchinson, of Owthorpe.” J.H. 
 
 (Julius Hutchinson, grandfather of the Editor.) 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE OF JOHN HUTCHINSON 
 
 OF OWTHORPE, IN THE COUNTY OF NOTTINGHAM, ESQUIRE 
 
 He was the eldest surviving son of Sir Thomas Hutchinson, 
 and the Lady Margaret, his first wife, one of the daughters 
 of Sir John Biron, of Newstead, in the same county, two 
 persons so eminently virtuous and pious in their generations, 
 that to descend from them was to set up in the world upon 
 a good stock of honour, which obliged their posterity to im- 
 prove it, as much as it was their privilege to inherit their 
 parents’ glories. Sir Thomas was he that removed his dwell- 
 ing to Owthorpe ; his father, though he was possessor of that 
 lordship, having dwelt at Cropwell, another town, within 
 two miles of which he had an inheritance, which, if I mistake 
 not, was the place where those of the family that began to 
 settle the name in this county, first fixed their habitation. 
 The family for many generations past have been of good 
 repute in Yorkshire, and there is yet a gentleman in that 
 county, descendant of the elder house, that possesses a fair 
 estate and reputation in his father’s ancient inheritance.^ 
 They have been in Nottinghamshire for generations ; wherein 
 I observe that as if there had been an Agrarian law in the 
 family, as soon as they arrived to any considerable fortune 
 beyond his who was first transplanted hither, they began 
 other houses, of which one is soon decayed and worn out 
 in an unworthy branch, (he of Basford,) another began to 
 flourish, and long may it prosper.^ It is further observable 
 in their descent that though none of them before Sir Thomas 
 Hutchinson advanced beyond an esquire, yet they succes- 
 sively matched into all the most eminent and noble families 
 
 ^ At Wykeham Abbey, in the county of York, where it is believed 
 they still reside. 
 
 ^ It stood only two generations ; the last possessor, who was the great 
 grandson of Sir Thomas Hutchinson, directing by his will the estate to 
 be sold, and the produce given to strangers. 
 
 29 
 
30 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 in the country; which shows that it was the unambitious 
 genius of the family rather than their want of merits which 
 made them keep upon so even a ground^ after their first 
 achievements had set them on a stage elevated enough from 
 the vulgar, to perform any honourable and virtuous actions. 
 I spoke with one old man who had known five generations of 
 them in these parts, where their hospitality, their love to 
 their country, their plain and honest conversation with all 
 men, their generous and unambitious inclinations, had made 
 the family continue as well beloved and reputed as any of 
 the prouder houses in the country.^ Although they changed 
 not their titles, yet every succession increased the real honour 
 of their house. One disadvantage they had, that few of them 
 were so long lived as to prevent their sons from the bondage 
 of wardship, whereby they fell into the hands of wicked 
 guardians, that defaced instead of cultivating their seats, and 
 made every heir a new planter. Sir Thomas Hutchinson, as 
 I have heard, was not above eight years of age when his 
 father died, and his wardship fell into the hands of an un- 
 worthy person. Sir Germaine Poole, who did him so many 
 injuries, that he was fain, after he came of age, to have suits 
 with him. This so raised the malice of the wicked man that 
 he watched an opportunity to assassinate him unawares, and 
 as Sir Thomas was landing out of a boat at the Temple stairs 
 in London, Poole having on a private coat, with some wicked 
 assistants, before he was aware, gave him some cuts on the 
 head and his left hand that was upon the boat; but he full 
 of courage drew his sword, run at Poole and broke his weapon, 
 which could not enter his false armour; whereupon he run in 
 to him, resolved not to be murdered without leaving some 
 mark on the villain, and bit off his nose; and then, by the 
 assistance God sent him of an honest waterman, being 
 rescued, he was carried away so sorely wounded that his life 
 was in some danger: but the fact being made public, his 
 honourable carriage in it procured him a great deal of glory, 
 and his adversary carried the mark of his shame to the grave.^ 
 
 ^ Sir Thomas Hutchinson’s son and grandson fell no way short of 
 him in this. 
 
 ^ This is a singular tale, and savours almost too much of the ridicu- 
 lous for the gravity of an historian: however Rushworth recites a 
 story of this same man not a little resembling it, in the appendix to his 
 2nd vol. “ Sir German Poole vowed revenge against a Mr. Bright- 
 house, shot two pistols at him out of a window, set two servants on 
 
His Father 
 
 31 
 
 After this^ returning into the country, he there lived with 
 very much love, honour, and repute ; but having been tossed 
 up and down in his youth, and interrupted in his studies, 
 he grew into such an excessive humour for books, that 
 he wholly addicted himself to them; and deeply engaging 
 in school divinity, spent even his hours of meat and sleep 
 among his books, with such eagerness, that though he himself 
 attained a high reputation of learning thereby, and indeed a 
 great improvement in wisdom and piety, yet he too much 
 deprived his dear friends and relations of his conversation. 
 When he was entered into this studious life, God took from 
 him his dear wife, who left him only two weak children ; and 
 then being extremely afflicted for so deplorable a loss, he 
 entertained his melancholy among the old fathers and school- 
 men, instead of diverting it; and having furnished himself 
 with the choicest library in that part of England, it drew to 
 him all the learned and religious men thereabouts, who found 
 better resolutions from him than from any of his books. 
 Living constantly in the country, he could not be exempted 
 from administering justice among them, which he did with 
 such equity and wisdom, and was such a defender of the 
 country’s interest, that, without affecting it at all, he grew 
 the most popular and most beloved man in the country, even 
 to the envy of those prouder great ones that despised the 
 common interest. What others sought, he could not shun, 
 being still sought by the whole country, to be their repre- 
 sentative, to which he was several times elected,^ and ever 
 faithful to his trust and his country’s interest, though never 
 approving violence and faction. He was a man of a most 
 moderate and wise spirit, but still so inclined to favour the 
 oppressed saints and honest people of those times, that, 
 though he conformed to the government, the licentious and 
 profane encroachers upon common native rights branded 
 him with the reproach of the world, though the glory of good 
 
 him with swords, who ran him through the cloak between the arm and 
 body, but killed him not, he defending himself effectually till Sir 
 German came on, who wounded him, and for which he and another 
 were committed to the Fleet, fined £1100 etc.” This does not seem to 
 have cured him; perhaps the mark set on him by Sir Thomas H. suc- 
 ceeded better. Did Charles the Second take the hint from this when 
 he set assassins to slit Mr. Coventry’s nose, which caused the Coventry 
 act to pass? 
 
 ^ He was omitted only in that parliament which was chosen at a 
 time when he and other patriots were imprisoned to prevent their 
 being re-elected. See note, page 38. 
 
32 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 men — Puritanism; yet notwithstanding he continued con- 
 stant to the best interest^ and died at London in the year 
 1643^ a sitting member of that glorious Parliament that so 
 generously attempted, and had almost effected, England’s 
 perfect liberty. He was a person of great beauty and come- 
 liness in all ages,^ of a bounteous and noble nature, of clear 
 courage, sweet and affable conversation, of a public spirit, 
 of great prudence and reputation, a true lover of all pious 
 learned persons, and no less of honest plain people ; of a most 
 tender conscience, and therefore declaring much for and 
 endeavouring moderation, if it had been possible in the 
 beginning of our wars that the greatest wisdom could have 
 cast on any drops of healing counsel, to have allayed the 
 furious rage of both parties. Though never man was a 
 deeper nor truer mourner than he for his first wife, yet that 
 long dropping grief did but soften his heart for the impression 
 of a second love, which he conceived for a very honourable 
 and beautiful lady, who was Katherine, the youngest daughter 
 of Sir John Stanhope, of Elvaston, a noble family in Derby- 
 shire, by whom he had a son and two daughters surviving 
 him, not unworthy of their family. 
 
 Mr. John Hutchinson, the eldest of his surviving sons, by 
 his first wife, was born at Nottingham in the month of Sep- 
 tember, in the year 1616. That year there had been a great 
 drought, by reason of which the country would not afford 
 his father any provision for his stables, so that he was forced 
 to remove from Owthorpe to winter in the town of Notting- 
 ham, somewhat before his lady’s time of account. She being 
 in the coach on her way thither, and seeing her husband in 
 some danger by reason of a mettled horse he rode upon, took 
 a fright, and was brought to bed the next day, as they 
 imagined some three weeks before her time, and they were 
 confirmed in that opinion by the weakness of the child, which 
 continued all his infancy. When he was born there was an 
 elder brother in the family, but he died a child. Two years 
 
 ^ His picture remained at Owthorpe, and very well justified this de- 
 scription, and is now in the editor’s possession in high preservation. 
 For the bounty and nobleness of his nature take this instance from 
 Thoroton’s History of Notts. “ Henry Sacheverell, Esq., being dis- 
 satisfied with his only daughter for an improper marriage, left the 
 whole estate at Ratcliff upon Soar to Sir Thomas Hutchinson, his 
 sister’s son, who willingly divided it with the disinherited lady.” His 
 moiety came afterwards to Alderman Ireton, being sacrificed to him 
 through necessity by Col. Hutchinson, as will hereafter be shown. 
 
His Mother 
 
 33 
 
 and a half after this Mr. George Hutchinson, his younger 
 brother, was born at Owthorpe; and half a year after his 
 birth the two children lost their mother, who died of a cold 
 she had taken, and was buried at Owthorpe. She was a lady 
 of as noble a family as any in the county, of an incomparable 
 shape and beauty, embellished with the best education those 
 days afforded; and above all had such a generous virtue 
 joined with attractive sweetness, that she captivated the 
 hearts of all that knew her. She was pious, liberal, courte- 
 ous, patient, kind above an ordinary degree, ingenuous to all 
 things she would apply herself to ; and notwithstanding she 
 had had her education at court, was delighted in her own 
 country habitation, and managed all her family affairs better 
 than any of the homespun housewives, that had been brought 
 up to nothing else. She was a most affectionate wife, a 
 great lover of her father’s house, showing that true honour 
 to parents is the leading virtue, which seldom wants the con- 
 comitancy of all the rest of honour’s train. She was a wise 
 and bountiful mistress in her family, a blessing to her tenants 
 and neighbourhood, and had an indulgent tenderness to her 
 infants; but death veiled all her mortal glories in the 26th 
 year of her age. The stories I have received of her have 
 been but scanty epitaphs of those things which were worthy 
 of a large chronicle, and a better recorder than I can be ; I 
 shall therefore draw again the sable curtain before that 
 image which I have ventured to look at a little, but dare not 
 undertake to discover to others. One that was present at 
 her death told me that she had an admirable voice, and skill 
 to manage it; and that she went away singing a psalm, 
 which this maid apprehended she sung with so much more 
 than usual sweetness, as if her soul had already ascended 
 into the celestial choir. 
 
 There is a story of her father and mother so memorable 
 that though it be not altogether pertinent to their grand- 
 child’s affairs, which I only intend to record, yet I shall here 
 put it in, since the third generation, for whom I make this 
 collection, is not altogether unconcerned in the great grand- 
 father. He (the great grandfather) was not the eldest son of 
 his father Sir John Biron, but he had an elder brother who 
 had married a private gentleman’s daughter in the country, 
 and so displeased his father in that match, that he intended 
 an equal part of his estate to this Sir John Biron, his younger 
 
 B 
 
34 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 son^ and thereupon married him to a young lady who was 
 one of the daughters of my lord Fitzwilliam, that had been 
 deputy of Ireland in the reign of Queen Elizabeth^ and lived 
 as a prince in that country.^ This daughter of his having an 
 honourable aspiring to all things excellent^ and being assisted 
 by the great education her father gave her^ attained to a high 
 degree of learning and language^ and to such an excellency 
 in music and poetry^ that she made rare compositions in both 
 kinds; and there was not any of those extraordinary qualities, 
 which are therefore more glorious because more rare in the 
 female sex, but she was excellent in them: and besides all 
 these ornaments of soul, she had a body of as admirable a 
 form and beauty, which justly made her husband so infinitely 
 enamoured of her as never man was more. She could not set 
 too high a value on herself if she compared herself with other 
 women of those times ; yet it was an alloy to her glories that 
 she was a little grieved that a less woman, the elder brother’s 
 wife, was superior to her in regard of her husband, though 
 inferior in regard of her birth and person ; but that grief was 
 soon removed by a sad accident. That marriage wherein the 
 father had not been obeyed was fruitless, and the young 
 gentleman himself being given to youthful vanity, as he was 
 one day to go out a hunting with his father, had commanded 
 something to be put under the saddle of a young serving man, 
 that was to go out with them, to make sport at his affright 
 when his horse should prove unquiet. The thing succeeded 
 as it was designed, and made them such sport, that the young 
 gentleman, in the passion of laughter, died, and turned their 
 mirth into mourning; leaving a sad caveat by his example, 
 to take heed of hazarding men’s precious lives for a little 
 sport. The younger brother by this means became the heir 
 of the family, and was father of a numerous and hopeful 
 issue. But while the incomparable mother shined in all the 
 human glory she wished, and had the crown of all outward 
 felicity to the full, in the enjoyment of the mutual love of her 
 most beloved husband, God in one moment took it away, 
 
 ^ By mistake Mrs. Hutchinson calls him lord. The person here 
 meant was Sir William Fitzwilliam, appointed governor of Ireland 
 seven times with the different titles of Lord J ustice and Lord Deputy, 
 by that distinguishing and judicious princess. A sufficient eulogy! 
 From him descends in a direct line the present Earl Fitzwilliam. 
 Fortes creantur, fortihus et bonis. The reader will most likely find this 
 episode too beautiful and affecting to think it needs the apology the 
 writer makes. 
 
His Maternal Grandparents 35 
 
 and alienated her most excellent understanding in a difficult 
 child-birth; wherein she brought forth two daughters which 
 lived to be married^ and one more that died I think as soon 
 or before it was born.^ But after that^ all the art of the best 
 physicians in England could never restore her understanding : 
 yet she was not frantic^, but had such a pretty deliration^ that 
 her ravings were more delightful than other women’s most 
 rational conversations. Upon this occasion her husband 
 gave himself up to live retired with her^ as became her con- 
 dition^ and made haste to marry his son; which he did so 
 young that I have heard say when the first child was born^ 
 the father^ mother, and child, could not make one-and-thirty 
 years old. The daughters and the rest of the children as 
 soon as they grew up were married and dispersed. I think 
 I have heard she had some children after that child-birth 
 which distempered her, and then my lady Hutchinson must 
 have been one of them, for she was the youngest daughter, 
 and at nine years old so taking, and of such an amiable con- 
 versation, that the lady Arabella ^ would needs take her 
 from her parents, along with her to the court; where she 
 minded nothing but her lady, and grew up so intimate in all 
 her counsels, that the princess was more delighted in her than 
 in any of the women about her ; but when she (the princess) 
 was carried away from them to prison, my lady’s brother 
 fetched her home to his house. There, although his wife, a 
 most prudent and virtuous lady, laboured to comfort her 
 with all imaginable kindness, yet so constant was her friend- 
 ship to the unfortunate princess, that I have heard her 
 servants say, she would steal many melancholy hours to sit 
 and weep in remembrance of her, even after her marriage. 
 Meanwhile her parents were driving on their age, in no less 
 constancy of love to each other; for even that distemper 
 which had estranged her mind in all things else, had left her 
 love and obedience entire to her husband, and he retained the 
 same fondness and respect for her, after she was distempered, 
 as when she was the glory of her age. He had two beds in 
 
 ^ The twins here mentioned as daughters are said by Thoroton to 
 have been sons, viz. Sir John, presently herein spoken of as the brother- 
 in-law of Sir Thomas Hutchinson, and Sir Nicholas, who served Charles 
 the First with the same zeal as the rest of that family. 
 
 ^ By the lady Arabella is here meant the lady Arabella Stuart, whose 
 romantic and melancholy story is told by Rapin, vol. ii. p. 161 and 189, 
 in the reign of James the First. That mean-souled tyrant shut her up- 
 in the Tower, where she died, not without suspicion of poison. 
 
36 
 
 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 one chamber, and she being a little sick, two women watched 
 by her, some time before she died. It was his custom, as 
 soon as ever he unclosed his eyes, to ask how she did; but 
 one night, he being as they thought in a deep sleep, she 
 quietly departed towards the morning. He was that day to 
 have gone a hunting, his usual exercise for his health, and it 
 was his custom to have his chaplain pray with him before he 
 went out; and the women, fearful to surprise him with the 
 ill news, knowing his dear affection to her, had stolen out and 
 acquainted the chaplain, desiring him to inform him of it. 
 Sir John waking, did not on that day, as was his custom, ask 
 for her, but called the chaplain to prayers, and joining with 
 him, in the midst of the prayer, expired, and both of them 
 were buried together in the same grave. Whether he per- 
 ceived her death, and would not take notice, or whether some 
 strange sympathy in love or nature, tied up their lives in one, 
 or whether God was pleased to exercise an unusual provi- 
 dence towards them, preventing them both from that bitter 
 sorrow which such separations cause, it can be but conjec- 
 tured ; but the thing being not ordinary, and having received 
 it from the relation of one of his daughters and his grandchild, 
 I thought it not impertinent here to insert it. I shall now 
 proceed to our own story. 
 
 As soon as my lady Hutchinson ^ was dead, her brother. 
 Sir John Biron, came over and found the most desolate 
 afflicted widower that ever was beheld, and one of his sisters, 
 the lady Ratcliffe, who was the dear sister of the dead lady, 
 scarce alive for sorrow ; and indeed such a universal lamen- 
 tation in the house and neighbourhood, that the protraction 
 of their griefs for such a funeral as was intended her, might 
 possibly have made them all as she: Sir John therefore the 
 next morning privately, unknown to her husband, with only 
 her own family, carried her to the church, which was but the 
 next door, and interred her without further ceremony. It 
 booted not Sir Thomas to be angry at her brother’s care of 
 him; who pursued it so far, that the next day he carried 
 away Sir Thomas, lady Radcliffe, and Mr. John Hutchinson, 
 towards his own house at Bulwell, leaving Mr. George at his 
 nurse’s. But the horses of the coach being mettled, in the 
 halfway between Owthorpe and Nottingham they ran away, 
 overthrew it, and slightly hurt all that were in the coach; 
 
 ^ The mother of Col. Hutchinson, see page 33. 
 
His Childhood 
 
 37 
 
 who all got out^ one by one^ except the maid that had the 
 child in her arms, and she stayed as long as there was any 
 hope of preventing the coach from being torn to pieces: but 
 when she saw no stop could be given to the mad horses, she 
 lapped him as close as she could in the mantle, and flung him 
 as far as she could from the coach into the ploughed lands, 
 whose furrows were at that time very soft; and by the good 
 providence of God the child, reserved to a more glorious 
 death, had no apparent hurt. He was taken up and carried 
 to Bulwell, where his aunt had such a motherly tenderness 
 for him that he grew and prospered in her care. As the fresh 
 memory and excessive love they bore the mother, endeared 
 the young child to all her relations at the first ; so as he grew, 
 he discovered so much growing wisdom, agility, and pretty 
 sprightfulness, had such a natural gravity without sullenness, 
 and such sweet innocence, that every child of the family 
 loved him better than their own brothers and sisters, and 
 Sir John Biron and my lady were not half so fond of any of 
 their own. When it was time for them to go to school, both 
 the brothers were sent to board with Mr. Theobalds, the 
 master of the free school at Nottingham, who was an excellent 
 scholar; but having no children, some wealth, and a little 
 living that kept his house, he first grew lazy, and afterwards 
 left off his school. Sir Thomas then removed his sons to the 
 free school at Lincoln, where there was a master very famous 
 for learning and piety, Mr. Clarke ; but he was such a super- 
 cilious pedant, and so conceited of his own pedantic forms, 
 that he gave Mr. Hutchinson a disgust of him, and he profited 
 very little there. At this place it was that God began early 
 to exercise him with affliction and temptation; he was de- 
 prived of the attendance and care he had been used to, and 
 met with many inconveniences unsuitable to his tender and 
 nice constitution ; but this was little, for he had such discre- 
 tion in his childhood that he understood what was fit for him 
 to require, and governed wherever he lived ; for he would not 
 be denied what was reasonable, and he would not ask other 
 things. He was as a father over his brother, and having 
 some advantage of years, took upon him to be the guide of 
 his youth, yet with such love, that never were children more 
 commendable and happy in mutual affections. But it 
 pleased God to strike his brother with a sad disease, the falling 
 sickness, wherein Mr. Hutchinson most carefully attended 
 
38 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 him while he continued at Lincoln; which his father per- 
 mitted him to do, for the opportunity of Dr. Pridgeon, one 
 of the best physicians in those parts. When he had in vain 
 exercised all his art on the young gentleman, and found no 
 success in it, he advised he should return to his father’s house, 
 and be entertained with all the sports that could be found to 
 delight his mind or exercise his body. Accordingly he was 
 carried home, and had a pack of hounds, huntsmen, and 
 horses kept for him, and was something recreated, but not 
 cured thereby; till afterwards it pleased God to effect that 
 cure by a young practitioner, which the ablest physicians 
 of the country could not work. This separation from his 
 brother, to whom he had such an entire affection, considered 
 with the sad occasion of it, was a great affliction to the elder 
 brother; who remained in a place where he had little to 
 delight him, having an aversion to his austere, pedantic 
 master, increased by an opinion that his severity had been 
 the cause of his dear brother’s distemper. 
 
 The great encouragement Sir Thomas had to trust his sons 
 in this town was, because at that time a gentleman inhabited 
 it who had married his uncle’s widow, and had been his 
 fellow-sufferer in a confinement in Kent, when King Charles 
 the First had broken up a parliament to the disgust of the 
 people, and durst not trust those gentlemen that had been 
 most faithful defenders of their country’s interest, to return 
 for some time to their own counties, for which they served.^ 
 Of these worthy patriots. Sir Thomas Flutchinson and Sir 
 Thomas Grantham, the gentleman of whom I am speaking, 
 were confined from Nottingham and Lincolnshire to the house 
 of one Sir Adam Newton in Kent; the good father little think- 
 ing then, that in that fatal country his son should suffer an 
 imprisonment upon the same account, to the destruction of 
 his life and family. Sir Thomas Grantham was a gentleman 
 of great repute in his country, and kept up all his life the old 
 hospitality of England, having a great retinue and a noble 
 table, and a resort for all the nobility and gentry in those 
 
 ^ This piece of history is mentioned by Rapin ; Sir Thomas Grantham 
 is named, but Sir Thomas Hutchinson and many others not named. 
 It appears, in Thoroton’s History of Nottingham, edited b}" Throsby, 
 that this confinement so far answered the purpose of Charles the First, 
 that it caused another to be chosen instead of Sir Thomas Hutchinson, 
 knight of the shire; but as soon as Sir Thomas got free he was again 
 chosen, and continued to represent the county till his death. 
 
Design for His Marriage 39 
 
 parts. He had only two sons, whereof the eldest was a fine 
 gentleman, bred beyond the seas, according to the best 
 education of those times; the other was a foolish youth, 
 schoolfellow with Mr. Hutchinson, who every Saturday night 
 was fetched from school to Sir Thomas Grantham’s, and 
 returned again the Monday morning. Upon the intimate 
 friendship between Sir Thomas Hutchinson and this gentle- 
 man, Sir Thomas Hutchinson had a lodging always kept for 
 him at Lincoln, and was very often there. My Lady Gran- 
 tham had with her a very pretty young gentlewoman, whom 
 she brought with her out of Kent, the daughter of Sir Adam 
 Newton; my lady’s design was to begin an early acquaint- 
 ance, which might afterwards draw on a marriage between 
 her and Mr. Hutchinson, and it took such effect that there 
 was a great inclination in the young gentlewoman to him; 
 and there was so much good nature on his side, as amounted 
 to a mutual respect, and to such a friendship as their youth 
 was capable of, which the parents and others that wished so, 
 interpreted to be a passion of love; but if it were so, death 
 quenched the flame, and ravished the young lady from him 
 in the sweet blooming of her youth. That night she died, he 
 lay in his father’s chamber, and by accident being very sick, 
 it was imputed to that cause ; but he himself least perceived 
 he had any more of love for her than gratitude for her kind- 
 ness to him, upon which account her death was an affliction 
 to him, and made that house which had been his relief from 
 his hated school less pleasant to him ; especially when he met 
 there continual solicitations to sin by the travelled gentleman, 
 who, living in all seeming sobriety before his father, was in 
 his own chamber not only vicious himself, but full of en- 
 deavour to corrupt Mr. Hutchinson, who by the grace of God 
 resisted, and detested his frequent temptations of all kinds. 
 An advantage he had at this school was that there being 
 very many gentlemen’s sons there, an old Low-country 
 soldier was entertained to train them in arms, and they all 
 bought themselves weapons; and, instead of childish sports, 
 when they were not at their books, they were exercised in all 
 their military postures, and in assaults and defences; which 
 instruction was not useless a few years after, to some of them. 
 Colonel Thornhagh, who was now trained in this sportive 
 militia, with Colonel Hutchinson, afterwards was his fellow 
 soldier in earnest, when the great cause of God’s and 
 
40 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 England’s rights came to be disputed with swords against 
 encroaching princes. Sir Thomas Grantham dying, Mr. 
 Hutchinson was removed from Lincoln to the free-school at 
 Nottingham, where his father married a second wife, and for 
 a while went up to London with her ; leaving his son at board 
 in a very religious house, where new superstitions and Phari- 
 saical holiness, straining at gnats and swallowing camels, 
 gave him a little disgust, and was for a while a stumbling- 
 block in his way of purer profession, when he saw among 
 professors such unsuitable miscarriages. There was now a 
 change in the condition and contentment of his life; he was 
 old enough to be sensible that his father’s second love and 
 marriage to a person of such quality, as required a settlement 
 for her son, must needs be a lessening to his expectation; 
 but he was so affectionate to his father that he received it 
 very contentedly, and rejoiced in his removal, coming from 
 a supercilious pedant to a very honest man, who using him 
 with respect, advanced him more in one month than the 
 other did in a year. This tied him to no observation, and 
 restrained him from no pleasure, and needed not, for he was 
 so moderate when he was left at his liberty, that he needed 
 no regulation. The familiar kindness of his master made 
 him now begin to love that which the other’s austerity made 
 him loathe; and in a year’s time he advanced exceedingly 
 in learning, and was sent to Cambridge. He was made a 
 fellow-commoner of Peter House, under the tuition of one 
 Mr. Norwich, an admirable scholar, who by his civil de- 
 meanour to him won so much upon his good nature, that he 
 loved and reverenced him as a father, and betook himself 
 with such delight to his studies that he attained to a great 
 height of learning, performed public exercises in his college 
 with much applause, and upon their importunity took a 
 degree in the university; whereof he was at that time the 
 grace, there not being any gentleman in the town that lived 
 with such regularity in himself, and such general love and 
 good esteem of all persons as he did. He kept not company 
 with any of the vain young persons, but with the graver men, 
 and those by whose conversation he might gain improve- 
 ment. He was constant at their chapel, where he began to 
 take notice of their stretching superstition to idolatry; and 
 was courted much into a more solemn practice of it than he 
 could admit, though as yet he considered not the emptiness 
 
His Conduct at the University 41 
 
 and carnality, to say no more, of that public service which 
 was then in use. For his exercise he practised tennis, and 
 played admirably well at it; for his diversion, he chose 
 music, and got a very good hand, which afterwards he im- 
 proved to a great mastery on the viol. There were masters 
 that taught to dance and vault, whom he practised with, 
 being very agile and apt for all such becoming exercises. 
 His father stinted not his expense, which the bounty of his 
 mind made pretty large, for he was very liberal to his tutors 
 and servitors, and to the meaner officers of the house. He 
 was enticed to bow to their great idol, learning, and had a 
 higher veneration for it a long time than can strictly be 
 allowed; yet he then looked upon it as a handmaid to devo- 
 tion, and as the great improver of natural reason. His tutor 
 and the masters that governed the college while he was there, 
 were of Arminian principles, and that college was noted above 
 all for popish superstitious practices; yet through the grace 
 of God, notwithstanding the mutual kindness the whole 
 household had for him and he for them, he came away, after 
 five years’ study there, untainted with those principles or 
 practices, though not yet enlightened to discern the spring 
 of them in the rites and usages of the English church. 
 
 When he came from the university, he was about twenty 
 years of age, and returned to his father’s house, who had now 
 settled his habitation at Nottingham; but he there enjoyed 
 no great delight, another brood of children springing up in 
 the house, and the servants endeavouring with tales and 
 flatteries to sow dissension on both sides. Therefore, having 
 a great reverence for his father, and being not willing to 
 disturb him with complaints, as soon as he could obtain his 
 leave he went to London. In the meantime the best com- 
 pany the town afforded him was a gentleman of as exquisite 
 breeding and parts as England’s court ever enjoyed,. one that 
 was now married, and retired into this town; one of such 
 admirable power of language and persuasion as was not any- 
 where else to be found ; but after all this, discontents, or the 
 debaucheries of the times, had so infected him, that he would 
 not only debauch himself, but make a delight to corrupt 
 others for his sport. Some he would commend into such a 
 vain-glorious humour, that they became pleasantly ridicu- 
 lous; some he would teach apish postures, and make them 
 believe themselves rare men ; some he would encourage to be 
 
 B2 
 
42 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 poets^ and laugh at their ridiculous rhymes; some young 
 preachers he would make stage-players in their pulpits ; and 
 several ways sported himself with the follies of most of the 
 young men that he conversed with. There was not any way 
 which he left unpractised upon Mr. Hutchinson; but when 
 with all his art and industry he found he could not prevail, 
 then he turned seriously to give him such excellent advice 
 and instructions for living in the world, as were not after- 
 wards unuseful to him.^ There was besides this gentleman, 
 a young physician, who was a good scholar and had a great 
 deal of wit, but withal a professed atheist, and so proud, 
 insolent, and scurrilous a fellow, daring to abuse all persons 
 how much soever above him, that he was thrown out of 
 familiarity with the great people of the country, though his 
 excellency in his profession made him to be taken in again. 
 There was also an old man, who had been Mr. Hutchinson’s 
 first schoolmaster, a person once of great learning, but after- 
 wards becoming a cynic, yet so pleasantly maintaining that 
 kind of humour, that his conversation was sometimes a good 
 diversion. These were Mr. Hutchinson’s companions, yet, 
 through the grace of God, they had not power to infect him, 
 who, like the bee, sucked a great deal of honey from these 
 bitter flowers. At that time there was in the town a young 
 maid, beautiful, and esteemed to be very rich, but of base 
 parentage and penurious education, though else ingenuous 
 enough. She was the grandchild of an old physician, and 
 from her childhood having been acquainted with Mr. Hutchin- 
 son, who used to visit her grandmother, she had conceived a 
 kindness for him, which though he civilly resented,^ his great 
 heart could never stoop to think of marrying into so mean a 
 stock; yet by reason of some liking he showed for her com- 
 pany, and the melancholy he had, with some discontents at 
 home, she was willing to flatter herself it was love for her, 
 wherein, when she discovered her mistake, it was a great 
 grief. However, she was, without much love on either side, 
 married to an earl’s son, and both of them, wanting the 
 ground of happiness in marriage, mutual love, enjoyed but 
 
 ^ Who the first gentleman was does not appear. The physician here 
 meant is Dr. Plumtre, of whom much more will be said in this work. 
 
 Resent, in English, never used but in a bad sense; in French, 
 ressentir is used to signify a reciprocal sentiment of kindness as well as 
 unkindness. 
 
His Residence in London 
 
 43 
 
 little felicity, either in their great fortunes or in one 
 another.^ 
 
 In the house with Mr. Hutchinson there was a young 
 gentlewoman of such admirable tempting beauty, and such 
 excellent good nature, as would have thawed a rock of ice, 
 yet even she could never get an acquaintance with him. 
 Wealth and beauty thus in vain tempted him, for it was not 
 yet his time of love; but it was not far off. He was now 
 sent to London, and admitted of Lincoln’s Inn, where he was 
 soon coveted into the acquaintance of some gentlemen of the 
 house; •but he found them so frothy and so vain, and could 
 so ill centre with them in their delights, that the town began 
 to be tedious to him, who was neither taken with wine, nor 
 gaming, nor the converse of wicked or vain women; to all 
 which he wanted not powerful tempters, had not the power 
 of God’s grace in him been above them. He tried a little the 
 study of the law, but finding it unpleasant and contrary to 
 his genius, and the plague that spring beginning to drive 
 people out of the town, he began to think of leaving it, but 
 had no inclination to return home, finding his father’s heart 
 so set upon his second family, that his presence was but dis- 
 turbance: yet his father was wonderfully free and noble to 
 him in allowance, at all places, as large as any of his quality 
 had made to them; and it was very well bestowed on him, 
 who consumed nothing in vain expense, but lived to the 
 honour of his friends and family. For his diversion he exer- 
 cised himself in those qualities he had not had such good 
 opportunities for in the country, as dancing, fencing, and 
 music, wherein he had great aptness and address ; and enter- 
 taining the best tutors, was at some expense that way, and 
 loth to leave them off before he had perfected himself. How- 
 ever, many things putting him into thoughts of quitting the 
 town, while he was in deliberation how to dispose of himself, 
 and had some reflections upon travel, a cousin-german of his, 
 a French merchant, came to visit him one morning, and told 
 him he was immediately going into France, and understand- 
 
 ^ It is written in the margin by Julius Hutchinson, Esq., probably 
 from the information given him by Lady Catharine Hutchinson, that 
 this lady’s name was Martin, and the gentleman who married her Mr. 
 Pierrepont. It would not have been thought worth while to inform 
 the reader of these minute particulars in a note, but for the sake of 
 pointing out the accuracy with which Mr. J ulius Hutchinson read and 
 remarked upon this history, and the full knowledge he had of all the 
 circumstances of Colonel Hutchinson’s life. 
 
44 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 ing Mr. Hutchinson had some such inclination^ had almost 
 persuaded him to go along with him. The only obstacle in 
 the way was that his father could not be acquainted with it 
 time enough to receive his answer before they went. While 
 he was in this deliberation^ his music-master came in, to 
 whom he communicated his thoughts ; and the man told him 
 it was better to go into France at the latter end than the 
 beginning of summer, and that if he pleased, in the meantime, 
 to go to Richmond, where the Prince’s court was, he had a 
 house there, where he might be accommodated; and there 
 was very good company and recreations, the king’s® hawks 
 being kept near the place, and several other conveniences. 
 Mr. Hutchinson considering this, resolved to accept his offer ; 
 and that day telling a gentleman of the house whither he was 
 going, the gentleman bid him take heed of the place, for it 
 was so fatal for love, that never any young disengaged person 
 went thither, who returned again free. Mr. Hutchinson 
 laughed at him, but he to confirm it told him a very true 
 story of a gentleman who not long before had come for some 
 time to lodge there, and found all the people he came in com- 
 pany with, bewailing the death of a gentlewoman that had 
 lived there. Hearing her so much deplored, he made inquiry 
 after her, and grew so in love with the description that no 
 other discourse could at first please him, nor could he at last 
 endure any other; he grew desperately melancholy, and 
 would go to a mount where the print of her foot was cut, and 
 lie there pining and kissing of it all the day long, till at 
 length death, in some months’ space, concluded his languish- 
 ment. This story was very true; but Mr. Hutchinson was 
 neither easy to believe it, nor frighted at the example, think- 
 ing himself not likely to make another. He therefore went 
 to Richmond, where he found a great deal of good young 
 company, and many ingenuous persons that, by reason of the 
 court, where the young princes were bred, entertained them- 
 selves in that place, and had frequent resort to the house 
 where Mr. Hutchinson tabled. The man being a skilful com- 
 poser in music, the rest of the king’s musicians often met at 
 his house to practise new airs and prepare them for the king; 
 and divers of the gentlemen and ladies that were affected 
 with music, came thither to hear; others that were not, took 
 that pretence to entertain themselves with the company. 
 Mr. Hutchinson was soon courted into their acquaintance. 
 
Hears of Mrs. Apsley 45 
 
 and invited to their houses^ where he was nobly treated^ with 
 all the attractive arts that young women and their parents 
 use to procure them lovers; but though some of them were 
 very handsome^ others wealthy^ witty^ and well qualified, 
 and all of them set out with all the gaiety and bravery that 
 vain women put on to set themselves off, yet Mr. Hutchinson 
 could not be entangled in any of their fine snares ; but with- 
 out any taint of incivility, he in such a way of handsome 
 raillery reproved their pride and vanity, as made them 
 ashamed of their glory, and vexed that he alone, of all the 
 young gentlemen that belonged to the court or neighbour- 
 hood, should be insensible of their charms. In the same 
 house with him there was a younger daughter of Sir Allen 
 Apsley, late lieutenant of the Tower, tabled for the practice 
 of her lute, staying till the return of her mother; who was 
 gone into Wiltshire for the accomplishment of a treaty that 
 had been made some progress in, about the marriage of her 
 elder daughter with a gentleman of that country, out of 
 which my lady herself came, and where her brothers. Sir John 
 St. John and Sir Edward Hungerford, living in great honour 
 and reputation, had invited her to visit them. This gentle- 
 woman, that was left in the house with Mr. Hutchinson, was 
 a very child, her elder sister being at that time scarcely passed 
 it; but a child of such pleasantness and vivacity of spirit, 
 and ingenuity in the quality she practised, that Mr. Hutchin- 
 son took pleasure in hearing her practise, and would fall in 
 discourse with her. She having the keys of her mother’s 
 house, some half a mile distant, would sometimes ask Mr. 
 Hutchinson, when she went over, to walk along with her. 
 One day when he was there, looking upon an odd by-shelf in 
 her sister’s closet, he found a few Latin books ; asking whose 
 they were, he was told they were her elder sister’s; where- 
 upon, inquiring more after her, he began first to be sorry she 
 was gone, before he had seen her, and gone upon such an 
 account that he was not likely to see her. Then he grew to 
 love to hear mention of her, and the other gentlewomen who 
 had been her companions used to talk much to him of her, 
 telling him how reserved and studious she was, and other 
 things which they esteemed no advantage. But it so much 
 inflamed Mr. Hutchinson’s desire of seeing her, that he began 
 to wonder at himself, that his heart, which had ever enter- 
 tained so much indifference for the most excellent of woman- 
 
46 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 kind^ should have such strong impulses towards a stranger 
 he never saw; and certainly it was of the Lord (though he 
 perceived it not)^ who had ordained him, through so many 
 various providences, to be yoked with her in whom he found 
 so much satisfaction. There scarcely passed any day but 
 some accident or some discourse still kept alive his desire of 
 seeing this gentlewoman; although the mention of her, for 
 the most part, was inquiries whether she had yet accom- 
 plished the marriage that was in treaty. One day there was 
 a great deal of company at Mr. Coleman’s, the gentleman’s 
 house where he tabled, to hear the music ; and a certain song 
 was sung, which had been lately set, and gave occasion to 
 some of the company to mention an answer to it, which was 
 in the house, and upon some of their desires, read. A gentle- 
 man saying it was believed that a woman in the neighbour- 
 hood had made it, it was presently inquired who ; whereupon 
 a gentleman, then present, who had made the first song, said, 
 there were but two women that could be guilty of it, whereof 
 one was a lady then among them, the other Mrs. Apsley. Mr. 
 Hutchinson, fancying something of rationality in the sonnet 
 beyond the customary reach of a she-wit, although, to speak 
 truth, it signified very little, addressed himself to the gentle- 
 man, and told him he could scarcely believe it was a woman’s ; 
 whereupon this gentleman, who was a man of good under- 
 standing and expression, and inspired with some passion for 
 her himself, which made him regard all her perfections 
 through a multiplying-glass, told Mr. Hutchinson, that 
 though, for civility to the rest, he entitled another lady to 
 the song, yet he was confident it was Mrs. Apsley’s only, for 
 she had sense above all the rest; and fell into such high 
 praises of her, as might well have begotten those vehement 
 desires of her acquaintance, which a strange sympathy in 
 nature had before produced. Another gentleman, that sat 
 by, seconded this commendation with such additions of 
 praise as he would not have given if he had known her. Mr. 
 Hutchinson hearing all this, said to the first gentleman, I 
 cannot be at rest till this lady’s return, that I may be ac- 
 quainted with her.” The gentleman replied, ‘‘ Sir, you must 
 not expect that, for she is of a humour she will not be ac- 
 quainted with any of mankind; and however this song is 
 stolen forth, she is the nicest creature in the world of suffering 
 her perfections to be known; she shuns the converse of men 
 
Desires to See Mrs. Apsley 47 
 
 as the plague; she only lives in the enjoyment of herself, and 
 had not the humanity to communicate that happiness to any 
 of our sex.” “ Well/’ said Mr. Hutchinson, “ but I will be 
 acquainted with her: ” and indeed the information of this 
 reserved humour pleased him more than all else he had heard, 
 and filled him now with thoughts how he should attain the 
 sight and knowledge of her. While he was exercised in this, 
 many days passed not, but a footboy of my lady her mother’s 
 came to young Mrs. Apsley ^ as they were at dinner, bringing 
 news that her mother and sister would in a few days return; 
 and when they inquired of him, whether Mrs. Apsley was 
 married ; having before been instructed to make them believe 
 it, he smiled, and pulled out some bride laces, which were 
 given at a wedding, in the house where she was, and gave 
 them to the young gentlewoman and the gentleman’s 
 daughter of the house, and told them Mrs. Apsley bade him 
 tell no news, but give them those tokens, and carried the 
 matter so, that all the company believed she had been 
 married. Mr. Hutchinson immediately turned pale as ashes, 
 and felt a fainting to seize his spirits in that extraordinary 
 manner, that, finding himself ready to sink at table, he was 
 fain to pretend something had offended his stomach, and to 
 retire from the table into the garden; where the gentleman 
 of the house going with him, it was not necessary for him to 
 feign sickness, for the distemper of his mind had infected his 
 body with a cold sweat, and such a depression of spirit, that 
 all the courage he could at present collect, was little enough 
 to keep him alive. His host was very troublesome to him, 
 and to be quit of him he went to his chamber, saying he 
 would lie down. Little did any of the company suspect the 
 true cause of his sudden qualm, and they were all so troubled 
 at it, that the boy then passed without further examination. 
 When Mr. Hutchinson was alone he began to recollect his 
 wisdom and his reason, and to wonder at himself, why he 
 should be so concerned in an unknown person; he then 
 remembered the story that was told him when he came down, 
 and began to believe there was some magic in the place, 
 which enchanted men out of their right senses ; but it booted 
 him not to be angry at himself, nor to set wisdom in her 
 reproving chair, nor reason in her throne of council, the sick 
 
 ^ It was the custom at that time to call young ladies Mistress, not 
 Miss. Shakespeare calls Ann Page, Mrs. Ann. 
 
48 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 heart could not be chid nor advised into health. This anxiety 
 of mind affected him so^ that it sent him to his bed that after- 
 noon^ which indeed he took to entertain his thoughts alone 
 that nighty and having fortified himself with resolution, he 
 got up the next day; but yet could not quit himself of an 
 extravagant perplexity of soul concerning this unknown 
 gentlewoman, which had not been remarkable in another 
 light person, but in him, who was from his childhood so 
 serious and so rational in all his considerations, it was the 
 effect of a miraculous power of Providence, leading him to her 
 that was destined to make his future joy. While she so ran 
 in his thoughts, meeting the boy again, he found out, upon a 
 little stricter examination of him, that she was not married, 
 and pleased himself in the hopes of her speedy return; when 
 one day, having been invited by one of the ladies of that 
 neighbourhood to a noble treatment at Sion Garden, which 
 a courtier, that was her servant, had made for her and whom 
 she would bring, Mr. Hutchinson, Mrs. Apsley, and Mr. 
 Coleman’s daughter were of the party, and having spent the 
 day in several pleasant divertisements, at evening when they 
 were at supper, a messenger came to tell Mrs. Apsley her 
 mother was come. She would immediately have gone, but 
 Mr. Hutchinson, pretending civility to conduct her home, 
 made her stay till the supper was ended, of which he ate no 
 more, now only longing for that sight which he had with 
 such perplexity expected. This at length he obtained; but 
 his heart, being prepossessed with his own fancy, was not 
 free to discern how little there was in her to answer so great 
 an expectation. She was not ugly in a careless riding-habit, 
 she had a melancholy negligence both of herself and others, 
 as if she neither affected to please others, nor took notice of 
 anything before her; yet, in spite of all her indifference, she 
 was surprised with some unusual liking in her soul when she 
 saw this gentleman, who had hair, eyes, shape, and counten- 
 ance enough to beget love in any one at the first, and these 
 set off with a graceful and generous mien, which promised 
 an extraordinary person. He was at that time, and indeed 
 always very neatly habited, for he wore good and rich 
 clothes, and had a variety of them, and had them well suited 
 and every way answerable ; in that little thing, showing both 
 good judgment and great generosity, he equally becoming 
 them and they him, which he wore with such equal un- 
 
Acquainted with Mrs. Apsley 49 
 
 affectedness and such neatness as we do not often meet in one. 
 Although he had but an evening sight of her he had so long 
 desired^ and that at disadvantage enough for her; yet the 
 prevailing sympathy of his soul made him think all his pains 
 well paid^ and this first did whet his desire to a second sights 
 which he had by accident the next day, and to his joy found 
 that she was wholly disengaged from that treaty, which he 
 so much feared had been accomplished; he found withal, 
 that though she was modest, she was accostable, and willing 
 to entertain his acquaintance. This soon passed into a 
 mutual friendship between them, and though she innocently 
 thought nothing of love, yet was she glad to have acquired 
 such a friend, who had wisdom and virtue enough to be 
 trusted with her councils, for she was then much perplexed 
 in mind. Her mother and friends had a great desire she 
 should marry, and were displeased that she refused many 
 offers which they thought advantageous enough; she was 
 obedient, loth to displease them, but more herself, in marry- 
 ing such as she could find no inclination to. The troublesome 
 pretensions of some of the courtiers, had made her willing to 
 try whether she could bring her heart to her mother’s desire ; 
 but being, by a secret working which she then understood 
 not, averted, she was troubled to return, lest some might 
 believe it was a secret liking for them which had caused her 
 dislike for others; and being a little disturbed with these 
 things and melancholy, Mr. Hutchinson, appearing, as he 
 was, a person of virtue and honour, who might be safely and 
 advantageously conversed with, she thought God had sent 
 her a happy relief. Mr. Hutchinson, on the other side, having 
 been told, and seeing how she shunned all other men, and 
 how civilly she entertained him, believed that a secret power 
 had wrought a mutual inclination between them; and he 
 daily frequented her mother’s house, and had the opportunity 
 of conversing with her in those pleasant walks, which, at 
 that sweet season of the spring, invited all the neighbouring 
 inhabitants to seek their joys; where, though they were 
 never alone, yet they had every day opportunity for converse 
 with each other, which the rest shared not in, while every one 
 minded their own delights. 
 
 They had not six weeks enjoyed this peace, but the young 
 men and women, who saw them allow each other that kind- 
 ness which they did not afford commonly to others, first 
 
50 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 began to grow jealous and envious at it^ and afterwards to 
 use all the malicious practices they could invent to break the 
 friendship. Among the rest^ that gentleman who at the first 
 had so highly commended her to Mr. Hutchinson, now began 
 to caution him against her, and to disparage her, with such 
 subtle insinuations, as would have ruined any love less con- 
 stant and honourable than his. The women, with witty 
 spite, represented all her faults to him, which chiefly ter- 
 minated in the negligence of her dress and habit, and 
 all womanish ornaments, giving herself wholly up to study 
 and writing. Mr. Hutchinson, who had a very sharp and 
 pleasant wit, retorted all their malice with such just reproofs 
 of their idleness and vanity, as made them hate her, who, 
 without affecting it, had so engaged such a person in her pro- 
 tection, as they with all their arts could not catch. He, in 
 the meanwhile, prosecuted his love with so much discretion, 
 duty, and honour, that at the length, through many diffi- 
 culties, he accomplished his design. I shall pass by all the 
 little amorous relations, which, if I would take the pains to 
 relate, would make a true history of a more handsome 
 management of love than the best romances describe; but 
 these are to be forgotten as the vanities of youth, not worthy 
 of mention among the greater transactions of his life. There 
 is this only to be recorded, that never was there a passion 
 more ardent and less idolatrous ; he loved her better than his 
 life, with inexpressible tenderness and kindness, had a most 
 high obliging esteem of her, yet still considered honour, 
 religion, and duty above her, nor ever suffered the intrusion 
 of such a dotage as should blind him from marking her im- 
 perfections ; these he looked upon with such an indulgent eye 
 as did not abate his love and esteem of her, while it augmented 
 his care to blot out all those spots which might make her 
 appear less worthy of that respect he paid her; and thus 
 indeed he soon made her more equal to him than he found 
 her; for she was a very faithful mirror, reflecting truly, 
 though but dimly, his own glories upon him, so long as he 
 was present; but she, that was nothing before his inspection 
 gave her a fair figure, when he was removed, was only filled 
 with a dark mist, and never could again take in any delight- 
 ful object, nor return any shining representation. The 
 greatest excellency she had was the power of apprehending 
 and the virtue of loving his ; so as his shadow she waited on 
 
Character of His Love 5 i 
 
 him everywhere, till he was taken into that region of light 
 which admits of none, and then she vanished into nothing. 
 It was not her face he loved, her honour and her virtue were 
 his mistresses; and these (like Pygmalion’s) images of his 
 own making, for he polished and gave form to what he found 
 with all the roughness of the quarry about it; but meeting 
 with a compliant subject for his own wise government, he 
 found as much satisfaction as he gave, and never had occasion 
 to number his marriage among his infelicities. That day 
 that the friends on both sides met to conclude the marriage, 
 she fell sick of the small pox, which was in many ways a 
 great trial upon him. First, her life was almost in desperate 
 hazard, and then the disease, for the present, made her the 
 most deformed person that could be seen, for a great while 
 after she recovered; yet he was nothing troubled at it, but 
 married her as soon as she was able to quit the chamber, 
 when the priest and all that saw her were affrighted to look 
 on her; but God recompensed his justice and constancy by 
 restoring her, though she was longer than ordinary before 
 she recovered to be as well as before. One thing is very 
 observable, and worthy imitation in him : although he had as 
 strong and violent affections for her, as ever any man had, yet 
 he declared it not to her till he had acquainted first his father; 
 and afterwards he never would make any engagement but 
 what his love and honour bound him in; wherein he was more 
 firm and just than all the promissory oaths and ties in the 
 world could have made him, notwithstanding many powerful 
 temptations of wealth and beauty, and other interests, that 
 were laid before him. For his father had concluded another 
 treaty, before he knew his son’s inclinations were this way 
 fixed, with a party in many things much more advantageous 
 for his family, and more worthy of his liking; but his father 
 was no less honourably indulgent to his son’s affection, than 
 the son was strict in the observance of his duty; and at 
 length, to the full content of all, the thing was accomplished, 
 and on the third day of July, in the year 1638, he was married 
 to Mrs. Lucy Apsley, the second daughter of Sir Allen Apsley, 
 late lieutenant of the Tower of London, at St. Andrew’s 
 church in Ilolborn. He lived some time in this neighbour- 
 hood with her mother, but four months were scarcely past 
 after their marriage before he was in great danger of losing 
 her, when she lost two children she had conceived by him. 
 
 a OF iLL L1B» 
 
52 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 Soon after conceiving again she grew so sickly^ that her 
 indulgent mother and husband^ for the advantage of her 
 healthy removed their dwelling out of the city, to a house 
 they took in Enfield Chace, called the Blue House, where, 
 upon the third of September, 1639, she was brought to bed 
 of two sons, whereof the elder he named after his own father, 
 Thomas, the younger was called Edward, who both survived 
 him. September, 1641, she brought him another son, called 
 by his own name, John, who lived scarce six years, and was 
 a very hopeful child, full of his father’s vigour and spirit, but 
 death soon nipped that blossom. 
 
 Mr. Hutchinson, after about fourteen months’ various 
 exercise of his mind, in the pursuit of his love, being now at 
 rest in the enjoyment of his wife, his next design was to draw 
 her into his own country; but he would not set upon it too 
 roughly, and therefore let her rest awhile, when he had 
 drawn her ten miles nearer it, out of the city where she had 
 her birth and education, and where all her relations were 
 most conversant, and which she could not suddenly resolve 
 to quit altogether, to betake herself to the north, which was 
 a formidable name among the London ladies. While she 
 was weaning from the friends and places she had so long 
 conversed in, Mr. Hutchinson employed his time in making 
 an entrance upon the study of school divinity, wherein his 
 father was the most eminent scholar of any gentleman in 
 England, and had a most choice library,^ valued at a thousand 
 pounds ; which Mr. Hutchinson, mistakingly expecting to be 
 part of his inheritance, thought it would be very inglorious 
 for him not to understand how to make use of his father’s 
 books. Having therefore gotten into the house with him an 
 excellent scholar in that kind of learning, he for two years 
 made it the whole employment of his time. The gentleman 
 that assisted him he converted to a right belief in that 
 great point of predestination, he having been before of the 
 Arminian judgment, till, upon the serious examination of 
 both principles, and comparing them with the Scriptures, 
 
 ^ This is spoken of in the preface, and did in fact remain at Owthorpe, 
 but probably was placed there by Charles, the son of Sir Thomas 
 Hutchinson by his second wife : it was of excessively small value when 
 taken possession of in the year 1776. 
 
 It is apparent, from Sir Thomas Hutchinson being upon all the com- 
 mittees for religion, as may be seen in Rushworth’s collection, that he 
 was in repute for this kind of knowledge. 
 
Studies Divinity 53 
 
 Mr. Hutchinson convinced him of the truth, and he grew so 
 well instructed in this principle, that he was able to maintain 
 it against any man. At that time, this great doctrine grew 
 much out of fashion with the prelates, but was generally 
 embraced by all religious and holy persons in the land. Mr. 
 Hutchinson being desirous to inform himself thoroughly of 
 it, when he was able to manage the question, offered it to his 
 father; but Sir Thomas would not declare himself on the 
 point to him, nor indeed in any other, as we conceived, lest 
 a father’s authority should sway against his children’s light, 
 who he thought ought to discern things with their own eyes, 
 and not with his. Mr. Hutchinson, taking delight in the 
 study of divinity, presently left off all foolish nice points, that 
 tended to nothing but vain brangling, and employed his 
 whole study in laying a foundation of sound and necessary 
 principles, among which he gave the first place to this of 
 God’s absolute decrees. This was so far from producing a 
 carelessness of life in him, a thing generally objected against 
 this faith, ^ that, on the other side, it excited him to a more 
 strict and holy walking in thankfulness to God, who had been 
 pleased to choose him out of the corrupted mass of lost man- 
 kind, to fix his love upon him, and give him the knowledge 
 of himself by his ever-blessed Son. This principle of love 
 and life in God, which had been given him when he discerned 
 not what it was in himself, had from a child preserved him 
 from wallowing in the mire of sin and wickedness, wherein 
 most of the gentry of those times were miserably plunged, 
 except a few, that were therefore the scorn of mankind ; and 
 there were but few of those few, that had not natural and 
 superstitious follies, that were in some kind justly ridiculous 
 and contemptible. It was a remarkable providence of God 
 
 ^ Mrs. Hutchinson, in exculpating her husband, goes no part of the 
 way towards showing that the natural tendency of this principle differs 
 from that which is objected against it, but merely that he resisted this 
 bias from another consideration. This is certainly not a suitable place 
 to discuss such a subject; and it is therefore dismissed with this 
 remark, that the partisans of the two opposite, or supposed opposite, 
 principles of predestination and free will, while they endeavour to 
 implicate each other in absurdity and irreligion, agree in practice, and, 
 guiding their actions by the best discretion they are masters of, end 
 with referring the event to Providence, and praying to God for a bless- 
 ing on their endeavours — much more rational in so doing than farther 
 exposing the weakness of human understanding by disquisitions far 
 too refined for its reach. The conduct of modern times is in this respect 
 more commendable than that of the past. 
 
54 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 in his life, that must not be passed over without special 
 notice, that he gave him these two years’ leisure, and a heart 
 so to employ it, before the noise of war and tumult came upon 
 him. Yet about the year 1639, the thunder was heard afar 
 off rattling in the troubled air, and even the most obscured 
 woods were penetrated with some flashes, the forerunners of 
 the dreadful storm which the next year was more apparent ; 
 but Mr. Hutchinson was not yet awakened till it pleased God 
 to deliver him from a danger into which he had run himself, 
 had not mercy prevented him. His wife having already two 
 sons, and being again with child, considered that it would be 
 necessary to seek an augmentation of revenue, or retire into 
 a cheaper country; and more inclining to the first, than to 
 leave at once her mother, and all the rest of her dear relations, 
 she had propounded to him to buy an office, which he was 
 not of himself very inclinable to; but, to give her and her 
 mother satisfaction, he hearkened to a motion that was made 
 him in that kind. Sir William Penny man, who had married 
 his cousin-german, a very worthy gentleman, who had great 
 respect both for and from his father, had purchased the chief 
 office in the Star-chamber; the gentleman who held the next 
 to him was careless and debauched, and thereby a great 
 hindrance of Sir William’s profits, who apprehended that if 
 he could get an honest man into that place, they might 
 mutually much advantage each other; whereupon he per- 
 suaded Mr. Hutchinson to buy the place, and offered him any 
 terms, to go any share with him, or any way he could desire. 
 Mr. Hutchinson treated with the gentleman, came to a 
 conclusion, went down into the country, provided the money, 
 and came up again, thinking presently to enter into the 
 office; but the gentleman that should have sold it, being of 
 an uncertain humour, thought to make the benefit of another 
 term before he sold his place; and it pleased God, in the 
 meantime, that arbitrary court was, by the parliament then 
 sitting, taken away. Mr. Hutchinson was very sensible of a 
 peculiar providence to him herein, and resolved to adventure 
 no more such hazards; but to retire to that place whither 
 God seemed to have called him by giving him so good an 
 interest there, and to study how he was to improve that 
 talent. His wife, convinced by this kind check which God 
 had given to her desires, that she ought to follow her husband 
 where the Lord seemed to call him, went along with him, and 
 
Character of the Times 5 5 
 
 about October 1641^ they came to their house at Owthorpe. 
 Here Mr. George Hutchinson (Sir Thomas being then chosen 
 knight for Nottinghamshire^ and sitting in the parliament at 
 London) came and gave a glad entertainment of his brother 
 and sister into the country^ by his good company ; and they 
 were^ for a few months, peaceful and happy in their own 
 house, till the kingdom began to blaze out with the long- 
 conceived flame of civil war. But here I must make a short 
 digression from our particular actions, to sum up the state 
 of the kingdom at that time, which though I cannot do 
 exactly, yet I can truly relate what I was then able to take 
 notice of; and if any one have a desire of more particular 
 information, there were so many books then written, as will 
 sufficiently give it them. And although those of our enemies 
 are all fraught with abominable lies, yet if all ours were 
 suppressed, even their own writings, impartially considered, 
 would be a sufficient chronicle of their injustice and oppres- 
 sion; but I shall only mention what is necessary to be 
 remembered, for the better carrying on of my purpose.^ 
 When the dawn of the gospel began to break upon this 
 isle, after the dark midnight of papacy, the morning was 
 more cloudy here than in other places by reason of the state- 
 interest, which was mixing and working itself into the 
 interest of religion, and which in the end quite wrought it 
 out. King Henry the Eighth, who, by his royal authority, 
 cast out the pope, did not intend the people of the land 
 should have any ease of oppression; but only changed their 
 foreign yoke for home-bred fetters, dividing the pope’s spoils 
 between himself and his bishops, who cared not for their 
 father at Rome, so long as they enjoyed their patrimony and 
 their honours here under another head: so that I cannot 
 subscribe to those who entitle that king to the honour of the 
 reformation. But even then there wanted not many who 
 discerned the corruptions that were retained in the church, 
 ^ In a small book, entitled, a Parallel of Clarendon and Whitelock, 
 this is set in the clearest light possible, and in a variety of instances 
 the unfaithfulness of Clarendon’s testimony made evident by the pro- 
 duction of palpable self-contradictions. Most of those who read the 
 summary account Mrs. Hutchinson gives of the public transactions, 
 will extremely regret that she was not much more full in it, seeing the 
 candour and perspicuity with which she writes : short as it is, however, 
 it will be found to throw light upon many obscure points; and, from 
 being so much concentrated, will be useful and acceptable to many, as 
 serving to fix a general and just idea of the public mind, as well as 
 transactions, in the times of which she treats. 
 
56 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 and eagerly applied their endeavours to obtain a purer 
 reformation ; against whom^ those who saw no need of further 
 reformation^ either through excess of joy for that which was 
 already brought forth, or else through a secret love of 
 superstition rooted in their hearts thought this too much, — 
 were bitterly incensed, and, hating that light which reproved 
 their darkness, everywhere stirred up spirits of envy and 
 persecution against them. Upon the great revolution which 
 took place at the accession of Queen Elizabeth to the crown, 
 the nation became divided into three great factions, the 
 papists, the state protestants, and the more religious zealots, 
 who afterwards were branded with the name of Puritans. 
 In vain it was for these to address the queen and the par- 
 liament; for the bishops, under the specious pretences of 
 uniformity and obedience, procured severe punishments to 
 be inflicted on such as durst gainsay their determinations 
 in all things concerning worship, whereupon some even in 
 those godly days lost their lives. 
 
 The papists had a most inveterate hatred to all the pro- 
 testants, but especially to those who were godly ; ^ and they 
 again many of them suffered their zeal to run out into bitter 
 personal hate. Between these two extremes, the common 
 protestants were in the middle, though I cannot reckon them 
 as a virtuous medium; for of them the more profane and 
 ignorant only left popery because it grew out of fashion, but 
 in their hearts inclined that way ; those who were peaceable, 
 conscientious, or moral persons, inclined to the puritans, of 
 whom there were many that unwillingly bore the burden 
 of the ceremonies, for quietness’ sake, and through false 
 doctrine of their unfaithful teachers, as well as some that 
 discerned the base and carnal minds of those seducers, and 
 would not be persuaded by them to defile their consciences. 
 The former sort of these, in zeal to reduce the whole land 
 from their idolatrous practices, procured laws and invented 
 oaths to suppress popery, which they little thought, but we 
 now sadly find, are the bitterest engines to batter down the 
 pure worship and destroy the pure worshippers of God; 
 which I have often looked upon as an evidence that God is 
 not pleased with the conversions that are enforced by men’s 
 
 ^ Godly. The name always given by the puritans to those of their 
 own party, and not unfrequently so used by different sectaries at the 
 present day. 
 
The Reformation 
 
 57 
 
 laws. We have spiritual weapons given us for spiritual 
 combats, and those who go about to conquer subjects for 
 Christ with swords of steel, shall find the base metal break 
 to shivers when it is used, and hurtfully fly in their own 
 faces. 
 
 About the time of the reformation, there was a great 
 change in the civil interest of all that part of the world which 
 had long lain under the bondage of the Roman prelate and 
 his tyrannical clergy. These had by degrees so encroached 
 upon all the secular princes, that they were nothing but 
 vassals and hangmen to the proud insolent priest. Obtaining 
 his empire by fraud, false doctrine, lies, and hypocrisy, he 
 maintained it by blood and rapine, till it pleased God to cause 
 that light to break forth about Luther’s time, which hath 
 ever since been increasing; and, notwithstanding all the 
 attempts of Satan and his ministers, it will in the end grow 
 up to a glorious flame and quite devour that bloody city. 
 When the wrath of princes and priests was in vain at first 
 blown up against the professors of the gospel, and their blood 
 and ashes became fruitful seed in God’s field, then the old 
 fox comes into the fold as a lamb, and seduces some of them 
 that saw the approach of Christ’s kingdom, to set it up 
 irregularly; and, indeed (though I know not whether they 
 perceived their own delusion), to set up themselves in 
 Christ’s throne, casting down the thrones of all other magis- 
 trates, and destroying the properties of men, and ruling by 
 their own arbitrary lust, which they brought forth in the 
 name of God’s law.^ This example was so threatening to all 
 mankind, that the gospel itself, from the adversaries thereof, 
 suffered much reproach upon this miscarriage; whereupon 
 the protestants, in all places, to clear themselves from the 
 just aspersions which the Munster anabaptists and others 
 had occasioned, fell into an error on the other hand, not 
 much less hurtful in the consequence; for to flatter the 
 princes of the world, whether popish or protestant, they 
 invested them with God’s prerogative, and preached to them 
 and the people such doctrines as only changed the idol, but 
 left the idolatry still in practice. ^ 
 
 ^ A description of the principles of the most extravagant of those 
 whom in history they call Fifth Monarchy Men, from their affecting to 
 set up the empire of Christ as the fifth ; the Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, 
 and Roman, being the first four. 
 
 ^ This could hardly be carried further anywhere than in England, 
 
58 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 The popes of Rome had for many ages challenged and 
 practised a power to dethrone princes^ to give away their 
 realms^ to interdict whole kingdoms and provinces, and 
 devote them to slaughter, to loose subjects from all bonds 
 and oaths of allegiance to their sovereigns, and to stir up 
 both princes and people to the mutual murder of each other ; 
 which abominable courses, had been justly cast upon them 
 as reproach, they pretending to do all these things for the 
 propagation of the true worship and the advance of God’s 
 glory. This reproach they retorted when some protestants, 
 upon the same pretence, did maintain that idolatrous princes 
 were to be removed, and such magistrates set up as feared 
 God, who were guardians of both tables, and were bound to 
 compel all their people to the right religion. This confusion 
 was there among the sons of darkness at the first appearance 
 of gospel light. 
 
 About this time in the kingdom of Scotland there was a 
 wicked queen, daughter of a mother that came out of the 
 bloody house of Guise,^ and brought up in the popish religion, 
 which she zealously persevered in, as most suitable to her 
 bloody lustful temper; she being guilty of murders and 
 adulteries, and hateful for them to the honestest of the 
 people, was deposed, imprisoned, and forced to fly for her 
 life ; but her son was received upon the throne, and educated 
 after the strictest way of the protestant religion according 
 to Calvin’s form. Those who were chiefly active and instru- 
 mental in the justice executed on this wicked queen, were the 
 reformers of religion in Scotland, which made the neighbour- 
 ing idolatrous princes fear them of the same faith. About 
 the same time likewise, the provinces of the Netherlands 
 united themselves in a resistance against the king of Spain, 
 
 where in all cases passive, in most cases active, obedience was indis- 
 criminately inculcated; where two divines stating in their discourses, 
 one, “ that it was the king’s duty to make laws, and the subject’s to 
 obey them; ” another, that “ the king is not bound to observe the laws 
 of the realm, but that his royal will and command in imposing taxes 
 and loans without consent of parliament, doth oblige the subject’s 
 conscience, upon pain of eternal damnation.” For refusing to license 
 the publication of the first sermon, the good Archbishop Abbot was 
 banished, and confined to a bad and unhealthy country-house. For 
 the latter, the preacher, though sentenced by the lords to be fined and 
 imprisoned, was by the king pardoned, and promoted to a bishoprick. 
 After this, let it be decided whether Charles reverenced episcopacy as 
 a divine institution, or valued it as an engine of state? and in what 
 light he caused his subjects to view it? 
 
 ^ Mary, Queen of Scots. 
 
Persecutions in France 59 
 
 and cast off that yoke wherewith he had most barbarously 
 galled them. The king of France, persecuting his protestant 
 subjects with much inhuman violence, forced them to defend 
 themselves against his unsanctified league, and much blood 
 was shed in those civil wars ; till at length those who had 
 had so much experience of God’s providence in delivering 
 them from their cruel princes, were persuaded to make up an 
 alliance with the enemies of God and religion, and by the 
 treacherous foe drawn into his snares, where they were 
 most wickedly and barbarously massacred.^ Now, although 
 religion was the main ground of those bloody quarrels, yet 
 there were, in all these countries, many disputes of civil 
 right, which for the most part were borne on the face of the 
 wars, whereat I have only hinted, in this survey of the 
 condition of other states, and their interests in those days 
 and since; which is something necessary to be known for the 
 better understanding of our own, with which I shall now 
 proceed. 
 
 The civil government of England, from the time called 
 the Conquest, had been administered by a King, Lords, and 
 Commons, in a way of Parliamients ; the parliament entrusted 
 with the legislative, and the king with the executive power; 
 but several of the kings, not satisfied with their bounded 
 monarchy, made attempts to convert it into an absolute 
 sovereignty, attempts fatal both to themselves and their 
 people, and ever unsuccessful. For the generous people of 
 England, as they were the most free and obsequious subjects 
 in the world to those princes that managed them with a kind 
 and tender hand, commanding them as freemen, not as 
 slaves, so were they the most untameable, invincible people, 
 in defence of their freedoms against all those usurping lords 
 that scorned to allow them liberty. The nobility of the 
 realm having at first the great balance of the lands, and 
 retaining some of that free honourable virtue, for which they 
 were exalted above the vulgar, ever stood up in the people’s 
 defence and curbed the wild ambition of the tyrants, whom 
 they sometimes reduced to moderation, and sometimes 
 deposed for their misgovernments ; till, at length the kings, 
 eager to break this yoke, had insensibly worn out the interest 
 of the nobility, by drawing them to their courts, where 
 luxuries melted away the great estates of some, others were 
 ^ The famous massacre on St. Bartholomew’s day at Paris. 
 
6o Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 destroyed by confiscations in divers civil wars^ and others 
 otherwise mouldered with time. While the kings were glad 
 to see the abatement of that power^ which had been such a 
 check to their exorbitancies^ they perceived not the growing 
 of another more dangerous to them; and that when the 
 nobility shrunk into empty names^ the throne lost its 
 supporters^ and had no more but a little puff of wind to bear 
 it up^ when the full body of the people came rolling in upon 
 it.^ The interest of the people^ which had been many years 
 growings made an extraordinary progress in the days of King 
 Henry the Eighth, who returning the vast revenues of the 
 church into the body of the people^ cast the balance clear on 
 their side^ and left them now only to expect ^ an opportunity 
 to resume their power into their own hands; and had not 
 differences in religion divided them among themselves^ and 
 thereby prolonged the last gasps of expiring monarchy^ they 
 had long since exercised it in a free commonwealth. 
 
 England was not an idle spectator of the great contest 
 between the papist and protestant^ in which all Christendom 
 seemed to be engaged. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth^ 
 the protestant interest^ being her peculiar interest^ that 
 princess became not only glorious in the defence of her own 
 realm^ but in the protection she gave to the whole protestant 
 cause in all the neighbouring kingdoms; wherefore^ as if it 
 had been devolved upon her person^ the pope shot all his 
 arrows at her head^ and set on many desperate assassinations 
 against her^ which, by the good providence of God, were all 
 frustrated, and she, not only miraculously delivered from 
 those wretches, but renowned at home and abroad for suc- 
 cesses against her rebellious subjects in England and Ireland, 
 and for the assistance of her distressed neighbours; but, 
 
 ^ It is wonderful that the experience of so many ages and so many 
 other states had not been sufficient to warn the princes of the house of 
 Bourbon of this fatal error ! From the moment of Cardinal Richelieu’s 
 coming into power under Louis XIII. to Neckar’s return to power 
 after his rustication under Louis XVI. the plan of lowering the power 
 of the noblesse of France had been systematically pursued. The last 
 stroke was given to it when this delusive and deluded minister advised 
 that unfortunate monarch to give to the commons a double number of 
 representatives in the states general, and to blend the noblesse with 
 them. It was in vain that the Prince of Conti gave him a short note 
 of admonition, written on the spur of the occasion upon his hat: — 
 “ Sire, the moment you sign this arret your throne is overturned.” 
 He rejected the advice, and betrayed the author. 
 
 2 Expect, a Latinism; expectare, to wait for; or, Italian, aspettare, id. 
 
Papists and Nonconformists 6i 
 
 above all, for the mercy which it pleased God to afford her 
 and this realm in the year 1588, when the invading Spaniard 
 had devoured us in his proud hopes, and by the mighty hand 
 of God was scattered as a mist before the morning beams. 
 That which kept alive the hopes of the papists, most part of 
 her reign, was the expectation of the Queen of Scots, who, 
 entering into confederacy with them, lost her head for the 
 forfeit, wherein the duke of Norfolk suffered also for her the 
 loss of his. The Queen of England was very loath to execute 
 this necessary justice; but the true-hearted protestants of 
 her council, foreseeing the sad effects that might be expected 
 if ever she arrived to the crown, urged it on ; ^ and after the 
 death of Queen Elizabeth, the wiser of them much opposed 
 the admission of her son. But he, dissembling the resent- 
 ment of his mother’s death, by bribes and greater promises, 
 managed a faction in the court of the declining queen, 
 which prevailed on her dotage to destroy the Earl of Essex, 
 the only person who would have had the courage to keep 
 out him they thought it dangerous to let in.^ So subtlely 
 brought they their purpose about, that wise counsel was in 
 vain to a blinded and betrayed people. The anti-prelatical 
 party hoping that, with a king bred up among the Calvinists, 
 they should now be freed from the episcopal yoke, were 
 greedy of entertaining him, but soon cured of their mistake; 
 when, immediately after his entry into the kingdom, himself 
 being moderator at a dispute between both parties, the 
 nonconformists were cast out of doors, and the offensive 
 ceremonies, instead of being removed, were more strictly 
 imposed; the penalites against papists were relaxed, and 
 many of them taken into favour; whilst those families who 
 suffered for his mother were graced and restored as far as the 
 
 ^ The signing and expediting the warrant for the execution of Mary 
 Queen of Scots is an enigma which has employed the wits of many to 
 solve — perhaps this may be the true solution of it; it is at least clear, 
 that it thus appeared to well-informed persons, living in times when 
 the thing was recent, and accounts for it more naturally than the mean 
 jealousy attributed to Queen Elizabeth, which would in fact have been 
 a better reason for putting her to death many years sooner. 
 
 ^ In Heylin’s History of the Presbyterians, it is said that the Earl of 
 Essex was much courted by the puritans, and in return caressed them ; 
 that a title to the crown was drawn out for him, and he began to look up 
 to it; that he encouraged an opinion, that inferior magistrates might 
 curb and control their sovereign; that he w^as outwitted and brought 
 to the scaffold by Cecil and Raleigh, very opportunely for king J ames, 
 whose entrance might have been opposed and his title questioned. 
 
62 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 times would bear^ and those who consented any way to the 
 justice done upon her^ disfavoured. A progress was made 
 suitable to this beginnings the protestant interest abroad was 
 deserted and betrayed^ the prelates at home daily exalted 
 in pride and pomp^ and declining in virtue and godliness. 
 Arminianism^ crept in to the corruption of sound doctrines 
 till at length they had the impudence to forbid the preaching 
 of those great and necessary truths concerning the decrees 
 of God; secret treaties were entertained with the court of 
 Rome ; ^ ands notwithstanding that hellish powder plots the 
 papists lost not their credit at courts where they now wrought 
 no longer by open and direct waySs but humouring the king 
 and queen in their lusts and excesses^ they found the most 
 ready way to destroy the doctrine of the gospel was to 
 debauch the professors. The court of this king was a 
 nursery of lust and intemperance; he had brought in with 
 him a company of poor ScotSs whOs coming into this plentiful 
 kingdoms were surfeited with riot and debaucherieSs and got 
 all the riches of the land only to cast away. The honours 
 wealths and glory of the nations wherein Queen Elizabeth 
 left its were soon prodigally wasted by this thriftless heir; 
 and the nobility of the land was utterly debased by setting 
 honours to public salCs and conferring them on persons that 
 had neither blood nor merit fit to wears nor estates to bear 
 up their titleSs but were fain to invent projects to pill^ the 
 peoples and pick their purses for the maintenance of vice 
 and lewdness. The generality of the gentry of the land soon 
 learned the court fashions and every great house in the 
 country became a sty of uncleanness. To keep the people 
 in their deplorable securitys till vengeance overtook thems 
 they were entertained with maskSs stage playSs and various 
 sorts of ruder sports. Then began murders incests adulterys 
 drunkennesSs swearings fornications and all sort of ribaldrys 
 to be no concealed but countenanced viceSs because they held 
 such conformity with the court example. Next to thiSs a 
 great cause of these abominations was the mixed marriages 
 of papist and protestant familieSs whichs no questions was a 
 design of the popish party to compass and procure; and so 
 successfuls that I have observed that there was not one house 
 
 ^ J ames, however, professed himself a great enemy to it. 
 
 2 The first volume of Clarendon’s State Papers is half filled with 
 them. 
 
 ® Pill — pillage, plunder. 
 
Rise of the Puritans 63 
 
 in ten^ where such a marriage was made^ but the better party 
 was corrupted, the children’s souls were sacrificed to devils, 
 the worship of God was laid aside in that family, for fear of 
 distasting the idolater; the kindred, tenants, and neighbours, 
 either quite turned from it, or cooled in their zeal for religion. 
 As the fire is most fervent in a frosty season, so the general 
 apostacy from holiness, if I may so call it, and defection to 
 lewdness, stirred up sorrow, indignation, and fear, in all that 
 retained any love of God in the land, whether ministers or 
 people; the ministers warned the people of the approaching 
 judgments of God, which could not be expected but to follow 
 such high provocations; God in his mercy sent his prophets 
 into all corners of the land, to preach repentance, and cry 
 out against the ingratitude of England, who thus requited 
 so many rich mercies that no nation could ever boast of 
 more; and by these a few were everywhere converted and 
 established in faith and holiness; but at court they were 
 hated, disgraced, and reviled, and in scorn had the name 
 of Puritan^ fixed upon them. And now the ready way to 
 preferment there was to declare an opposition to the power 
 of godliness, under that name; so that their pulpits might 
 justly be called the scorner’s chair, those sermons only 
 pleasing that flattered them in their vices, and told the poor 
 king that he was Solomon, and that his sloth and cowardice, 
 by which he betrayed the cause of God and honour of the 
 nation, was gospel meekness and peaceableness; for which 
 they raised him up above the heavens, while he lay wallowing 
 like a swine in the mire of his lust. He had a little learning, 
 and this they called the spirit of wisdom, and so magnified 
 
 ^ This artifice of affixing a name of reproach on those of an opposite 
 party, in order indiscriminately to subject them to hatred or ridicule, 
 could hardly be better exposed than it is here. That Mrs. Hutchinson 
 is guilty of no exaggeration, may well be conjectured from some 
 speeches in parliament preserved by Rushworth, peculiarly one of Sir 
 Benjamin Rudyard, at least a moderate man, if not a favourer of the 
 king, complaining of the very same thing. Rushworth, vol. ii. 1355, 
 “ It is the artifice of the favourers of the catholic and of the prelatical 
 party to call all who are sticklers for the constitution in church or state, 
 or would square their actions by any rule, human or divine, Puritans.” 
 In the petition and remonstrance this is stated nearly in the same 
 manner. It was no way inconsistent with the other injustices of the 
 French revolutionists to invent the term of Aristocrat, and mark out 
 by it every one whom the populace or their demagogues designed to 
 plunder or destroy; it would not be so excusable if in this country we 
 should suffer cant terms or nicknames to pass for reasoning or proof. 
 For the rest, the name of Puritan should have no bad meaning. 
 
64 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 him^ so falsely flattered him, that he could not endure the 
 words of truth and soundness, but rewarded these base, 
 wicked, unfaithful fawners with rich preferments, attended 
 with pomps and titles, which heaped them up above a 
 human height. With their pride, their envy swelled against 
 the people of God, whom they began to project how they 
 might root out of the land; and when they had once given 
 them a name, whatever was odious or dreadful to the king, 
 they fixed upon the puritan, who, according to their char- 
 acter, was nothing but a factious hypocrite. 
 
 The king had upon his heart the dealings both of England 
 and Scotland with his mother, and harboured a secret desire 
 of revenge upon the godly in both nations, yet had not 
 courage enough to assert his resentment like a prince, but 
 employed a wicked cunning he was master of, and called 
 king-craft, to undermine what he durst not openly oppose, — 
 the true religion; this was fenced with the liberty of the 
 people, and so linked togther, that it was impossible to make 
 them slaves, till they were brought to be idolaters of royalty 
 and glorious lust ; and as impossible to make them adore these 
 gods, while they continued loyal to the government of Jesus 
 Christ. The payment of civil obedience to the king and the 
 laws of the land satisfied not; if any durst dispute his imposi- 
 tions in the worship of God, he was presently reckoned among 
 the seditious and disturbers of the public peace, and accord- 
 ingly persecuted ; if any were grieved at the dishonour of the 
 kingdom, or the griping of the poor, or the unjust oppressions 
 of the subject, by a thousand ways, invented to maintain the 
 riots of the courtiers, and the swarms of needy Scots the king 
 had brought in to devour like locusts the plenty of this land, 
 he was a puritan; if any, out of mere morality and civil 
 honesty, discountenanced the abominations of those days, 
 he was a puritan, however he conformed to their superstitious 
 worship ; if any showed favour to any godly honest persons, 
 kept them company, relieved them in want, or protected 
 them against violent or unjust oppression, he was a puritan; 
 if any gentleman in his country maintained the good laws of 
 the land, or stood up for any public interest, for good order 
 or government, he was a puritan: in short, all that crossed 
 the views of the needy courtiers, the proud encroaching 
 priests, the thievish projectors, the lewd nobility and gentry 
 — whoever was zealous for God’s glory or worship, could not 
 
The Puritan Party 65 
 
 endure blasphemous oaths^ ribald conversation, profane 
 scoffs, sabbath breaking, derision of the word of God, and 
 the like — whoever could endure a sermon, modest habit or 
 conversation, or anything good, — all these were puritans; 
 and if puritans, then enemies to the king and his government, 
 seditious, factious, hypocrites, ambitious disturbers of the 
 public peace, and finally, the pest of the kingdom. Such 
 false logic did the children of darkness use to argue with 
 against the hated children of light, whom they branded 
 besides as an illiterate, morose, melancholy, discontented, 
 crazed sort of men, not fit for human conversation; ^ as such 
 they made them not only the sport of the pulpit, which 
 was become but a more solemn sort of stage, but every 
 stage, and every table, and every puppet-play, belched 
 forth profane scoffs upon them, the drunkards made them 
 their songs, and all fiddlers and mimics learned to abuse 
 them, as finding it the most gameful way of fooling. Thus 
 the two factions in those days grew up to great heights and 
 enmities one against the other; while the papist wanted not 
 industry and subtlety to blow the coals between them, and 
 was so successful that, unless the mercy of God confound 
 them by their own imaginations, we may justly fear they 
 will at last obtain their full wish. 
 
 But to deal impartially, we must, with sadness enough, 
 confess, that the wolf came into the fold in a sheep’s cloth- 
 ing, and wrought more slaughter that way among the lambs 
 than he could have done in his own skin ; for it is true that 
 many of wit and parts, discontented when they could not 
 obtain the preferments their ambition gaped at, would 
 declare themselves of the puritan party. And such were 
 either bought off, or, if the adversary would not give their 
 price, seduced their devout hearers sometimes into indiscreet 
 opposition to work out their own revenge; others, that had 
 neither learning, nor friends, nor opportunities to arrive to 
 any preferments, would put on a form of godliness, finding 
 devout people that way so liberal to them, that they could 
 
 ^ Such is the idea entertained of them in general even at this day; 
 whoever shall read these memoirs will be well convinced that not one 
 of these qualities needs or does by any natural consequence accompany 
 the character. It is a great misfortune that many of the zealous pro- 
 fessors of piety should give it so austere an aspect, and this can never be 
 better contrasted than by the cheerful and amiable tone this professed 
 puritan gives it. 
 
 C 
 
66 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 not hope to enrich themselves so much in any other way. 
 Some that had greater art and parts, finding there was no 
 inconsiderable gain to be made of the simple devotion of 
 men and women, applied their wits to it, and collected great 
 sums for the advancement of the religious interest, of which 
 they converted much to their own private uses. Such as 
 these tempted the people of God to endeavour to shelter them- 
 selves in human policies, and found out ways, by bribes and 
 other not less indirect courses, to procure patrons at court, and 
 to set up against the prelates with countermines and other 
 engines, which, being of man’s framing, were all at last broken. 
 
 The puritan party being weak and oppressed, had not faith 
 enough to disown all that adhered to them for worldly in- 
 terests, and indeed it required more than human wisdom to 
 discern at the least all of them; wherefore they, in their 
 low condition, gladly accepted any that would come over to 
 them, or incline towards them; and their enemies, through 
 envy at them, augmented much their party, while, with in- 
 juries and reproaches, they drove many, that never intended 
 it, to take that party ; which in the end got nothing but con- 
 fusion by those additions. While these parties were thus 
 counter-working, the treasure of the kingdom being wasted 
 by court-caterpillars, the parliaments were called to re-supply 
 the royal coffers, and therein there wanted not some, that 
 retained so much of the English spirit as to represent the 
 public grievances, and desire to call the corrupt ministers of 
 state to an account. But the king, grudging that his people 
 should dare to gainsay his pleasure, and correct his mis- 
 government in his favourites, broke up parliaments, violated 
 their privileges, imprisoned their members for things spoken 
 in the house, and grew disaffected to them, and entertained 
 projects of supply by other grievances of the people. The 
 prelates, in the meantime, finding they lost ground, medi- 
 tated reunion with the popish faction, who began to be at a 
 pretty agreement with them ; ^ and now there was no more 
 endeavour in their public sermons to confute the errors of 
 that church, but to reduce our doctrines and theirs to an 
 accommodation. The king, to bring it about, was deluded ^ 
 
 ^ The first volume of Clarendon’s State Papers abounds with in- 
 stances. 
 
 ^ It is very rare to see a delusion so long and successfully carried on 
 as this appears to have been, at the expense of this modern Solomon, 
 in the State Papers just mentioned. 
 
Character of Charles I. 
 
 67 
 
 into the treaty of a match for his son with the Infanta of 
 Spain; and the prince, with the Duke of Buckingham, was 
 privately sent into Spain, from whence he came back with 
 difficulty, but to the great rejoicing of the whole people 
 in general, who were much afflicted at his going thither. 
 During this treaty the papists got many advantages of the 
 king, to the prejudice of the protestant interest at home and 
 abroad, and the hearts of all but the papists were very much 
 saddened; and the people loath to lay the miscarriages of 
 things at the king’s own door, began to entertain a universal 
 hatred of the Duke of Buckingham, raised from a knight’s, 
 fourth son to that pitch of glory, and enjoying great posses- 
 sions, acquired by the favour of the king, upon no merit but 
 that of his beauty and his prostitution. The parliament had 
 drawn up a charge against him, and though the king seemed 
 to protect him, yet knowing the fearfulness of his nature,, 
 and doubting his constancy, it was believed he added some 
 help to an ague that killed that king ; however the king died,, 
 and the duke continued as high in the favour of the next 
 succeeding as of the deceased prince; whereupon one, not 
 unaptly, says of him, he seemed as an unhappy exhalation, 
 drawn up from the earth, not only to cloud the setting, but 
 the rising sun.” ^ 
 
 The face of the court was much changed in the change of 
 the king, for King Charles was temperate, chaste, and serious ;, 
 so that the fools and bawds, mimics and catamites, of the 
 former court, grew out of fashion; and the nobility and 
 courtiers, who did not quite abandon their debaucheries, 
 yet so reverenced the king as to retire into corners to practise 
 them. Men of learning and ingenuity in all arts were in 
 esteem, and received encouragement from the king, who was. 
 a most excellent judge and a great lover of paintings, carv- 
 ings, gravings, and many other ingenuities, less offensive 
 than the bawdry and profane abusive wit which was the only 
 exercise of the other court. But, as in the primitive times,, 
 it is observed that the best emperors were some of them 
 stirred up by Satan to be the bitterest persecutors of the 
 church, so this king was a worse encroacher upon the civil 
 and spiritual liberties of his people by far than his father. 
 
 ^ The justice of the character here given of James, as well as the- 
 candour of that about to be given to Charles, will, it is hoped, be re- 
 cognised by every reader. 
 
68 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 He married a papist^ a French lady^ of a haughty spirit, and 
 a great wit and beauty, to whom he became a most uxorious 
 husband. By this means the court was replenished with 
 papists, and many who hoped to advance themselves by the 
 change, turned to that religion. All the papists in the king- 
 dom were favoured, and, by the king’s example, matched into 
 the best families; the puritans were more than ever dis- 
 countenanced and persecuted, insomuch that many of them 
 chose to abandon their native country, and leave their 
 dearest relations, to retire into any foreign soil or planta- 
 tion, where they might, amidst all outward inconveniences, 
 enjoy the free exercise of God’s worship. Such as could not 
 flee were tormented in the bishops’ courts, fined, whipped, 
 pilloried, imprisoned, and suffered to enjoy no rest, so that 
 death was better than life to them; and notwithstanding 
 their patient sufferance of all these things, yet was not the 
 king satisfied till the whole land was reduced to perfect 
 slavery. The example of the French king was propounded 
 to him, and he thought himself no monarch so long as his 
 will was confined to the bounds of any law; but knowing 
 that the people of England were not pliable to an arbitrary 
 rule, he plotted to subdue them to his yoke by a foreign 
 force, and till he could effect it, made no conscience of grant- 
 ing anything to the people, which he resolved should not 
 oblige him longer than it served his turn; for he was a 
 prince that had nothing of faith or truth, justice or generosity, 
 in him. He was the most obstinate person in his self-will 
 that ever was, and so bent upon being an absolute, uncon- 
 trollable sovereign, that he was resolved either to be such a 
 king or none. His firm adherence to prelacy was not for 
 conscience of one religion more than another, for it was his 
 principle that an honest man might be saved in any profes- 
 sion ; but he had a mistaken principle that kingly government 
 in the state could not stand without episcopal government 
 in the church; and, therefore, as the bishops flattered him 
 with preaching up his sovereign prerogative, and inveighing 
 against the puritans as factious and disloyal, so he protected 
 them in their pomp and pride, and insolent practices against 
 all the godly and sober people of the land.^ In the first 
 
 ^ In note, page 57, it has been shown that their political, not their 
 religious principles, were the criterion whereby the king judged the 
 prelates of the church of England. That the same served for the 
 
Duke of Buckingham 69 
 
 parliament after he came to the crown^ the Duke of Bucking- 
 ham was impeached concerning the death of King James, 
 and other misdemeanours; but the present king, who had 
 received him into the same degree of favour that he was with 
 the former, would not endure the question of his favourite, 
 and, to deliver him from it, broke up the parliament, which 
 gave too just a suspicion that he favoured the practice; for 
 it is true that the duke’s mother, without the consent of the 
 physicians, had made an application to the wrists of the king 
 for his ague, after which he died in his next fit. Some other 
 parliaments there were, but still abruptly broken up when 
 they put forth any endeavour to redress grievances. The 
 protestants abroad were all looked upon as puritans, and 
 their interests, instead of being protected, sadly betrayed; 
 ships were let out to the French king to serve against them; 
 and all the flower of the English gentry were lost in an ill- 
 managed expedition to the Isle of Rhee, under pretence of 
 helping them, but so ordered that it proved the loss of 
 Rochelle, the strong fort and best defence of all the protes- 
 tants in France. Those in Germany were no less neglected 
 in all treaties, although his own sister and her children were 
 so highly concerned. The whole people were sadly grieved 
 at these misgovernments, and, loath to impute them to the 
 king, cast all the odium upon the Duke of Buckingham, whom 
 at length a discontented person stabbed, believing he did 
 God and his country good service by it. All the kingdom, 
 except the duke’s own dependents and kindred, rejoiced 
 in the death of this duke; but they found little cause, for 
 after it the king still persisted in his design of enslaving 
 them, and found other ministers ready to serve his self- 
 willed ambition, such as were Noy, his attorney-general, 
 who set on foot that hateful tax of ship-money, and many 
 more illegal exactions; and ten of the judges, who perverted 
 
 church of Rome is shown pretty clearly in the first volume of Claren- 
 don’s State Papers, where Mr. Courtenay having refused some com- 
 pliances against conscience, and giving as his reason that “ the king 
 was not the law-maker, but the king and parliament, and that the 
 king has not a dispensing power; ” and father Scudamore, alias Leander, 
 asserting that he has, Courtenay is committed to prison, held there, 
 and a trial refused him; Leander protected, encouraged, and rewarded; 
 and it is stated that “ Laud was at the helm of the king’s counsel in 
 these matters.” This opinion of the king’s candour, or even indiffer- 
 ence, as to the mode of religion, is stated in nearly the same manner in 
 Rushworth, but it is not said on what authority. The Stuarts sported 
 with and ruined all religions, and in turn were ruined by them. 
 
yo Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 judgment in the cause of those who refused the illegal im- 
 position; although there were_, even in that time, found two 
 honest judges, who durst judge rightly against the king, 
 although he had changed the words usual in their commis- 
 sions, which were Quamdiu hene se gesserint^ into another 
 form. Durante hene placito. Besides these^ and a great 
 rascally company of flatterers and projectors, there were all 
 the corrupted, tottering bishops, and others of the proud, 
 profane clergy of the land, who, by their insolencies, grown 
 odious to the people, bent their strong endeavours to dis- 
 affect the prince to his honest, godly subjects, and to get a 
 pretence of power from him, to afflict those who would not 
 submit to their insolent dominion. But there were two 
 above all the rest, who led the van of the king’s evil coun- 
 sellors, and these were Laud, archbishop of Canterbury, a 
 fellow of mean extraction and arrogant pride, and the Earl 
 of Strafford, who as much outstripped all the rest in favour 
 as he did in abilities, being a man of deep policy, stern reso- 
 lution, and ambitious zeal to keep up the glory of his own 
 greatness. In the beginning of this king’s reign, this man 
 had been a strong asserter of the liberties of the people, 
 among whom he had gained himself an honourable reputa- 
 tion, and was dreadful to the court party; who, thereupon 
 strewed snares in his way, and when they found a breach at 
 his ambition, his soul was that way entered and captivated. 
 He was advanced first to be lord president of the council in 
 the north, to be a baron, afterwards an earl, and then deputy 
 of Ireland; he was the nearest to a favourite of any man 
 since the death of the Duke of Buckingham, who was raised 
 by his first master, and kept up by the second, upon no 
 account of personal worth or any deserving abilities in him, 
 but only from the violent and private inclinations of the 
 princes. But the Earl of Strafford wanted not any accom- 
 plishment that could be desired in the most serviceable 
 minister of state : besides, he having made himself odious to 
 the people by his revolt from their interest to that of the 
 oppressive court, he was now obliged to keep up his own 
 interest with his new party, by all the malicious practices 
 that pride and revenge could inspire him with.^ But above 
 
 ^ “ Quamdiu bene se gesserint,” during good behaviour, as long as 
 they act right. “ Durante bene placito,” during the king’s good pleasure. 
 
 ^ Called by Lord Digby the grand apostate of the Commonwealth. 
 
Uxoriousness of Charles I. 71 
 
 all these the king had another instigator of his own violent 
 purpose^ more powerful than all the rest, and that was the 
 queen, who, grown out of her childhood, began to turn her 
 mind from those vain extravagancies she lived in at first, to 
 that which did less become her, and was more fatal to the 
 kingdom ; which is never in any place happy where the hands 
 which were made only for distaffs affect the management of 
 sceptres. — If any one object the fresh example of Queen 
 Elizabeth, let them remember that the felicity of her reign 
 was the effect of her submission to her masculine and wise 
 counsellors; but wherever male princes are so effeminate as 
 to suffer women of foreign birth and different religions to 
 intermeddle with the affairs of state, it is always found to 
 produce sad desolations; and it hath been observed that a 
 French queen never brought any happiness to England. 
 Some kind of fatality, too, the English imagined to be in her 
 name of Marie, which, it is said, the king rather chose to 
 have her called by than her other, Henrietta, because the 
 land should find a blessing in that name, which had been 
 more unfortunate; but it was not in his power, though a 
 great prince, to control destiny. This lady being by her 
 priests affected with the meritoriousness of advancing her 
 own religion, whose principle it is to subvert all other, 
 applied that way her great wit and parts, and the power her 
 haughty spirit kept over her husband, who was enslaved in 
 his affection only to her, though she had no more passion 
 for him than what served to promote her designs. Those 
 brought her into a very good correspondence with the arch- 
 bishop and his prelatical crew, both joining in the cruel 
 design of rooting the godly out of the land. The foolish 
 protestants were meditating reconciliations with the church 
 of Rome, who embraced them as far as they would go, carry- 
 ing them in hand, as if there had been a possibility of bring- 
 ing such a thing to pass; meanwhile they carried on their 
 design by them, and had so ripened it, that nothing but the 
 mercy of God prevented the utter subversion of protestantism 
 in the three kingdoms. — But how much soever their designs 
 were framed in the dark, God revealed them to his servants, 
 and most miraculously ordered providences for their pre- 
 servation. About the year 1639, the Scots, having the 
 English service-book obtruded upon them violently, refused 
 it, and took a national covenant against it, and entered 
 
72 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 England with a great army, to bring their complaints to the 
 king, which his unfaithful ministers did, as they supposed, 
 much misreport. The king himself levied an army against 
 them, wherein he was assisted by the nobility and gentry, 
 but most of all by the prelates, insomuch that the war got 
 the name of helium episcopale, or “ bishops’ .war; ” but the 
 commonalty of the nation, being themselves under grievous 
 bondage, were loath to oppose a people that came only to 
 claim their just liberties. When the king was at York, the 
 chief of the Scotch covenanters came, under a pretence of 
 treating with the king, but their principal intent was to dis- 
 abuse the nobility of England, and to take off their edge 
 against them, by remonstrating upon those grievances and 
 oppressions of the prelatical innovators, which had forced 
 them thus to defend their religion and liberties. This they 
 did so effectually, that the hearts of the English were much 
 moved towards them, and the king perceiving it, by their 
 mediations, consented to a dissembled peace for that time, 
 and returned home. But the Scots, unsatisfied in the perform- 
 ance of their articles, made preparation for a second return 
 into England ; whereupon the king, in his anger and necessity, 
 was forced to have recourse to the long neglected remedy of 
 parliaments, and assembled one at Westminster the 13th of 
 April, 1640, which he suffered to sit but twenty-one days, 
 and broke it up again, apprehending that if he had suffered 
 them to sit a day longer, they would have voted against the 
 war with Scotland, which he was violently bent to prosecute. 
 
 The bishops at that time devised as an anti-covenant, in 
 their convocation house, that execrable oath known by the 
 name of the et ccetera, wherein all ministers were required to 
 swear to uphold the government of the church of England by 
 archbishops, deans, archdeacons, etc. After this the Scots 
 enter England, the king makes a second expedition into the 
 north against them, and sends part of his army to keep the 
 passes upon the river Tyne; but the soldiers being raw and 
 heartless in this war, and the commanders themselves inex- 
 perienced, they were vanquished, and the Scots forced their 
 way, after they had been refused to pass quietly by, with 
 their petitions in their hands, and thus possessed themselves 
 of Newcastle and Durham. At that time the Scots had put 
 forth a declaration, wherein they had affirmed their inten- 
 tions not to lay down arms till the reform_ed religion was 
 
Earl of Strafford’s Impeachment 73 
 
 settled in both nations upon sure grounds^ and the causers 
 of these present troubles brought to public justice^ and that 
 in a parliament. This was so plausible to the English, that 
 the king, finding both the hearts and hands of his people 
 fail him on this occasion, was induced to grant the petition 
 of twelve noble lords, who at that time interposed; and, 
 calling together all his lords at York, agreed upon a parlia- 
 ment to be convened at London on the third of November 
 following. In the meantime, a treaty was condescended 
 to, by sixteen lords of each side, Scotch and English, who 
 agreed upon a cessation between both armies for the present, 
 in order to a peace, to be concluded at London with the 
 parliament, who met, as appointed, in November. 
 
 They began with throwing down monopolies, and then 
 impeached the Earl of Strafford of high treason, who, after a 
 solemn trial and hot disputes on both sides, was at length 
 attainted of treason, and the king, against his own mind, to 
 serve his ends, gave him up to death.^ The archbishop of 
 Canterbury was also made prisoner upon an accusation of 
 high treason, for which he afterwards suffered;^ Wren, 
 bishop of Norwich, was likewise committed to the Tower; 
 
 ^ Whoever has read the propositions delivered to his majesty by the 
 Earl of Strafford, for bridling parliaments and increasing his revenue, 
 which is preserved in the third volume of Ludlow’s Memoirs, p. 322, 
 ingenious, bold, and dangerous beyond example, will think him richly 
 to have deserved his fate, but not at the hand of Charles, who herein 
 acted so treacherously to his friends, that their very adversaries are 
 shocked at it, and fixed on his reputation a deep and indelible stain; 
 accordingly he seems all his life long to have borne in mind an incessant 
 regret of this crime. As it was a thing thought of but little conse- 
 quence at the time, perhaps it will ere long be forgotten that Louis the 
 Sixteenth suffered sentence of death to be executed on a Mr. De Favras 
 for planning to assist him, or his brother, or both to escape, but when 
 he did really effect his escape in part, there appeared great earnestness 
 and zeal in stopping him ! Did he not merit this ? 
 
 May says, that the cause of Lord Strafford’s condemnation was a 
 note produced by Sir H. Vane, proving that as a privy counsellor he 
 had proposed to the king to bring his army from Ireland to reduce this 
 kingdom to obedience; but Ludlow’s seems the stronger reason. 
 
 ^ It may well be doubted whether it was justifiable to change the 
 proceedings against Laud from impeachment to attainder, in order to 
 vote his death, which the law would not have condemned him to; but 
 certainly deposition and banishment at least were due to the man who 
 brought ruin and disgrace upon that pure and moderate system of 
 religion of which he was the unworthy head: that to his conduct its 
 ruin was principally attributable may be clearly seen by the speeches 
 preserved by Rushworth, in his fourth volume, of Lord Digby, Falk- 
 land, Fiennes, and especially Grimston. At this day there is perhaps 
 hardly to be found a son of the church who would condescend to meddle 
 in such base projects as this archbishop assiduously employed himself in. 
 
 C 2 
 
74 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 several other prelatical preachers were questioned for popish 
 and treasonable doctrines; the Star Chamber^ an unjust and 
 arbitrary courts was taken away^ and also the High Commis- 
 sion Court; an act was procured for a triennial parliament, 
 and another for the continuation of this, that it should not 
 be broken up without their own consent. There were great 
 necessities for money by reason of the two armies that were 
 then maintained in England, and the people would give the 
 king no money without some ease of grievances, which forced 
 him, against his inclination, to grant those bills, with which, 
 after he had granted, he found he had bound up his own ^ 
 hands, and therefore privately encouraged plots that were in 
 those times contrived against the parliament. One of them 
 was to have rescued the Earl of Strafford out of prison, and 
 put him at the head of eight thousand Irish, which the king 
 would not consent to disband, when the parliament had 
 some time before moved him to it: then the English army 
 in the north was to have been brought up and engaged 
 against the parliament itself upon a pretence of maintaining 
 the king’s prerogative, episcopacy, and some other such 
 things. This plot was managed by Percy, Germyn, Goring, 
 Wilmot, Ashburnham, Pollard, Suckling, O’Neale, and 
 others, of whom some confessed and impeached their fellows, 
 others fled, others were put in prison. While this parliament 
 was sitting, the king would needs, contrary to their desires, 
 take a journey to Scotland, and passed by the two disband- 
 ing armies in his journey, where some report that he secretly 
 attempted to urge the Scotch army against the parliament, 
 which then succeeded not. The houses had adjourned for 
 some time, and left a standing committee of fifty to prepare 
 business. About that time a plot was discovered to them 
 from Scotland, against the lives of some of the greatest peers 
 of that kingdom; the committee, fearing the like attempts 
 from the same spring, placed strong guards in divers parts 
 
 ^ This act for perpetuating the parliament was, in fact, that which 
 gave them a clear ascendancy over the king. The proposing this, as 
 it showed the ingenuity and judgment of Mr. Pierrepont, to whom 
 Mrs. Hutchinson attributes it, so does it the weakness of the king and 
 his counsellors, who having granted this, had no longer any power 
 of refusal left. For extraordinary evils extraordinary remedies are 
 often sought; but this, as it soon proved too strong for the king, so 
 was it at last thought too strong for the people. The omnipotence of 
 parliament would be indeed dreadful alike to both, if, instead of being 
 immovable, it was permanent. 
 
Plots Against Parliament 75 
 
 of the city of London. The king’s design in going to Scot- 
 land was variously conjectured; but this was a certain effect 
 of it, that it retarded all the affairs of the government of 
 England, which the king had put into such disorder that it 
 was not an easy task to reform what was amiss, and redress 
 the real grievances of the people; but yet the parliament 
 showed such a wonderful respect to the king, that they never 
 mentioned him, as he was the sole author of all those mis- 
 carriages, but imputed them to evil counsellors, and gave him 
 all the submissive language that could have been used to a 
 good prince, fixing all the guilt upon his evil counsellors and 
 ministers of state, which flattery I fear they have to answer 
 for: I am sure they have thereby exposed themselves to 
 much scandal.^ While the king was in Scotland, that cursed 
 rebellion in Ireland broke out, wherein above 200,000 were 
 massacred in two months’ space, being surprised, and many 
 of them most inhumanly butchered and tormented; and 
 besides the slain, abundance of poor families stripped and 
 sent naked away out of all their possessions; and, had not 
 the providence of God miraculously prevented the surprise 
 of Dublin Castle the night it should have been seized, there 
 had not been any remnant of the protestant name left in that 
 country. As soon at this sad news came to the parliament, 
 they vigorously set themselves to the work of relieving them ; 
 but then the king returned from Scotland, and being sump- 
 tuously welcomed home by the city, took courage thereby 
 against the parliament, and obstructed all its proceedings for 
 the effectual relief of Ireland. Long was he before he could 
 be drawn to proclaim these murderers rebels, and when he 
 did, by special command, there were but forty proclama- 
 tions printed, and care was taken that they should not be 
 much dispersed ; which courses afflicted all the good protes- 
 tants in England, and confirmed them that the rebellion in 
 Ireland received countenance from the king and queen of 
 England.^ The parliament, beset with so many difficulties, 
 were forced for their own vindication to present the king 
 
 ^ This is an oversight of Mrs. Hutchinson’s, of which she is seldom 
 guilty. Good policy required then, as it does now, that the king should 
 be held incapable of wrong, and the criminality fixed on ministers, 
 who are amenable to the law. If the patriots of that day were the 
 inventors of this maxim, we are highly obliged to them. 
 
 ^ It would be difficult to draw a distinction so nice as would dis- 
 criminate between the countenance shown to the rebels both before 
 and after the rebellion breaking out, and the encouraging the rebellion 
 
y6 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 with a petition and a remonstrance on the state of the king- 
 dom^ wherein they spared him as much as truth would bear, 
 and complained only of his ill counsellors and ministers; 
 but this, instead of admonishing, exasperated him, and was 
 answered with another declaration of his; and upon several 
 occasions the parliament being enforced to justify their pro- 
 ceedings publicly, and the king setting forth replies, these 
 open debates were but the prologue to the ensuing tragedy. 
 The city, declaring their good affections to the parliament by 
 a petition, gave the king distrust, and he was observed to 
 entertain an extraordinary guard of cavaliers, who killed and 
 wounded some of the poor unarmed men that passed by his 
 house at Whitehall; and the parliament, conceiving them- 
 selves not safe, desired a guard might be allowed them under 
 the command of the Earl of Essex ; but he refused it, with an 
 assurance that he would command such a guard to wait upon 
 them as he would be responsible to Almighty God for, and 
 that the safety of all and every one of them was as dear to 
 him as that of his own person and children. Yet the very 
 next day after this false message, he came to the House of 
 Commons, attended with his extraordinary guard, of about 
 four hundred gentlemen and soldiers, armed with swords and 
 pistols, and there demanded five of their members, whom not 
 finding there (for a great lady at court had before informed 
 one of them of his coming, and the house ordered them to 
 retire,) he returned, leaving the house under a high sense of 
 this breach of their privilege.^ At this time the people began 
 
 itself: now that passion and prejudice have subsided there are pro- 
 bably many more that condemn than acquit the king and queen ; but 
 whilst the blood of the massacred protestants yet reeked, and indigna- 
 tion glowed, it was neither to be wondered at nor blamed that persons 
 the most tolerant, as the independents professed to be, and Mrs. 
 Hutchinson especially, should speak with enmity of the queen and 
 catholics, and attribute to them those principles of intolerance and 
 antipathy to protestants which, whether they professed or not, they 
 practised. It will hereafter be seen that, when they ceased to be 
 dangerous, Mr. Hutchinson did not persecute, but protect them. 
 
 ^ The force of opinion being the only real force of any prince, and the 
 notion of inviolability his best protection, it was a strange infatuation 
 in him to overthrow them both. 
 
 Turno tempus erit magno cum optaverit emptum 
 
 Intactum Pallanta, et cum spolia ista diemque 
 
 Oderit Virg. ^n. lo. 
 
 The time shall come when Turnus, but in vain, 
 
 Shall wish untouched the trophies of the slain, 
 
 And curse the dire remembrance of that day . — Dryden. 
 
Petitions to Parliament 
 
 77 
 
 in great numbers to bring petitions to the king and parlia- 
 ment^ to beg a more cheerful concurrence between them for 
 the relief of Ireland, and to encourage the parliament in their 
 honourable endeavours for the relief of both kingdoms. The 
 king was offended at this, and retired first to Hampton 
 Court, then went with the queen to Canterbury, whom he 
 sent from thence into Holland with her daughter, lately 
 married to the Prince of Orange, under pretence of conduct- 
 ing her to her own court, but really to manage his business 
 abroad, and procure arms to be employed against the parlia- 
 ment, by the sale of the crown jewels, which she carried over 
 with her. 
 
 After her departure, the king, taking the prince and the 
 Duke of York with him, went to Theobalds, whither the 
 parliament sent a petition to him to return to his parlia- 
 ment and abide near London, and that he would not carry 
 the prince away with him, and that he would grant the 
 militia of the kingdom to be put into such hands as the par- 
 liament should recommend, and might confide in ; all which 
 he denied, and went immediately to Newmarket, and from 
 thence to York; all this while, by many false pretences, 
 really obstructing the relief of bleeding Ireland, and seduc- 
 ing many of the poor people of England into blood and 
 ruin. 
 
 In conducting the state of England, in those days, wherein 
 he, whose actions I am tracing, began to enter into his part 
 in this great tragedy, I have been too long for that I intended, 
 and too short to give a clear understanding of the righteous- 
 ness of the parliament’s cause ; ^ which I shall desire you to 
 
 An English gentleman, who was resident in France at the time that 
 Louis the Sixteenth sent his guards to the parliament of Paris to seize 
 some of the members (one of whom was the famous Duval Despres- 
 menil), and sent out decrees and manifestoes, as has been here just 
 before related, made this remark, “ He has entered upon the career of 
 Charles the First, and he will follow it to the end.” II est entre dans la 
 carriere de Charles I. et il la suivra jusqu^au bout. When he saw again in 
 England, as emigrants, the same French gentlemen before whom he had 
 made this remark, they reminded him of it ; saying how little probable 
 this had seemed to them at the period of its being spoken, a year before 
 the holding of the states general. 
 
 ^ Probably few people will think Mrs. Hutchinson has been too 
 prohx, many will think that she has been too concise. Mr. May’s 
 history comes down only to September, 1643, which is much to be 
 regretted, as he may justly be called an impartial and clear histo- 
 rian, but is little read, probably because his history finishes before 
 that period which was the most interesting. 
 
yS Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 inform yourselves better of by their own printed papers, and 
 Mr. May’s history, which I find to be impartially true, so far 
 as he hath carried it on, saving some little mistakes in his own 
 judgment, and misinformations which some vain people gave 
 of the state, and more indulgence to the king’s guilt than can 
 justly be allowed. 
 
 To take up my discourse of Mr. Hutchinson where I left 
 it: he was now come to his own house at Owthorpe, about 
 the time when the Irish massacre was acted, and finding 
 humours begin to be very stirring, he applied himself to 
 understand the things then in dispute, and read all the public 
 papers that came forth between the king and parliament, 
 besides many other private treatises, both concerning the 
 present and foregoing times. Hereby he became abundantly 
 informed in his understanding, and convinced in conscience 
 of the righteousness of the parliament’s cause in point of 
 civil right; and though he was satisfied of the endeavours 
 to reduce ^ popery and subvert the true protestant religion, 
 which indeed was apparent to every one that impartially 
 considered it, yet he did not think that so clear a ground 
 for the war as the defence of the just English liberties; and 
 although he was clearly swayed by his own judgment and 
 reason to the parliament, he, thinking he had no warrantable 
 call at that time, to do anything more, contented himself 
 with praying for peace. At that time Mr. Henry Ireton was 
 in the country, and being a kinsman of Mr. Hutchinson’s, 
 and one that had received so much advantage to himself 
 and his family in the country by Sir Thomas Hutchinson’s 
 countenance and protection, that he seemed a kind of de- 
 pendent upon him, and being besides a very grave, serious, 
 religious person, there was a great league of kindness and 
 good-will between them.^ Mr. Ireton being very active in 
 
 ^ Reduce, Latin reducere, to bring back, restore, revive. 
 
 ^ As it will be seen in the sequel that Mr. Hutchinson reposed a very 
 great confidence in Ireton, and even allowed to the information he 
 received from him such weight in forming his judgment as he did to 
 that of no one else, it may be well to examine how far the one was 
 deserving, and the other discerning, in this. 
 
 The question will be probably decided to general satisfaction upon 
 the testimony of Whitelock and Ludlow, men of very different dis- 
 positions, but both of great good sense and knowledge of their subject. 
 Whitelock, in speaking of some reforms proposed in the election and 
 composition of the House of Commons, says, “ Ireton was chiefly em- 
 ployed in them, having learned some grounds of law, and having a 
 laborious and working brain and fancy.” When he comes to speak of 
 
Mr. Henry Ireton 79 
 
 promoting the parliament, and the godly interest in the 
 country, found great opposition from some projectors, and 
 others of corrupt interest that were in the commission of the 
 peace; whereupon, making complaint at the parliament, he 
 procured some of them to be put out of the commission, and 
 others, better affected, to be put in their rooms, of which Mr. 
 Hutchinson was one; but he then forbore to take his oath, 
 as not willing to launch out rashly into public employments, 
 while such a storm hung threatening overhead. Yet his 
 good affections to godliness and the interest of his country, 
 being a glory that could not be concealed, many of his honest 
 neighbours made applications to him, and endeavoured to 
 learn his conduct, which he at first in modesty and prudence 
 would not too hastily rush into.^ The parliament had made 
 orders to deface the images in all churches. Within two 
 miles of his house there was a church, where Christ upon the 
 cross, the virgin, and John, had been fairly set up in a window 
 over the altar, and sundry other superstitious paintings, of 
 the priest’s own ordering, were drawn upon the walls. When 
 the order for rasing out those relics of superstition came, the 
 priest only took down the heads of the images, and laid them 
 
 the reforms of the law which Ireton likewise meditated he says, “ he 
 was a man full of invention and industry, who had a little knowledge 
 of the law, which led him into the more errors.” But when by his 
 death the jealousy lest he should bring about those reforms which 
 Whitelock, and most of the lawyers, were averse to, had ceased, he 
 says of him, page 516, “ this gentleman was a person very active, in- 
 dustrious, and stiff in his ways and purposes; he was of good abilities 
 for council as well as action, made much use of his pen, and was very 
 forward to reform the proceedings in law, wherein his having been 
 bred a lawyer was a great help to him. He was stout in the field, and 
 wary and prudent in councils; exceedingly forward as to the business 
 of a commonwealth. Cromwell had a great opinion of him, and no 
 man could prevail so much, nor order him so far, as Ireton could.” 
 But Ludlow, who viewed him more constantly and closely in a post of 
 great power and temptation, that of deputy of Ireland, being himself 
 next in command to him, gives the following account of his conduct in 
 one instance, which will render all others superfluous. “ The parlia- 
 ment also ordered an act to be brought in for settling two thousand 
 per annum on the lord-deputy Ireton, the news of which being brought 
 over was so unacceptable to him, that he said, they had many just 
 debts, which he desired they would pay before they made any such 
 presents; that he had no need of their land, and would not have it; 
 and that he should be more contented to see them doing the service 
 of the nation, than so liberal in disposing of the public treasure.” 
 
 ^ Mr. Hutchinson being born in the latter end of the year 1616, was 
 only about three and twenty years old at this period ; when some may 
 think this modesty became him. It was not the fashion of those times 
 to arrive at the perfection of wisdom and judgment so early as in our 
 days! 
 
8o Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 carefully up in his closet^ and would have had the church 
 officers to have certified that the thing was done according to 
 order; whereupon they came to Mr. Hutchinson^ and desired 
 him that he would take the pains to come and view their 
 churchy which he did^ and upon discourse with the parson, 
 persuaded him to blot out all the superstitious paintings, 
 and break the images in the glass; which he consented 
 to, but being ill-affected, was one of those who began to 
 brand Mr. Hutchinson with the name of Puritan. 
 
 At that time most of the gentry of the country were dis- 
 affected to the parliament ; most of the middle sort, the able 
 substantial freeholders, and the other commons, who had not 
 their dependence upon the malignant nobility and gentry, 
 adhered to the parliament. These, when the king was at 
 York, made a petition to him to return to the parliament, 
 which, upon their earnest entreaty, Mr. Hutchinson went, 
 with some others, and presented at York;^ where, meeting 
 his cousins the Byrons, they were extremely troubled to see 
 him there on that account. After his return. Sir John Byron 
 being likewise come to his house at Newstead, Mr. Hutchin- 
 son went to visit them there, and not finding him, returned 
 to Nottingham, five miles short of his own house. There, 
 going to the mayor to hear some news, he met with such as 
 
 ^ Persons of the description which now bears the name of yeomanry, 
 seem to have been passed over by Charles and his advisers as of little 
 consequence, and perhaps this was the real ground of the grand error 
 they were in of supposing they had all or most of the strength of the 
 nation with them, because they had most of the nobility and richer 
 gentry; whereas it was found, when a general movement took place, 
 that the great bulk of the people was against them, and, like an over- 
 whelming tide, bore down all before it. Yet he and they had abundant 
 warnings by this and such like petitions, and by associations which 
 began very early to be entered into ; or still earlier in the expedition 
 against the Scots, wherein the averseness of the common soldiers to 
 the war was so evident, that it compelled the patching up a peace. 
 “ And, astonishing as it might be (says May, p. 64), it was seen that 
 the common people were sensible of public interest and religion, when 
 lords and gentlemen seemed not to be.” It is true that the mass of 
 the people, having little time for contemplation, * are content to let 
 those to whom affluence gives leisure think for them; but when they 
 do think for themselves, and strongly adopt a sentiment, he is a bold 
 man, and ought to have astonishing resources, who contravenes it. 
 That will be generally, if not always, found the wiser government 
 which informs itself well as to the real bent of the public mind; and if 
 it is misled by a faction, takes the way of candour and frankness to 
 dispel the mist of error or prejudice, but avoids to do violence to the 
 general opinion. The editor of this work is proud of being the first 
 person who, two years before its adoption, suggested an appeal to the 
 sense and spirit of the nation by the association of armed volunteers. 
 
Waits on Lord Newark 
 
 8i 
 
 he expected not, for as soon as he came in, the mayor’s wife 
 told him, that the sheriff of the county was come to fetch 
 away the magazine that belonged to the trained bands of the 
 county, which was left in her husband’s trust; and that her 
 husband had sent for the country to acquaint them, but she 
 feared it would be gone before they could come in. Where- 
 upon Mr. Hutchinson, taking his brother from his lodgings 
 along with him, presently went to the town-hall, and going 
 up to my Lord Newark,^ lord-lieutenant, told him, that 
 
 ^ Eldest son of the Earl of Kingston, and brother of two Mr. Pierre- 
 ponts mentioned in this work; this nobleman was afterwards created 
 Marquis of Dorchester, and will be spoken of under that title in the 
 sequel. In the diary mentioned in the second page of the preface, the 
 dialogue between Lord Newton and Mr. Hutchinson is set down at 
 full length, and as it may be an object of curiosity to some of our readers, 
 it is here inserted in smaller type. 
 
 Mr. Hutchinson asking who were above, was told that the lord-lieu- 
 tenant, my Lord Newark, was there, to whom he sent his name and 
 desired to speak with him; and being come up, found in the room, 
 where the powder was weighing, my Lord Newark, the sheriff Sir John 
 Digby, and two or three captains : Mr. Hutchinson, addressing himself 
 to my lord only, spoke to him : — 
 
 H. My lord, hearing that there were some question concerning the 
 county’s powder, I am come to kiss your lordship’s hands, and to 
 beseech you that I may know what your desires and intents are con- 
 cerning it? 
 
 N. Cousin, the king desires to borrow it of the country, to supply 
 his great necessities. 
 
 H. I beseech your lordship, what commission have you to demand 
 this? 
 
 N. Upon my honour, I have a commission from his majesty, but it is 
 left behind me; but I will engage my honour it shall be repaid the 
 country. 
 
 H. Your lordship’s honour as an engagement, would be accepted for 
 more than I am worth; but in such an occasion as this, the greatest 
 man’s engagement in the kingdom, cannot be a satisfaction to the 
 country. 
 
 N. The king’s intents are only to borrow it, and if the country will 
 not lend it, he will pay for it. 
 
 H. My lord, it is not the value of the powder we endeavour to pre- 
 serve, but in times of danger, as these are, those things which serve 
 for our defence, are not valuable at any price, should you give as many 
 barrels of gold as you take barrels of powder. 
 
 N. Upon my faith and honour, cousin, it shall be restored in ten 
 days. 
 
 H. My lord, such is the danger of the times, that for ought we know, 
 we may in less than four days be ruined for want of it ; and I beseech 
 your lordship to consider how sad a thing it is in these times of war, to 
 leave a poor country and the people in it, naked and open to the injury 
 of every passenger; for if you take our powder, you may as well take 
 our arms, without which we are unable to make use of them, and I 
 hope your lordship will not disarm the country. 
 
 N. Why, who should the country fear? I am their lord-heutenant, 
 
82 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 hearing some dispute concerning the country’s powder^ he 
 was come to wait on his lordship^ to know his desires and 
 intents concerning it. My lord answered him^ that the king^ 
 having great necessities^ desired to borrow it of the country. 
 Mr. Hutchinson asked my lord what commission he had from 
 
 and engaged with my life and honour to defend them ! What danger 
 are they in ? 
 
 H. Danger! yes, my lord, great danger; there is a troop of horse 
 now in the town, and it hath often happened so that they have com- 
 mitted great outrages and insolencies, calling divers honest men 
 puritans and rogues, with divers other provoking terms and carriages. 
 I myself was abused by some of them, as I passed on the road. I 
 chanced to meet some of these gentlemen, who, as soon as I was past, 
 inquired my name, and being told it, gave me another, saying among 
 themselves, that I was a puritan and a traitor; as two or three honest 
 men that came behind told me. Besides, your lordship may be far 
 off, and we ruined before you can come to us, being unarmed, and not 
 able to defend ourselves from anybody, and this country being a road 
 through which, under the name of soldiers, rude people daily pass 
 from the north to south, and terrify the country; which if they knew 
 to be naked and unarmed, they would thereby be encouraged to greater 
 insolencies and mischiefs. 
 
 N. The king’s occasions are such, and so urgent, as I cannot dispense 
 with it for any reasons, but must needs have it. 
 
 H. I hope your lordship will not deny that the country hath a right, 
 interest, and property in it. 
 
 N. I do not deny it. 
 
 H. Then, my lord, I hope his majesty will not command it from 
 them. 
 
 N. No, he doth but desire to borrow it. 
 
 H. Then, I hope, if he do but desire to borrow it, his majesty hath 
 signified his request to those that have interest in it, under his hand. 
 
 N. Upon my honour he hath, but I left it behind me. 
 
 H. I beseech your lordship, then, that you would not take it away 
 till you have acquainted the country with it, who only have power to 
 lend it; and if your lordship be pleased to do this, I will engage myself 
 that by to-morrow at twelve of the clock, that part of the country who 
 have interest in the powder shall all wait on your lordship, and give 
 you their resolutions. 
 
 N. The king’s occasions cannot admit of that delay. 
 
 H. I beseech of your lordship, yet be pleased to consider the danger- 
 ous consequence of taking it without the country’s consent, and be 
 pleased but to stay till they can come in. 
 
 N. That time is more than his majesty’s necessities can dispense 
 withal. 
 
 With that Mr. Hutchinson went downstairs, where by that time a 
 good company of the country were gathered together, to whom Mr. 
 Hutchinson told what my lord had said to him, and they desired him 
 that he would but stand to them, and they would part with every drop 
 of blood out of their bodies before he should have it; and said besides, 
 that they would go up and break my lord’s neck and the sheriff’s out 
 of the windows; but Mr. Hutchinson desired them to stay below, till 
 he had once more spoken to my lord, and then, taking only one or two 
 more with him, went up and spoke to my lord. 
 
 H. My lord, I am again, at the request of the country, that are 
 below, come to your lordship, and do once more humbly beseech you 
 
Conference with Lord Newark 83 
 
 his majesty. My lord told him he had one, but he' had left it 
 behind. Mr. Hutchinson replied, that my lord’s affirmation 
 was satisfactory to him, but the country would not be willing 
 to part with their powder in so dangerous a time, without an 
 absolute command. My lord urged that he would restore it 
 
 to consider the business you are about, before you proceed further in 
 it, for it may prove of dangerous consequence if you go on. 
 
 N. Cousin, I am confident it cannot, for the country will not deny 
 this to the king. 
 
 H. It’s very probable they will not, if your lordship please to have 
 patience till they can be called in, that they may be acquainted with 
 his majesty’s desire. 
 
 N. His majesty is very well assured of the willingness and cheerful- 
 ness of the greater part of the country to it. 
 
 H. My lord, I do not know what assurance his majesty hath of it, 
 but if you please to look out of this window (pointing to the country- 
 men below in the streets), you will see no inconsiderable number 
 gathered, who, I fear, will not be willing to part with it. 
 
 N. Those are but some few factious men, not to be considered. 
 
 H. My lord, we have been happy yet, in these unhappy differences, 
 to have had no blood shed, and I am confident your lordship is so noble 
 and tender of your country, that it would very much trouble you to 
 have a hand in the first man’s blood that should be spent in this 
 quarrel. 
 
 N. Cousin, it cannot come to that, fear it not (this was spoken very 
 slightly and contemptuously), his majesty’s occasions are urgent, and 
 must be served. 
 
 (With that, the country came very fast up, which when the cavalier 
 captains saw, they slunk down.) 
 
 H. Why then, my lord, I must plainly tell you, not one here but will 
 lose every drop of blood in his body, before he will part with one corn 
 of it, without your lordship can show either a command or a request 
 for it under his Majesty’s hand and seal, or that the country be called 
 together to give their free consent to it, for we have all property and 
 interest in it, being members of this county, and it being bought with 
 our money, for the particular defence and safety of the same. 
 
 My lord desired to borrow part of it, but that being denied, he turned 
 to Sir John Digby and took him to the window, where, after he had 
 whispered with him a while. Sir John Digby laid down his pen, ink, 
 and paper, with which he had been taking an account of the powder, 
 match, and bullet. The countrymen desired my lord aloud, that he 
 would not take away their powder out of the country; upon which, 
 turning to them, he thus spoke: — 
 
 “ Gentlemen, — His majesty was assured by some of the cheerful- 
 ness of this country’s affections to him, which I am very sorry to see 
 them so much failing in, and that the country should come so much 
 short of this town, which hath cheerfully lent his majesty one barrel 
 of powder, but it seems he can have none from you; I pray God you 
 do not repent this carriage of yours towards his majesty, which he 
 must be acquainted withal.” 
 
 A countryman, standing forth, asked his lordship this question. 
 
 Whether, if he were to take a journey into a place where probably he 
 might be set upon by thieves and robbers, and having a charge about 
 him, if any friend should ask him to lend his sword, he would part with 
 it and go himself without? ” My lord, the case is ours; our wives, 
 children, and estates, all depend upon this country’s safety; and how 
 
84 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 in ten days. Mr. Hutchinson replied^ they might have use for 
 it sooner^ and he hoped my lord would not disarm his country 
 in such a time of danger. My lord contemned the mention 
 of danger^ and asked what they could fear while he was their 
 lord-lieutenant, and ready to serve them with his life. Mr. 
 Hutchinson told him they had some grounds to apprehend 
 danger by reason of the daily passing of armed men through 
 the country, whereof there was now one troop in the town, 
 
 can it be safe in these dangerous times, when so many troops and com- 
 panies pass through and commit outrages and abuses among us, if we 
 have not arms and powder wherewith to defend us ? 
 
 My lord made no reply, but bade the men whom he had employed 
 to weigh up the powder desist; and so went down the stairs. Mr. 
 Hutchinson followed him, and as he went, an ancient gentleman, who 
 was with my lord, whose face and name were both unknown to him, 
 came to him and said these words: “ Stand to it; I’ll warrant you, 
 gentlemen, it is well done.” And as they passed through a low room, 
 my lord took Mr. Hutchinson aside, and said, — 
 
 N. Cousin, I must acquaint the king with this ! 
 
 H. My lord, it is very likely you must, being employed upon his 
 majesty’s service, give him an account. 
 
 N. Nay, cousin (smiling), I mean not so; but I must acquaint him, 
 and I am sorry I must, that you are the head and ringleader of a 
 faction, whereby you hinder his majesty’s service. 
 
 H. My lord, I do not conceive how this can be a faction, I speaking 
 only, out of the noble respect and honour I bear your lordship, in 
 private to you, to prevent a mischief, the sense of these men, who I 
 perceived were come to know by what authority, and why, their 
 powder, which is their proper goods, and only means of safety in these 
 times of danger, should be taken from them ; and if it were a faction, 
 I am not the head of it; I, accidentally coming to town from Sir John 
 B5rron’s last night, and neither knowing nor imagining any of this 
 business, was this morning importuned to wait on your lordship, at 
 the town’s hall, by many countrymen, who informed me you were 
 taking away their powder out of the country. 
 
 N. Cousin, if you can answer it I shall be glad of it ; but I will assure 
 you I must let his majesty know. 
 
 H. If his majesty must know it, I am very happy I spoke to none 
 but your lordship; who, I am confident, is so noble, that you will 
 neither add nor diminish anything to my prejudice; and then I am 
 confident the justness and reasonableness of what I have said, with 
 my own innocency in speaking it, will bear me out. 
 
 N. I, cousin, but your name is up already. 
 
 H. It may be so, m}^ lord; and I believe those that set it up had no 
 good wishes to me; and as it rose, so, in the name of God let it fall; 
 for I know my own clearness and innocency in anything that can be 
 objected against me. 
 
 N. Well, cousin, well; I am glad of your good resolution. 
 
 And so my lord left him. The gentlemen of the country that were 
 there, upon consideration, what they should do with their powder, 
 determined to return my lord thanks for sparing it, and to lock it up 
 with two locks, whereof the sheriff should have one key, and the mayor 
 another; which accordingly was done; but Mr. Hutchinson came no 
 more to my lord. 
 
Conference with Lord Newark 85 
 
 and that before they could repair to my lord, they might be 
 destroyed in his absence, and withal urged to him examples of 
 their insolence ; but my lord replied to all, the urgency of the 
 king’s occasions for it, which were such that he could not 
 dispense with it. It was in vain to argue with him the pro- 
 perty the country had in it, being bought with their money, 
 and therefore not to be taken without their consent; my lord 
 declared himself positively resolved to take it, whereupon 
 Mr. Hutchinson left him. There were in the room with him 
 Sir John Digby, the high sheriff of the county, who was 
 setting down the weight of the powder and match, and two 
 or three captains and others, that were busy v/eighing the 
 powder. By the time Mr. Hutchinson came down, a good 
 company of the country was gathered together; whom Mr. 
 Hutchinson acquainted with what had passed between him 
 and my lord, and they told him that if he would but please 
 to stand by them, they would part with all their blood 
 before he should have a corn of it; and said, moreover, they 
 would go up and tumble my lord and the sheriff out of the 
 windows. Mr. Hutchinson, seeing them so resolved, desired 
 them to stay below while he went up yet once again to my 
 lord, which they did; and he told my lord some of the 
 country were come in, at whose request he was again come 
 to beseech his lordship to desist from his design, which if pur- 
 sued might be of dangerous consequence. My lord replied, 
 it could not be, for the king was very well assured of the 
 cheerful compliance of the greatest part of the country with 
 his service. Mr. Hutchinson told him, whatever assurance 
 his majesty might have, if his lordship pleased to look out, 
 he might see no inconsiderable number below that would not 
 willingly part with it. My lord replied, they were but a few 
 factious men; whereupon Mr. Hutchinson told him, since it 
 was yet the happiness of these unhappy times that no blood 
 had been spilt, he should be sorry the first should be shed 
 upon my lord’s occasion, in his own country. My lord scorn- 
 fully replied. Fear it not, it cannot come to that, the king’s 
 occasions are urgent and must be served. Whereupon Mr. 
 Hutchinson, looking out at the countrymen, they came very 
 fast up the stairs ; and Mr. Hutchinson told him, however he 
 slighted it, not one was there but would part with every drop 
 of his blood before they would part with it, except he could 
 show a command or request for it under the king’s hand, or 
 
86 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 would stay till the country were called in to give their con- 
 sent; for it was their property^ and all had interest in it^ as 
 bought with their money for the particular defence of the 
 country. Then my Lord fell to entreaties to borrow part of 
 it^ but that being also denied, he took the sheriff aside, and, 
 after a little conference, they put up their books and left the 
 powder; when my lord, turning to the people, said to them, 
 “ Gentlemen, his majesty was by some assured of the cheer- 
 fulness of this country’s affections to him, whereof I am 
 sorry to see so much failing, and that the county should fall 
 so much short of the town, who have cheerfully lent his 
 majesty one barrel of powder, but it seems he can have none 
 from you; I pray God you do not repent this carriage of 
 yours towards his majesty, which he must be acquainted 
 withal.” A bold countryman then stepping forth, by way of 
 reply, asked my lord, whether, if he were to take a journey 
 with a charge into a place where probably he should be set 
 upon by thieves, if any friend should ask to borrow a sword 
 he would part with it: my lord, said he, the case is ours; 
 our lives, wives, children, and estates, all depend upon this 
 country’s safety; and how can it be safe in these dangerous 
 times, when so many rude armed people pass daily through 
 it, if we be altogether disarmed? My lord made no reply, 
 but bade the men who were weighing the powder desist, and 
 went down. Mr. Hutchinson followed him down the stairs, 
 when an ancient gentleman, that was sitting with my lord, 
 came and whispering him, commended his and the country’s 
 zeal, and bade them stand to it, and they would not be foiled. 
 As they passed through a long room below, my lord told 
 Mr. Hutchinson he was sorry to find him at the head of a 
 faction. Mr. Hutchinson replied, he could not tell how his 
 lordship could call that a faction which arose from the acci- 
 dent of his being at that time in the town; where, hearing 
 what was in hand, and out of respect to his lordship, he only 
 came to prevent mischief and danger, which he saw likely to 
 ensue. My lord replied, he must inform the king, and told 
 him his name was already up; to which Mr. Hutchinson 
 answered, that he was glad, if the king must receive an 
 information of him, that it must be from so honourable a 
 person ; and for his name, as it rose, so in the name of God let 
 it fall; and so took his leave and went home. The rest of the 
 country that were there, determined to give my lord thanks 
 
Sir John Hotham Proclaimed a Traitor 87 
 
 for spacing their ammunition, and locked it up with two 
 locks, whereof the key of the one was entrusted with the 
 mayor of Nottingham, the other with the sheriff of the 
 county, which accordingly was done.^ 
 
 In the meantime, at York, the king had sent the parlia- 
 ment a message, that he intended to go in person to Ireland, 
 and to raise a guard for his own person, about West Chester, 
 which he would arm out of his magazine at Hull. But the 
 parliament, having before intercepted a letter of the Lord 
 Digby’s, sent to the queen from Middleburgh in Zealand, 
 wherein he intimated, that, if the king would retire to some 
 safe place, and declare himself, he should be able to wait upon 
 him from thence, etc. Upon this letter, and other presump- 
 tions, they suspected that the chief end of the king’s going 
 northward was to seize the magazine at Hull, and arm him- 
 self from thence against them ; wherefore they sent a petition, 
 for leave to remove that magazine to the tower of London, 
 and accordingly had sent Sir John Hotham thither to do it. 
 Sir John prevented the Earl of Newcastle, whom the king 
 had sent for the same purpose, to seize the magazine, and 
 kept him out; at which the king was much incensed, and on 
 the 23rd of April, 1642, went himself to Hull, attended with 
 some noblemen, gentlemen, and soldiers, and demanded 
 entrance; but the gates were shut; and Hotham, kneeling 
 upon the wall, entreated the king not to command that 
 which, without breach of trust, he could not obey. 
 
 In conclusion, the king not getting entrance, proclaimed 
 Hotham a traitor, and sent a complaint of the affront to the 
 parliament. The parliament justified Hotham. Many de- 
 clarations about it were published on both sides, and many 
 cross-commands; the parliament authorising Hotham to 
 issue out warrants to constables and other officers, to come in 
 armed to the defence of Hull, and the king forbidding it. 
 The king meanwhile in the north, summoned divers of the 
 nobility and gentry to attend him, and made speeches to 
 them to desire a guard for his person, pretending danger from 
 the parliament. He then began to entertain soldiers, and 
 was much encouraged by the defection of divers lords and 
 
 ^ How my lord may have reported this matter to the king signifies 
 little; but he probably remembered as a kindness Mr. Hutchinson’s 
 interposition between him and the more rough arguments of the 
 countrymen; for there appears to have existed on all suitable occa- 
 sions, an intercourse of friendship during the remainder of their lives. 
 
88 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 many of the Commons’ house, who forsook their trust and 
 came to him at York; whereupon he called those who re- 
 mained only a faction, a pretended parliament, and such 
 names; but they continued still petitioning to him, and the 
 well-affected and godly, in all countries, did the like, that he 
 would return to his parliament. The papists all over Eng- 
 land were high partakers with him and promoters of his 
 designs, and all the debauched nobility and gentry, and their 
 dependents, and the lewder rout of people ; yet even of these 
 there were some that had English hearts, who came in to 
 the parliament; but finding afterwards that the advance of 
 liberty and righteousness could not consist with riot and 
 ungodliness, they forsook their party, and were content to be 
 the king’s slaves rather than divorce themselves from those 
 lusts, which found countenance from both priests and princes 
 on one side, and on the other were preached down by the 
 ministers, and punished by the magistrates.^ 
 
 Towards the end of May, the parliament sent the king 
 word, that if he would not disband his forces, and rely upon 
 the laws and affections of his people for his security, as all 
 good princes before him had done, they held themselves 
 bound in duty to God and the people’s trust reposed in 
 them, and by the fundamental laws, to employ their utmost 
 care and power for securing the parliament and preserving 
 the kingdom’s peace. Whereupon they voted, ‘‘ That it 
 seems that the king, seduced by wicked counsel, intends a 
 war against the parliament, etc. 
 
 ‘‘ That whensoever the king makes war upon the parlia- 
 ment, it is a breach of the trust reposed in him by the people, 
 contrary to his oath, and tending to the dissolution of this 
 government. 
 
 That whosoever shall assist him in such wars are traitors, 
 by the fundamental laws of this kingdom, and have been 
 so adjudged in two acts of parliament, ii Richard II. 
 
 ^ Whatever may be said at this day of the hypocrisy of the religion- 
 ists of those times, the most that can possibly be allowed is, that their 
 professions might somewhat outgo their practice; but this must in 
 some degree befall every Christian. No one can deny that, instead 
 of captivating vulgar minds by breaking the bonds of morality, as 
 modern demagogues have done, the forefathers of our hberties set the 
 pattern of a religious and decent conduct, and caused the same to be 
 observed in their armies with an exactness that surprises us, and of 
 which rigour many striking examples are to be found in Whitelock’s 
 Memorials. 
 
Parliament’s Message to the King 89 
 
 and I Henry IV. ; and that such persons ought to suffer as 
 traitors.’’ 
 
 Hereupon nine of the lords^ that first went to the king, 
 were summoned to return; who, sending a letter of denial, 
 were, by the whole house of peers, sentenced to be incapable 
 of ever sitting again as members of that house, or of benefit 
 or privilege of parliament, and to suffer imprisonment during 
 pleasure. Then the lord keeper, who had appeared firm to 
 the parliament, and voted with them, for settling the militia 
 by ordinance of parliament, ran away to the king, after he 
 had delivered up his seal, the day before, to one the king sent 
 for it. The king, having this, issued out many proclama- 
 tions, and among the rest, one that no man should obey 
 the parliament’s warrants about settling the militia. The 
 parliament, on the other side, made ordinances forbidding 
 all men to raise arms, by warrant from the king, without 
 authority of parliament. And now they began to settle the 
 kingdom’s militia, both by land and sea, and made the Earl 
 of Warwick admiral; which place the king had conferred 
 upon Sir John Pennington, in the room of the Earl of 
 Northumberland, and commanded my lord of Warwick to 
 resign; but he chose to obey the parliament, and got the 
 fleet at length wholly into his hands, and took a ship with 
 ammunition coming to the king out of Holland. The 
 parliament now, despairing of the king’s return, made an 
 ordinance for money and plate to be brought in, and for 
 raising arms for the cause; which came in, in great abun- 
 dance, upon public faith, and likewise horses and arms for 
 the service. The king, who had received money, arms, and 
 ammunition, which the queen had procured in Holland, by 
 pawning the crown jewels, sent out commissions of array, to 
 arm the people in all counties ; and mocked the parliament, 
 using their own words, wherein they invited men to arm 
 for the defence of the protestant religion, the king’s person, 
 dignity, and authority, the laws of the land, the peace of the 
 kingdom, and privilege of parliament; and thus he deceived 
 many people, and got contributions of plate, money, and 
 arms in the country. While these things were in transac- 
 tion, the king made a solemn protestation before the lords, 
 as in the presence of God, declaring that he would not engage 
 them in any war against the parliament, but only for his 
 I necessary defence; that his desire was to maintain the 
 
go Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 protestant religion^ the liberties of the subject^ and privilege 
 of parliament. But the next day he did some action^ so 
 contrary to this protestation^ that two of the lords durst 
 not stay with him^ but returned to the parliament; and one 
 of them^ coming back through Nottinghamshire^ acquainted 
 Mr. Hutchinson with the sad sense he had in discovering that 
 falsehood in the king. 
 
 Now had the king raised an army of three thousand foot 
 and one thousand horse^ with which he went to Beverley^ in 
 order to besiege Hull. When he was within two hours’ 
 march of the place^ Sir John Hotham floated the country 
 about it^ and Sir John Meldrum, sallying out of the town, 
 with five hundred townsmen, made the king’s party retreat 
 to Beverley. But, however, they beleaguered the town, into 
 which the parliament sent a relief of five hundred men, by 
 water, with whom Meldrum made another sally, routed the 
 leaguer-soldiers, killed some, made others prisoners, took the 
 magazine of arms and ammunition, which was in a barn, with 
 their fire-balls, and fired the barn. Hereupon the king’s 
 council of war broke up the siege, from whence the king 
 went back to York, and about the middle of August came to 
 Nottingham, where he set up his standard royal; and hither 
 his two nephews. Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice, came 
 to him, and were put into commands. The king, march- 
 ing through Nottingham, Derby, and Leicestershire, called 
 together the trained bands, to attend him, disarmed those 
 counties, and marched to Shrewsbury, and there set up a 
 mint, and coined the plate that had been brought in to him. 
 Here a great many men came in to him, with whom, marching 
 into Warwickshire, he there fought his first battle at a village 
 called Keynton ; ^ it not being yet agreed who gained the 
 victory that day. 
 
 As the king, on his part, made this progress, so the parlia- 
 ment, on theirs, upon the twelfth of July, voted an army to 
 be raised, and the Earl of Essex to be general of it. Divers 
 of the lords, and several members of the House of Commons, 
 took commissions, and raised regiments and companies under 
 his command, who marched with his army of about fourteen 
 
 ^ Commonly called Edge-hill fight. Both king and parliament 
 claimed the victory, but our authoress shows rather more candour than 
 either. The king’s main design of marching to London was however 
 frustrated, and therefore the parliament might be most properly 
 termed gainers. 
 
The King Retires to Oxford 9 1 
 
 thousand horse and foot to his rendezvous at Northampton, 
 whither the parliament sent a petition to him, to be delivered 
 to the king, in a safe and honourable way ; the sum of which 
 was, to beseech him to forsake those wicked people with 
 whom he was, and not to mix his danger with theirs, but to 
 return to his parliament, etc. The king, intending to make 
 Worcester a garrison, sent Prince Rupert thither; the Earl 
 of Essex, to prevent him, sent other forces, between whom 
 there was some skirmish, but the prince left the town at their 
 approach. My lord of Essex left a garrison in Northamp- 
 ton, put others into Coventry and Warwick, and went to 
 Worcester. Here he made some stay, till the king, march- 
 ing from Shrewsbury, occasioned some apprehension of his 
 going up to London ; for which cause my lord left part of his 
 artillery behind him, and followed the king’s motions, which 
 the king perceiving, took an opportunity, before his artillery 
 and the foot left with it were come up to him, and resolved 
 to give him battle, which was not declined on the other side, 
 but fought with doubtful success, the circumstances whereof 
 may be read at large in the stories of those things. The 
 king’s general was slain, and his standard was taken though 
 not kept; but on the other side also there were many brave 
 men slain and prisoners. My lord of Essex marched to 
 Coventry; the king took up his winter quarters at Oxford, 
 from whence Prince Rupert flew about the country with his 
 body of horse, plundered and did many barbarous things; 
 insomuch that London, growing into apprehensions of the 
 king’s army, the parliament called back the Earl of Essex to 
 quarter about London; and he being returned thither, the 
 king was advanced as far as Colebrooke, where he was pre- 
 sented with a petition from the parliament for accommoda- 
 tion, to which he answered, with a protestation to God, how 
 much he was grieved for his subjects’ sufferings, and, in order 
 to peace, was willing to reside near London, to receive their 
 propositions, and to treat with them. As soon as ever the 
 commissioners were gone, the king advanced, with his horse 
 and artillery, towards London, and, taking the advantage of 
 a great mist, fell upon a broken regiment of Colonel Hollis’s, 
 quartered at Brentford, and killed many of them, and had 
 destroyed them all, but that Brooke’s and Hampden’s 
 regiments, by Providence, came seasonably to their rescue; 
 and then so many forces flocked with the general, out of 
 
92 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 London^ that the king was enclosed^ and the war had been 
 ended^ but that^ I know not how^ three thousand of the 
 parliament’s forces were called away by their procurement 
 who designed the continuance of the war; and so the king 
 had a way of retreat left open, by which he got back to 
 Oxford, and the parliament’s general was sent out again ^ 
 with their army ; whose proceedings I shall take up again in 
 their due places, so far as is necessary to be remembered, for 
 the story I most particularly intend. 
 
 Before the flame of the war broke out in the top of the 
 chimneys, the smoke ascended in every country; the king 
 had sent forth commissions of array, and the parliament had 
 given out commissions for their militia, and sent off their 
 members into all counties to put them in execution. Between 
 these, in many places, there were fierce contests and disputes, 
 almost to blood, even at the first; for in the progress every 
 county had the civil war, more or less, within itself. Some 
 counties were in the beginning so wholly for the parliament, 
 that the king’s interest appeared not in them; some so 
 wholly for the king, that the godly, for those generally were 
 the parliament’s friends, were forced to forsake their habita- 
 tions, and seek other shelters: of this sort was Nottingham- 
 shire. All the nobility and gentry, and their dependents, 
 were generally for the king; the chief of whose names I shall 
 sum up here, because I shall often have occasion to mention 
 them. The greatest family was the Earl of Newcastle’s,^ 
 a lord once so much beloved in his country, that when the 
 first expedition was against the Scots, the gentlemen of the 
 country set him forth two troops, one all of gentlemen, the 
 other of their men, who waited on him into the north at their 
 own charges. He had, indeed, through his great estate, his 
 liberal hospitality, and constant residence in his country, so 
 endeared them to him, that no man was a greater prince in 
 all that northern quarter; till a foolish ambition of glorious 
 slavery carried him to court, where he ran himself much into 
 debt, to purchase neglects of the king and queen, and scorns 
 
 ^ The account Mrs. Hutchinson gives of the affair of Brentford is 
 much more clear and probable than that given by Rapin, vol. ii. 
 p. 465. Indeed, he himself seems dissatisfied with those varying 
 accounts he could collect of that business from Clarendon and others; 
 but Ludlow, who was a military man and an eye-witness, gives a clear 
 account, agreeing with that of Mrs. Hutchinson. 
 
 ^ This title was at that time in the family of Cavendish, of which 
 this line ceased with the nobleman here mentioned. 
 
The Royalist Party 93 
 
 of the proud courtiers. Next him was the Earl of Kingston, 
 a man of vast estate, and no less covetous, who divided his 
 sons between both parties, and concealed himself; till at 
 length his fate drew him to declare himself absolutely on the 
 king’s side, wherein he behaved himself honourably, and 
 died remarkably. His eldest son ^ was lord-lieutenant of the 
 county, and at that time no nobleman had a greater reputa- 
 tion in the court for learning and generosity than he ; but he 
 was so high in the king’s party, that the parliament was 
 very much incensed against him. Lord Chesterfield, and all 
 his family, were high in the royal party; so was the Lord 
 Chaworth. The Earl of Clare was very often of both parties, 
 and, I think, never advantaged either. All the popish 
 gentry were wholly for the king, whereof one Mr. Golding, 
 next neighbour to Mr. Hutchinson, had been a private 
 collector of the catholics’ contributions to the Irish Rebellion, 
 and for that was, by the queen’s procurement, made a knight 
 and baronet. Sir John Byron, afterwards Lord Byron, and 
 all his brothers, bred up in arms, and valiant men in their 
 own persons, were all passionately the king’s. Sir John 
 Savin, a man of vast estate, was the like : so were Sir Gervas 
 Eyre, Sir John Digby, Sir Matthew Palmer, Sir Thomas 
 Williamson, Sir Roger Cowper, Sir W. Hickman, Sir Hugh 
 Cartwright, Sir T. Willoughby, Sir Thomas Smith, Sir Thomas 
 Blackwell, Markham, Perkins, Tevery, Pearce, Palme, Wood, 
 Sanderson, Moore, Mellish, Butler, with divers others. Of 
 the parliament men, Mr. Sutton, afterwards Lord Lexington, 
 and Sir Gervas Clifton, forsook the parliament, went to the 
 king, and executed his commission of array. Mr. William 
 Stanhope left the parliament, and came home disaffected to 
 them; whose eldest son was afterwards slain in the king’s 
 service. Mr. William Pierrepont,^ second son of the Earl 
 
 ^ Lord Newark, before spoken of. In Collins’s Peerage, under the 
 title of Duke of Kingston, there are cited singular proofs of this noble- 
 man’s learning. 
 
 “ From this gentleman the late Duke of Kingston and the present 
 Earl Manvers are lineally descended. His wisdom as a politician is 
 sufficiently evinced by this masterly stroke, which decided the fate of 
 the king and the parliament. Of his moderation Whitelock speaks 
 repeatedly. Of his eloquence there are preserved by Rushw^orth some 
 specimens, from one of which is extracted this as a singular trait of 
 capdour and delicacy: — “ It is pleasing to the nature of man that 
 others should obey his will, and well- framed dispositions of princes 
 may easily be persuaded their power is unlimited, when they are also 
 put in mind that they have therefore more cause to do well, and for 
 
94 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 of Kingston^ was of the parliament^ though he served not for 
 his own country^ to which notwithstanding he was an 
 ornament^ being one of the wisest counsellors and most 
 excellent speakers in the house, and by him was that bill 
 promoted and carried on which passed for the continuation 
 of this parliament. He had a younger brother living at 
 Nottingham, who coldly owned the parliament. Sir Thomas 
 Hutchinson continued with the parliament, was firm to their 
 cause, but infinitely desirous that the difference might rather 
 have been composed by accommodation, than ended by 
 conquest; and therefore did not improve his interest to 
 engage the country in the quarrel, which, if he could have 
 prevented, he would not have had come to a war. He was, 
 however, clearly on the parliament’s side, and never dis- 
 couraged his two sons, who thought this prudential tardiness 
 in their father was the declension of that vigour which they 
 derived from him, and which better became their youth. 
 It is true, they were the foremost in point of time and in 
 degree, except a piece of a nobleman that was afterwards 
 drawn in, who owned the parliament’s interest in their 
 country. Mr. Henry Ireton, their cousin, was older than 
 they, and having had an education in the strictest way of 
 godliness, and being a very grave and solid person, a man 
 of good learning, great understanding, and other abilities, 
 to which was joined a willing and zealous heart in the cause 
 and his country, he was the chief promotor of the parlia- 
 ment’s interest in the county; but finding it generally 
 disaffected, all he could do, when the king approached it, was 
 to gather a troop of those godly people which the cavaliers 
 drove out, and with them to go into the army of my lord of 
 Essex; which he, being a single person, could better do. Mr. 
 Hutchinson was not willing so soon to quit his house, to 
 which he was so lately come, if he could have been suffered 
 to live quietly in it; but his affections to the parliament 
 
 doing well are more renowned. For the most oppressive designs we 
 have suffered under, the pretences to his majesty have been the good 
 of his subjects: his is the sin, who is to judge by the laws, who knows 
 the laws are to the contrary, yet puts and confirms such thoughts in 
 his prince. He that incites another to arbitrary government usually 
 doth it for self-ends, and v/hen they are compassed, hates him for taking 
 that power he himself persuaded him unto.” This will be found sp. 
 elegant solution of the paradox which appears in the character given 
 by Mrs. Hutchinson of Charles the First, “ that so good a man should 
 make so bad a prince.” 
 
Sir Thomas Hutchinson 
 
 95 
 
 being taken notice of^ he became an object of envy to the 
 other party. 
 
 Sir Thomas Hutchinson, a little before the standard was 
 set up, had come to Nottingham, where his house was, to 
 see his children and refresh himself; when, hearing of the 
 king’s intentions to come to the town, he, some days before 
 his coming, went over to Owthorpe, his son’s house, to remain 
 there till he could fit himself to return to the parliament. 
 One day, as Mr. Hutchinson was at dinner, the mayor of 
 Nottingham sent him word that the high-sheriff had broken 
 open the lock of the country’s ammunition, which was left in 
 his trust, and was about to take it away. Mr. Hutchinson 
 immediately went in all haste to prevent it, but before he 
 came to the town it was gone, and some of the king’s soldiers 
 were already come to town, and were plundering all the 
 honest men of their arms. As one of them had taken a 
 musket, seeing Mr. Hutchinson go by, he said he wished it 
 loaded for his sake, and hoped the day would shortly come 
 when all such roundheads would be fair marks for them. 
 This name of roundhead coming so opportunely in, I shall 
 make a little digression to tell how it came up. When puri- 
 tanism grew into a faction, the zealots distinguished them- 
 selves, both men and women, by several affectations of 
 habit, looks, and words, which, had it been a real forsaking 
 of vanity, and an embracing of sobriety in all those things, 
 would have been most commendable; but their quick 
 forsaking of those things, when they had arrived at their 
 object, showed that they either never took them up for 
 conscience, or were corrupted by their prosperity to take up 
 those vain things they durst not practise under persecution. 
 Among other affected habits, few of the puritans, what degree 
 soever they were of, wore their hair long enough to cover 
 their ears, and the ministers and many others cut it close 
 round their heads, with so many little peaks, as was some- 
 thing ridiculous to behold; whereupon Cleaveland, in his 
 Hue and Cry after them, begins, 
 
 “ With hayre in Characters and Luggs in Text,” etc. 
 
 From this custom of wearing their hair, that name of round- 
 head became the scornful term given to the whole parliament 
 party, whose army indeed marched out as if they had been 
 only sent out till their hair was grown. Two or three years 
 
96 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 after, any stranger that had seen them, would have inquired 
 the reason of that name. It was very ill applied to Mr. 
 Hutchinson, who, having naturally a very fine thickset head 
 of hair, kept it clean and handsome, so that it was a great 
 ornament to him ; although the godly of those days, when he 
 embraced their party, would not allow him to be religious 
 because his hair was not in their cut, nor his words in their 
 phrase, nor such little formalities altogether fitted to their 
 humour; who were, many of them, so weak as to esteem such 
 insignificant circumstances, rather than solid wisdom, piety, 
 and courage, which brought real aid and honour to their 
 party. But as Mr. Hutchinson chose not them, but the God 
 they served, and the truth and righteousness they defended, 
 so did not their weaknesses, censures, ingratitude, or dis- 
 couraging behaviour, with which he was abundantly exercised 
 all his life, make him forsake them in anything wherein they 
 adhered to just and honourable principles or practices; but 
 when they apostatised from these, none cast them off with 
 greater indignation, how shining soever the profession was 
 that gilt, not a temple of living grace, but a tomb, which 
 only held the carcase of religion. Instead of digressing, I 
 shall ramble into an inextricable wilderness, if I pursue this 
 sad remembrance: to return therefore to his actions at that 
 time. 
 
 When he found the powder gone, and saw the soldiers 
 taking up quarters in the town, and heard their threats and 
 revilings, he went to his father’s house in the town, where he 
 had not been long before an uncivil fellow stepped into the 
 house, with a carabine in his hand. Mr. Hutchinson asked 
 what he would have; the man replied, he came to take 
 possession of the house; Mr. Hutchinson told him, he had 
 the possession of it, and would know on what right it was 
 demanded from him; the man said, he came to quarter the 
 general there; Mr. Hutchinson told him, except his father 
 and mother, and their children, were turned out of doors, 
 there was no room. The quarter-master, upon this, growing 
 insolent, Mr. Hutchinson thrust him out of the house, and 
 shut the doors upon him. Immediately my lord of Lindsey 
 came himself, in a great chafe, and asked who it was that 
 denied him quarter? Mr. Hutchinson told him, he that 
 came to take it up for him deserved the usage he had, for his 
 uncivil demeanour; and those who had quartered his lordship 
 
Warrant to Seize Him 97 
 
 there had much abused him^ the house being no ways fit to 
 receive a person of his quality^ which^ if he pleased to take a 
 view of it^ he would soon perceive. Whereupon my lord^ 
 having seen the rooms^ was very angry they had made no 
 better provision for him, and would not have lain in the 
 house, but they told him the town was so full that it was 
 impossible to get him room anywhere else. Hereupon he 
 told Mr. Hutchinson, if they would only allow him one room, 
 he would have no more; and when he came upon terms of 
 civility, Mr. Hutchinson was as civil to him, and my lord only 
 employed one room, staying there, with all civility to those 
 that were in the house. As soon as my lord was gone, Mr. 
 Hutchinson was informed by a friend, that the man he had 
 turned out of doors was the quarter-master general, who, 
 upon his complaint, had procured a warrant to seize his 
 person; whereupon Mr. Hutchinson, with his brother, went 
 immediately home to his own house at Owthorpe. About 
 four or five days after, a troop of cavaliers, under the com- 
 mand of Sir Lewis Dives, came to Stanton, near Owthorpe, 
 and searched Mr. Needham’s house, who was a noted puritan 
 in those days, and a colonel in the parliament’s service, and 
 governor of Leicester: they found not him, for he hid him- 
 self in the gorse, and so escaped them. His house being 
 lightly plundered, they went to Hickling, and plundered 
 another puritan house there, and were coming to Owthorpe, 
 of which Mr. Hutchinson having notice, went away to 
 Leicestershire; but they, though they had orders to seize 
 Mr. Hutchinson, came not at that time because the night 
 grew on. But some days after he was gone, another com- 
 pany came and searched for him and for arms and plate, of 
 which finding none, they took nothing else. 
 
 Two days after Mr. Hutchinson was in Leicestershire, he 
 sent for his wife, who was then big with child, to come 
 thither to him; where she had not been a day, but a letter 
 was brought him from Nottingham, to give him notice that 
 there was a warrant sent to the sheriff of Leicestershire to 
 seize his person. Upon this he determined to go the next 
 day into Northamptonshire, but at five of the clock that 
 evening, the sound of their trumpets told him a troop was 
 coming into the town. He stayed not to see them, but went 
 out at the other end as they came in ; who, by a good provi- 
 dence for his wife (somewhat afflicted to be so left alone in a 
 
 D 
 
98 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 Strange place)^ proved to be commanded by her own brother^ 
 Sir Allen Apsley, who quartered in the next house to that 
 where she was, till about two or three days before all the 
 king’s horse that were thereabouts marched away, being 
 commanded upon some service to go before the rest. 
 
 Mr. Hutchinson, in the meantime, was carried by a servant 
 that waited on him, to the house of a substantial honest 
 yeoman, who was bailiff to the lord of the town ^ of Kelmarsh, 
 in Northamptonshire. This man and his wife, being godly, 
 gave Mr. Hutchinson very kind entertainment, and prevailed 
 upon him to be acquainted with their master, who had just 
 then made plate and horses ready to go in to the king, that 
 had now set up his standard at Nottingham; but Mr. 
 Hutchinson diverted him, and persuaded him and another 
 gentleman of quality, to carry in those aids they had pro- 
 vided for the king, to my lord General Essex, who was then at 
 Northampton, where Mr. Hutchinson visited him, and would 
 gladly at that time have engaged with him, but that he did 
 not then find a clear call from the Lord; and therefore, in- 
 telligence being brought of the king’s removal, he was now 
 returning to his wife, when unawares he came into a town, 
 where one of Prince Rupert’s troops was ; which he narrowly 
 escaped, and returning to his former honest host, sent a letter 
 to his wife, to acquaint her what hazard ha was in by 
 attempting to come to her, but that as soon as the horse 
 was marched away, he would be with her. This letter was 
 intercepted at Prince Rupert’s quarters, and opened and 
 sent her. There was with Prince Rupert, at that time, one 
 Captain Welch, who having used to come to Captain Apsley, 
 and seen Mrs. Hutchinson with him, made a pretence of 
 civility to visit her that day that all the prince’s horse 
 marched away. They marched by the door of the house 
 where she was, and all the household having gone out to see 
 them, had left her alone in the house, with Mr. George 
 Hutchinson, who was in her chamber when Captain Welch 
 came in, and she went down into the parlour to receive him. 
 He, taking occasion to tell her of her husband’s letter, by 
 way of compliment, said it was a pity she should have a 
 husband so unworthy of her, as to enter into any faction 
 which should make him not dare to be seen with her ; whereat 
 
 ^ It is customary, in Nottinghamshire, to call every village of any 
 size a town. 
 
Arrest of Mr. G. Hutchinson 99 
 
 she being piqued, and thinking they were all marched away, 
 told him he was mistaken, she had not a husband that would 
 at any time hide himself from him, or that durst not show his 
 face where any honest man durst appear; and to confirm 
 you, said she, he shall now come to you. With that she 
 called down her brother, who, upon a private hint, owned 
 the name of husband, which she gave him, and received a 
 compliment from Welch, that in any other place he had been 
 obliged to make him a prisoner, but here he was in sanctuary ; 
 and so, after some little discourse, went away. When the 
 gentleman of the house and the rest of the family, that had 
 been seeing the march, were returned, and while they sat 
 laughing together, at those that went to see the prince, telling 
 how some of the neighbouring ladies were gone along with 
 him, and Mrs. Hutchinson telling how she had abused the 
 captain, with Mr. Hutchinson instead of her husband, the 
 captain came back, bringing another gentleman with him; 
 and he told Mr. Hutchinson, that his horse having lost a shoe, 
 he must be his prisoner till the smith released him. But 
 they had not sat long, ere a boy came in with two pistols, and 
 whispered the captain, who desiring Mr. Hutchinson and the 
 gentleman of the house to walk into the next room, seized 
 Mr. George, in the name of Mr. John Hutchinson. It booted 
 not for them both to endeavour to undeceive him, by telling 
 him Mr. John was still at Northampton, for he would not, at 
 least would seem not, to believe them, and carried him away, 
 to be revenged of Mrs. Hutchinson, at whom he was vexed 
 for having deluded him. So, full of wicked joy, to have 
 found an innocent gentleman, whom he knew the blood- 
 hounds were after, he went and informed the prince, and 
 made it of such moment, as if they had taken a much more 
 considerable person. The prince had sent back a troop of 
 dragoons to guard him to them, which troop had beset the 
 house and town, before Welch came in to them the second 
 time; and, notwithstanding all informations of his error, he 
 carried away Mr. Hutchinson, and put his sister into affright 
 and distemper with it; which, when the women about her 
 saw, they railed at him for his treachery and baseness, but to 
 no purpose. As soon as he overtook the body of horse with 
 his prisoner, there was a shout from one end to the other of 
 the soldiers. Mr. Hutchinson, being brought to the prince, 
 told him he was the younger brother, and not the person he 
 
loo Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 sent for^ which three or four of the Byrons^ his cousin- 
 germans^ acknowledged to be so; yet Welch outs wore them 
 all that it was Mr. John Hutchinson. The Lord Viscount 
 Grandison^ a cousin-german of Mrs. Hutchinson’s^ was then 
 in the king’s army^ to whom she immediately despatched a 
 messenger^ to entreat him to oblige her by the procurement 
 of her brother’s liberty^ who^ upon her imprudence^ had been 
 brought into that trouble. My lord sent her word^ that, for 
 the present, he could not obtain it, but he would endeavour 
 it afterwards; and in the meantime he gave her notice that 
 it was not safe for her husband to return, there being forty 
 men left to lie close in the country, and watch his coming to 
 her. So Mr. George Hutchinson was carried to Derby, and 
 there, with some difficulty, his liberty was obtained by the 
 interposition of my Lord Grandison and the Byrons. They 
 would have had him give them an engagement, that he would 
 not take arms with the parliament; but he refused, telling 
 them that he lived peaceably at home, and should make no 
 engagement to do anything but what his conscience led him 
 to ; that if they pleased, they might detain him, but it would 
 be no advantage to them, nor loss to the other side; upon 
 which considerations they were persuaded to let him go. 
 Immediately after his release, he went to London to his father, 
 where his elder brother was before him; for as soon as he 
 understood from his wife that his brother suffered in his 
 name, he took post to London to procure his release; and 
 there they both stayed till they received assurance that the 
 king’s forces were quite withdrawn from the country, and 
 then they together returned to Leicestershire, where Mrs. 
 Hutchinson, within a few days after her brother was taken, 
 was brought to bed of her eldest daughter ; which, by reason 
 of the mother’s and the nurse’s griefs and frights, in those 
 troublesome times, was so weak a child that it lived not four 
 years, dying afterwards in Nottingham Castle. When Mr. 
 Hutchinson came to his wife, he carried her and her children, 
 and his brother, back again to his house, about the time that 
 the battle was fought at Edge Hill. After this the two 
 brothers, going to Nottingham, met there most of the godly 
 people, who had been driven away by the rudeness of the 
 king’s army, and plundered on account of their godliness, 
 who now returned to their families, and were desirous to live 
 in peace; but having, by experience, found they could not 
 
Character of Sir John Cell loi 
 
 do so^ unless the parliament interest was maintained, they 
 were consulting how to raise some recruits for the Earl of 
 Essex, to assist in which, Mr. Hutchinson had provided his 
 plate and horses ready to send in. 
 
 About this time Sir John Gell, a Derbyshire gentleman, 
 who had been sheriff of the county, at that time when the 
 illegal tax of ship-money was exacted, and was so violent in 
 the prosecution of it, that he starved Sir John Stanhope’s 
 cattle in the pound, and would not suffer any one to relieve 
 them there, because that worthy gentleman stood out against 
 that unjust payment; and he had by many aggravating cir- 
 cumstances, not only concerning his prosecution of Sir John 
 Stanhope, but others, so highly misdemeaned himself that he 
 looked for punishment from the parliament; to prevent it, 
 he very early put himself into their service, and after the king 
 was gone out of these countries, he prevented the cavalier 
 gentry from seizing the town of Derby, and fortified it, and 
 raised a regiment of foot. These were good, stout, fighting 
 men, but the most licentious, ungovernable wretches, that 
 belonged to the parliament. As regards himself, no man 
 knew for what reason he chose that side ; for he had not 
 understanding enough to judge the equity of the cause, 
 nor piety or holiness; being a foul adulterer all the time 
 he served the parliament, and so unjust, that without any 
 remorse, he suffered his men indifferently to plunder both 
 honest men and cavaliers; so revengeful, that he pursued 
 his malice to Sir John Stanhope, upon the forementioned 
 account, with such barbarism after his death, that he, pre- 
 tending to search for arms and plate, came into the church 
 and defaced his monument that cost six hundred pounds, 
 breaking off the nose and other parts of it. He dug up a 
 garden of flowers, the only delight of his widow, upon the 
 same pretence ; and then wooed that widow, who was by all 
 the world believed to be the most prudent and affectionate of 
 womankind, till, being deluded by his hypocrisies, she con- 
 sented to marry him, and found that was the utmost point to 
 which he could carry his revenge, his future carriage making 
 it apparent he sought her for nothing else but to destroy the 
 glory of her husband and his house. This man kept the 
 journalists ^ in pension, so that whatever was done in the 
 
 ^ Sir J ohn Gell succeeded so far as to get some of his puffing intelli- 
 gence introduced even into his Memorials by Whitelock; who, p. i86, 
 
102 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 neighbouring counties^ against the enemy^ was attributed to 
 him; and thus he hath indirectly purchased himself a name 
 in story, which he never merited. He was a very bad man, 
 to sum up all in that word, yet an instrument of service to 
 the parliament in those parts. I thought it necessary to 
 insert this little account of him here, because there will be 
 often occasion to mention him in my following discourse; 
 and because, although there never was any personal acquaint- 
 ance between him and Mr. Hutchinson, yet that natural 
 antipathy which is between good and evil, rendered him a 
 very bad neighbour to Mr. Hutchinson’s garrison, and one 
 that, under the name of a friend and assistant, spoiled our 
 country, as much as our enemies. He indeed gave his men 
 leave to commit all insolences without any restraint ; whereas 
 Mr. Hutchinson took up arms to defend the country as much 
 as was possible from being a prey to rude soldiers, and did 
 oftentimes preserve it both from his and other rude troops,^ 
 which stirred up in him envy, hate, and ill-will against his 
 neighbour. He was not wise in ordering the scouts and 
 spies he kept out, and so had the worst intelligence in the 
 world. Mr. Hutchinson, on the other side, employed in- 
 genuous persons, and was better informed of the true state of 
 things, so that oftentimes he communicated those informa- 
 tions to the chief commanders, which proved the falsehood 
 of his; and that was another cause of envy. Some that 
 knew him well, said he was not valiant, though his men once 
 held him up, among a stand of pikes, while they obtained a 
 glorious victory, when the Earl of Northampton was slain; 
 certain it is he was never by his good will in a fight, but either 
 by chance or necessity; and that which made his courage 
 the more questioned was, the care he took, and the expense 
 
 talks of an expedition where he killed five of the enemy ! He likewise 
 gives him the honour of taking Shelford Manor, at least two years 
 before it was really taken by Colonel Hutchinson. It is very much to 
 be wondered at, that Mrs. Hutchinson nowhere speaks of this trial and 
 condemnation for misprison of treason, which Whitelock notes in the 
 year 1650, during the time of Mr. Hutchinson’s being in the second 
 council of state. He is said to have been convicted on the full evi- 
 dence of Bernard and Titus. Colonel Andrews, who was condemned 
 along with him, gave an attestation on his behalf a little before his 
 death. Whitelock does not say what this treason consisted in, but he 
 was pardoned by the third council, just before Cromwell’s usurpation; 
 and was among those members of parliament who opposed him boldly. 
 
 ^ To the interposition of such men as Colonel Hutchinson we must 
 attribute the proportionably small quantity of mischief that was 
 suffered by this nation, in so long and sharp a civil war as this was. 
 
His Superiority to Gell 103 
 
 he was at^ to get it weekly mentioned in the journals^ so that 
 when they had nothing else to renown him for^ they once put 
 in that the troops of that valiant commander, Sir John Gell, 
 took a dragoon with a plush doublet. Mr. Hutchinson, on 
 the other side, that did well for virtue’s sake, and not for the 
 vainglory of it, never would give anything to buy the flat- 
 teries of those scribblers; and when one of them had once, 
 while he was in town, made mention of something done at 
 Nottingham, with falsehood, and had given Gell the glory of 
 an action wherein he was not concerned, Mr. Hutchinson 
 rebuked him for it, whereupon the man begged his pardon, 
 and told him he would write as much for him the next week ; 
 but Mr. Hutchinson told him he scorned his mercenary pen, 
 warning him not to dare to lie in any of his concernments, 
 whereupon the fellow was awed, and he had no more abuse of 
 that kind. 
 
 But to turn out of this digression into another, not alto- 
 gether impertinent to the story which I would carry on. In 
 Nottinghamshire, upon the edge of Derbyshire, there dwelt 
 a man, who was of mean birth and low fortunes, yet had 
 kept company with the underling gentry of his neighbour- 
 hood. This man had the most factious, ambitious, vainglori- 
 ous, envious, and malicious nature imaginable; but he was 
 the greatest dissembler, flatterer, traitor, and hypocrite that 
 ever was, and herein had a kind of wicked policy; knowing 
 himself to be inferior to all gentlemen, he put on a vizard 
 of godliness and humility, and courted the common people 
 with all the plausibility and flattery that could be practised. 
 All this while he was addicted to many lusts, especially to 
 that of women, but practised them so secretly, that they 
 were not vulgarly taken notice of, though God, to shame 
 him, gave him up to marry a wench out of one of the ale- 
 houses he frequented; but to keep up a fame of godliness, 
 he gave large contributions to puritan preachers, who had 
 the art to stop the people’s m^ouths from speaking ill of their 
 benefactors. By a thousand arts this fellow became popular, 
 and so insinuated himself into all the gentlemen that owned 
 the parliament’s party, that till he was discovered some 
 years after, they believed him a most true-hearted, faithful, 
 vigilant, active man for the godly interest; but he could never 
 climb higher than a presbyterian persecutor, and in the end, 
 fell quite off to a declared cavalier. In Sir George Booth’s 
 
104 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 business^ thinking he could sway the scales of the country^ 
 he raised a troop, brought them into Derby, and published 
 a declaration of his own for the king; then ran away to Not- 
 tingham, and lost all his troop in the route there, and hid 
 himself till the king ^ came in, when he was rewarded for 
 his revolt with an office, which he enjoyed not many months, 
 his wife and he, and some of his children, dying altogether 
 in a few days of a fever little less than a plague. This man, 
 called Charles White, at the beginning of the civil war, got 
 a troop of dragoons, who armed and mounted themselves 
 out of devotion to the parliament's cause, and being of his 
 neighbourhood, marched forth in his conduct, he having 
 procured a commission to be their captain ; but they, having 
 stocks and families, were not willing to march as far as the 
 army, but joined themselves to those who were already in 
 arms at Derby. 
 
 After the battle at Edgehill, Sir John Digby, the high 
 sheriff of Nottinghamshire, returned from the king, and 
 had a design of securing the county against the parliament; 
 whereupon he sent out summons to all the gentlemen resi- 
 dent in the country to meet him at Newark. Mr. Hutchin- 
 son was at the house of Mr. Francis Pierrepont, the Earl of 
 Kingston’s third son, when the letter was delivered to him, 
 and another of the same to Mr. Pierrepont; and while they 
 were reading them, and considering what might be the mean- 
 ing of this summons, an honest man, of the sheriff’s neigh- 
 bourhood, came and gave them notice, that the sheriff had 
 some design in agitation; for he had assembled and armed 
 about fourscore of his neighbours, to go out with him to 
 Newark, and, as they heard, from thence to Southwell, and 
 from thence to Nottingham, through which town many 
 armed men marched day and night, to their great terror. 
 Mr. Hutchinson, upon this intimation, went home, and, 
 instead of going to meet the sheriff, sent an excuse by an 
 intelligent person, well acquainted with all the country, who 
 had orders to find out their design; which he did so well, 
 that he assured Mr. Hutchinson if he and some others had 
 gone in, they would have been made prisoners; for the 
 sheriff came into Newark with a troop of eighty men, with 
 
 ^ By the king is here meant Charles the Second; the Rebellion 
 under Sir George Booth having taken place in 1659, after the death 
 of Cromwell. 
 
Character of Plumptre 105 
 
 whom he was gone to Southwell^ and was to go the next 
 day to Nottingham^ to secure those places for the king. Mr. 
 Hutchinson immediately went with his brother and ac- 
 quainted them at Nottingham with his intelligence, which 
 they had likewise received from other hands. Although the 
 town was generally more malignant than well affected, yet 
 they cared not much to have cavalier soldiers quarter with 
 them, and therefore agreed to defend themselves against any 
 force which should come against them; and being called 
 hastily together, as the exigence required, about seven 
 hundred listed themselves, and chose Mr. George Hutchinson 
 for their captain, who having lived among them, was very 
 much loved and esteemed by them. The sheriff hearing 
 this, came not to Nottingham, but those who were now there 
 thus became engaged to prosecute the defence of themselves, 
 the town, and country, as far as they could. They were but 
 few, and those not very considerable, and some of them not 
 very hearty; but it pleased God here, as in other places, 
 to carry on his work by weak and unworthy instruments. 
 There were seven aldermen in the town, and of these only 
 Alderman James, then mayor, owned the parliament. He 
 was a very honest, bold man, but had no more than a 
 burgher’s discretion; he was yet very well assisted by his 
 wife, a woman of great zeal and courage, and with more 
 understanding than women of her rank usually have. All 
 the devout people of the town were very vigorous and ready 
 to offer their lives and families, but there was not a quarter 
 of the town that consisted of these ; the ordinary civil sort of 
 people coldly adhered to the better, but all the debauched, 
 and such as had lived upon the bishops’ persecuting courts, 
 and had been the lackeys of projectors and monopolisers 
 and the like, they were all bitterly malignant ; yet God awed 
 them, that they could not at that time hinder his people, 
 and he overruled some of their greatest enemies to assist 
 them, such as were Chadwick and Pumptre, who, at the first, 
 put themselves most forward in the business. Plumptre 
 was a doctor of physic, an inhabitant of Nottingham, who 
 had learning, natural parts, and understanding enough to 
 discern between natural civil righteousness and injustice; 
 but he was a horrible atheist, and had such an intolerable 
 pride that he brooked no superiors, and having some wit, 
 took the boldness to exercise it in the abuse of all gentlemen 
 
io6 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 wherever he came.^ Sir Thomas Hutchinson first brought 
 him into credit and practice in the country^ it having pleased 
 God to make him instrumental in the cure of Mr. George 
 Hutchinson^ who had in vain tried the skill of the best 
 doctors in England against an epileptic disease, under which 
 he laboured for some years. Upon this occasion, Sir Thomas 
 and both his sons paid him much respect, and this cure gave 
 him reputation, and introduced him into practice in all the 
 gentlemen’s houses in the country ; which he soon lost again 
 by his most abusive tongue and other ill carriages, and was 
 even got out of favour with Sir Thomas Hutchinson himself, 
 for some abusive scoffs given out against his lady. But Mr. 
 Hutchinson and his brother, in pity to him, and in remem- 
 brance of what God had done through him, still owned him, 
 and protected him a little against the bitter zealots, though 
 it was impossible for his darkness and their light long to 
 continue mixed. This man had seen enough to approve the 
 parliament’s cause, in point of civil right, and pride enough 
 to desire to break the bonds of slavery, whereby the king 
 endeavoured to chain up a free people; and upon these 
 scores, appearing high for the parliament’s interest, he was 
 admitted into the consultations of those who were then 
 putting the country into a posture of defence.^ Chadwick 
 
 ^ It said of him, in Thoroton’s History of Notts, “ He was a person 
 eminent in his profession, of great note for wit and learning, as he had 
 formerly been for poetry, when he printed a book of epigrams; ” a 
 species of composition which the more it pleases the reader, the less it 
 renders the author beloved. This inclination to sport with the feelings 
 of others was not at all likely to recommend him to Mr. Hutchinson, 
 nor make him a good associate in weighty and serious business. 
 
 ^ Doubtless many adhered to the parliament’s side merely on a civil 
 and political account, and these would naturally unite with the inde- 
 pendents, as having no inclination to support the pretensions of the 
 Presbyterians. It is said by Clarendon, that many deists took part 
 with the independents; and it is not improbable that Dr. Plump tre 
 might have an inclination at least to scepticism, as sarcasm was his 
 talent, and for this he was termed an atheist by Mrs. Hutchinson, who 
 was a rigorist. 
 
 After the deaths of Colonel Hutchinson and Dr. Plumptre, there 
 began a great friendship between their families, which lasted many 
 generations. Charles, the half-brother of Colonel Hutchinson, and his 
 successor in his estate at Owthorpe and in the borough of Nottingham, 
 was guardian of Dr. Plumptre’s son, and is represented by Thoroton to 
 have executed his trust with great fidelity. 
 
 The Editor has in his possession several pieces, in verse and prose, 
 written by the late Dr. Charles Hutchinson, in favour of the last Mr. 
 Plumptre, who represented the town of Nottingham, and in vindication 
 of him against a party headed by Langford Collin, Esq., a lineal de- 
 scendant of Colonel Hutchinson’s master gunner, who will be spoken 
 
Character of Chadwick 107 
 
 was a fellow of a most pragmatical temper^ and, to say truth, 
 had strangely wrought himself into a station unfit for him. 
 He was at first a boy that scraped trenchers in the house of 
 one of the poorest justices in the county, but yet such a one 
 as had a great deal of formality and understanding of the 
 statute law, from whom this boy picked such ends of law, 
 that he became first the justice’s, then a lawyer’s clerk. He 
 then, I know not how, got to be a parcel-judge in Ireland, 
 and came over to his own country swelled with the reputa- 
 tion of it, and set on foot a base, obsolete, arbitrary court 
 there, which the Conqueror of old had given to one Peverel, 
 his bastard, which this man entitling my lord Goring unto, 
 executed the office under him, to the great abuse of the 
 country. At the beginning of the parliament they would 
 have prosecuted him for it, but my lord Goring begged of 
 Sir Thomas Hutchinson to spare him, and promised to lay it 
 down for ever; so from the beginning of the parliament he 
 executed not that office, but having an insinuating wit and 
 tongue, procured himself to be deputy recorder of Notting- 
 ham, my lord of Clare being chief. When the king was in 
 town a little before, this man so insinuated himself into the 
 court, that, coming to kiss the king’s hand, the king told him 
 he was a very honest man; yet by flatteries and dissimu- 
 lations he kept up his credit with the godly, cutting his hair, 
 and taking up a form of godliness, the better to deceive. In 
 some of the corrupt times he had purchased the honour of a 
 barrister, though he had neither law nor learning, but he had 
 a voluble tongue, and was crafty ; and it is almost incredible 
 that one of his mean education and poverty should arrive to 
 such things as he reached. He was very poor, although he 
 got abundance of money by a thousand cheats and other 
 base ways, wherein he exercised all his life; but he was as 
 great a prodigal in spending as knave in getting. Among 
 other villanies which he secretly practised, he was a libidinous 
 goat, for which his wife, they say, paid him with making 
 him a cuckold ; yet were there not two persons to be found 
 that pretended more sanctity than these two, she having a 
 
 of hereafter; they are all in a jocose or satirical style ; but one of them, 
 a short advertisement, which too v/ell described Mr. Collin, was deemed 
 libellous, and cost Dr. Hutchinson £500, which was well repaid by Mr. 
 Plumptre’s obtaining for him a king’s living of £350 per annum. At 
 this time Mr. Plumptre and Mr. Hutchinson’s families were of the Whig 
 or Hanover party, Mr. Collin of the Tory or J acobite. 
 
io8 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 tongue no less glavering and false than his. Such baseness 
 he had^ that all the just reproaches in the world could not 
 move him^ but he would fawn upon any man that told him 
 of his villanies to his face^ even at the very time. Never 
 was a truer Judas^ since Iscariot’s time^ than he, for he would 
 kiss the man he had in his heart to kill ; he naturally delight- 
 ing in mischief and treachery, and was so exquisite a villain, 
 that he destroyed those designs he might have thriven by, 
 with overlaying them with fresh knaveries. I have been a 
 little tedious in these descriptions, yet have spoken very 
 little in comparison of what the truth would bear; indeed, 
 such assistants as these were enough to disgrace the best 
 cause by their owning of it; but the truth of God being 
 above the testimony of men, could neither receive credit from 
 the good, nor discredit from the worst men; but they were 
 not all such, who first offered themselves to carry on the 
 Lord’s work with him of whom we chiefly treat. There was 
 then dwelling at Nottingham a third son of the Earl of 
 Kingston, a man of good natural parts, but not of education 
 according to his quality, who was in the main well affected to 
 honest men and to righteous liberty ; a man of a very excel- 
 lent good nature, and full of love to all men; but his goodness 
 received a little allay by a vain-glorious pride, which could 
 not well brook that any other should outstrip him in virtue 
 and estimation.^ Mr. Francis Thornhagh, the eldest son of 
 Sir Francis Thornhagh, was a man of the most upright 
 faithful heart to God and his people, and to his country’s 
 true interest, comprehended in the parliament’s cause; a 
 man of greater valour or more noble daring, fought not for 
 them, nor indeed ever drew sword in any cause ; he was of a 
 most excellent good nature to all men, and zealous for his 
 friend; he wanted counsel and deliberation, and was some- 
 times too facile to flatterers, but had judgment enough to 
 discern his errors when they were represented to him, and 
 worth enough not to persist in an injurious mistake because 
 he had once entertained it.^ Mr. Pigott was a very religious, 
 
 ^ Mr. Francis Pierrepont, who will frequently be mentioned again in 
 the course of the story, when it will be clearly seen that Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son here speaks with candour, or rather favour of him, though he was 
 her husband’s opponent. 
 
 ^ Colonel Thornhagh is often mentioned by other writers, and always 
 with praise in his military capacity, in which only he was known to the 
 public. Mrs. Hutchinson here delineates with a masterly hand a 
 frank, open, unsuspecting, amiable soldier. The family of Colonel 
 
Mr. Widmerpoole 109 
 
 serious^ wise gentleman^ true-hearted to God and his country^ 
 of a generous and liberal nature^ and who thought nothing too 
 dear to expose^ nor too difficult to undertake^ for his friend ; 
 one that delighted not in the ruin of his neighbours^ but 
 could endure it^ rather than the destruction of religion^ law, 
 and liberty; one that wanted not courage, yet chose rather 
 to venture himself as a single person than as a leader in arms, 
 and to serve his country in counsel rather than in action ; no 
 man in his nature, and his whole deportment, showed him- 
 self more of a gentleman than he.^ There was one Mr. Wid- 
 merpoole, a man of good extraction, but reduced to a small 
 fortune, in whom had declined all the splendour of an old 
 house, and who had sunk into the condition of the middle 
 men of the country, yet had a perfect honest heart to God, 
 his country, and his friend; he had a good discretion, and 
 though older than all the rest, was so humble as to be content 
 to come in the rear of them all ; having through the declining 
 of his family, the slenderness of his estate, and the parsi- 
 mony of his nature, less interest in the country To yoke 
 with him, there was a very honest m^n, who could not be 
 reckoned among the gentry, though he was called by the 
 name of Mr. Lomax; he was in the strength and perfection 
 of his age, a stout and an understanding man, plain and 
 blunt, but withal godly, faithful to his country, and honest 
 to all men. There lived at Nottingham, a man called Mr. 
 Salisbury, who had very good abilities with his pen, upon 
 
 Thornhagh continued to flourish in the county of Nottingham so late 
 as the year 1750, at which time one of them represented the county; 
 they are believed to be now extinct in the male line, and their posses- 
 sions to have centered in a female who was the lady of Francis Ferrand 
 Foljambe, Esq. 
 
 ^ Mr. Pigott survived Colonel Hutchinson about five years. He was 
 summoned to parliament by Cromwell, but it is very uncertain whether 
 he condescended to sit or not to sit. Thoroton, in his History of 
 Nottinghamshire, says of him that “ he was a person of great parts, 
 natural and acquired; he was sheriff of the county in 1669, and died 
 presently after the summer assizes ; at which time, being in mourning 
 for his daughter Mary, wife of Robert, eldest son of Sir Francis Burdett, 
 of Formark, he gave his attendants black liveries with silver trimmings, 
 which served for his own funeral. His sobriety, ingenuity, generosity, 
 piety, and other virtues, few of his rank will ever exceed, if any equal.” 
 
 It is thought necessary to take more particular notice of what may 
 appertain to Ireton, Colonel Thornhagh, and Mr. Pigott, because they 
 are the three persons who enjoyed the greatest share in the friendship 
 and esteem of Colonel Hutchinson, and made him a due return. 
 
 The pedigree of the family of Widmerpoole, in Thoroton, shows 
 him to have been of very ancient and good descent; his ancestor 
 represented the town of Nottingham in the reign of Edward the Third. 
 
I lo Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 which he was taken in to be their secretary; but he proved 
 ambitious and froward^ and being poor^ when he was after- 
 wards made treasurer^ he fell into some temptation; but 
 carried at first a fair colour of religion and honesty. These 
 were they with whom 3f r. Hutchinson was first mated^ whose 
 character it was necessary thus far to hint at^ for the better 
 carrying on of his story. 
 
 Sir John Digby having notice that they had prevented 
 him^ by getting arms in their hands before^ came not to 
 Nottingham; where they^ having now taken up the sword, 
 saw it was not safe to lay it down again, and hold a naked 
 throat to their enemy’s whetted knives. Wherefore, upon 
 the parliament’s commission for settling the militia some time 
 before, there having been three colonels nominated, viz.. Sir 
 Francis Thornhagh, Sir Francis Molineux, and Mr. Francis 
 Pierrepont, they propounded to them to raise their regi- 
 ments. Sir Francis Molineux altogether declined; Sir 
 Francis Thornhagh appointed his son for his lieutenant- 
 colonel, and began to raise a regiment of horse, with whom 
 many of the honest men that first enlisted themselves 
 with Mr. George Hutchinson, became troopers. Mr. John 
 Hutchinson and his brother were persuaded to be lieutenant- 
 colonel and major to Colonel Pierrepont’s regiment of foot; 
 and accordingly Mr. George Hutchinson had immediately a 
 very good standing company of foot, formed out of those 
 townsmen who first came in to enlist under him. Mr. John 
 Hutchinson had a full company of very honest, godly men, 
 who came for love of him and the cause, out of the country. 
 It was six weeks before the colonel could be persuaded to put 
 on a sword, or to enlist any men, which at length he did, of 
 substantial honest townsmen ; and Mr. Poulton, a nephew of 
 Sir Thomas Hutchinson, a stout young gentleman, who had 
 seen some service abroad, was his captain-lieutenant. There 
 were two companies more raised, one under Captain Lomax, 
 and another under one Captain Scrimpshire. The first thing 
 these gentlemen did was to call home Captain White with his 
 dragoons, raised in Nottinghamshire, to the service of his 
 own country; for Sir John Gell, at Derby, had received from 
 Hull a regiment of grey coats, who were at first sent down 
 from London, for the assistance of that place, when the king 
 attempted it. They also sent to the Earl of Essex, to desire 
 that Captain Ire ton, with a troop of horse, which he had 
 
Raising Troops 1 1 1 
 
 carried out of the country into his excellency’s army^ might 
 be commanded back^ for the present service of his country^ 
 till it was put into a posture of defence; which accordingly 
 he was^ and was major of the horse regiment. They sent 
 also to the parliament^ and received from them a commission, 
 with instructions, whereby they were empowered to levy 
 forces and to raise contributions for maintaining them ; with 
 all authority for seizing delinquents, sequestrating, and the 
 like. The committee appointed were the parliament-men 
 that served for the county, Mr. Francis Pierrepont, Mr. John 
 Hutchinson, Mr. Francis Thornhagh, Mr. Gervas Pigott, 
 Mr. Henry Ireton, Mr. George Hutchinson, Mr. Joseph Wid- 
 merpoole, Mr. Gervas Lomax, Dr. Plumptre, the mayor of 
 Nottingham, Mr. James Chadwick, and Mr. Thomas Salis- 
 bury. Then did neighbouring counties everywhere associate 
 for the mutual assistance of each other; and the parliament 
 commissioned major-generals, who commanded in chief, and 
 gave out commissions to the several commanders of the regi- 
 ments. Nottinghamshire was put into the association with 
 Leicestershire and other counties, whereof Lord Grey of 
 Grooby, eldest son of the Earl of Stamford, was commander- 
 in-chief, and from him the gentlemen of Nottingham took 
 their first commissions. 
 
 The high sheriff and the malignant gentry, finding an 
 opposition they expected not, wrote a letter to Mr. Francis 
 Pierrepont and Mr. John Hutchinson, excusing the sheriff’s 
 force, that he brought with him, and desiring a meeting with 
 them, to consult for the peace of the country, security of 
 their estates, and such like fair pretences; which letter was 
 civilly answered them again, and the treaty kept on foot 
 some fourteen days, by letters signed by the Lord Chaworth, 
 Sir Thomas Williamson, Mr. Sutton, Sir Gervas Eyre, Sir 
 John Digby, Sir Roger Cooper, Mr. Palmer, Mr. John Mil- 
 lington. At length a meeting was appointed at a village in 
 the country, on the forest side, where Mr. Sutton should 
 have met Mr. John Hutchinson. Mr. Hutchinson came to 
 the place, but found not Mr. Sutton there, only the Lord 
 Chaworth came in and called for sack, and treated Mr. 
 Hutchinson very kindly; when Mr. Hutchinson, telling my 
 lord he was come according to appointment, to conclude the 
 treaty which had been between Nottingham and Newark, 
 my lord told him he knew nothing of it. Whereupon, Mr. 
 
1 12 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 Hutchinson being informed that some of my Lord Newcastle’s 
 forces were to be in that town that night, and that Mr. Sutton 
 was gone to meet them, and conduct them into the country, 
 returned to Nottingham, where he received a kind of lame 
 excuse from Mr. Sutton for his disappointing of him, and 
 for their bringing strange soldiers into Newark, which they 
 pretended was to save the town from the plunder of some 
 Lincolnshire forces. But Mr. Hutchinson, seeing all their 
 treaties were but a snare for him, would no longer amuse 
 himself about them; but being certainly informed that 
 Henderson, who commanded the soldiers at Newark, if he 
 were not himself a papist, had many Irish papists in his 
 troops, he, with the rest of the gentlemen, sent notice to all 
 the towns about Nottingham, desiring the well-affected to 
 come in to their assistance; which the ministers pressing 
 them to do, upon Christmas-day, 1642, many came to them, 
 and stayed with them till they had put themselves into some 
 posture of defence. 
 
 As soon as these strange soldiers were come into Newark, 
 they presently began to block up and fortify the town, as on 
 the other side, they at Nottingham began works about that 
 town; but neither of them being yet strong enough to 
 assault each other, they contented themselves to stand upon 
 their own defence. The Earl of Chesterfield had raised some 
 horse for the king, and was in the vale of Belvoir with them, 
 where he had plundered some houses near Mr. Hutchinson’s ; 
 whereupon Mr. Hutchinson sent a troop of horse in the night, 
 for they were not strong enough to march in the day, and 
 fetched away his wife and children to Nottingham. 
 
 The preservation of this town was a special service to the 
 parliament, it being a considerable pass into the north, which, 
 if the enemy had first possessed themselves of, the parliament 
 would have been cut off from all intercourse between the 
 north and south; especially in the winter time, when the 
 river Trent is not fordable, and only to be passed over by the 
 bridges of Nottingham and Newark, and higher up at a 
 place called Wilden Ferry, where the enemy also had a garri- 
 son.^ The attempting to preserve this place, in the midst 
 
 ^ In the place of Wilden Ferry has been substituted in modern days 
 a very beautiful bridge, called Cavendish Bridge, with a good and firm 
 road of considerable length at each end to approach it; it is about 
 midway on the high road between Loughborough and Derby. There 
 is near to it a place called Sawley Ferry, little used, and hardly at all 
 practicable in winter. 
 
Difficulties at Nottingham 113 
 
 of SO many potent enemies, was a work of no small difficulty ; 
 and nothing but an invincible courage, and a passionate zeal 
 for the interest of God and his country, could have engaged 
 Mr. Hutchinson, who did not, through youthful inconsidera- 
 tion and improvidence, want a foresight of those dangers 
 and travails he then undertook. He knew well enough that 
 the town was more than half disaffected to the parliament; 
 that had they been all otherwise, they were not half enough 
 to defend it against any unequal force; that they were far 
 from the parliament and their armies, and could not expect 
 any timely relief or assistance from them; that he himself 
 was the forlorn hope of those who were engaged with him, 
 and had then the best stake among them; that the gentle- 
 men who were on horseback, when they could no longer 
 defend their country, might at least save their lives by a 
 handsome retreat to the army; but that he must stand 
 victorious, or fall, tying himself to an indefensible town. 
 Although his colonel (Pierrepont) might seem to be in the 
 same hazard, yet he was wise enough to content himself with 
 the name, and leave Mr. Hutchinson to act in all things, the 
 glory of which, if they succeeded, he hoped to assume; if 
 they failed, he thought he had a retreat. But Mr. Hutchin- 
 son, though he knew all this, yet was he so well persuaded 
 in his conscience of the cause, and of God’s calling him to 
 undertake the defence of it, that he cast by all other con- 
 siderations, and cheerfully resigned up his life, and all other 
 particular interests, to God’s disposal, though in all human 
 probability he was more likely to lose than to save them. 
 
 He and his brother were so suddenly called into this work, 
 that they had not time beforehand to consult their father; 
 but they sent to him to buy their armour and useful swords, 
 which he did, giving them no discouragement, but promoting 
 all their desires to the parliament very effectually.^ 
 
 By reason of the coldness of the colonel, the affairs of the 
 war at Nottingham went on more tardily than otherwise 
 they would have done; but the gentlemen there, thinking it 
 
 ^ The reader is desired to bear this in mind, as it tends much to in- 
 validate the credibility of an assertion made by the stepmother of 
 these gentlemen, which will be noticed in its proper place. It is said, 
 in a note by Julius Hutchinson, Esq., that Sir Thomas Hutchinson 
 bought his two sons armour, though he knew not of their accepting 
 commissions against the king. What was the armour for? Was it to 
 serve the king against the parliament? 
 
1 14 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 would be easier to prevent Newark from being made a forti- 
 fied garrison^ than to take it when it was so^ sent over to 
 Lincoln and Derby^ to propound the business to them. At 
 lengthy about Candlemas^ it was agreed and appointed that 
 the forces of Nottingham and Derby should come on their 
 side of the town^ and those of Lincoln on the other. All 
 the disaffected gentry of both those countries^ were at that 
 time gone into Newark^ and one Ballard^ a gentleman who^ 
 decayed in his family^ and owing his education to many of 
 them^ had been bred up in the wars abroad^ was commander- 
 in-chief for the parliament in Lincolnshire. Much ado had 
 the gentlemen of that county to engage him in the design 
 against Newark; but when he could not divert them, he was 
 resolved to cast them away rather than ruin his old bene- 
 factors. He had appointed the forces of Nottingham and 
 Derby to come to a rendezvous within a mile of Newark, 
 upon Saturday, upon which day, all the persuasion the 
 Lincolnshire gentlemen could use, could not prevail with 
 him to march out, according to appointment; which those 
 at Newark had notice of, and had prepared an ambuscade 
 to have cut off all those forces if they had then come to the 
 place ; but by providence of an extraordinary stormy season, 
 they marched not till the next day, and so were preserved 
 from that danger, which no doubt was treacherously con- 
 trived. As soon as they came, being about a thousand horse, 
 foot, and dragoons, the Lincolnshire commanders informed 
 ours of the sloth and untoward carriage of Ballard, and told 
 them how that day he had played his ordnance at a mile’s 
 distance from the town; and how, when the Newark horse 
 came out to face them, upon the Beacon Hill, he would not 
 suffer a man of the Lincolnshire troops to fall upon them, 
 though the Lincoln horse were many more in number than 
 they, and in all probability might have beaten them. The 
 next day, notwithstanding Mr. Hutchinson went to him, to 
 give him an account of the forces they had brought, and to 
 receive orders, he could have none, but a careless answer to 
 stand at such a side of the town and fall on as they saw 
 occasion. Accordingly they did, and beat the enemy from 
 their works, with the loss of only four or five men, and en- 
 trenched themselves; the night coming on upon them, they 
 provided straw to have lodged in their trenches all the 
 night. On the other side of the town. Captain King, of 
 
Design Against Newark 1 1 5 
 
 Lincolnshire^ had taken a street^ cut up a chain^ and placed 
 a drake ^ in a house; whereupon the Newark gentlemen 
 were almost resolved to yield up the town^ and some of them 
 began to fly out of it^ but Ballard would not suffer the horse 
 to pursue them; only one captain went out without his 
 leave and took fifty horses^ and turned back Mr. Sutton and 
 many others that were flying out of the town. At length, 
 when he could no other way preserve his old patrons, but by 
 betraying his friends, he ordered Captain King to retreat; 
 whereupon the whole force of Newark fell upon the forces of 
 Nottingham and Derby, in their trenches, where they fought 
 very resolutely, till a Lincolnshire trooper came and bade 
 them fly for their lives, or else they were all lost men. At 
 this, two hundred Lincolnshire men, whom Ballard with 
 much entreaty had sent to relieve them, first ran away, and 
 then Sir John GelFs grey coats made their retreat after them. 
 Major Hutchinson and Captain White all this while kept their 
 trenches, and commanded their Nottingham men not to stir, 
 who accordingly shot there, till all their powder was spent. 
 The lieutenant-colonel in vain importuned Ballard to send 
 them ammunition and relief, but could obtain neither, and 
 so they were forced, unwillingly, to retreat, which they did 
 in such good order, the men first, and then their captains, that 
 they lost not a man in coming off. The town was sallying 
 upon them, but they discharged a drake and beat them back. 
 The next day all the captains importuned Ballard that they 
 might fall on again, but he would neither consent nor give 
 any reason for his denial; so that the Nottingham forces 
 returned with great dissatisfaction, though Ballard, to stop 
 their mouths, gave them two pieces of ordnance. 
 
 It being necessary to carry on the main story, for the better 
 understanding the motion of those lesser wheels that moved 
 within the great orb, I shall now name in what posture things 
 were abroad in the kingdom, while these affairs I relate were 
 transacted at Nottingham. After the retreat from Brainford 
 fight, a treaty was ineffectually carried on between the king 
 and parliament from the 31st of January, 1642, to the 17th 
 of April, 1643; after which my Lord of Essex marched to 
 Reading, where the king had a garrison, and besieged it. 
 The king’s horse came to relieve it, and had an encounter 
 with my lord’s army, wherein many gentlemen of quality fell 
 ^ Drake, a piece of cannon so called. 
 
ii6 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 on the king’s side, the king himself being in a place where he 
 saw them. A few days after, Reading was yielded upon 
 composition to the Earl of Essex, whose soldiers having been 
 promised their pay and a gratuity to spare the plund^ of the 
 town, fell into a mutiny upon the failing of the performance, 
 and many of them disbanded. Among those who remained 
 there was a great mortality, occasioned by the infected air in 
 the town of Reading; insomuch that my lord was forced to 
 return and quarter his sick and weak army about Kingston 
 and those towns near London. And now were all the coun- 
 tries in England no longer idle spectators, but several stages, 
 whereon the tragedy of the civil war was acted; except the 
 eastern association, where Mr. Oliver Cromwell, by his dili- j 
 gence, prevented the designs of the royal party; these were 
 so successful the first year in all other places, and the parlia- 
 ment’s condition appeared so desperate, that many of the 
 members of both houses, ran away to Oxford to the king, 
 and others sat among them conspiring against them. One 
 plot, conducted by Mr. Waller, and carried on among many 
 disaffected persons in the city, was near taking effect, to the 
 utter subversion of the parliament and people ; but that God, 
 by his providence, brought it timely to light, and the authors * 
 were condemned, and some of them executed; but Waller, ^ 
 for being more a knave than the rest, and impeaching his ^ 
 accomplices, was permitted to buy his life for ten thousand \ 
 pounds. This summer all the west was reduced by the king, 
 the Earl of Stamford yielding up Exeter, and Colonel Fiennes < 
 Bristol. Sir William Waller had lost all his army, which i 
 had been victorious in many encounters. The king was ^ 
 master of all or most part of Wales, and the parliament had ; 
 no army left in the field, so that had he taken the opportunity 
 to have gone immediately to London that summer, he had 
 accomplished his design; but being denied the town of • 
 Gloucester, and taking it in disdain, that that town, in the \ 
 heart of the land, should make a resistance when the greater | 
 cities were yielded to him, he stopped his course to take in 
 that place, where he stayed to turn the tide of his good | 
 fortune, as his general, my Lord of Newcastle did at the | 
 siege of Hull.^ My Lord Newcastle was general of the north, 
 
 ^ The impolicy of this measure is more fully noticed and explained, 
 and the cause of it set down by Sir Phihp Warwick, in his Memoirs, 
 p. 260. “ One or the like counsel in both quarters, north and west, soon 
 
Siege of Gloucester 1 1 7 
 
 and master of all the strong places to the very borders of 
 Scotland^ and formidable to all the neighbouring counties. 
 Only the Lord Fairfax, with his son Sir Thomas, headed all 
 the religious, honest Englishmen they could raise in those 
 parts, and with a far inferior force, kept him in play, and in 
 several skirmishes came off conquerors.^ But as the fortune 
 of the parliament declined in other places, so those who had 
 not principle strong enough to hold them fast to a just, 
 though falling cause, sought early to secure their lives by 
 treasons which destroyed them. The Earl of Newcastle’s 
 army was judged to be about eight thousand, horse and foot; 
 my Lord Fairfax had not above two thousand one hundred 
 foot, and seven troops of horse. After this there was a great 
 accession of strength to my Lord Newcastle, by the coming, 
 first of the Lord Goring, with many old commanders; then 
 of General King, with six thousand arms, from beyond the 
 seas; then of the queen herself, who, in February 1642,^ 
 landed near Sunderland, coming out of Holland, with large 
 provisions of arms, ammunition, and commanders of note, 
 with which she was convoyed, by the Earl of Newcastle, to 
 York. Thither came to her the Earl of Montrose, out of 
 
 blasted the prosperity in each place, for the king pitched upon that 
 fatal resolution, recommended to him by Lord Culpeper, of besieging 
 Gloucester, thinking it a good policy not to leave a strong town behind 
 him; but the counsel proved fatal, for had the king at that time re- 
 solved in himself to have struck at the proud head of London, and had 
 had authority enough at that time to have required the Earl of New- 
 castle to have joined with him, humanly speaking, he had raised such 
 confusion among the two houses and the Londoners, that they had 
 either sent him his own terms, of if they had fought him, most probably 
 he had been victorious. But the king fixes on Gloucester and the Earl 
 of Newcastle upon Hull, upon the advice of his Lieutenant-General 
 King, who was suspected.” 
 
 A few pages further, he reckons among the king’s misfortunes the 
 Earl of Newcastle’s too much affecting independency, which may 
 serve to account for some other matters which will occur; but it is 
 here natural to observe, that the king having, by separating himself 
 from his parliament, lost his acknowledged and unquestionable 
 authority, he retained only a very precarious one over the different 
 chiefs of his party: which, on many occasions, turned to the disad- 
 vantage of his cause. After all, it is in no way certain that his march to 
 London would have been so effectual and so little opposed, as it is here 
 taken for granted it would have been. 
 
 ^ In fact, the resistance so long maintained, and frequently with 
 such success, by Lord Fairfax and his sons, against so superior a force, 
 has been always thought next to miraculous, and marked out Sir 
 Thomas as the fittest man in the kingdom to command the forces and 
 fix the fortunes of the parliament. 
 
 ^ Clarendon says February, 1643. 
 
1 1 8 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 Scotland^ with a hundred and twenty horse: then Sir Hugh 
 Cholmly^ governor of Scarborough, revolted from the parlia- 
 ment, whereof he was a member, and came to the queen, 
 with three hundred men. Browne Bushell also, who was left 
 in charge of the town, yielded it up. Then had the queen’s 
 practices wrought so upon the two Hothams, that their 
 treason was not altogether undiscerned; but my Lord 
 Fairfax, having only strong presumptions, and no power to 
 secure them, while they had the strong town of Hull in their 
 hands, all he could do was to be vigilant and silent, till God 
 should give opportunity to secure that great danger. My 
 Lord of Newcastle had given the papists in the north com- 
 missions to arm in the king’s defence,^ and now the queen 
 was preparing to march up with the assistance she had gotten 
 to the king. Those countries through which she was to pass, 
 could not but be sensible of their danger, especially the 
 gentlemen at Nottingham, who were but a few young men, 
 environed with garrisons of the enemy, and scarcely firm 
 among themselves, and hopeless of relief from above, where 
 the parliament, struggling for life, had not leisure to bind up 
 a cut finger. But God was with them in these difficulties, 
 and gave an unexpected issue. 
 
 The Earl of Kingston a few months stood neuter, and 
 would not declare himself for either party, and being a man 
 of great wealth and dependencies, many people hung in sus- 
 pense, by his example ; whereupon the gentlemen of Notting- 
 ham often spoke to his son, to persuade his father to declare 
 himself; but he told them, he knew his father’s affections 
 were firm to the parliament, that he had encouraged him to 
 join with them, and promised him money to carry it on, and 
 such like things, which he continually assured them ; till the 
 colonel’s cold behaviour, and some other passages, made 
 them at length, those at least who were firm to the cause, 
 jealous both of the father and the son. Hereupon, when 
 the danger grew more imminent, and my lord lay out a 
 brave prey to the enemy, they sent Captain Lomax, one of 
 
 1 The king pretended never to do this himself; but the Earl of New- 
 castle did it, as most people would in his place, and avowed it as it 
 became him. Sir Philip Warwick recites a witticism of his on the 
 occasion of his going to see him at the siege of Hull, where his men 
 being very badly entrenched, he said to Sir Philip, who remarked it, 
 “You hear us often called the popish army, but you see we trust not 
 in our good works'^ 
 
Death of the Earl of Kingston 1 1 9 
 
 the committee^ to understand his affections from himself, 
 and to press him to declare for the parliament, in that so 
 needful a season. My lord, professing himself to him as 
 rather desirous of peace, and fully resolved not to act on 
 either side, made a serious imprecation on himself in these 
 words : “ When,” said he, ‘‘ I take arms with the king against 
 the parliament, or with the parliament against the king, let 
 a cannon-bullet divide me between them; ” which God was 
 pleased to bring to pass a few months after ; for he, going to 
 Gainsborough, and there taking up arms for the king, was 
 surprised by my Lord Willoughby, and, after a handsome 
 defence of himself, yielded, and was put prisoner into a 
 pinnace, and sent down the river to Hull; when my Lord 
 Newcastle’s army marching along the shore, shot at the 
 pinnace, and being in danger, the Earl of Kingston went up 
 on the deck to show himself and to prevail with them to for- 
 bear shooting; ^ but as soon as he appeared, a cannon-bullet 
 flew from the king’s army, and divided him in the middle, 
 and thus, being then in the parliament’s pinnace, he perished 
 according to his own unhappy imprecation. His declaring 
 himself for the king, as it enforced the royal, so it weakened 
 the other party. 
 
 Sir Richard Byron was come to be governor of Newark. 
 A house of my Lord Chaworth’s in the vale was fortified, and 
 some horse put into it, and another house of the Earl of 
 Chesterfield’s, both of them within a few miles of Notting- 
 ham.2 Ashby de la Zouch, within eighteen miles of Notting- 
 ham, on the other side, was kept by Mr. Hastings. On the 
 forest side of the country, the Earl of Newcastle’s house had 
 a garrison, and another castle of his, within a mile, was 
 garrisoned. Sir Roger Cooper’s house, at Thurgaton, was 
 also kept; so that Nottingham, thus beleaguered with 
 enemies, seemed very unlikely to be able either to resist the 
 enemy or support itself.^ Therefore the gentlemen, upon 
 the news of my Lord Newcastle’s intended approach that 
 way, sent up Mr. John Hutchinson to acquaint the parlia- 
 
 ^ This is a most singular story, and no doubt peculiarly gratifying to 
 a fatalist to recite; it is however assuredly true, being mentioned by 
 several historians, with only the difference of his being said to be under, 
 instead of on, the deck ; the latter of which is by far the most probable. 
 
 ^ Wiverton-house and Shelford manor. 
 
 ^ In a letter to the king, the queen writes from Newark that “ all the 
 force the parliament had in those parts was only one thousand men in 
 Nottingham.” 
 
I 20 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 merit with their condition; who so negotiated their business 
 that he procured an order for Colonel Cromwell^ Colonel 
 Hubbard^ my Lord Grey^ and Sir John Gell^ to unite their 
 forces^ and rendezvous at Nottingham^ to prevent the queen 
 from joining with the king^ and to guard those parts against 
 the cavaliers. Accordingly^ in the Whitsuii holidays, 1643, 
 they all came, and the younger Hotham also brought some 
 more rude troops out of Yorkshire, and joined himself to 
 them. The forces now united at Nottingham were about 
 five or six thousand, my Lord Grey being their commander- 
 in-chief. Upon the urgency of the gentlemen at Nottingham, 
 he drew them out against Wiverton-house in the vale, but, 
 upon a groundless apprehension, quitted it, when they might 
 in all probability have taken it, and retreated to Nottingham, 
 where, two or three days after, the enemy’s horse faced them; 
 but they would not be prevailed upon to go out, though they 
 were not inferior to them. Young Hotham, at that time, 
 carried on a private treaty with the queen, and every day 
 received and sent trumpets, of which he would give no 
 account. Then was Nottingham more sadly distressed by 
 their friends than by their enemies ; for Hotham’s and Gell’s 
 men not only lay upon free quarter, as all the rest did, but 
 made such a havoc and plunder of friend and foe, that it was 
 a sad thing for any one that had a generous heart to behold 
 it. When the committee offered Hotham to assign him 
 quarters for his men, because they were better acquainted 
 with the country, he would tell them he was no stranger in 
 any English ground. He had a great deal of wicked wit, and 
 would make sport with the miseries of the poor country; 
 and, having treason in his heart, licensed his soldiers, which 
 were the scum of mankind, to all the villanies in the country 
 that might make their party odious. Mr. Hutchinson was 
 much vexed to see the country wasted, and that little part of 
 it, which they could only hope to have contribution from, 
 eaten up by a company of men who, instead of relieving, 
 devoured them; and Hotham’s soldiers, having taken away 
 goods from some honest men, he went to him to desire resti- 
 tution of them, and that he would restrain his soldiers from 
 plunder; whereupon Hotham replied, ‘‘ he fought for 
 liberty, and expected it in all things.” Replies followed, 
 and they grew to high language ; Hotham bidding him, if he 
 found himself grieved, to complain to the parliament. Mr. 
 
I 21 
 
 Escape of Hotham 
 
 Hutchinson was passionately concerned^ and this being in 
 the open field, Colonel Cromwell, who had likewise had great 
 provocations from him, began to show himself affected with 
 the country’s injuries, and the idle waste of such a consider- 
 able force, through the inexperience of the chief commander, 
 and the disobedience and irregularities of the others. So 
 they, at that time, being equally zealous for the public ser- 
 vice, advised together to seek a remedy, and despatched 
 away a post to London, who had no greater joy in the world 
 than such employments as tended to the displacing of great 
 persons, whether they deserved it or not; him they sent 
 away immediately from the place, to inform the parliament 
 of Hotham’s carriages, and the strong presumptions they 
 had of his treachery, and the ill management of their forces. 
 This they two did, without the privity of any of the other 
 gentlemen or commanders; some of whom were little less 
 suspected themselves, and others, as my Lord Grey, through 
 credulous good nature, were too great favourers of Hotham. 
 The messenger was very diligent in his charge, and returned, 
 as soon as it was possible, with a commitment of Hotham; 
 who accordingly was then made prisoner in Nottingham 
 Castle, and Sir John Meldrum was sent down to be com- 
 mander-in-chief of all those united forces. When they 
 marched away, a troop of my Lord Grey’s, having the charge 
 of guarding Hotham towards London, suffered him to escape, 
 and thereby put the town of Hull into a great hazard; but 
 that the father and son were there unexpectedly surprised, 
 sent up prisoners to London, and after some time executed. 
 Those who knew the opinion Cromwell afterwards had of Mr. 
 Hutchinson, believed he registered this business in his mind 
 as long as he lived, and made it his care to prevent him from 
 being in any power or capacity to pursue him to the same 
 punishment, when he himself deserved it; but from that 
 time, growing into more intimate acquaintance with him, he 
 always used to profess the most hearty affections for him, 
 and the greatest delight in his plainness and open-heartedness 
 imaginable.^ 
 
 ^ Those who consider and represent Cromwell as a prodigy not only 
 of treachery, design, ambition, and artifice, but likewise of sagacity 
 and foreknowledge, will deem this a proof of his having thus early con- 
 ceiyed his scheme of aggrandisement; but to those who are better 
 satisfied with the probable than the marvellous it will seem to prove 
 no such thing; they must well know that if he had so soon any great 
 
122 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 As soon as Sir John Meldrum came down to his charge at 
 Nottingham^ the queen’s forces came and faced the town; 
 whereupon the cannon discharging upon them^ the Duke of 
 Vendome’s son and some few others were slain. The parlia- 
 ment horse drew out of Nottingham to receive the queen’s, 
 but they came not on, after this execution of the cannon, for 
 in the meantime the queen was passing by, and although the 
 parliament horse pursued them, yet they would not engage, 
 for it was not their business ; so when they saw they had lost 
 their design, the horse returned again to Nottingham, where 
 the foot had stayed all the while they were out. When the 
 Earl of Kingston declared himself for the king, he raised 
 what forces he could, and went into Gainsborough, a town in 
 Lincolnshire, situated upon the river Trent. There, before 
 he was fortified, my Lord Willoughby, of Parham, surprised 
 the town and all his soldiers, who disputed it as long as they 
 could, but being conquered, were forced to yield; and the 
 earl himself retreated into the strongest house, which he kept 
 till it was all on flame round him, and then giving himself 
 up only to my Lord Willoughby, he was immediately sent 
 prisoner to Hull, and shot according to his own imprecation. 
 Immediately part of my Lord Newcastle’s army, with all 
 that Newark could make, besieged my Lord Willoughby in 
 Gainsborough; and General Essex sent a command to Sir 
 John Meldrum to draw all the horse and foot he could out of 
 
 views, they must have been very distant and indistinct ; they will find 
 here only the first of a long series of instances, wherein will be seen the 
 quick and clear discernment, the strong and well-poised judgment, 
 the promptitude and firmness of decision, which enabled him to seize 
 and convert to his advantage every opportunity that presented itself, 
 and even the actions, thoughts, and inclinations, of other men; and 
 they will see united to these such a command over his own thoughts and 
 passions as permitted exactly so much, and no more of them than was 
 convenient, to appear; these qualities, though less astonishing than 
 the prescience and almost the power of creating events, which is at- 
 tributed to him, would and did equally well answer the purpose of his 
 progression; which he effected in such a manner as to fill with the 
 greatest propriety all the intermediate situations through which he 
 passed, to take as it were a firm footing at each gradation, and to 
 arrive at the pinnacle of power without having once run any consider- 
 able risk of an overthrow in his career. Such rational observers will 
 likewise see here, what will in the sequel still more strikingly appear, 
 that if he must be called a traitor, he was not of that paltry treachery 
 which sacrifices a man’s party to self; he was steadily bent on pro- 
 curing the triumph of his own party over their opponents, but too 
 covetous of commanding his party himself. It may be thought there 
 wanted but little, perhaps only the survivance of Ireton, to have made 
 Cromwell intrinsically as well as splendidly great. 
 
Takes Charge of Nottingham Castle 123 
 
 Nottingham^ to relieve my lord, leaving only a garrison in 
 the castle of Nottingham. Sir John Meldrum called the 
 committee of Nottingham together, to consult what was to 
 be done for the settlement of the place, which upon delibera- 
 tion he had judged it not fit to leave in the hands it was, 
 nor in Colonel Pierrepont’s, who, with some appearance, lay 
 under suspicion at that time; and therefore conceiving Mr. 
 Hutchinson the most able to manage, and the most respon- 
 sible for it, both Sir John and the whole committee ordered 
 him to take the castle into his charge; which, though there 
 were many causes why he should decline, yet believing that 
 God hereby called him to the defence of his country, and 
 would protect him in all the dangers and difficulties he led 
 him into, he accepted it, and on the 29th June, 1643, received 
 an order for that government from Sir John Meldrum and 
 the whole committee. Whereunto Col. Pierrepont sub- 
 scribed, though with a secret discontent in his heart; not 
 from any ill opinion or ill affection he had to Mr. Hutchin- 
 son’s person, but because he resented it as a great affront 
 that himself should be passed by. It is true that this dis- 
 content produced some envious and malicious practices, 
 secretly in him, against Mr. Hutchinson, who however in the 
 end overcame him, with so many good offices, in requital of 
 his bad ones, that he lived and died full of love, and acknow- 
 ledgment of kindness to him. 
 
 The castle was built upon a rock, and nature had made it 
 capable of very strong fortification, but the buildings were 
 very ruinous and uninhabitable, neither affording room to 
 lodge soldiers nor provisions. The castle stands at one end 
 of the town, upon such an eminence as commands the chief 
 streets of the town. There had been enlargements made to 
 this castle after the first building of it. There was a strong 
 tower, which they called the old tower, built upon the top of 
 all the rock, and this was that place where Queen Isabel, the 
 mother of King Edward the Third, was surprised with her 
 paramour Mortimer, who, by secret windings and hollows in 
 the rock, came up into her chamber from the meadows lying 
 low under it, through which there ran a little rivulet, called 
 the Line, almost under the castle rock. At the entrance of 
 this rock there was a spring, which was called Mortimer’s 
 Well, and the cavern Mortimer’s Hole. The ascent to the 
 top is very high, and it is not without some wonder that at 
 
124 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 the top of all the rock there should be a spring of water. In 
 the midway to the top of this tower there is a little piece of 
 the rock^ on which a dove-cote had been built, but the 
 governor took down the roof of it, and made it a platform for 
 two or three pieces of ordnance, which commanded some 
 streets and all the meadows better than the higher tower. 
 Under that tower, which was the old castle, there was a 
 larger castle, where there had been several towers and many 
 noble rooms, but the most of them were down; the yard of 
 that was pretty large, and without the gate there was a very 
 large yard that had been walled, but the walls were all down, 
 only it was situated upon an ascent of the rock, and so stood a 
 pretty height above the streets ; and there were the ruins of 
 an old pair of gates, with turrets on each side. 
 
 Before the castle, the town was on one side of a close, 
 which commanded the fields approaching the town; which 
 close the governor afterwards made a platform. Behind it 
 was a place called the Park, that belonged to the castle, but 
 then had neither deer nor trees in it, except one tree, growing 
 under the castle, which was almost a prodigy, for from the 
 root to the top, there was not a straight twig or branch in 
 it; some said it was planted by King Richard the Third, and 
 resembled him that set it. On the other side the castle, was 
 the little river of Line, and beyond that, large flat meadows, 
 bounded by the river Trent. In the whole rock there were 
 many large caverns, where a great magazine and many 
 hundred soldiers might have been disposed, if they had been 
 cleansed and prepared for it; and they might have been 
 kept secure from any danger of firing the magazines by any 
 mortar-pieces shot against the castle. In one of these places, 
 it is reported, that one David, a Scotch king, was kept in 
 cruel durance, and with his nails, had scratched on the wall 
 the story of Christ and his twelve apostles. The castle was 
 not defended by lateral fortifications, and there were no 
 works about it, when Mr. Hutchinson undertook it, but only 
 a little breastwork, before the outermost gate. It was as ill 
 provided as fortified, there being but ten barrels of powder, 
 eleven hundred and fifty pounds of butter, and as much 
 cheese, eleven quarters of bread corn, seven beeves, two 
 hundred and fourteen flitches of bacon, five hundred and 
 sixty fishes, and fifteen hogsheads of beer. As soon as the 
 governor received his charge, he made proclamation in the 
 
Mutiny Concerning the Ordnance i 2 5 
 
 town^ that whatsoever honest persons desired to secure them- 
 selves or their goods in the castle^ should have reception 
 there, if they would repair their quarters ; which divers well- 
 affected men accepting, it was presently made capable of 
 receiving 400 men commodiously. 
 
 In the beginning of July, 1643, Sir John Meldrum, with 
 all the force that was quartered in Nottingham, marched 
 forth to the relief of Gainsborough, leaving the town to be 
 guarded by few more than the very townsmen. There had 
 been large works made about it, which would have required 
 at least three thousand men to man and defend well, and 
 upon these works there were about fourteen guns, which the 
 governor, when the forces were marching away, before they 
 went, drew up to the castle; whereupon the townsmen, 
 especially those that were ill-affected to the parliament, 
 made a great mutiny, threatening they would pull the castle 
 down, but they would have their ordnance again upon their 
 works, and wishing it on fire, and not one stone upon another. 
 Hereupon the governor sent Alderman Drury, with fourteen 
 more, who were heads of this mutiny, prisoners to Derby, 
 whither Major Ireton convoyed them with his troop. The 
 reasons which made the governor carry the ordnance from 
 the town-works up into the castle were: — First, That the 
 town, being so ill-affected, the ordnance remaining in it, 
 would but be an invitation to the enemy to come to take 
 them away, and a booty for them if they should. Secondly, 
 He had often visited the guards, and found them much 
 exposed by their carelessness, wherefore he thought it his 
 duty to preserve them, by soldiers more under his command. 
 Thirdly, Intelligence was brought to the committee, by a 
 friend, then with the Earl of Newcastle, that Mr. Francis 
 Pierrepont kept intelligence with his mother, the Countess of 
 Kingston, carrying on a design for betraying the town to 
 the earl; and that letters were carried between them by a 
 woman, who often came to town to the colonel ; and that two 
 aldermen and a chief officer, employed about the ordnance, 
 were confederates in the plot; whereupon a suspected can- 
 nonier was secured, who, as soon as he obtained his liberty, 
 ran away to Newark. Fourthly, When the town was full of 
 troops, there had been several attempts to poison and betray 
 them, which, if it should be again attempted, after the most 
 of the forces were gone, might prove effectual. Fifthly, 
 
126 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 The main reason was^ that if the town should be surprised or 
 betrayed (which was then most to be feared), the ordnance 
 would be useless ; if any considerable force came against the 
 town, it was impossible then to keep the works against them, 
 with so few men, and it would be difficult, at such a time, to 
 draw off the artillery; if any force they were able to deal 
 with came, it would then be time enough, after the alarm 
 was given, to draw them to the works, unless they were 
 surprised. 
 
 It was not only the town rnalignants that murmured at the 
 drawing up of the ordnance, but Dr. Plumptre, hearing that 
 the forces were to march away, was raging at it; whereupon 
 being answered, that it was more for the public interest of the 
 cause, in great passion he replied, “ What is the cause to me 
 if my goods be lost? ’’ The governor told him, he might 
 prevent that hazard and secure them in the castle. He 
 replied, It pitied him to soil them, and he had rather the 
 enemy had them, than they should be spoiled in removing.” 
 While this was boiling upon his spirit, he met the governor, 
 with some other gentlemen, in the street, and began to rail 
 at him for countenancing the godly townsmen, whom he 
 called a company of puritanical prick-eared rascals, and said, 
 that the worst of the rnalignants the governor had sent out 
 of the town, were honester men than the best of those he 
 favoured; and in spite of his teeth he^would have three of 
 the most eminent of them turned out of the castle. The 
 governor telling him, he would maintain them as the most 
 faithful friends to the cause, Plumptre replied he was as 
 honest to the cause as the governor. ‘‘No,” said the 
 governor (who was not ignorant of his atheism), “ that you 
 cannot be, for you go not upon the same principles.” The 
 doctor told him, it was false, with such uncivil insolence, 
 that the governor struck him, at which he departed quietly 
 home ; and after two or three days, retired with his wife and 
 children to the house of Mr. Parkyns of Bunney, who was at 
 that time in arms against the parliament, where he stayed 
 till the parliament-forces were routed, and Nottingham 
 castle summoned and preparing for a siege; and then he 
 sent a ridiculous challenge to the governor, with all the 
 foolish circumstances imaginable, which the governor, at 
 that present, only answered with contempt. The pretence 
 he made was a distress, wherein the committee had employed 
 
Gainsborough Again Besieged 127 
 
 some of the governor’s soldiers^ for the levying of an assess- 
 ment^ which his brother would not pay, and this distress he 
 called the governor’s affront to his family. Though these 
 passages may seem too impertinent here, yet as they have 
 been grounds and beginnings of injurious prosecutions, 
 wherewith the governor was afterwards much exercised, it 
 was not altogether unnecessary to insert them; since even 
 these little things were links in the chain of providences 
 which measured out his life.^ 
 
 All the horse that had been raised in Nottinghamshire, 
 marched away with Sir John Meldrum, namely, the troops of 
 Colonel Thornhagh, Major Ireton, Captain White, and 
 Captain Farmer; which, together with Captain Lomax and 
 Captain Schrimpshire’s foot companies, joining with Colonel 
 Cromwell’s men, marched to Gainsborough, and engaged those 
 that besieged it, and were victorious, killing their general. 
 Sir Charles Cavendish, with many more commanders, and 
 some hundreds of soldiers; and this was opportunely done, 
 as my Lord Newcastle was hastening to come over the 
 water and join them, and who, by a bridge of boats, passed 
 all his army over, and came near Gainsborough, just in a 
 season to behold the rout of all his men. The parliament’s 
 forces expected he would have fallen upon them, and drew 
 up in a body and faced him, but he advanced not; so they 
 contented themselves by relieving Gainsborough, and made 
 a very honourable retreat to Lincoln; but Gainsborough 
 not being fortified, nor provided, this relief did not much 
 advantage them, for my Lord Newcastle again besieged it, 
 which was rendered to him, after eight days, upon conditions 
 honourable for the defendants, though they were not per- 
 formed by the besiegers; for all my Lord Willoughby’s men 
 were disarmed contrary to articles,^ and with them, some 
 of the Nottingham soldiers that had gone into the town to 
 refresh themselves, and so were shut up with them, when 
 my lord laid siege to it ; the rest had gone to Lincoln. They 
 had behaved themselves very well in the fight, when Captain 
 White received a wound in his hand in the forlorn hope; 
 Colonel Thornhagh, who had fought very gallantly, was 
 
 ^ To some readers the recital of these bickerings and intrigues may 
 seem little interesting, to others highly so ; certain it is, that whoever 
 refuses to read them, refuses to acquaint himself with the temper of 
 those times, which they characterise in the most peculiar manner. 
 
 * Particularly noticed by Whitelock. 
 
128 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 taken prisoner^ and after he was stripped of his arms and 
 coat, a major of the enemy’s, whom the colonel had slightly 
 wounded in the fervour of the fight, came and basely wounded 
 the colonel, being disarmed, so that he left him for dead. 
 But by the good providence of God, that wound, by which 
 the enemy intended to give him death, gave him liberty; 
 for coming to himself a little after his hurt, he crept into one 
 of his own tenant’s houses, and there had his wounds bound 
 up, and found means to get to Lincoln, from whence all the 
 forces that went from Nottingham dispersed into different 
 services. Major Ireton quite left Colonel Thornhagh’s regi- 
 ment, and began an inseparable league with Colonel Crom- 
 well, whose son-in-law he afterwards was. None of them 
 could return to Nottingham, by reason of my Lord New- 
 castle’s army, which lay between them and their home. 
 
 And now it was time for them at Nottingham to expect 
 my Lord Newcastle, which the governor made provision for 
 with all the diligence that it was possible under so many 
 difficulties and obstacles, which would to any one else have 
 been discouragements; but he had so high a resolution that 
 nothing conquered it. The townsmen, through discontent 
 at the drawing out of the forces, whereby their houses, 
 families, and estates were exposed, began to envy, then to 
 hate the castle, as grieved that anything should be preserved 
 when all could not; and indeed those who were more con- 
 cerned in private interests than in the cause itself, had some 
 reason, because the neighbourhood of the castle, when it was 
 too weak to defend them, would endanger them. In this 
 hate and discontent, all the soldiers being townsmen, except 
 some of the governor’s own company, they resolved they 
 would not go into the castle to behold the ruin of their 
 houses ; little considering that when the governor first came 
 into Nottingham to defend them, at their earnest desire, he 
 left a house and a considerable estate to the mercy of the 
 enemy, rather desiring to advance the cause than to secure 
 his own stake ; but their mean and half-aff ected hearts were 
 not capable of such things. The governor, perceiving this 
 defection, set some of the most zealous honest men to find 
 out how many there were in the town who, neglecting all 
 private interests, would cheerfully and freely come in and 
 venture all with him; intending, if he could not have found 
 enough to defend the place, that he would have sent to other 
 
Preparations for a Siege 1 29 
 
 neighbouring garrisons to have borrowed some. Upon this 
 inquiry, it was found that many of Colonel Pierrepont’s own 
 company were desirous to come in, but first wished to know 
 their colonel’s resolution as to how he would dispose of them ; 
 whereupon a hall was called, and the danger of the place 
 declared to the whole town, that they might have time to 
 provide for their goods and persons before the enemy came 
 upon them. The colonel being present, his company asked 
 him what he would advise them to do ; to whom his answer 
 was, “You have but three ways to choose, either leave the 
 town and secure yourselves in some other parliament- 
 garrisons, or list into the castle,^ or stand on the works and 
 have your throats cut.” Two or three days after this he 
 went to his mother’s, and carried his children with part of his 
 goods, and sent his wife to Sir Gervas Clifton’s house. Not- 
 withstanding this public resolution in the hall to his com- 
 pany, he told them, and many others in private, that he 
 preferred the interest of the town above that of his life, and 
 would expose his life for the good of it, and stand on the 
 works of the town as long as they could be defended, and 
 when they could no longer be kept, he would retire to some 
 other parliament-garrison. Others he told, he scorned that 
 his colours should serve in the castle; that if his company 
 went up thither he would get him a new one, which should 
 follow him wherever he went, and many more such things in 
 private; but he openly, both to the governor and others, 
 approved and encouraged their going into the castle. Ac- 
 cording to his advice, the townsmen, as they were diversely 
 affected, disposed of themselves; the malignants all laid 
 down their arms and stayed in the town, but some honest 
 and well-affected, not bold enough to stand the hazard, went 
 to other parliament - garrisons and served there ; others 
 secured themselves, their goods, and families in the country; 
 some enlisted into the castle; one Alderman Nix, captain of 
 two hundred, gave up his commission, and disbanded all his 
 men except about forty, who came into the castle and filled 
 up the broken companies there. At length, out of all the 
 
 ^ The particular account which has before been spoken of, has in this 
 place a little difference of expression, which yet perhaps signifies much. 
 There Colonel Pierrepont says, “ List into the castle with JohUy for so 
 in a jesting way he used to call Colonel Hutchinson,” alluding no 
 doubt to his frank and downright mode of speaking and acting. 
 
 £ 
 
130 Memoirs of* Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 four companies and the whole town^ about 300 men enlisted 
 into the castle. 
 
 The governor had procured forty barrels of powder, and 
 two thousand weight of match from London, and had in- 
 creased the store of provision as much as the present poverty 
 of their condition would permit him. Then the committee 
 of Nottingham, so many of them as were remaining in the 
 town, and all the ministers of the parliament’s party there, 
 came up to the castle, and, with the officers of the garrison, 
 ate at the governor’s, to his very great charge; considering 
 that he was so far from receiving pay at that time, that all 
 the money he could procure of his own credit, or take up with 
 others, he was forced to expend for the several necessities 
 of the soldiers and garrison ; yet were the soldiers then, and 
 a long time after, kept together as long as they could live, 
 without any pay, and afterwards paid part in victuals, and 
 the rest run on in arrears.^ 
 
 The townsmen who came into the castle disposed their 
 families into several villages in the country ; and at length a 
 trumpet was sent, for a safe conduct for a gentleman, from 
 my Lord Newcastle; and having it. Major Cartwright came 
 from him, with a summons for the delivery of the town and 
 castle, to which the committee for the town, and the governor 
 for the castle, returned a civil defiance in writing, about the 
 loth day of August. Cartwright, having received it, and 
 being treated with wine by the governor and the rest of the 
 officers, grew bold in the exercise of an abusive wit he had, 
 and told both the Mr. Hutchinsons that they were sprightly 
 young men, but when my lord should come with his army, 
 he would find them in other terms, beseeching my lord to 
 spare them, as misled young men, and to suffer them to 
 march away with a cudgel, and ‘‘ then,” said he, “ shall I 
 stand behind my lord’s chair and laugh.” At which the 
 governor, being angry, told him he was much mistaken, for 
 
 ^ In all the histories of those times we read so much of the soldiers’ 
 complaints of want of pay, and of auditing their officers’ accounts, 
 which being no way reconcilable with modern practice, makes one 
 suppose the officers fraudulent, and the soldiers mutinous; but this 
 opinion will be corrected by observing what is here recited. Hence 
 we shall Likewise conceive a high idea of the virtue of those men, who 
 started forth out of every rank of life to devote themselves to the 
 service of God and their country, and persevered through such priva- 
 tions and difficulties; and consider their interference in the settling 
 the constitution of their country, for which they had fought, in a far 
 different light from the tumult and mutiny of mercenary soldiers. 
 
His Charge to His Soldiers 1 3 i 
 
 he scorned ever to yield on any terms, to a papistical army 
 led by an atheistical general.^ Mr. George Hutchinson told 
 him, “ If my lord would have that poor castle he must wade 
 to it in blood.’’ Which words they say he told his general. 
 After these summonses were received, the governor drew all 
 his soldiers into the castle, and committed the guard of the 
 town to the aldermen, who were to set guards of fifty in a 
 night, according to their wards. Then calling together his 
 soldiers, he once again represented to them their condition, 
 and told them, that being religious and honest men, he could 
 be assured no extremity would make them fail in what they 
 found themselves strong enough to undertake ; and therefore 
 he should not fear to let them freely understand their danger, 
 which yet they had power to shun, and therefore whatever 
 misery might be the issue of their undertaking, they could 
 not justly impute it to him, it being their own election. For 
 after this summons they must expect the enemy, and to be 
 reduced to the utmost extremity by them that thought could 
 reach. It must not move them to see their houses flaming, 
 and, if need were, themselves firing them for the public 
 advantage, or to see the pieces of their families cruelly 
 abused and consumed before them; they must resolve upon 
 hard duty, fierce assaults, poor and sparing diet, perhaps 
 famine, and the want of all comfortable accommodations. 
 Nor was there very apparent hope of relief at last, but more 
 than common hazard of losing their lives, either in defence 
 of their fort or of the place; which, for want of good fortifi- 
 cations, and through disadvantage of a neighbouring mount 
 and building, was not, in human probability, tenable against 
 such an army as threatened it. All which, for his own part, 
 he was resolved on; and if any of them found their courage 
 failing, he only desired they would provide for their safety in 
 time elsewhere, and not prejudice him and the public interest 
 so highly, as they would do, to take upon them the defence 
 of the castle, except they could be content to lay down their 
 
 ^ Charles the First, when accused of retaining papists, denied having 
 any in his army, and tried to have it believed that those which the Earl 
 of Newcastle had enlisted were unknown to him, although ther^ is 
 ample proof that it was done by his order; that nobleman acted in,. a 
 much more ingenuous manner, and, as is before related in a quotation 
 from Sir P. Warwick’s Memoirs, turned the imputation into a jest; 
 probably his indifference about the religion of his soldiers caused the 
 epithet of atheistical to be applied to him, certainly without sufficient 
 reason. 
 
132 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 lives and all their interests in it. The soldiers were none of 
 them terrified at the dangers which threatened their under- 
 taking; but at the latter end of August took, upon the 
 solemn fast-day, the national covenant, and besides it, a 
 particular mutual covenant between them and the governor, 
 to be faithful to each other, and to hold out the place to 
 the death, without entertaining any parley, or accepting any 
 terms from the enemy. This the governor was forced to do 
 to confirm them, for he had his experience not only of the 
 ungodly and ill-affected, but even of the godly themselves, 
 who thought it scarcely possible for any one to continue a 
 gentleman, and firm to a godly interest, and therefore repaid 
 all his vigilancy and labours for them with a very unjust 
 jealousy.^ The governor of Newark was his cousin-german, 
 to whom he was forced, against his nature, to be more un- 
 civil than to any others that were governors in that place. 
 Whether it was that the dissension of brethren is always 
 most spitefully pursued, or that Sir Richard Byron, as it was 
 reported, suffered under the same suspicions on his side, it is 
 true they were to each other the most uncivil enemies that 
 can be imagined. After this summons, my Lord Newcastle 
 came not, according to their bravadoes, but diverted his 
 army to Hull, to besiege my Lord Fairfax there ; they of 
 Newark having gotten him to send this summons upon con- 
 fidence, knowing the condition of the place, that it would 
 have been yielded to a piece of paper. The governor im- 
 mediately set upon the fortification of his castle, made a 
 work behind it, another on the Line side, turned the dove- 
 cote into a platform, and made a court of guard in Mortimer’s 
 Hole. 
 
 At this time Sir Thomas Hutchinson died in London, ^ 
 and gave all his personal estate, and all that was unsettled 
 at Mr. Hutchinson’s marriage, to his second wife and her 
 
 1 It passes for a saying of Charles the Second, that the presbyterian 
 might be a very good religion, but it was not the reUgion of a gentle- 
 man; these good folks seem to have been of the same mind. The 
 French have taken care not to fall short in imitating this malicious 
 prejudice, but stamp with the hated name of Aristocrat every person 
 at all elevated above the vulgar, though ever so generous a friend of 
 liberty. 
 
 2 August 18, 1643, as appeared by his tombstone, under the com- 
 munion table in St. Paul’s, Co vent Gardm, London, and that he was 
 55 when he died. J. H. 
 
 A marginal note, written by Julius Hutchinson, grandfather of the 
 editor. 
 
Death of Sir Thomas Hutchinson 133 
 
 children; at which his two sons had not the least repining 
 thought, but out of tender love, were very much afflicted for 
 his loss, and procured a pass from Newark for Mr. George 
 Hutchinson, to go to London, to visit his mother and fetch 
 mournings, which accordingly he did ; and upon a letter the 
 committee sent up by him, he brought dowh an order of 
 parliament to allow a table to the governor and committee, 
 whom Mr. Hutchinson had till that time entertained at 
 his own cost, with all the officers of the garrison and the 
 ministers, which was no small charge to him ; but he had a 
 noble heart, and could not basely evade the expense, which 
 that place necessarily drew upon him, not only by the con- 
 stant entertainment of the committee, officers, and ministers, 
 and all parliament officers, that came and went through the 
 garrison, but by relieving the poor soldiers, who had such 
 short pay, that they were, for the most part, thirty weeks 
 and more behind ; and when they marched out at any time, 
 the governor would not suffer them to take a cup of drink, 
 unpaid for, in the country, but always, wherever they took 
 any refreshment in their marches, paid it himself. He gave 
 them besides much from his own house, especially when any 
 of them were sick or wounded, and lent money to those who 
 were most necessitous. All this run him into a great private 
 debt, besides many thousands of pounds, which he engaged 
 himself in with other gentlemen, and took up for the supply 
 of the garrison and carrying on of the public service. Al- 
 though the allowance for his table was much envied by those 
 mean fellows, that never knew what the expense of a table 
 was, and although it was to him some ease, yet it did not 
 defray the third part of his expense in the service, being but 
 ten pounds a week allowed by the state; and his expenses 
 all that time, in the public service only, and not at all in any 
 particular of his own family, being, as it was kept upon 
 account, above fifteen hundred pounds a year. As soon as 
 his father was dead, and rents became due to him, the 
 enemies, in the midst of whom his estate lay, fetched in his 
 tenants and imprisoned them, and took his rents ; his estate 
 was begged and promised by the king; those who lived not 
 upon the place, flung up his grounds, and they lay unoc- 
 cupied, while the enemy prevailed in the country. He was 
 not so cruel as others were to their tenants, who made them 
 pay over again those rents with which the enemy forced 
 
134 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 them to redeem themselves out of prison, but lost the most 
 part of his rents, all the while the country was under 
 the adverse power. He had some small stock of his own 
 plundered, and his house, by the perpetual haunting of the 
 enemy, defaced, and for want of inhabitation, rendered 
 almost uninhabitable. For these things he had some sub- 
 scriptions,^ but never received one penny of recompense; 
 and his arrears of pay, which he received after all the war 
 was done, did not half pay the debts of those services con- 
 tracted. But when he undertook this engagement, it was 
 for the defence of his country’s and God’s cause, and he 
 offered himself and all he had a willing sacrifice in the ser- 
 vice; and rather praised God for what was saved, than 
 repined at what was spent, it being above his expectation, 
 that deliverance which God gave him out of his enemies’ 
 hands. He might have made many advantages by the spoil 
 of his enemies, which was often brought in, and by other 
 encroachments upon the country, which almost all the 
 governors, on both sides, exacted everywhere else, but his 
 heart abhorred it: the soldiers had all the prizes, and he 
 never shared with them ; all the malignants’ goods the com- 
 mittee disposed of; and it ever grieved his heart to see the 
 spoil of his neighbours, how justly soever they deserved it; 
 but he chose all loss, rather than to make up himself^ by 
 violence and rapine. If in a judicial way, he was forced at 
 any time, in discharge of his trust, to sign any harsh orders 
 against any of the gentlemen of the country, it was with 
 grief that they should deserve that severity; but this testi- 
 
 ^ By subscriptions are here meant acknowledgments or certificates 
 given by the committees, which parliament professed to make good, 
 but many times did not. But Col. Hutchinson’s disinterestedness and 
 devotion to the cause did not suffice to exempt him from calumny, for 
 in Walker’s History of Independency, p. i66, et seq., a list is given of 
 members of parliament, who were unduly returned, who held com- 
 mands contrary to the self-denying ordinance, or had moneys or 
 offices given them. And Colonel Hutchinson is accused of all three ; 
 how absurdly and unjustly every one must perceive. He was regularly 
 elected to parliament in place of his father deceased: he had a regiment 
 which he raised, and in a great degree subsisted himself; he had a 
 government, which at the time of his undertaking it, was a charge 
 others feared to accept, and which for a long time was a loss and a 
 detriment to him, and at the end of all he fell far short of receiving as 
 much as he had expended. In the same place, Mr. William Pierrepont 
 is most invidiously accused of getting ^^40,000, — hut how ? it was the 
 personal estate of his own father ! 
 
 ^ Make himself up, make himself whole, reimburse himself. 
 
His Portion on His Father’s Death 135 
 
 mony is a truth of him, that in his whole actings in this cause, 
 he never prosecuted any private lust, either of revenge, 
 ambition, avarice, or vain glory, under a public vizard, but 
 was most truly public-spirited. Conscience to God, and 
 truth and righteousness, according to the best information 
 he could get, engaged him in that party he took ; that which 
 engaged him, carried him through all along, though he 
 encountered no less difficulties and contradictions from those 
 of his own party, that were not of the same spirit he was, 
 than he did from his enemies. 
 
 The death of Sir Thomas Hutchinson made every way a 
 great reverse in the affairs of his eldest son, who had before 
 been looked upon as his father’s heir, and reverenced as 
 much, or rather more, upon his father’s score, than his own, 
 so that no man durst attempt to injure him, whom they 
 looked upon as under such a powerful protection. Sir 
 Thomas and his fathers before him had ever deserved very 
 well of their country, and, as lovers of their country, their 
 neighbours had an implicit faith in all their dictates and 
 actions, insomuch that Sir Thomas Hutchinson’s single 
 authority swayed with many, more than all the greater names 
 of the country. But he at his death having divided, all 
 things considered, his estate between the children of his two 
 wives, though it be true the latter deserved more than they 
 had, yet it is as true the first deserved not to be so much 
 lessened as they were: and Mr. Hutchinson having been 
 known to be the most pious and obedient son, from his child- 
 hood, that ever any father was blessed with, when it came to 
 be known that his father had given away all that was in his 
 power to give from him, those that had a great reverence and 
 esteem for Sir Thomas would not believe him to be so defec- 
 tive in justice as to do this without some secret cause; and 
 therefore it was given out that he was displeased with his 
 son’s engagement, and for that cause disposed away so much 
 of his estate from them. But that was not so; indeed, at 
 the time of his death the parliament’s interest was so low, 
 that he might well look upon them as lost persons, and so 
 what he gave away to the unengaged infant he might well 
 look upon as all that could be preserved. Mr. Hutchinson 
 had only an allowance from his father, while he lived, which 
 was duly paid him ; but as soon as he died all his estate was 
 seized by the enemy, who had so much desire not to injure 
 
136 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 publicly a person so popular^ that they disturbed not Sir 
 Thomas’s tenants while he lived, though he continued with 
 the parliament, and faithful to their interest; because he was 
 moderate, and one that applied all his endeavours to peace, 
 which he did not out of policy, but out of conscience to his 
 country, and by a wise foresight of the sad consequences of 
 a conquest by either side; for he had often expressed, that 
 accommodation was far more desirable than war, and he 
 dreaded that the spirits of those men would become most 
 insolent after conquest, who were so violently bent to prose- 
 cute a war; that some of them whom we have since known 
 to be vile apostates, then professed that they abhorred 
 accommodation. This report of Sir Thomas’s dislike of his 
 son’s engagement was raised and dispersed by those who 
 themselves were ill-affected to it; but, however, it abated 
 all the respect men had for him, upon every account but his 
 own. Those who had entertained a secret envy of him, now 
 feared not to manifest it, and began to work secret mines, 
 to blow him up on all sides; but God was with him, and 
 disappointed all his enemies, and made his virtues more 
 illustrious by the oppositions they encountered, and by the 
 removal of all those props of wealth and power which are 
 necessary to hold up weaker fabrics.^ 
 
 ^ Here is in the original a marginal note in the following words : 
 “ The division of Sir Thomas Hutchinson’s estate. Sir Thomas 
 Hutchinson being mightily beloved in the country, and a moderate 
 man, using all his endeavours for peace, his estate was never plundered 
 in his lifetime; and though it is here falsely insinuated that he ap- 
 proved of his son’s conduct in taking arms against the king, it is most 
 true that he was extremely afflicted at it, being altogether for peace, 
 and condemned such rash counsels as arms on both sides; and the 
 miseries he saw his king and country involved in were certainly the 
 occasion of his death; and though Sir Thomas Hutchinson sat longer 
 in the house than many honest men, it was only in hopes by his 
 moderate counsels to effect a happy peace between his king and 
 country. All this I have heard attested by his lady and relict, my 
 grandmother. Teste J. Hutchinson.” This is that testimony of 
 Lady Katharine Hutchinson which was spoken of in the preface, and 
 which, in attempting to impeach the veracity of the author in a single 
 point, contributes largely to corroborate it in all. In the very instance 
 before us there seems much more reason for the opinion of Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son than of Lady Katharine: Sir Thomas Hutchinson had before been 
 imprisoned for his opposition to the court; was in this parliament on 
 all committees for the reform of religion ; sat with the parliament after 
 the war was deeply engaged in ; sent his sons arms, and promoted their 
 desires to the parliament: it is incredible that he should have any 
 great objection to the part they took, other than the general one of 
 regretting that arms were taken on either side. The most probable 
 thing is that this lady, being of the same party and opinion as her 
 
Sir R. Byron’s Message 137 
 
 Soon after the death of his father, one Mr. Ayscough, a 
 gentleman of the country, allied to Sir Richard, since Lord 
 Byron, then governor of Newark, came to the governor of 
 Nottingham, and told him that Sir Richard Byron, out of 
 that tender, natural affection which he ever had for him, 
 and still preserved, desired him now to consider his wife and 
 children, and the loss of his whole estate, which was in- 
 evitable, if he persisted in the engagement he was in; that 
 some had already been suing to the Earl of Newcastle for 
 it; but if he would return to his obedience to the king, he 
 might not only preserve his estate, but have what reward he 
 pleased to propound for so doing. To which the governor 
 telling him this was a thing he ought to scorn, Mr. Ayscough 
 told him that Sir Richard had, only out of love and tender 
 compassion to him, given him this employment, with many 
 protestations how much Sir Richard desired to employ all 
 his interest to save him, if it were possible, and therefore 
 begged of him that if he would still persist in this party, 
 that he would yet quit himself of this garrison, and go into 
 my Lord of Essex’s army; for there, he said. Sir Richard 
 would find pretence to save his rents for him for the present, 
 and his estate for the future ; for, said he, he can plead, ‘‘ you 
 were an inconsiderate young man, rashly engaged, and dares 
 assure himself of your pardon; but to keep a castle against 
 your king is a rebellion of so high a nature, that there will 
 be no colour left to ask favour for you.” The governor told 
 him he should deliver the same propositions, and receive his 
 answer, before some witnesses; whereupon he carried the 
 gentleman to two of the committee, before whom he repeated 
 his message, and the governor bade him return Sir Richard 
 this answer, “ That except he found his own heart prone to 
 such treachery, he might consider there was, if nothing else, 
 so much of a Byron’s blood in him, that he should very 
 much scorn to betray or quit a trust he had undertaken ; but 
 the grounds he went on were such, that he very much 
 despised such a thought as to sell his faith for base rewards or 
 
 brother and family, and jealous of Sir Thomas Hutchinson’s children 
 by his former wife, influenced him to their disadvantage in the making 
 of his will, and set up these reasons to countenance it after his death. 
 The other estates of Sir T. Hutchinson in Nottinghamshire were fully 
 equal, if not superior, in value to that of Owthorpe. This being the 
 only instance wherein the truth of the narrative is called in question, 
 and this certainly invidiously, if not unjustly, we may safely say we 
 have the testimony of an adversary in our favour to all the rest. 
 
 E2 
 
138 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 fears^ and therefore could not consider the loss of his estate, 
 which his wife was as willing to part with as himself in this 
 cause, wherein he was resolved to persist, in the same place 
 in which it had pleased God to call him ^ to the defence of it/^ 
 
 About this time a woman was taken, whereof the com- 
 mittee had before been informed that she carried intelligence 
 between Colonel Pierrepont and his mother, the countess of 
 Kingston. The woman was now going through Nottingham, 
 with letters from the old countess to her daughter-in-law, the 
 coloneFs wife, who was then at Clifton, Sir Gervas Clifton’s 
 house. In this packet there was a letter drawn, which the 
 countess advised her daughter to sign, to be sent to Colonel 
 Stanton, one of the king’s colonels, to entreat back from him 
 some goods of her husband’s, which he had plundered; 
 wherein there were these expressions: “That though her 
 husband was unfortunately engaged in the unhappy rebellion, 
 she hoped ere long he would approve himself a loyal subject 
 to his majesty.” The committee having read these letters, 
 sealed them up again, and inclosed them in another to the 
 colonel, then at Derby, telling him, that having intercepted 
 such letters, and not knowing whether his wife might follow 
 her mother’s advice, which if she should would prove very 
 dishonourable to him, they had chosen rather to send the 
 letters to him than to her. The colonel was vexed that they 
 had opened them, but for the present took no notice of it. 
 All the horse having been drawn out of Nottingham to the 
 relief of Gainsborough, and the Newarkers, knowing that the 
 garrison was utterly destitute, plundered all the country 
 even to the walls of Nottingham; upon which some godly 
 men offered themselves to bring in their horses, and form a 
 troop for the defence of the country, and one Mr. Palmer, a 
 minister, had a commission to be their captain.^ This man 
 had a bold, ready, earnest way of preaching, and lived holily 
 and regularly as to outward conversation, whereby he got 
 a great reputation among the godly; and this reputation 
 swelled his spirit, which was very vain-glorious, covetous, 
 
 1 Notice is taken by Whitelocke of several attempts to prevail on 
 Colonel Hutchinson to betray his trust, and of his steady adherence to 
 it : there will be seen other instances more remarkable than this ; but 
 here are two things extremely well worth notice; this elegant and 
 forcible apostrophe to Sir Richard Byron; and the patriotic and dis- 
 interested devotion of Mrs. Hutchinson to the cause, at least a rare 
 example in her sex. 
 
 ^ This, if not unique, is at least a singular trait. 
 
A Commission Given to Palmer 139 
 
 contentious^ and ambitious. He had so insinuated himself 
 as to make these godly men desire him for their captain, 
 which he had more vehement longing after than they, yet 
 would have it believed that it was rather pressed upon^him, 
 than he pressed into it; and therefore being at that time in 
 the castle with his family, and feeding at the governor’s 
 table, who gave him room in his own lodgings, and all imagin- 
 able respect, he came to the governor and his wife, telling 
 them that these honest people pressed him very much to be 
 their captain, and desiring their friendly and Christian advice 
 whether he should accept or refuse it. They freely told him, 
 that having entered into a charge of another kind, they 
 thought it not fit for him to engage in this; and that he 
 might as much advance the public service, and satisfy the 
 men, in marching with them in the nature of a chaplain as 
 in that of a captain. He, that asked not counsel to take any 
 contrary to his first resolve, went away confused when he 
 found he was not advised as he would have been, and said 
 he would endeavour to persuade them to be content; and 
 afterwards said, they would not be otherwise satisfied, and 
 .so he was forced to accept the commission. The governor, 
 having only declared his own judgment when he was asked, 
 as a Christian ought to do according to his conscience, left the 
 captain to act according to his own, and censured him not, 
 but entertained him with the same freedom and kindness 
 he had done before ; but the man, being guilty of the avarice 
 and ambition of his own heart, never afterwards looked upon 
 the governor with a clear eye, but sought to blow up all 
 factions against him whenever he found opportunity, and in 
 the meantime dissembled it as well as he could. And now, 
 before his troop was well raised. Colonel Thornhagh being 
 recovered, brought back his troop from Lincoln, and both 
 the troops quartered in the town; which being a bait to 
 invite the enemy, the governor gave charge to all that 
 belonged to the castle, being about three hundred men, that 
 they should not upon any pretence whatever be out of their 
 quarters; but they having, many of them, wives and better 
 accommodations in the town, by stealth disobeyed his com- 
 mands, and seldom left any more in the castle than what 
 were upon the guard. 
 
 The townsmen were every night out upon the guard of the 
 town, according to the wards of the alderman ; but the most 
 
140 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 of them being disaffected^ the governor^ fearing treachery, 
 had determined to quarter the horse in those lanes which 
 were next to the castle, and to block up the lanes for the 
 better securing them. Just the night before these lanes 
 should have been blocked up, Alderman Toplady, a great 
 malignant, having the watch, the enemy was, by treachery, 
 let into the town, and no alarm given to the castle. Though 
 there were two muskets at the gate where they entered, both 
 of them were surrendered without one shot to give notice; 
 and all the horse, and about two parts of the castle soldiers, 
 were betrayed, surprised, and seized on in their beds, but 
 there were not above fourscore of the castle foot taken; the 
 rest hid themselves, and privately stole away, some into the 
 country, some by night came up to the castle and got in, in 
 disguises, by the river side; but the cavaliers were possessed 
 of the town, and no notice at all given to the castle. When, 
 at the beating of reveille, some of the soldiers, that had been 
 on the watch all night, were going down into the town to 
 refresh themselves, they were no sooner out of the castle 
 gates but some of the enemy’s musketeers discharged upon 
 them, and they hasting back, got in with such care that the- 
 enemy was prevented of their design of falling in with them. 
 They brought a strong alarm into the castle, when the 
 governor coming forth, was exceedingly vexed to find that 
 his men were, so many of them, contrary to his command, 
 wanting in their quarters; but it was no time to be angry, 
 but to apply himself to do what was possible to preserve the 
 place; wherefore he immediately despatched messengers by 
 a private sally-port, to Leicester and Derby, to desire their 
 assistance, either to come and help to beat the enemy out of 
 the town, or to lend him some foot to help keep the castle, in 
 which there were but fourscore men, and never a lieutenant 
 nor any head officer but his brother, nor so much as a surgeon 
 among them. As soon as the governor had despatched his 
 messengers he went up to the towers, and from thence played 
 his ordnance into the town, which seldom failed of execution 
 upon the enemy; but there was an old church, called St. 
 Nicholas Church, whose steeple so commanded the platform 
 that the men could not play the ordnance without woolpacks 
 before them. From this church the bullets played so thick 
 into the outward castle-yard, that they could not pass from 
 one gate to the other, nor relieve the guards, but with very 
 
The Governor Played on the Town 141 
 
 great hazard ; and one weak old man was shot the first day, 
 who, for want of a surgeon, bled to death before they could 
 carry him up to the governor’s wife, who at that time 
 supplied that want as well as she could; but at night the 
 governor and his men dug a trench between the two gates, 
 through which they afterwards better secured their passage. 
 In the meantime the cavaliers that came from Newark, being 
 about six hundred, fell to ransack and plunder all the honest 
 men’s houses in the town, and the cavaliers of the town, 
 who had called them in, helped them in this work. Their 
 prisoners they at first put into the sheep-pens in the market- 
 place,^ whereupon an honest townsman, seeing four or five 
 commanders go into his own house, procured a cunning boy 
 that came with him, while the enemy regarded more their 
 plunder than their prisoners, to run privately up to the castle 
 and give them notice, who presently sent a cannon bullet 
 into the house. The cavaliers called in all the country as 
 soon as they were in the town, and made a fort at the Trent 
 bridges, and thither they carried down all their considerable 
 plunder and prisoners. The next day after Sir Richard 
 Byron had surprised the town, Mr. Hastings, since made 
 lord of Loughborough, then governor of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 
 came with a body of about four hundred men; but being 
 displeased that the plunder was begun before he came, he 
 returned again and left the Newark gentlemen to them- 
 selves ; who, as they made a fort at the bridges, threw down 
 the half moons and bulwarks that had been raised about the 
 town. They stayed five days, but very unquietly, for the 
 cannon and muskets from the castle failed not of execution 
 daily upon many of them, and they durst not in all that time 
 go to bed. The third day Major Cartwright sent a letter, 
 desiring the governor or his brother to come and meet him 
 in St. Nicholas church, and promised them safe passage and 
 return; but the governor read the letter to his soldiers, and 
 commanded a red flag to be set upon the tower to bid them 
 defiance, and shot three pieces of cannon at the steeple in 
 answer to his desired parley. 
 
 Five days the enemy stayed in the town, and all that time 
 the governor and his soldiers were none of them off from the 
 guard, but if they slept, which they never did in the night, it 
 
 ^ It appears, by Deering’s account of Nottingham, that these once 
 occupied a considerable portion of the market-place. 
 
142 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 was by the side of them that watched. At lengthy on Satur- 
 day^ September 23, in the afternoon^ the governor saw a 
 great many goods and persons going over the Line bridge^ 
 and not knowing what it meant, sent some cannon bullets 
 after them ; when on the other side of the town he discerned 
 a body of men, whom he knew not at first, whether to be 
 friends or foes, but having at that time about eightscore men 
 in the castle, for in that five days’ space fourscore were come 
 in by stealth, he caused them all to be drawn out in the castle- 
 yard, and perceiving that those he last saw were friends, 
 he sent out his brother. Major Hutchinson, with all the 
 musketeers that could be spared, to help drive the enemy out 
 of the town. They having effected what they came for, in 
 fortifying the bridges, had nothing more to do but to get 
 safe off, which they endeavoured with more haste and dis- 
 order than became good and stout soldiers. When Major 
 Hutchinson came into the town with his men, they, greedy 
 of knowing what was become of their wives and houses, 
 dropped so fast from behind him to make the inquiry, that 
 they had left him at the head of only sixteen men, when Sir 
 Richard Byron, with Captain Hacker, followed by a whole 
 troop of horse and a company of foot, came upon him. The 
 major commanded his men to charge them, which they did, 
 but shot over; yet falling in with them pell-mell, they had 
 gotten Sir Richard Byron down, and they had his hat, but 
 he escaped, though his horse was so wounded that it fell dead 
 in the next street. 
 
 These men that came to the governor’s relief were Captain 
 White with his troop, who were quartered at Leicester, on 
 his return from Lincolnshire, from whence he was coming 
 back to Nottingham; and at Leicester he met the messenger 
 the governor had sent for assistance, which he prosecuted so 
 well, that from the two garrisons of Leicester and Derby, 
 with his own troop, he brought about four hundred men. 
 As soon as they were come into the town. Sir John Cell’s 
 men, seeing the cavaliers had a mind to be gone, interrupted 
 them not, but being as dexterous at plunder as at fight, they 
 presently went to Toplady’s house, who had betrayed the 
 town, and plundered it and some others, while the governor’s 
 soldiers were busy in clearing the town of the enemy. When 
 they had done this, the governor did what he could to 
 restrain the plunder; but the truth is. Cell’s men were 
 
Dr. Plumptre’s Behaviour 143 
 
 nimble youths at that work^ yet there was not very much 
 mischief done by them. Toplady’s house fared the worst, 
 but his neighbours saved much of his goods ; he himself, with 
 several other townsmen and countrymen, who had been very 
 active against the well-affected, at this time were brought 
 up prisoners to the castle. There were not above five-and- 
 twenty of the Newark soldiers taken; how many were slain 
 at their going off, and during the time of their stay, we 
 could not certainly tell, because they had means of carrying 
 them off by the bridge, where they left Captain Hacker 
 governor ^ of their new fort with fourscore men. Their 
 prisoners and plunder they sent away in boats to Newark; 
 many of the townsmen went with them, carrying away not 
 only their own but their neighbours’ goods ; and much more 
 had been carried away, but that the unexpected sally from 
 the castle prevented them. Dr. Plumptre, one of the com- 
 mittee of Nottingham, whom they found prisoner at the 
 marshal’s house in the town, and released, v/ent out of the 
 town with them. This man, when he had provoked the 
 governor to strike him, for his malicious and uncivil railings 
 against him for the respect he showed to the godly men of 
 the town, had retired to the house of a malignant gentleman 
 in arms against the parliament; had received a protection 
 from the governor of Newark, and had divers meetings with 
 the Newark officers; yet after all this had the impudence to 
 come into the town of Nottingham: and in all the taverns 
 and ale-houses he came into, he belched out abominable 
 scoffs and taunts against the governor and the committee- 
 men, before Colonel Thornhagh’s face, who commanded him 
 out of the room for it ; and upon information of these things 
 to the governor and the committee, he was sent for by some 
 musketeers, and the enemy’s protection for himself and his 
 goods being found about him, he was committed prisoner, 
 but there being no good accommodation for him in the castle, 
 the governor, in more civility than he deserved, suffered him 
 to be in the town, whence he went with them, and afterwards 
 
 ^ The brother of Colonel Hacker, who was tried, condemned, and 
 executed for attending the execution of Charles the First. This 
 brother, who served the king during the whole war with great zeal, 
 could not obtain the pardon of Colonel Hacker, nor prevent the con- 
 fiscation of his family estate, which was granted to the Duke of York, 
 the king’s brother, from whom he was obliged to ransom it at a high 
 rate. It lay at Colston Basset, joining to Owthorpe. 
 
144 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 retired to Derby. At the same time, the cavaliers having 
 taken some prisoners upon the parliament’s score who lived 
 quietly in the country, the committee had fetched in some 
 gentlemen’s sons of their party, who were left at their 
 fathers’ houses ; whereof one was remaining at the marshal’s 
 house when the cavaliers came into the town, whom the 
 governor suffered to be there upon his parole, there being no 
 good accommodation for him in the castle. Him the 
 cavaliers would have had to have gone away with them, 
 but he would not; which handsome behaviour so pleased 
 the governor, that he freely gave him his liberty without 
 exchange.^ 
 
 As soon as the enemy was driven out of the town, the 
 governor brought down two pieces of ordnance to the 
 market-place, and entreated the soldiers that were come 
 from Leicester and Derby to march with him immediately, 
 to assault them in their fort at the bridges, before they had 
 time to put themselves in order, and re-collect their confused 
 souls, after their chase ; but the mayor of Derby, an old dull- 
 headed Dutchman, said ten thousand men could not do it, 
 and could by no means be entreated to go on, nor to stay one 
 day longer, but to stand by, while the governor made the 
 attempt, with his own men. He, when he saw he could not 
 prevail, thought it not convenient, at that time, to urge his 
 men beyond their power, after they had had a week of such 
 sore labour, and so, much discontented that he could not 
 effect his desire, he drew back his ordnance into the castle. 
 Here his women, while the men were all otherwise employed, 
 had provided him as large a supper as the time and present 
 condition would permit, at which he entertained all the 
 strangers, and his own officers and gentlemen. 
 
 There was a large room, which was the chapel, in the 
 castle: this they had filled full of prisoners, besides a very 
 bad prison, which was no better than a dungeon, called the 
 Lion’s Den; and the new Captain Palmer, and another 
 minister, having nothing else to do, walked up and down the 
 castle-yard, insulting and beating the poor prisoners as they 
 were brought up. In the encounter, one of the Derby cap- 
 tains was slain, and five of our men hurt, who for want of 
 
 ^ This story resembles some of those recited in the early and virtuous 
 times of the Roman repubUc. Such anecdotes serve to reUeve the 
 mind, fatigued with reading of the crimes and follies of mankind. 
 
Humanity to the Prisoners 145 
 
 another surgeon^ were brought to the governor’s wife, and 
 she having some excellent balsams and plasters in her closet, 
 with the assistance of a gentleman that had some skill, 
 dressed all their wounds, whereof some were dangerous, 
 being all shots, with such good success, that they were all 
 well cured in convenient time.^ After our wounded men 
 were dressed, as she stood at her chamber-door, seeing three 
 of the prisoners sorely cut, and carried down bleeding into 
 the Lion’s Den, she desired the marshal to bring them in to 
 her, and bound up and dressed their wounds also: which 
 while she was doing. Captain Palmer came in and told her 
 his soul abhorred to see this favour to the enemies of God; 
 she replied, she had done nothing but what she thought was 
 her duty, in humanity to them, as fellow-creatures, not as 
 enemies. But he was very ill satisfied with her, and with 
 the governor presently after, when he came into a very large 
 room where a very great supper was prepared, and more 
 room and meat than guests; to fill up which the governor 
 had sent for one Mr. Mason, one of the prisoners, a man of 
 good fashion, who had married a relation of his, and was 
 brought up more in fury, than for any proof of guilt in him, 
 and I know not whether two or three others, the governor 
 had not called to meat with them; for which Captain 
 Palmer bellowed loudly against him, as a favourer of 
 malignants and cavaliers. ^ Who could have thought this 
 godly, zealous man, who could scarce eat his supper for grief 
 to see the enemies of God thus favoured, should have after- 
 wards entered into a conspiracy, against the governor, with 
 those very same persons, who now so much provoked his 
 zeal? But the governor took no notice of it, though he set 
 the very soldiers a muttering against himself and his wife, 
 for these poor humanities. 
 
 The next day the neighbouring forces returned home. 
 Colonel Thornhagh having lost most of his troop, went to 
 
 ^ The reader will remember that the mother of Mrs. Hutchinson had 
 patronised and assisted Sir Walter Raleigh, when prisoner in the 
 Tower, in his chemical experiments, and had acquired a little know- 
 ledge of medicine; whether her daughter had obtained instructions 
 from her mother, or the mother herself was here (for she passed the 
 latter part of her life with her daughter, and died in her house at 
 Owthorpe), is uncertain. Mrs. Hutchinson was certainly an extra- 
 ordinary woman, and this is not one of the least singular, nor least 
 amiable instances of it. 
 
 ‘ Behold a presbyterian and a sectary, a Levite and a Samaritan! 
 
146 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 London to get another. Captain White stayed at Notting- 
 ham with his, where intelligence being given that the 
 cavaliers intended to possess themselves of Broxtowe and 
 Woollerton (two gentlemen’s houses each within two miles 
 of Nottingham), Captain Palmer was sent, with the remainder 
 of his men to keep Broxtowe-house, and the governor’s 
 captain-lieutenant, with his company, to Woollerton. The 
 governor, at Nottingham, broke up the Line Bridge to pre- 
 vent the cavaliers coming suddenly by that way into the 
 town; then he blocked up the lanes next the castle, and cut 
 up all the hedges, that were dangerous to make approaches 
 to the castle; and having the experience of the mischief of 
 it, pulled down St. Nicholas’s church by the advice of the 
 committee.^ 
 
 Presently after the cavaliers were gone out of town, some 
 naughty people, set on by them, fired the town, but it was 
 quenched without burning above two or three houses; yet 
 for a fortnight together it was perpetually attempted, fire 
 being laid to hay-barns and other combustible places, inso- 
 much that the women were forced to walk nightly by fifties 
 to prevent the burning ; ^ which the committee perceiving to 
 be attempted by the instigation of the Newark gentlemen, 
 they wrote them word, that if they forbade not their instru- 
 ments, if so much as one house were fired, they would fire all 
 the cavaliers’ houses near them. The gentlemen returned 
 them a scornful letter, full of taunts and disdain, but after 
 that no more houses were attempted with fire. 
 
 The Derby soldiers, when they returned home, being asked 
 why they left the cavaliers at the bridges unassaulted, made 
 answer, they would have beaten them out, but the governor 
 would not lend them a piece of ordnance out of his castle; 
 
 ^ It is said, in Deering’s History of Nottingham, that this church 
 was pulled down by Colonel Hutchinson, and the beUs carried to 
 Owthorpe; which last was at that time impossible, the enemy being 
 in possession of the Vale of Belvoir and the ways to it. And moreover, 
 the church at Owthorpe was, as Deering in another place observes, too 
 small to contain them. In Throsby’s edition of Thoroton, he remarks 
 that neither Deering nor Thoroton were properly acquainted with the 
 circumstances of that affair, and mentions, that in digging near the 
 foundation of the present tower (for the church has been rebuilt), a 
 bell was found, evidently broken to pieces at the demolition of the 
 church; probably by the cannon-shot which was sent in answer to 
 Major Cartwright’s message. The situation of this church was both 
 very near to the castle, and on a parallel height. 
 
 ^ This is a curious fact, and points out a way of turning to use and 
 profit the timorousness and watchfulness of her sex. 
 
Prepares to Attack the Fort 147 
 
 which false report, when the governor heard, piqued him 
 heartily, being so notorious a lie; for he drew down two 
 pieces of ordnance, and could not entreat them to do more 
 than stand by, while he attempted it with his own men ; but 
 their Major Molanus, being an old soldier, discouraged our 
 soldiers, and told them it was a vain and impossible attempt. 
 For this cause, the governor resolved he would set upon it 
 alone, whenever it was seasonable; and watching an oppor- 
 tunity, he soon took it, at a time when intelligence was 
 brought him that all the forces Newark could send forth, 
 were gone upon a design into Lincolnshire. Then, on the 
 Lord’s day, under colour of hearing a sermon at the great 
 church in the town, he went thither, and after sermon, from 
 the steeple, took a view of the fort at the bridges; no one 
 perceiving his design, but his engineer, who was with him, 
 and took a full survey of Hacker’s works. Then, after 
 supper, he called the committee together, and communicated 
 his intentions to them, which they approved of. So all that 
 night he spent in preparations against the next morning; he 
 sent away orders to the horse and foot that lay at Broxtowe 
 to come to him in the morning by eight o’clock, with all the 
 pioneers they could gather up in the country; he sent into 
 the town, and caused all the pioneers there to be brought up, 
 under pretence of making a breastwork before the castle- 
 gates, and pretending to set them upon the platforms, caused 
 all the cannon-baskets to be filled, which he intended for 
 rolling trenches. All things, betimes in the morning, being 
 gotten into perfect readiness, and so discreetly ordered, that 
 the enemy had no notice from any of their friends in town, 
 nor knew anything of the design, till it was ready; the 
 governor, about eleven o’clock on Monday morning, marched 
 out, although the weather at that time, being very tempestu- 
 ous and rainy, seemed to have combined with his enemies to 
 withstand the attempt ; but the soldiers were rather animated 
 than discouraged, thinking that difficulties, after they were 
 vanquished, would increase their glory. So when the ugly 
 storm had, for three or four hours, wasted itself in its fury on 
 them, it fell at their feet, and no more envious clouds obscured 
 the cheerful face of heaven, so long as they continued in the 
 field. The governor’s own company marched through the 
 meadows, and gave the alarm to the enemy’s foot, while Mn 
 George Hutchinson’s company went through the lanes, to 
 
148 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 gain a nook^ which was very advantageous for the approaches 
 of our men^ and of which they easily possessed themselves, 
 and then advancing, planted their colours within musket- 
 shot of the fort. Although they planted so many colours, 
 the governor had but eightscore foot, and a hundred horse, 
 in all that went with him out of the castle, but he set the 
 pioneers fairly among them to make the better show. 
 
 When the colours were thus planted, the pioneers were set 
 at work to cast up a breastwork; and being left in a safe 
 posture with the inferior officers, the governor and his brother 
 went up to the castle, to order the drawing down of the 
 ordnance. Meanwhile the cavaliers sallied out of their fort 
 to gain the colours, at whose approach all the pioneers ran 
 away from their works; but the soldiers kept their ground 
 and their colours, and beat back the enemy into their own 
 fort, killing some of them, whereof two were left dead before 
 our men, whom they thought it not safe to carry off. Our 
 horse meeting the flying pioneers, brought them back again 
 to their w^orks, which they continued all that day, and the 
 cavaliers attempted no more sallies. At evening the ord- 
 nance were brought down and planted within musket-shot 
 of the fort, and then the governor despatched a messenger to 
 Derby to tell Sir John Cell, if he pleased to send any of his 
 men, they might come and see the fort taken. Accordingly, 
 on Tuesday the Dutch major came, with about sixscore foot 
 and dragoons. Hard by the fort at the bridges, and at that 
 side which our men approached, there were two houses full 
 of coals, into which, if the cavaliers had put any men, they 
 might have done much mischief to the assailants ; wherefore 
 the governor sent two or three soldiers, who very boldly went 
 almost under their works and fired them both, by the light of 
 which, they burning all night, the governor’s men wrought 
 all that night in their trenches, and cut a trench in the 
 meadows, seme of them calling to the cavaliers in the fort, 
 and keeping them in abusive replies, one upon another, while 
 the pioneers carried on their works. The governor and his 
 brother, and all the other officers, continuing all night in the 
 trenches with them, they behaved themselves so cheerfully, 
 that the governor gave them the next morning twenty 
 pounds; and they had very good drink and provisions 
 brought them out of the garrison, which much encouraged 
 them, but the governor’s presence and alacrity among them 
 
Preparations for Assaulting the Fort 149 
 
 much more. When the Derby men came on Tuesday, the 
 Dutch major came down to the trenches, and told the 
 governor that he wondered he would attempt the fort, for it 
 was impregnable, and therefore much dissuaded him from 
 going on, and said that he and his men would return. The 
 governor told him that he and the soldiers with him were 
 resolved to leave their lives rather than their attempt; and 
 if they failed for want of seconding by that force v/hich was 
 sent with him to their assistance, let the blame lie on him. 
 When the Derby officers saw him so resolute to persist, they, 
 after much dissuasion and dispute, determined to stay, and 
 the officers went up with the governor to supper in the castle, 
 and the soldiers to quarters provided for them in the town: 
 but after supper, the governor went down again, and stayed 
 all night in the trenches with his men, and left them not as 
 long as they stayed there, but only to fetch down what was 
 necessary for them. He, his brother, and all the officers, 
 were every night with them, and made them continue their 
 custom of railing at each other in the dark, while they carried 
 on their approaches. There was in the Trent, a little piece 
 of ground of which, by damming up the water, the cavaliers 
 had made an island; and while some of the soldiers held 
 them in talk, others on Wednesday night cut the sluice, and 
 by break of day on Thursday morning had pitched two 
 colours in the island, within carbine-shot of the fort, and the 
 governor’s company had as much advanced their approach 
 on the other side. When they in the fort saw, in the morn- 
 ing, how the assailants had advanced, while they were kept 
 secure in talk all the night, they were extremely mad, and 
 swore like devils, which made the governor and his men 
 great sport: and then it was believed they in the fort began 
 to think of flight; which the besiegers not expecting, still 
 continued their approaches, and that day got forty yards 
 nearer to the island and also to the other side. Although Sir 
 John Cell’s men came but on Tuesday, on Thursday the 
 second messenger came from him, to call them back. The 
 governor entreated them to stay that night and keep the 
 trenches, while his men refreshed themselves: which they 
 did, but his men would not go out of their trenches, but slept 
 there to fit themselves for the assault, which the governor 
 had resolved on for the morning, and for that purpose, after 
 he had left them with all things provided in their trenches. 
 
150 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 he went to the castle to see the fire-balls and other necessaries 
 for the assault brought down^ and at three in the morning 
 came to them^ when the soldiers told him the cavaliers in 
 the fort had for two hours left off shooting. He sent some 
 soldiers then to the work sides to discover what this meant; 
 but they^ perceiving the place empty, went in and found 
 that all the garrison had stolen away, and had left behind 
 them fourscore sheep, a hundred loads of coals, twenty 
 quarters of oats, much hay, a great deal of plundered lead, 
 and a fort so strong, that if they had had such courage as 
 became men of their profession, they would never have 
 quitted it. They left all their works standing, and only 
 broke up two arches of the Trent bridges, to hinder the 
 governor’s men from following them. Their flight was by 
 that means secured, the river being so out that the horse 
 could not ford over. Mr. George Hutchinson and his com- 
 pany were appointed to possess and keep the fort at the 
 bridges, which he did; and the next week the garrison kept 
 a day of solemn thanksgiving to God, for this success and 
 the mercy in it, whereby all their men were preserved, not- 
 withstanding their very bold adventures, so that not one of 
 them was slain, and but four of them wounded, whereof three 
 were so slightly hurt, that they returned again next day into 
 the field. To increase their thanks to God, news was brought 
 them that the same week the forces that went out from 
 Newark, joined with Henderson’s, had received a great over- 
 throw by Cromwell; and that my Lord Newcastle had been 
 forced to raise his siege of Hull with great loss and dishonour. 
 Some time after the bridge was recovered, the horse went 
 forth and brought in some oxen of Mr. John Wood’s, a justice 
 of the county, disaffected to the parliament, but not in action 
 against them. He, following his oxen, came to the governor, 
 and, after he had despatched his business, told him how Mr. 
 Sutton would have once employed him on a message, to offer 
 the governor any terms he would ask the king, to come over 
 to his side and deliver up the castle to his use. Mr. Wood 
 told him (Sutton), that such a message would not obtain 
 credit, unless he had some propositions in writing; where- 
 upon Sutton called for pen and ink, and wrote that he should 
 offer the governor, if he would resign his castle, not only to 
 be received into favour, but to have what reward of honour, 
 money, or command, he himself would propound; which 
 
Pressed to Raise a Regiment i 5 i 
 
 paper when Mr. Wood had received^ Sir Richard Byron came 
 I in, and Mr. Sutton told him the business; to which Sir 
 Richard answered, he believed it would not take effect, for 
 he himself had made the like offers to him, and been re- 
 jected: ^ which Mr. Wood hearing, would not undertake the 
 employment, but the governor made him declare the story 
 to two of the gentlemen of the committee. 
 
 The governor not growing secure by his successes, was but 
 stirred up to more active preparations for the defence of 
 the place he had undertaken; and having a very ingenious 
 person, Mr. Hooper, who was his engineer, and one that 
 understood all kind of operations, in almost all things imagin- 
 able, they procured some saltpetre men and other necessary 
 labourers, and set up the making of powder and match in the 
 castle, both of which they made very good; they also cast 
 mortar pieces in the town, and finished many other inven- 
 tions for the defence of the place. The governor also caused 
 a mount near the castle to be bulwarked, and made a plat- 
 form for ordnance, and raised a new work before the castle- 
 gates, to keep off approaches, and made a new in-work in the 
 fort at the bridges. 
 
 Sir Thomas Fairfax, being overmastered in the north, by 
 the Earl of Newcastle’s great army, after his father was 
 retired into Hull, came with those horse that were left him, 
 into the Vale of Belvoir, and so visited Nottingham Castle; 
 where he and the commanders that were with him, consider- 
 ing of what advantage it was to the parliament to keep that 
 place, by reason of the commodious situation of it, and the 
 pass which might be there maintained, between the north 
 and south, and the happy retreat it might afford to their 
 northern forces, very much pressed the governor and the 
 committee to raise all the force they could, offering arms 
 and commissions for them : especially he pressed the governor 
 to complete a regiment for himself, which at that time he 
 would not accept, because Colonel Pierrepont had not yet 
 declared what he would do with his regiment. The colonel 
 was then at Derby, whither some of his officers going to him, 
 to know what they should do, he dismissed them; yet 
 coming to the town, he gave out. strange envious whispers, 
 and behaved himself so disingenuously to the governor, that 
 
 ^ This is the second instance of attempting Colonel Hutchinson’s 
 fidehty, but the most remarkable one will be found in the sequel. 
 
152 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 he had just cause to have no more regard for him; and being 
 again importuned by Sir Thomas Fairfax, he received a 
 commission to raise a regiment of twelve hundred. He 
 presently recruited his own companies, and began to raise 
 more: Mr. George Hutchinson was his lieutenant-colonel, 
 and one Mr. Widmerpoole his major; there was a company 
 raised by one Captain Wright; there remained a broken 
 piece of Colonel Pierrepont’s company, and Captain Poulton, 
 who had been their captain-lieutenant, being dismissed by 
 the colonel, had a new commission under the governor for a 
 company; and those soldiers of Colonel Pierrepont’s not 
 knowing what to do, it was determined at a council of war of 
 strangers, whereof Sir William Fairfax was president, that 
 they should enlist under Captain Poulton. Sir William and 
 Sir Thomas Fairfax, both of them, when the governor made 
 scruple of passing by Colonel Pierrepont, assured him that 
 they had intelligence given them in the north of his inten- 
 tions to deliver over Nottingham to the king. 
 
 About this time Chadwick, the deputy recorder of Notting- 
 ham, and one of the committee, came to Nottingham, from 
 whence he had gone, when the soldiers were all drawn out, 
 and all that were fearful went to other places to secure them- 
 selves. This fellow being sent on a message to the Lord 
 Fairfax, general of the north, had received letters of credence 
 from the committee; but instead of prosecuting their busi- 
 ness, which was to have procured some force from my lord 
 to help keep the place, when my Lord Newcastle was daily 
 expected to come against it, he procured himself a commis- 
 sion for a regiment, and a joint commission for himself and 
 Colonel Pierrepont to be governors of the town and castle. 
 The last he kept very private; the first he bragged of as a 
 thing, which, my lord considering his great abilities, would 
 needs enforce upon him. In execution of this, he raised 
 seven men, who were his menial servants, went into Stafford- 
 shire, possessed a papist’s fine house, and fired it to run away 
 by the light, when the enemy was thirty miles off from it ; and 
 he also cheated the country of pay for I know not how many 
 hundred men: for which, if he had not stolen away in the 
 night, he had been stoned; and as his wife passed through 
 the towns, she was in danger of her life, the women flinging 
 scalding water after her. But before this, he came to 
 Nottingham at the time the governor raised his regiment. 
 
Appointed Governor by Parliament 153 
 
 and coming up to the castle^ behaving himself somewhat in- 
 solently, and casting out mysterious words of his authority; 
 the governor set on a person to find out his meaning, to 
 whom he showed a commission he had privately obtained 
 some four months before, for himself and Colonel Pierrepont 
 to be joint governors of the county, town, and castle; but 
 neither did he now declare this to any of the committee, but 
 only made some private brags in the town, that he would 
 shortly come and take order for the safety of the place, and 
 so went out of town again. The governor acquainted the 
 committee with this, who seemed to have great indignation 
 at it, and wrote immediately to Mr. Millington, burgess of the 
 town of Nottingham, to have the government of the castle 
 confirmed to Colonel Hutchinson by authority of parliament. 
 Mr. Salisbury, their secretary, had also put in ‘‘ the govern- 
 ment of the town,” but Colonel Hutchinson caused him to 
 put it out; and the governor, being informed that Colonel 
 Pierrepont, at London, was labouring to obtain a regiment, 
 and to be sent down as governor of the town, he for the 
 more speedy despatch, sent his own chaplain with the com- 
 mittee’s letters to London, and sent other letters of his own 
 to Sir Thomas Fairfax, to acquaint him how Chadwick had 
 abused my lord, his father, in the surreptitious procurement 
 of this dormant commission; which, during all the time of 
 danger, had lain asleep in his pocket, and now was men- 
 tioned, as a thing, whereby he might, when he would, take 
 that place out of Colonel Hutchinson’s hands, which he had 
 with so many labours and dangers preserved, by God’s bless- 
 ing, for the parliament’s service; he therefore desired a 
 commission for the castle only. 
 
 As soon as Mr. Allsop came to London, he was immedi- 
 ately despatched again to Nottingham, with an order of 
 parliament, dated November 20, 1643, Colonel Hutchin- 
 son to be governor both of the town and castle of Notting- 
 ham, with an acknowledgment of the good service he had 
 done in preserving the place; and Mr. Millington said he 
 should likewise have a commission from the Earl of Essex. 
 At Leicester, Mr. Allsop met letters, directed to the governor, 
 from Sir Thomas Fairfax, wherein was a commission enclosed 
 from his father, then general of all the north, for the gov- 
 ernment of both the town and castle. These coming both 
 together, although the general and the parliament had added 
 
154 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 the government of the town to that of the castle, as more 
 honour to him, Colonel Hutchinson was for many reasons 
 much troubled at it, among which these were some of his 
 considerations. First, they were almost all malignants, 
 there being scarcely a man left who was to be confided in, 
 except those who had already enlisted into the castle. 
 Secondly, they were not so much open, professed enemies, 
 as close, hypocritical, false-hearted people; amongst whom 
 were some leading eminent men, so subtle in their malignity, 
 that though their actions were most prejudicial to the public 
 service, yet did they cast such cunning, specious pretences 
 over them of public good, that even the most upright men 
 of the garrison were often seduced by their fair colours. 
 Thirdly, the most religious and the best people were so prag- 
 matical, that no act, nor scarcely word, could pass without 
 being strictly arraigned and judged at the bar of every 
 common soldier’s discretion, and thereafter censured and 
 exclaimed at. Fourthly, the townsmen, being such as had 
 lived free and plentifully by themselves, could not subject 
 themselves to government; but were so saucy, so negligent, 
 and so mutinous, that the most honourable person in the 
 world could expect nothing but scandal, reproach, and in- 
 gratitude, for the payment of his greatest merit; and this 
 the worthy governor found sufficiently from them. Lastly, 
 the few good men were so easily blown up into causeless sus- 
 picions and jealousies, and there were so many malignant 
 whispers daily spread abroad of every one in office, that it 
 was impossible for any man so worthily to demean himself, 
 but that a jealous misconstruction of some inconsiderable 
 trifle, was enough to blast the esteem of all his actions, 
 though never so pious and deserving ; and of all things in the 
 world, nothing was so contrary to the governor’s clear and 
 generous heart, as a base and causeless jealousy of him.^ 
 But notwithstanding these and many other reasons, such as 
 the unprofitable expense of his time, estate, and labours, 
 where he should reap neither glory nor advantage to him- 
 self, he considered, that since he had rather declined than 
 sought the enlargement of his power and command, and that 
 the parliament and generals had, at such a distance been 
 moved to put it, unsought, upon him, it was a work which 
 
 ^ In effect it will be seen that this gave him more uneasiness than his 
 enemies, in the plenitude of power, were ever able to do. 
 
Jealousies of the Gommittee 155 
 
 God called him to, and that the Lord, who set him into the 
 employment, would conquer all the difficulties. For the 
 unjust thoughts or reports of men or their ungrateful returns, 
 he was as much above the grief of that, as the vain-glory of 
 mutable popular applause. It was in all things his en- 
 deavour to do and deserve well ; and then he never regarded 
 the praise or dispraise of men, for he knew that it was im- 
 possible to keep on a constant career of virtue and justice, 
 and to please all. It sufficed him, for his inward peace, that 
 he did not thrust himself into this and other employments, 
 for any popular, ambitious, or advantageous interest of his 
 own; but that he was called of God, to the carrying on of 
 the interests of truth, righteousness, and holiness, and to the 
 defence of his country, wherein he was faithful, and found 
 the Lord’s protection and glorious presence, not only in all 
 he did, but in all he suffered for him and from him. 
 
 As soon as the governor had received his commission, he 
 thought it his duty to put it into execution, and to arm and 
 fortify the town; but my Lord Newcastle coming with all 
 his forces into Nottingham and Derbyshire, the governor, 
 by the advice of the committee, forbore to publish his new 
 commissions, lest the enemy, perceiving an intent to enlarge 
 the garrison, should utterly destroy the town, before they 
 were able to defend it. At the reading of his commission in 
 the committee chamber. Colonel Thornhagh showed much 
 discontent and was melancholy after it; whereupon the 
 governor told him, that as he had not sought that enlarge- 
 ment of command, so if any of them thought themselves 
 abridged by it, or of any other inconvenience to the public 
 service, he would resign it, and never make use of his commis- 
 sion. The colonel answered with much kindness, that he 
 only wondered how the town came to be added, when they 
 wrote for the castle; but he was well satisfied with it, and 
 forced himself to a seeming content, though the truth is he 
 had some emulation, but not malice, towards the governor; 
 and being of a nature a little jealous and easy to be wrought 
 upon, the wicked enemies of the cause endeavoured, all they 
 could, by insinuations to work disaffection and division 
 between these two gentlemen, who were the most faithful, 
 unbiassed, and zealous champions of the public interest, in 
 their country. But after Colonel Thornhagh had been 
 wrought up to declare his discontent, there were many odd 
 
156 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 passages^ by which others also of the committee, who durst 
 not before reveal their envious hearts, showed themselves 
 displeased. Whereupon, when they were all together, the 
 governor, who hated secret heart-boilings, spoke to them, 
 and told them that their carriages since the commission 
 came to him, did manifest their dissatisfaction in it; and if 
 they would deal ingenuously with him and let him know it, 
 as he had not sought the additional government of the town, 
 so he would never undertake it, if they had any suspicion 
 that, unknown to them, he had procured it for himself, and 
 closely sought after the enlargement of his own power, by 
 the abridgment of theirs; he assured them he was much 
 misunderstood, and that neither to Mr. Millington, nor to 
 Sir Thomas Fairfax, had he mentioned anything more than 
 the government of the castle. For that of the town he re- 
 joiced not in it, but looked upon it as a great burden; yet 
 since it was conferred as an honour upon him, he should not 
 decline serving them who had thought him worthy of it, 
 except it gave distaste to any of those present; which if it 
 did, he would esteem it an obligation, if they would but 
 declare it before he published his commission. They all 
 unanimously replied, they were not only contented, but ex- 
 ceedingly well pleased in it. Then the governor told them, 
 if they were real,^ as they professed, he should expect their 
 ready and free concurrence with him, in all affairs tending 
 to the public service, and in those courses he should apply 
 himself to, or the good of the garrison: and again earnestly 
 desired them, if they had any dislikes, either of himself per- 
 sonally, or of the alteration of the town out of the hands it 
 had been in the last year, that they would now freely declare 
 it: for as he should take it exceedingly kindly of them, to 
 do so at this time ; so if, after he had undertaken the charge, 
 there should be any thwarting or crossing of powers and 
 commands between them, he should not bear it; for as he 
 should not stand upon all punctual niceties in his command, 
 so he would not be abridged of the just and lawful power due 
 to him in his place. They all unanimously answered, it was 
 very fit and just he should have it, and they would rather 
 endeavour to uphold him in it than in any way to retrench it. 
 
 Now was my Lord Newcastle’s army come into Derby- 
 shire, and having taken some places there, nothing was ex- 
 ^ Real — Ft. Vrais — sincere. 
 
A Convoy Granted to Colonel Dacre 157 
 
 pected at Derby and Nottingham but a siege; whereupon 
 Captain Palmer’s troop was called away from Broxtowe^ and 
 all the rest of the horse was sent away into Leicestershire, 
 except a few left for scouts ; and as soon as they were gone, 
 my Lord Newcastle’s forces came and quartered almost at 
 the town side, and in all the near towns, and Hastings took 
 this opportunity to make a garrison at Wilden Ferry.^ By 
 the mercy of God the enemy was restrained from coming up 
 to the town, though it lay so open that they might have 
 come in at their pleasure; and they not only miserably 
 wasted and plundered the country all about, but one of them 
 told a malignant, where he quartered, that it was their 
 design in coming to those parts, to devour the country. 
 The regiments that were quartered the nearest to Notting- 
 ham were Sir Marmaduke Langdale’s and Colonel Dacre’s, 
 who had been a familiar acquaintance of Lieutenant-colonel 
 Hutchinson’s when he was in the north, and they loved each 
 other as well as if they had been brothers. Colonel Dacre 
 sent a trumpet to desire Lieutenant-colonel Hutchinson to 
 send him a safe convoy, that he might come and see him, 
 which he acquainted the committee with, and would have 
 refused, but that the committee, thinking some good use 
 might be made of it, persuaded him to suffer him to come; 
 accordingly he sent him a ticket under his hand, promising 
 him to come and go safely; so upon Thursday morning he 
 came, with about eight more, to the top of the hill at Notting- 
 ham, and from thence sent his trumpet to the governor, as 
 if not willing to trust himself without his leave, to know 
 whether he would permit him and his two servants to come 
 into his garrison to visit the lieutenant-colonel. The gov- 
 ernor sent him a ticket for them to come in; and though 
 usually they kept no sentinels in the town, yet he sent down 
 
 ^ Wilden Ferry was said before to be in the possession of the king’s 
 forces; but whether that was an anachronism, or that the thing now 
 meant was an increase of the fortifications, and the placing a larger 
 number of men there, it is clear that the garrison of this place did after 
 this period become a greater annoyance to the parliament, and Lord 
 Grey, of Groby, who commanded in chief the associated forces of 
 Leicester, Nottingham, etc., attacked and took it, assisted, as White- 
 locke says, p. 96, by Sir John Gell, who contrived to get the thanks of 
 the parliament for his services herein, and for taking Winkfield manor 
 and Shelford manor; although some time after, we find him besieging 
 Winkfield manor in conjunction with Lord Denbigh, and that Shelford 
 manor was not taken till more than two years after by Colonel Hutchin- 
 son, acting under the command of Poyntz. 
 
158 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 some officers and soldiers to show him a guard at his entrance. 
 When the lieutenant-colonel came to him^ he made many 
 endearing expressions to him; how much he rejoiced when 
 his regiment was designed for that place where he was^ and 
 how kind an affection he retained for him^ notwithstanding 
 their contrary engagements. Falling into further discourse 
 of this kind^ he said that if he could but be convinced that 
 the king first entertained papists into his army, and that the 
 parliament had none in theirs, he would never fight more on 
 his side. The lieutenant-colonel told him he should easily 
 be able to do that. ‘‘ Well,’’ said Dacre, you and I must 
 have some discourse in private,^ and I shall be glad if you 
 can satisfy me in that.” Then the colonel desired some 
 drink might be sent out to two or three gentlemen, that 
 stayed for him upon the top of the hill ; which the lieutenant- 
 colonel hearing, sent some of his own officers and soldiers on 
 horseback to fetch them down, who coming in all together 
 with them, the town rose in an uproar, and came to the 
 governor with a high complaint, that I know not how many 
 cavaliers were come into the town, and rode up and down 
 armed, threatening the people to their great terror. This 
 the governor thinking to be true, was vexed at it, and sent 
 down an angry letter to his brother, requiring him to send 
 up the men that came last into the town. Colonel Dacre 
 hearing this, desired the lieutenant-colonel that the gentlemen 
 might pass as they came, and offered to go up himself and 
 answer for the offence they had given. But the lieutenant- 
 colonel presently carried them all out of the town, and came 
 himself up to the castle, taking it something unkindly that 
 his brother should write such a letter to him, and worse, 
 that others should have suspicions of him; so that though 
 he had made a promise to dine the Saturday following at 
 Dacre’s quarters, yet, to take away all offence and suspicions, 
 he resolved he would have no more meetings with him, and 
 to that end wrote him a very civil letter to excuse his not 
 coming; and the governor wrote another to excuse the mis- 
 
 ^ Though this may appear somewhat improbable at a time when 
 religious opinions have so little effect upon political ones, it was other- 
 wise considered at that time; for nearly at this same juncture it is to 
 be seen, in Whitelocke, page 81, that Sir E. Deering did on this very 
 account of there being so many papists and Irish rebels entertained 
 in the king’s army, quit him and come into the parliament, who 
 admitted him to composition, being the first. 
 
Proposals to Give Up the Castle i 59 
 
 take, whereupon the gentlemen were sent for to the castle. 
 Dacre returned complimentary answers to them both, and 
 wrote another to Captain Poulton, entreating very earnestly 
 the lieutenant-colonel and Captain Poulton to come and dine 
 with him on Wednesday, and desiring the governor he might 
 have the honour to see him. These letters being communi- 
 cated to the committee, they would fain have had the 
 lieutenant-colonel to have gone, but he held firm to his reso- 
 lution and would not; so with their privity Captain Poulton 
 only went to excuse it, and two of White’s officers were sent 
 along with him, with charge, if they could, to find out how 
 the enemy lay. When Captain Poulton came, the colonel 
 entertained him very kindly, and expressed a great deal of 
 trouble that the lieutenant-colonel was not come, and took 
 him aside and told him that the governor of Nottingham and 
 his brother had now an opportunity whereby they might 
 much advantage themselves, and do the king excellent 
 service. Captain Poulton asking him how, he said, if the 
 governor would deliver up the castle he should be received 
 into favour, have the castle confirmed to him and his heirs, 
 have ten thousand pounds in money, and be made the best 
 lord in the country. If the lieutenant-colonel would deliver 
 up the bridges he should have three thousand pounds, and 
 what command he would ask in the army; and offered 
 Captain Poulton two thousand pounds to effect this. The 
 captain told him, for his own part, nothing should buy him 
 to such a villainy, and he believed the same of the governor 
 and his brother, and made no question but they had before 
 been attempted. The colonel told him he did not this 
 without authority, and thereupon pulled a paper out of his 
 pocket wherein were words to this effect: “These are to 
 authorise Colonel Dacre to treat with Colonel Hutchinson 
 and Lieutenant-colonel Hutchinson for the delivery of 
 Nottingham Castle and the bridges, and to make them large 
 promises, which shall be performed by W. Newcastle.” 
 Having shown him this warrant, the colonel was very im- 
 portunate with the captain to acquaint the governor and his 
 brother, and return their answer to him upon the Friday 
 after, when he offered to meet him, if they would, at a place 
 called St. Ann’s Well. Captain Poulton told the governor 
 and his brother, and they told the committee, and showed 
 them what very disdainful refusals they all had written to 
 
i6o Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 the colonel, and sent him by a drum ; who was not long gone 
 out of the garrison but another came from Colonel Dacre 
 with a letter to Captain Poulton, excusing himself that he 
 could not stay in his quarters for him, according to appoint- 
 ment, but assuring him that what he had promised should 
 be really performed. The governor’s drum, in the absence 
 of Colonel Dacre, delivered the three letters to Langdale, 
 who wrote them back a good civil letter, saying that he 
 believed my Lord Newcastle and Dacre, out of familiarity 
 and acquaintance with them, might have made these offers 
 in kindness to them, but for his part he should otherwise 
 pursue the king’s service.^ 
 
 After this, the weather being pretty fair, and the moon 
 shining at that time, the governor sent out a foot company 
 to beat up their quarters, and gave them a fierce alarm 
 throughout, and took twelve horses out of one of their 
 stables, which they sent home. On their return, meeting a 
 great body of horse, they all at once discharged upon them, 
 and killed some eight of them, as we were told in the morn- 
 ing. After this charge the horse immediately retreated and 
 would not stand another, and the next day removed their 
 quarters further from the garrison. Then the governor and 
 committee sent for the Nottingham horse back from 
 Leicester, and appointed them to bring five hundred muskets 
 which were come to Leicester for the governor. They came, 
 but left the arms behind them. Besides this, the colonel 
 and all his regiment fell into disputes, that the governors of 
 the parliament garrisons had no command of the horse that 
 were quartered in their towns; and hereupon the governor 
 was often prevented of many opportunities advantageable 
 to the public service, and much discouraged to find such 
 obstructions from the envious pride and humour of those 
 who should have been his assistants; but he bore with it as 
 long as himself only suffered by it, and was willing for quiet- 
 
 ^ This proposal for betraying the castle, together with the refusal, is 
 mentioned by Whitelocke, p. 79- Mr. Noble, who is mentioned in the 
 preface as having published the lives of one hundred and thirty-six 
 regicides, makes this remark, “ that Colonel Hutchinson hereby lost a 
 fine opportunity of aggrandising himself and his family, which doubt- 
 less they must regret.” That very discerning gentleman is here in- 
 formed, that the Editor of this work, who is the only representative of 
 Colonel Hutchinson in these kingdoms, is much more proud of counting 
 amongst his ancestors so firm and faithful a patriot than the most 
 illustrious of traitors. 
 
Proposal to Fortify Nottingham i6i 
 
 ness’ sake to pass by many injuries offered himself, till the 
 public service came to be infinitely prejudiced by it. In 
 the meantime he went on, as well as he could, through all 
 difficulties, in the faithful and active discharge of his trust. 
 He called a committee and council of war, where it was put 
 to the question and voted that the town should be fortified. 
 Then he applied himself to the thing, and called a full Hall 
 of all the town, who declared sufficiently their disaffection 
 to the parliament, but in such a subtle way as would have 
 entrapped a less prudent person. But the governor over- 
 looked many things that he saw, and made use of all the 
 advantages they gave him; and did not manifest his resent- 
 ment at anything which they could cloak under a specious 
 pretence, how disadvantageously soever it might have been 
 designed against the parliament interest. The whole town 
 unanimously voted that the place should be fortified, except 
 Alderman Drury, and two or three that followed him. Then 
 the governor gave them encouraging promises of his protec- 
 tion and care over them, and his endeavours to preserve them 
 with his regiment, if they would assist in their own defence. 
 The town being well satisfied, or at least seeming so (for he 
 treated them with that dexterity that they could not for 
 shame openly oppose him, though he was not ignorant that 
 the cavalier party cursed him in their hearts, as the only 
 obstacle in their greater desire of having declared themselves 
 on the other side), with general outward cheerfulness, in 
 Christmas week the works were begun. About this time 
 Sir Thomas Fairfax having to march into Staffordshire, sent 
 for some arms he had left in Nottingham castle; and by the 
 same convoy that went with them the governor got his five 
 hundred muskets brought home from Leicester. Sir Thomas 
 sent orders to the governor to send him all the horse in the 
 garrison; but when the governor acquainted them with it, 
 they would none of them obey him and go, though Sir 
 Thomas sent twice very earnestly for them, but they stayed 
 in Nottingham, where they would obey no order of the 
 governor’s ; and by doing things that concerned the garrison 
 without and against his orders, they made a sad confusion 
 and thwarting of powers, which the governor bore with in 
 respect to Col. Thornhagh, who did things not so much out 
 of malice in himself, as out of a little emulation, which did 
 not destroy his kindness to the governor, and by the subtle 
 
1 62 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 instigation of Capt. White^ who^wrought upon his facility 
 to do those things which his malice and factious ambition 
 prompted him to wish^ but he durst not himself attempt. 
 Although the horse would not obey Sir Thomas Fairfax^ it 
 was not out of cowardice, for the men were very stout and 
 cheerful in the service, but only had the general fault of all 
 the parliament party, that they were not very obedient to 
 commands, except they knew and approved their employ- 
 ment. They had no sooner refused Sir Thomas, but my 
 Lord Grey, sending for two troops, they went to him to 
 Melton, which he had begun to fortify. The governor, 
 notwithstanding these obstacles from secret enemies and 
 refractory friends, carried on his business with good success, 
 and brought about many events according to his endeavours. 
 Among the rest, his men encountering a party where Colonel 
 Frecheville and Sir Henry Humlack were in person, fought 
 them, killed many of their men, and took Frecheville 
 prisoner; but his captain-lieutenant Jammot came to his 
 rescue and freed him, though he himself was taken in his 
 stead and brought to Nottingham. Here, after he had been 
 some time kept, he corrupted a soldier, who disguised and 
 led him out, and went away with him. The man being a 
 Frenchman and a proper black man, some would needs 
 report him to be Prince Rupert, and thereupon raised a 
 great clamour at the governor. 
 
 But before his escape, upon the 15th of January, intelli- 
 gence was brought that all the forces in Newark were march- 
 ing on a design upon Sleaford in Lincolnshire. The governor, 
 not trusting that pretence, commanded all the soldiers and 
 townsmen to sit up that night and expect them; and the 
 next morning, being Tuesday, two of his intelligencers came 
 and brought him word very early that the design was against 
 Nottingham. After them the horse scouts came in with the 
 news of their approach, the enemy’s scouts and they having 
 fired upon each other. Hereupon a strong alarm was given 
 throughout the garrison, and a foot company sent down 
 from the castle to the works, and the horse were there set 
 with them, to dispute the enemy’s entrance into the town; 
 but the horse perceiving the enemy’s body to be a great one, 
 retreated to the castle, and the foot seeing them gone, and 
 none of the townsmen come forth to their assistance, made 
 also an orderly retreat back to the castle, in which there was 
 
Sir Charles Lucas’s Letter 163 
 
 not a man lost nor wounded. The works being imperfect 
 and quitted^ were easily entered, though the cannon that 
 played upon them from the castle took off wholly the second 
 file of musketeers that entered the gates. The first was led 
 up by Lieutenant-colonel Cartwright, who two days before 
 had sent to the governor for a protection to come in and lay 
 down his arms. The enemy being entered, possessed them- 
 selves of St. Peter’s church and certain houses near the 
 castle, from whence they shot into the castle-yard and 
 wounded one man and killed another, which was all the hurt 
 that was done our men that day. 
 
 The governor was very angry with the horse for coming 
 up so suddenly, and stirred them up to such a generous 
 shame, that they dismounted, and all took muskets to serve 
 as foot, with which they did such very good service, that 
 they exceedingly well regained their reputations. Having 
 taken foot arms, the governor sent one of his own companies 
 with part of them, and they beat the cavaliers out of the 
 nearest lanes and houses, which they had possessed, and so 
 made a safe way for the rest to sally out and retreat, as there 
 should be occasion. 
 
 When this was done, which was about noon, the governor 
 sent out all the rest of the horse and foot, to beat the enemy 
 out of the town. Sir Charles Lucas, who was the chief 
 commander of all the forces there, had prepared a letter to 
 send up to the governor to demand of him the castle; or if 
 he would not deliver it, that then he should send down the 
 mayor and aldermen, threatening, that if they came not im- 
 mediately, he would sack and burn the town. There were, 
 at that time, above a thousand cavaliers in the town, and as 
 many in a body without the town, to have beaten off the 
 Derby and Leicester forces, if they should have made any 
 attempt to come in, to the assistance of their friends in 
 Nottingham. On the other side the Trent, were all the 
 forces Mr. Hastings could bring out, from his own garrison 
 and Belvoir and Wiverton to force the bridges. All the 
 cavalier forces that were about the town, were about three 
 thousand. When Sir Charles Lucas had written his letter, 
 he could find none that would undertake to carry it to the 
 castle, whereupon they took the mayor’s wife, and with 
 threats, compelled her to undertake it; but just as she went 
 out of the house from them, she heard an outcry, that ‘‘ the 
 
164 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 roundheads were sallying forth/ ^ whereupon she flung down 
 their letter and ran away; and they ran as fast^ from four 
 hundred soldiers, who came furiously upon them out of the 
 castle, and surprised them ; while they were secure the castle 
 would not have made so bold an attempt. But the 
 governor’s men chased them from street to street, till they 
 had cleared the town of them, who ran away confusedly: 
 the first that went out shot their pistols into the thatched 
 houses to have fired them, but by the mercy of God neither 
 that, nor other endeavours they showed to have fired the 
 town, as they were commanded, took effect. Between 
 thirty and forty of them were killed in the streets, fourscore 
 were taken prisoners, and abundance of arms were gathered 
 up, which the men flung away in haste, as they ran; but 
 they put some fire into a hay barn and hay mows, and all 
 other combustible things they could discern in their haste, 
 but by God’s mercy, the town, notwithstanding, was pre- 
 served from burning. While their foot marched away, their 
 horse faced the town in a valley where their reserve stood, 
 till towards evening, and then they all drew off. Many of 
 them died on their return, and were found dead in the woods 
 and in the towns they passed through. Many of them, 
 discouraged by this service, ran away, and many of their 
 horses were quite spoiled: for two miles they left a great 
 track of blood, which froze as it fell upon the snow, for it 
 was such bitter weather th'at the foot had waded almost to 
 the middle in snow as they came, and were so numbed with 
 cold when they came into the town, that they were fain to 
 be rubbed to get life into them, and in that condition were 
 more eager for fires and warm meat than for plunder ; which, 
 together with their feeling of security, saved many men’s 
 goods ; as they did not believe that an enemy, who had un- 
 handsomely, to speak truth, suffered them to enter the town 
 without any dispute, would have dared, at such great odds, 
 to have set upon driving them out. Indeed, no one can 
 believe, but those that saw that day, what a strange ebb and 
 flow of courage and cowardice there was in both parties on 
 that day. The cavaliers marched in with such terror to the 
 garrison, and such gallantry, that they startled not when 
 one of their leading files fell before them all at once, but 
 marched boldly over the dead bodies of their friends, under 
 their enemies’ cannon, and carried such valiant dreadfulness 
 
Courage and Cowardice 165 
 
 about them^ as made very courageous stout men recoil. 
 Our horse, who ran away frighted at the sight of their foes, 
 when they had breastworks before them, and the advantage 
 of freshness to beat back assailants already vanquished with 
 the sharpness of the cold and a killing march, within three or 
 four hours, as men that thought nothing too great for them, 
 returned fiercely upon the same men, after their refresh- 
 ment, when they were entered into defensible houses. If it 
 were a romance, one should say, after the success, that the 
 heroes did it out of excess of gallantry, that they might the 
 better signalise their valour upon a foe who was not van- 
 quished to their hands by the inclemency of the season : but 
 we are relating wonders of Providence, and must record this 
 as one not to be conceived of, but by those who saw and 
 shared in it. It was indeed a great instruction, that the best 
 and highest courages are but the beams of the Almighty; 
 and when He withholds His influence, the brave turn 
 cowards, fear unnerves the most mighty, makes the most 
 generous base, and great men to do those things they blush 
 to think on; when God again inspires, the fearful and the 
 feeble see no dangers, believe no difficulties, and carry on 
 attempts whose very thoughts would, at another time, 
 shiver their joints like agues. The events of this day 
 humbled the pride of many of our stout men, and made them 
 afterwards more carefully seek God, as well to inspire as 
 prosper their valour; and the governor’s handsome re- 
 proaches of their faults, with showing them the way to repair 
 them, retrieved their straggling spirits, and animated them 
 to very wonderful and commendable actions. 
 
 The governor would not let his men pursue the rear, but 
 thought they might, in the night, have completed their 
 day’s work, if they had fallen upon the enemy’s quarters, 
 which he gave orders to the horse to do ; but Colonel Thorn- 
 hagh would not obey them, because they came from him, 
 and so lost a great opportunity, and contented himself with 
 praising God for the great deliverance of the day, wherein 
 there was not one townsman that came in to the assistance 
 of the soldiers. 
 
 The next day, the governor called the town together, and 
 represented to them the mercy of God and the malice of their 
 enemies, who, without regard of any friends they had among 
 them, came purposely to fire the town, which God alone pre- 
 
1 66 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 served; and^ having showed them their danger^ he required 
 they should be no longer slothful in their own defence^ but 
 should take arms to preserve their families and houses. He 
 propounded to them^ that if they would so do, they should 
 choose their own captains. They, considering the just 
 reasons and motives with which he urged them, at length 
 resolved to join in their own defence, and chose four captains; 
 but the captains refusing, the soldiers that day went home 
 unenlisted, yet by the governor’s dexterity in managing them, 
 he at last brought four hundred, whereof more than half 
 were high malignants, to enlist themselves under one Mr. 
 Coates, a minister, an honest, godly man,^ and Mr. Mason,^ 
 an attorney, a great cavalier, but a reserved, silent man, who, 
 for an austere knit of his brow, and a grave, severe counten- 
 ance, had the reputation of a wise man, but was known to be 
 disaffected to the parliament, though cunning enough not 
 to do anything that might expose him to sequestration. 
 Into these men’s hands he put arms, and so ordered them, 
 that at the last they grew fiercer in the service than those 
 who were uprightly honest. 
 
 The next month the Lord Chaworth sent a letter to the 
 governor, acquainting him that he was sick, and desired a 
 protection to come and remain at his own house, in order to 
 make his peace with the parliament; which protection the 
 governor gave him. 
 
 The governor had acquainted the parliament with the late 
 successes, whereupon they ordered a thousand pounds to be 
 sent to the garrison out of the sequestrations of London, and 
 the excise of the town to go to the payment of the garrison ; 
 but through Mr. Millington’s negligent prosecution, the 
 thousand pounds never came.^ 
 
 The governor went on again successfully in his employ- 
 ment, and began to endear himself to all the town as well as 
 to the soldiery; which awakening White’s sleeping envy, he 
 cast new plots to disturb him; and first made a motion to 
 
 ^ It appears from this that Mr. Palmer, mentioned before, and who 
 will be mentioned more than once in the sequel, was not quite singular 
 in taking up arms notwithstanding his function. The famous preacher, 
 Hugh Peters, acted as an officer of horse. It was in those days common 
 to quote the expression, that the saints should have the praises of God 
 in their mouths, and a two-edged sword in their hands ! 
 
 ^ The same whom, when put into confinement at the castle, the 
 governor invited to his table. 
 
 ^ Mentioned by Whitelocke as given. 
 
Warrant to Hooper 167 
 
 send to London Jf or two hundred soldiers: to which the 
 governor answered — If they were honest, there were men 
 enough to keep the garrison; if they were not, to call in 
 other forces was but to bait their treachery with a greater 
 prize; and that to send for more force, while they had such 
 slender maintenance for these, was to increase trouble 
 without any benefit. 
 
 The same afternoon the committee sent the governor a 
 warrant to be signed, which was before subscribed by four 
 of them. White in the front. The warrant was to this 
 effect : — 
 
 To Mr. Hooper, Engineer of the Garrison of Nottingham. 
 
 ‘‘You are hereby required to make your present 
 appearance to this committee, there to give an account of 
 what you have done about the works of the town, and how 
 far you have proceeded in them ; how, and in what manner, 
 and by what time you intend to finish them; and what 
 materials are needful for the finishing of them, there being 
 imminent danger to the garrison.’^ 
 
 As soon as the governor received the warrant, he took the 
 engineer with him, and went to the committee, to whom, 
 said he, “ Gentlemen, I received just now such a strange 
 warrant from you, that I can impute it to nothing but a 
 picked occasion for quarrel. If you desire to question any- 
 thing in the fortifying of the town, I have not only brought 
 the engineer, but am here myself to answer it: if there be 
 money in his hands, let him give you an account of it; but 
 concerning the fortifications, I conceive he is only to be ac- 
 countable to me ; therefore why this warrant should be made, 
 I cannot tell, unless purposely to affront me; as for that 
 imminent danger you pretend, it is utterly unknown to me, 
 and if there be any, I ought to have been made acquainted 
 with it, and desire now to understand it.” They answered, 
 “ Were they not in daily peril? ” He replied, “ That was 
 certain, but at this time none more imminent than usual that 
 he knew of ; and further desired them, if he had been negli- 
 gent in those things which conduced to the safety of the 
 town, that they would article against him, whatever they 
 could accuse him of; if he had done nothing worthy of 
 
1 68 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 blame, he took it exceedingly ill, to be thus thwarted and 
 affronted in his just and lawful command.’’ Upon replies 
 and debate, White said, “ If Hooper did not render them an 
 account of his works, they would clap him by the heels.” 
 Whereupon the governor, addressing him only, told him, 
 “ That from the first opening of his commission, he had 
 manifested his discontent, and that he had taken notice of his 
 secret endeavours to oppose him, and was glad the humour 
 was now so ripe as to vent itself ; that for the time to come, 
 since he saw his condescensions did but encourage them to 
 wrest all things from him, and to question all his dues, he 
 would now expect that full observance from them all, that 
 was due from the officers of a garrison to the governor; that 
 he expected the horse should receive orders from him, and 
 that he would no more put up with such affronts and neglects 
 as he had that very day received, when, calling for a muster 
 of the horse to have been sent out upon a very advantageous 
 design, a whole troop, unknown to him, was by the com- 
 mittee sent out for hay, whereby that opportunity was lost.” 
 He told them further, that protections charging officers 
 and soldiers to forbear plunder, ought to be given only by 
 him upon their certificate, and not by them; and,” said he, 
 ‘‘ Gentlemen, I received that affront from you lately, which 
 no governor in the world, but myself, would have put up 
 with ; when at a public council of war, among all the officers, 
 enough to have caused a mutiny, it was propounded how far 
 my command extended, and questioned whether I could 
 command horse in the garrison ? And all of you, at a council 
 of war, ordered that the booty taken should be at the dis- 
 posal of the chief officer that went out; so that if a corporal 
 went out, he must dispose of the booty, which in all garrisons 
 is the governor’s right to do.” 
 
 While they were in this dispute, the lieutenant-colonel 
 came in, and seconded his brother; and after some smart 
 disputes on both sides, they parted for that night. 
 
 The next morning the committee sent for the governor, 
 who coming to them, one of them drew a paper out of his 
 pocket, and offered some propositions to the governor ; which 
 were, first, that the dispute between them might be silenced 
 and kept private; next, that he would join with them, in a 
 letter to Mr. Millington, to desire him to get the question 
 decided by the dose committee^ What were the several 
 
Dissatisfaction of the Committee 169 
 
 powers of a governor and a committee ? And, lastly, that he 
 would draw up what he conceived his power to be. To this 
 the governor replied, that for silencing the thing, he was very 
 willing to do it; for sending to the close committee, he very 
 well understood his own power, and if they questioned it, 
 they might send whither they pleased, to satisfy themselves ; 
 but for setting down the particulars wherein he conceived his 
 power to consist, when he did anything, which they thought 
 belonged not to him, let them call him to question where they 
 pleased, and he should be ready to give an account of his 
 actions, but he would not make himself so ridiculous as to 
 send for satisfaction in unquestionable things; yet for their 
 information he would go along with them, if any of them 
 pleased, either to my Lord of Essex, or my Lord Fairfax, to 
 have the power of a governor decided. They told him the 
 generals understood not the power of a committee so well as 
 the parliament, and therefore wrote a letter to Mr. Milling- 
 ton with extraordinary commendations of the governor, yet 
 desiring to know the extent of his power, and showed it to 
 him. He told them, if they believed those things they 
 wrote of him, he wondered whence all this discontent had 
 arisen, for he appealed to them all, whether, ever since he 
 undertook the government, he had usurped any command 
 over them, or done so much as the most inconsiderable act 
 without acquainting them, and receiving their approbation; 
 and what should ail them, he could not imagine, unless they 
 were discontented at his being made governor ; which if they 
 were, they might thank themselves, who put it upon him, 
 when he received nothing but trouble, expense, and danger 
 in it. They all acknowledged his appeal true, and said they 
 had desired his establishment in the government of the castle, 
 as the man they esteemed most worthy of it and most fit for 
 it. He told them, if the addition of the town grieved them, 
 that was to be transferred to the parliament, who without 
 his seeking had added that to him. One of them replied, 
 they had so worthy an opinion of him, that they wished the 
 assessing of the country too might be put into his power only. 
 He said he should have been obliged to them had this pro- 
 ceeded from anything but discontent, and that if without his 
 own seeking he should be honoured with that trust, as he 
 was with this, he should endeavour to discharge it faithfully; 
 but he rather desired it might continue in the hands it was, 
 
 F2 
 
170 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 and if he were negligent to fetch in those assessments^ which 
 were given him^ then let the blame lie on him ; but for rating 
 and assessing the towns^ those who were acquainted with 
 the country were fittest for it; and thus for the present it 
 rested. 
 
 The design they prevented by sending out the troop un- 
 known to him, was, the saving the town of Southwell from 
 being made a garrison for the king; which, the town being 
 unwilling to, sent word to the governor, that if he would come 
 and assist them, they would join with him to beat out some 
 soldiers that intended to fortify themselves there; but the 
 horse, by reason of their employment, failing on those two 
 days, and extraordinary ill weather coming after, that oppor- 
 tunity was lost: this was about the middle of February. 
 Captain White still continued afterwards to prevent all 
 designs whose events might in any way have conduced to the 
 governor’s honour, not weighing what hindrance it was 
 to the public service, which was a great vexation to the 
 governor; but his courage was above their malice, and his 
 zeal to the service carried him vigorously on, in all things 
 which he could accomplish by his own officers and soldiers, 
 who were more obedient to him; and, although this exer- 
 cised his patience, yet was it also a spur to his diligence, and 
 made his fidelity more illustrious, and kept him more in 
 waiting upon God, and more strict in his watch over all his 
 actions, because he knew how all his enemies watched for 
 his fall. 
 
 Upon the eleventh of February, Cornet Palmer, who had 
 been prisoner at Newark, came home and told the governor 
 that he had discovered in his prison a design intended about 
 this time to surprise the bridge by Hacker’s soldiers, who 
 were to come in the habit of market people on the next 
 Saturday. This intelligence was seconded, whereupon the 
 governor sent his officers to command all the bridge-soldiers 
 to keep in their quarters that day: he commanded also all 
 the horse in the town to be ready to go out upon the first 
 sound of the trumpet, and gave orders for all the drums in 
 the garrison to beat betimes in the morning ; the lieutenant- 
 colonel set a guard beyond the bridge, with charge strictly 
 to examine all passengers. About eleven o’clock on Satur- 
 day, the 17th of February, they took twelye of them ^ upon 
 ^ H dicker’ § soldiQr§4 
 
Rewards the Soldiers 171 
 
 the bridge, disguised like market men and women, with 
 pistols, long knives, hatchets, daggers, and great pieces of 
 iron about them; whereupon they sent and acquainted the 
 governor, who being himself on horseback at the works, went 
 immediately down to the bridge, and commanded all the 
 horse to come away and pursue them; but the horse com- 
 manders, being always slow in obeying his commands, came 
 not till the enemy’s foot beyond the bridge, perceiving their 
 fellows were taken upon the bridge, retired and got safe off ; 
 only nine, who were to have assassinated those at the bridge, 
 and had advanced forwarder than the rest for that purpose, 
 were overtaken, and with their captain leaped into the 
 Trent to have saved themselves, of whom our men plucked 
 four out of the water, five were drowned, and the captain 
 swam to shore on the other side. The governor was in doubt 
 whether these men, taken in disguises, were to be released 
 as prisoners of w^ar, or executed as spies and assassins by 
 martial law; but though he would not have cared if the 
 bridge-soldiers had turned them into the Trent when they 
 took them, he afterwards released them all upon exchange, 
 except one Slater, a soldier of his own that had run away to 
 the enemy, and this day was taken coming into the town, 
 with a montero ^ pulled close about his face, but denied that 
 he was of the design ; yet after, upon trial at a court-martial, 
 he was condemned and executed. The governor had sent 
 out some horse and foot, to drive the grounds at the enemy’s 
 garrison at Shelford, which they did, and from under the 
 very works from which the enemy shot at them, brought 
 away many beasts and horses, that belonged to the garrison, 
 and brought them up into the castle-yard. The governor 
 being then in the committee-chamber, told them it was fit 
 the soldiers should have a reward, whereupon it was ordered 
 to give them six pounds, and the governor told the soldiers 
 the committee had assigned them a reward. But when they 
 came to receive it, Salisbury, the treasurer, tithed it out, and 
 gave the soldiers a groat a piece, and sixpence a piece to the 
 officers, which in all came but to forty shillings and odd 
 money; at which the soldiers, being mad, flung back his 
 money, and desired a council of war to do them right ; which 
 the governor assented to, and the next day the business being 
 heard at a full council of all the officers of the garrison, it was 
 ^ A kind of cap sd called. 
 
172 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 determined by the unanimous vote of all but Mr. Salisbury^ 
 that as the enemy shot at them, when they took the booty, 
 it did of right belong to the soldiers that fought for it, and so 
 they had it. Whereupon Salisbury flung himself away from 
 the board in a great huff and muttering, for which the 
 governor rebuked him, and told him such carriage ought not 
 to be suffered in him, who, as an officer, ought to have more 
 respect for the place and those that sat there. After this, 
 about eighteen of the lieutenant-colonebs men went out and 
 met tv/enty-five men in arms; between them there was a 
 brook, the bridge-men called to them, and asked of what 
 side they were, and perceiving they were cavaliers, told 
 them, after some little defies between them, that though the 
 number was unequal, they would fight with them ; and pass- 
 ing over the brook, charged them, put them to flight, killed 
 two of them,, took eight prisoners, and twelve of their horses. 
 Upon examination they were found to be northern gentle- 
 men, who having enlisted themselves in the prince’s own 
 troop, after the death of Sir Thomas Byron that commanded 
 under the prince, were assigned to my Lord Wentworth, at 
 which being discontented, they were now returning into 
 their own country, being almost all of them gentlemen. Sir 
 Richard Byron, for his brother’s memory, exchanged them 
 for prisoners of Nottingham, taken when the town was first 
 surprised. 
 
 At the end of this month, on the fast-day, the national 
 covenant was taken, with a great solemnity, both by the 
 soldiers and inhabitants, men and women,^ of the garrison. 
 This day, unexpectedly, came Sir Edward Hartup, with a 
 thousand horse from Leicester and Derby, to which the 
 governor added between five and six hundred; Sir Edward 
 being appointed to command the party, should have gone 
 with them to take Muscam Bridges, at Newark, before which 
 place Sir John Meldrum was now come, with about seven 
 thousand men, and had laid siege to it. The horse of Newark, 
 as soon as the parliament’s forces came, made an escape over 
 Muscam Bridge, which Sir Edward Hartup, having more 
 mind to drink than to fight, lingering a day at Nottingham, 
 and then marching to no purpose against it, lost his oppor- 
 tunity of taking; yet God, by a providence, gave it up with 
 200 men that kept it to the parliament’s forces, who, had 
 ^ Nota bene. 
 
Goes to the Leaguer, at Newark 173 
 
 they then pursued their success^ might have carried the 
 town too, but it was not God’s time then to deliver the 
 country of that pernicious enemy. The horse that were 
 escaped out of Newark, went into all their garrisons in the 
 Vale and Derbyshire, and gathered up all the force they 
 could make, to about the number of two thousand, and 
 with these they came and quartered near Nottingham; them- 
 selves and the country giving out that they were about four 
 thousand. 
 
 There was a fast kept at Nottingham, to seek God for his 
 presence with our armies; and before the first sermon was 
 ended the enemy’s horse came to the town side and gave a 
 strong alarm, and ■ continued facing the town till night, at 
 which time they returned to their quarters, and those horse 
 that were in the garrison following their rear, gleaned up 
 two lieutenants and two or three other officers. The next 
 day the body marched just by the town side, and so passed 
 over the river at Wilden Ferry. After they were gone from 
 about Nottingham, the governor went down to the Leaguer, 
 at Newark, where Sir John Meldrum had made all things 
 ready for a general assault on the town; but at a council of 
 war that w^as called in the field, it was determined that it 
 should not then be, whereupon the governor of Nottingham 
 returned to his garrison; who, coming to take his leave of 
 Sir John Meldrum, Sir John entreated him that he would 
 return again and be among them as much as he could, 
 making a sad complaint of the envyings, heart-burnings, 
 and dissensions that were among the several commanders, 
 so that he had much ado to hold them together, and had 
 great need of men of moderation and prudence to assist him, 
 and to help to mediate among them. The forces that Sir 
 John Meldrum commanded before this town, were gathered 
 out of several associated counties, and the commanders were 
 so emulous of one another, and so refractory to commands, 
 and so piquing in all punctilios of superiority, that it galled 
 the poor old gentleman to the heart; who, having com- 
 manded abroad, and been used to deal with officers that 
 understood the discipline of war, was confounded among 
 those who knew not how to obey any orders, but disputed all 
 his commands, and lost their time and honour in a fruitless; 
 expedition, through their own vain contentions; whereas, 
 had they joined in the assault when he then would have 
 
174 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 made it^ they might probably have carried the town, but 
 missing that opportunity, they came off at last with loss and 
 dishonour. While the governor was at the Leaguer, Sir 
 John Meldrum told him, that Colonel Pierrepont had been 
 with him, to get his hand to a paper, which should have testi- 
 fied that the government of Nottingham did of right belong 
 to him; but Sir John answered he could not testify any such 
 thing, for it was his own act to confer that government where 
 now it was ; with which Colonel Pierrepont seemed very well 
 satisfied at that time. When he could not prevail in this, he 
 desired Sir John to set his hand to another paper, which 
 should have certified, that in all things he had approved 
 himself most firm and faithful to the service of the parlia- 
 ment. Sir John said he would not injure him so much as to 
 make any such certificate of a thing not called into ques- 
 tion; but if there should be any doubt of it, he should be 
 ready to do him all right. Colonel Pierrepont, moreover, 
 went to the governor’s soldiers, that had formerly been of 
 his regiment, and giving them twenty shillings to drink, told 
 them he was to be governor of the town, and would shortly 
 come among them. 
 
 Sir Edward Hartup was sent with the party of horse he 
 before had at Muscam bridge, to pursue those that were 
 gone out of Newark, and fight with them, and hinder their 
 joining with Prince Rupert, who was expected to come to 
 raise the siege; and when Sir Edward came into Leicester- 
 shire the whole country rose with him, and the governor of 
 Leicester brought out foot and cannon to assist him. His 
 forlorn hope being of the Nottingham horse, charged the 
 enemy’s forlorn hope and routed them, and then fell into 
 their body of foot, which they had drained out of their little 
 garrisons, and routed them also, and if Sir Edward Hartup 
 would have come on with his body, they had all been cut 
 off; but the knight would not stir, but commanded the 
 forlorn hope to retreat, who had slain and taken many 
 prisoners of the enemy, and among them Jammot, who 
 had lately made his escape out of Nottingham Castle. The 
 enemy perceiving Sir Edward would not hurt them, rallied 
 again and joined with Prince Rupert; of which, as soon as 
 Sir Edward had intelligence^ he went back to Newark with 
 such shameful haste, that he quitted Melton with all the 
 prisoners the forlorn hope had lately taken. The Leicester 
 
Siege of Nottingham i 'y^ 
 
 forces^ discouraged at this carriage^ returned to their garri- 
 sons and marched no more with him.^ 
 
 The governor of Nottingham kept out spies upon the 
 enemy’s motions, and sent word to the Leaguer, but the 
 gentlemen there were so over-confident, they would not 
 believe any force could come to raise their siege. At length, 
 the governor of Nottingham being there himself, word was 
 brought that Prince Rupert was come to Ashby; wherefore 
 he, fearing some attempt upon his garrison, to divert the 
 forces at the siege, returned home with his brother to look 
 to their charge. It was late upon Wednesday night when 
 the governor came home, and was certainly informed that 
 Prince Rupert had, that afternoon, marched by to raise 
 the siege with about six thousand men. Immediately the 
 governor sent two men, excellently well mounted upon his 
 own horses, to carry the alarm to Sir John Meldrum, who by 
 two o’clock on Thursday morning delivered him their letters, 
 and he presently prepared to fight with the prince, who came 
 about nine or ten o’clock. Sir John had drawn all his 
 ordnance within the walls of a ruined house, called the 
 spittle, and the horse were the first to charge the enemy. 
 Col. Thornhagh and Major Rossiter gave them a very brave 
 charge, routed those whom they first encountered, and took 
 prisoners Major-general Gerrard and others, and had they 
 been seconded by the rest of the horse, had utterly defeated 
 the prince’s army; but the Lincolnshire troops fled away 
 before ever they charged, and left Col. Thornhagh engaged, 
 with only his own horse, with the prince’s whole body, 
 where, they say, he charged the prince himself, and made 
 his way and passed very gallantly through the whole army, 
 with a great deal of honour, and two desperate wounds, one 
 in the arm, the other in the belly. After the Lincolnshire 
 horse were run away. Sir John Meldrum sent the Derby 
 horse and the Nottingham foot, with two companies of Col. 
 King’s, to keep Muscam bridge, and Molanus, the Derby- 
 shire major, to be their commander. Colonel Thornhagh 
 
 ^ In Whitelocke’s Memoirs, p. 85, there is an account of this relief, 
 or raising the siege of Newark, agreeing with Mrs. Hutchinson’s, except 
 that it is not quite so particular, and omits the account of what befell 
 Colonel Thornhagh. Whitelocke attributes to the misconduct of Sir 
 E. Hartup and Colonel Bingley Prince Rupert’s coming with his forces 
 entire to the place, and informs us that a court-martial was directed 
 to decide upon their conduct, but does not state what their decision 
 was 
 
176 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 was sent home in a wagon to Nottingham. Sir John him- 
 self, with the few horse and dragoons that were left from 
 Nottingham and Derby, being about five hundred, went into 
 the spittle to his foot. The prince lost more than Sir John 
 in the skirmish, but as soon as ever Sir John had betaken 
 himself to the spittle, the prince sent horse and foot between 
 him and Muscam bridge.^ The horse that were left there to 
 guard the foot ran every man away, so that they had not a 
 horse left to fetch them any provision. The major that 
 commanded them told them that he would go to the next 
 town to buy them some bread, and with that pretence came 
 away and never saw them more. The enemy was endeavour- 
 ing to make a passage over the river, to come on the other 
 side of them and encompass them, which when they saw and 
 considered that they had no order what to do, nor bread for 
 one meal, nor bullet more than their muskets were loaded 
 withal, and that it was impossible for them to come off if 
 they stayed till the enemy enclosed them; and further dis- 
 covering that their friends in the spittle were in parley, they 
 conceived it their best way to come home, which they plotted 
 so to do that the enemy might not perceive it till they were 
 out of their reach; so leaving lighted matches and squibs 
 laid at certain distances, to deceive the enemy, they came 
 safe home. But within less than half an hour after they 
 were gone the enemy came on the other side, and not missing 
 them till morning, by reason of the squibs, they pursued 
 them not, by which means they came safe to Nottingham; 
 which was a very seasonable mercy, for had they stayed the 
 choicest arms in the garrison had been lost, and the best and 
 most confiding soldiers disarmed. For Sir John had agreed 
 upon articles with the prince, to deliver up the spittle wherein 
 he lay, with all the muskets, ordnance, and ammunition in 
 it; the foot soldiers to march away with colours flying, 
 swords and pikes, the horsemen with their horses and 
 swords, and all the commanders with their pistols; but the 
 
 ^ Rapin gives a different account of this matter, but to those who 
 know or observe the situation of the places, Mrs. Hutchinson’s will 
 appear to be the true one. Besides Muscam bridge there was a bridge 
 of boats, which enabled the prince’s forces to surround the guard left 
 at Muscam bridge. This guard, instead of deserting, as Rapin says of 
 it, was deserted and sacrificed for want of support; the road still lay 
 open to Lincoln, but probably Prince Rupert was too strong and too 
 active to let the besiegers escape any way, unless they had acted with 
 better accord amongst themselves. 
 
Letter from Newark Commissioners 177 
 
 prince broke all these conditions^ and pillaged them to their 
 shirts^ and sent many captains quite naked away. 
 
 The committee of Nottingham now began again to mutter 
 at the governor^ but he would not take notice of it, but 
 applied himself to take care for the securing of his town,, 
 where the enemy now daily threatened to come. So he 
 floated the meadows on the Line side, where there was no 
 fortification, and raised a fort in the midst of the meadows 
 to preserve the float, and fortified the Trent bridges more 
 strongly; and, expecting the enemy every hour, was forced 
 to let the work go on during the Lord’s day. When, calling 
 the captains together to consult on the best way of preparing 
 for their defence. Mason, the new town captain, took this 
 time to revive the old mutiny, and said the townsmen would 
 not stand to their works except the ordnance were drawn 
 down from the castle to the town works; the governor 
 rebuked him for this unseasonable insolence, as he and his 
 men were, all the time of this great exigency, so backward 
 that they were rather an obstruction than assistance, and 
 there was much ado to get them either to the works or to 
 the guards^ Indeed such a blow was given to the parliament 
 interest, in all these parts, that it might well encourage the 
 ill-affected, when even the most zealous were cast down and 
 gave up all for lost; but the governor, who on no occasion 
 ever let his courage fall, but, when things were at the lowest, 
 re-collected all his force, that his own despondency might 
 not contribute anything to his malicious fortune, at this time 
 animated all the honest men, and expressed such vigour and 
 cheerfulness, and such stedfast resolution, as disappointed 
 all the malignants of their hopes. The wives, children, and 
 servants of such as were in the enemy’s garrisons and armies, 
 he thought it not safe to suffer any longer to be in the town 
 in such a time of danger, and therefore commanded them all 
 to depart, not sparing even some of his own relations; but 
 though this was done by the concurrence of the whole com- 
 mittee, yet some of them, who were loath the town should 
 lose any that wished ill to the governor and his undertakings, 
 privately, without his consent or knowledge, brought back 
 several persons that were very dangerous to the place. 
 
 And now, upon the twenty-fifth day of March, a letter was 
 brought to the governor from all the commissioners at 
 Newark, telling him that the parliament’s forces had quitted 
 
178 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 Gainsborough^ Lincoln^ and Sleeforth; and that the prince 
 intended to advance against Nottingham^ and to fire the 
 town^ if he did not immediately throw down the works^ 
 which if he should not do, the world would then take notice 
 of him as the only ruin of his native country. To which the 
 governor returned them answer, that as he never engaged 
 himself in this service, with respect to the success or actions 
 of other places, so though the whole kingdom were quitted 
 except this town, he would yet maintain it as long as he was 
 able, and he trusted that God would preserve it in his hands ; 
 but if it perished, he was resolved to bury himself in the ruins 
 of it, being confident that God would afterwards vindicate 
 him to have been a defender, and not a destroyer of his 
 country. A copy of the letter which the Newark commis- 
 sioners sent to the governor, was sent to one Francis Cooke, 
 a malignant inhabitant of the town, subscribed with all the 
 commissioners’ hands, and desiring him to communicate it 
 to the whole town. The governor, having taken what care 
 he could at home, sent immediately to the parliament and to 
 the Earl of Essex, acquainting them with the desperate con- 
 dition of the place; and desiring that they would send him 
 seasonable relief, if the prince should besiege him, promising 
 to employ his utmost endeavour to hold it for them, or to 
 lose himself with it. My lord general returned a very civil 
 encouraging letter, and now the prince, two days after the 
 letter, was advanced within three miles of Nottingham; 
 when it pleased God to divert him from coming against the 
 town by letters which were brought him from Oxford, which 
 occasioned his hasty return into the south, without any 
 attempt upon the place, which, by God’s mercy, was thus 
 delivered from this threatening danger. However, their 
 enemies at Newark, by the late success, were very much 
 exalted, and by the quitting of so many parliament garrisons 
 about them, increased in power, and were left at leisure to 
 turn all their designs against Nottingham, which being so 
 infirm within itself, the governor had a very difficult task to 
 preserve; while the disaffected, who were subtle, did not 
 clearly declare themselves, but watched all opportunities to 
 work the governor’s disturbance, by fomenting the ill- 
 humours of the factious committee-men and priests; for 
 they now took occasion to fall in with them, upon the 
 governor’s release of his chief cannoniers out of prison, into 
 
Relieves His Chief Cannoniers 179 
 
 which he had put them, by the instigation of the ministers 
 and of the godly people, who had animated them almost to 
 mutiny for separating from the public worship, and keeping 
 little conventicles in their own chambers. It was with some 
 relucta,nce he had committed them, for the men, though of 
 different judgments in matter of worship, were otherwise 
 honest, peaceable, and very zealous and faithful to the cause ; 
 but the ministers were so unable to suffer their separation 
 and spreading of their opinions, that the governor was forced 
 to commit them ; yet during this great danger, he thought it 
 not prudent to keep them discontented and then employ 
 them, and therefore set them at liberty, for which there was 
 a great outcry against him as a favourer of separatists.^ 
 
 ^ This being the first time that a disunion in rehgion among those of 
 the parliament’s party has been plainly named, it is proper here to 
 state, that in the outset, all those sects, which have since taken so 
 many various names, joined their forces to repel the encroachments of 
 the prelates , — it would not be fair to say of the Church of England, 
 whose characteristic is moderation itself, — but when they had almost 
 crushed the episcopalians, the presbyterian ministers began to rise 
 pre-eminent in power, and to show that though they had changed the 
 name, they by no means intended to diminish the dominion of the 
 hierarchy. There are preserved in Whitelocke two speeches, one of 
 his own anemone of Selden’s, on this subject. To resist this usurpation 
 there arose a very powerful party or faction, under the name of inde- 
 pendents, under whose banner enlisted all who desired liberty of con- 
 science, of whatever particular persuasion they might be; and, amongst 
 others, most naturally all such as wished to see the Church of England 
 restored to her purity, and redeemed from her servility and subser- 
 viency to the usurpations of the crown; but whose hopes would have 
 been totally destroyed if presbytery had obtained a full and firm estab- 
 lishment. It is extraordinary that almost all the historians put the 
 cause for the effect, and suggest that many members of the parliament, 
 and at the head of them Cromwell, raised this faction to obtain their 
 own exaltation; whereas intolerancy raised it in the nation at large, 
 and especially in the army, and Cromwell availed himself of it when 
 raised. — In a scarce book, called Anglia Rediviva, or the Success of the 
 Army under Fairfax, written by Joshua Sprigge, he says, “ the army 
 was, what by example and justice, kept in good order both respectively 
 to itself and the country : there were many of them differing in opinion, 
 yet not in action nor business ; they all agreed to preserve the kingdom ; 
 they prospered in their unity more than in uniformity, and whatever 
 their opinions were, they plundered none with them, they betrayed 
 none with them, nor disobeyed the state with them, and they were 
 more visibly pious and peaceable in their opinions than many we call 
 orthodox.” Let the blame of all the misfortunes that flowed from it 
 rest with those who gave disturbance to such men, not to those who 
 screened them from persecution. 
 
 The chief of these cannoniers was that Langford Collin mentioned in 
 in former note, page 106. He continued at Nottingham after all the 
 wars were over, but being persecuted on account of his religion, applied 
 to Cromwell for protection, and was effectually screened by him from 
 
i8o Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 It will not be amiss, in this place, to carry on the parlia- 
 ment story, that we may the better judge of things at home, 
 when we know the condition of affairs abroad. The queen, 
 being suffered to pass through Nottinghamshire by those 
 forces which were sent down thither to have prevented her, 
 joined with Prince Rupert and came to the king; and was by 
 the parliament voted traitor for many actions, as pawning 
 the crown- jewels in Holland, encouraging the rebellion in 
 Ireland, heading a papistical army in England, etc. 
 
 The Earl of Essex’s army lay sick about London for 
 recruits; Sir William Waller, after many victories in the 
 west, was at length totally routed, and returned to London, 
 Prince Maurice and Sir Ralph Hopton having recovered and 
 possessed almost the whole west of England for the king. 
 The north my Lord Newcastle’s army commanded so fully, 
 
 his persecutors; he lived to more than ninety years; his descendants 
 rose to opulence, and one of them founded a very handsome hospital.. 
 This family united themselves to that of Langford, and both being, 
 molested on the score of nonconformity, were peculiarly protected by 
 James the Second, and stood stedfastly by him at the revolution, at 
 which time he got many sectaries to join the catholics, and make 
 common cause against the church of England. By this turn of events 
 and opinions, Langford Collin, Esq., before mentioned, came to be the 
 head of the country, Jacobite, or anti-revolutionist party, while the 
 Plump tres and Hutchinsons embraced the Hanover or Whig party,, as 
 mentioned in the note, p. io6, just spoken of. 
 
 Since the publication of the first edition, there has appeared a very 
 candid critique of this work in the Annual Register for 1807, containing 
 the following remark: “It may be mentioned as an additional proof 
 of Mr. Hutchinson’s rectitude, that when George Fox, the founder of 
 the Quakers, was imprisoned at Nottingham, he protected him; thus 
 proving that, unlike the greater number of those who were engaged in 
 the same cause, he allowed that liberty of conscience to others whick 
 he claimed for himself.” 
 
 The Editor thought it his duty, upon this suggestion, to make further 
 inquiry, and has in pursuance of it been furnished by a respectable- 
 friend, Mr. Barker, surgeon, at Colchester, with the two following 
 extracts, together with some others, which will appear in their proper 
 places. — G. Fox’s Journal, fol. ed. p. 27. “ I went to the Steeple 
 
 House at Nottingham, during the time of divine worship, addressed 
 the people, and was committed to prison. When the assizes came on,, 
 there was one moved to come and ofier himself up for me, body for 
 body, yea, life also; but when I should have been brought before the 
 judge, the sheriff’s man being somewhat long in fetching me to the 
 sessions-house, the judge was risen before I came, at which I under- 
 stood he was somewhat offended. So I was returned to prison, and 
 put into the common gaol; and the Lord’s power was great among 
 friends, but the people began to be very rude, wherefore the governor of 
 the castle sent down soldiers and dispersed them, and after that they were 
 quiet” SewelVs Hist, of Quakers, fol. ed. p. 22. “ Now though the 
 
 people began to be very rude, yet the governor of the castle was so very 
 moderate, that he sent down soldiers to disperse them.” 
 
Engagement at Newbury 1 8 i 
 
 that they were advanced into Nottingham and Lincolnshire, 
 and the adjacent counties. The parliament, being in this 
 low condition, had agreed with Scotland, and entered into 
 a solemn national league and covenant, which was taken 
 throughout both kingdoms ; and the king had made a cessa- 
 tion of arms with the Irish rebels, and brought over the 
 English army, that had been honoured with so many suc- 
 cesses against them, to serve him here. But God never 
 blessed his affairs after they came to him,^ though indeed 
 before their arrival God had begun to turn the scale; for 
 the city of Gloucester stopping, by its faithful and valiant 
 resistance, the career of the king’s victories, after Bristol and 
 Exeter and all the west was lost, the king, disdaining to 
 leave it behind him unvanquished, sat down before it, which 
 employed him and his whole army, till the Earl of Essex and 
 his recruited army, assisted with the London auxiliaries, 
 came and relieved it, and pursued the king’s army to an 
 engagement at Newbury; where the parliament obtained 
 a great and bloody victory, and the king for ever lost that 
 opportunity he lately had of marching up to London, and 
 in probability of subduing the parliament. My Lord New- 
 castle, by a like error, about the same time, setting down 
 before Hull, missed the opportunity of wholly gaining all 
 those neighbouring counties, and much wasted his great and 
 victorious army, being forced to rise with loss and dishonour 
 from the unyielding town. After the fight at Newbury, Sir 
 William Waller, having gotten a new army, had divers 
 
 ^ The parliament and the king seem to have been equally injudicious 
 in seeking resources from without. Rapin says, “ the presbyterians 
 seized the occasion which was offered them of establishing their system 
 of uniformity, and that it increased the number of the king’s friends; ” 
 had he not, through partiality to his sect, withheld a part of the truth, 
 he would have said that, in pursuit of their system of intolerance, they 
 divided the parliament and the friends of liberty, exasperated the army, 
 and having forced them to try their strength against them, caused the 
 subjugation of themselves, and the ruin of their whole cause and party. 
 So much for the league and covenant. 
 
 The king, by seeking the assistance of the Irish in a manner so in- 
 jurious to the true interests of England, blemished his own fame, hurt 
 his cause, ruined his partisans in both countries, and, indeed the Irish 
 nation in general, which has never recovered from the depopulation 
 which took place in consequence of those convulsions. 
 
 This last fact has been controverted by one reviewer, the Critical; 
 but it would be easy to establish it by various arguments, one only 
 is here adduced. The custom of emigrating and entering into the 
 service of foreign powers, which the Irish began to do at that period, 
 and have continued almost to the present day. 
 
1 82 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 successes witli it^ and at length totally routed all Hopton’s 
 army^ about the time that Prince Rupert raised the siege 
 at Newark^ and was the occasion that called the prince so 
 hastily out of those counties. 
 
 The Earl of Essex pursuing the war^ had a design to block 
 up Oxford^ where the king was^ and accordingly attempted 
 it^ he on one side^ and Waller on the other; but the king, with 
 a few light horse, escaped out of the town, and went to join 
 with his greater armies; which being done, Essex marched 
 further into the west, and in Cornwall was besieged where 
 he lost all his foot, ammunition, and ordnance, and came 
 dishonourably home to London. Waller unsuccessfully 
 followed the king, and the parliament’s affairs, all that 
 summer, were very unprosperous in the west, south, and 
 midland counties, but contrary in the north, where the 
 Scotch army, under General Leven, advanced, took some 
 towns and forts, and wasted the Earl of Newcastle’s army 
 more by their patient sufferance of the ill weather and martial 
 toil, which the English could not so well abide, than by fight- 
 ing. Sir Thomas Fairfax, having again taken the field with 
 his father, after a miraculous victory they had gained over 
 the Irish army ^ which the king had brought over, joined the 
 Scots; and the Earl of Manchester, having raised a force in 
 the associated counties, with which he made an expedition to 
 Lincoln, having Colonel Cromwell for his lieutenant-general, 
 marched into Yorkshire, and uniting with the other two 
 armies, they all besieged the Earl of Newcastle in York. To 
 raise this siege. Prince Rupert came with a great army out of 
 the south; the besiegers rose to fight with the prince, and 
 Newcastle drew all his force out of York to join with him, 
 when both armies, on a great plain called Mars ton Moor, had 
 a bloody encounter, and the Scots and Lord Fairfax had been 
 wholly routed, and the battle lost, but that Cromwell, with 
 five thousand men which he commanded, routed Prince 
 Rupert, restored the other routed parliamentarians, and 
 gained the most complete victory that had been obtained 
 in the whole war.^ The victors possessed all the prince’s 
 
 ^ Commanded by Sir John B 3 T:on, or Lord Byron, near Nantwich in 
 Cheshire. 
 
 2 There are very various and discordant accounts given of this battle, 
 so that Rapin says he could neither satisfy himself nor his readers with 
 them; that given by Whitelocke is however pretty clear, and agrees 
 with this of Mrs. Hutchinson, in ascribing the success principally to 
 
The King’s False Dealing 183 
 
 ordnance^ carriages^ and baggage; whereupon the prince 
 fled; with as many as he could save^ back into the south ; the 
 Earl of Newcastle; with some of his choice friendS; went into 
 Germany; and left Sir Thomas Glenham governor of York; 
 which he soon after surrendered; and then the three generals 
 parted; Leven went back into the north; and took The 
 town of Newcastle; Fairfax remained in Yorkshire; and 
 Manchester returned into the south; taking in many small 
 garrisons by the way as he passed through the counties. 
 
 The queen went that summer into France; to solicit 
 foreign aid for her husband; but ineffectually; meanwhile 
 new treaties were carried on between the king and parlia 
 ment; but to no purpose; for the king’s false dealing and dis- 
 ingenuity therein was so apparent that they came to nothing; 
 but a further discovery of the king’s falsehood; and favour to 
 the Irish rebelS; with whom he had now employed Ormond 
 to treat and conclude a peace. This treaty was that at Ux- 
 bridge; where commissioners met on both sideS; but effected 
 nothing; for the parliament itself began to grow into two 
 apparent factions of presbyterians and independents; and 
 the king had hope; by their divisions; to obtain the accom- 
 plishment of his own ends.^ 
 
 It was too apparent how much the whole parliament cause 
 had been often hazarded; how many opportunities of finish- 
 ing the war had been overslipped by the Earl of Essex’s 
 army; and it was believed that he himself; with his com- 
 manders; rather endeavoured to become arbiters of war and 
 peace; than conquerors for the parliament ; for it was known 
 that he had given out such expressions. Wherefore those in 
 the parliament; who were grieved at the prejudice of the 
 public interest; and loath to bring those men to public shamC; 
 who had once well merited it of them; devised to new-model 
 the army; and an ordinance was made; called the self- 
 denying ordinance; whereby all members of parliament; of 
 both houseS; were discharged of their commands in the army. 
 Cromwell had a particular exception; when EsseX; Man- 
 
 Cromwell; and as Mrs. Hutchinson was by no means partial to Crom- 
 well, nor does Whitelocke upon the whole seem so, we may better 
 believe them than Hollis, who writes a philippic rather than a history, 
 
 ^ Whoever will take the pains to read the king’s letters in Clarendon’s 
 State Papers, will see that this is a true representation of his senti- 
 ments; but Heyhn pretends the failure of the treaty arose from the 
 extreme pertinacity of the rigid presbyterians; we may very well allow 
 both their share. 
 
184 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 Chester^ and Denbigh, surrendered their commissions; and 
 Sir Thomas Fairfax was made general of the new-modelled 
 anny_, Cromwell lieutenant-general, and Skippon major- 
 general. The army was reduced to twenty-one thousand, 
 who prosecuted the war not with design of gain and making 
 it their trade, but to obtain a righteous peace and settlement 
 for the distracted kingdom, and accordingly it succeeded in 
 their hands. ^ 
 
 To return to Nottingham: after the prince had marched 
 away out of the country, the enemy without was still design- 
 ing against the garrison, and the governor’s enemies within 
 were still perplexing all his affairs. Upon the eleventh of 
 May, a letter was found by a wench in the night-time, 
 dropped in the shoemakers’ booths; which letter was 
 directed to Sir Richard Byron, informing him that the 
 business between them went on with good success, and that 
 the time drawing on, it behoved him to be very diligent, and 
 desiring him to burn the letter; ” which was subscribed, 
 ‘‘Your careful servant, A. C.;” and a postscript written, 
 
 Fail nothing by any means, and there shall be no neglect 
 in me.” The governor took all courses that could be 
 imagined to discover this person, but could never find him 
 out. About this time some troopers going by a house, where 
 one Henry Wandall, a debauched malignant apothecary had 
 lived (but the house was now empty, and he had the key of 
 it), they perceived a smoke to come out of it, and went in 
 and found some kindled sticks, laid in a potsherd, just by a 
 
 ^ It is suggested by Rapin and others that this new-model and self- 
 denying ordinance arose not from the motives here set down, but 
 merely from intrigue; yet Whitelocke, who even spoke against it, 
 p. 123, shows the indispensable necessity for such a new model. “ Some 
 members of the house were sent to their generals to complain of their 
 remissness. The Earl of Manchester was under a kind of accusation, 
 the lord- general in discontent, Waller not much otherwise, the forces 
 not carefully ordered, and the parliament business in an unsettled 
 condition, so that it was high time for some other course to be taken 
 by them.” Mr. Sprigge demonstrates this more fully. He says, 
 “ Cromwell was absent in the west when the exemption was voted; 
 that he had come to Windsor over-night to kiss the general’s hand, and 
 take his leave on quitting the service, but the following morning, ere 
 he came from his chamber, those commands, than which he thought 
 of nothing less in all the world, came to him from the committee of 
 both kingdoms, in obedience to which he immediately marched away.” 
 And further, “ that the house did this for their own happiness, and 
 that of their general Fairfax.” 
 
 Mrs. Hutchinson was sufficiently observant of Cromwell’s artifices 
 to have accused him of it on this occasion, if he had deserved it. 
 
Misconduct of Captain White 185 
 
 ! rotten post^ under the stair-case, with hurdles and other 
 I combustible things about it, which it was evident were put 
 there to fire the house, but for what reason, or by whom, was 
 ^ not discovered. 
 
 j The governor hearing of some troops of the enemy in the 
 I Vale, had a design to go thither, and acquainted the com- 
 I mittee with it; telling them he would take out all the horse^, 
 
 ' and himself march with the body, and leave a foot company 
 and thirty horse behind him at the bridges, so that by the 
 time he was marched by Wiverton, which would give Shel- 
 ford the alarm, the thirty horse, which were more than 
 Shelford had to send out, should face the house on that side 
 next Nottingham, and the foot should march a private way 
 through the closings ; ^ so that if Shelford’s horse or foot 
 should come forth against those thirty horse, the foot might 
 get between them and home, or take any advantage that was 
 offered. All this the committee very well approved, and so 
 it was resolved to put it into execution the next night after,, 
 because it would take some time to provide horses for the 
 musketeers. The governor coming out of the committee, 
 met Captain White upon the parade in the castle-yard, and 
 acquainted him with the design, who with a dejected coun- 
 tenance and a faint voice, pretended to approve it, but 
 desired the thirty horse who were to stay some hours behind, 
 might be of his troop; to which the governor assented to 
 gratify his desire, though he told him, he was very loath to 
 spare any of that troop, who were old soldiers and well 
 acquainted with the country; but he desired him the rest 
 might not fail to be ready. The captain promised they 
 should, and so departed. When the governor had made 
 ready all the horse and dragoons, and was himself just ready 
 to march out with them, being at Colonel Thornhagh^s house. 
 White came in; the governor, not doubting of his intention 
 to go, asked him if his troop were ready ? He replied, “ They 
 are out upon service; thirty,’’ said he, ‘‘ are gone by your 
 consent, and the rest went to fetch in a malignant at Eker- 
 ing; some few odd ones remain, which you may have if you 
 will.” The governor desired him to go himself and assist 
 him; the captain desired to be excused, for “ to what pur- 
 pose should he go when his troop was not there? ” The 
 governor went from thence to his own lodgings, and meeting 
 1 Closings, closes, fields, vulg, Notts, closen. 
 
1 86 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 the committee, acquainted them how White had served him, 
 who seemed to resent it very ill at that time ; and while they 
 were discoursing of it. White’s officer came up with warrants 
 to^be signed for hay for the quarters, which being offered the 
 governor, he tore, and said he would sign no warrants for 
 such a disorderly troop, as would do no service but what 
 they list, whose officers knew neither how to give nor obey 
 commands. 
 
 Notwithstanding this discouragement, to lose eighty of 
 his best men, the governor went out with the rest-, and when 
 he had drawn them into the Trent Lanes, one of his spies 
 came in with intelligence that at a town in the Vale, called 
 Sierston, and at another next it, called Elston, there were two 
 hundred horse quartered, who having come in weary and 
 secure, might easily be surprised that night. The governor, 
 calling the captains together, imparted the intelligence, and 
 they were all forward to go on in the design, except Captain 
 Pendock, who persuaded him much against it; but while 
 they were discoursing another intelligencer came in, to 
 second the former; whereupon the governor told the cap- 
 tains, that if they would go, he was resolved to do some- 
 thing that night, and because Captain Pendock was best 
 acquainted with that side of the country, he appointed him 
 to lead on the forlorn hope, which accordingly he did, but 
 with such sloth and muttering, that in two or three miles 
 riding, the governor was forced to send up some officers to 
 him, to hasten him on. Yet this was not from cowardice, 
 but only humour and faction, for the man was stout enough 
 when he had a mind to it, but now he rode along, muttering 
 that it was to no purpose, and when he came to Saxondale 
 Gorse, purposely lost himself and his forlorn hope; which 
 the governor missing, was much troubled, fearing that by 
 some misadventure they might have been enclosed and cut 
 off between the enemies’ garrisons; but when they came to 
 Saxondale Lane, Pendock and his forlorn hope were found 
 safe in the rear of the body. The governor perceiving Pen- 
 dock’s backwardness, had sent out some parties, one troop 
 under Captain-lieutenant Palmer, and another party with 
 Cornet Peirson, to some near towns, to execute some of the 
 committee’s warrants, in fetching in delinquents; when the 
 cornet came back with an alarm that two or three hundred 
 horse were quartered at Elston and Sierston, which he must 
 
Backwardness of Captain Pendock 187 
 
 either fight with or retreat. Captain Pendock was again 
 wonderfully unwilling to go on, and said it would be day 
 before they should come there; but the governor bade those 
 that would, follow him, for he would go; and accordingly 
 I he went, and when he came to the town, drew up his men at 
 the town’s end in a body, from which he sent in some parties, 
 
 ' to fall into the town, himself staying with the body between 
 them and Newark, to defend them from any of the enemies 
 that might have come upon them : ^ so they brought out two 
 captain-lieutenants, some cornets, and other gentlemen of 
 quality, thirty troopers, and many more horses and arms; 
 Captain Thimbleby, absolutely refusing quarter, was killed. 
 The governor sent into the town to command all ^his men 
 immediately away; but a lieutenant and cornet not making 
 haste to obey, while they stayed for some drink, were sur- 
 prised by a party that came from Newark, before the cor- 
 poral, whom the governor had sent to fetch them off, was 
 well out of the town; but with those he had taken, and all 
 the booty, and many horses and beasts fetched from malig- 
 nants in the enemies’ quarters, the governor came safe home, 
 to the great discontent of Captain White, who was some- 
 thing out of countenance at it. This may serve, instead of 
 many more, to show how hard a task he had to carry on the 
 service, with such refractory, malicious persons under him. 
 
 About this time it happened, that the engineer being by, 
 Captain Pendock took occasion to rail at the town-works, 
 and Hooper making answers which drew on replies, Pendock 
 struck him, whereupon the man, angry, laid his hand upon 
 his sword and half drew it out, but thrust it in again. The 
 maid ran affrighted into the kitchen, where was one Henry 
 Wandall, who presently called some musketeers, disarmed 
 Mr. Hooper, and sent him prisoner to the governor; who, 
 asking him upon what account he came so, he told him he 
 had no reason to accuse himself; if those that sent him had 
 anything against him he was ready to answer it. After the 
 governor had waited till about midnight and nothing came, 
 he sent for Wandall, and inquiring why and by whose 
 authority he committed Mr. Hooper prisoner ? He answered, 
 
 ^ Whoever looks upon the map, and observes the vicinity of these 
 places to Newark, and their great distance from Nottingham, will see 
 it to have been a service of great delicacy and danger. It is mentioned 
 cursorily by Whitelocke, p. 89; had Sir John Gell been the com- 
 mander, we should have had it better displayed. 
 
1 88 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 ‘‘ for drawing his sword, he, as an officer of the garrison, had 
 sent him up.’’ The governor asked who made him an officer ? 
 and taking it upon him, why he did not send up both parties, 
 but only one in a quarrel.^ and he being able to give no 
 answer, but such as showed it was done out of malice, the 
 governor committed him for his insolency, who being but a 
 common soldier, presumed to make an officer prisoner, 
 without rendering an account to the governor, and to let the 
 other engaged in the quarrel go free. The next day after 
 this, Plumptre came to the Trent bridges, where, being 
 stopped, he sent up a pass which he had procured from my 
 lord general, to come and stay in the town during his own 
 pleasure; which, when the governor saw he sent him word, 
 that in regard of my lord general’s pass he might stay at his 
 own house, but bade him take heed, as he would answer if, 
 that he meddled not to make any mutiny or commotion in 
 the garrison ; to which he sent an insolent reply, that he was 
 glad the governor was taught manners ; he was come to town 
 for some business, and when he had occasion he would 
 repair to the committee. The committee, hearing this, were 
 very sensible of his insolent carriage, and drew up articles 
 against him, which were signed by six of their hands, and 
 were sent up to Mr. Millington to be preferred against him in 
 the parliament, and to be showed to my lord general, as the 
 lieutenant-colonel should see occasion; whom the governor 
 sent immediately to the general, to acquaint him with the 
 reason why Dr. Plumptre had been forced to procure his pass 
 for his protection. The governor took this occasion to send 
 to the general about his cannoniers, whom some days before 
 he had been forced to confine as prisoners to their chamber till 
 the general’s pleasure could be known concerning them ; for, 
 at the instigation of Captain Palmer, all the ministers in 
 town, and, to make the cry the louder, certain loose malignant 
 priests, which they had gotten to join with them, had most 
 violently urged, in a petition to the committee, that these 
 men might be turned out of the town for being separatists; 
 so that the governor was forced, against his will, to confine 
 them to prevent mutiny, though they were otherwise honest, 
 obedient, and peaceful. After the lieutenant-colonel was 
 gone, with letters concerning these matters, to the general, 
 Plumptre behaved himself most insolently and mutinously, 
 and he and Mason entering into a confederacy, had contrived 
 
Insolence of Dr. Plumptre 189 
 
 some articles against the governor for committing Wandall; 
 but when they tried and found they could do no good with 
 them, Mason came to the governor and was most saucily 
 importunate for his release, which, by reason of the insolent 
 manner of his seeking it, the governor would not grant. 
 
 The general, upon the governor’s letters, sent down a letter 
 to Plumptre, to discharge him from the garrison, and another 
 to the governor to release the cannoniers; which he accord- 
 ingly did, to the satisfaction of his own conscience, which 
 was not satisfied in keeping men prisoners for their con- 
 sciences, so long as they lived honestly and inoffensively. 
 But it caused a great mutiny in the priests against him, and 
 they blew up as many of their people as they could, to join 
 in faction against the governor, not caring now what men 
 they entered into confederacy with, nor how disaffected to 
 the cause, so that they were but bitter enough against the 
 separatists; which the cunning malignants perceiving, they 
 now all became zealots, and laughed in secret to see how they 
 brought these men to ruin their own cause and champions. 
 
 Plumptre not taking notice of the general’s letters, the 
 governor sent him word he expected he should obey them 
 and depart. Plumptre replied, his business was done, and 
 he would go ; but in spite of his teeth he would have a guard. 
 The lieutenant-colonel would have put in the articles into 
 the parliament, which the committee had sent up against 
 Plumptre, but Mr. Millington pretending all kindness and 
 service to the governor, would needs undertake it, and desired 
 the lieutenant-colonel to trouble none of the governor’s 
 friends in any business he had to do, but to leave it in his 
 hands, who would employ all his powers, and serve him with 
 all vigilance and faithfulness, against all persons whatsoever; 
 and whereas he heard the governor had some thoughts of 
 coming to London, he wished him not to trouble himself, but 
 to charge him with anything he had to do. Notwithstanding 
 all this, the governor went to London, having some occasions 
 thither. A little before his going, he and the rest of the 
 committee had required Mr. Salisbury, their treasurer, to 
 give in his accounts, which he being either unwilling or 
 unable to do, he bent his utmost endeavours to raise a high 
 mutiny and faction against the governor; and Captain White 
 never being backward in any mischief, these, with Plumptre 
 and Mason, made a close confederacy, and called home 
 
190 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 Chadwick to their assistance, having engaged the persecuting 
 priests and all their idolaters, upon an insinuation of the 
 governor’s favour to separatists. During Colonel Thorn- 
 hagh’s sickness, the governor undertook the command of 
 his horse regiment, while it was quartered in the garrison; 
 and made the men live orderly, and march out upon designs 
 more frequently than they used to do when their colonel was 
 well, upon whose easiness they prevailed to do what they 
 list; and some of them, who were great plunderers, were 
 connived at, which the governor would by no means suffer. 
 Wherefore these men were, by the insinuations of their 
 officers and the wicked part of the committee, drawn into 
 the faction, which was working in secret awhile, and at last 
 broke into open prosecutions. They had determined that as 
 soon as the governor was gone. White, the devil’s exquisite 
 solicitor, should also follow to London, but knew not what to 
 do for a pretence to send him upon the public purse; when 
 wickedness, which never long wants the opportunity it waits 
 for, soon found one out, for the committee of both kingdoms 
 had sent a command for all the horse in Nottingham to repair 
 to Sir John Meldrum in Lancashire; the town was put upon 
 a hasty petition that their horse might not go, and Captain 
 White must carry it, who pretended to have known nothing 
 of it half an hour before, yet he was ready, and Dr. Plumptre, 
 too, prepared to make good his brags, and go with his convoy. 
 Presently after he was gone. Col. Chadwick, the engine of 
 mischief, comes to town, whom Mr. Salisbury receives with 
 great joy and exultance, boasting, to use his own words, that 
 they would now mump the governor. At the mayor of the 
 town’s house he was entertained with much wine, whereof 
 Mr. Ayscough, a committee man, having taken a pretty large 
 proportion, coming that night to supper to the castle, told 
 the lieutenant-colonel and the governor’s wife, that he would 
 advise them to acquaint the governor there was mischief 
 hatching against him, and that Chadwick was come to town 
 on purpose to effect it, which, though the fellow discovered 
 it in his drink, was true enough, and he himself was one of 
 the conspiring wicked ones. 
 
 To fortify their party, in all haste they endeavoured to 
 raise a new troop of dragoons, under one Will Hall, a de- 
 bauched malignant fellow, and therefore one of the governor 's 
 mortal enemies; but some of the honester townsmen per- 
 
Deceit of Mr. Millington 191 
 
 ceiving the design^ and not yet being seduced, would not 
 raise him any horse, so at that season the troop was not 
 formed. 
 
 And now Captain White having come home, it was ob- 
 served that after his return he would not allow the governor 
 that name, but called him only Colonel Hutchinson, and 
 when any one else termed him governor, would decline the 
 acknowledgment of that name; then cajoling his fellow horse- 
 officers and the troopers, they, through his insinuations, every- 
 where began to detract from the governor, and to magnify 
 Captain White, and not only to derogate from the governor, 
 but from all persons that were well-affected to him. At 
 this time there was a petition drawn up to be presented 
 to the committee of both kingdoms, desiring that Mr. Mil- 
 lington might be sent down to compose the differences which 
 were in the garrison. The lieutenant-colonel and some others 
 refusing to sign it. Captain White told them it was a pretence, 
 which Mr. Millington desired the favour that they would make, 
 to obtain leave for him to come down and visit his wife and 
 children, whom he had a longing desire to see, and knew 
 not any other way to bring it about. The gentlemen, to 
 gratify Mr. Millington, signed it; and he himself at London, 
 with the same pretext, obtained the governor’s hand to it, 
 while the governor, deceived by his high and fair professions 
 of service and kindness to him, never entertained any sus- 
 picion of his integrity; and this was the greatest of the 
 governor’s defects, that through the candidness and sincerity 
 of his own nature he was more unsuspicious of others, and 
 more credulous of fair pretenders, than suited with the great 
 prudence he testified in everything else. Nothing awakened 
 jealousy in him but gross flattery, which, when he saw any one 
 so servile as to make, he believed the soul that could descend 
 to that baseness might be capable of falsehood; but those 
 who were cunning attempted him not that way, but put on 
 a face of fair, honest, plain friendship, with which he was 
 a few times, but not often in his life, betrayed. At Mr. 
 Millington’s entreaty the governor released Wandall, but 
 would have prosecuted the committee’s petition against 
 Plumptre, which Mr. Millington most earnestly persuaded 
 him not to do, but desired that he would permit him to come 
 and live quietly in his own house, upon engagement that he 
 should not raise nor foment any mutiny nor faction in the 
 
192 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 garrison^ or intermeddle with any of the affairs thereof. 
 The governor was easily wrought to assent to this also, but 
 Plumptre refused to enter into such an engagement for quiet 
 behaviour, and so for that time came not to town. There 
 was again discovered a new design by the enemy against the 
 garrison, and a spy taken, who owned that a soldier in the 
 major’s company had enlisted himself on purpose to effect 
 his mischief; but through careless custody the spy escaped 
 the day that the garrison were celebrating their joy for the 
 great victory at York. Meanwhile the governor, supposing 
 Mr. Millington to be, as he professed himself, highly his 
 friend and his protector, complained to him of the mutinous 
 carriage of the horse, and his disturbance and discourage- 
 ment in the public service thereby, and desired him to get a 
 resolution in the thing, whereby his power and their duty 
 might be defined, that he might know wherein he was to 
 command them in his garrison, and they to obey him. Mr. 
 Millington advised him to write a letter to him concerning 
 this, setting down his own apprehensions, what he was to 
 exact from them, and they to render him ; which accordingly 
 the governor did, and left it with Millington, and returned to 
 his garrison. Mr. Millington told him, that he had showed 
 the letter to the committee of both kingdoms, who had given 
 their opinion of it, that he required no more of them than he 
 ought to have. Soon after the governor, Mr. Millington 
 came down to Nottingham, with instructions from the com- 
 mittee of both kingdoms, to hear and, if he could, compose 
 the differences at Nottingham; if not, to report them to the 
 committee of both kingdoms. Mr. Millington, coming down 
 with these, brought Plumptre as far as Leicester with him, 
 and begged of the governor to permit him to return to his 
 house, engaging himself that he should not meddle with any- 
 thing belonging to the garrison, nor come near the castle nor 
 any of the forts: which engagement the governor received, 
 and suffered the man to come home ; and Millington, lest the 
 governor should suspect his great concern for Dr. Plumptre, 
 made strong professions to him, that he desired his re-ad- 
 mission into the town for nothing but to be a snare to him: 
 for he knew the turbulency and pride of his spirit such, that 
 he would never be quiet; but if, after this indulgence, he 
 should, as he believed he would, return to his former courses, 
 he would be inexcusable in the eyes of all men. Then Mr. 
 
Deceit of Mr. Millington 193 
 
 Millington desired the governor to draw up some heads, 
 wherein he conceived his power to consist, which he did, 
 reducing almost the words of his commission into eight pro- 
 positions; which, when he showed first to Mr. Millington, 
 before the committee saw them, Mr. Millington seemed very 
 well to approve of them, and protested again to the governor 
 the faithfulness of his heart to him, excusing his intimacy 
 with his enemies, upon a zeal he had to do him service, by 
 discovering their designs against him, and called himself 
 therein, Sir Politic Wouldbe: but the governor disliking this 
 double dealing, though it had been with his enemies, desired 
 him rather to declare himself ingenuously as his conscience 
 led him, though it should be against him, and told him freely 
 he liked not this fair carriage to both. When the governor 
 put in his propositions to the committee, they desired each 
 of them might have a copy of them, and all a week^s time 
 to consider them; at the end of which, when the governor 
 pressed their answer, whether they assented to them, or could 
 object anything against them; they said, with false flatter- 
 ing apologies to the governor, that if such command were 
 due to any man, they should rather the governor should 
 employ it than any person whatsoever, by reason of his 
 unquestioned merits ; but they conceived that such a power 
 given to a governor, would not consist with that which be- 
 longed to a committee, whereupon they produced a tedious, 
 impertinent paper, in answer to the governor’s propositions, 
 which, when the governor read over, he flung by, saying 
 it was a ridiculous senseless piece of stuff. Some of them 
 taking exceptions, that he should so contemn the committee’s 
 paper; he replied, he knew not yet whose it was, not being 
 signed by any one ; if any of them would own it, he desired 
 them to subscribe it, and then he should know what to say. 
 Thereupon, the next day, it was again brought out, signed 
 by Mr. Millington, Chadwick, Salisbury, White, and the 
 mayor of the town. The sum of the paper not containing 
 any exceptions against the governor himself, but against his 
 power, and wholly denying that my Lord Fairfax had power 
 to make a governor, or confer any such power on him, as his 
 commission imported ; the governor told them, it no further 
 concerned him, but only to acquaint my Lord Fairfax, with 
 whom he should leave it, to justify his own commission, and 
 his authority to give one. But forasmuch as my lord was 
 
 G 
 
194 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 concerned in it^ the gentlemen who had more respect for him 
 disowned it, and these were the governor, the lieutenant- 
 colonel, Mr. Pigott, Colonel Thornhagh, Major Ireton, Major 
 Widmerpoole, Captain Lomax, and Alderman James. Then 
 the governor told them, how he had been informed that this 
 paper was of Chadwick’s contrivance, and that when Mr. 
 Millington saw it, he hugged Chadwick in his arms, with such 
 congratulation as is not to be imagined they could give to a 
 fellow of whom they had justly entertained so vile an opinion; 
 and then before his face he declared all their thoughts of 
 indignation and contempt, which they had formerly ex- 
 pressed of Colonel Chadwick, of whom he asked, with what 
 face he could question my lord’s authority to make him 
 governor, when he had formerly used such surreptitious 
 cheats to obtain it for himself, by the same authority ? And 
 he asked the committee, how it came to pass, they now 
 believed my Lord Fairfax had not authority to make him 
 governor, when they themselves at first wrote to him for the 
 commission? And to Mr. Millington he said, that he had 
 dealt very unfaithfully to those who trusted him to compose 
 differences, which he had rather made than found ; and very 
 treacherously with him, making himself a party and the chief 
 of his adversaries, when he pretended only to be a reconciler. 
 Having at full laid them open one to another, and declared 
 all their treachery, malice, pride, and knavery, to their faces, 
 he went away, smiling at the confusion he had left them in, 
 who had not virtue enough in their shame to bring them back 
 to repentance, but having begun to persecute him, with their 
 spite and malice, were resolved to carry on their wicked 
 design; wherein they had now a double encouragement to 
 animate them, Mr. Millington’s sheltering them in the parlia- 
 ment house, and obstructing all redress the governor should 
 there seek for, and the hopes of profit and advantage they 
 might upon the change of things expect from the garrison, if 
 they could wrest it out of the governor’s hands, either by 
 wearying him with unjust vexations, or by watching some 
 advantage against him, to procure his discharge from his 
 office by the parliament; for they, knowing him to be im- 
 patient of affronts, and of a high spirit, thought to provoke 
 him to passion, wherein something might fall out to give them 
 advantages ; but he, perceiving their drift, showed them that 
 he governed his anger, and suffered it not to master him, and 
 
Factions of the Committee 195 
 
 that he could make use of it to curb their insolency^and yet 
 avoid all excursions that might prejudice himself.^ When 
 the governor undertook this employment^ the parliament’s 
 interest in those parts was so low^ and the hazard so' des- 
 peratO;, that these pitiful wretches^ as well as others faithful- 
 hearted to the public cause^ courted him to accept and keep 
 the place ; and though their foul spirits hated the daylight of 
 his more virtuous conversation^ yet were they willing enough 
 to let him bear the brunt of all the hazard and toil of their 
 defence^ more willing to be secured by his indefatigable 
 industry and courage, than to render him the just acknow- 
 ledgment of his good deserts. This ingratitude did not at all 
 abate his zeal for the public service, for as he sought not 
 praise, so he was well enough satisfied in doing well; yet 
 through their envious eyes, they took in a general good 
 esteem of him, and sinned against their own consciences in 
 persecuting him, whereof he had after acknowledgments and 
 testimonies from many of them. All the while of this con- 
 test, he was borne up by a good and honourable party of the 
 committee, and greater in number and value than the wicked 
 ones, whom Mr. Millington’s power in the house only coun- 
 tenanced and animated to pursue their mischiefs. What it 
 was that drew Mr. Millington into their confederacy was 
 afterwards apparent; they hired him with a subscription of 
 losses, for which they gave him public credit double to what 
 he really had lost ; ^ and they offered him a share of the 
 governor’s spoils, if he would help them to make him a prey, 
 which would have been good booty to his mean family: for 
 although the governor had hitherto got nothing but desperate 
 hazard and vast expense, yet now, this garrison began to be 
 in a more hopeful condition, by the late success in the north. 
 After York was taken, the Earl of Manchester marched into 
 our parts, upon whose coming Bolsover and Tickhill castles 
 
 ^ To some the recital of these municipal broils may appear rather 
 tedious; but Whitelocke’s Memorials show that these, and such like, 
 in various parts of the kingdom required the serious and frequent 
 attention of the parliament. Most readers will pity a man of Colonel 
 Hutchinson’s exalted mind for being compelled to cope with such 
 despicable adversaries, but they will derive some pleasure from ob- 
 serving the address with which he foiled their insidious attacks. 
 
 ^ Of this custom of applying to the parliament for reparation or 
 compensation, and of its being granted generally at the expense of 
 dehnquents or cavaliers, there appear many instances in Whitelocke — 
 no doubt many abuses crept in. In Walker’s Hist, of Independ., p, 
 81, Mr. Millington is declared to have received in this manner £2000. 
 
196 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 were delivered up to him^ and Welbeck^ the Earl of New- 
 castle’s house^ which was given into Colonel Thornhagh’s 
 command, and much of the enemy’s wealth, by that means, 
 brought into Nottingham: Winkfield Manor, a strong garri- 
 son in Derbyshire, was taken upon composition, and by this 
 means a rich and large side of the country was laid open to 
 help to maintain the garrison at Nottingham, and more hoped 
 for by these gentlemen, who were now as greedy to catch at 
 the rewards of another’s labours, as unable to merit anything 
 themselves. But when the hopes of the harvest of the whole 
 country had tempted them to begin their wicked plots, God, 
 seeming angry at their ill use of mercy, caused the Earl of 
 Manchester to be called back into the south, when he was 
 going to have besieged Newark, and so that town, with the 
 petty garrisons at Wiverton, Shelford, and Belvoir, were still 
 left for further exercise to Nottingham. Yet the hopes that 
 these would in time be gained, made these gentlemen prose- 
 cute their design against the governor, whose party they 
 endeavoured with all subtleties to weaken: and first they 
 attempted Colonel Thomhagh, who having by his signalised 
 valour arrived at a great reputation, they thought if they 
 could gain him, he would be their best lever to heave out the 
 governor, and that prop once removed they despaired not to 
 make him contribute to his own ruin ; for they had discovered 
 in him a facility of nature, apt to be deluded by fair pretences, 
 and more prone to suspect the kind plain dealing of his 
 friends, than the flattery of his enemies: but the governor, 
 after they had displayed themselves, by his vigilancy pre- 
 vented many of their malicious designs, and among the rest 
 those they had upon this gentleman. During his sickness the 
 governor took care of his regiment, and employed the troops 
 that quartered in the garrison: but through the wicked 
 instigations of Captain White, being very refractory, and the 
 regiment often called out on field-service, the governor sent 
 for a commission, and raised a troop of horse, which the 
 lieutenant-colonel commanded, and a troop of dragoons for 
 the peculiar service of the garrison. These cunning sowers 
 of sedition wrought, upon this occasion, Colonel Thornhagh 
 into a jealous belief, that Colonel Hutchinson was taking 
 the advantage of his sickness to work himself into his com- 
 mand. Colonel Thornhagh was grieved at it, but said nothing ; 
 but the governor discovering the thing, notwithstanding his 
 
Factions of the Committee 197 
 
 silence^ when the lieutenant-colonel went to London^ procured 
 a commission for Colonel Thornhagh to be^ next under Sir 
 Thomas Fairfax, commander-in-chief of all the parliament’s 
 horse in Nottinghamshire, at all times; which being brought 
 to Colonel Thornhagh, when he knew nothing of it, cleared 
 him of that suspicion. And now, although they were more 
 inclined to delude than openly to oppose Colonel Thornhagh,. 
 yet they, having no exceptions against the governor in his 
 own person, but only against his authority, were forced ta 
 deny Colonel Thornhagh’s command as well as the governor’s,, 
 they being both derived from the same power. The horse- 
 captains, who were allured by fair colours of preferment, and 
 indulged in their plunder, which they hoped to do with more 
 freedom, if Captain White prevailed, were more obedient to 
 Captain White and their own ambition, than to their colonel 
 or the lav/s and customs of war. The committee hoped, by 
 thus disputing the colonel’s powers, under a face of parlia- 
 ment authority, to weary them out, and make them cast up 
 their commissions, when they had, by Mr. Millington, blocked 
 up the way of their complaint, so that they feared not being 
 turned out of the committee for the abuse of that trust : and 
 perhaps they had succeeded but that the governor scorned to 
 give up a good cause, either particular or public, for want 
 of courage to defend it amidst many difficulties; and then, 
 although he had many enemies, he had more friends, whom if 
 he should desert, would be left to be crushed by these mali- 
 cious persons ; and more than all this, the country would be 
 abandoned into the hands of persons who would only make 
 a prey of it, and not endeavour its protection, liberty, or real 
 advantage, which had been his chief aim in all his under- 
 takings. 
 
 The conspirators, as I may more justly term them, than 
 the committee, had sent Captain White to York, to my Lord 
 Fairfax, to get the governor’s power defined; which the 
 governor understanding, the next day went thither himself, 
 and Mr. Pigott, who from the beginning to the ending showed 
 himself a most real and generous friend to the governor, and 
 as cordial to his country and the great cause, went along 
 with him, arriving a day after Captain White. When my 
 lord gave them a hearing together, he asked whether the 
 governor had done anything of consequence without consult- 
 ing the committee, which White could not say he had; then 
 
198 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 he asked White if he had any other misgovernment to accuse 
 him of^ which when White could not allege against him, the 
 governor before his face told my lord all the business, where- 
 upon White was dismissed with reproof and laughter, and 
 letters were written to the committee, to justify the governor’s 
 power, and to entreat them to forbear disturbing him in his 
 command, and to Mr. Millington, to desire him to come over 
 to York to my lord; both which the governor delivered, but 
 Mr. Millington would not go over, but, on the contrary, con- 
 tinued to foment and raise up the factions in the town against 
 the governor, and by his countenance the committee every 
 day meditated and practised new provocations, to stir up the 
 governor to rage, or at least to weary him in his employment. 
 The horse, without his knowledge, they frequently sent 
 abroad ; protections, tickets, and passes, they gave out ; and, 
 encroaching upon his office in all things whatsoever, wrought 
 such a confusion in the garrison, that while all men were dis- 
 tracted and amazed, in doubt whose orders to obey, and who 
 were their commanders, they obeyed none, but every man 
 did what he listed; and by that means the public service 
 was in all things obstructed and prejudiced. The governor, 
 while the injury was only to himself, bore it, but when it 
 extended almost to the destruction of the garrison, he was 
 forced to endeavour a remedy. For about this time it hap- 
 pened that Salisbury, being treasurer, had given base terms 
 and wilful delays to the soldiers who were assigned their pay, 
 when the money was ready for them in the treasury; and 
 when this base carriage of his had provoked them to a mutiny, 
 the governor was sent for to appease it, which he did; but 
 coming to the committee, told them he would no longer 
 endure this usage of theirs, to have all things of power, 
 honour, and command, wrested out of his hands, and all 
 things of difficulty and danger put upon him; while they 
 purposely stirred up occasions of rigour and punishment, 
 and then expected he should be the executioner of it, by 
 which he perceived they did these things only with design to 
 render him contemptible and odious to all persons. Not 
 long afterwards a command came for all the horse that could 
 be spared in the garrison to go to Sir John Meldrum, to the 
 relief of Montgomery Castle. The governor went to the 
 committee to consult what troops should march, and they 
 voted none. The governor told them, he conceived when a 
 
Factions of the Committee 199 
 
 command was given, they were to obey without dispute, and 
 that he came to advise with them what troops should be sent 
 forth, not whether any or none; therefore although they 
 voted disobedience of the command, that would not dis- 
 charge him, especially the service being of great consequence, 
 and the troops lying here without other employment : where- 
 fore at night he summoned a council of war, and there almost 
 all the captains, having no mind to march so far from home, 
 declared they conceived themselves to be under the com- 
 mand of the committee, and would only obey their orders. 
 Upon this the governor went to the committee and desired 
 them that, since unanswerable things were done, the public 
 service neglected, and all the transactions of the garrison 
 confused, they would unite with him in a petition to parlia- 
 ment to define their several powers; and in the meantime, 
 either quietly to let him execute his duty, or else to take all 
 upon them and discharge him. They presently made a 
 motion, that he would call a muster, and put it to all the 
 soldiers, whether they would be governed by the committee 
 or the governor. The governor told them his command was 
 not elective, but of right belonged to him, and this way was 
 only the next occasion to cause a mutiny, which he could not 
 consent to. But they persisting in their course, he came 
 again to them and desired they would discontinue these 
 affronts in his command, and also their underminings, 
 whereby they endeavoured to alienate men’s hearts from 
 him, and to raise a faction against him by close unworthy 
 practices. So after much debate it was on all hands agreed, 
 that they should not at all intermeddle with anything belong- 
 ing to the soldiery, nor interrupt the governor in his com- 
 mand, till the house of parliament should decide it, and that 
 the governor and Captain White should both go to London, 
 to procure a speedy determination of the powers in a fair and 
 open way. This .they all faithfully promised the governor, 
 and made many hypocritical professions to him, some of 
 them with tears ; whereupon he, who was of the most recon- 
 cilable nature in the world, accepted their fair pretences, and 
 went to drink friendly with them in token of kindness. Yet 
 was all this but hypocrisy and falsehood, for even at that 
 very time they wearied many of the governor’s officers out 
 of the garrison, by the continued malice wherewith they 
 persecuted all that had any respect for him. Among these 
 
200 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 was Mr. Hooper the engineer^ a man very faithful to the 
 cause^ and very honesty but withal rough, who having to do 
 with hateful businesses, was made odious to the common 
 people, the priests too having a particular spite at him, as 
 one they esteemed a leader of the separatists; yet he was 
 very ingenious and industrious in his office, and most faithful 
 as well to the governor himself as to the public service. The 
 committee, to insinuate themselves with the common people, 
 regarded him with an evil eye, and so discouraged him, that 
 being offered much better preferment, and invited by Colonel 
 Cromwell into other parts, he acquainted the governor with 
 it, offering withal that, if he might yet be protected from 
 affronts in his employment, he would stay and serve the 
 governor for half the salary offered elsewhere. But the 
 governor, although he was very sorry to part with him, and 
 the service would much miss him, yet being so much injured 
 himself, could not undertake the protection of any of his 
 officers, and therefore would not hinder his preferment, but 
 suffered him to go to Cromwell. Such was the envy of the 
 committee to him, that that very day, just as he was going, 
 they not willing to let him depart in peace, although they 
 knew he had justly expended all the money he had received 
 of them, yet they called for an account, from the beginning 
 of his employment, which they had often seen in parcels ; 
 but believing he could not so readily give it them altogether, 
 they then demanded it. He immediately brought it forth, 
 and got by it twelve shillings due to him upon the foot 
 thereof, which he intended not to have asked them for, but 
 receiving it upon the exhibition of his account, went away 
 smiling at their malice ; which yet would not let him go so, 
 for then Henry Wandall came with a petition to the governor, 
 that he would vindicate the honour of the Earl of Essex 
 against Mr. Hooper, whom he accused of having spoken words 
 against him, and done actions to his dishonour. The governor 
 knowing this was but malice, accepted security for him, which 
 was offered by Mr. Pigott and Major Watson, that he should 
 answer what could be objected against him at any council of 
 war he should be called to.^ 
 
 ^ This Mr. Hooper was undoubtedly a person of singular abilities. 
 Mr. Sprigge, in his Anglia Rediviva, mentions him as serving Sir 
 Thomas Fairfax at the siege of Oxford and other places as engineer 
 extraordinary, and greatly expediting all his enterprises, the rapidity 
 and number of which were surprising: he was at the siege of Ragland 
 
Preached Against by a Presbyterian 201 
 
 Wednesday, September the 25th, 1644, Captain White 
 went to London, to solicit the committee’s business against 
 the governor, for they pretended to put it upon a fair debate, 
 as was promised. The next day the governor commanded 
 Captain Barrett’s troop to convoy him towards London ; but 
 just as he was going to horse, the committee, contrary to 
 their engagements not to meddle with any military affairs, 
 commanded them another way, and so he was forced to go 
 without a convoy, although the captain was afforded a whole 
 troop to wait on him. 
 
 Two or three days before the governor went, Chadwick 
 came privately to the governor’s brother, and told him that 
 his conscience would not suffer him to conceal the malicious 
 designs, and that treachery, which he now discovered to be 
 in these men’s oppositions to the governor; and with many 
 insinuations, told him they were framing articles against the 
 governor, whereof he gave him a copy, which the governor 
 carried to London with him, and showed the lieutenant- 
 colonel the originals in Mason’s and Plumptre’s own hand- 
 writings. Three days after the governor, Colonel Thornhagh 
 went to London. That day the governor went, one of the 
 presbyterian ministers, whose name was Goodhall, preached 
 the lecture at the great church, with many invectives against 
 governors and arbitrary power, so plainly hinting at the 
 governor, that all the church well understood it; but of the 
 committee he spoke fawningly, and told them he had nothing 
 to say to them, but to go on in the good way they went. 
 Some months afterwards, this poor man, preaching at a living 
 the committee had put him into, was taken by the enemy, 
 and much dejected at it, because he could not hope the 
 governor would exchange him, after his unworthy pulpit 
 railings at him; but the governor, who hated poor revenges 
 when his enemy and one of his friends were both in the same 
 prison, and he had but one exchange ready, first procured' 
 the minister’s release, and let his own officer stay for the next 
 exchange. Whereupon the man coming home, was struck 
 with remorse, and begged the governor’s pardon, with real 
 acknowledgments both to himself and others of his sin, in 
 
 Castle, the last garrison that surrendered; he came again to Notting- 
 ham during Colonel Hutchinson’s government, and, by the list of the 
 garrison in Deering’s Nottingham, appears to have continued with 
 Captain Poulton. 
 
202 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 supporting the faction against the governor^ who was told 
 that on his death-bed^ for he died before the garrison was 
 dissolved^ he expressed to some of the governor’s friends his 
 trouble for having been his enemy. But not only to him^ 
 but to many others of his enemies, the governor upon sundry 
 occasions, when they fell into his power to have requited 
 their mischiefs, instead of vengeance rendered them benefits ; 
 so that at last his own friends would tell him, if they could 
 in justice and conscience forsake him, they would become his 
 adversaries, for that was the next way to engage him to obliga- 
 tions. But although his friends, who had greater animosities 
 against his unjust persecutors than he himself, would say 
 these things in anger at his clemency, his nature was as full 
 of kind gratitude to his friends as free from base revenges 
 upon his enemies, who either fell down to him from their 
 own just remorse, or were cast under his power by God’s 
 just providence. 
 
 As soon as the governor was gone, the committee took all 
 power upon them, and had the impudence to command the 
 lieutenant-colonel, who was deputy-governor, and absolute 
 in his brother’s absence, to draw out his troop: he went to 
 them and told them he was sorry they broke their agreement, 
 but he could not break his trust of his brother’s authority 
 to obey them. Then they feigned a pretence and turned 
 out the governor’s quarter-master, who, by the governor’s 
 appointment, had quartered soldiers at an ale-house Mr. 
 Millington had given protection to, saying, that none should 
 be quartered on account of some relation they had to him 
 who married one of the daughters of the place. This occa- 
 sioning some dispute, Cooke the quarter-master had uttered 
 some words, for which they sent for him and cast out great 
 threats, how they would punish him ; which frighted his wife, 
 big with child, in that manner, that her child died within her, 
 and her own life was in great hazard. The committee then 
 called a hall, and caused the townsmen to bring in horses for 
 dragoons, whereof they voted a regiment to be raised, Chad- 
 wick to be the colonel, and Hall and Selby to be captains 
 under him. They took upon them to command the soldiers, 
 and made horrible confusion, by which they often put the 
 garrison in great danger, if the enemy had known their ad- 
 vantage. Among the rest, one night after the guards were 
 set, the captain of the guard, missing the deputy-governor to 
 
Confusion Created by the Committee 203 
 
 receive the word from him^ gave them the same word they 
 had before^ till he had found out the governor to receive a 
 new one. Mr. Millington coming by, half flustered, would 
 have had the captain take a word from him, which when the 
 captain refused, he being angry, commanded Captain Mason’s 
 drums to beat, and set a double guard. The lieutenant- 
 colonel hearing the drums, and having no notice of his com- 
 mand, sent to Mason to command him to forbear drawing 
 any men to the guard, but Mason would not obey him. 
 Besides this, they did a thousand such like things, to provoke 
 him to give them some colour of complaint, or some advan- 
 tage against him and his brother, in order to carry on a wicked 
 design, by which they were secretly managing to destroy 
 them; but God, by a wonderful providence, brought it 
 to light. 
 
 Their conspiracy was to accuse the colonel and his brother, 
 as persons that had betrayed the town and castle, and were 
 ready to surrender them to the enemy, which they would 
 pretend to have discovered, and to have prevented their 
 treachery, by a surprise of the lieutenant-colonel, the castle 
 and the bridges, and all the officers that were faithful to the 
 governor and his friends. Because they had not a force in 
 town who would act this villainy, they sent to Sir John Gell, 
 in whom they had a great interest, and a man likely enough 
 to promote their wickedness, had they even acquainted him 
 with it, as black as it was in the cursed forge of their own 
 hearts : but to carry on their business closely, they sent to tell 
 him they had cause of suspicion that the lieutenant-colonel 
 was false to his trust, and would deliver the castle to the 
 enemy, to prevent which they desired him to assist them with 
 some men and ammunition; which ammunition was very 
 secretly conveyed into the town, and the men were ready to 
 march, and quarters taken up for them in Nottingham. The 
 lieutenant-colonel dreamed nothing of the mischief that 
 was hatching against him, when, just at the very time of 
 the execution, there came into Nottingham two gentlemen, 
 whom the parliament employed to carry intelligences be- 
 tween the north and the south, and who used to meet at this 
 town. 
 
 Mr. Fleetwood, who came from the south, came imme- 
 diately up to the castle, and was there familiarly and kindly 
 treated, as he used to be, by the lieutenant-colonel. This 
 
204 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 was upon a Saturday nighty in the month of October. Mr. 
 Marshy his correspondent, who came from the north, passing 
 through Derby, was so cautioned by Sir John Cell, that he 
 durst not go up to the castle, but on the Lord’s day sent for 
 Mr. Fleetwood to meet him in the town ; who coming to him, 
 he told him what information he had received from Sir John 
 Cell, and for that reason he durst not trust himself in the 
 castle. Mr. Fleetwood undertaking for his safety, brought 
 him up to the lieutenant-colonel, and finding the untruth 
 of their forgeries, told the lieutenant-colonel all the machina- 
 tions against him; whereupon, on the Monday morning, he 
 went away to London, and sent Mr. Millington word, that 
 having understood the suspicion they had of him, he was gone 
 to London, where, if they had anything to accuse him of, they 
 might send after him, and he should be ready to answer it, 
 and in his absence had left Captain Lomax governor of the 
 garrison. The committee, very much confounded that their 
 wickedness was come to fight, resolved to outface the thing, 
 and denied that they had sent to Derby for any men. They 
 said indeed it was true, that having formerly lent Sir John 
 Gell some powder, they had sent for that back ; but this was 
 not all, for they had also persuaded the master of the maga- 
 zine that was in the castle to convey, unknown to the lieu- 
 tenant-colonel, two barrels of powder, with match and bullet 
 suitable, to such place as Chadwick should direct. This he, 
 not dreaming of their evil intention, had condescended to do, 
 and sent them to Salisbury’s house; but as soon as the lieu- 
 tenant-colonel was gone, they took what care they could to 
 shuffle up this business, and presently despatched Captain 
 Palmer to London and Lieutenant Chadwick to Derby, where 
 he so wrought with Sir John Gell, that he brought back a 
 counterfeit letter, pretended to have been all that was sent 
 from the committee of Nottingham to him, and another of 
 Sir John Gell’s writing, wherein he disowned all that Mr. 
 Marsh had related of his information. But God, who would 
 not let them be hid, had so ordered that while matters were 
 thus huddling up at Derby, Sir John Gell’s brother came by 
 chance to Nottingham, and affirmed that the committee of 
 Nottingham had sent to his brother for three hundred men, 
 to surprise Nottingham Castle; which, when the committee 
 heard, they sent Captain Pendock after him the next day to 
 charm him, that he might not discover the truth in that 
 
Hearing before the Sub-committee 205 
 
 particular. Also the very day that these intentions of theirs 
 were thus providentially brought to light, one of Sir John 
 Cell’s captains was known to be in town, whom Sir John had 
 sent to discover the state of things, and the new quarter- 
 master had been all that day taking billets for soldiers in 
 several houses in the town. 
 
 When the governor came to London, the committee of 
 both kingdoms had appointed a sub-committee to hear his 
 business, whereof young Sir Henry Vane had the chair, Mr. 
 William Pierrepont, Mr. Solicitor St. John, Mr. Recorder, 
 and two of the Scotch commissioners, were nominated for 
 the committee; before whom the governor’s propositions 
 and the committee’s answers had been read, and when their 
 solicitor. Captain White, saw they were likely to be cast out 
 as frivolous, he produced some articles, which they had 
 formed against the governor, lieutenant-colonel, and Mr. 
 Pigott; but they proved as frivolous as the other, and the 
 gentlemen answered them so clearly, that they appeared to 
 be forged out of malice and envy, only to cause delays, there 
 being scarcely an)^thing of moment in them if they had been 
 true, whereas they were all false. And now after they had 
 trodden down the fence of shame, and impudently begun with 
 articles, there was not the least ridiculous impertinency that 
 passed at Nottingham, but they put into a scrip of paper and 
 presented it as an additional article to the committee; to 
 each of whom particularly Mr. Millington had written letters, 
 and given them such false impressions of the governor, and so 
 prepossessed them against him, who was a stranger to them 
 all, that they looked upon him very coldly and slightly, when 
 he made particular addresses to them. But he that scorned 
 to be discouraged by any men’s disregard, from whom he 
 had more reason to have expected all caresses and thankful 
 acknowledgments of his unwearied fidelity and good services, 
 resolved to pursue his own vindication through all their 
 frowns and cold repulses : these he met with more from Mr. 
 William Pierrepont than from any of the rest, till Mr. Peirre- 
 pont perceived the injustice of their prosecution, and then 
 there was no person in the world that could demean himself 
 with more justice, honour, and kindness than he did to the 
 governor, whose injuries first became apparent to him, when 
 the lieutenant-colonel came and told his brother what com- 
 binations had been discovered against him at Nottingham, 
 
2o6 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 which the governor resenting with great indignation^ com- 
 plained of them to the committee. The Solicitor White 
 impudently denied the whole matter^ or that ever the com- 
 mittee at Nottingham had had the least suspicion of the 
 governor or his brother^ or the least ground of any. When 
 this had been with stiffness and impudence enough outfaced 
 before the committee, Mr. Pierrepont, then fully convinced 
 of their devilish malice, pulled a letter out of his pocket, 
 wherein Mr. Millington made this suggestion to him against 
 the governor and his brother, and desired that he might be 
 armed with power to prevent and suppress them. This 
 would have made others ashamed, but their solicitor was 
 notwithstanding impudent and rudely pressing upon the com- 
 mittee, who though they were persons of honour, and after 
 they discovered the governor’s innocence, were not forward 
 to oppress him ; yet as they were statesmen, so they were not 
 so ready to relieve him as they ought to have been, because 
 they could not do it without a high reflection upon one of 
 their own members, who encouraged all those little men in 
 their wicked persecution of him. They were such exquisite 
 rogues, that all the while some of them betrayed one another 
 to the governor, and told him, under pretence of honesty 
 and conscience, the bottom of their whole designs, showed 
 the foul original drafts of their articles, in the men’s own 
 hands that contrived them; and told him how, not so much 
 dislike of him, as covetousness and ambition to advance 
 themselves upon his ruins, had engaged them thus against 
 him, and made them contrive that villainy to accuse him and 
 his brother of treachery, and to have seized their garrisons, 
 under that pretence, and gotten them to be made prisoners ; 
 and then Mr. Millington undertook to have so lodged their 
 petitions in the parliament, that they should never have been 
 heard and relieved.^ Colonel Thornhagh too was to have 
 been wrought out of his command, and they had divided 
 the spoil before they caught the lions. Millington’s son was 
 designed to be governor of the castle ; the ten pounds a week 
 allowed for the governor’s table, so many of the committee- 
 men were to share by forty shillings a man; Chadwick was 
 to be colonel of the town regiment, and Mason major; White 
 
 ^ It is averred in the History of Independency, “ that the active 
 speaking men pack committees who carry all the businesses of the house 
 as they please, and when the matter is too bad, smother it with artificial 
 delays.” 
 
The Governor’s Enemies 
 
 207 
 
 I colonel of the horse regiment^ and Palmer^ the priest, his 
 I major; and all the governor’s friends were to be turned out, 
 and their places disposed of to creatures of their own, who, 
 j drawn on with these hopes, were very active to work the gover- 
 I nor and his party out of the opinion of all men. They forgot 
 the public interest in this private quarrel, taking in all the 
 malignant and debauched people that would join with them, 
 to destroy the governor, whom they hated for his unmoved 
 fidelity to his trust, and his severe restriction of lewdness and 
 vice. But because he protected and favoured godly men 
 that were sober, although they separated from the public 
 assemblies, this opened wide the mouths of all the priests and 
 all their idolaters, and they were willing enough to let the 
 children of hell cry out with them to make the louder noise; 
 and as we have since seen the whole cause and party ruined 
 by the same practice, so at that time the zealots for God and 
 the parliament turned all the hate they had to the enemies 
 of both, and called on them to assist in executing their malice 
 upon the faithful servant and generous champion of the 
 Lord’s and his country’s just cause. And now the name of 
 cavalier was no more remembered, Castilian being the term 
 of reproach with which they branded all the governor’s 
 friends ; and lamentable it was to behold how those wretched 
 men fell away under this temptation, not only from public 
 spiritedness, but from sobriety and honest, moral conversa- 
 tion; not only conniving at and permitting the wickedness 
 of others, but themselves conversing in taverns and brothels, 
 till at last Millington and White were so ensnared that they 
 married a couple of alehouse wenches, to their open shame 
 and the conviction of the whole country of the vain lives 
 they led, and some reflection on the parliament itself, as much 
 as the miscarriage of a member could cast on it, when 
 Millington, a man of sixty, professing religion, and having but 
 lately buried a religious matronly gentlewoman, should go 
 to an alehouse to take a flirtish girl of sixteen ; yet by these 
 noble alliances, they much strengthened their faction with 
 all the vain, drunken rogues in the town against the governor. 
 Now, that their first plot had, by God’s providence, been 
 detected, they fell upon others, and set on instruments every- 
 where, to insinuate all the lies they could, that might render 
 the governor odious to the town and to the horse of the 
 garrison, whom they desired to stir up to petition against 
 
2o8 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 him, but could not find any considerable number that would 
 freely do it ; therefore they used all the strong motives they 
 could, and told them that the governor sought to exercise an 
 arbitrary power over them, and to have all their booties at 
 his own disposal, and other such like things, by which at 
 length they prevailed with many of Col. Thornhagh’s regi- 
 ment to subscribe a petition that they might be under the 
 command of the committee, and not of any other person in 
 the garrison. This petition was sent up by Captain Palmer, 
 and he meeting Mr. Pigott at Westminster Hall, Mr. Pigott, 
 in private discourse with him, began to bewail the scandalous 
 conversation of certain persons of the committee, hoping that 
 he, being familiar with them, might be a means to persuade 
 them to reformation. 
 
 After this the governor. Colonel Thornhagh, Mr. Pigott, 
 and some others, being in a tavern at Westminster, where 
 they dined. Captain Palmer came to the door, and they bade 
 him come in. Upon discourse, the governor pulled out of 
 his pocket the articles which the committee had put in 
 against him, showed them to Captain Palmer, and asked him 
 whether he thought it possible that he should, after all his 
 toils and services, have been articled against for such things. 
 Palmer, who had been from the beginning with the committee, 
 and knew the falsehood of these accusations, professed he 
 was amazed at them, and that he had not till then heard any- 
 thing of them. Continuing in further discourse, the governor 
 mentioned an unchristian-like sermon, which Mr. Goodhall 
 had preached, with invectives against him in his absence. 
 Palmer undertook the justification of it with such saucy pro- 
 vocations, that the governor told him if it had not been more 
 in respect to his black coat than his grey, he would have 
 beaten him out of the room, which for his own safety he 
 advised him to leave ; so he went out very angry, and going 
 to Captain White, told him how Mr. Pigott called him a 
 whoremaster, Mr. Millington a drunkard, and Chadwick a 
 knave. White, meeting Mr. Pigott in the hall, challenged 
 him of these scandals. Mr. Pigott, seeing Palmer not far 
 off, led White to him, and told him he knew that person had 
 been his informer, repeating all he had said to'him, and added, 
 that it was in a desire for their reformation, but he would 
 maintain that all the things he spoke were true. Palmer 
 further, in his rage, puts into the committee a paper of 
 
Continued Factions of the Committee 209 
 
 reasons why he desired to be exempted from being under 
 the governor; whereof one was^ that he had cowardly and 
 unhandsomely behaved himself on an occasion when Palmer’s 
 troop marched out with him to Elston. The governor sent 
 a copy of this paper down to Palmer’s own troop, and the 
 lieutenant, cornet, and all the troopers sent up a certificate, 
 under their hands, of the falsehood of their captain’s accusa- 
 tion. After this. Palmer came into the garrison, and made 
 a grievous exclamation all over the town against the governor 
 and Mr. Pigott for traducing the ministers, Mr. Millington, 
 and the committee; adding a false report, that the governor 
 had thrown a trencher at his head; and abused the pulpit 
 for persuading the people to vindicate them. Among other 
 things, he misapplied a place in Nehemiah, where Nehemiah 
 says, I ate not the governor’s bread, because the fear of 
 the Lord was upon me,” to the governor; that his accepting 
 a public table, was a mark of the want of the fear of God; 
 and many other such malicious wrestings of scripture did he 
 and his fellow priests at that time practise. The committee 
 of Nottingham, on their side, taking this occasion, called a 
 public hall in the town, where two orations were made by 
 Mr. Millington and Colonel Chadwick. Millington began 
 with a large enumeration of Chadwick’s worthy actions 
 (known to no man), whereby he merited honour of all men, 
 especially of this town; and then mentioning his own good 
 services for the town, told them how ungratefully they were 
 repaid by Mr. Pigott, with the scandalous aspersion of being 
 drunkards and knaves ; and that their singular affections and 
 endeavours for the good of the town had exposed them to this 
 calumny, wherefore they^ desired the town to join in their 
 justification. Chadwick make just such another speech, 
 and both of them seemed to pass by their own particular, 
 and only to desire the other’s justification; Chadwick, in his 
 speech, saying that Mr. Pigott’ s abuse of Mr. Millington did 
 not only asperse the committee, but even the parliament 
 itself. Captain Lomax, then deputy-governor of the garrison, 
 after they had spoken, stood up, and advised the townsmen 
 that they should forbear to entangle themselves in things 
 they understood not, adding that Mr. Pigott, and the gentle- 
 men at London, were persons of such honour and prudence, 
 that they would maintain whatever they had spoken of any 
 man. Hereupon Captain Mason, and two malignant towns- 
 
2 10 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 men his soldiers, began to mutiny with high insolence, and 
 to lay violent hands on him to thrust him out of the hall, 
 giving him most reproachful terms ; but the man being very 
 stout quieted them, and would not depart till the hall broke 
 up. After this, without acquainting the deputy-governor, 
 they summoned another hall ; but Lomax, seeing their inclina- 
 tion to mutiny, forbade it. Then, at ten o’dock at night, 
 they got a common council together, at Mr. Salisbury’s house, 
 and there Mr. Millington again desired they would join in 
 the vindication of himself, the ministers, and the committee, 
 and got about eight of them to subscribe a blank paper. 
 Then the committee, with certain instruments of theirs, 
 appointed rounds to walk the town, persuading some, and 
 threatening others, to set their hands to a petition, which 
 none of them that subscribed knew what it was, but they 
 told them it was for the good of the town. 
 
 Ail this while these petty committee fellows had carried 
 themselves as absolute governors, and Plumptre was now 
 their intimate favourite, and began to vapour that he would 
 have the castle pulled down to re-erect the church, and the 
 fort at the bridges thrown down, and all the arms and soldiers 
 brought into the town. 
 
 But at London, the governor being grown into acquaint- 
 ance with the gentlemen of the sub-committee that were to 
 hear his business; and they perceiving with how much 
 wicked malice he was prosecuted. Sir Henry Vane was so 
 honourable as to give him advice to put his business in such 
 a way, as might take away all colour from his eneniies. 
 Whereupon he put in some propositions to the committee of 
 both kingdoms, for the composure of these differences, 
 wherein he was willing to decline all things of his own right, 
 which might be done without prejudice to the public service, 
 and to pass by all the injuries that had been done him; 
 which condescension gave such satisfaction, that forthwith 
 the whole business was determined at the committee of both 
 kingdoms, and the governor sent back to his charge, with 
 instructions drawn up for all parties, and letters written to 
 the officers and soldiers, both of horse and foot, to be obedient; 
 and likewise letters to the mayor of the town and to the 
 committee. The governor returning, word was brought to 
 Nottingham, that on Friday night he lay at Leicester, where- 
 upon the committee, who had heard the determination of 
 
2 I I 
 
 Reception at the Castle 
 
 things above^ got them ready to be gone, but the soldiers 
 having notice thereof, went to the deputy-governor and 
 entreated him to stop the treasurer; whereupon he and the 
 major of the regiment went to them, and entreated them to 
 stay till the governor came, merely to see what instructions 
 he brought with him from the powers above ; but when they 
 would not be persuaded fairly, then the deputy peremptorily 
 forbade the treasurer, as he would answer it, not to go. But 
 he refusing to obey, the deputy told him he should pass on 
 his sword’s point if he went, and accordingly went down to 
 set guards at the Trent bridges; which being told them, they 
 made haste and fled out at the other end of the town. 
 Millington, Chadwick, Ayscough, Salisbury, and Mason 
 (whom they had added to the committee to increase their 
 faction), were the committee men, who took with them 
 their new marshal and another of their created officers. 
 Palmer, two more priests, and a town captain. The governor 
 was met on his way homewards by some of his officers, and 
 told with what joy his garrison and regiment were preparing 
 to entertain him, in all expressions they could possibly make, 
 by volleys of cannon and muskets, and ringing of bells, and 
 all such declarations as used to be made in a public and 
 universal rejoicing; but the governor, fearing his enemies 
 might not bear such testimonies of love to him, without 
 grief, sent into the town to desire them to forbear their kind 
 intentions of giving him so loud a welcome. When he was 
 now near the town, another messenger came to acquaint him, 
 that all those who would have been grieved at his joyful 
 entertainment were fled, and that those who remained would 
 be much grieved if he should not be pleased to give them 
 leave to receive him with such demonstrations of their joy 
 as they could make. He now permitted them to do what 
 they pleased ; which leave being obtained, every one strove 
 to declare his gladness with all imaginable expressions of love 
 and honour, and with all the solemnities the time and place 
 would afford. The governor on his side received them all 
 with a cheerful obliging courtesy, and gave a large bounty to 
 his loving soldiers, who made that day as great a festival as 
 if themselves and their families had been redeemed from 
 captivity. The mayor of the town, with his brethren in their 
 scarlets, met him, and told him if he had been guilty of any- 
 thing prejudicial to him, he was exceedingly sorry for it, for 
 
2 1 2 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 he infinitely honoured him, and all his errors had been 
 through ignorance or misinformation, which he should be 
 most ready to repair. That evening White came home 
 pining with spite and envy at the governor and the gentle- 
 men that joined with him, viz. Colonel Thornhagh, Mr. 
 Pigott, Lieutenant-colonel Hutchinson, Major Widmerpoole, 
 Captain Lomax, and Alderman James; for as to the mayor 
 of the town, notwithstanding his fair professions publicly to 
 the governor, White had the same night again turned about 
 that weathercock. 
 
 The next day the governor and the committee with him 
 sent a command to all the horse in town to march to the 
 assistance of Derby and Leicester, to fortify a house called 
 Coleorton; which not being taken notice of, the governor 
 and Colonel Thornhagh summoned all the horse officers, and 
 declared to them the orders of the committee of both king- 
 doms, to which they cheerfully promised obedience; but 
 White being sent for among them, insolently refused to come 
 up to the castle, and bade the governor come down to him 
 to the committee’s chamber; yet upon second thoughts he 
 came up, and the governor took no notice for that time. On 
 Monday the governor sent to the mayor to call a hall, but the 
 mayor entreated him to forbear till they saw whether the 
 committee-men that ran away would come back, and that 
 he might go with Captain White to persuade them ; both of 
 which the governor assented to; but the men would not 
 return, but went from Derby to London. Then the governor 
 called a general muster, and read to them the instructions he 
 had brought from the committee of both kingdoms, with 
 which all the men were exceeding well pleased. But Captain 
 White all this while would not deliver the letters he had for 
 the committee and the mayor of Nottingham. 
 
 Some few days afterwards word was brought the governor 
 that the new dragoons were come for ammunition, to march 
 out upon some design he was not acquainted with, whereupon 
 he sent to the guards at the bridges not to suffer them to pass 
 without his ticket. Immediately afterwards, White came 
 along with them, and being denied to pass, gave the guards 
 such provocative language that they were forced to send for 
 the governor. He came down and found White in high rage, 
 who gave him all the vile terms and opprobrious language he 
 could invent, to provoke him to some anger upon which he 
 
Misconduct of Captain White 213 
 
 might have taken his advantage; but the governor only 
 laughed at his fogue/ and would not let him go till he showed 
 a warrant from the council of war at London^ and then 
 he permitted him, after White had told him that he would 
 not be commanded by him, and a thousand such mutinous 
 speeches. As he went towards London he met the horse 
 coming home from Coleorton, to whom he told such lies of 
 the governor’s usage of him, that -they were frightened from 
 coming into the garrison, but that Colonel Thornhagh pre- 
 vailed with them to take his engagement, that the governor 
 should give them no ill usage. So they came back, and that 
 week their colonel charged the enemy’s quarters with them 
 and took eighty horse, two horse colours, a major and some 
 other officers. The bridge troop also met with Colonel 
 Stanhope, governor of Shelford,^ who had two parties, each 
 as many as they ; his party where he himself was, routed, and 
 he ran away, while the other party charged them in the rear, 
 upon whom they turned, routed, and chased them out of the 
 field, took Lieutenant-colonel Stanhope and his ensign, and 
 many other prisoners, with many horse and arms. In the 
 absence of the governor and his brother, the committee had 
 done all they could to discourage and dissipate this troop, 
 and would neither give them money nor provisions; yet, 
 upon hopes of their captain’s return, they kept themselves 
 together, and when the governor came home he recruited 
 them. 
 
 The committee of both kingdoms had sent down at this 
 time an order for all the horse of Nottingham and Derby- 
 shire to join with three regiments of Yorkshire, and quarter 
 about Newark, to straiten the enemy there; and accordingly 
 they rendezvoused at Mansfield, and from thence marched 
 to Thurgarton, where Sir Roger Cooper had fortified his 
 house, and lined the hedges with musketeers, who, as the 
 troops passed by, shot and killed one Captain Hey wood. 
 Hereupon Colonel Thornhagh sent to the governor, and 
 
 ^ French — Fougue, fury or passion. 
 
 ^ Here, viz. in the end of the year 1644, Shelford clearly appears to 
 be a garrison for the king; yet Whitelocke, p. 96, says that in July, 
 1644, Lord Grey of Groby, and Sir John Gell, had the thanks of the 
 parliament for taking it. This is an evident inaccuracy of White- 
 locke’s, or a very successful puff of Sir John’s. To put it out of doubt, 
 Sprigge, in his Anglia Rediviva, coimts it among the king’s garrisons. 
 May, 1645; and Colonel Hutchinson, supported by Rossiter, took it 
 in person and by storm a year after that. 
 
2 14 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 desired to borrow some foot to take the house. The governor 
 accordingly lent him three companies^, who took the house^ 
 with Sir Roger Cooper and his brother^ and forty men in it. 
 who were sent prisoners to Nottingham; where^ although 
 Sir Roger Cooper was in great dread of being put into the 
 governor’s hands^ whom he had provoked before upon a 
 private occasion^ yet he received such a civil treatment from 
 him^ that he seemed to be much moved and melted with it. 
 The foot had done all the service^ and run all the hazard^ in 
 taking the house^ yet the booty was all given to the horse; 
 this they had very just reason to resent^ but notwithstanding^ 
 they marched along with them to Southwell^ and there were 
 most sadly neglected^ and put upon keeping outguards for the 
 horse, and had no provisions, so that the governor was forced 
 to send them some out of his garrison, or else they had been 
 left to horrible distress. Hereupon they went to the governor 
 to desire they might come home, but upon Colonel Thorn- 
 hagh’s entreaty and engagement that they should be better 
 used, the governor was content to let them stay a little 
 longer, till more horse came up, which were sent for out of 
 Yorkshire. In the meantime, those who were there already 
 did nothing but harass the poor country; and the horse 
 officers were so negligent of their own duty, and so remiss 
 in the government of their soldiers, that the service was 
 infinitely prejudiced, and the poor country miserably dis- 
 tressed. The Nottingham horse, being in their own country, 
 and having their families in and about Nottingham, were 
 more guilty of straggling than any of the rest; and Capt. 
 White’s whole troop having presumed to be away one night 
 when they should have been upon the guard, the Newarkers 
 beat up our quarters, and took almost two whole troops of 
 that regiment. White’s lieutenant, without any leave from 
 the colonel, thereupon posted up to London, and contrived 
 a complaint against the governor, to make him appear guilty 
 of this disorder; but soon after Newark gave them another 
 alarm, and the parliament horse made so slender an appear- 
 ance that the officers, thereupon consulting in a council of 
 war, concluded that the design could not be prosecuted 
 without more force, and for the present broke up their 
 quarters. 
 
 The committee men that ran away when the governor 
 returned had taken the treasurer away with them, and left 
 
Recruits the Stores 
 
 215 
 
 neither any money, nor so much as the rent rolls whereby 
 the governor could be instructed where to fetch in any ; ^ 
 but by the prudence and interest of himself and his friends, 
 he procured a month’s pay for the foot, and twenty shillings 
 a man for the horse,^ as soon as he came home ; and recruited 
 all the stores, which the committee had purposely wasted in 
 his absence, and fetched in a small stock of powder they had 
 laid in at Salisbury’s house. While he was thus industriously 
 setting the things in order which they had confounded, they 
 at London were as maliciously active to make more con- 
 fusion. They contrived many false and frivolous articles and. 
 petitions against him, and proceeded to that degree of 
 impudence in desiring alterations, and casting reflections 
 upon the sub-commdttee itself, that they grew weary of them. 
 Mr. Pierrepont and Sir H. Vane being now taken notice of as 
 leaders of the independent faction,^ when those gentlemen 
 out of mere justice and honour discountenanced their envy 
 and malice, they applied themselves to the presbyterian 
 faction, and insinuating to them that the justice of those 
 gentlemen was partiality to the governor, because he was a 
 protector of the now hated separatists, they prevailed to 
 have Sir Philip Stapleton and Sir Gilbert Garrett, two fierce 
 presbyterians, added to the sub-committee, to balance the 
 other faction, and found this wicked invention not a little 
 advantageous to them: yet Mr. Hollis, who was a person 
 of honour, did not comply with their factious spirits, but 
 gave the governor all just assistance against their malice 
 which lay in his power.^ But they quitting all modesty, and 
 pressing the committee with false affirmations and forgeries, 
 
 1 Rent rolls of sequestrated or forfeited estates. 
 
 One out of many instances of Colonel Hutchinson’s generous de- 
 votion to the cause, which brought on him that load of debt, so oppres- 
 sive to him in the reverse of affairs. In p. 623 and 624, of Rushworth, 
 Thornhagh’s Nottinghamshire horse state that they had served five 
 years, and received barely six shillings a week in all; and that there 
 was ^40,000 due to them. Judge, from these two corps. Colonel 
 Hutchinson’s being twelve hundred infantry, and two or three troops 
 of dragoons, Thornhagh’s about six hundred horse, what was the 
 general state of the army as to pay! Mr. Sprigge might well say of 
 the troops as he does, “ it was not their pay that pacified them, for had 
 they not had more civility than money, things had not been so fairly 
 managed.” 
 
 ® Probably it was the experience these two excellent politicians had 
 of Colonel Hutchinson’s abilities and integrity on this trial which 
 induced them afterwards to take him for their associate. 
 
 ^ Mrs. Hutchinson, who in other places speaks with much disap- 
 probation of Mr. Hollis, here most candidly gives him his due. 
 
2i6 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 that all men would lay down their arms if the governor were 
 not removed, at length prevailed, that he should be the 
 second time sent for to London to justify himself against 
 them. In that blank, to which they had by fraud and 
 threats procured so many signatures, they wrote a petition, 
 alleging that the governor was so generally detested, that if 
 he were not removed all men would fling down their arms; 
 and the subscriptions they thus abused were those they 
 procured to vindicate Mr. Millington. Salisbury and one 
 Silvester had, for their own profit, gotten a commission to 
 set on foot the excise in the county, and joined with them 
 one Sherwin. These two were such pragmatical knaves, that 
 they justly became odious to all men; and although necessity 
 might excuse the tax in other places, yet here it was such a 
 burden that no man of any honesty or conscience could have 
 acted in it. For when ])lundering troops killed all the poor 
 countrymen’s sheep and swine, and other provisions, where- 
 by many honest families were ruined and beggared, these 
 unmerciful people would force excise out of them for those 
 very goods which the others had robbed them of; insomuch 
 that the religious soldiers said they would starve before they 
 would be employed in forcing it, or take any of it for their 
 pay. The governor, being inclined in conscience to assist 
 the poor country, was very active in his endeavours to relieve 
 them from this oppression, which his enemies highly urged 
 in their articles against him. These excisemen came very 
 pressingly to urge the governor to enforce the payment of it 
 in the town ; he told them before he would use compulsion he 
 would try fair means, and call a hall to see whether the 
 townsmen would be persuaded, which accordingly he did: 
 but when the day came the excisemen came to the governor 
 and advised him to take a strong guard with him, telling him 
 that the butchers had been whetting their knives, and 
 intended mischief, and had cast out many words, intimating 
 a dangerous design. The governor told them he should not 
 augment his usual guard, and could fear nothing, having no 
 intent to do anything that might provoke them to mutiny, 
 'fhey went again to the men and told them the governor 
 intended to come with many armed men, to compel them to 
 pay it: whereupon when he came to the hall he found but a 
 very slender appearance, yet those who were there were all 
 fully resolved not to pay it; but the governor wrought with 
 
Certificate in Ilis Favour 
 
 2 1 7 
 
 lliem to represent their reasons, in a Iminhle inaniutr, to tlie 
 committee of both kingdoms, and that there should be a 
 fuller meeting for that purpose tlie next week, and that in 
 the meantime both j)arties should forbear any private 
 addresses in this matter. Tr> this the excisemen agnted ; 
 yet, notwithstanding, the governor took a whole packet of 
 their letters going to London, which when he discovered, he 
 also wrote to his friends in London on b(thalf of the garrison, 
 d’he next week at a full meeting, a j)etition was signed, 
 which the governor offered the town to have carried, being 
 himself to go uj), but they in a coin|)liment refused to give 
 him the trouble, j)itching upon ('aptain Loates and tint town- 
 clerk to go u]) with it. 'I’hey accordingly went, about the 
 time that, after seven weeks’ stay in the garrison, the governor 
 was called again u)) to London to justify himself against- 
 the malicious clamours of his adversaries. When (!aj)tain 
 (!oates and the other came to London they aj)plied them- 
 selves to Mr. Millington, who, j)erceiving that the governor 
 stood for the ease of the garrison, put them into a way to 
 frustrate their own designs, and so they returned home; and 
 at the sessions, rendering the town an account of their 
 negotiations, they told them they found it an iin|)ossible 
 thing to get the excise takcsi off. Vet the governor knew ii 
 way how to ease them, but they feared he would be dis- 
 couraged in it, because at his coming uj) he ha.d found fheir 
 disaffections exj)ressed against him in n |)etition to cast him 
 out of his command, “ which,” said the clerk, ‘‘ you cannot 
 do, for he still is and must be governor; therefore, if any 
 of you have been cheated of your hands, contrary to your 
 intentions and desires, you would do well to testify your 
 honesty, by disclaiming what goes under your name.” Soon 
 after, these malignants stirred up the soldiers to mutiny, and 
 there being no governor in the garrison that could tell how to 
 order them otherwise, they were a|)peased with money; upon 
 which o(‘casion a general muster being called, the major told 
 the soldiers how they were injured at London by a jxitilion, 
 preferred in the name of the whole garrison, to cast the 
 governor out of his command, which, if it were not their 
 desire, he wished them to certify to the contrary. 'I'hey 
 all with one voice cried, they desired no other governor; 
 whereupon a certificate to that yiurpose was drawn up; 
 but when it came to be subscribed, certain of the com- 
 
21 8 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 mittee faction went up and down persuading the companies 
 not to subscribe; and when they found how little they 
 prevailed^ they foamed for anger^ and with such malicious 
 railing, that one of the governor’s soldiers, not able to bear 
 them longer, cried out, ‘‘ Why do we suffer these fellows 
 to vapour thus? let us clout them out of the field: ” but the 
 major hearing it, committed him; and the next morning the 
 certificate went up, subscribed with seven hundred towns- 
 men’s hands. After all was done, the major gave some 
 small sum to the soldiers to drink, and the malicious faction, 
 when they saw they could not hinder this certificate, made 
 another false one of their own, that the major had with 
 crowns a-piece hired all these subscriptions, with other such 
 like lies, which when they could not make good, it is said 
 they retracted their certificate at London. 
 
 The committee at London could never finish the business 
 by reason of the impertinent clamours of the governor’s 
 enemies, therefore at length, wearied with the continual 
 endless papers they had daily brought in, they made an 
 order, wherein they assigned a certain day for the determina- 
 tion of their power, and in the meantime commanded all 
 matter of crimination on both sides should be forborne. At 
 the day they both appeared, but Mr. Millington presented a 
 petition of a most insolent nature, and fresh articles against 
 the governor, which gave the committee much distaste. The 
 petition was, that whereas the committee had kept them ten 
 weeks at great charges, they desired a speedy despatch now, 
 according to their propositions. The committee were much 
 offended at this, and told them they did them much injury 
 to lay their stay upon them, who five weeks before desired 
 them to return, and only leave a solicitor for each, and then 
 they refused it; that they had broken their first orders, and 
 given no satisfaction either for it nor for their last, in bringing 
 in articles against the governor. They took it very ill that 
 they, who were plaintiffs, should prescribe to them, who 
 were judges, how to determine the business; wherefore they 
 ordered that the governor should return and pursue his first 
 instructions, till he received new ones, and that the business 
 should be reported to the house. The governor sent his 
 brother down to take care of the garrison, and stayed himself 
 to receive the final determination of the house, where Mr. 
 Millington, through his interest, kept off the report, by 
 
Character of Mr. G. Hutchinson 219 
 
 several tricks and unjust delays^ for about three or four 
 months. 
 
 When the lieutenant-colonel came down^ the captains were 
 wonderfully obedient^ and all things pretty quiet, but the 
 governor’s officers were discouraged at the countenance which 
 was given to his enemies, and the impunity of all the crimes 
 of that faction. He having a certain spirit of government, in 
 an extraordinary manner, which was not given to others, 
 carrying an awe in his presence that his enemies could not 
 withstand, the garrison was much disordered by his absence, 
 and in daily peril; although the lieutenant-colonel was as 
 faithful and industrious in managing that charge as any 
 person could be, and as excellent a person, but in a different 
 way from his brother. Firmness and zeal to the cause, and 
 personal valour he had equally, but that vigour of soul 
 which made him invincible against all assaults, and over- 
 coming all difficulties he met in his way, was proper to him- 
 self alone. The lieutenant-colonel was a man of the kindest 
 heart and the most humble familiar deportment in the world, 
 and lived with all his soldiers as if they had been his^brothers ; 
 dispensing with that reverence which was due to him, and 
 living cheerful and merry, and familiar with them, in such a 
 manner that they celebrated him, and professed the highest 
 love for him in the world, and would magnify his humility 
 and kindness, and him for it, in a high degree above his 
 brother. But with all this they grew so presumptuous that, 
 when any obedience was exacted beyond their humours or 
 apprehensions, they would often dare to fail in their duty; 
 whereas the governor, still keeping a greater distance, 
 though with no more pride, preserved an awe that made him 
 to be equally feared and loved, and though they secretly 
 repined at their subjection, yet they durst not refuse it; 
 and, when they came to render it on great occasions, they 
 found such wisdom and such advantage in all his dictates 
 that, their reason being convinced of the benefit of his 
 government, they delighted in it, and accounted it a happi- 
 ness to be under his command, when any public necessity 
 superseded the mutiny of those private lusts, whereby all 
 men naturally, but especially vulgar spirits, would cast off 
 their bridle, and be only their own rulers.^ 
 
 ^ In the delineation of characters Mrs. Hutchinson remarkably 
 excels. Nothing can be more amiable than that which she here draws 
 
220 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 As the governor’s absence was the occasion of many 
 neglects in the government, not by his brother’s fault, but 
 the soldiers’, who wanting their pay (which, while the com- 
 mittee should have been providing, they were spending in, 
 vexatious prosecutions of the governor), they were therefore 
 discontented, and through that, careless of their duty; so, 
 on the other side, the cavaliers, who were not ignorant 
 of the dissensions in the garrison, took the advantage, and 
 surprised the lieutenant-colonel’s fort at the Trent bridges, 
 while he was employed in keeping the castle. His soldiers 
 in his absence lying out of their quarters, had not left above 
 thirty men upon the guard, who were most of them killed, 
 the ensign fighting it out very stoutly, after their entrance, 
 till he died. The lieutenant-colonel was exceedingly afflicted 
 with this loss, but presently applied himself to secure what 
 remained. The whole town was in a sad uproar, and this 
 happening upon a Lord’s day in the morning, in May, 1645, 
 all the people were in such a consternation that they could 
 keep no sabbath that day. Then the lieutenant-colonel had 
 an experiment of vulgar spirits, for even his own soldiers, 
 who were guilty of the loss of the place by being out of their 
 quarters, began to exclaim against him for a thousand cause- 
 less things; and although he laboured amongst them with 
 as much courage and vigour as any man could use, to settle 
 their spirits and regain the place, yet they slighted him most 
 unjustly, and all cried out now to have the governor sent for, 
 as if he himself had been their castle. 
 
 Immediately after the unhappy surprise of the bridges, the 
 lieutenant-colonel sent away to his brother a post, who by 
 some of the lower fords got over the water, and carried the 
 sad news to London. A trumpet was sent to the bridges, 
 and obtained the dead bodies of the soldiers who were slain 
 at the surprise, and they were brought up to the town in carts 
 and buried. There were about twenty of them, very good 
 and stout men, though it availed them not in their last need, 
 when a multitude had seized them unawares. All that day 
 a body of the enemy faced the town, which, through terrors 
 without and discouragements and discontents within, was 
 in a very sad posture. The malignant faction against the 
 governor improved even this occasion, and suggested to the 
 
 of Mr. George Hutchinson, and this character he will be found to 
 sustain with increased esteem to the end of the history. 
 
22 1 
 
 Statement in Parliament 
 
 town that the castle would be the cause of their ruin; that 
 the governor and his' soldiers would secure themselves there^ 
 and leave the town undefended ; and because the lieutenant- 
 colonel was very strict that none of the castle-soldiers should 
 lie out of their quarters^ lest that place might be surprised 
 as well as the other, the townsmen renewed their railings 
 against the castle, and their malice to all that were in it ; but 
 the lieutenant-colonel, regarding none of their unjust railings, 
 by God’s blessing upon his vigilance, kept the town and 
 castle till his brother’s return. 
 
 As soon as the news came to the governor at London, he 
 thought it time to throw off that patience with which he had 
 hitherto waited at great expense, and went to the parliament- 
 house before the house sat, and there acquainted the Speaker 
 what had befallen at Nottingham, desiring he might be called 
 to make a relation of it in the open house, or else he told the 
 Speaker, though he died for it, he would press in and let 
 them know how much the cause suffered by the indirect 
 practices, which were partially connived at by some of their 
 members. The Speaker seeing him so resolved, procured 
 him, when the house was set, to be called in: and there he 
 told them how their fort was lost, and, for ought he knew, 
 the garrison, by that time; which was no more than what 
 he had long expected, through the countenance that was, by 
 one of their members, given to a malignant faction, that 
 obstructed all the public service, disturbed all the honest 
 soldiers and officers in their duty, and spent the public 
 treasury, to carry on their private malice. He further told 
 them, how dishonourable, as well as destructive to their 
 cause, it was, that their members should be protected in such 
 unjust prosecutions, and should make the privilege of the 
 house their shelter, to oppress the most active and faithful 
 of their servants. This and many other things he told them, 
 with such boldness, that many of the guilty members had a 
 mind to have committed him, but he spoke with such truth 
 and convincing reason, that all those of more generous 
 spirits, were much moved by it, and angry that he had been 
 so injuriously treated, and desired him to take post down 
 and to use all means to regain the place, and gave him full 
 orders to execute his charge without disturbance.^ From that 
 
 1 How would a similar expostulation, made at the bar of the honour- 
 able house, be received at the present day ? 
 
2 22 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 time Mr. Millington so lost his credit^ that he never recovered 
 the esteem he formerly had among them; and after that 
 time, the governor’s enemies perceiving they were not able 
 to mate ^ him, made no more public attempts, though they 
 continued that private malice, which was the natural product 
 of that antipathy there was between his virtues and their 
 vices.2 Neither was it his case alone; almost all the parlia- 
 ment-garrisons were infested and disturbed with like factious 
 little people, insomuch that many worthy gentlemen were 
 wearied out of their commands, and oppressed by a certain 
 mean sort of people in the house, whom to distinguish from 
 the more honourable gentlemen, they called W or sted-stocking 
 Men, Some as violently curbed their committees, as the com- 
 mittees factiously molested them.^ Nor were there factions 
 only in particular garrisons, but the parliament house itself 
 began to fall into the two great oppositions of Presbytery 
 and Independency: and, as if discord had infected the 
 whole English air with an epidemical heart-burning and 
 dissension in all places, even the king’s councils and garrisons 
 were as factiously divided. The king’s commissioners and 
 the governor at Newark fell into such high discontents, that 
 Sir Richard Byron, the governor, was changed, and Sir 
 Richard Willis put into his place.^ This accident of the 
 bridges put an end to that vexatious persecution wherewith 
 the governor had had so many sore exercises of his wisdom, 
 patience, and courage, and so many experiences of God’s 
 mercy and goodness, supporting him in all his trials, and 
 bearing him up against all discouragements, not only to 
 stand without the least dejection himself, but to be able to 
 hold up many others, who were ready to sink under the 
 burden f of unrighteousness and oppression, where they 
 
 ^ Mate, conquer; Fr. matter, an expression taken from the game of 
 chess. 
 
 “It must almost have exhausted the patience of the reader, and 
 certainly have excited his highest indignation, to follow through all 
 their mazes the crafty and atrocious persecutors of Colonel Hutchin- 
 son ; at the same time it must have been a great consolation to him to 
 see integrity supported by discretion thus work out its own preserva- 
 tion. We may now congratulate him on emerging from these mists 
 and intricacies, and finding himself in open field and dayhght, where 
 the colonel’s nobler virtues can display themselves, 
 
 ^ These men were but the natural consequences of a state of revolu- 
 tion. Did these worsted-stocking men bear no likeness to the J acobins 
 of modern days? 
 
 ^ The same who afterwards became a spy for Cromwell; a bad sub- 
 stitute for the loyal Byron ! 
 
Return to Nottingham 223 
 
 expected just thanks and rewards. It cost the governor 
 above three hundred pounds to defend himself against their 
 calumnies^ renewed forgeries^ and scandals^ laid upon him; 
 but God was with him in all in a wonderful manner^ bringing 
 truth to light through all the clouds of envy that sought to 
 obscure it, and making his innocence and uprightness to 
 shine forth as the noon-day, justifying him even in the eye 
 of his enemies, and covering them with shame and confusion 
 of face. They maintained their prosecution of him out of 
 the public stock, and were not called to account for so mis- 
 spending it. Mr. Millington perceiving how much he had 
 lost himself by it, applied himself to seek a reconciliation by 
 flattering letters, and professions of conviction and repent- 
 ance of his unjust siding with those men. The governor, 
 who was of a most reconcilable nature, forgave him, and 
 ever after lived in good friendship with him.^ Others of them 
 also afterwards, when they saw the governor out of their 
 power, some through fear, and others overcome with his 
 goodness, submitted to him, who lived to see the end of them 
 all ; part of them dying before any disgrace or great sorrows 
 overtook him, and those who survived, renouncing and 
 apostatising from their most glorious engagements, and 
 becoming guilty of those crimes for which they falsely 
 accused him, while he remained firm, and dying sealed up 
 the profession of his life; in all the future difficulties of 
 which, he was still borne up with the experience of God’s 
 goodness and manifold protections. 
 
 The governor being dismissed from the parliament, imme- 
 diately took post, and coming through Northampton, met his 
 old engineer. Hooper, and brought him with him to Notting- 
 ham, where, by God’s mercy, he arrived safe about three 
 days after the loss of the bridges, and was welcomed as if 
 safety and victory, and all desirable blessings, had come in 
 his train. His presence reinforced the drooping garrison, 
 and he immediately consulted how to go about regaining the 
 fort. To this purpose, and to hinder the enemy from having 
 an inlet into the town by the bridges, he made a little fort on 
 the next bridge, and put a lieutenant and thirty men into it, 
 
 ^ As Mr. Millington will figure no more in this history, the reader is 
 here informed that he finished his career, after becoming one of the 
 judges who sentenced Charles the First, by coming in upon proclama- 
 tion, making a pitiful recantation, and being sentenced to perpetual 
 imprisonment. - 
 
224 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 thereby enclosing those in the fort the enemy had surprised^ 
 whom he resolved to assault on the town side, having thus 
 provided that their friends should not come from the other 
 side^ to help them. But those of Newark understanding 
 this, came as strong as they could one morning, and assaulted 
 the little new fort, where Lieutenant Hall, failing of that 
 courage which he had professed when he begged the honour 
 of keeping it, gave it up, which the governor seeing from the 
 other side, was exceedingly vexed at, and marched up to the 
 bridge to assault them in that fort; but he found that they 
 had only stormed the other little fort to make their own way 
 to be gone, and that they had made shift to get to their 
 friends upon the ribs of two broken arches, which, when they 
 had served to help their passage, they pulled up, to hinder 
 pursuit after them : and thus in a month’s space God restored 
 to the governor the fort which was lost in his absence; and 
 he newly fortified the place and repaired the bridges, whereby 
 the great market out of the vale was again brought into the 
 town, to their exceeding joy and benefit. 
 
 This summer there was a much greater progress made in 
 the war than had been before, and the new parliament army 
 prosecuted it so much in earnest, that they made a show to 
 block up the king in his main garrison at Oxford, but he broke 
 out, and joining Prince Rupert’s horse, came, after several 
 attempts elsewhere, to Leicester, which he took by storm. 
 The loss of this town was a great affliction and terror to all 
 the neighbouring garrisons and counties, whereupon Fairfax 
 closely attended the king’s motions, came within a few days 
 and fought with the king, and overcame him in that memor- 
 able battle at Naseby, where his coach and cabinet of letters 
 were taken; which letters being carried to London were 
 printed, and manifested his falsehood, how that, contrary to 
 his professions, he had endeavoured to bring in Danes and 
 Lorrainers, and Irish rebels, to subdue the good people here, 
 and had given himself up to be governed by the queen in all 
 affairs both of state and religion.^ After this fight Fairfax 
 
 ^ To understand this rightly it is necessary to be informed, that in 
 approaching Nottingham from the south there is a very wide valley, 
 through which the Trent and the Lene run in several branches, over 
 which are bridges united by a causeway. 
 
 The public is in possession of these, they having been printed by 
 the parliament, which some have thought a hardship, but surely 
 without reason. It is useless here to discuss the question as to what 
 help it was allowable for the king to call in; but it is not out of aU 
 
The Cavaliers Repair to Newark 225 
 
 took again the town of Leicester^ and went into the west^ 
 relieved Taunton^ took Bristol^ and many other garrisons. 
 West Chester also and other places were taken that way. 
 Meanwhile^ the king^ having coasted about the countries, 
 came at last to Newark, and there his commanders falling 
 out among themselves, he changed the governor, and put 
 the lord Bellasis into the place, and went himself to Oxford, 
 where he was at last blocked up. 
 
 When Sir Thomas Fairfax was made chief general, Poyntz 
 was made major-general of the northern counties, and a com- 
 mittee of war was set up at York, whereof Colonel Pierrepont, 
 by his brother’s procurement, was appointed one, and was 
 pretty well satisfied, as thinking himself again set above 
 Colonel Hutchinson, because all the northern garrisons were 
 to receive orders from that committee: but the governor 
 heeding not other men’s exaltations or depressions, only 
 attended to his own duty. About the latter end of this 
 summer, Poyntz came to Nottingham with all the horse that 
 could be gathered in the neighbouring counties. He had 
 before marched with them and the Nottingham regiment 
 into Cheshire, and brought several gentlemen prisoners into 
 the garrison of Nottingham, who had been taken in divers 
 encounters. When he marched out. Palmer the priest, not 
 daring to venture himself in the field, laid down his com- 
 mission, when he saw tha,t there was now no connivance to 
 be found at disobeying commands. 
 
 By reason of the rout at Naseby, and the surrender of 
 Carlisle and several other garrisons to the Scots, the broken 
 forces of the cavaliers had all repaired to Newark, and that 
 was now become the strongest and best fortified garrison the 
 king had, and Poyntz was ordered to quarter his horse about 
 it, till the Scots should come on the other side and besiege it. 
 At that time also the king himself was there.^ The governor 
 having informed Poyntz how prejudicial it would be to his 
 design to suffer those little garrisons in the Vale at Shelford 
 and Wiverton to remain, it v/as agreed that all the forces 
 
 question that the discovery of that bitterness with which he was in- 
 clined to pursue the quarrel, and the fraudulency with which he had 
 managed treaties, and showed that he meant to do others, cut up 'by 
 the roots both compassion and confidence. 
 
 ^ Having come hither from Wales with a body of three thousand 
 men ; he stayed till fearing to be besieged by the Scots, who were ap- 
 proaching, he went away by night to Oxford, November 6, 1645. 
 
 H 
 
226 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 should take them in their way. But the governor having 
 obtained permission of Poyntz^ through a respect he had to 
 the family, sent a letter to Colonel Philip Stanhope, governor 
 of Shelford, to persuade him to surrender the place he could 
 not hold, and to offer to obtain honourable terms for him, if 
 he would hearken to propositions. Stanhope returned a very 
 scornful, huffing reply, in which one of his expressions was, 
 that he should lay Nottingham castle as flat as a pancake, 
 and such other bravadoes, which had been less amiss, if he 
 had done anything to make them good. Hereupon the 
 whole force marched against the place, and the several posts 
 were assigned to the several colonels. The governor, accord- 
 ing to his own desire, had that which seemed most difficult 
 assigned to him, and his quarters that night were appointed 
 in Shelford town. When he came thither, a few of the 
 Shelford soldiers were gotten into the steeple of the church, 
 and from thence so played upon the governor’s men that they 
 could not quietly take up their quarters. There was a trap 
 door that led into the belfry, and they had made it fast, and 
 drawn up the ladder and the bell-ropes, and regarded not the 
 governor’s threatening them to have no quarter if they came 
 not down, so that he was forced to send for straw and fire 
 it, and smother them out. Hereupon they came down, and 
 among them there was a boy who had marched out with the 
 governor’s company, when he went first against Newark, and 
 carried himself so stoutly, that Captain Wray begged him for 
 a foot-boy, and when his troop was once taken by the enemy, 
 this boy, being taken among them, became one of their 
 soldiers. The governor making him believe he should be 
 hanged immediately for changing his party, and for holding 
 out to their disturbance, where he could not hope for relief, 
 the boy begged he might be spared, and offered to lead them 
 on to the only place where they could enter, where the 
 palisade was unfinished. The governor, without trusting to 
 him, considered the probability of his information, kept him 
 under guard, and set him in the front of his men, and he 
 accordingly proved to have told them the truth in all that 
 he had said, and did excellent good service, behaving himself 
 most stoutly. The governor being armed, and ready to 
 begin the assault, when the rest were also ready. Captain 
 White came to him, and, notwithstanding all his former 
 malicious prosecutions, now pretended the most tender care 
 
Assault on Shelford 227 
 
 and love that could be declared^ with all imaginable flattery • 
 and persuaded the governor not to hazard himself in so- 
 dangerous an attempt^ but to consider his wife and children^ 
 and stand by among the horse, but by no means to storm 
 the place in his own person. Notwithstanding all his false 
 insinuations, the governor, perceiving his envy at that honour 
 which his valour was ready to reap in this encounter, was 
 exceedingly angry with him, and went on upon the place. 
 This being seated on a flat, was encompassed with a very 
 strong bulwark, and a great ditch without, in most places 
 wet at the bottom, so that they within were very confident 
 of being able to hold it out, there being no cannon brought 
 against them ; because also a broken regiment of the queen’s, 
 who were all papists, were come in to their assistance. A 
 regiment of Londoners was appointed to storm on the other 
 side, and the governor at the same time began the assault at 
 his post. His men found many more difficulties than they 
 expected, for after they had filled up the ditches with faggots 
 and pitched the scaling ladders, they were twenty staves too 
 short, and the enemy, from the top of the works, threw down 
 logs of wood, which would sweep off a whole ladderful of men 
 at once: the lieutenant-colonel himself was once or twice so 
 beaten down. The governor had ordered other musketeers 
 to beat off those men that stood upon the top of the works, 
 which they failed to do by shooting without good aim; but 
 the governor directed them better, and the Nottingham 
 horse dismounting, and assailing with their pistols, and head- 
 pieces, helped the foot to beat them all down from the top of 
 the works, except one stout man, who stood alone, and did 
 wonders in beating dovv^n the assailants, which the governor 
 being angry at, fetched two of his own musketeers and made 
 them shoot, and he immediately fell, to the great discourage- 
 ment of his fellows. Then the governor himself first entered, 
 and the rest of his men came in as fast as they could. But 
 while this regiment was entering on this side, the Londoners 
 were beaten off on the other side, and the main force of the 
 garrison turned upon him. The cavaliers had half moons 
 within, which were as good a defence to them as their first 
 works; into these the soldiers that were of the queen’s 
 regiment were gotten, and they in the house shot from out of 
 all the windows. The governor’s men, as soon as they got 
 in, took the stables and all their horses, but the governor 
 
2 28 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 himself was fighting with the captain of the papists and some 
 others^ who, by advantage of the half moon and the house, 
 might have prevailed to cut him ofi and those that were with 
 him, which were not many. The enemy being strengthened 
 by the addition of those who had beaten off the assailants 
 on the other side, were now trying their utmost to vanquish 
 those that were within. The lieutenant-colonel, seeing his 
 brother in hazard, made haste to open the drawbridge, that 
 Poyntz might come in with his horse; which he did, but 
 not before the governor had killed that gentleman who was 
 fighting with him, at whose fall his men gave way. Poyntz 
 seeing them shoot from the house, amd apprehending the king 
 might come to their relief, when he came in, ordered that no 
 quarter should be given. And here the governor was in 
 greater danger than before, for the strangers hearing him 
 called governor, were advancing to have killed him, but that 
 the lieutenant-colonel, who was very watchful to preserve 
 him ail that day, came in to his rescue, and scarcely could 
 persuade them that it was the governor of Nottingham; 
 because he, at the beginning of the storm, had put off a very 
 good suit of armour that he had, which being musket-proof, 
 was so heavy that it heated him, and so would not be per- 
 suaded by his friends to wear anything but his buff coat. 
 The governor’s men, eager to complete their victory, were 
 forcing their entrance into the house: meanwhile Rossiter’s 
 men come and took away all their horses, which they had 
 taken away when they first entered the works and won the 
 stables, and left in the guard of two or three, while they were 
 pursuing their work. The governor of Shelford, after all 
 his bravadoes, came but meanly off; it is said he sat in his 
 chamber, wrapt up in his cloak, and came not forth that day; 
 but that availed him not, for how, cr by whom, it is not 
 known, but he was wounded and stripped, and flung upon 
 a dunghill. The lieutenant - colonel, after the house was 
 mastered, seeing the disorder by which our men were ready 
 to murder one another, upon the command Poyntz had 
 issued to give no quarter, desired Poyntz to cause the 
 slaughter to cease, which was presently obeyed, and about 
 sevenscore prisoners were saved. While he was thus busied, 
 inquiring what was become of the governor, he was shown 
 him naked upon the dunghill; whereupon the lieutenant- 
 colonel called for his own cloak and cast it over him, and sent 
 
Death of Colonel Stanhope 229 
 
 him to a bed in his own quarters^ and procured him a surgeon. 
 Upon his desire he had a little priest^ who had been his 
 father’s chaplain, and was one of the committee faction; 
 but the man was such a pitiful comforter, that the governor, 
 who was come to visit him, was forced to undertake that 
 office: but though he had all the supplies they could every 
 way give him, he died the next day.^ The house which 
 belonged to his father, the Earl of Chesterfield, was that 
 night burned, none certainly knowing by what means, 
 whether by accident or on purpose; but there was most 
 ground to believe that the country people, who had been 
 sorely infested by that garrison, to prevent the keeping it 
 by those who had taken it, purposely set it on fire. If the 
 queen’s regiment had mounted their horses and stood ready 
 upon them when our men entered, they had undoubtedly 
 cut them all off ; but they standing to the works, it pleased 
 God to lead them into that path he had ordained for their 
 destruction, who being papists, would not receive quarter, 
 nor were they much ofiered it, being killed in the heat of the 
 contest, so that not a man of them escaped. 
 
 The next day our party went to Wiverton, a house of the 
 Lord Chaworth’s, wffich, terrified with the example of the 
 other, yielded upon terms, and was by order pulled down 
 and rendered incapable of being any more a garrison. 
 
 Poyntz now quartered all his horse in the towns about 
 Newark, and since he had no peculiar regiment of his own, 
 the governor’s regiment served him for his guards. The 
 Scots also came and quartered on the other side of the town 
 towards the north. 
 
 ^ Thoroton, in his History of Nottinghamshire, says, “ Shelf ord 
 House was a garrison for the king, and commanded by Colonel Philip 
 Stanhope, son of the first Earl of Chesterfield, which being taken by a 
 storm, he and many of his soldiers were therein slain, and the house 
 afterwards burned; his brother Ferdinando Stanhope was slain some 
 time before by a parliament soldier at Bridgford.” This last happened 
 in that skirmish with the bridge soldiers recited in page 213, where he 
 is said only to have been made prisoner. Lady Catherine Hutchinson, 
 who attested the remark to Colonel Hutchinson her son-in-law’s dis- 
 advantage, page 136, was the sister of the Earl of Chesterfield, and of 
 course aunt of Colonel Stanhope, and as she takes no exception to it, 
 we may safely give credit to this story of the storming of Shelford with 
 all its circumstances : a very interesting one it certainly is, and told in 
 the most unaffected, and therefore most affecting, manner; the scene 
 with which it finishes is surely as striking and as singular as any that 
 story or imagination can furnish, not excepting the death of Le Fevre 
 in the Sentimental Journey. 
 
2^0 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 All that winter the governor lay at the Leaguer, and about 
 Christmas time writs were sent down for new elections to fill 
 up the parliament. There being a burgess-ship void at 
 Nottingham, the town would needs, in a compliment, make 
 the governor free, in order to elect him to the parliament. 
 Mr. Francis Pierrepont hearing this, wrote to the governor to 
 desire that he would rather come into his father’s place in 
 the county, and give him his assistance in this, as he should 
 engage his own and all his friends’ interest for him in the 
 county. The governor, who was ever ready to requite 
 injuries with benefits, employed his interest in the town to 
 satisfy the gentleman’s desire, and having very many in his 
 regiment that had votes, he sent for them all home the night 
 before the day of election; which had like to have been a 
 very sad one, but that by the mercy of God, and the courage 
 of Poyntz and the lieutenant-colonel and Captain Poulton, 
 it had not so bad an event.^ The Newarkers, hearing that 
 so many of the regiment were away, fell upon their quarters, 
 and most of the men being surprised, were rather endeavour- 
 ing flight than resistance; when the lieutenant-colonel and 
 Captain Poulton rallied all they could find, lined some pales 
 with musketeers, and beat the enemy again out of their 
 quarters, and Poyntz, mounting with as many horse as were 
 about him, which was very few, followed them in the night 
 up to the very works of Newark. Some loss there was in the 
 quarters, but nothing considerable; some soldiers ran away 
 home, and brought the governor word they were all cut off, 
 but his brother sent a messenger to acquaint him with the 
 contrary. Hereupon, immediately after the election, he 
 returned back again with his men. Not long after, the 
 elections were made for the county, who all pitched upon the 
 governor, in his father’s room. White, whose envy never 
 died, used all the endeavours he could to have hindered it; 
 
 ^ A fair and honest acknowledgment of a considerable oversight ! 
 But this passage leads us to observe of what sort of people the parlia- 
 ment armies were composed, viz. the horse mostly of freeholders, the 
 foot of burghers. It will not probably be thought beside the purpose 
 to quote here Whitelocke’s description of Cromwell’s own regiment. 
 “ He had a brave regiment of his countrymen, most of them freeholders 
 and freeholders’ sons, and who upon matter of conscience engaged in 
 this quarrel; and thus being well armed within by the satisfaction of 
 their own consciences, and without by good iron arms, they would, 
 as one man, stand firmly and change desperately^” These circum- 
 stances must be allowed their due weight, when we come to consider 
 the right of the army to interfere in matters of state. 
 
Surrender of Newark 
 
 231 
 
 but when he saw he could do no harm^ with a sad heart, 
 under a false face, he came and took his part of a noble 
 dinner the new knights had provided for the gentlemen of 
 the country. Without any competition Mr. Hutchinson had 
 the first voice in the room of his father, and Mr. Pigott 
 the second, in the room of Mr. Sutton, now a commissioner 
 at Newark. About the same time Colonel Thornhagh was 
 chosen burgess for the town of Retford; but none of them 
 went up to their places in parliament till the siege of Newark 
 was finished. 
 
 Poyntz drew a line about the town, and made a very 
 regular entrenchment and approaches, in such a soldier-like 
 manner as none of them who had attempted the place before 
 had done. Most of that winter they lay in the field, and the 
 governor, carried on by the vigour and greatness of his mind, 
 felt no distemper then by that service, which all his captains 
 and the soldiers themselves endured worse than he. Besides 
 daily and hourly providences, by which they were preserved 
 from the enemy’s cannons and sallies, there were some 
 remarkable ones, by which God kept the governor’s life in 
 this Leaguer. Once as Poyntz and he, and another captain, 
 were riding to view some quarter of the town, a cannon bullet 
 came whizzing by them, as they were riding all abreast, and 
 the captain, without any touch of it, said he was killed; 
 Poyntz bid him get off, but he was then sliding down from 
 his horse, slain by the wind of the bullet; they held him up 
 till they got off from the place, but the man immediately 
 turned black all over. Another time the governor was in 
 his tent, and by chance called out; when he was scarcely 
 out of it, a cannon bullet came and tore up the whole tent, 
 and killed the sentinel at the door. But the greatest peril 
 wherein all on the English side were, was the treachery of 
 the Scots, which they had very good reason to apprehend 
 might have been the cutting off of all that force. Sir Thomas 
 Fairfax had now besieged Oxford, and the king was stolen 
 out of the town and gone in disguise, no man knew whither, 
 but at length he came into the Scots’ army. They had before 
 behaved themselves very oddly to the English, and been 
 taking sundry occasions to pick quarrels, when at the last 
 certain news was brought to the English quarters that the 
 king was come to the Scots, and by them received at South- 
 well. The English could then expect nothing but that the 
 
232 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 Scots^ joining with those that were in Newark^ w^ould fall 
 upon them^ who were far inferior in number to the other^ and 
 therefore they all prepared themselves^ as well as they could, 
 to defend themselves in their trenches. The governor had 
 then very fine horses at the Leaguer, which he sent home to 
 the garrison; but while they were in expectation of being 
 thus fallen upon, the king had more mind to be gone; and 
 because the Scots knew not how to break up their quarters 
 while the towm was not taken, the king sent to my Lord 
 Bellasis, the governor of Newark, to surrender up the place 
 im.mediately, which he did upon pretty handsome terms, but 
 was much discontented that the king should have no more 
 regard for them who had been so constant to his service.^ 
 The governor with his regiment was appointed to receive the 
 town and the arms, and to quarter in it; where he now went 
 and had the greatest danger of all, for the town was all over 
 sadly infected with the plague; yet it so pleased God that 
 neither he nor any of the fresh men caught the infection, 
 wLich was so raging there that it almost desolated the place. 
 
 Whether the king’s ill council or his destiny led him, he 
 was very failing in this action; for had he gone straight up 
 to the parliament and cast himself upon them, as he did upon 
 the Scots, he had in all probability ruined them, who were 
 highly divided between the presbyterian and independent 
 factions; but in putting himself into the hands of the mer- 
 cenary Scotch army, rather than the parliament of England, 
 he showed such an embittered hate to the English nation, 
 that it turned many hearts against him. The Scots in this 
 business were very false both to the parliament and to the 
 king. For them to receive and carry away the king’s person 
 with them, when they were but a hired army, without either 
 the consent or knov/ledge of the parliament, was a very false 
 carriage in them ; but besides that, we had certain evidences 
 that they were prepared, and had an intent to have cut off 
 the English army which beleaguered Newark,^ but that God 
 
 ^ Among the names of those who signed the capitulation on the part 
 of the parliament (as it appears in Rushworth) are those of Colonel 
 Hutchinson and Colonel Twissleton. 
 
 ^ It has always been, and perhaps will always remain a mystery, 
 what were the conditions or engagements on which the king rehed 
 in putting himself into the hands of the Scots. In Clarendon’s State 
 Papers there are several letters from the French ambassador, per- 
 suading him to this measure, and undertaking for the Scots to give 
 him effectual support; and the king wrote very positively to Ormond a 
 
Takes His Seat in Parliament 233 
 
 changed their counsels and made them take another course, 
 which was to carry the king to Newcastle, where they again 
 sold him to the parliament for a sum of money. 
 
 The country being now cleared of all the enemy's garrisons. 
 Colonel Hutchinson went up to London to attend his duty 
 there, and to serve his country as faithfully, in the capacity 
 of a senator, as he had before in that of a soldier. When he 
 came there he found a very bitter spirit of discord and envy 
 raging, and the presbyterian faction (of which were most of 
 those lords and others that had been laid aside by the self- 
 denying ordinance), were endeavouring a violent persecution, 
 upon the account of conscience, against those who had in so 
 short a time accomplished, by God’s blessing, that victory 
 which he was not pleased to bestow upon them. Their 
 
 letter, which was intercepted, and is produced by Rushworth, that 
 the Scots had given him good security that they would join their forces 
 to those of Montrose and the king’s friends. On the other side, the 
 general and committee of estates resident in the Scots’ army wrote, 
 that “ the king came privately into their camp, and that there had 
 been no treaty or capitulation with him by them, nor any in their names, 
 and that the assertion of the king in his letter to Ormond was a dam- 
 nable untruth.'*^ Heylin, in his Hist, of Presbyterianism, says, “ The 
 commissioners residing with the Scotch army, promised protection to 
 the king and his friends, but broke their promise and sold him for 
 £200,000, as they would have done our Saviour for half the money.'* In 
 another place he says, “ Lowdon ranted to some tune about the dis- 
 grace of selling the king, but however the Presbyterians on both sides 
 concluded the sinful bargain.” Not to dwell upon what is elsewhere 
 said on either side of the question, the symptoms of treachery discerned 
 by Colonel Hutchinson and others, before and at the time of the king’s 
 arrival, give ample reason to conclude that the Scots were aware of 
 his coming, and that either there were two parties, one of which was 
 devoted to the king and the other not so, and that the latter was pre- 
 valent, or else that the whole expected from the king conditions which 
 he was unwilling to perform, and principally the signing the covenant, 
 the refusal of which they afterwards openly resented, and this might 
 be that “ change God is said to make in their counsels.” 
 
 There is much less doubt as to the justice of Mrs. Hutchinson’s re- 
 flection, that, of all courses, that which he took was the worst: she, 
 who had a truly British heart, well knew what effect ingenuous con- 
 fidence would have had on the parliament, with the virtues as well as 
 vices of which she was well acquainted. The parliament had asked 
 him to “ come to them with a royal, not martial, attendance, and 
 promised to receive him well.” The last message was passed on March 
 23, and in a few days after he went to the Scots’ army. Quern Deus 
 vult perdere prius dementat. Those whom God destines to destruction 
 he first deprives of their understanding. Artifice, which was Charles’s 
 greatest fault, was likewise his ruin, and he fell not like a conquered 
 prince, as prceda victoris, a noble prize for the victor, but pretium 
 sceleris, the object of a scandalous traffic, apprehended and sold as a 
 ciflprit and fugitive; and forfeited as his last resource, that respect and 
 pity which the generous reserve for the unfortunate. 
 
 H2 
 
234 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 directory of worship was at length sent forth for a three 
 years’ trials and such as could not conform to it^ marked 
 out with an evil eye^ hated and persecuted under the name 
 of separatists.^ Colonel Hutchinson^ who abhorred that 
 malicious zeal and imposing spirit which appeared in them, 
 was soon taken notice of for one of the independent faction, ^ 
 [whose heads were accounted Pierrepont, Vane, 
 
 St. John’s, and some few other grandees, being men that 
 excelled in wisdom and utterance, and the rest were believed 
 to adhere to them only out of faction, as if those who did 
 not vain-gloriously lay out themselves, without necessity, but 
 chose rather to hear and vote, had had no understanding of 
 right and wrong but from the dictates of these great oracles.] 
 Though, to speak the truth, they very little knew Colonel 
 Hutchinson that could say he was of any faction ; for he had 
 a strength of judgment able to consider things himself and 
 propound them to his conscience, which was so upright that 
 the veneration of no man’s person alive, nor the love of the 
 dearest friend in the world, could make him do the least 
 thing, without a full persuasion that it was his duty so to act. 
 He very well understood men’s gifts and abilities, and 
 honoured those most whom he believed to manage them 
 with most uprightness of soul, for God’s glory and the good 
 of his country, and was so far from env}dng the just renown 
 any man acquired that he rejoiced in it. He never was any 
 man’s sectary, either in religious or civil matters, farther 
 than he apprehended them to follow the rules of religion, 
 honour, and virtue; nor any man’s antagonist, but as he 
 opposed that which appeared to him to be just and equal. 
 If the greatest enemy he had in the world had propounded 
 anything profitable to the public, he would promote it; 
 whereas some others were to blame in that particular, and 
 chiefly those of the presbyterian faction, who would obstruct 
 any good, rather than that those they envied and hated 
 
 ^ Mrs. Hutchinson differs from most of those who have written on 
 the subject respecting the rise and progress of the deadly feuds between 
 the Presbyterians and independents; but she differs not from the 
 truth and reason. Certainly the most impartial historian is Rapin; 
 but he, though a presbyterian, and labouring their defence, effects 
 their condemnation. Vol. ii. p. 624, he says, “ They thought them- 
 selves in slavery if themselves did not command.” What need of 
 more words? 
 
 2 All that is contained between these two brackets had lines struck 
 through it in the manuscript, and one of the names defaced. 
 
His Political Character 235 
 
 should have the glory of procuring it; the sad effects of 
 which pride grew at length to be the ruin of the most glorious 
 cause that ever was contended for. At the first, many 
 gentlemen, eminent in gifts and acquirements, were as 
 eminent in zealous improvements of them, for the advantage 
 of God’s and their country’s interests, whereby they obtained 
 just glory and admiration among all good men; but while 
 the creature was so magnified, God, who was the principal 
 author, was not looked upon, and gave them therefore up to 
 become their own and others’ idols, and so to fall. 
 
 And now it grew to be a sad wonder, that the most zealous 
 promoters of the cause were more spitefully carried against 
 by their own faithful armies, by whom God had perfected 
 their victory over their enemies, than against the vanquished 
 foe, whose restitution they henceforth secretly endeavoured, 
 by all the arts of treacherous, dissembling policy, in order 
 that they might throw down those whom God had exalted in 
 glory and power to resist their tyrannical impositions. At 
 that time, and long after, they prevailed not, until that 
 pious people too began to admire themselves, for what God 
 had done by them, and to set up themselves above their 
 brethren, and then the Lord humbled them again beneath 
 their conquered vassals.^ 
 
 So long as the army only resisted unjust impositions, and 
 remained firm to their first pious engagement, Mr. Hutchin- 
 son adhered to that party, which protected them in the 
 parliament house.^ His attendance there changing his 
 custom of life into a sedentary employment, less suitable to 
 
 ^ To those, and they are not few, who, like Colonel Hutchinson, 
 believe the peculiar interposition of Providence, this remark of the 
 punishment inflicted on those who abused its gifts, will appear pleasing 
 and edifying; to those who admit only a general dispensation, the fall 
 of each party successively by their own malversation, will seem a 
 signal mark of justice; by both, this chain of causes and effects will be 
 acknowledged to be drawn by the hand of a master. 
 
 ^ This history, which, as far as it relates to public affairs, is called 
 only a summary, will nevertheless be found to redress many errors in 
 larger histories, and to open a great field for reflection : in none, per- 
 haps, more than in this question of the right of the army to interfere 
 with the conduct of parliament or the business of the state: this is 
 generally decided against them lightly and inconsiderately. The 
 danger of admitting armed assemblies to deliberate, and the duty of a 
 soldier to obey, but not debate, are very boldly asserted ; and as this 
 doctrine suits the governors of every state, it will always be favoured; 
 but it goes on a petitio principii, a begging of the question that the 
 military are the hired servants of the state: and military men have so 
 
236 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 his active spirit^ and more prejudicial to his health, he fell 
 into a long and painful sickness, which many times brought 
 him near the grave, and was not perfectly cured in four 
 years. The doctors could not find a name for it; but at 
 length resolved upon the running gout, and a cure, proper 
 for that disease, being practised upon him, took effect. 
 
 The truth is, his great mind so far surmounted the frailty 
 of his flesh, that it would never yield to the tenderness of his 
 constitution, nor suffer him to feel those inconveniences of 
 martial toils, which often cast down his captains, men of 
 more able bodies and healthful complexions, while the busi- 
 ness was in hand; but when that was finished, he found, 
 what he had not leisure to consider before, that his body’s 
 strength was far unequal to the vigour of his soul. 
 
 After the surrender of Newark, Nottingham town and 
 castle was continued a garrison for some time : between this 
 and his greater employment at London, the governor divided 
 himself. Meanwhile, upon the 15th day of July, 1646, pro- 
 positions were sent to the king, then with the Scots at New- 
 castle, little higher than those which had been made him at 
 
 far agreed to this unjust postulate, that they have consented to accept 
 that which is a nickname, or term of reproach, as the generic one of 
 their whole profession; viz. soldier; which is but a translation of the 
 Italian soldato, mercenary or hireling. It has been repeatedly shown 
 how ill this term agreed with the parliament troops in general, being 
 mostly Volunteers and freeholders or burghers, and ill, or sometimes 
 not at all paid. Were such to be considered as mere machines, as 
 having forfeited all right to an opinion of their own, and bound to sup- 
 port that of others? — If so, then those who expected to maintain our 
 constitution by putting arms into the hands of almost all whom 
 patriotism or the preservation of their property animated to take them 
 up, would have bereaved it of nearly all its defenders! With good 
 right did these men, who had taken a pious engagement to God and 
 their country, and most manfully acquitted themselves of it, call on 
 the parliament to complete it by a happy settlement. Their several 
 petitions and remonstrances, preserved in Rushworth, vol. vii. p. 4, 
 et infra, show that their views were just and rational, and such as have 
 since in part been realised, in part are still wished for, viz. “ The 
 duration of parliaments to be limited; elections better regulated — 
 the representation better distributed; improper privileges, and parti- 
 cularly that of being screened from creditors, given up; not bishops, 
 but their coercive power and civil penalties taken away; the king 
 restored to his rights (but with some restrictions as to appointments 
 for ten years) ; the laws simplified and lessened in expense ; monopolies 
 set aside; tithes commuted, etc. But all this was interrupted by the 
 domineering party.” Who can help lamenting that there were not 
 more found to unite with Colonel Hutchinson and this army to perfect 
 the best system of government that ever did or will exist ? 
 
 These proposals of the army are supposed to have been penned by 
 Ireton. 
 
Conduct of Lady Fairfax 237 
 
 Uxbridge; but he wove out delays, and would not assent to- 
 them, hoping a greater advantage by the difference between, 
 the two nations, and the factions in the city and parliament, 
 which both he and all his party employed their utmost 
 industry to cherish and augment. Both parliaments per- 
 ceiving this, and not yet senseless of approaching destruction, 
 from the common enemy, began to be cemented by the king’s 
 averseness to peace, and to consider how to settle the king- 
 dom without him; and when they had agreed that the Scots 
 should deliver up the English garrisons for a certain sum of 
 money, it fell into debate how to dispose of the king’s person;, 
 where the debate was, not who should, but who should not 
 have him. At length, about January of the same year, two 
 hundred thousand pounds was carried down by part of the 
 army to Newcastle; and upon the payment of it, the Scots 
 delivered their garrisons, to the soldiers, and the king to- 
 certain commissioners of both houses of parliament, who 
 conducted him honourably to his own manor of Holmeby, 
 in Northamptonshire. 
 
 During this time Sir Thomas Fairfax himself lay at Not- 
 tingham, and the governor was sick in the castle. The 
 general’s lady was come along with him, having followed his 
 camp to the siege of^ Oxford, and lain at his quarters all 
 the while he abode ^ there. She was exceeding kind to her 
 husband’s chaplains, independent ministers, till the army 
 returned to be nearer London, and then the presbyterian 
 ministers quite changed the lady into such a bitter aversion 
 against them, that they could not endure to come into the 
 general’s presence while she was there; and the general had 
 an unquiet, unpleasant life with her, who drove away from 
 him many of those friends, in whose conversation he had 
 
 ^ Here is another of those paradoxes^, with which historians have 
 perplexed themselves and their readers," reduced to a very plain tale. 
 
 It is generally said and beheved, that Fairfax was a presbyterian, and 
 much wonder is expressed that he should have so faithfully (it is even 
 said too faithfully) served the independents; but it is impossible that 
 any one could have a more clear and certain knowledge of his rehgious 
 opinions than Colonel and Mrs. Hutchinson had, and they declare his 
 chaplains to have been independent ministers ; nor does it appear that 
 he ever changed his opinion, but only that he suffered himself to be 
 over-ruled by his wife. Heroes as great as he have been, both before 
 and since, under the same dominion; as Horace sets forth in his face- 
 tious ode to Xanthias Phoceus, parodied by Rowe: 
 
 Nec sit ancillce tihi amor pudori. 
 
 Do not, most fragrant earl, disclaim. 
 
238 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 found such sweetness. At Nottingham they had gotten a 
 very able minister into the great church, but a bitter pres- 
 byterian; him and his brethren my Lady Fairfax caressed 
 with so much kindness, that the}^ grew impudent enough to 
 preach up their faction openly in the pulpit, and to revile the 
 others, and at length would not suffer any of the army chap- 
 lains to preach in the town. They then coming to the 
 governor and complaining of their unkind usage, he invited 
 them to come and preach in his house, which when it was 
 known they did, a great concourse of people came thither to 
 them; and the presbyterians, when they heard of it, were 
 mad with rage, not only against them, but against the 
 governor, who accidently gave them another occasion about 
 the same time, a little before the general came. When 
 formerly the presbyterian ministers had forced him, for 
 quietness’ sake, to go and break up a private meeting in the 
 cannonier’s chamber, there were found some notes concern- 
 ing paedobaptism, which were brought into the governor’s 
 lodgings ; and his wife having then more leisure to read than 
 he, having perused them and compared them with the Scrip- 
 tures, found not what to say against the truths they asserted, 
 concerning the misapplication of that ordinance to infants; 
 but being then young and modest, she thought it a kind of 
 virtue to submit to the judgment and practice of most 
 churches, rather than to defend a singular opinion of her own, 
 she not being then enlightened in that great mistake of the 
 national churches. But in this year she, happening to be 
 with child, communicated her doubts to her husband, and 
 desired him to endeavour her satisfaction; which while he 
 did, he himself became as unsatisfied, or rather satisfied 
 against it. First, therefore, he diligently searched the scrip- 
 tures alone, and could find in them no ground at all for that 
 practice ; then he bought and read all the eminent treatises 
 on both sides, which at that time came thick from the 
 presses, arid was still more satisfied of the error of the paedo- 
 baptists. After this, this wife being brought to bed, that he 
 might, if possible, give the religious party no offence, he 
 invited all the ministers to dinner, and propounded his doubt, 
 and the ground thereof to them. None of them could defend 
 their practice with any satisfactory reason, but the tradition 
 of the church, from the primitive times, and their main 
 buckler of federal holiness,, which Tombs and Denne had so 
 
Protects Sir Allen Apsley 239 
 
 excellently overthrown. He and his wife then, professing 
 themselves unsatisfied in the practice, desired their opinions, 
 what they ought to do. Most answered, to conform to the 
 general practice of other Christians, how dark soever it were 
 to themselves; but Mr. Foxcraft, one of the assembly, said, 
 that except they were convinced of the warrant of that 
 practice from the word, they sinned in doing it: whereupon 
 that infant was not baptised.^ And now the governor and 
 his wife, notwithstanding that they forsook not their assem- 
 blies, nor retracted their benevolences and civilities from 
 them, yet were they reviled by them, called fanatics and 
 anabaptists, and often glanced at in their public sermons. 
 And not only the ministers, but all their zealous sectaries, 
 conceived implacable malice against them upon this account ; 
 which was carried on with a spirit of envy and persecution to 
 the last, though he, on his side, might well have said to them, 
 as his Master said to the old Pharisees: “ Many good works 
 have I done among you ; for which of these do you hate me ? ” 
 Yet the generality, even of that people, had a secret convic- 
 tion upon them, that he had been faithful to them, and 
 deserved their love; and in spite of their own bitter zeal, 
 could not but have a reverent esteem for him, whom they 
 often railed at, for not thinking and speaking according to 
 their opinions. 
 
 This year Sir Allen Apsley, governor of Barnstaple for the 
 king, after the surrender of that garrison, came and retired to 
 the governor’s house, till his composition with the parliament 
 was comxpleted, the governor’s wife being his sister, and the 
 governor’s brother having married the other sister; ^ and 
 this was another occasion of opening the mouths of the 
 malignants, who were ready to seize upon any one to his 
 prejudice. Sir Allen Apsley had not his articles punctually 
 performed, by which he suffered great expense and intoler- 
 able vexation; and the governor, no less concerned in the 
 injustice done to him than if he had suffered it himself, 
 endeavoured to protect him only in that which was just, and 
 
 ^ Surely this shows an unbecoming propensity to speculate in re 
 ligion: the story is, however, told with candour. 
 
 “•Amongst the discords and distraction, public and private, which 
 must have harassed the reader’s mind, it is soothing for a moment to 
 contemplate the harmony which reigned within Colonel Hutchinson’s 
 family, and the sincere friendship between them and Sir Allen Apsley, 
 which will re-appear on many and frequent occasions to the very close 
 of his life. 
 
240 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 for this was called a cavalier^ and said to have changed his 
 party^ and a thousand more injuries; in which none were so 
 forward as those who had all the while been disaffected to the 
 whole parliament party; but after they were conquered, 
 burying their spite against the cause in their own bosoms, 
 suffered that secret fire to rise up in a black smoke against 
 the most faithful assertors of it. 
 
 When the commissioners went down to fetch up the king 
 from the Scots, one of the lords coming to visit the governor, 
 and finding him at that time very sick, persuaded him to 
 make use of one of the king’s physicians that was with them, 
 that was called Dr. Wilson, and was a very able physician; 
 but he mistook the method of his cure, and made issues in 
 both his arms, which rather wasted his strength than his 
 disease, which when he was cured were stopped up. That 
 spring, grooving a little better for the present, he went to 
 London, and having ineffectually tried several physicians. 
 Sir Allen Apsley persuaded him to make use of Dr. Frazier, 
 with whom he began a course of physic, in the midst of 
 which the doctor came and acquainted him that he was likely 
 to be imprisoned upon suspicion of carrying on designs 
 against the parliament underhand, for now the Scots were 
 threatening invasion and open war. He professed his inno- 
 cency with many protestations, and desired Mr. Hutchinson 
 to oblige him so far as to engage for him that he intended 
 no design beyond his calling; which the colonel believing, 
 undertook for him to the committee of Derby-house. When 
 the false Scot having thus abused him, left a letter of lame 
 excuse for him, and stole away out of England to the princes, 
 then beyond the seas, leaving a blot upon Mr. Hutchinson for 
 having undertaken for him ; ^ but he, acknowledging his error 
 in having been so abused, was thereby warned from credulity 
 of any of that false nation any more. That summer he 
 attended to the service of the house, being freed for a while 
 from his distemper during the summer, till the fall of the 
 leaf, when it returned again. In the meantime jealousies 
 were sown between the parliament, the city of London, and 
 the army. The presbyterian faction were earnest to have 
 the army disbanded; the army resented the injury, and, 
 being taught to value their own merit, petitioned the general 
 
 ^ This Dr. Frazier was afterwards employed by Charles the Second 
 to negotiate with the Scots. 
 
The King Taken from Holmeby 241 
 
 that they might be satisfied^ not only in things relating to 
 themselves particularly as an army^ but the general concern- 
 ments and liberties of the good people of the nation which 
 they had fought for. The presbyterians were highly offended 
 at this^ and declared it with such violence as gave the army 
 cause to increase their jealousies. The soldiers, led on to it 
 by one Cornet Joyce, took the king from Holmeby out of the 
 parliament commissioners’ hands, and carried him about 
 with them. The parliament voted that the king should 
 come to Richmond, attended by the same persons that at- 
 tended him at Holmeby; but the army, instead of obeying, 
 impeached eleven members of the house of commons of high 
 treason, and petitioned that those impeached members might 
 be secluded the house, till they had brought in their answer 
 to the charge; which being violently debated, they made a 
 voluntary secession for six months. The general also en- 
 treated that the king might not be brought nearer to London 
 than they would suffer the army to quarter. So he was 
 carried with them to Royston, Hatfield, Reading, and at last 
 to Woburn, till about July, 1647, when London grew into a 
 tumult, and made a very rude violation upon the parliament 
 house, which caused them to adjourn; when, understanding 
 the fury to the citizens, the greatest part of the members, 
 with the Speaker, withdrew and went to the army, among 
 whom was Colonel Hutchinson.^ The presbyterian members 
 who stayed behind chose new Speakers, and made many new 
 votes, and vigorously began to levy forces to resist the army, 
 which were conducted by Massie and Poyntz. The parlia- 
 ment that was with the army made an order against the 
 proceedings of the members at London, and advanced with 
 the general; which, when the city heard of, their stomachs 
 would not serve them to stand it out, but they sent commis- 
 sioners, and, by the consent of the members with the general, 
 obtained a pacification, upon condition that the city should 
 disband all their new forces, deliver up their tower and their 
 
 ^ As did fourteen peers, among them the Earls of Manchester and 
 Warwick, Lords Say and Sele and Mulgrave, and one hundred com- 
 moners, and the palsgrave, or elector palatine, visited them. It would 
 have been very seasonable to have offered to the consideration of both 
 parties Horace’s beautiful apologue of the Horse and the Stag. 
 
 Cervus equum hello melior, etc. 
 
 The calling in foreign aid to control their antagonists proved equally 
 destructive to both, but was begun by the presbyterians. 
 
242 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 forts to the general^ and desert the members then sitting. 
 They daring to deny nothing, the general came triumphantly 
 to Westminster, and brought back both the Speaker and 
 the members, and put them again in their seats. The general 
 had solemn thanks from both houses, and then, with all his 
 chief officers, marched through the city, from the western 
 parts of it to the tower, where many commands were changed, 
 the presbyterian party depressed, and their generals, Poyntz 
 and Massie, with all the remaining officers of that faction, 
 forced to retire ; who most of them then changed their party, 
 and never more appeared on the parliament side. Yet there 
 was still a presbyterian faction left in the house, of such as 
 were moderate, and who were not by the bitterness of their 
 zeal carried on to break their covenant with God and men, 
 and to renew a league with the popish interest, to destroy 
 that godly interest which they had at first so gloriously 
 asserted. After this tumult at London was quieted, about 
 August of that year the king was brought to one of his 
 stately palaces at Hampton Court, near London, and the 
 army removed to quarters about the city, their head-quarters 
 being at Putney. The king, by reason of his daily converse 
 with the officers, had begun tampering with them, not only 
 then but before, and had drawn in some of them to engage to 
 corrupt others to fall in with him ; but to speak the truth of 
 all, Cromwell was at that time so incorruptibly faithful to his 
 trust and to the people’s interest, that he could not be drawn 
 in to practise even his own usual and natural dissimulation 
 on this occasion. His son-in-law Ireton, who was as faithful 
 as he, was not so fully of the opinion (till he had tried it and 
 found to the contrary) but that the king might have been 
 managed to comply with the public good of his people, after 
 he could no longer uphold his own violent will; but, upon 
 some discourses with him, the king uttering these words to 
 him, ‘‘ I shall play my game as well as I can,” Ireton replied, 
 ‘‘ If your majesty have a game to play, you must give us also 
 the liberty to play ours.” Colonel Hutchinson privately 
 discoursing with his cousin about the communications he had 
 had with the king, Ireton’s expressions were these: ‘‘He 
 gave us words, and we paid him in his own coin, when we 
 found he had no real intention to the people’s good, but to 
 prevail by our factions, to regain by art what he had lost in 
 
The King at Hampton Court 243 
 
 The king lived at Hampton Court rather in the condition of 
 a guarded and attended prince, than as a conquered and 
 purchased captive; all his old servants had free recourse to 
 him; all sorts of people were admitted to come to kiss his 
 hands and do him obeisance as a sovereign. Ashburnham 
 and Berkley, by the parliament voted delinquents, came to 
 him from beyond the seas, and others by permission of the 
 army, who had hoped they might be useful to incline him to 
 wholesome counsels ; but he, on the other side, interpreting 
 this freedom wherein he was permitted to live, not to the 
 gentleness and reconcilableness of his parliament, who, after 
 all his injuries, yet desired his restitution, so far as it might 
 be without the ruin of the good people of the land, but 
 rather believing it to proceed from their apprehension of 
 their own declining and his re-advancing in the hearts of the 
 people, made use of this advantage to corrupt many of their 
 officers to revolt from them and betray them; which some 
 time after they did, and paid the forfeiture with their lives. ^ 
 When the king was at Hampton Court the lords who were 
 formerly of his privy council at Oxford, also repaired to 
 him, to be as a council attending him, but this gave so much 
 disgust at London that they retreated again; but the Scotch 
 lords and commissioners having free access to him, he drew 
 that nation into the design of the second war; which broke 
 out furiously the next summer, and was one of the highest 
 provocations which, after the second victory, brought him to 
 the scaffold. But I shall respite that, to return to his affairs 
 whom I principally trace. 
 
 ^ This is one of the places where we find reason to regret Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son’s being so summary in her account of public affairs. This matter 
 of endeavouring to bring the king to reason, and his perverting the 
 good intentions of friends as well as foes, is treated much at length by 
 Ludlow, in his first volume, from p. 194 to 204, and he agrees with 
 Mrs. Hutchinson in most particulars; but it seems extraordinary that 
 he should attribute a very considerable and active part in this business 
 to Sir Allen Apsley, and his sister should make no mention of him in 
 it. The candour and benevolence of Ireton, who is so generally re- 
 presented as a cynic, are equally apparent in both places, as likewise 
 are the obstinacy and duplicity of the king. If Ireton is by any sup- 
 posed tO' have been too favourably represented by Mrs. Hutchinson, it 
 will not be thought that he is likewise favoured by Walker in his Hist, 
 of the Independents, yet, p. 164, he reports thus. Ireton said the king 
 had committed crimes enough to depose and imprison him, and crown 
 the Duke of York, then a child, in his stead {not to kill the king), and 
 that if any thought their treatment of the king severe, they would 
 applaud their clemency to the Duke of York. 
 
244 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 After the parliament was by the general restored to their 
 seats, Colonel Hutchinson came down to his garrison at Not- 
 tingham, which, the war being ended, was reduced only to 
 the castle; the works at the town and the bridges being 
 slighted, the companies of the governor’s regiment, all but 
 two, disbanded, and he thinking, now in a time when there 
 was no opposition, the command not worthy of himself or 
 his brother, ga,ve it over to his kinsman. Captain Poulton. 
 ♦With the assistance of his fellow parliament men he procured 
 an order from the parliament for five thousand pounds, that 
 had been levied for the Scotch army, but which they, depart- 
 ing with too much haste, had not received, to be distributed 
 among the officers and soldiers of his regiment that were at 
 this time disbanded, in part of their arrears; and, that it 
 might go the farther amongst them, he himself had none 
 of it.^ The garrison at Nottingham being reduced. Colonel 
 Hutchinson removed his family back to his own house at 
 Owthorpe, but found that, having stood uninhabited, and 
 been robbed of everything which the neighbouring garrisons 
 of Shelf ord and Wiverton could carry from it, it was so 
 ruined that it could not be repaired, to make a convenient 
 habitation, without as much charge as would almost build 
 another. By reason of the debt his public employment had 
 run him into, and not being able to do this at present while 
 all his arrears were unpaid, he made a bad shift with it for 
 that year. At this time his distemper of rheum was very 
 sore upon him, and he was so afflicted with pains in his head, 
 which fell down also with violent torture upon all his joints, 
 that he v/as not able to go for many weeks out of his 
 chamber; and here we had a notable example of the vic- 
 torious power of his soul over his body. One day, as he was 
 in the saddest torture of his disease, certain horse came, 
 somewhat insolently and injuriously, exacting quarters or 
 moneys in the town; whom he sent for, and telling them he 
 would not suffer such wrong to be done to his tenants, they 
 seeing him in so weak a condition, would not be persuaded to 
 forbear violent and unjust actions, but told him his govern- 
 ment was expired, and they were no more under his com- 
 mand; with which, and some other saucy language, being 
 provoked to be heartily angry, he felt not that he was sick, 
 but started out of his chair and beat them out of the house 
 ^ Nota Bene. 
 
Vigour of His Mind under Disease 245 
 
 and town^ and returned again laughing at the wretched 
 fellows and at himself, wondering what was become of his 
 pain, and thinking how strangely his feebleness was cured in 
 a moment. But while he and those about him were in this 
 amazement, half an hour had not expired before his spirits 
 cooled, and that heat and vigour they had lent his members 
 retired again to their noble palace, his heart; and those 
 efforts, which had violently employed his limbs, made them 
 more weak than before, and his pain returned with such re- 
 doubled violence, that we thought he would have died in 
 this fit. 
 
 While he was thus distempered at home. Major-general 
 Ireton sent him a letter, with a new commission in it, for the 
 resuming his government of Nottingham Castle: for the 
 principal officers of the army, foreseeing an approaching 
 storm, desired to place it in his hands, by whom it had before 
 been so prosperously and faithfully preserved: but the 
 
 colonel sent them word, that as he should not have put his 
 kinsman into the place, although he was assured of his 
 fidelity, so he would never join with those who were so forget- 
 ful of the merits of men that had behaved themselves well, as 
 to discourage them without a cause. Hereupon they suffered 
 Captain Poulton to remain in his command; but while the 
 house was very busy in faction, they took no care of any of 
 the garrisons, especially of such as were likely to continue 
 firm to the cause; the presbyterian faction having a design 
 to weaken or corrupt them all, that they might be prepared 
 for the great revolt from the parliament, which was now 
 working in all countries. In Nottinghamshire, Colonel 
 Gilbert Byron, a brother of Lord Byron’s, meeting Captain 
 Poulton, began to insinuate into him, and tempt him to 
 betray Nottingham Castle; which proposition, when he 
 heard, he thought fit not utterly to reject, lest the castle 
 being then in a weak condition, and the soldiers discontented, 
 some of his under officers might be more ready to embrace it 
 and betray both the place and him. He therefore took a 
 little time to consider of it, and came to Colonel Hutchinson 
 and acquainted him with it. He advised him to hold his 
 cousin Byron on in the treaty, till he himself could go to 
 London and provide for the better securing of the place, 
 which, his distemper of health a little abating, he did: and 
 when the place was well provided. Captain Poulton, who was 
 
246 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 too gentle-hearted to cut off Mr. Byron under a pretence 
 of assenting to him, sent to him to shift for himself, which 
 Mr. Byron accordingly did ; and now the insurrection began 
 everywhere to break out. 
 
 In the meantime, some months before, when the king had 
 laid the design of the second war with the Scots, and had 
 employed all his art to bring the English presbyters to a 
 revolt, and was now full of hopes to bring about his game, and 
 conquer those who had conquered him, while he was amusing 
 the parliament with expectations of a treaty, he privily stole 
 away from Hampton Court, by the assistance of Ashbum- 
 ham and Berkley, no man knew whither; but these wise 
 men had so ordered their business, that instead of going 
 beyond seas, which was his first intent, he was forced to give 
 himself up to Hammond, governor of the Isle of Wight, who 
 immediately gave notice to the parliament, and they sent 
 him thanks for his fidelity, and ordered that the king should 
 be honourably attended and guarded there in Carisbrook 
 Castle. The parliament were again sending him propositions 
 there, when they received a letter from him, urging that he 
 might come to a personal treaty in London. Hereupon the 
 two houses agreed on four propositions to be sent him, to be 
 passed as bills ; upon the passing of which, they were content 
 he should come to a personal treaty for the rest. The four 
 propositions were; First, That a bill should be passed for 
 the settling the militia of the kingdom. Secondly, That all 
 oaths, declarations, etc., against the parliament and their 
 adherents should be called in. Thirdly, That the lords 
 made by the great seal at Oxford, should not thereby be 
 capable of sitting in the house of peers. Fourthly, That 
 the parliament might have power to adjourn, as the two 
 houses think fit. The Scotch commissioners opposed the 
 sending these bills to the king, and urged his coming to a 
 personal treaty in London. The king, understanding their 
 mind and the factions in London, absolutely refused to sign 
 them. Wherefore the houses, debating upon the king’s 
 denial, these votes were at length passed by both houses, on 
 the 17th day of January: — That they would make no more 
 addresses nor applications to the king. That no person 
 whatever should make address or application to him. That 
 whoever should break this order, should incur the penalty 
 of high treason. That they should receive no more messages 
 
Tumults in Essex, Kent, etc. 247 
 
 from the king, and that no person should presume to bring 
 any to either house, or to any other person. Upon these 
 votes the army put forth a declaration, promising to stand 
 by the houses in them, which was signed by the general and 
 all his officers, at Windsor, January 19, 1647. §ut in May 
 following, tumults first began in London; then the Surrey 
 men came with a very insolent petition, and behaved them- 
 selves so arrogantly to the parliament, killing and wounding 
 some of the guards, that a troop of horse was fetched from 
 the Mews, and was forced to kill some of them before they 
 could quiet them. After this, the parliament was informed 
 of another insurrection in Kent, coming under the face of a 
 petition, and sent out General Fairfax with seven regiments 
 to suppress them, who pursued them to Rochester. A great 
 company of these Kentish men were gotten together about 
 Gravesend, with fifteen knights, and many commamders of 
 the king’s army to head them; who, although they were 
 more in number than Fairfax’s men, yet durst not a.wait his 
 coming. Some of them went to Dover Castle and besieged 
 it, but the general sent out Sir Michael Livesey, who happily 
 relieved that place and raised the siege; others went to 
 Maidstone, and a few kept together about Rochester. The 
 general himself went to Maidstone, where two thousand of 
 them were gotten into the town, and resolved to keep it; 
 whom the general assaulted, and with difficulty entered the 
 town, and fought for every street, which were barricaded 
 against him, and defended with cannon. Yet at length he 
 killed two hundred, and took fourteen hundred prisoners. 
 Four hundred horse broke away to an army of their friends, 
 bigger than Fairfax’s, who saw the tov/n taken, yet had not 
 the courage to engage against the general for the relief of it; 
 but after they saw his victory they dispersed. The Lord 
 Goring then having rallied about two thousand of these 
 Kentish men, led them to Greenwich, from whence he sent 
 to try the affections of the Londoners; but while he stayed 
 there expecting their answer, some troops of the army came, 
 upon the sight of whom, he and his men fled; the Kentish 
 men, most of them to their own houses, himself, with about 
 five hundred horse, getting boat, crossed the Thames into 
 Essex, where the Lord Capel with forces out of Hertfordshire, 
 and Sir Charles Lucas with a body of horse at Chelmsford, 
 joined him; to whom, in a short time, divers that had been 
 
248 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 the king’s soldiers^ with many Londoners, and other malig- 
 nants, flocked in. General Fairfax, with part of his forces 
 crossed the Thames at Gravesend, and sending for all the 
 rest out of Kent and London, pursued the enemies, and drove 
 them into Colchester, where he besieged them, and lay before 
 them three months. At last, hearing of the defeat of Duke 
 Hamilton and the Scots, and others of the king’s partisans, 
 and being reduced to eating horse-flesh, without hopes of 
 relief, they yielded to mercy. The general shot Sir Charles 
 Lucas and vSir George Lisle to death upon the place, and 
 reserved Goring, Capel, and others, to abide the doom of the 
 parliament. While Fairfax was thus employed in Kent and 
 Essex, Langhorne, Powell, and Poyer, celebrated commanders 
 of the parliament side, revolted with the places in their com- 
 mand, and got a body of eight thousand Welshmen, whom 
 Colonel Horton, with three thousand, encountered, van- 
 quished, routed, and took as many prisoners as he had 
 soldiers; but Langhorne and Powell escaped to Poyer, and 
 shut up themselves with him in Pembroke Castle, a place 
 so strong that they refused all treaty; and thereupon they 
 were besieged by Lieutenant-general Cromwell, to whom at 
 length, after some months’ siege, it was surrendered at the 
 conqueror’s mercy. In divers other countries, at the same 
 time, there were several insurrections and revolts ; but those 
 of the parliament party, as if they had lost courage and con- 
 science at once, could no more behave themselves with that 
 valour, which had before renowned them; and were slain 
 or taken, losing the places they had betrayed, to their old 
 companions, whose fidelity was crowned with success every- 
 where. Among the rest. Colonel Gilbert Byron had risen, 
 with other gentlemen of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, 
 and had gotten together about five hundred horse; where- 
 with, after he had failed of his hopes of corrupting the 
 governor of Nottingham, they intended to go and join 
 themselves with others that were up in other countries ; and 
 this was so suddenly and secretly done, that they were upon 
 their march before the rising was suspected. The governor 
 of Nottingham had not time enough to send a messenger to 
 be with Colonel Hutchinson at his house before them, and 
 therefore shot off a piece of cannon ; which Colonel Hutchin- 
 son hearing as he sat at dinner, and believing some extra- 
 ordinary thing to be in it, commanded horses to be made 
 
Rising in the North 249 
 
 ready^ and went to Nottingham; but met the messenger 
 who came to give him notice of the enemies’ approach. The 
 news being sent home in haste^ his arms and writings, and 
 other things of value, were put in a cart and sent away; 
 which was not long gone before the enem.y marched by the 
 house, and keeping their body on a hill at the town’s end, 
 only sent a party to the house to fetch them what provisions 
 of meat and drink they found there; besides which, they 
 took nothing but a groom with two horses, who having 
 ridden out to air them, fell into their mouths, because he 
 could not be readily found when the rest of the horses were 
 sent away. The reason why no more mischief was done by 
 the cavaliers to his family, at that time, was, partly because 
 Colonel Gilbert Byron had commanded not to disturb them, 
 if he were not there, and partly because they were so closely 
 pursued by the Lincolnshire troops, that they could not 
 stay to take, nor would burden themselves with plunder, 
 now they saw it unlikely to get off without fighting. This 
 they did the next day at Willoughby within three miles of 
 Owthorpe, and were there totally routed, killed, and taken 
 by a party under Colonel Rossiter’s command, by whom 
 Colonel Byron was carried prisoner to Belvoir Castle. Being 
 in distress there, although he was an enemy, and had dealt 
 unhandsomely with Colonel Hutchinson, in endeavouring to 
 con*upt one for whom he was engaged, yet the colonel sent 
 him a sum of money for his present relief, and afterwards 
 procured him a release and composition with the parliament. 
 The greatest of all these dangers seemed now to be in the 
 north, where Duke Hamilton’s faction being prevalent in 
 Scotland, he had raised an army, and was marching into 
 England. Sir Marmaduke Langdale and Glenham had 
 already raised some men in those parts, whom Lambert, with 
 the assistance of some Lincolnshire forces, joined to his 
 Yorkshire brigade, kept in play; but they reserved them- 
 selves to join with Hamilton. Argyle and others of the 
 kirk party, protested against him, and many of the ministers 
 cursed his attempt, but were silenced for it, although God 
 heard them. The presbyterians in London secretly prayed 
 for his success, and hardly could the house of lords be brought 
 to join with the house of commons in voting all the English 
 traitors, that should join with the Scots, which yet at the 
 last they did. 
 
250 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 Colonel Hutchinson having been about this time at London^ 
 and wanting a minister for the place where he lived^ and for 
 which he had procured an augmentation, repaired to some 
 eminent ministers in London/ to recommend a worthy per- 
 son to him for the place. They, with a great testimonial, 
 recommended a Scotchman to him, whom the colonel brought 
 down; but having occasion to be with the committee at 
 Nottingham, to take order for the security of the county in 
 these dangerous times, while he was out the man made 
 strange prayers in the family, which were couched in dark 
 expressions; but Mrs. Hutchinson, understanding them to 
 be intended for the prosperous success of those who were 
 risen against the parliament, and of his nation that were 
 coming to invade ours, told her husband at his return, that 
 she could not bear with nor join in his prayers. The next 
 day, being the Lord’s day, the colonel heard his sermon, 
 which was so spiritless and so lamentable, that he was very 
 much vexed the ministers should have sent such a man to 
 him; withal he publicly made the same prayers he uttered 
 in the family for the success of the Scots; whereupon, after 
 dinner, the colonel took him aside, and told him that he had 
 done very sinfully to undertake an office for which he was so 
 ill gifted, and desired him to depart in peace again the next 
 day, and to forbear any further employment in his house. 
 The man at first was very high, and told the colonel he was 
 there by authority of the parliament, and would not depart; 
 the colonel then dealt high with him, and told him he would 
 declare to them the expressions of his prayers, which so con- 
 founded the man, that he besought him to have pity, and 
 confessed that he was fled from his own country for having 
 been of Montrose’s party; and that covetousness, against 
 his conscience, had drawn him to dissemble himself to be of 
 the parliament’s principles, but that God had judged him 
 for his hypocrisy, and withdrawn his Spirit from him, since 
 he practised it; he then submitted to go quietly and silently 
 away, even begging it as a favour of the colonel, that he 
 would permit him so to do. He did it with such a counter- 
 feit sorrow and conviction, that the colonel being of a most 
 placable nature, freely forgave him, and sent him not away 
 
 ^ This entirely contradicts the opinion so generally propagated and 
 believed, that all the independents were so fanatical as to decry and 
 lay aside all regular ministry, and to give themselves up to the guidance 
 of self-created teachers, pretending inspiration, i.e. impostors. 
 
His Sympathy with the Levellers 251 
 
 empty, for he had fifteen pounds for only a fortnight’s 
 service; yet this rogue, before he went out of the country, 
 went to the presbyters at Nottingham, and told them his 
 conscience would not permit him to stay in the colonel’s 
 house, because he and his wife were such violent sectaries, 
 that no orthodox man could live comfortably with them; 
 and this scandal those charitable priests were ready to 
 receive and more largely to spread. They themselves^ with 
 divers of their zealous disciples, whom they had perverted, 
 among whom were Colonel Francis Pierrepont, Captains 
 Rosse, White, Chadwick, and many others, were watching 
 opportunity to break their covenant and rise against that 
 parliament, under which they had served and sworn to 
 assist, till all delinquents, as well greater as less, were brought 
 to condign punishment. 
 
 At London things were in a very sad posture, the two 
 factions of presbytery and independency being so engaged 
 to suppress each other, that they both ceased to regard the 
 public interest ; insomuch, that at that time a certain sort of 
 public-spirited men stood up in the parliament and the army, 
 declaring against these factions and the ambition of the 
 grandees of both, and the partiality that was in these days 
 practised, by which great men were privileged to do those 
 things which meaner men were punished for, and the in- 
 justice and other crimes of particular members of parlia- 
 ment, were rather covered than punished, to the scandal of 
 the whole house. Many got shelter in the house and army 
 against their debts, by which others were defrauded and un- 
 done. The lords, as if it were the chief interest of nobility 
 to be licensed in vice, claimed many prerogatives, which set 
 them out of the reach of common justice, which these good- 
 hearted people would have equally to belong to the poorest 
 as well as to the mighty ; and for this and such other honest 
 declarations, they were nicknamed levellers. Indeed, as all 
 virtues are mediums, and have their extremes, there rose up 
 afterwards with that name a people who endeavoured the 
 levelling of all estates and qualities; which these sober 
 levellers were never guilty of desiring, but were men of just 
 and sober principles, of honest and religious ends, and there- 
 fore hated by all the designing self-interested men of both 
 factions. Colonel Hutchinson had a great intimacy with 
 many of these; and so far as they acted according to the 
 
252 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 just^ pious, and public spirit which they professed, he owned 
 and protected them as far as he had power. These were 
 they who first began to discover the ambition of Lieutenant- 
 general Cromwell and his idolaters, and to suspect and dis- 
 like it. About this time, he was sent down, after his victory 
 in Wales, to encounter Hamilton in the north. When he 
 went down, the chief of these levellers following him out of 
 the toyv^n, to take their leave of him, received such professions 
 from him, of a spirit bent to pursue the same just and honest 
 things which they desired, that they went away with great 
 satisfaction, till they heard that a coachful of presbyterian 
 priests coming after them, went away no less pleased; by 
 which it was apparent he dissembled with one or the other, 
 and by so doing lost his credit with both. 
 
 When he came to Nottingham, Colonel Hutchinson went 
 to see him, whom he embraced with all the expressions of 
 kindness that one friend could make to another, and then 
 retiring with him, pressed him to tell him what his friends, 
 the levellers,^ thought of him. The colonel, who was the 
 
 1 The information Mrs. Hutchinson gives us on this subject is curious 
 and valuable, but differs from the tradition generally received respect- 
 ing the levellers; it is however well supported by Walker in his History 
 of Independency. He begins with describing two juntos of grandees, 
 and calls the rest the common people of the house; the former only 
 feigned opposition, but played into one another’s hands, the latter 
 were sincere and earnest in it: he speaks of the honest middlemen, the 
 same as Mrs. Hutchinson calls by that name, and hkewise levellers ; 
 he declares levellers and asserters of liberty to be synonymous terms: 
 in a variety of places they are treated as the only sincere patriots and 
 opposers of the selfish schemes of the grandees of both parties, peculiarly 
 the independents, and above all, of Cromwell; and the engrossers and 
 monopolisers of oligarchy, desiring to make themselves a corporation 
 of tyrants, are said chiefly to dread the opposition of these levellers; 
 but the most remarkable passage is in p. 194. “ Reader, let me 
 
 admonish thee that the levellers, for so they are miscalled, only for 
 endeavouring to level the exorbitant usurpations of the council of 
 state and council of officers, are much abused by some books lately 
 printed and published in their names, much differing from their de- 
 clared principles, tenets, and practices, but forged by Cromwell and 
 others to make the sheep (the people) betray the dogs that faithfully 
 guard them.” The mode here and before taken by Colonel Hutchin- 
 son, of readily adopting a name which was intended him for a reproach, 
 was certainly the best way of disarming it of its sting. The principles 
 held by that party of the levellers which he supported, none venture 
 openly to oppose, but try to attach to them the absurd extreme of 
 those he blames; the modern philosophers who have stated that all 
 men have equal rights, but to unequal things, have not met with a 
 much more candid construction. The abuses Colonel Hutchinson 
 complained of, especially that of the privilege of parliament, have 
 since been a little diminished; but many famihes still continue to be 
 
The Meeting with Cromwell 253 
 
 freest man in the world from concealing truth from his friend^ 
 especially when it was required of him in love and plainness^ 
 not only told him what others thought of him, but what he 
 himself conceived; and how much it would darken all his 
 glories, if he should become a slave to his own ambition, and 
 be guilty of what he gave the world just cause to suspect, 
 and therefore he begged of him to wear his heart in his face, 
 and to scorn to delude his enemies, but to make use of his 
 noble courage to maintain what he believed to be just, 
 against all great opposers. Cromwell made mighty pro- 
 fessions of a sincere heart to him, but it is certain that for 
 this and such like plain dealing with him, he dreaded the 
 colonel, and made it his particular business to keep him out 
 of the army ; but the colonel desiring command, not to serve 
 himself but his country, would not use that art he detested 
 in others, to procure himself any advantage. 
 
 At this time Colonel Thornhagh marched with Cromwell, 
 and at his parting with Colonel Hutchinson, took such a kind 
 leave of him, with such dear expressions of love, such 
 brotherly embraces, and such regret for any rash jealousies 
 he had been wrought into, that it took great impression in 
 the colonel’s kind heart, and might have been a presage to 
 him that they should meet no more, when they parted with 
 such extraordinary melting love; but that Colonel Hutchin- 
 son’s cheerful and constant spirit never anticipated any evil 
 with fear. His prudence wanted not foresight that it might 
 come, yet his faith and courage entertained his hope, that 
 God would either prevent it, or help him to bear it. 
 
 defrauded and undone by the shelter which members of parliament 
 find from their debts, and which seems long likely to continue a defect 
 in our legislature, and a reproach to our morals. Among a number 
 of pamphlets published in Mr. Hutchinson’s time, one was found at 
 Owthorpe, setting forth the views and desires of these inferior levellers. 
 They therein stated, that they were willing to acknowledge the pro- 
 prietors of lands, and principally the lords of manors, as their elder 
 brothers, and rightfully possessed of the chief inheritance ; but pra^^ed 
 to be allowed to cultivate the wastes and commons for their support. 
 Whether the permitting or even encouraging this under moderate re- 
 servations might not have been conducive to the public good, is a ques- 
 tion which seems to have been decided in the affirmative by the practice 
 of the French under the ancient government: a great share of the 
 lands in every parish having been thus granted out, and cultivated by 
 small proprietors, who paid what was called champarts, fieldings or 
 tithes, being seven in the hundred; the industry and population this 
 produced is felt by all Europe. The abrogating these payments to the 
 lords, was one of the grand incitements to, and crimes of, the revolution. 
 
254 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 This summer the revolt was not greater at land than at 
 sea. Many of the great ships set the vice-admiral on shore^ 
 and sailed towards Holland to Prince Charles: to whom the 
 Duke of York had come^ having, by his father’s advice, 
 privately stolen away from London, where the parliament 
 had received and treated him like a prince, ever since the 
 surrender of Oxford. To reduce these revolted ships, and 
 preserve the rest of the navy from the like, the Earl of 
 Warwick was made lord high admiral of England. But 
 at the same time his brother, the Earl of Holland, who 
 had floated up and down with the tide of the times, rose 
 also against the parliament, and appeared in arms, with the 
 young Duke of Buckingham and Lord Francis Villars, his 
 brother, and others, making about five hundred horse, at 
 Kingston - upon - Thames. Here some of the parliament 
 troops, assailing them before they had time to grow, totally 
 routed and dispersed them. The Lord Francis Villars was 
 slain ; the Earl of Holland, flying with those he could rally, 
 was fought with at St. Neots; Dalbier and others of his 
 associates were slain, and himself taken prisoner and carried 
 to Warwick Castle. Buckingham fled, and at last got beyond 
 seas, with a blot of base ingratitude and treachery, which 
 began then to appear, and hath since marked out all his life. 
 For these two lords being pupils, and under the king’s tuition, 
 were carried with him to Oxford, where they remained till 
 the surrender of the place; and then coming to London, as 
 they were under age, they had all their father and mother’s 
 great estates, freely, without any sequestration or composi- 
 tion; and while they enjoyed them, their secret intentions 
 of rising being discovered to the parliament, the parliament 
 would not secure them, as some advised, but only sent a 
 civil warning to the duke, minding him how unhandsome it 
 would be if the information should prove true. Whereupon 
 the duke protested he had no such intention, but utterly 
 detested it, making all the expressions of just gratitude to 
 them that could be; and yet, within a very few days after- 
 wards, he openly showed himself in arms, to tell the world 
 how perfidious a hypocrite he was ; for which the parliament 
 exempted him from pardon, and ever afterwards detested 
 his name, as one that rose only to fall into contempt and 
 obloquy. 
 
 And now was Cromwell advanced into Lancashire, wheie 
 
Character of Colonel Thornhagh 255 
 
 Lambert, retreating from the invading Scots^ joined with him 
 and made up an army of about ten thousand ; which were but 
 few to encounter five-and-twenty thousand^ led by Hamilton, 
 Langdale, and other English joined with them. Yet near 
 Preston, in Lancashire, they fought, and Cromwell gained an 
 entire victory, about the end of August, and had the chase of 
 them for twenty miles, wherein many fell, and many were 
 taken prisoners. Hamilton himself, with a good party of 
 horse, fled to Uttoxeter, and was there taken by the Lord 
 Grey. But, in the beginning of this battle, the valiant 
 Colonel Thornhagh was wounded to death. Being at the 
 beginning of the charge on a horse as courageous as became 
 such a master, he made such furious speed to set upon a 
 company of Scotch lancers, that he was singly engaged and 
 mortally wounded, before it was possible for his regiment, 
 though as brave men as ever drew sword, and too affectionate 
 to their colonel to be slack in following him, to come up time 
 enough to break the fury of that body, which shamed ^ not to 
 unite all their force against one man : who yet fell not among 
 them, but being faint and all covered with blood, of his 
 enemies as well as his own, was carried off by some of his own 
 men, while the rest, enraged for the loss of their dear colonel, 
 fought not that day like men of human race ; but deaf to the 
 cries of every coward that asked mercy, they killed all, and 
 would not that a captive should live to see their colonel 
 die ; but said the whole kingdom of Scotland was too mean a 
 sacrifice for that brave men. His soul was hovering to take 
 her flight out of his body, but that an eager desire to know 
 the success of that battle kept it within till the end of the 
 day, when the news being brought him, he cleared his dying 
 countenance, and said, ‘‘ I now rejoice to die, since God hath 
 let me see the overthrow of this perfidious enemy; I could 
 not lose my life in a better cause, and I have the favour from 
 God to see my blood avenged.” So he died, with a large 
 testimony of love to his soldiers, but more to the cause, and 
 was by mercy removed, that the temptations of future times 
 might not prevail to corrupt his pure soul. A man of greater 
 courage and integrity fell not, nor fought not, in this glorious 
 cause; he had also an excellent good nature, but easy to be 
 wrought upon by flatterers, yet as flexible to the admonitions 
 
 ^ Shamed not, used neutrally, instead of were not ashamed, blushed 
 not. g 
 
256 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 of his friends; and this virtue he had^ that if sometimes a 
 cunning insinuation prevailed upon his easy faith, when his 
 error was made known to him, notwithstanding all his great 
 courage, he was readier to acknowledge and repair, than to 
 pursue his mistake.^ Colonel Thornhagh’s regiment, in the 
 reducing of the garrison forces, had one Major Saunders (a 
 Derbyshire man, who was a very godly, honest, country 
 gentleman, but had not many things requisite for a great 
 soldier) assigned them for their major, and with him he 
 brought in about a troop of Derbyshire horse; but the 
 Nottinghamshire horse, who certainly were as brave men as 
 any that drew swords in the army, had been animated in all 
 their service by the dear love they had to their colonel, and 
 the glory they took in him, and their generous spirits could 
 not take satisfaction in serving under a less man, which 
 they all esteemed their major to be. But remembering their 
 successes under Colonel Hutchinson, and several other things 
 that moved them to pitch their thoughts upon him, the 
 captains addressed themselves to Cromwell, and acquainted 
 him with the discouragement and sorrow they had by the 
 death of their colonel, for whom nothing could comfort them, 
 but a successor equal to himself ; which they could not hope to 
 find so well as they might in the person of Colonel Hutchinson, 
 with whose worth and courage they v/ere well acquainted, 
 and who was now out of employment. Their only difficulty 
 was, whether he would accept the command, which they 
 hoped to prevail on him to do, if he would oblige them by 
 sending to Lord Fairfax, to stop all other ways that might be 
 thought of for disposing it, till they could know whether 
 Colonel Hutchinson would accept it, for which they had 
 prepared a messenger to send to his house. Cromwell, with 
 all the assentation imaginable, seemed to rejoice they had 
 made so worthy a choice, and promised them to take care 
 
 1 The valour of this gentleman seems to have been a favourite topic 
 of admiration and praise among his brother warriors. In Cromwell’s 
 letter (preserved by Whitelocke), wherein he gives an account of his 
 victory, he laments “ the death of this too brave gentleman ^ Ludlow 
 is full in his praises of him, and adds a very picturesque circumstance; 
 “ that as he lay wounded among his soldiers, he made them open to 
 the right and left, that he might see the enemy run.” But it is doubt- 
 ful whether at any time the pencil or the pen has consecrated anything 
 to the memory of a departed chief, so animated, so appropriate, as 
 this character and description, which we may surely say Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son conceived in the very spirit in which her hero lived and flourished, 
 fought and fell. 
 
Designs of Cromwell 257 
 
 the regiment should not be disposed of till they received 
 Colonel Hutchinson’s answer; whereupon the captains 
 severally wrote to Colonel Hutchinson, with most earnest 
 entreaties that he would give them leave to procure a com- 
 mission for him to conduct them, which the lieutenant- 
 general had already promised to send for, if he pleased to 
 accept it. 
 
 The colonel, though he had more inclination to rest at that 
 time, by reason of the indisposition of his health, yet not 
 knowing whether the earnest desires of his countrymen were 
 not from a higher call, wrote them word that he preferred the 
 satisfaction of their desires before his own, and if the com- 
 mission came to him to be their leader, he would not refuse 
 it, though he should not do anything Inmself to seek any 
 command. Meanwhile Cromwell, as soon as the Nottingham- 
 shire men had imparted their desires to him, sent for Saunders, 
 and cajoling him, told him none was so fit as himself to com- 
 mand the regiment; but that all the regiment did not think 
 so, but were designing to procure themselves another colonel, 
 which he advised him to prevent, by sending speedily to the 
 general, to whom Cromwell also wrote to further the request, 
 and before the messenger came back from Owthorpe procured 
 the commission for Saunders. When it came, he used all his 
 art to persuade the captains to submit to it, and to excuse 
 himself from having any hand in it; but they perceived his 
 dissimulation, and the troops were so displeased with it, that 
 they thought to have flung down their arms; but their 
 captains persuaded them to rest contented until the present 
 expedition were over. But they had not only this cheat 
 and disappointment by Cromwell, but all the Nottingham 
 captains were passed over, and a less deserving man made 
 major of the regiment. The new colonel and major made it 
 their business to discountenance and affront all that had 
 showed any desire for Colonel Hutchinson, and to weary 
 them out, that they might fill up their rooms with Derbyshire 
 men ; but as soon as they got to London, all that could other 
 wise dispose of themselves, went voluntarily off; and the 
 rest that were forced to abide, hated their commanders, and 
 lived discontentedly under them. The reasons that induced 
 Cromwell to this, were two: first, he found that Colonel 
 Hutchinson understood him, and was too generous either to 
 fear or flatter him; and he carried, though under a false face 
 
258 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 of friendship^ a deep resentment of the colonel’s plain dealing 
 with him in Nottingham. He had besides a design^ by 
 insinuating himself with Colonel Saunders^ to flatter him into 
 the sale of a town of his called Ireton, which Cromwell 
 earnestly desired to buy for Major-general Ireton, who had 
 married his daughter; and when at last he could not obtain 
 it. in process of time^ he took the regiment away from him 
 again. ^ Colonel Hutchinson was not at all displeased that 
 the regiment was not given to him^ but liighly resented it 
 that the men were ill used for their affections to him; and 
 was sorry that this particular carriage of Cromwell’s gave 
 him such a proof of other things suspected of him^ so de- 
 structive to the whole cause and party^ as it afterwards fell 
 out. 
 
 Sir Marmaduke Langdale, after the rout of Hamilton^ 
 came with two or three other officers to a little alehouse 
 which was upon Colonel Hutchinson’s land^ and there were 
 so circumspect^ that some country fellows^ who saw them 
 by chance^ suspecting they were no ordinary travellers^ 
 acquainted Mr. Widmerpoole, who lived within two or three 
 miles, and had been major to the colonel in the first war: 
 whereupon he came forth, with some few others, and sent 
 down to the colonel to acquaint him that some suspicious 
 persons were at the lodge. The colonel, hearing of it, took 
 his servants out, and was approaching near the house, when 
 Major Widmerpoole, being beforehand in the house, had 
 given Langdale some jealousy that he might be surprised; 
 thereupon one of his company went out to fetch out his 
 horses, which were stopped for the present, and they seeing 
 the colonel coming up towards them, rendered themselves 
 prisoners to Major Widmerpoole, and were sent to Notting- 
 ham Castle, where they continued some months, till at last 
 Langdale finding an opportunity, corrupted one of the guard, 
 who furnished him with a soldier’s disguise, and ran away 
 with him. The major, who would have been baffled by these 
 persons, if the colonel had not come in, had all the booty, 
 which the colonel never took any share of whatever : but the 
 major thinking the best of his spoils justly due to him, pre- 
 
 ^ This gentleman is mentioned in Granger’s Biography ; and there 
 is a print of him in the hands of some curious collectors, peculiarly of 
 John Townely, Esq. He is said to be of Ireton, in Derbyshire, but 
 Ireton is believed to be in the Vale of Belvoir. 
 
Suits in Chancery 259 
 
 sented him with a case or two of very fine pistols^ which he 
 accepted. 
 
 About this time, the gentlemen that were^commissioners 
 for the king at Newark, fell into disputes one with another; 
 nor only so, but suits were commenced in chancery upon this 
 occasion. One Atkins, and several other rich men at Newark, 
 when that garrison began to be fortified for the king, lent 
 certain sums of money, for the carrying on of that work, to 
 the commissioners of array, for which those gentlemen became 
 bound to the Newarkers. After the taking of that town by 
 the parliament, they, with other persons, coming in within 
 the set time, were admitted to composition. Having been so 
 cunning as to put out their money in other names, they ven- 
 tured to leave out these sums, believing they were put into 
 such sure hands, that it would never be discovered. Mr. 
 Sutton, vSir Thomas Williamson, Sir John Digby, Sir Gervas 
 Eyre, the Lord Chaworth, Sir Thomas Blackwell, Sir Roger 
 Cowper, Sir Richard Byron, and others, had given bond for 
 this money, which Mr. Sutton, presenting to the king, as a 
 sum that he had raised to signalise his loyalty, the king, to 
 reward him, made him a baron. The whole sum thus taken 
 up for the king’s service, was eight or ten thousand pounds; 
 fifteen hundred of it, that was lent by Atkinson, being de- 
 manded, would have been paid, but they would not take the 
 principal without the interest. Sir Thomas Williamson was 
 openly arrested for it in Westminster Hall ; upon which Mr. 
 Sutton and he, being maddened, put in a bill in chancery 
 against Atkinson and others, praying that they might set 
 forth to what ends and uses this money was lent to the said 
 gentlemen, etc., etc. 
 
 The parliament had made a law, that all estates of delin- 
 quents, concealed and uncompounded for, should be forfeited, 
 one half to the state, and the other half to the discoverer, 
 if he had any arrears due to him from the parliament, in 
 payment of them. There were clerks and solicitors, who in 
 those days made a trade of hunting out such discoveries, 
 and making them known to such as had any arrears due to 
 them. Colonel Hutchinson at that time had received no pay 
 at all. One of the clerks of that committee, which was ap- 
 pointed for such discoveries, sent him word that two officers 
 of the army were upon this chancery bill, endeavouring to 
 make a discovery of certain concealed moneys in Nottingham- 
 
26o Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 shire, which being his own country, he thought might be 
 more proper for him. Colonel Hutchinson, who had never 
 any mind to disadvantage any of the gentlemen of the 
 country, demurred upon this information, and did nothing in 
 it, till some came to him, intimating a desire of my Lord 
 Lexington’s, that the colonel would pitch upon that for the 
 payment of his arrears, that so they might fall into the hands 
 of a neighbour, who would use them civilly, rather than of a 
 stranger. After the colonel was thus invited by the gentle- 
 men themselves, to pitch upon this money, he waived all the 
 rest, and only entered as his discovery that money which 
 these townsmen of Newark had lent; but upon full search 
 and hearing at the committee, the money was found to be 
 forfeited money, and the debtors were ordered to pay it into 
 the committee, and Colonel Hutchinson had also an order 
 to receive his arrear from that committee of Haberdashers’ 
 Hall. Hereupon Sir Thomas Williamson and Lord Lexing- 
 ton, who being the men of the best estates, were principally 
 looked upon for the debt, applied themselves to Colonel 
 Hutchinson, begging as a favour that he would undertake 
 the management of the order of sequestration given out 
 upon their estates ; and would also oblige them, by bringing 
 in several other gentlemen, that were bound to bear propor- 
 tionable shares. The colonel, to gratify them, got the order 
 of sequestration, and brought them to an accommodation, 
 wherein every man, according to his ability, agreed upon an 
 equal proportion; and the gentlemen, especially Mr. Sutton, 
 acknowledged a very great obligation to the colonel, who 
 had brought it to so equal a composition among them; and 
 then, upon their own desires, the order of sequestration was 
 laid upon their estates, but managed by one of their own 
 bailiffs, in order to free them from inconveniences that other- 
 wise would have come upon them. Some of them made use of 
 it to get in arrears of rent, which they knew no other way 
 of getting, and for which at that time they pretended the 
 greatest sense of gratitude and obligation imaginable. The 
 colonel also procured them days of payment, so that whereas 
 it should have been paid this Michaelmas, 1648, it was not 
 paid till a year after; and for these, and many other favours 
 on this occasion, he was then courted as their patron, though 
 afterwards this civility had like to have been his ruin. And 
 now, about Michaelmas, 1648, he went to attend his duty at 
 
Presbyterian Party Prevalent 261 
 
 the parliament, carrying his whole family with him, because 
 his house had been so ruined by the war that he could no 
 longer live in it, till it was either repaired or newly built. 
 On coming to London, he himself fell into his old distemper 
 of rheumatism with more violence than ever, and being 
 weary of those physicians he had so long, with so little suc- 
 cess, employed, he was recommended to a young doctor, son 
 of old Dr. Rudgely, whose excellence in his art was every- 
 where known; and this son being a very ingenious person, 
 and considering himself, and consulting with his father, 
 believed that all the other physicians who had dealt with 
 him had mistaken his disease ; which he finding more truly out, 
 in a short space perfectly cured him of the gout, and restored 
 him, by God’s blessing on his endeavours, to such a condi- 
 tion of health as he had not enjoyed for two years before. 
 When he was well again to attend the house, he found the 
 presbyterian party so prevalent there, that the victories 
 obtained by the army displeased them; and they had grown 
 so hot in the zeal of their faction, that they from thenceforth 
 resolved and endeavoured to close with the common enemy, 
 that they might thereby compass the destruction of their 
 independent brethren. To this end, and to strengthen their 
 faction, they got in again the late suspended members; 
 whereof it was said, and by the consequence appeared true, 
 that Mr. Hollis, during his secession, had been into France, 
 and there meeting with the queen, had pieced up an ungodly 
 accommodation with her; although he was the man that at 
 the beginning, when some of the more sober men, who fore- 
 saw the sad issues of war and victory to either side, were 
 labouring for an accommodation, said openly in the house, 
 that “ he abhorred that word accommodation.” After 
 these were gotten in again, and encouraged by the presby- 
 terian ministers and the people in the city, they procured a 
 revocation of the votes formerly made ; with such convincing 
 reasons publicly declared for the same, why they had resolved 
 on no more addresses to be made to the king. And now 
 nothing was agitated with more violence than a new personal 
 treaty, with honour and freedom; and even his coming to 
 the city, before any security given, was laboured for, but that 
 prevailed not. Such were the heats of the two parties, that 
 Mr. Hollis challenged Ireton, even in the house ; out of which 
 they both went to fight, but that one who sat near them 
 
262 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 overheard the wicked whisper, and prevented the execution 
 of it.^ 
 
 Amidst these things, at last a treaty was sent to the king, 
 by commissioners, who went from both houses, to the Isle of 
 Wight; and although there were some honourable persons 
 in this commission, yet it cannot be denied, but that they 
 were carried away by the others, and concluded, upon most 
 dangerous terms, an agreement with the king. He would 
 not give up bishops, but only lease out their revenues; and 
 upon the whole, such were the terms upon which the king 
 was to be restored, that the whole cause was evidently given 
 up to him. Only one thing he assented to, to acknowledge 
 himself guilty of the blood spilt in the late war, with this 
 proviso, that if the agreement were not ratified by the house, 
 then this concession should be of no force against him.^ 
 The commissioners that treated with him had been cajoled 
 and biassed with promises of great honours and offices to 
 every one of them, and so they brought back their treaty to 
 be confirmed by the houses; where there was a very high 
 dispute about them, and they sat up most part of the night : 
 when at length it was voted to accept his concessions, the 
 dissenting party being fewer than the other that were 
 carrying on the faction. Colonel Hutchinson was that night 
 among them, and being convinced in his conscience that both 
 the cause, and all those who with an upright honest heart 
 asserted and maintained it, were betrayed and sold for 
 nothing, he addressed himself to those commissioners he had 
 most honourable thoughts of; and urged his reasons and 
 apprehensions to them, and told them that the king, after 
 having been exasperated, vanquished, and captived, would 
 be restored to that power which was inconsistent with the 
 liberty of the people, who, for all their blood, treasure, and 
 misery, would reap no fruit, but a confirmation of their bond- 
 age; and that it had been a thousand times better never to 
 have struck one stroke in the quarrel, than, after victory, to 
 yield up a righteous cause; whereby they should not only 
 betray the interest of their country and the trust reposed in 
 them, and those zealous friends who had engaged to the death 
 
 1 Clarendon pretends Ireton would not fight. Surely Ludlow knew 
 him best, and he says he would ! 
 
 ^ Certainly there are many strange things to be found in the history 
 of diplomacy, but perhaps none so strange as that an assertion should 
 be admitted to be provisionally true. 
 
Arrogance of the Army 263 
 
 for them, but be false to the convenant of their God, which 
 was to extirpate prelacy, not to lease itd They acknowledged 
 to him that the conditions were not so secure as they ought to 
 be; but in regard of the growing power and insolence of the 
 army, it was best to accept them. They further said, that 
 they who enjoyed those trusts and places, v/hich they had 
 secured for themselves and other honest men, should be able 
 to curb the king’s exorbitances; and such other things they 
 said, wherewith the colonel, dissatisfied, opposed their pro- 
 ceedings as much as he could. When the vote v/as passed, 
 he told some men of understanding, that he was not satisfied 
 in conscience to be included with the major part in this vote, 
 which was contrary to their former engagements to God, 
 but he thought it fit to testify their public dissent; he and 
 four more, therefore, entered into the house-book a protesta- 
 tion against that night’s votes and proceedings.^ Whether 
 it yet remains there, or whether some others of them got it 
 out, he knew not, but he much wondered, after the change 
 and scrutiny into all these things, that he never heard the 
 least mention of it. 
 
 By this violent proceeding of the presbyterians they 
 finished the destruction of him in whose restitution they 
 were now so fiercely engaged, for this gave heart to the 
 vanquished cavaliers, and such courage to the captive king 
 that it hardened him and them to their ruin. On the other 
 side, it so frightened all the honest people, that it made them 
 as violent in their zeal to pull down, as the others were in their 
 madness to restore, this kingly idol ; and the army, who were 
 principally levelled and marked out as the sacrifice and peace- 
 offering of this ungodly reconciliation, had some colour to 
 pursue their late arrogant usurpations upon that authority 
 which it was their duty rather to have obeyed than inter- 
 rupted ; but the debates of that night, which produced such 
 destructive votes to them and all their friends, being reported 
 to them, they the next morning came and seized about ^ 
 
 ^ There is, among Clarendon’s State Papers, a letter from the queen 
 to the king, assuring him that those with whom he had to deal were 
 too penetrating to be duped by this artifice ; if they were, or pretended 
 to be, the queen was not. 
 
 * Ludlow says he wished to do this very thing, but could not. 
 
 ® Dugdale gives a list of the secluded members, forty-one in number, 
 and hence we are furnished with some names which will serve to 
 establish a peculiar fact stated at the latter end of the history of the 
 republic. 
 
264 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 of the members as they were going to the house^ and 
 carried them to a house hard by^ where they were for the 
 present kept prisoners. Most of the presbyterian faction, 
 disgusted at this insolence, would no more come to their seats 
 in the house; but the gentlemen who were of the other 
 faction, or of none at all, but looked upon themselves as 
 called out to manage a public trust for their country, forsook 
 not their seats while they were permitted to sit in the house.^ 
 Colonel Hutchinson was one of these who infinitely disliked 
 Ihis action of the army, and had once before been instru- 
 mental in perventing such another rash attempt, which some 
 of the discerning and honest members having a jealousy of, 
 sent him down to discover. When he came, going first to 
 commissary Ireton’s quarters, he found him and some of the 
 more sober officers of the army in great discontent, for the 
 lieutenant-general had given order for a sudden advance of 
 the army to London, upon the intelligence they had had of 
 the violent proceedings of the other party, whereupon Crom- 
 well was then in the mind to have come and broken them up ; 
 but Colonel Hutchinson, with others, at that time persuaded 
 him that, notv/ithstanding the prevalency of the presbyterian 
 faction, there were yet many who had upright and honest 
 hearts to the public interest, who had not deserved to be so 
 used by them, and who could not join with them in any 
 such irregular ways, although in all just and equitable things 
 they should be their protectors. Whereupon at that time he 
 was stayed ; ^ but having now drawn the army nearer London, 
 they put this insolent force upon the house. Those who 
 
 ^ Whitelocke, who was exactly in the same predicament, acted in the 
 same manner, and gives the same reasons for it. 
 
 ^ Mrs. Hutchinson does Ireton that justice which Whitelocke refuses 
 him who seems to consider him in the light of an instigator ; but this 
 is clearly decided by Ludlow, who declares that “ he himself, being 
 sensible that the presbyterian party were determined to sacrifice the 
 common cause to the pleasure of triumphing over the independents 
 and the army, by agreeing with the king, or by any means, went down 
 to apprise Fairfax and Ireton, then at the siege of Colchester, of this 
 design, and to court the interposition of the army. Fairfax readily 
 agreed, but Ireton demurred to interfering till the king and presby- 
 terians should have actually agreed, and the body of the nation been 
 convinced of the iniquity of their coalition.” Additional provocations 
 and imperious circumstances afterwards constrained him, but he 
 acted no conspicuous part in the business. In this difference of 
 opinion respecting the interference of the army we may see the source 
 of the dissension which more openly took place afterwards between 
 Colonel Hutchinson and Ludlow, and caused the latter to calumniate 
 Colonel Hutchinson as he did. 
 
Commission to Try the King 265 
 
 were suffered to remain, not at all approving thereof, sent 
 out their mace to demand their members, but the soldiers 
 would not obey. Yet the parliament thought it better to sit 
 still and go on in their duty than give up all, in so distempered 
 a time, into the hands of the soldiery; especially as there 
 had been so specious a pretext for the necessity of securing 
 the whole interest and party from the treachery of those men, 
 who contended so earnestly to give up the victors into the 
 hands of their vanquished enemies. Many petitions had 
 been brought to the parliament from thousands of the well- 
 affected of the cities of London and Westminster and borough 
 of Southwark, and from several counties in England, and 
 from the several regiments of the army, whereof Colonel 
 Ingolsby’s was one of the first, all urging them to perform 
 their covenant, and bring delinquents, without partiality, to 
 justice and condign punishment, and to make inquiry for the 
 guilt of the blood that had been shed in the land in both wars, 
 and to execute justice; lest the not improving the mercy of 
 God should bring judgments in their room. 
 
 Then also a declaration to the same purpose was presented 
 to the house from the Lord General Fairfax and his council 
 of officers, and strange it is how men who could afterwards 
 pretend such reluctancy and abhorrence of those things that 
 were done, should forget that they were the effective answer 
 to their petitions. 
 
 After the purgation of the house, upon the new debate of 
 the treaty at the Isle of Wight, it was concluded dangerous 
 to the realm and destructive to its better interest, and the 
 trial of the king was determined. He was sent for to West- 
 minster, and a commission was given forth to a court of 
 high justice, whereof Bradshaw, serjeant-at-law, was presi- 
 dent, and divers honourable persons of the parliament, city, 
 and army, nominated commissioners. Among them Colonel 
 Hutchinson was one, who, very much against his own will, 
 was put in; but looking upon himself as called hereunto, 
 durst not refuse it, as holding himself obliged by the cove- 
 nant of God and the public trust of his country reposed in 
 him, although he was not ignorant of the danger he run as 
 the condition of things then was. 
 
 In January 1648,^ the court sat, the king was brought 
 ^ Hume and Clarendon say January 1649. 
 
266 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 to his trials and a charge drawn up against him for levying 
 war against the parliament and people of England, for 
 betraying the public trust reposed in him, and for being 
 an implacable enemy to the commonwealth. But the king 
 refused to plead, disowning the authority of the court, and 
 after three several days persisting in contempt thereof, he 
 was sentenced to suffer death.^ One thing was remarked in 
 him by many of the court, that when the blood spilt in many 
 of the battles where he was in his own person, and had 
 caused it to be shed by his own command, was laid to his 
 charge, he heard it with disdainful smiles, and looks and 
 gestures which rather expressed sorrow that all the opposite 
 party to him were not cut off, than that any were: and he 
 stuck not to declare in words, that no man’s blood spilt in this 
 quarrel troubled him except one, meaning the Earl of Straf- 
 ford. The gentlemen that were appointed his judges, and 
 divers others, saw in him a disposition so bent on the ruin of 
 all that opposed him, and of all the righteous and just things 
 they had contended for, that it was upon the consciences of 
 many of them, that if they did not execute justice upon him, 
 God would require at their hands all the blood and desolation 
 which should ensue by their suffering him to escape, when 
 God had brought him into their hands. Although the malice 
 of the malignant party and their apostate brethren seemed 
 to threaten them, yet they thought they ought to cast them- 
 selves upon God, while they acted with a good conscience 
 for him and for their country. Some of them afterwards, 
 for excuse, belied themselves, and said they were under the 
 awe of the army, and overpersuaded by Cromwell, and the 
 like; but it is certain that all men herein were left to their 
 
 ^ Without entering into the merits of the question, we may safely 
 assert that the trial of the king was without precedent, though many 
 sovereigns had been deposed and put to death without trial. It may 
 appear fanciful to many to suggest that the precedent set at this 
 period could have any influence on the fate of the unfortunate Louis 
 XVI. ; but those who have well observed the proneness of the French 
 to mimicry {singerie), and peculiarly at the time of their first revolu- 
 tion, their Anglomania, or aping of the English (preferably in their 
 foibles), will not be far from believing that this precedent emboldened 
 them to the mockery of justice Vv^hich they exhibited in his trial and 
 condemnation. It is true that many, and even most circumstances 
 were wanting to render the cases parallel, but they were deter- 
 mined to come up to the height of the English revolution {d la hauteur 
 des Anglais), and therefore malice and invention supphed all 
 deficiencies. 
 
Liberty in the King’s Judges 267 
 
 free liberty of acting, neither persuaded nor compelled; and 
 as there were some nominated in the commission who never 
 sat, and others who sat at first, but durst not hold on, so all 
 the rest might have declined it if they would, when it is ap- 
 parent they would have suffered nothing by so doing. For 
 those who then declined were afterwards, when they offered 
 themselves, received in again, and had places of more trust 
 and benefit than those who ran the utmost hazard; which 
 they deserved not, for I know upon certain knowledge that 
 many, yea the most of them, retreated, not for conscience, 
 but from fear and worldly prudence, foreseeing that the 
 insolency of the army might grow to that height as to ruin 
 the cause, and reduce the kingdom into the hands of the 
 enemy; and then those who had been most courageous in 
 their country’s cause would be given up as victims. These 
 poor men did privately animate those who appeared most 
 publicly, and I knew several of them in whom I lived to see 
 that saying of Christ fulfilled, ‘‘ He that will save his life 
 shall lose it, and he that for my sake will lose his life shall 
 save it; ” when afterwards it fell out that all their prudent 
 declensions saved not the lives of some nor the estates of 
 others. As for Mr. Hutchinson, although he was very much 
 confirmed in his judgment concerning the cause, yet herein 
 being called to an extraordinary action, whereof many were 
 of several minds, he addressed himself to God by prayer; 
 desiring the Lord that, if through any human frailty he were 
 led into any error or false opinion in these great transactions, 
 he would open his eyes, and not suffer him to proceed, but 
 that he would confirm his spirit in the truth, and lead him by 
 a right enlightened conscience; and finding no check, but a 
 confirmation in his conscience that it was his duty to act as he 
 did, he, upon serious debate, both privately and in his ad- 
 dresses to God, and in conferences with conscientious, upright, 
 unbiassed persons, proceeded to sign the sentence against 
 the king. Although he did not then believe but that it 
 might one day come to be again disputed among men, yet 
 both he and others thought they could not refuse it without 
 giving up the people of God, whom they had led forth and 
 engaged themselves unto by the oath of God, into the hands 
 of God’s and their own enemies ; and therefore he cast him- 
 self upon God’s protection, acting according to the dictates 
 of a conscience which he had sought the Lord to guide, and 
 
268 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 accordingly the Lord did signalise his favour afterwards to 
 him.^ 
 
 After the death of the king it was debated and resolved to 
 change the form of government from a monarchy into a 
 commonwealth^ and the house of lords was voted dangerous 
 and useless thereunto^ and dissolved. A council of state was 
 to be annually chosen for the management of affairs^ account- 
 able to the parliament^ out of which^ consisting of forty 
 councillors and a president^ twenty were every year to go off 
 by lot, and twenty new ones to be supplied. It is true^ that 
 at that time almost every man was fancying a form^ of 
 government^ and angry^ when this came forth^ that his in- 
 vention took not place; and among these John Lilburne, a 
 turbulent-spirited man^ who never was quiet in anything, 
 published libels; and the levellers made a disturbance with 
 a kind of insurrection, which Cromwell soon appeased, they 
 indeed being betrayed by their own leaders. 
 
 But how the public business went on, how Cromwell 
 finished the conquest of Ireland, how the angry presbyterians 
 spit fire out of their pulpits, and endeavoured to blow up 
 the people against the parliament, how they entered into a 
 treasonable conspiracy with Scotland, which had now re- 
 ceived and crowned the son of the late king, who led them 
 in hither with a great army, which the Lord of hosts dis- 
 comfited; how our public ministers were assassinated and 
 murdered in Spain and Holland ; and how the Dutch, in this 
 unsettlement of affairs, hoped to gain by making war, wherein 
 they were beaten and brought to sue for peace, — I shall leave 
 to the stories that were then written; and only in general 
 
 ^ The account here given of Colonel Hutchinson’s motives in this 
 great transaction is most ingenious, and lays his conduct fairly open 
 to the discussion and decision of the reader, who, according to his own 
 feelings, will determine it for himself to be commendable, censurable, 
 or venial. The legislature unanimously voted it venial. It would be 
 an invidious, but not a very difficult task, to point out the persons 
 who, by their politic declensions, failed of saving their fives and estates; 
 but it is worthy of notice that Fairfax, after the restoration, with that 
 ingenuousness which belonged to him, declared (Ludlow, vol. iii. p. 
 lo), “ that if any person must be excepted from pardon for the death 
 of the king, he knew no man that deserved it more than himself, who 
 being general of the army, and having power sufficient to prevent the 
 proceedings against the king, had not thought fit to use it to that 
 end.” It is needless to multiply examples, one reasoning extending 
 to the whole. 
 
 ^ A. natural consequence of great popular revolutions, in which the 
 modern French have had the glory of outdoing all the world! 
 
His Conscientiousness 
 
 269 
 
 say that the hand of God was mightily seen in prospering 
 and preserving the parliament till Cromwell’s ambition 
 unhappily interrupted them. Mr. Hutchinson was chosen 
 into the first council of state, much against his own will ; for, 
 understanding that his cousin Ireton was one of the commis- 
 sioners to nominate that council, he sent his wife to him, 
 before he went to the house, that morning they were to be 
 named, to desire him, upon all the scores of kindred and 
 kindness that had been betv/een them, that he might be left 
 out, in regard that he had already wasted his time and his 
 estate in the parliament’s service; and having had neither 
 recompense for his losses, nor any office of benefit, it would 
 finish his ruin to be tied by this employment to a close 
 and chargeable attendance, besides the inconvenience of his 
 health, not yet thoroughly confirmed, his constitution being 
 more suitable to an active than to a sedentary life. These 
 and other things he privately urged upon him; but he, who 
 was a man regardless of his own or of any man’s private 
 interest, wherever he thought the public service might be 
 advantaged, instead of keeping him out got him in, when the 
 colonel had prevailed with others to have indulged him with 
 that ease he desired. Mr. Hutchinson, after he had en- 
 deavoured to decline this employment and could not, thought 
 that herein, as in other occasions, it being put upon him 
 without his own desire, God had called him to his service in 
 councils as formerly in arms, and applied himself to this also, 
 wherein he did his duty faithfully, and employed his power 
 to relieve the oppressed and dejected, freely becoming the 
 advocate of those who had been his late enemies, in all 
 things that were just and charitable. Though he had now 
 an opportunity to have enriched himself, as it is to be feared 
 some in all times have done, by accepting rewards for even 
 just assistances, and he wanted not many who offered them 
 and solicited him therein, yet such was his generous nature 
 that he abhorred the mention of anything like reward, 
 though ever so justly merited; and although he did a thou- 
 sand highly obliging kindnesses for many, both friends and 
 enemies, he never had anything in money or presents of any 
 man.^ The truth is, on the contrary, he met with many 
 
 ^ The lists of the first two councils, which embraced almost the 
 whole duration of the republic, are preserved by Whitelocke, and 
 Colonel Hutchinson is in each of them; he went out at the formation 
 
270 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 that had not the good manners to make so much as a”civil 
 verbal acknowledgment. Among the rest one Sir John 
 Owen may stand for a pillar of ingratitude. This man was 
 wholly unknown to him^ and with Duke Hamilton, the Earl 
 of Holland, the Lord Capell, and the Lord Goring, was con- 
 demned to death by a second high court of justice. Of this, 
 though the colonel was nominated a commissioner, he would 
 not sit, his unbloody nature desiring to spare the rest of the 
 delinquents, after the highest had suffered, and not delight- 
 ing in the death of men, when they could live without cruelty 
 to better men. The parliament also was willing to show 
 mercy to some of these, and to execute others for example; 
 whereupon the whole house was diversely engaged, some for 
 one and some for another of these lords, and striving to cast 
 away those they were not concerned in, that they might save 
 their friends. While there was such mighty labour and 
 endeavour for these lords. Colonel Hutchinson observed 
 that no man spoke for this poor knight ; and, sitting next to 
 Colonel Ireton, he expressed himself to him, and told him 
 that it grieved him much to see that, while all were labouring 
 to save the lords, a gentleman, that stood in the same con- 
 demnation, should not find one friend to ask his life; and 
 so,” said he, “ am I moved with compassion that, if you will 
 second me, I am resolved to speak for him, who, I perceive, 
 is a stranger and friendless.” Ireton promised to second 
 him, and accordingly, inquiring further of the man’s condi- 
 tion, whether he had not a petition in any member’s hand, 
 he found that his keepers had brought one to the clerk of the 
 house; but the man had not found any who would interest 
 themselves for him, thinking the lords’ lives of so much more 
 concernment than this gentleman’s. This the more stirred 
 up the colonel’s generous pity, and he took the petition, 
 delivered it, spoke for him so nobly, and was so effectually 
 seconded by Ireton, that they carried his pardon clear. Yet 
 although one who knew the whole circumstance of the busi- 
 ness, how Mr. Hutchinson, moved by mere compassion and 
 generosity, had procured his life, told him, who admired his 
 own escape, how it came about, yet he never was the man 
 that so much as once came to give him thanks; nor was his 
 
 of the third. It is extremely to be regretted, that Mrs. Hutchinson 
 should have been so concise in this part of her history, it being a period 
 which naturally excites much curiosity, but of which we have only in- 
 distinct, and, generally speaking, invidious and partial accounts. 
 
Appointed Governor of Hull 271 
 
 fellow-prisoner Goring, for whom the colonel had also effectu- 
 ally solicited, more grateful.^ 
 
 Some of the army, being very desirous to get amongst 
 them a person of whose fidelity and integrity to the cause 
 they had such good experience, had moved it to the general, 
 my Lord Fairfax; who commanded to have it inquired in 
 what way he would choose to be employed ; and when he 
 told them that, in regard of his family, which he would 
 not willingly be much absent from, he should rather accept 
 the government of some town than a field employment, four 
 governments were brought to him, to select which he would 
 have; whereof Plymouth and Portsmouth, and one more in 
 the west, being at a vast distance from his own country, he 
 made choice of Hull, in the north, though it was a less bene- 
 ficial charge than the other, thinking they had not offered 
 him anything but what had fairly fallen into their disposal. 
 Soon after this, the lieutenant-general, Cromwell, desired 
 him to meet him one afternoon at a committee, where, when 
 he came, a malicious accusation against the governor of Hull 
 was violently prosecuted by a fierce faction in that town. 
 To this the governor had sent up a very fair and honest 
 defence, yet most of the committee, more favouring the 
 adverse faction, were labouring to cast out the governor. 
 Colonel Hutchinson, though he knew him not, was very 
 earnest in his defence, whereupon Cromwell drew him aside, 
 and asked him what he meant by contending to keep in that 
 governor? (it was Overton.) The colonel told him, because 
 he saw nothing proved against liim worthy of being ejected. 
 
 But,” said Cromwell, ‘‘ we like him not.” Then said the 
 colonel, “Do it upon that account, and blemish not a man 
 that is innocent, upon false accusations, because you like 
 him not.” “ But,” said Cromwell, “ v/e would have him out, 
 because the government is designed for you, and except you 
 put him out you cannot have the place.” At this the 
 colonel was very angry, and with great indignation told him, 
 
 ^ This is differently represented by Whitelocke, Rapin, and Ludlow. 
 Whitelocke simply says that he was reprieved; Rapin, that his sentence 
 was suspended, because he should have been tried by an inferior court : 
 and Ludlow, that Ireton moved the house in his favour, omitting 
 Colonel Hutchinson either by negligence or design; there is some 
 reason to think it to have been by the latter. Notwithstanding Colonel 
 Hutchinson experienced ingratitude from many individuals, the 
 general and collective sense of his justice and benevolence will be seen 
 to have its full operation in his favour in the sequel. 
 
272 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 if there was no way to bring him into their army but by cast- 
 ing out others unjustly, he would rather fall naked before his 
 enemies, than so seek to put himself into a posture of defence. 
 Then returning to the table, he so eagerly undertook the 
 injured governor’s protection, that he foiled his enemies, and 
 the governor was confirmed in his place. This so displeased 
 Cromwell that, as before, so much more now, he saw that as 
 even his own interest would not bias him into any unjust 
 faction, so he secretly laboured to frustrate the attempts of 
 all others v/ho, for the same reason that Cromwell laboured 
 to keep him out, laboured as much to bring him in. 
 
 But now had the poison of ambition so ulcerated Crom- 
 well’s heart, that the effects of it became more apparent than 
 before; and while as yet Fairfax stood an empty name, he 
 was moulding the army to his mind, weeding out the godly 
 and upright-hearted men, both officers and soldiers, and 
 filling up their rooms with rascally turn-coat cavaliers, and 
 pitiful sottish beasts of his own alliance, and other such as 
 would swallow all things, and make no questions for con- 
 science’ sake. Yet this he did not directly nor in tumult, but 
 by such degrees that it was unperceived by all that were not 
 of very penetrating eyes; and those that made the loudest 
 outcries against him lifted up their voices with such apparent 
 envy and malice that, in that mist, they rather hid than dis- 
 covered his ambitious minings. Among these. Colonel Rich 
 and Commissary Staines and Watson had made a design 
 even against his life, and the business was brought to the 
 examination of the council of state. Before the hearing of 
 it. Colonel Rich came to Colonel Hutchinson and implored 
 his assistance with tears, affirming all the crimes of Crom- 
 well, but not daring to justify his accusations, although the 
 colonel advised him if they were true to stand boldly to it, if 
 false to acknowledge his own iniquity. The latter course he 
 took, and the council had resolved upon the just punishment 
 of the men, when Cromwell, having only thus in a private 
 council vindicated himself from their malice, and laid open 
 what pitiful sneaking poor knaves they were, how ungrateful 
 to him, and how treacherous and cowardly to themselves, 
 became their advocate, and made it his suit that they might 
 be no farther published or punished. This being permitted 
 him, and they thus rendered contemptible to others, they 
 became beasts and slaves to him, who knew how to serve 
 
Progress of Cromwell 273 
 
 himself by them without trusting them. This generosity, 
 for indeed he carried himself with the greatest bravery that 
 is imaginable herein^ much advanced his glory^ and cleared 
 him in the eyes of superficial beholders; but others saw he 
 creeped on^ and could not stop him, while fortune itself 
 seemed to prepare his way^ on sundry occasions. All this 
 while he carried to Mr. Hutchinson the most open face, and 
 made the most obliging professions of friendship imaginable ; 
 but the colonel saw through him, and forbore not often to 
 tell him what was suspected of his ambition, what dissimula- 
 tions of his were remarked, and how dishonourable to the 
 na,me of God and the profession of religion, and destructive 
 to the most glorious cause, and dangerous in overthrowing 
 all our triumphs, these things which were suspected of him, 
 would be, if true. He would seem to receive these cautions 
 and admonitions as the greatest demonstrations of integrity 
 and friendship that could be made, and embrace the colonel 
 in his arms, and make serious lying professions to him, and 
 often inquire men’s opinions concerning him, which the 
 colonel never forbore to tell him plainly, although he knev/ 
 he resented it not as he made show, yet it pleased him so to 
 discharge his own thoughts.^ 
 
 The islanders of Jersey wanting a governor, and being 
 acquainted, through the familiarity many of their country- 
 men had with him, with the abilities and honour of Colonel 
 Hutchinson, they addressed themselves to my Lord General 
 Fairfax, and petitioned to have him for their governor, wLich 
 my lord assented to: and accordingly commanded a com- 
 mission to be drawn up, which was done; but the colonel 
 made no haste to take it out. But my lord, having ordered 
 the commission, regarded him as governor, and when the 
 model of the castle was brought to my lord to procure orders 
 and money for the repairing of the fortifications, he sent it to 
 the colonel, and all other business concerning the island. 
 
 ^ By the admirers of Tacitus the development of this intrigue will 
 be highly relished; it aids hkewise to confirm the remark that Crom- 
 well’s fort lay in watching and adroitly seizing opportunities, not in 
 creating or inventing them. By the former method a man swims wdth 
 the tide of human affairs, and is assisted by it ; by the latter he must 
 stem and encounter it. 
 
 “ Men who think superficially will instantly proclaim the simplicity 
 of Colonel Hutchinson and the shrewdness of Cromwell; those who 
 think deeper, will in that simplicity see wisdom, in that shrewdness a 
 more exquisite folly. In life, in death, and in reputation, which of 
 these two was the happier? 
 
274 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 In the meantime^ the Scots having declared open war 
 against the parliament of England^ it was concluded to send 
 an army into Scotland^ to prevent their intended advance 
 hither. But when they were just marching out^ my Lord 
 Fairfax, persuaded by his wife and her chaplains, threw up 
 his commission at such a time, when it could not have been 
 done more spitefully and ruinously to the whole parliament 
 interest. Colonel Hutchinson and other parliament men, 
 hearing of his intentions the night before, and knowing that 
 he would thus level the way to Cromwell’s ambitious designs, 
 went to him and laboured to dissuade him ; which they would 
 have effected, but that the presbyterian ministers wrought 
 with him to do it. He expressed his opinion that he believed 
 God had laid him aside, as not being worthy of more, nor of 
 that glory which was already given him. 
 
 To speak the truth of Cromwell, whereas many said he 
 undermined Fairfax, it was false; for in Colonel Hutchinson’s 
 presence, he most effectually importuned him to keep his 
 commission, lest it should discourage the army and the 
 people at that juncture of time, but could by no means 
 prevail, although he laboured for it almost all the night with 
 most earnest endeavours.^ But this great man was then as 
 immovable by his friends as pertinacious in obeying his wife ; 
 
 ^ Whitelocke tells the same story nearly in the same manner, but 
 thinks Cromwell was not sincere: yet certainly he took all the same 
 steps with those who were unquestionably so. How little soever Crom- 
 well might wish to succeed, there was good pohcy in attending this 
 conference, as it might in some degree serve to diminish the suspicions 
 entertained of his own ambitious views, and prevent their being urged 
 in argument to Fairfax, which if he had been absent they most hkely 
 would have been. Be this as it may, it may be truly said, 
 
 Ex illo fiuere et retro sublapsi referri 
 Res Danaum. 
 
 for the true republicans or commonwealth’s men. 
 
 From thence the tide of fortune left their shore, 
 
 And ebbed much faster than it flowed before. 
 
 For it was only with the co-operation of a man, who to his martial 
 talents, which certainly exceeded all of his time, added that modera- 
 tion and integrity, which will distinguish Fairfax to the end of time, 
 that the great politicians of those days could have planned and finished 
 such schemes of representation, legislation, and administration, as 
 would have rendered the nation great and happy, either as a common- 
 wealth or mixed government. They had in some respects such op- 
 portunities as never can again arise; and if the presbyterians have 
 nothing else to answer for, the perverting the judgment of this excellent 
 man was a fault never to be forgiven; if the ruin of their own cause 
 could expiate it, they were not long before they made atonement. 
 
Purchased Estate of Lady Somerset 275 
 
 whereby he then died to all his former glory, and became the 
 monument of his own name, which every day wore out. 
 When his commission was given up, Cromwell was made 
 general, and new commissions were taken out by all the 
 officers from him. He finding that Colonel Hutchinson’s 
 commission for the island was not taken out, and that he 
 did not address himself to him, made haste to prevent the 
 islanders, and gave a commission for the government to one 
 of his own creatures. At this time the Lady Dormer being 
 dead, had left to her grandchild, the Lady Anne Somerset, 
 a papist, daughter to the Marquess of Worcester, a manor 
 in Leicestershire, which the lady, being more desirous of a 
 portion in money, had a great mind to sell, and came and 
 offered it to Colonel Hutchinson, with whom she had some 
 alliance ; but he told her he was not in a purchasing condition, 
 whereupon she earnestly begged him, that if he would not 
 buy it himself, he would procure of the parliament leave for 
 her to sell it. This he moved for and was repulsed, where- 
 upon both the lady, and one that was her priest, who 
 negotiated for her, and other friends, most earnestly solicited 
 Colonel Hutchinson to buy it; who urging that he had not 
 money for such a purchase, they offered him time for pay- 
 ment, till he could sell his own land, and assured him it 
 should be such a pennyworth, that he should not repent the 
 selling his own land to buy it. He urged to them the trouble 
 and difficulty it would be to obtain it, and that it might so 
 fall that he must lay a weight upon it, more than the thing 
 would be worth to him, he having never yet made any 
 request to the house, and having reason to expect recom- 
 penses for the loss of his estate, as well as others. But my 
 lady still importuned him, promising a pennyworth in it, 
 that should countervail the difficulty and the trouble ; where- 
 upon, at the last, he contracted with her, upon the desire 
 both of her and her brother, the Lord Herbert, who was her 
 next heir, and was then at full age, and he gave a release of 
 all claim to it, under his hand and seal ; and my lady, being 
 between nineteen and twenty years old, then passed a fine, 
 and covenanted at her coming to full age to pass another, 
 and absolutely bargained and sold the land to Colonel 
 Hutchinson, who secured the price of it to the Marquess of 
 Dorchester, whom the lady and her friends had a great hope 
 and desire to compass for a husband, and had thoughts, that 
 
276 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 when the portion was secured in his hands^ it would be 
 easily effected. This they afterwards entrusted to Colonel 
 Hutchinson^ and desired his assistance to propound the 
 business to my lord^ as from himself, out of mutual well- 
 wishes to both parties ; but my lord would not hearken to it, 
 though the colonel, willing to do her a kindness, endeavoured 
 to persuade him, as much as was fitting. In the meantime 
 the colonel could not, by all the friends and interest he had 
 in the house, procure a composition and leave for my lady to 
 sell her hand, because they said it would be a precedent to 
 other papists, and some moved, that what service he had 
 done, and what he had lost, might be some other way con- 
 sidered, rather than this should be suffered. But he vigorously 
 pursuing it, and laying all the weight of all his merits and 
 sufferings upon it, all that he could obtain at last was, to be 
 himself admitted, in his own name, for taking off the seques- 
 tration, after he had bought it, which he did ; and they took 
 two thousand pounds of him for his composition. By the 
 interest of Sir Henry Vane and several others of his friends, 
 powerful in the house, this too was with much difficulty 
 wrought out, though violently opposed by several others. 
 Of these Major-general Harrison w^as one, who, when he saw 
 that he could not prevail, but that, through particular 
 favour to Colonel Hutchinson, it was carried out by his 
 friends; met the colonel after the rising of the house, and 
 embracing him, desired him not to think he had acted from 
 any personal opposition to him, but in his own judgment he 
 had thought it fit the spoil should be taken out of the enemy’s 
 hands, and no composition admitted from idolaters. What- 
 ever might be for a particular advantage to him, he envied 
 not, but rejoiced in it, only he so dearly loved him, that he 
 desired he v/ould not set his heart upon the augmenting 
 of outward estate, but upon the things of the approacliing 
 kingdom of God, concerning which he made a most pious and 
 seemingly friendly harangue, of at least an hour long, with 
 all the demonstrations of zeal to God and love to the colonel 
 that can be imagined. But the colonel, having reason to fear 
 that he knew not his own spirit herein, made him only a short 
 reply, that he thanked him for his counsel, and should 
 endeavour to follow it, as became the duty of a Christian, 
 and should be glad to be as effectually instructed by his 
 example as by his admonition. For at that time the major- 
 
Harrison’s Weakness 
 
 277 
 
 general, who was but a mean man’s son, and of a mean educa- 
 tion, and of no estate before the war, had gathered an estate 
 of two thousand a year, besides engrossing great offices, and 
 encroaching upon his under-officers; and maintained his 
 coach and family, at a height as if they had been born to a 
 principality. 
 
 About the same time a great ambassador from the King of 
 Spain w^as to have public audience in the house, and was the 
 first who had addressed them, owning them as a republic. 
 The day before his audience. Colonel Hutchinson was sitting 
 in the house, near some young men handsomely clad, among 
 whom was Mr. Charles Rich, since Earl of Warwick; and 
 the colonel himself had on that day a habit which was pretty 
 rich but grave, and no other than he usually wore. Harrison 
 addressing himself particularly to him, admonished them all, 
 that now the nations sent to them, they should labour to 
 shine before them in wisdom, piety, righteousness, and 
 justice, and not in gold and silver and worldly bravery, 
 which did not become saints; and that the next day when 
 the ambassadors came, they should not set themselves out in 
 gorgeous habits, which were unsuitable to holy professions. 
 The colonel, although he was not convinced of any mis- 
 becoming bravery in the suit he wore that day, which was 
 but of sad-coloured cloth trimmed with gold, and silver 
 points and buttons ; yet because he would not appear 
 offensive in the eyes of religious persons, the next day he 
 went in a plain black suit, and so did all the other gentlemen ; 
 but Harrison came that day in a scarlet coat and cloak, both 
 laden with gold and silver lace, and the coat so covered with 
 clinquant (foil), that one scarcely could discern the ground, 
 and in this glittering habit he set himself just under the 
 speaker’s chair; which made the other gentlemen think that 
 his godly speeches, the day before, were but made that he 
 alone might appear in the eyes of strangers. But this was 
 part of his weakness, the Lord at last lifted him above these 
 poor earthly elevations, which then and some time after- 
 wards prevailed too much with Irim.^ 
 
 After the colonel had bought my lady’s land, some that 
 were extremely vexed at her having that sum of money, 
 
 ^ Ludlow gives very extraordinary accounts of his devotion to that 
 which he thought the cause of God, as well as of his readiness to suffer 
 martyrdom for it when it was in his power to avoid that severe trial. 
 
278 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 dealt with the colonel to permit them to sequester it into his 
 hands^ and offered him he should have it all himself ; which^ 
 he told them^ he would be torn to pieces before he would do, 
 and that it was a treachery and villainy that he abhorred. 
 Though, notwithstanding this, he was much pressed yet he 
 would not yield, and to prevent force, which they threatened, 
 after moving in the house, how dangerous it was to suffer 
 such a sum of money to be in the hands of the daughter of an 
 excepted person, especially at such a time (for now the king 
 was crowned in Scotland, and the Scots ready to invade, 
 and the presbyters to join with them), the colonel put the 
 money out of his own hands, to preserve it for my lady. All 
 that time both she and her brother, and other friends, made 
 all the acknowledgments of obligation that was possible. 
 Not to confound stories, I finish the memorial of this here. 
 
 After the parliament was broken up by Cromwell, and 
 after that my lady, seeing her project of marrying with my 
 lord Dorchester would not take, had embraced an offer of 
 Mr. Henry Howard, second son to the Earl of Arundel, and 
 when, in the protector’s time, the papists wanted not patrons, 
 she began to repent the selling of her land, which before she 
 thought such a blessing, and told her husband false stories, 
 as he alleged, though his future carriage made it justly 
 suspicious he was as unworthy as she.^ 
 
 The colonel, presently after he had that land, had very 
 much improved it, to a fourth part more than it was at when 
 he bought it, and they, envying his good bargain, desired to 
 have it again out of his hands, nor dealt fairly and directly 
 in the thing, but employed a cunning person. Major Wildman, 
 who was then a great manager of papists’ interests, to get 
 the land again, which he was to have four hundred pounds 
 for, if he could do it. Whereupon he presently got money 
 and came to the gentleman who had a mortgage upon it for 
 three thousand pounds taken up to pay my lady, and ten- 
 dered it. But Mr. Ash, a great friend of the colonel’s, was 
 so faithful that he would not accept it, and then Wildman 
 began a chancery suit, thinking that the colonel, being out 
 of favour with the present powers, would be necessitated to 
 take any composition. When he had put the colonel to a 
 
 ^ In the third vol. of Clarendon’s State Papers, in a letter of his, 
 dated August, 1655, he says, “ Cromwell hypocritically pretends kind- 
 ness to the catholics, but the levellers have real candour towards them 
 and are implacable enemies to Cromwell.” 
 
Ingratitude of Lady Somerset 279 
 
 great deal of vain charge, and found he could do no good, at 
 last they desired to make up the business, and the lady and 
 Mr. Howard passed a new fine to confirm the title, and the 
 colonel was delivered from further trouble with them, till 
 after the change and the return of the king. Then, when the 
 parliament men began to come into question for their lives, 
 my Lord of Portland and Mr. Howard came to Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son’s lodgings three or four times, while she was out soliciting 
 for her husband, and my lord left her a message, that he 
 must needs speak with her, upon a business of much concern- 
 ment; whereupon she sought out my lord, knowing that he 
 had professed much kindness and obligation to her husband, 
 and thinking he might have some design now to acknowledge 
 it by some real assistance. But when she came to him, he 
 told her, her husband was in danger of his life, and that if he 
 would resign back Loseby to Mr. Howard, he would help him 
 to a good sum of money to fly, and Mr. Howard would stand 
 to the hazard of buying it; but she, being vexed that my 
 lord should interrupt her with this frivolous proposition, told 
 my lord that she would hazard it with the rest of her estate, 
 rather than make up such desperate bargains. When Mr. 
 Howard saw this would not do, he prepared a petition to get 
 it excepted out of the act of oblivion, pretending that his 
 wife being under age, the colonel had by power and fraud 
 wrested her out of her estate. But when he showed this 
 petition to his friends, they being informed of the falseness 
 of the allegations, would none of them undertake either to 
 deliver or back it. Only one Sir Richard Onslow, who was a 
 violent man, and railed against the colonel concerning it, 
 but he not long afterwards died by a blast of lightning. 
 Others of his friends, when they understood that he himself 
 had joined in the confirmation of the fine, after the colonel 
 had retired, in the protector’s reign, bade him for shame to 
 make no more mention of his lady’s being fooled or frightened 
 to an act which she had voluntary done. Many told the 
 colonel how unsafe it was to displease a person who had so 
 many powerful allies that might mischief him, but the 
 colonel would neither be frightened nor flattered to give 
 away the estate, which when Mr. Howard found, he let fall 
 his purpose, and made no more vain endeavours.^ 
 
 ^ How, when, or by whom this estate at Loseby was sold again, the 
 editor has not been able to discover, it never having come into the 
 
2 00 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 And now to return to his story where I left it. I shall not 
 mention every particular action of his in the employment of 
 a senator and councillor of the realms but only some which 
 were more remarkable^ to show the honour and excellency of 
 his nature, among which this was one. His old opponents 
 and enemies of the Nottingham committee had entered into 
 the presbyterian conspiracy so deeply, that had they been 
 brought to public trial, their lives would have been forfeited 
 to the law, and this was discovered to him, and also that 
 Colonel Pierrepont was the chief of them; when he took 
 care to have the business so managed, that Colonel Pierre- 
 pont was passed by in the information, and others so favour- 
 ably accused, that they were only restrained from the mischief 
 they intended, and kept prisoners till the danger was over, 
 and afterwards, through his mediation, released, without any 
 further punishment on their persons and estates, though 
 Chadwick’s eldest son was one of these. For Colonel Pierre- 
 pont, he only privately admonished him, and endeavoured 
 to reclaim him, which the man, being good-natured, was 
 infinitely overcome with; insomuch, that ever after, to his 
 dying day, all his envy ceased, and he professed all imaginable 
 friendship and kindness to the colonel. Indeed, his excellent 
 gentleness was such, that he not only protected and saved 
 these enemies, wherein there was some glory of passing by 
 revenge, but was compassionately affected with the miseries 
 of any poor women or children, who had been unfortunately, 
 though deservedly, ruined in the civil war; and without any 
 interest of his own in the persons, whenever any ruined 
 family came to seek relief, when he was in power, he was as 
 zealous in assisting all such, as far as it might be done with 
 the safety of the commonwealth, as if they had been his 
 brothers. As it was a misery to be bewailed in those days, 
 that many of the parliament party exercised cruelty, injustice, 
 and oppression to their conquered enemies; wherever he 
 discovered it he violently opposed it, and defended even 
 those enemies that were by might oppressed and defrauded 
 of the mercies of the parliament. Upon this account he had 
 
 hands of his branch of the family, which purchased Owthorpe. One 
 of the estates sold by Colonel Hutchinson in his Ufetime was that of 
 Ratcliffe on Soar, which is spoken of in a note as given to Sir Thomas 
 Hutchinson by his uncle Sacheverell; the purchaser was Alderman 
 Ireton, and it was, in all probability, sold to enable him jointly with 
 the money borrowed of Mr. Ash to purchase this estate. 
 
Zeal in Assisting the Distressed 281 
 
 contests with some good men^ who were weak in these things, 
 some through too factious a zeal, and others blinded with 
 their own or their friends’ interests. Among these Colonel 
 Hacker’s father, having married my Lady Byron’s mother, 
 was made a trustee for the estate of her son, which she had 
 by Strelley her first husband. He had about £i,8oo of the 
 estate of young Strelley in his hands, which, he dying, his 
 eldest son and heir. Colonel Francis Hacker, was liable and 
 justly ought to pay. Young Strelley died in France, and 
 left his estate to his half-brother, the son of Sir Richard 
 Byron, who, all the time of the first war, was at school in 
 Colonel Hutchinson’s garrison at Nottingham, and after- 
 wards was sent into France. Being there, an infant, when 
 this estate fell to him, he returned and chose Colonel Hutchin- 
 son for his guardian, who overcame Colonel Hacker in the 
 right of his pupil, and recovered that money out of his hands, 
 which he would not have paid, if the infant had not found 
 a friend that was heartily zealous to obtain his just right. 
 Sir Arthur Haslerig was a great patron of Colonel Hacker’s, 
 and laboured to bear him out against justice and the infant’s 
 right in this thing ; and when the colonel had overcome him, 
 they were both displeased; for Hacker, on the other side, 
 was such a creature of Sir Arthur’s, that, without ques- 
 tioning justice or honesty, he was more diligent in obeying 
 Sir Arthur’s than God’s commands. Sir Allen Apsley had 
 articles at the surrender of Barnstaple, whereof he was 
 governor ; and contrary to these he was put to vast expense 
 and horrible vexation by several persons, but especially by 
 one wicked woman, who had the worst and the smoothest 
 tongue that ever her sex made use of to mischief. She was 
 handsome in her youth, and had very pretty girls for her 
 daughters, whom, when they grew up, she prostituted for her 
 revenge and malice against Sir Allen Apsley, which was so 
 venomous and devilish, that she stuck not at inventing false 
 accusations, and hiring witnesses to swear to them, and a 
 thousand other practices as enormous. In those days there 
 was a committee set up, for relief of such as had any violation 
 of their articles, and of this Bradshaw was president; into 
 whose easy faith this woman, pretending herself religious, 
 and of the parliament’s party, had so insinuated herself, that 
 Sir Allen’s way of relief was obstructed. Colonel Hutchinson, 
 labouring mightily in his protection, and often foiling this 
 
282 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 vile woman, and bringing to light her devilish practices, 
 turned the woman’s spite into as violent a tumult against 
 himself; and Bradshaw was so hot in abetting hei% that he 
 grew cool in his kindness to the colonel, yet broke it not 
 quite: but the colonel was very much grieved that a friend 
 should engage in so unjust an opposition. At last it was 
 manifest how much they were mistaken who would have 
 assisted this woman upon a score of her being on the parlia- 
 ment’s side, for she was all this while a spy for the king, and 
 after his return. Sir Allen Apsley met her in the king’s 
 chamber waiting for recompense for that service. The 
 thing she sued Sir Allen Apsley for, was for a house of hers 
 in the garrison of Barnstaple, which was pulled down to 
 fortify the town for the king, before he was governor of the 
 place. Yet would she have had his articles violated to make 
 her a recompense out of his estate, treble and more than the 
 value of the house; pretending she was of the parliament’s 
 party, and that Sir Allen, in malice thereunto, had without 
 necessity pulled down her house. All which were horrible 
 lies, but so maliciously and so vfickedly affirmed and sworn 
 to by her mercenary witnesses, that they at first found faith, 
 and it was hard for truth afterwards to overcome that pre- 
 possession. 
 
 The colonel, prosecuting the defence of truth and justice 
 in these and many more things, and abhorring all councils 
 for securing the young commonwealth by cruelty and oppres- 
 sion of the vanquished, who had not laid down their hate, 
 in delivering up their arms, and were, therefore, by some 
 cowards, judged unworthy of the mercy extended to them, 
 — the colonel, I say, disdaining such thoughts, displeased 
 many of his own party, who in the main, we hope, might 
 have been honest, although through divers temptations they 
 were guilty of horrible slips, which did more offend the 
 colonel’s pure zeal, who more detested these sins in brethren 
 than in enemies. 
 
 Now was Cromwell sole general, and marched into Scot- 
 land, and the Scots were ready to invade, and the presbyters 
 to assist them in it. The army being small, there was a 
 necessity for recruits, and the council of state, soliciting all 
 the parliament-men that had interest to improve it in this 
 exigence of time, gave Colonel Hutchinson a commission for 
 a regiment of horse. He immediately got up three troops, 
 
Cromwell Marches to Scotland 283 
 
 well armed and mounted, of his own old soldiers, that 
 thirsted to be again employed under him, and was preparing 
 the rest of the regiment to bring them up himself ; when he 
 was informed, that as soon as his troops came into Scotland, 
 Cromwell very readily received them, but would not let them 
 march together, but dispersed them, to fill up the regiments 
 of those who were more his creatures. The colonel hearing 
 this, would not carry him any more, but rather employed 
 himself in securing, as much as was necessary, his own 
 country, for which he was sent down by the council of state, 
 who at that time were very much surprised at hearing that 
 the king of Scots was passed by Cromwell, and had entered 
 with a great army into England. Bradshaw himself, stout- 
 hearted as he was, privately could not conceal his fear ; some 
 raged and uttered sad discontents against Cromwell, and 
 suspicions of his fidelity; they all considered that Cromwell 
 was behind, of whom I think they scarce had any account, 
 or of his intention, or how this error came about, to suffer 
 the enemy to enter here, where there was no army to en- 
 counter him. Both the city and country (by the angry 
 presbyters, wavering in their constancy to them and the 
 liberties they had purchased) were all amazed, and doubtful 
 of their own and the commonwealth’s safety. Some could 
 not hide very pale and unmanly fears, and were in such 
 distraction of spirit, that it much disturbed their councils. 
 Colonel Hutchinson, who ever had most vigour and cheer- 
 fulness when there was most danger, encouraged them, as 
 they were one day in a private council raging and crying out 
 on Cromwell’s miscarriages, to apply themselves to councils 
 of safety, and not to lose time in accusing others, while they 
 might yet provide to save the endangered realm ; or at least 
 to fall nobly in defence of it, and not to yield to fear and 
 despair. These and such like things being urged, they at 
 length re-collected themselves, and every man that had 
 courage and interest in their counties, went down to look to 
 them.^ Colonel Hutchinson came down into Nottingham- 
 
 ^ The trepidation of the council of state, and the zeal with which they 
 were supported, is well described by Whitelocke. Whether Cromwell 
 suffered the king to pass by him designedly or otherwise, is uncertain; 
 but it is very likely that he did it by design, as knowing that those who 
 did not like, for the same reason as Colonel Hutchinson, to send forces 
 to him, would, for their own sakes, bring them forward to oppose the 
 king. Either his fortune or his judgment was great. 
 
284 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 shire, and secured those who were suspected as likely to make 
 any commotion, and put the country into such a posture of 
 defence as the time would permit. But it was not long 
 before the king chose another way, and went to Worcester. 
 Cromwell following swiftly after with his army, and more 
 forces meeting him from several other parts, they fought 
 with the king and his Scots, totally routed and subdued 
 them, and he, with difficulty, after concealment in an oak, 
 and many other shifts, stole away into France. 
 
 When the colonel heard how Cromwell used his troops, 
 he was confirmed that he and his associates in the army were 
 carrying on designs of private ambition, and resolved that 
 none should share with them in the commands of the army 
 or forts of the nation, but such as would be beasts, and be 
 ridden upon by the proud chiefs. Disdaining, therefore, 
 that what he had preserved, for the liberty of his country, 
 should be a curb upon them, and foreseeing that some of 
 Cromwell’s creatures would at length be put in, to exercise 
 him with continual affronts, and to hinder an}^ man from 
 standing up for the deliverance of the country, if the insolence 
 of the army (which he too sadly foresaw) should put them 
 upon it; for this reason, in Cromwell’s absence, he procured 
 an order for the removal of the garrison at Nottingham, 
 which was commanded by his kinsman Major Poulton, into 
 the marching army, and for the demolishing of the place; 
 which accordingly was speedily executed. 
 
 When Major Poulton, who had all along been very faith- 
 ful and active in the cause, brought his men to the army, 
 he was entertained with such affronts and neglects by the 
 general, that he voluntarily quitted his command, and retired 
 to the ruined place, where the castle was which he had bought 
 with his arrears.^ When Cromwell came back through the 
 
 ^ The machinations of Cromwell are spoken of in general terms, by 
 Rapin, Whitelocke, and others; but are nowhere so well detailed as 
 here. Of all things the most necessary to Cromwell was to obtain 
 soldiers and subaltern officers perfectly subservient to his own pur- 
 poses, but this he could hope to effect then and then only, when he had 
 deprived them of such superior officers as would have preserved them 
 from deception, and have kept them faithful to their country. The 
 present and similar occurrences furnished him with the means so to do, 
 which he employed most assiduously. Ludlow, vol. hi. p. 21. “ And 
 
 thus the troops of the parliament, which were not raised out of the 
 meanest of the people and without distinction, as other armies had 
 been, but consisted of such as had engaged themselves from a spirit of 
 liberty in the defence of their rights and religion, were corrupted by 
 
Death of Ireton 
 
 285 
 
 country and saw the castle pulled down, he was heartily vexed 
 at it, and told Colonel Hutchinson, that if he had been there 
 when it was voted, he should not have suffered it. The 
 colonel replied, that he had procured it to be done, and be- 
 lieved it to be his duty to ease the people of the charge, when 
 there was no more need of it. 
 
 When Cromwell came to London, there wanted not some 
 little creatures of his, in the house, who had taken notice of 
 all that had been said of him when he let the king slip by; 
 how some stuck not in their fear and rage to call him traitor, 
 and to threaten his head. These reports added spurs to his 
 ambition, but his son-in-law, Ireton, deputy of Ireland, 
 would not be wrought to serve him, but hearing of his 
 machinations, determined to come over to England to en- 
 deavour to divert him from such destructive courses.^ But 
 God cut him short by death, and whether his body or an 
 empty coffin was brought into England, something in his 
 name came to London, and was to be, by Cromwell’s procure- 
 ment, magnificently buried among the kings at Westminster. 
 Colonel Hutchinson was, after his brother, one of the nearest 
 kinsmen he had, but Cromwell, who of late studied to give 
 him neglects, passed him by, and neither sent him mourning, 
 nor particular invitation to the funeral, only the Speaker 
 gave public notice in the house, that all the members were 
 desired to attend it ; and such was the flattery of many pitiful 
 lords and other gentlemen, parasites, that they put them- 
 
 him, kept as a standing force against the people, taught to forget their 
 first engagements, and rendered as mercenary as other troops are ac- 
 customed to be.” From about this period then we may date the 
 change of sentiment of the army in general, and of course the change 
 of opinion respecting them, in the minds of Colonel Hutchinson and 
 others who before had sided with them. 
 
 ^ If this intention of Ireton is mentioned by any other person, it has 
 escaped the search of the editor, it may have been known with certainty 
 by Mr. Hutchinson alone; but something of the kind seems to have 
 been in the contemplation of Whitelocke when he regrets his death, on 
 account of the influence he had over the mind of Cromwell, which has 
 been remarked in a former note; as likewise the probability that the 
 prolongation of his life might have made a great difference in the con- 
 duct of Cromwell. What is said of his funeral well agrees with what 
 is said by Ludlow, who adds, that ‘‘ Ireton would have despised these 
 pomps, having erected for himself a more glorious monument in the 
 hearts of good men, by his affection to his country, his abilities of mind, 
 his impartial justice, his diligence in the public service, and his other 
 virtues, which were a far greater honour to his memory than a dormitory 
 among the ashes of kings; who, for the most part, as they had governed 
 others by their passions, so were they as much governed by them.” 
 For the rest, Colonel Hutchinson’s reproof of Cromwell was a pithy one. 
 
286 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 selves into deep mourning; but Colonel Hutchinson that day 
 put on a scarlet cloak^ very richly laced, such as he usually 
 wore, and coming into the room where the members were, 
 seeing some of the lords in mourning, he went to them to 
 inquire the cause, who told him they had put it on to honour 
 the general; and asked again, why he, that was a kinsman, 
 was in such a different colour? He told them, that because 
 the general had neglected sending to him, when he had sent 
 to many who had no alliance, only to make up the train, he 
 was resolved he would not flatter so much as to buy for him- 
 self, although he was a true mourner in his heart for his 
 cousin, whom he had ever loved, and would therefore go and 
 take his place among his mourners. This he did, and went 
 into the room where ihe close mourners were; who seeing 
 him come in, a,s different from mourning as he could make 
 himself, the alderman came to him, making a great apology 
 that they mistook and thought he was out of town, and had 
 much injured themselves thereby, to whom it would have 
 been one of their greatest honours to have had his assistance 
 in the befitting habit, as now it was their shame to have neg- 
 lected him. But Cromwell, who had ordered all things, was 
 piqued horribly at it, though he dissembled his resentment 
 at that time, and joined in excusing the neglect; but he very 
 well understood that the colonel neither out of ignorance nor 
 niggardness came in that habit, but publicly to reproach 
 their neglects. 
 
 After the death of Ireton, Lambert was voted deputy of 
 Ireland, and commander-in-chief there, who being at that 
 time in the north, was exceedingly elevated with the honour, 
 and courted all Fairfax’s old commanders, and other gentle- 
 men; who, upon his promises of preferment, quitted their 
 places, and many of them came to London and made him up 
 there a very proud train, which still more exalted him, so 
 that too soon he put on the prince, immediately laying out 
 five thousand pounds for his own particular equipage, and 
 looking upon all the parliament-men, who had conferred this 
 honour on him, as underlings, and scarcely worth such a great 
 man’s nod. This untimely declaration of his pride gave 
 great offence to the parliament, who having only given him 
 a commission for six months for his deputyship, made a vote 
 that, after the expiration of that time, the presidency of the 
 ciyil and military power of that nation should no more be 
 
Cromwell’s Conduct to Lambert 287 
 
 in his nor in any one man’s hands again. This vote was 
 upon Cromwell’s procurement, who hereby designed to make 
 way for his new son-in-law, Colonel Fleetwood, who had 
 married the widow of the late deputy Ireton. There went a 
 story that as my Lady Ireton was walking in St. James’s 
 park, the Lady Lambert, as proud as her husband, came by 
 where she was, and as the present princess always hath pre- 
 cedency of the relict of the dead prince, so she put my Lady 
 Ireton below; who, notwithstanding her piety and humility, 
 was a little grieved at the affront. Colonel Fleetwood being 
 then present, in mourning for his wife, who died at the 
 same time her lord did, took occasion to introduce himself, 
 and was immediately accepted by the lady and her father, 
 who designed thus to restore his daughter to the honour she 
 had fallen from. Cromwell’s plot took as well as he himself 
 could wish; for Lambert, who saw himself thus cut off from 
 half his exaltation, sent the house an insolent message, “ that 
 if they found him so unworthy of the honour they had given 
 him as so soon to repent it, he would not retard their remedy 
 for six months, but was ready to surrender their commission 
 before he entered into his office.” They took him at his word, 
 and made Fleetwood deputy, and Ludlow commander of the 
 horse ; whereupon Lambert, with a heart full of spite, malice, 
 and revenge, retreated to his palace at Wimbledon, and sat 
 there watching an opportunity to destroy the parliament. 
 
 Cromwell, although he chiefly wrought this business in the 
 house, yet flattered Lambert, and, having another ambitious 
 scheme in his breast, helped to inflame Lambert against those 
 of the parliament who were not his creatures, and cast the 
 odium of his disgrace upon them, and professed his own 
 clearness of it, and pity for him, that he should be drawn into 
 such an inconvenience as the charge of putting himself into 
 equipage, and the loss of all that provision ; which Cromwell, 
 pretending generosity, took all upon his own account, and 
 delivered him from the debt. Lambert dissembled again on 
 his part, and insinuated himself into Cromwell, fomenting his 
 ambition to take the administration of all the conquered 
 nations into his own hands; but finding themselves not 
 strong enough alone, they took to them Major-general 
 Harrison, who had a great interest both in the army and the 
 church; and these, pretending to be piously troubled that 
 there were such delays in the administration of justice, and 
 
288 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 such perverting of rights endeavoured to bring all good men 
 into dislike of the parliament^ pretending that they would 
 perpetuate themselves in their honours and offices, and had 
 no care to bring in those glorious things for which they had 
 so many years contended in blood and toil. The parliament, 
 on the other side, had now, by the blessing of God, restored 
 the commonwealth to such a happy, rich, and plentiful con- 
 dition, that it was not so flourishing before the war, and 
 although the taxes that were paid were great, yet the people 
 were rich and able to pay them: they (the parliament) were 
 in a way of paying all the soldiers’ arrears, had some hundred 
 thousand pounds in their purses, and were free from enemies 
 in arms within and without, except the Dutch, whom they 
 had beaten and brought to seek peace upon terms honourable 
 to the English : and now they thought it was time to sweeten 
 the people, and deliver them from their burdens. This could 
 not be but by disbanding the unnecessary officers and soldiers, 
 and when things were thus settled, they had prepared a bill 
 to put a period to their own sitting, and provide for new 
 successors. But when the great officers understood that they 
 were to resign their honours, and no more triumph in the 
 burdens of the people, they easily induced the inferior officers 
 and soldiers to set up for themselves with them; and while 
 these things were passing, Cromwell with an armed force, 
 assisted by Lambert and Harrison, came into the house and 
 dissolved the parliament, pulling out the members, foaming 
 and raging, and calling them undeserved and base names; 
 and when the Speaker refused to come out of his chair, 
 Harrison plucked him out. These gentlemen having done 
 this, took to themselves the administration of all things; a 
 few slaves of the house consulted with them and would have 
 truckled under them, but not many. Meanwhile they and 
 their soldiers could no way palliate their rebellion, but by 
 making false criminations of the parliament-men, as that 
 they meant to perpetuate themselves in honour and office, 
 that they had gotten vast estates, and perverted justice for 
 gain, and were imposing upon men for conscience, and a 
 thousand such like things, which time manifested to be false, 
 and truth retorted all upon themselves that they had injuri- 
 ously cast at the others.^ 
 
 ^ Almost all the historical writers who have treated of these times 
 concur in deprecating this parliament, and represent them as a small 
 
H is Residence in the Country 289 
 
 At the time that the parliament was broken up Colonel 
 Hutchinson was in the country^ where, since his going in his 
 course out of the council of state, he had for about a year’s 
 time applied himself, when the parliament could dispense 
 with his absence, to the administration of justice in the 
 country, and to the putting in execution those wholesome 
 laws and statutes of the land provided for the orderly regula- 
 tion of the people. And it was wonderful how, in a short 
 space, he reformed several abuses and customary neglects in 
 that part of the country where he lived, which being a rich 
 fruitful vale, drew abundance of vagrant people to come and 
 exercise the idle trade of wandering and begging ; but he took 
 such courses that there was very suddenly not a beggar left 
 in the country, and all the poor in every town were so main- 
 tained and provided for, that they were never so liberally 
 maintained and relieved before or since. He procured un- 
 necessary alehouses to be put down in all the towns, and if 
 any one that he heard of suffered any disorder or debauchery 
 in his house, he would not suffer him to brew any more. He 
 was a little severe against drunkenness, for which the 
 drunkards would sometimes rail at him; but so much were 
 all the children of darkness convinced by his light, that they 
 
 number or junto whose principal view was to perpetuate themselves in 
 the enjoyment of power and honours. Those readers who desire to 
 form a true judgment of this matter will be materially assisted by 
 comparing the passages here before them with Whitelocke, and more 
 particularly with the first twenty pages of the second volume of Lud- 
 low; they will find that sort of consonance which is the best mark of 
 truth, viz. the recital of different circumstances tending to estabhsh 
 one and the same principal fact. They will then be convinced that 
 the great men who were at that time at the head of affairs had con- 
 ducted them in a manner worthy of themselves, and had brought the 
 nation to a state of prosperity which nothing less than a miracle can 
 ever again bring it to, and which Mrs. Hutchinson describes in few and 
 simple, but impressive words; the people rich, the revenue great, debts 
 paid, money in their purses, free from enemies within and without. 
 They had concluded with reforming the abuses of the law, and provid- 
 ing for their being succeeded by a fair and equal representation of the 
 people, which all confess still to be the grand desideratum of our con- 
 stitution. And it was the very circumstance of the act being on the 
 anvil, ready to receive the finishing stroke, that obhged Cromwell to 
 act with such precipitation as staggered his confederates. 
 
 From all which will arise these corollaries or deductions; that a 
 state, however great, may be governed by a republican form, and 
 every department properly filled and administered. But that no 
 suf&cient barrier has yet been found against a military chief, who has 
 popularity, address, and ambition, to become the tyrant of it. And 
 in the end, recourse must be had to hereditary succession, from whence 
 they at first departed. 
 
 K 
 
290 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 were more in awe of his virtue than his authority. In this 
 time he had made himself a convenient house/ whereof he 
 
 1 Pained and disgusted as the mind of the reader must be with the 
 tumults, anarchy, and crimes, it has witnessed, how welcome is the 
 contemplation of this ease and leisure, devoted to elegant studies, 
 virtuous pursuits, useful occupations, gentlemanlike amusements, 
 rational converse, and conciliating hospitality! How difficult will it 
 be to him to believe that this otium cum dignitate is the honourable 
 retreat of one of those gloomy fanatics whose tyranny, Rapin says, had 
 become intolerable to the nation 1 
 
 About thirty years ago it was the fate of the editor to visit this 
 mansion of his ancestors, in order to bring away a few pictiures and 
 some books, all that remained to him of those possessions, where they 
 had lived with so much merited love and honour. Although he had 
 not then read these memoirs, yet having heard Colonel Hutchinson 
 spoken of as an extraordinary person, and that he had built, planted, 
 and formed, all that was to be seen there; the country adjoining being 
 a dreary waste, many thousand acres together being entirely overrun 
 with gorse or furze; he viewed the whole with the utmost attention. 
 He found there a house, of which he has the drawing, large, handsome, 
 lofty, and convenient, and though but little ornamented, possessing all 
 the grace that size and symmetry could give it. The entrance was by 
 a flight of handsome steps into a large hall, occupying entirely the 
 centre of the house, hghted at the entrance by two large windows, but 
 at the further end by one much larger, in the expanse of which was 
 carried up a staircase that seemed to be perfectly in the air. On one 
 side of the hall was a long table, on the other a large fireplace; both 
 suited to ancient hospitality. On the right hand side of this hall were 
 three handsome rooms for the entertainment of guests. The sides of 
 the staircase and gallery were hung with pictures, and both served as 
 an orchestra either to the hall or to a large room over part of it, which 
 was a ball room. To the left of the hall were the rooms commonly 
 occupied by the family. All parts were built so substantially, and so 
 well secured, that neither fire nor thieves could penetrate from room 
 to room, nor from one flight of stairs to another, if ever so little resisted. 
 
 The house stood on a little eminence in the vale of Belvoir, at a 
 small distance from the foot of those hills along which the Roman 
 fosse-way from Leicester runs. The western side of the house was 
 covered by the offices, a small village, and a church, interspersed with 
 many trees. The south, which was the front of entrance, looked over 
 a large extent of grass grounds which were the demesne, and were 
 bounded by hills covered with wood which Colonel Hutchinson had 
 planted. On the eastern side, the entertaining rooms opened on to a 
 terrace, which encircled a very large bowling-green or level lawn; 
 next to this had been a flower-garden, and next to that a shrubbery, 
 now become a wood, through which vistas were cut to let in a view of 
 Langar, the seat of Lord Howe, at two miles’, and of Belvoir Castle, 
 a.t seven miles’ distance, which, as the afternoon sun sat full upon it, 
 made a glorious object: at the further end of this small wood was a 
 spot (of about ten acres) which appeared to have been a morass, and 
 through which ran a rivulet: this spot Colonel Hutchinson had dug 
 into a great number of canals, and planted the ground between them, 
 leaving room for walks, so that the whole formed at once a wilderness 
 or bower, reservoirs for fish, and a decoy for wdld fowl. To the north, 
 at some hundred yards’ distance, was a lake of water, which, filling the 
 space between two quarters of wood land, appeared, as viewed from 
 the large window of the hall, like a moderate river, and beyond this the 
 
H is Residence in the Country 291 
 
 was the best ornament, and an example of virtue so prevailing, 
 as metamorphosed many evil people, while they were under 
 his roof, into another appearance of sobriety and holiness. 
 
 He was going up to attend the business of his country 
 above, when news met him upon the road, near London, that 
 Cromwell had broken the parliament. Notwithstanding, he 
 went on and found divers of the members there, resolved to 
 submit to this providence of God, and to wait till he should 
 clear their integrity, and to disprove those people who had 
 taxed them of ambition, by sitting still, when they had friends 
 enough in the army, city, and country, to have disputed the 
 matter, and probably to have vanquished these usurpers. 
 They thought that if they should vex the land by war among 
 themselves, the late subdued enemies, royalists and presby- 
 terians, would have an opportunity to prevail on their dissen- 
 sions, to the ruin of both: if these should govern well, and 
 righteously, and moderately, they would enjoy the benefit 
 of their good government, and not envy them the honourable 
 toil ; if they did otherwise, they should be ready to assist and 
 vindicate their oppressed country, when the ungrateful people 
 were made sensible of their true champions and protectors. 
 Colonel Hutchinson, in his own particular, was very glad of 
 
 eye rested on the wolds or high wilds which accompany the^fosse-way 
 towards Newark. The whole had been deserted near forty years, but 
 resisted the ravages of time so well as to discover the masterly hand by 
 which it had been planned and executed. But the most extraordinary 
 and gratifying circumstance was the veneration for the family which 
 still subsisted, and which, at the period when the last possessor had by 
 his will ordered this and all his estates in Nottinghamshire to be sold, 
 and the produce given to strangers, induced the tenants to offer a large 
 advance of their rents, and a good share of the money necessary for 
 purchasing the estates, in order to enable the remains of the family 
 to come and reside again among them. It was too late! the steward 
 had contracted with the executors, and resold the most desirable part, 
 whereof the timber of Colonel Hutchinson’s planting was valued at 
 many thousand pounds! The Editor could only retire repeating 
 Virgil’s first Eclogue: 
 
 Nos patricB fines, nos dulcia linquimus arva. 
 
 * * • * * 
 
 Impius hcBc tarn cuUa novalia miles habebit ? 
 
 Barbaras has segetes ? En, quo discordia cives 
 Perduxit miser os ! en, queis consevimus agros. 
 
 Round the wide world in banishment we roam, 
 
 Forced from our pleasing fields and native home: 
 
 Did we for these barbarians plant and sow, 
 
 On these, on these our happy fields bestow ? 
 
 Good heavens 1 what dire effects from civil discord flow I 
 
 Dryden. 
 
292 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 this release from that employment^ which he managed with 
 fidelity and uprightness^ but not only without delight^ but 
 with a great deal of trouble and expense, in the contest for 
 truth and righteousness upon all occasions. 
 
 The only recreation he had during his residence at London 
 was in seeking out all the rare artists he could hear of, and 
 in considering their works in paintings, sculptures, gravings, 
 and all other such curiosities, insomuch that he became a 
 great virtuoso and patron of ingenuity. Being loth that the 
 land should be disfurnished of all the rarities that were in it, 
 whereof many were set for sale from the king’s and divers 
 noblemen’s collections, he laid out about two thousand 
 pounds in the choicest pieces of painting, most of which were 
 bought out of the king’s goods, which had been given to his 
 servants to pay their wages : to them the colonel gave ready 
 money, and bought such good pennyworths, that they were 
 valued at much more than they cost.^ These he brought 
 down into the country, intending a very neat cabinet for them ; 
 and these, with the surveying of his buildings, and improving 
 by inclosure the place he lived in, employed him at home, and, 
 for a little time, his hawks employed him abroad; but when 
 a very sober fellow, that never was guilty of the usual vices 
 of that generation of men, rage and swearing, died, he gave 
 over his hawks, and pleased himself with music, and again 
 fell to the practice of his viol, on which he played excellently 
 well, and entertaining tutors for the diversion and education 
 of his children in all sorts of music, he pleased himself with 
 these innocent recreations during Oliver’s mutable reign. As 
 he had great delight, so he had great judgment, in music, 
 and advanced his children’s practice more than their tutors : 
 he also was a great supervisor of their learning, and indeed 
 was himself a tutor to them all, besides all those tutors whom 
 he liberally entertained in his house for them. He spared not 
 any cost for the education of both his sons and daughters in 
 languages, sciences, music, dancing, and all other qualities 
 befitting their father’s house. He was himself their instructor 
 
 ^ That the conduct of Colonel Hutchinson differed from that of most 
 other men in power at that time, and brought a seasonable relief to 
 the king’s servants and creditors, appears from two passages in the 
 History of Independency, p. 146 and 184. “ The king’s servants and 
 
 creditors starve for want of their own, while the members appropriate 
 his furniture to their own use instead of selling it to pay debts.” “ The 
 king’s servants and creditors may gape long enough before they sell 
 the king’s goods to pay debts.” 
 
His Social and Domestic Life 293 
 
 in humility^ sobriety, and in all godliness and virtue, which 
 he rather strove to make them exercise with love and delight 
 than by constraint. As other things were his delight, this 
 only he made his business, to attend to the education of his 
 children, and the government of his own house and town. 
 This he performed so well that never was any m.an more 
 feared and loved than he by all his domestics, tenants, and 
 hired workmen. He was loved with such a fear and reverence 
 as restrained all rude familiarity and insolent presumptions in 
 those who were under him, and he was feared with so much 
 love that they all delighted to do his pleasure. 
 
 As he maintained his authority in all relations, so he en- 
 deavoured to make their subjection pleasant to them, and 
 rather to convince them by reason than compel them to obedi- 
 ence, and would give way even to the lowest of his family 
 to make them enjoy their lives in sober cheerfulness, and not 
 to find their duties burdensome. 
 
 As for the public business of the country, he would not act 
 in any office under the protector’s power, and therefore con- 
 fined himself to his own, which the whole country about him 
 were grieved at, and would rather come to him for counsel as 
 a private neighbour than to any of the men in power for 
 greater help. 
 
 He being now reduced into an absolutely private condition, 
 was very much courted and visited by those of all parties, and 
 while the grand quarrel slept, and both the victors and van- 
 quished were equal slaves under the new usurpers, there was 
 a very kind correspondence between him and all his country- 
 men. As he was very hospitable, and his conversation no less 
 desirable and pleasant, than instructive and advantageous, 
 his house was much resorted to, and as kindly open to those 
 who had in public contests been his enemies, as to his con- 
 tinued friends; for there never lived a man that had less 
 malice and revenge, nor more reconcilableness and kindness 
 and generosity in his nature, than he. 
 
 In the interim Cromwell and his army grew wanton with 
 their power, and invented a thousand tricks of government, 
 which, when nobody opposed, they themselves fell to dislike 
 and vary every day. First he calls a parliament out of his 
 own pocket, himself naming a sort of godly men for every 
 county, who meeting and not agreeing, a part of them, in the 
 name of the people, gave up the sovereignty to him. Shortly 
 
294 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 after he makes up several sorts of mock parliaments, but 
 not finding one of them absolutely to his turn, turned them 
 off again. He soon quitted himself of his triumvirs, and 
 first thrust out Harrison, then took away Lambert’s com- 
 mission, and would have been king but for fear of quitting 
 his generalship. He weeded, in a few months’ time, above a 
 hundred and fifty godly officers out of the army, with whom 
 many of the religious soldiers went off, and in their room 
 abundance of the king’s dissolute soldiers were entertained; 
 and the army was almost changed from that godly religious 
 arm.y, whose valour God had crowned with triumph, into the 
 dissolute army they had beaten, bearing yet a better name. 
 His wife and children were setting up for principality, which 
 suited no better with any of them than scarlet on the ape; 
 only, to speak the truth of himself, he had much natural 
 greatness, and well became the place he had usurped. His 
 daughter Fleetwood was humbled, and not exalted with 
 these things, but the rest were insolent fools. Claypole, 
 who married his daughter, and his son Henry, were two 
 debauched, ungodly cavaliers. Richard was a peasant in his 
 nature, yet gentle and virtuous, but became not greatness. 
 His court was full of sin and vanity, and the more abominable, 
 because they had not yet quite cast away the name of God, 
 but profaned it by taking it in vain upon them. True 
 religion was now almost lost, even among the religious party, 
 and hypocrisy became an epidemical disease, to the sad 
 grief of Colonel Hutchinson, and all true-hearted Christians 
 and Englishmen. Almost all the ministers everywhere 
 fell in and worshipped this beast, and courted and made 
 addresses to him. So did the city of London, and many 
 of the degenerate lords of the land, with the poor-spirited 
 gentry. The cavaliers, in policy, who saw that while 
 Cromwell reduced all by the exercise of tyrannical power 
 under another name, there was a door opened for the restor- 
 ing of their party, fell much in with Cromwell, and heightened 
 all his disorders. He at last exercised such an arbitrary 
 power, that the whole land grew weary of him, while he set 
 up a company of silly, mean fellows, called major-generals, 
 as governors in every country. These ruled according to 
 their wills, by no law but what seemed good in their own 
 eyes, imprisoning men, obstructing the course of justice 
 betvi^een man and man, perverting right through partiality. 
 
Arbitrary Power of Cromwell 295 
 
 acquitting some that were guilty, and punishing some that 
 were innocent as guilty. Then he exercised another project 
 to raise money, by decimation of the estates of all the king’s 
 party, of which action it is said Lambert was the instigator. 
 At last he took upon himself to make lords and knights, and 
 wanted not many fools, both of the army and gentry, to 
 accept of, and strut in, his mock titles.^ Then the Earl of 
 Warwick’s grandchild and the Lord Falconbridge married 
 his two daughters; such pitiful slaves were the nobles of 
 those days. At last Lambert, perceiving himself to have 
 been all this while deluded with hopes and promises of suc- 
 cession, and seeing that Cromwell now intended to confirm 
 the government in his own family, fell off from him; but 
 behaved himself very pitifully and meanly, was turned out 
 of all his places, and returned again to plot new vengeance 
 at his house at Wimbledon, where he fell to dress his flowers 
 in his garden, and work at the needle with his wife and his 
 maids, while he was watching an opportunity to serve again 
 his ambition, which had this difference from the protector’s ; 
 the one was gallant and great, the other had nothing but an 
 unworthy pride, most insolent in prosperity, and as abject 
 and base in adversity.^ 
 
 ^ The description given of the usurpations of Cromwell and his 
 myrmidons, concise and contemptuous as it is, will be found perfectly 
 just. With all his professions he did little else but deteriorate that 
 state of things in which the parliament had left them: he patched up 
 a much worse peace with the Dutch than the parliament would have 
 made: to gratify or serve his personal views, he assisted the French 
 against the Spaniards, and for ever weakened that power which would 
 now have supported this nation against so dangerous a neighbour. Ire- 
 land he depopulated by encouraging the cavalier chiefs to emigrate 
 with their adherents into foreign services. At home he rendered the 
 very names of religion and hberty contemptible, and paved the way 
 for the return of the Stuarts. Mrs. Hutchinson mentions nothing of a 
 circumstance which perhaps she did not know, or if she did, passed it 
 over as beneath notice. The following letter shows the nature of it : — 
 
 Thurloe’s State Papers, vol. iv. p. 299, Major-general Whalley writes 
 to the protector: “ For the town of Nottingham, I have a great in- 
 fluence upon it; they^ will not choose any without my advice. The 
 honest part of the county have of late, which I much wonder at, 
 nominated Colonel Hutchinson to me, as not knowing upon whom 
 better to pitch, to make up the fourth man, he having satisfied some 
 of them concerning his judgment of the present government; but I 
 hope what I have hinted to them will cause them to think upon some 
 other.” 
 
 ^ A Life of Lambert has been very obligingly put into the hands of 
 the editor, together with some other scarce tracts relating to those 
 times by Mr. White, jun., of Lincoln’s Inn, who had collected them 
 in the north of England, where Lambert resided. He seems to have 
 
296 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 The cavaliers^ seeing their victors thus beyond their hopes 
 falling into their hands^ had not patience to stay till things 
 ripened of themselves^ but were every day forming designs_, 
 and plotting for the murder of Cromwell^ and other insur- 
 rections^ which being contrived in drink^ and managed by 
 false and cowardly fellows^ were still revealed to Cromwell, 
 who had most excellent intelligence of all things that passed, 
 even in the king’s closet; and by these unsuccessful plots 
 they were only the obstructors of what they sought to ad- 
 vance, while, to speak truth, the Cromwell’s personal courage 
 and magnanimity upheld him against all enemies and mal- 
 contents. His own army disliked him, and once when 
 sevenscore officers had combined to cross him in something 
 he was pursuing, and engaged oVie to another, Lambert being 
 the chief, with solemn promises and invocations to God, the 
 protector hearing of it, overawed them all, and told them, 
 ‘‘ it was not they who upheld him, but he them,” and rated 
 them, and made them understand what pitiful fellows they 
 were; whereupon, they all, like rated dogs, clapped their 
 tails between their legs, and begged his pardon, and left 
 Lambert to fall alone, none daring to own him publicly, 
 though many in their hearts wished him the sovereignty. 
 Some of the Lambertonians had at that time a plot to come 
 mth a petition to Cromwell, and, while he was reading it, 
 certain of them had undertaken to cast him out of a window 
 at Whitehall that looked upon the Thames, where others 
 would be ready to catch him up in a blanket if he escaped 
 breaking his neck, and carrying him away in a boat prepared 
 for the purpose, to kill or keep him alive, as they saw occa- 
 sion, and then to set up Lambert. This was so carried on that 
 it was near its execution before the protector knew any- 
 thing of it. Colonel Hutchinson being at that time at London, 
 by chance came to know all the plot. Certain of the con- 
 spirators coming into a place where he was, and not being 
 so cautious of their whispers to each other before him, but 
 that he apprehended something ; by making use of which to 
 others of the confederates, he at last found out the whole 
 matter, without having it committed to him as a matter of 
 trust, but which, carelessly thrown down in pieces before him, 
 
 enjoyed a better reputation among his countrymen: his horticulture 
 is therein much spoken of, and he is said to have painted flowers, not 
 to have embroidered them. 
 
Discovers Lambert’s Plot 297 
 
 he gathered together, and became perfectly acquainted with 
 the whole design; and weighing it, and judging that Lambert 
 would be the worst tyrant of the two, he determined to pre- 
 vent it, without being the author of any man’s punishment. 
 Hereupon, having occasion to see Fleetwood (for he had 
 never seen the protector since his usurpation, but publicly 
 declared his testimony against it to all the tyrants’ minions), 
 he bade Fleetwood wish him to have a care of petitioners, by 
 whom he apprehended danger to his life. Fleetwood desired 
 more particular information, but the colonel was resolved 
 he would give him no more than to prevent that enterprise 
 which he disliked. For indeed those who were deeply en- 
 gaged rather waited to see the cavaliers in arms against him, 
 which they thought would be the best time to arm for their 
 own defence, and either to make a new conquest, or fall with 
 swords in their hands. Therefore, they all connived at the 
 cavaliers’ attempts, and although they joined not with them, 
 would not have been sorry to have seen them up upon equal 
 terms with the protector, that then a third party, which was 
 to be ready both with arms and men, when there was an 
 opportunity, might have fallen in and capitulated, with 
 swords in their hands, for the settlement of the rights and 
 liberties of the good people: but God had otherwise deter- 
 mined things; and now men began so to flatter with this 
 tyrant, so to apostatise from all faith, honesty, religion, and 
 English liberty, and there was such a devilish practice of 
 trepanning grown in fashion, that it was not safe to speak 
 to any man in those treacherous days. 
 
 After Colonel Hutchinson had given Fleetwood that 
 caution, he was going into the country, when the protector 
 sent to search him out with all the earnestness and haste that 
 could possibly be, and the colonel went to him ; who met him 
 in one of the galleries, and received him with open arms and 
 the kindest embraces that could be given, and complained 
 that the colonel should be so unkind as never to give him a 
 visit, professing how welcome he should have been, the most 
 welcome person in the land, and with these smooth insinua- 
 tions led him along to a private place, giving him thanks for 
 the advertisement he had received from Fleetwood, and using 
 all his art to get out of the colonel the knowledge of the persons 
 engaged in the conspiracy against him. But none of his 
 cunning, nor promises, nor flatteries, could prevail with the 
 
298 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 colonel to inform him more than he thought necessary to 
 prevent the execution of the design^ which when the pro- 
 tector perceived^ he gave him most infinite thanks for what 
 he had told him^ and acknowledged it opened to him some 
 mysteries that had perplexed him^ and agreed so with other 
 intelligence he had^ that he must owe his preservation to 
 him: ‘‘ But/’ says he, “ dear colonel, why will not you come 
 in and act among us? ” The colonel told him plainly, 
 because he liked not any of his ways since he broke up the 
 parliament, being those which would lead to certain and 
 unavoidable destruction, not only of themselves, but of the 
 whole parliament party and cause; and thereupon took 
 occasion, with his usual freedom, to tell him into what a sad 
 hazard all things were placed, and how apparent a way was 
 made for the restitution of all former tyranny and bondage. 
 Cromwell seemed to receive this honest plainness with the 
 greatest affection that could be, and acknowledged his 
 precipitateness in some things, and with tears complained 
 how Lambert had put him upon all those violent actions, 
 for which he now accused him and sought his ruin. He 
 expressed an earnest desire to restore the people’s liberties, 
 and to take and pursue more safe and sober councils, and 
 wound up all with a very fair courtship of the colonel to 
 engage with him, offering him anything he would account 
 worthy of him. The colonel told him, he could not be 
 forward to make his own advantage, by serving to the 
 enslaving of his country. The other told him, he intended 
 nothing more than the restoring and confirming the liberties 
 of the good people, in order to which he would employ such 
 men of honour and interest as the people would rejoice in, and 
 he should not refuse to be one of them. And after he had 
 endeavoured, with all his arts, to excuse his public actions, 
 and to draw in the colonel, who again had taken the oppor- 
 tunity to tell him freely his own and all good men’s discon- 
 tents and dissatisfactions, he dismissed the colonel with such 
 expressions as were publicly taken notice of by all his little 
 courtiers then about him, when he went to the end of the 
 gallery with the colonel, and there, embracing him, said aloud 
 to him, ‘‘ Well, colonel, satisfied or dissatisfied, you shall be 
 one of us, for we can no longer exempt a person so able and 
 faithful from the public service, and you shall be satisfied in 
 all honest things,” The colonel left him with that respect 
 
Richard Cromwell Succeeds His Father 299 
 
 that became the place he was in ; when immediately the same 
 courtiers, who had some of them passed by him without 
 knowing him when he came in, although they had once been 
 of his familiar acquaintance, and the rest, who had looked 
 upon him with such disdainful neglect as little people use to 
 those who are not of their faction, now flocked about him, 
 striving who should express most respect, and, by an extra- 
 ordinary offlciousness, redeem their late slightings. Some 
 of them desired he would command their service in any 
 business he had with their lord, and a thousand such frivolous 
 compliments, which the colonel smiled at, and quitting him- 
 self of them as soon as he could, made haste to return to the 
 country. There he had not been long before he was informed, 
 that notwithstanding all these fair shows, the protector, 
 finding him too constant to be wrought upon to serve his 
 tyranny, had resolved to secure his person, lest he should 
 head the people, who now grew very weary of his bondage. 
 But though it was certainly confirmed to the colonel how 
 much he was afraid of his honesty and freedom, and that he 
 was resolved not to let him be any longer at liberty, yet 
 before his guards apprehended the colonel, death imprisoned 
 himself, and confined all his vast ambition and all his cruel 
 designs into the narrow compass of a grave. His army and 
 court substituted his eldest son, Richard, in his room, who 
 was a meek, temperate, and quiet man, but had not a spirit 
 fit to succeed his father, or to manage such a perplexed 
 government. 
 
 The people, being vexed with the pocket-parliaments and 
 the major-generals of the counties, who behaved like bashaws, 
 were now all muttering to have a free parliament, after the 
 old manner of elections, without pledging those that were 
 chosen to any terms. Those at Richard’s court, that knew 
 his father’s counsels to prevent Colonel Hutchinson from 
 being chosen in his own country, advised Richard to prick 
 him for sheriff of the county of Nottingham, which as soon 
 as the colonel understood, he wrote him a letter, declaring 
 his resentment in such a civil manner as became the person. 
 Richard returned a very obliging answer, denying any inten- 
 tion in himself to show the least disfavour to him for former 
 dissents, but rather a desire to engage his kindness. And 
 soon after, when the colonel went himself to London and 
 went to the young protector, he told him, that since God had 
 
300 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 called him to the government^ it was his desire to make men 
 of uprightness and interest his associates^ to rule by their 
 counsels and assistance^ and not to enslave the nation to an 
 army; and that if by them he had been put upon anything 
 prejudicial or disobliging to the colonel in pricking him for 
 sheriff, he should endeavour to take it off, or to serve him any 
 other way, as soon as he had disentangled himself from the 
 officers of the army, who at present constrained him in many 
 things; and therefore if the colonel would please, without 
 unkindness, to exercise this office, he should receive it as an 
 obligation, and seek one more acceptable to him afterwards. 
 The colonel, seeing him herein good-natured enough, was 
 persuaded by a very wise friend of his to take it upon him, 
 and returned well enough satisfied with the courteous usage of 
 the protector. This gentleman who had thus counselled the 
 colonel, was as considerable and as wise a person as any in 
 England, who did not openly appear among Richard’s ad- 
 herents or counsellors, but privately advised him, and had 
 a very honourable design of bringing the nation into freedom 
 under this young man; who was so flexible to good counsels, 
 that there was nothing desirable in a prince which might not 
 have been hoped for in him, but a great spirit and a just title : 
 the first of which sometimes doth more hurt than good in a 
 sovereign; the latter would have been supplied by the 
 people’s deserved approbation. This person was very free 
 in imparting to the colonel all the designs of settling the 
 state under this single person, and the hopes of felicity in 
 such an establishment. The colonel, debating this with him, 
 told him, that if ever it were once fixed in a single person, 
 and the army taken off, which could not consist with the 
 liberty of the people, it could not be prevented from returning 
 to the late ejected family; and that on whatever terms they 
 returned, it was folly to expect the people’s cause, which, 
 with such blood and expense, had been asserted, would not 
 be utterly overthrown. To this the gentleman gave many 
 strong reasons, why that family could not be restored, with- 
 out the ruin of the people’s liberty and of all their champions ; 
 and thought that these carried so much force with them, 
 that it would never be attempted, even by any royalist that 
 retained any love to his country; and that the establishing 
 this single person (Richard) would satisfy that faction, and 
 campose all the differences, bringing in all those of all 
 
The Encroaching Army 301 
 
 parties that were men of interest and love to their country. 
 Although the business was very speciously laid^ and the man 
 such a one whose authority was sufficient to sway in any 
 state^ the colonel was not much opiniated of the things he 
 propounded^ but willing to wait the event; being in himself 
 more persuaded that the people’s freedom would be best 
 maintained in a free republic^ delivered from the shackles of 
 their encroaching slaves in the army.^ This was now not 
 merely muttered, but openly asserted by all but the army: 
 although of those who contended for it, there were two sorts ; 
 some that really thought it the most conducible to the 
 people’s good and freedom; others, who by this pretence 
 hoped to pull down the army and the protectorian faction, 
 and then restore the old family. It is believed that Richard 
 himself was compounded with, to have resigned the place 
 that was too great for him ; certain it is that his poor spirit 
 was likely enough to do any such thing. The army, per- 
 ceiving they had set up a wretch who durst not reign, and 
 that there was a convention met, by their own assent, who 
 were ready, with a seeming face of authority of parliament, 
 to restore the Stewarts, they were greatly distressed; finding 
 also that the whole nation was bent against them, and would 
 not bear their yoke, and having therefore no refuge to save 
 themselves from being torn in pieces by the people, or to 
 deliver themselves from their own puppets who had sold and 
 betrayed them, they found out some of the members of that 
 glorious parliament which they had violently driven from 
 their seats with a thousand slanderous criminations and 
 untruths. To these they counterfeited repentance, and that 
 God had opened their eyes to see into what a manifest hazard 
 of ruin they had put the interest and people of God in these 
 nations, so that it was almost irrecoverable ; but if any hope 
 were left, it was that God would sign it, with his wonted 
 favour, into those hands out of which they had injuriously 
 
 ^ The mention of this political discussion without the name of the 
 principal speaker in it, naturally awakes curiosity and excites to con- 
 jecture. The judicious writer of the critique on this work in the A nnual 
 Review combines this with a passage at p. 305, and supposes the 
 secret there referred to, and which endeavomrs were in vain used to 
 draw from Mrs. Hutchinson, to be the same thing as is here hinted at ; 
 it is highly probable that it is so; and as no evil could now result from 
 a discovery, the editor has taken pains to effect one, he beheves with 
 success — though when the grounds of his conjecture are laid before 
 the reader, he will judge for himself. 
 
302 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 taken it. Hereupon they opened the house doors for them ; 
 and the Speaker^ with some few members^ as many as made 
 a house^ were too hasty to return into their seats^ upon 
 capitulation with those traitors who had brought the com- 
 monwealth into such a sad confusion. But after they were 
 met, they immediately sent summons to all the members 
 throughout England, among whom the colonel was called 
 up,^ and much perplexed, for now he thought his conscience, 
 life, and fortunes were again engaged with men of mixed and 
 different interests and principles ; yet in regard of the trust 
 formerly reposed in him, he returned into his place, infinitely 
 dissatisfied that any condescension had been made to the 
 army’s proposals, whose necessity rather than honesty had 
 moved them to counterfeit repentance and ingenuity. This 
 they did by a public declaration, stating how they had been 
 seduced and done wickedly in interrupting the parliament, 
 and that God had never since that time owned them and 
 their counsels as before, and that they desired to humble 
 themselves before God and man for the same, and to return 
 to their duty in defending the parliament in the discharge of 
 their remaining trust. According to this declaration, the 
 army kept a day of solemn humiliation before the Lord ; yet 
 all this, as the event afterwards manifested, in hypocrisy.^ 
 
 Now the parliament were sat, and were no sooner 
 assembled but they were invaded by several enemies. The 
 presbyterians had long since espoused the royal interest, and 
 forsaken God and the people’s cause, when they could not 
 obtain the reins of government in their own hands, and 
 exercise dominion over all their brethren.^ It was treason, 
 
 1 By this passage, that error which has become general, and which 
 is to be found in Rapin, vol. ii. p. 605, is rendered palpable. He says 
 they met in parliament to the number of forty- two; and again, p. 607, 
 calls it a parliament of forty persons, but takes no notice of their send- 
 ing summonses to all the members throughout England; but in the 
 addition or suppression of this circumstance lies the total difference 
 between truth and falsehood. Ludlow, who was one of them, says, 
 vol. ii. p. 645, “ That they amounted to a hundred and sixty, who had 
 sat in the house since the seclusion of members in 1648.” 
 
 ^ There are copies of this declaration extant, signed by Lambert, 
 Fleetwood, etc., one particularly in the hands of John Townley, Esq., 
 as hkewise pamphlets written at that time, calling on the army to 
 make the only amends they could to the nation, by restoring the 
 parliament. 
 
 ^ Rapin, in a parallel passage, vol. ii. p. 61 1, says, that “ the presby- 
 terians, seeing no hopes of recovering the ground they had lost, agreed 
 with the king’s party to deliver the nation from the servitude to which 
 
Colonel Pride and Parliament 303 
 
 by the law of those men in power, to talk of restoring the 
 king; therefore the presbyterians must face the design, and 
 accordingly all the members ejected in 1648, now came to 
 claim their seats in the house, whom Colonel Pride, that then 
 guarded the parliament, turned back, and thereupon there 
 was some heat in the lobby between them and the other 
 members. Particularly Sir George Booth uttered some 
 threats, and immediately they went into their several 
 counties, and had laid a design all over England, wherein all 
 the royalists were engaged, and many of the old parliament 
 officers; and this was so dexterously, secretly, and unani- 
 mously carried on, that before the parliament had the least 
 intimation of it, the flame was everywhere kindled, and 
 small parties attempting insurrections in all places; but 
 their main strength was with Sir George Booth in Cheshire, 
 who there appeared the chief head of the rebellion. The 
 city, at that time, was very wavering and false to the parlia- 
 ment, yet the usual presence of God, that was with them in 
 former times, never appeared so eminent as now, miracu- 
 lously bringing to light all the plots against them, and 
 scattering their enemies before the wind, making them fly 
 when there was none to pursue them; although even in the 
 parliament-house there wanted not many close traitors and 
 abettors of this conspiracy. It was presently voted to send 
 an army down into Cheshire ; but then it fell into debate who 
 should lead. Fleetwood, upon the deposing his brother 
 Richard (wherein he was most unworthily assistant), was 
 made general, but not thought a person of courage enough 
 for this enterprise; whereupon many of Lambert’s friends 
 propounded him to the house, and undertook for his integrity 
 and hearty repentance for having been formerly assistant to 
 the protector. Colonel Hutchinson was utterly against re- 
 ceiving him again into employment; but it was the general 
 vote of the house, and accordingly he was brought in to 
 receive his commission from the Speaker; who, intending to 
 
 it was reduced by an independent parliament, and an army whose 
 officers were mostly fanatics. The particulars and terms of this union 
 are not known, because the historians who speak of it, being all royalists, 
 have not thought fit to do so much honour to the presbyterians. But 
 it cannot be concealed, that from this time they not only ceased to be 
 the king’s enemies, but very much promoted his restoration.” Behold 
 the honour he asks for them granted by their greatest enemy, an in- 
 dependent! As was their motive such was their reward; beginning 
 in rage and folly, it ended in disgrace and min. 
 
304 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 accept the humble submission he then falsely made^ with high 
 professions of fidelity, and to return him an encouragement 
 in declaring the confidence the house had in him, — through 
 mistake made such a speech to him, as afterwards proved a 
 true prophecy of his perfidiousness. Many of the house took 
 notice of it then only to laugh, but afterwards thought that 
 some hidden impulse, the man was not then sensible of, led 
 his tongue into those mistakes. However, Lambert went 
 forth, and through the cowardice of the enemy obtained 
 a very cheap victory, and returned. In Nottinghamshire 
 Colonel White rose, only to show his apostacy, and run 
 away. The Lord Byron also lost himself and his companions 
 in the forest, being chased by a piece of the county troop. 
 And Mr. Robert Pierrepont, the son of the late colonel, went 
 out to make up the rout, and ran away, and cast away some 
 good arms into the bushes to make his flight more easy. 
 
 During the late protectors’ times Colonel Hutchinson, who 
 thought them greater usurpers on the people’s liberties than 
 the former kings, believed himself wholly disengaged from 
 all ties, but those which God and nature, or rather God by 
 nature obliges every man of honour and honesty in to his 
 country, which is to defend or relieve it from invading tyrants, 
 as far as he may by a lawful call and means, and to suffer 
 patiently that yoke which God submits liim to, till the Lord 
 shall take it off; and upon these principles, he seeing that 
 authority, to which he was in duty bound, so seemingly taken 
 quite away, thought he was free to fall in or oppose all things, 
 as prudence should guide liim, upon general rules of con- 
 science. These would not permit him in any way to assist 
 any tyrant or invader of the people’s rights, nor to rise up 
 against them without a manifest call from God; therefore 
 he stayed at home, and busied himself in his own domestic 
 tmployments, having a very liberal heart, and a house open 
 to all worthy persons of all parties. Among these the Lord 
 Byron, who, thinking that no gentleman ought to be unpro- 
 vided with arms, in such an uncertain time, had provided 
 himself with a trunk of pistols, which were brought down 
 from London; but some suspicion of it having reached the 
 protector’s officers, he durst not fetch the trunk from the 
 carrier’s himself, but entreated the colonel to send for them 
 to his house, and secure them there. This the colonel did; 
 but afterwards, when my Lord Byron had entered into a 
 
Attempt of Lord Byron 305 
 
 conspiracy with the enemies of the parliament^ he knew that 
 Colonel Hutchinson was not to be attempted against them^ 
 and was in great care how to get his arms out of the colonel’s 
 house. The colonel^ being of a very compassionate and 
 charitable nature, had entertained into his service some poor 
 people who on the enemy’s side had been ruined, and were 
 reduced from good estates to seek that refuge; and who 
 counterfeited, so long as their party was down, such sobriety, 
 love, and gratitude, and sense of their sins and miscarriages 
 whilst on the other side, that he hoped they had been con- 
 verts, but could not believe they would have proved such 
 detestable, unthankful traitors, as afterwards they did. 
 Among these, Lord Byron corrupted a gentleman who then 
 waited on the colonel, as the man afterwards alleged; my 
 lord said he offered himself. However it was, the plot was 
 laid that fifty men, near the colonel’s house, should be raised 
 for him, and he with them should first come to the colonel’s 
 house, and take away my lord’s arms, with all the rest of 
 the colonel’s that they could find. To raise him these men, 
 certain neighbours, who used to come to the house, were 
 very busy, and especially two parsons, he of Plumptre and 
 he of Bingham; this one had an active, proud, pragmatical 
 curate, who used to come to this traitor in the colonel’s house 
 and help to manage the treason, and the chaplain, the wait- 
 ing woman, and two servants more, were drawn into the 
 confederacy. The colonel was then at the parliament-house, 
 and only his wife and children at home, when, the night 
 before the insurrection, Ivie (that was the gentleman’s 
 name) came to a singing-boy who kept the colonel’s clothes, 
 and commanded him to deliver him the colonel’s own arms 
 and buff coat. 
 
 The boy was fearful, and did not readily obey him, where- 
 upon he threatened immediately to pistol him, if he made 
 the least resistance or discovery of the business; so the boy 
 fetched him the arms, and he put them on, and took one of 
 the best horses and went out at midnight, telling the boy he 
 was a fool to fear, for the next night, before that time, there 
 would come fifty men to fetch away all the arms in the house. 
 
 As soon as the boy saw him quite gone, his mistress being 
 then in bed, he went to the chaplain and acquainted him; 
 but the chaplain cursed him for breaking his sleep : then he 
 went to the waiting gentlewoman, but she said she thought it 
 
306 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 would be unfit to disturb her mistress; so the boy rested till 
 next day^ when Ivie^ having failed of his men^ was come 
 back again. Then the boy^ finding an opportunity after 
 dinner^ told his mistress^ that though he had been bred a 
 cavalier he abhorred to betray or be unfaithful to those he 
 served; and that he had reason to suspect there was some 
 vile conspiracy in hand^ wherein Ivie was engaged against 
 them, and told her his grounds. When Mrs. Hutchinson had 
 heard that, she bade him keep it private, and called imme- 
 diately a servant that had been a cornet of the parliament’s 
 party, and bade him go to the county troop’s captain, and 
 desire him to send her a guard for her husband’s house, for 
 she had intelligence that the cavaliers intended some attempt 
 against it. Mrs. Hutchinson, ashamed to complain of her 
 own family, thought of this way of security, till she could 
 discharge herself of the traitor, not knowing at that time how 
 many more such were about her. Then calling her gentle- 
 woman, whom she thought she might trust, upon her solemn 
 protestations of fidelity, she took her to assist her in hiding 
 her plate and jewels, and what she had of value, and scrupled 
 not to let her see the secret places in her house, while the 
 false and base dissembler went smiling up and down at her 
 mistress’s simplicity. Meantime, the man that was sent for 
 soldiers came back, bringing news that the cavaliers had 
 risen and were beaten, and that the county troop was in 
 pursuit of them. Then also the coachman, who finding him- 
 self not well, had borrowed a horse to go to Nottingham to be 
 let blood, came home, bringing with him a cravat and other 
 spoils of the enemy, which he had gotten. For when he 
 came to the town, hearing the cavaliers were up, he got a 
 case of pistols, and thought more of shedding than losing 
 blood, and meeting the cavaliers in the rout, it is said, he 
 killed one of them; although this rogue had engaged to 
 Ivie to have gone on the other side with him. Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son not being willing, for all this, to take such notice of Ivie’s 
 treason as to cast him into prison, took him immediately to 
 London with her, and said nothing till he came there. Then 
 she told him how base and treacherous he had been; but to 
 save her own shame for having entertained so false a person, 
 and for her mother’s sake whom he had formerly served, 
 she was willing to dismiss him privately, without acquainting 
 the colonel, who, if he knew, must punish him. So she gave 
 
The Army and Parliament Struggles 307 
 
 him something and turned him away, and told her husband 
 she came only to acquaint him with the insurrection, and her 
 own fears of staying in the country without him. He, being 
 very indulgent, went immediately back with her, having 
 informed the parliament, and received their order for going 
 down to look after the securing of the country. His wife, 
 as soon as she came down, having learned that the chaplain 
 had been Ivie’s confederate, told him privately of it, and 
 desired him to find a pretence to take his leave of the colonel, 
 that she might not be necessitated to complain, and procure 
 him the punishment his treason deserved. He went away 
 thus, but so far from being wrought upon, that he hated her 
 to the death for her kindness. 
 
 The colonel having set things in order in the country, 
 intended to have carried his family that winter with him to 
 London; when just in that week he was going, news was 
 brought that Lambert had once more turned out the parlia- 
 ment, and the colonel rejoiced in his good fortune that he 
 was not present. 
 
 Lambert was exceedingly puffed up with his cheap victory, 
 and cajoled his soldiers; and, before he returned to London, 
 set on foot among them their old insolent way of prescribing 
 to the parliament by way of petition. 
 
 The parliament, after the submission of the army, had 
 voted that there should no more be a general over them, but 
 to keep that power in their own hands, all the officers should 
 take their commissions immediately from the Speaker.^ 
 The conspiracy of the army, to get a leader in their rebellion, 
 was laid, that they should petition for generals and such like 
 things as might facilitate their intents. Among others who 
 were taken in arms against the parliament. Lord Castleton 
 was one of the chief heads of the insurrection. Him Lambert 
 brought along with him in his coach, not now as a prisoner, 
 but unguarded, as one that was to be honoured. The 
 parliament hearing of this, sent and fetched him out of his 
 
 ^ It was a great oversight that they had not taken this course from 
 the beginning: for although it is very difficult for a repubhc, which 
 has need of considerable armies, to maintain its independence, which 
 is for ever liable to be invaded by those who have the sword in their 
 hands, yet the best chance it has lies in keeping the military under the 
 direction of the civil power. This method succeeded a good while 
 with the French republic, and might have done still longer if some of 
 the members of the executive power had not leagued with some of- the 
 military commanders. 
 
308 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 company and committed him to prison^ and then the army’s 
 saucy petition was delivered^ and^ upon the insolent carriage 
 of nine colonels^ they were by vote disbanded. Lambert 
 being one of them, came in a hostile manner and plucked 
 the members out of the house; Fleetwood, whom they 
 trusted to guard them, having confederated with Lambert 
 and betrayed them. After that, setting up their army 
 court at Wallingford-house, they began their arbitrary reign, 
 to the joy of all the vanquished enemies of the parliament, 
 and to the amazement and terror of all men that had any 
 honest interest: and now they were all devising govern- 
 ments ; and some honourable members, I know not through 
 what fatality of the times, fell in with them.^ When Colonel 
 Hutchinson came into the country some time before Lam- 
 bert’s revolt, Mr. Robert Pierrepont, the son of the late 
 Colonel Francis Pierrepont, sent friends to entreat the 
 colonel to receive him into his protection. Upon the entreaty 
 of his uncle he took him into his own house, and entertained 
 him civilly there, whilst he wrote to the Speaker, urging his 
 youth, his surrender of himself, and all he could in favour of 
 him, desiring to know how they would please to dispose of 
 him. Before the letters were answered Lambert had broken 
 the parliament, and the colonel told him he was free again 
 to do what he pleased ; but the young gentleman begged of 
 the colonel that he might continue under his sanctuary till 
 these things came to some issue. This the colonel very freely 
 admitted, and entertained him till the second return of the 
 parliament, not without much trouble to his house, himself, 
 and his servants, so contrary to the sobriety and holiness 
 the colonel delighted in, yet for his father’s and his uncle’s 
 sakes he endured it about six months. 
 
 ^ This was that committee of safety, or council of the Stratocracy, 
 among the principal members of which were Sir Henry Vane, Ludlow, 
 and Whitelocke, as mentioned by Whitelocke, p. 685. He there says 
 that he took his share in it reluctantly, and that all three were censured 
 for it by the parliament at their return. Ludlow was accused of 
 treason; Vane made an ingenious excuse, but was banished to one of 
 his country seats. Colonel Hutchinson evidently divided from Sir H. 
 Vane on this occasion, and, as Ludlow says, urged on the censure 
 against him, which he considers as inconsistent with Colonel Hutchin- 
 son’s judgment passed on the king, and as a proof of his treachery and 
 underhand agreement with Monk. But no conclusion can be more 
 unwarranted than this : it was Colonel Hutchinson’s anxiety to keep the 
 king out, or at least to prevent his coming in with a high hand and 
 without limitation, that caused him so strenuously to oppose these 
 rash steps which made all wish for the king’s return, to deliver them 
 from greater evils. 
 
Adventure with Six Troopers 309 
 
 Some of Lambert’s officers, while he marched near Notting- 
 hamshire, having formerly served under the colonel’s com- 
 mand, came to his house at Owthorpe and told him of the 
 petition that was set on foot in Lambert’s brigade, and 
 consulted whether they should sign it or not. The colonel 
 advised them by no means to do it, yet notwithstanding, 
 they did, which made the colonel exceeding angry with them, 
 thinking they rather came to see how he stood affected, than 
 really to ask his counsel. When Lambert had broken up the 
 house, the colonel made a short journey to London to inform 
 himself how things were, and found some of the members 
 exceedingly sensible of the sad estate the kingdom was 
 reduced unto by the rash ambition of these men, and resolv- 
 ing that there was no way but for every man that abhorred 
 it to improve their interest in their countries, and to suppress 
 these usurpers and rebels. Hereupon the colonel took mea- 
 sures to have some arms bought and sent him, and had 
 prepared a thousand honest men, whenever he should call 
 for their assistance; intending to improve his posse comitatus 
 when occasion should be offered. To provoke him more 
 particularly to this, several accidents fell out. Among the 
 rest, six of Lambert’s troopers came to gather money, laid 
 upon the country by an assessment of parliament, whom the 
 colonel telling that in regard it was levied by that authority, 
 he had paid it, but otherwise would not; two of them only 
 who were in the room with the colonel, the rest being on 
 horseback in the court, gave him such insolent terms, with 
 such insufferable reproaches of the parliament, that the 
 colonel drew a sword which was in the room to have chastised 
 them. While a minister that was by held the colonel’s arm, 
 his wife, not willing to have them killed in her presence, 
 opened the door and let them out, who presently ran and 
 fetched in their companions in the yard with cocked pistols. 
 Upon the bustle, while the colonel having disengaged himself 
 from those that held him, had run after them with the sword 
 drawn, his brother came out of another room, upon whom, 
 the soldiers pressing against a door that went into the great 
 hall, the door flew open, and about fifty or sixty men 
 appeared in the hall,^ who v/ere there upon another business. 
 
 ^ The description of the house, contained in a former note, will give 
 a just idea of the position of all the parties, and of the striking scene 
 here described. 
 
310 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 For Owthorpe^ Kinolton, and Hicklin^ had a contest about a 
 cripple that was sent from one to the other, but at last, out 
 of some respect they had for the colonel, the chief men of the 
 several towns were come to him, to make some accommoda- 
 tion, till the law should be again in force. When the colonel 
 heard the soldiers were come, he left them shut up in his 
 great hall, who by accident thus appearing, put the soldiers 
 into a dreadful fright. When the colonel saw how pale they 
 looked, he encouraged them to take heart, and calmly ad- 
 monished them for their insolence, and they being changed 
 and very humble through their fear, he called for wine for 
 them, and sent them away. To the most insolent of them 
 he said, “ These carriages would bring back the Stewarts.” 
 The man, laying his hand upon his sword, said, “ Never 
 while he wore that.” Among other things they said to the 
 colonel, when he demanded by what authority they came, 
 they showed their swords, and said, “ That was their 
 authority.” After they were dismissed, the colonel, not 
 willing to appear because he was sheriff of the county, and 
 had many of their papers sent him to publish, concealed 
 himself in his house, and caused his wife to write a letter to 
 Fleetwood, to complain of the affronts had been offered him, 
 and to tell him that he was thereupon retired, till he could 
 dwell safely at home.^ To this Fleetwood returned a civil 
 answer, and withal sent a protection, to forbid all soldiers 
 from coming to his house, and a command to Swallow, who 
 was the colonel of these men, to examine and punish them. 
 Mrs. Hutchinson had sent before to Swallow, who was then 
 quartered at Leicester, the next day after it was done, to 
 inform him, who sent a letter utterly disowning their actions, 
 and promising to punish them. This, Mrs. Hutchinson sent 
 to show the soldiers who then lay abusing the country at 
 Colson; but when they saw their officer’s letter they laughed 
 at him, and tore it in pieces. Some days after he, in a civil 
 
 1 Probably this circumstance of Colonel Hutchinson concealing him- 
 self in his own home came at that time to be known at Nottingham, 
 and gave rise to a tradition which is to be found in Throsby’s edition 
 of Thoroton, that he concealed himself in this manner after the restora- 
 tion, but was taken in his return from church; both of which were 
 untrue, as probably were some other tales, resembling the legends of 
 romance, v/hich the Editor heard of him at Owthorpe. But that there 
 was an apartment so adapted for concealment, security, and con- 
 venience, as that he might have made a long residence in it without 
 being discovered, the Editor had ocular demonstration. 
 
Insolence of the Soldiers 3 1 1 
 
 manner, sent a captain with them and other soldiers to 
 Owthorpe, to inquire into their misdemeanours before their 
 faces; which being confirmed to him, and he beginning to 
 rebuke them, they set him at light, even before Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son’s face, and made the poor man retire sneaped to his 
 colonel; while these six rogues, in one week’s space, besides 
 the assessments assigned them to gather up within the 
 compass of five miles, took away violently from the country, 
 for their own expense, above five-and-twenty pounds. Not- 
 withstanding all this pretended civility, Fleetwood and his 
 counsellors were afraid of the colonel, and the protection was 
 but sent to draw him thither, that they might by that means 
 get him into their custody. But he, having intimation of it, 
 withdrew, while men and arms were preparing, that he might 
 appear publicly in the defence of the country, when he was 
 strong enough to drive out the soldiers that were left in those 
 parts. Three hundred of them were one night drawn out of 
 Nottingham to come to Owthorpe for him, but some of the 
 party gave him notice, and he being then at home, imme- 
 diately went out of the house. Neither wanted they their 
 spies, who gave them notice that he was gone again, so that 
 they turned off upon the wolds and went to Hickling; and 
 the next day Major Grove, their commander, sent to Mrs. 
 Hutchinson to desire permission for himself only to come 
 down, which she gave, and so with only five or six of his 
 party he came. With him Mrs. Hutchinson so easily dealt, 
 that, after she had represented the state of things to him, 
 he began to apologise that he had only taken this command 
 upon himself to preserve the country, and should be ready 
 to submit to any lawful authority; and he and his men were 
 not come for any other intent but to prevent disturbance 
 of the peace and gatherings together of men, who, they were 
 informed, intended to rise in these parts. Mrs. Hutchinson 
 smiling, told him it was necessary for him to keep a good 
 guard, for all the whole country would shortly be weary of 
 their yoke, and, no question, would find some authority to 
 shelter them. At last he went so far as to desire her to let 
 the colonel know he intended him no mischief, but he and all 
 his men should be at her command to defend her from the 
 insolencies of any others. She heard him without faith, for 
 she knew the good will they pretended to her husband pro- 
 ceeded only from their fear, It is true that at that time the 
 
3 I 2 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 colonel had met with Colonel Hacker, and several other 
 gentlemen of Northampton and Warwickshire, and at the. 
 same time Major Beque was to have reduced Coventry, and 
 another colonel Warwick Castle. Two regiments of horse 
 should have marched to a place within seven miles of Colonel 
 Hutchinson’s house, where his men should have rendez- 
 voused, and the town of Nottingham at the same time to have 
 seized all the soldiers there, and they of Leicester the like. 
 These people had, through the spies that were about the 
 colonel, gotten some little inkling of his rendezvous, but not 
 right, neither could they have prevented it, had they desired.^ 
 But just before it should have been put into execution the 
 parliament were restored to their seats, Lambert was deserted 
 by his men and fled, and Monk was marching on southwards, 
 pretending to restore and confirm the parliament; insomuch 
 that Colonel Hutchinson, instead of raising his country, was 
 called up to his seat in parliament. Here there were so many 
 favourers of Lambert, Fleetwood, and their partakers, that 
 the colonel, who used to be very silent, could not now forbear 
 high opposition to them ; in whose favour things were carried 
 with such a stream, that the colonel then began to lose all 
 hopes of settling this poor land on any righteous foundation. 
 
 It was the 26th of December, 1659, that the parliament 
 met again. The manner of it, and the contest and treaty in 
 the north between Monk and Lambert, are too well known to 
 be repeated; the dissimulations and false protestations that 
 Monk made are too public; yet the colonel and others sus- 
 pected him, but knew not how to hinder him ; for this insolent 
 usurpation of Lambert’s had so turned the hearts of all men, 
 that the whole nation began to set their eyes upon the king 
 beyond the sea, and think a bad settlement under him better 
 than none at all, or than being under the arbitrary power of 
 such proud rebels as Lambert. The whole house was divided 
 
 ^ Perhaps this crisis was the most favourable to the cause of liberty 
 of any that had occurred; for the genuine assertors of it would, at this 
 moment, have found all the different factions weakened, and the body 
 of the nation so tired of tumult and anarchy, that, had they now stood 
 forth in any force, the voice of reason would in all probability have 
 prevailed. But the fluctuations of power and party were at this time 
 so frequent and sudden as hardly to leave sufficient interval for any 
 enterprise that required combination. Moreover it is to be considered 
 that the march of patriotism is impeded by reserves and restraints 
 which ambition overleaps in its career; and after all it is perhaps 
 justly observed, that Colonel Hutchinson was too unambitious for his 
 own glor}^ or the public good. 
 
Difficulties of the Restored Parliament 3 i 3 
 
 I into miserable factions^ among whom some would then have 
 I violently set up an oath of renunciation of the king and his 
 ! family. The colonel, thinking it a ridiculous thing to swear 
 out a man^ when they had no power to defend themselves 
 j against him^ vehemently opposed that oath^ and carried it 
 ! against Sir Ar. Haslerig and others, who as violently pressed 
 I it; urging very truly that those oaths that had been formerly 
 imposed had but multiplied the sins of the nation by perjuries ; 
 instancing how Sir Arthur and others, in Oliver’s time, 
 coming into the house, swore on their entrance they would 
 attempt nothing in the change of that government, which, as 
 soon as ever they were entered, they laboured to throw down. 
 Many other arguments he used, whereupon many honest men, 
 who thought till then he had followed a faction in all things, 
 and not his own judgment, began to meet often with him, and 
 to consult what to do in these difficulties, out of which their 
 prudence and honesty would have found a way to extricate 
 themselves; but that the end of our prosperity was come, 
 hastened on partly by the mad rash violence of some that, 
 without strength, opposed the tide of the discontented 
 tumultuous people, partly by the detestable treachery of 
 those who had sold themselves to do mischief, but chiefly 
 by the general stream of the people, who were as eager for 
 their own destruction as the Israelites of old for their quails.^ 
 One observation of the colonel’s I cannot omit, that the 
 secluded members whom Monk brought in were, many of 
 them, so brought over to a commonwealth that, if Sir Ar. 
 Haslerig and his party had not forsaken their places because 
 they would not sit with them, they would have made the 
 strongest party in the house, but which by reason of their 
 going off were afterwards outvoted in all things.^ 
 
 ^ A frank acknowledgment that the independent parliament, how- 
 ever good the intentions of many of them might be, had become un- 
 popular; but with the general mass of mankind the escape from any 
 present evil is paramount to all future considerations. Perhaps this 
 reflux of the public mind was the most effectual cause of the counter 
 revolution, without which Monk might have plotted in vain. And thus 
 perhaps in this, as in so many other instances, Mrs. Hutchinson’s 
 natural and rational way of tracing and unfolding the causes of great 
 events will be found to bring us much nearer to the truth than all the 
 subtleties employed by others ! 
 
 2 We do not know this circumstance to have been noticed by any 
 other historian; but it appears much more probable than that the 
 secluded members should have been unanimous, and that in measures 
 of such transcendant import as were now to be decided upon. For this 
 
3 1 4 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper at that time insinuated himself 
 into a particular friendship with the colonel^ and made him 
 all the honourable pretences that can be imagined; called 
 him his dear friend, and caressed him with such embraces as 
 none but a traitor as vile as himself could have suspected; 
 yet was he the most intimate of Monk’s confidants. Where- 
 upon some few days before the rising of that house^ when it 
 began to be too apparent which way Monk inclined, the 
 colonel, upon the confidence of his friendship, entreated him 
 to tell him what were Monk’s intentions, that he and others 
 might consider their safety, who were likely to be given up 
 as a public sacrifice. Cooper denied to the death any inten- 
 tion besides a commonwealth; “ but,” said he, with the 
 greatest semblance of reality that could be put on, if the 
 violence of the people should bring the king upon us, let me 
 
 secession Whitelocke blames and Ludlow commends Sir Arthur Hasel- 
 rig and his friends; their total ruin, which ensued, decides the ques- 
 tion. 
 
 In support of the opinions and statements contained in this and the 
 two next following pages, are adduced the following out of many 
 extracts that might be made from the third volume of Clarendon’s 
 State Papers. Page 687, Broderick to Hyde, Dec. 30, 1659, ridicules 
 the idea of its being possible to establish the Rump ; says Vane, Salway, 
 and Whitelocke sit without blush or excuse; Haslerig must ruin them 
 or be ruined. A. A. Cooper desires to establish these people. Hasle- 
 rig would admit the secluded members provided they would renounce 
 a single person and the line of the Stuarts. 
 
 Page 696, Do. to Do. March 9, 1659-60. “ Of Monk I have much 
 
 more reason to hope better than you apprehend, and would lose the 
 hand with which I pay you this duty, that Mr. Edmondson (the king) 
 had inclosed an answer to Howard by this conveyance, time being very 
 precious, and what a day may produce known only to the prescience 
 of Almighty God. All the progress that can be made without is care- 
 fully pursued, nor shall anything be wanting any care can supply. 
 The last night’s conference between the officers of the army and the 
 members is so variously reported, even by themselves (with several of 
 whom I have this morning discoursed), that it is hard to give a narra- 
 tive of particulars; the main they agree in, viz. that the demands 
 were, indemnity for all past actions, confirmation of all purchases, sale 
 of what remains to the state in the king’s houses, forests, etc., towards 
 the payment of arrears; with some sharp reflections on the mihtia of 
 several counties put into disaffected hands. 
 
 “ Sir William Lewis ” (one of the secluded members, as appears by 
 Dugdale’s list, and who evidently had joined Colonel Hutchinson’s 
 party since his return), “ Arthur Annesley, and Colonel Hutchinson, 
 endeavoured their satisfaction by repeating the acts already passed in 
 their favour, justifying many persons so chosen, p^^omises of arrears, 
 with whatever else they thought reasonable to urge against the in- 
 trusion of military stipendiaries upon the privilege of parliament. 
 Haslerig and some of his faction abetted the soldiery, but all ended 
 fairly, though far from satisfaction. The general had indeed before 
 declared that he expected their obedience to the supreme authority. 
 
Tempted by the King’s Party 3 i 5 
 
 be dammed, body and soul, if ever I see a hair of any man’s 
 head touched, or a penny of any man’s estate, upon this 
 quarrel.” This he backed with so many and such deep 
 protestations of that kind, as made the colonel, after his 
 treachery was apparent, detest him of all mankind, and think 
 himself obliged, if ever he had opportunity, to procure exem- 
 plary justice on him, who was so vile a wretch as to sit himself 
 and sentence some of those that died. And although this 
 man joined with those who laboured for the colonel’s parti- 
 cular deliverance, yet the colonel, to his dying day, abhorred 
 the mention of his name, and held him to be a more execrable 
 traitor than Monk himself. At this time the colonel, as 
 before, was by many of his friends tempted every way to fall 
 in with the king’s interest, and often offered both pardon and 
 preferment, if he could be wrought off from his party, whose 
 danger was now laid before him: but they could in no way 
 move him.^ A gentleman that had been employed to tamper 
 with him told me, that he found him so unmovable, that one 
 time he and a certain lord being in the colonel’s company, 
 and having begun their vain insinuations, he, to decline them, 
 seeing Cooper, went away with him; upon which this lord, 
 that had some tenderness for the colonel, said to this gentle- 
 man, “ The colonel in a ruined man; he believes that traitor, 
 
 not their usurpation of it ; adding that it would be easier to find officers 
 in the room of those that remained obstinate, than for them to find 
 regiments if the house should deny pay. Upon the whole, I am com- 
 manded to tell you that we suffered nothing in the conference. Hasle- 
 rig concluded there was no other basis to build on than the parUament. 
 Colonels Rich, Scott, and the rest who hitherto refrained, now enter 
 the house with faint hopes of opposing the general current. We make 
 no doubt of success everywhere. All people cry out, the king! the 
 king ! some indeed add, he must come in on terms ; and why doth he 
 not prevent the imposition by a fair offer pubhshed authentically, to 
 release fears, settle their minds, and render his entrance facile.” 
 
 The same to the king, March 10, 1659-60, says, “ Monk declared he 
 would acquiesce in the judgment of the parliament both as to king and 
 lords. Another day he would spend the last drop of his blood rather 
 than the Stuarts should ever come into England; but he is in good 
 temper again the same night.” 
 
 1 It was hard for him, after this, to be accused by Ludlow of treachery 
 and connivance with the king’s friends; but Ludlow was at this time 
 engaged in a different party, perhaps envious of him for escaping with 
 impunity, when himself despaired of doing so, and went into voluntary 
 exile : and besides Sir A. Ashley Cooper may have stipulated for Colonel 
 Hutchinson’s indemnity gratuitously ; while most people suppose that 
 some conditions were imposed. His moderation in a time of phrenzy 
 was surely a sufficient argument, and was probably that which Cooper 
 used in support of the man whom he was forced to esteem, though he 
 did not choose to imitate him 
 
3 1 6 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 who will ruin him.” When they could not work upon him 
 one way^ some^ that were most kindly concerned in him^ per- 
 suaded him to absent himself and not act for the parliament^ 
 and undertook with their lives to secure him^ but he would 
 not. He foresaw the mischief^ and resolved to stay in his duty^ 
 waiting upon God^ who accordingly was good to him. Some^ 
 when they saw Monk had betrayed them^ would have fallen in 
 with Lambert^ but the colonel thought any destruction was 
 to be chosen before the sin of joining with such a wretch.^ 
 
 Now was that glorious parliament come to a period, not 
 m.ore fatal to itself than to the three nations, whose sun of 
 liberty then set, and all their glory gave place to the foulest 
 mists that ever overspread a miserable people.^ A new 
 
 ^ This was the point whereupon the heads of the republican party 
 divided, but probably at this day the warmest friends of the liberties 
 of the people will think that it was better to return to a monarchy, 
 though not sufficiently limited and defined, than to fall under a strato- 
 cracy, or government of the army, which this would have been more 
 completely than even that which existed under Cromwell: indeed it 
 is not easy to see which way it would have differed from that of Algiers. 
 Accordingly we do not find Mrs. Hutchinson ever to have repined that 
 the king had been restored in preference to the establishment of such a 
 power; but there were many other modes which might have been 
 adopted, without flying to either of these extremes, had not their 
 passions overpowered the reason of some of the great men of that day. 
 In page 705 of the third volume of Clarendon’s State Papers^ a spy of 
 Charles II. says to the Lords Bedford and Manchester, that Pierrepont, 
 Popham, Waller, and St. John, made a junto to treat with the king 
 before his restitution. But the most obvious method for obtaining a 
 better settlement was that proposed by Whitelocke to Fleetwood, of 
 an offer of their services to the king upon reasonable conditions: this 
 opportunity was lost by hesitation, and an easy triumph left to Monk, 
 whose determined conduct gave efficacy to the small force he possessed. 
 
 ^ If the change in politics was great, the change in morals was much 
 greater: statutes have since retrieved the errors committed in the 
 former; it is doubtful whether the national character in taste and 
 morals has ever freed itself from the taint it then received. 
 
 Under the patronage and example of the king, wit put decency to 
 flight; religion and patriotism, veneration of God and the love of our 
 country, the two noblest affections of the mind, were dragged through 
 the mire of doggrel rhymes, under the pretence of deriding hypocrisy; 
 under the notion of gaiety and good fellowship, profligacy and sensuality 
 gained a footing which they have never quitted, but still maintain 
 their ground, by the dangerous secret then taught them of reducing 
 all by invidious surmises and unjust depreciations nearly to the level 
 of their own baseness. 
 
 The plays and other writings of those days are tinctured with an air 
 of rakishness which often appears affected and misplaced; it was the 
 polite ridicule of the Spectators which put this folly out of countenance 
 and practice. Some modern wits have attempted to revive it, and but 
 for the general turn to philosophical inquiry they would probably have 
 succeeded. Those who reason cannot but see that shameless de- 
 pravity is a very bad substitute for even simulated virtue. 
 
The King’s Return Desired 317 
 
 parliament was to be chosen, and the county of Nottingham 
 had yet such respect for Colonel Hutchinson, that they fixed 
 their eyes on him to be their knight, but Mr. William Pierre- 
 pont having a great desire to bring in his son-in-law, the 
 Lord Haughton, to be his fellow knight, the colonel would 
 not come into the town until the election was passed; which 
 if he had, he had been chosen without desiring it; for many 
 people came, and when they saw he would not stand, returned 
 and voted for none, among whom were fifty freeholders of the 
 town of Newark. 
 
 Some time before the writs for the new elections came, 
 the town of Nottingham, as almost all the rest of the island, 
 began to grow mad, and to declare themselves so, in their 
 desires of the king. The boys, set on by their fathers and 
 masters, got drums and colours, and marched up and down 
 the town, and trained themselves in a military posture, and 
 offered many affronts to the soldiers of the army that were 
 quartered there, which were two troops of Colonel Hacker’s 
 regiment. Insomuch that one night there were about forty 
 of the soldiers hurt and wounded with stones, upon the occa- 
 sion of taking away the drums, when the youths were gather- 
 ing together to m.ake bonfires to burn the Rump,^ as was the 
 custom in those mad days. The soldiers, provoked to rage, 
 shot again, and killed in the scuffle two presbyterians, 
 whereof one was an elder, and an old professor; and one 
 that had been a great zealot for the cause, and master of the 
 magazine of Nottingham Castle. He was only standing at 
 his own door, and whether shot by chance or on purpose, or 
 by whom, it is not certain; but true it is, that at that time 
 the presbyterians were more inveterately bitter against the 
 fanatics than even the cavaliers themselves, and they set on 
 these boys. But upon the killing of this man they were 
 hugely enraged, and prayed very seditiously in their pulpits, 
 and began openly to desire the king; not for good will to 
 him, but only for destruction to all the fanatics. One of the 
 ministers, who were great leaders of the people, had been 
 firmly engaged in Booth’s rebellion, and led on very many 
 of the godly, who, by the timely suppression of those who 
 
 ^ The number of the members of the long parliament having been, 
 by seclusion, death, etc., very much reduced, the remainder was com- 
 pared to the rump of a fowl which was left, all the rest being eaten; 
 and this coarse emblem was burnt in derision by^the mob, to hail and 
 flatter the rising power of the cavaliers. 
 
3 1 8 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 began the insurrection in Nottingham^ were prevented from 
 declaring themselves openly. Colonel Hutchinson was as 
 merciful as he could safely be^ in not setting on too strict 
 inquisition; but privately admonished such as were not 
 passed hopes of becoming good commonwealth’s men^ if it 
 were possible that the labouring state might outlive the 
 present storm. Upon this bustle in the town of Nottingham 
 the soldiers were horribly incensed^ and the townsmen ready 
 to take part with the boys ; whereupon the soldiers drew into 
 the meadows near the town^ and sent for the regiment^ 
 resolving to execute their vengeance on the town^ and the 
 townsmen again were mustering to encounter them. Mrs. 
 Hutchinson by chance coming into the town^ and being ac- 
 quainted with the captains^ persuaded them to do nothing in 
 a tumultuary way, however provoked, but to complain to the 
 general, and let him decide the business. 
 
 The men, at her entreaty, were content so to do, the 
 townsmen also consented to restrain their children and 
 servants, and keep the public peace ; while it was agreed that 
 both of them should send up together a true information 
 to the general concerning the late quarrel. But one of the 
 officers, more enraged than the rest, went away immediately 
 to Monk, and complained to him of the malice of the pres- 
 byterians and cavaliers against the soldiers. He, without 
 asking more on the other side, signed a warrant to Colonel 
 Hacker, to let loose the fury of his regiment upon the town, 
 and plunder all they judged guilty; with which the officer 
 immediately went away. Colonel Hutchinson being at that 
 time at the general’s lodging, my Lord Howard told him 
 what order against the town of Nottingham had just been 
 sent down. The colonel, who had been by his wife informed 
 of the disorders there, went to the general, and prevailed 
 with him for a countermand of all hostility against the town, 
 till he should hear and determine the business ; which counter- 
 mand the colonel sent immediately by one of the townsmen, 
 who, though he rode post, came not till Colonel Hacker, 
 with all his regiment, were come into the town before him, 
 and the soldiers were in some of the houses beginning to 
 rifle them. Wherefore the countermand coming so season- 
 ably from Colonel Hutchinson, they could not but look upon 
 him as their deliverer; and this being done a very few days 
 before the election for the next parliament, when the colonel 
 
Return of the King 319 
 
 came to town and had waived the county, they generally 
 pitched upon him for the town. But then Dr. Plumptre 
 laboured all he could to get the burgess-ship for himself, and 
 to put by the colonel, with the basest scandals he and two or 
 three of his associates could raise. Mr. Arthur Stanhope, in 
 whose house the soldiers were entered to plunder, being 
 pitched upon for the other burgess, and having a great party 
 in the town, was dealt with to desert the colonel, and offered 
 all Plumptre’s party; but he, on the other side, laboured 
 more for the colonel than for himself, and at length, when 
 the election day came, Mr. Stanhope and the colonel were 
 clearly chosen.^ 
 
 The colonel and Mr. Stanhope went up to the parliament, 
 which began on the 25th day of April, 1660; to whom the 
 king sending a declaration from Breda, which promised, or 
 at least intimated, liberty of conscience, remission of all 
 offences, enjoyment of liberties and estates; they voted to 
 send commissioners to invite him.^ And almost all the 
 gentry of all parties went, some to fetch him over, some to 
 meet him at the sea side, some to fetch him into London, 
 into which he entered on the 29th day of May, with a uni- 
 versal joy and triumph, even to his own amazement; who, 
 when he saw all the nobility and gentry of the land flowing 
 in to him, asked where were his enemies. For he saw 
 nothing but prostrates, expressing all the love that could 
 make a prince happy. Indeed it was a wonder in that day to 
 see the mutability of some, and the hypocrisy of others, and 
 the servile flattery of all. Monk, like his better genius, con- 
 ducted him, and was adored like one that had brought all 
 the glory and felicity of mankind home with this prince. 
 
 The officers of the army had made themselves as fine as 
 
 1 Both Whitelocke and Ludlow assure us, that there were great 
 solicitations in all parts to get to be parliament-men ; and Rapin says, 
 that almost all the elections were in favour of the presbyterians and 
 royalists, peculiarly the former. This circumstance renders Colonel 
 Hutchinson’s popularity and personal merit so much the more con- 
 spicuous. 
 
 ^ That the parUament, and this, as Rapin calls it, a presbyterian par- 
 liament, should thus simply and unconditionally have invited the king, 
 has always been matter of astonishment. The first to find out the 
 error into which their precipitancy had led them were the royahsts, 
 and of them the best, the Earl of Southampton, who by Burnet, p. 89, 
 is said to have laid the chief blame on Chancellor Hyde. But was it 
 not equally in the power of the parliament after the king’s arrival to 
 have imposed any reasonable conditions, at least before they established 
 for him such an income as to render him independent ? 
 
320 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 the courtiers^ and all hoped in this change to change their 
 condition, and disowned all things they before had advised. 
 Every ballad singer sang up and down the streets ribald 
 rhymes, made in reproach of the late commonwealth, and of 
 all those worthies that therein endeavoured the people’s 
 freedom and happiness. 
 
 The presbyterians ^ were now the white boys, and according 
 to their nature fell a thirsting, and then hunting after blood, 
 urging that God’s blessing could not be upon the land, till 
 justice had cleansed it from the late king’s blood. First 
 that fact was disowned, then all the acts made after it ren- 
 dered void, then an inquisition made after those that were 
 guilty thereof, but only seven were nominated of those that 
 sat in judgment on that prince, for exemplary justice, and a 
 proclamation sent for the rest to come in, upon penalty of 
 losing their estates. 
 
 While these things were debating in the house, at the first, 
 divers persons concerned in that business sat there, and when 
 the business came into question, every one of them spoke of 
 it according to their present sense. But Mr. Lenthall, son to 
 the late Speaker of that parliament, when the presbyterians 
 first called that business into question, though not at all con- 
 cerned in it himself, stood up and made such a handsome and 
 honourable speech in defence of them all, as deserves eternal 
 honour. But the presbyterians called him to the bar for it, 
 where, though he mitigated some expressions, which might 
 be ill taken of the house, yet he spoke so generously, that it 
 will never be forgotten of him. Herein he behaved himself 
 with so much courage and honour as was not matched at 
 that time in England, for which he was looked on with an 
 evil eye, and, upon a pretence of treason, put in prison; 
 from whence his father’s money, and the lieutenant of the 
 tower’s jealousy, delivered him. When it came to Ingoldsby ’s 
 
 ^ It has been pretty generally reported and believed of the king, that 
 he was more inclined to confirm and augment than disturb or diminish 
 the extent of the amnesty he had pro&red at Breda; and there are 
 upon record very honourable instances of many of the royalists exhibit- 
 ing a spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation; perhaps the most rational 
 way of accounting for the chief of the presbyterian party showing 
 rigour, is to suppose that they did it in order to remove from themselves 
 the odium of those violences of which they had been the original and 
 remote cause, and to cast it on those who were the immediate and 
 proximate ones. Be the cause or reasoning what it may, the fact is 
 well established by the trials of the regicides. 
 
His Defence 
 
 321 
 
 turn^ he^ with many tears, professed his repentance for that 
 murder, and told a false tale, how Cromwell held his hand, 
 and forced him to subscribe the sentence, and made a most 
 whining recantation, after which he retired ; and another had 
 almost ended, when Colonel Hutchinson, who was not there 
 at the beginning, came in, and was told w^hat they were about, 
 and that it would be expected he should say something. He 
 was surprised with a thing he expected not, yet neither then, 
 nor in any like occasion, did he ever fail himself, but told 
 them, “ That for his actings in those days, if he had erred, 
 it was the inexperience of his age, and the defect of his 
 judgment, and not the malice of his heart, which had ever 
 prompted him to pursue the general advantage of his country 
 more than his own ; and if the sacrifice of him might conduce 
 to the public peace and settlement, he should freely submit 
 his life and fortunes to their disposal; that the vain expense 
 of his age, and the great debts his public employments had 
 run him into, as they were testimonies that neither avarice 
 nor any other interest had carried him on, so they yielded 
 him just cause to repent that he ever forsook his own blessed 
 quiet, to embark in such a troubled sea, where he had made 
 shipwreck of all things but a good conscience; and as to 
 that particular action of the king, he desired them to believe 
 he had that sense of it that befitted an Englishman, a Chris- 
 tian, and a gentleman.’’ ^ What he expressed was to this 
 effect, but so very handsomely delivered, that it took gener- 
 ally the whole house; only one gentleman stood up and 
 said, he had expressed himself as one that was much more 
 sorry for the events and consequences than the actions; but 
 another replied, that when a man’s words might admit of two 
 interpretations, it befitted gentlemen always to receive that 
 which might be most favourable. As soon as the colonel had 
 spoken, he retired into a room where Ingoldsby was with his 
 eyes yet red, who had called up a little spite to succeed his 
 whinings, and embracing Colonel Hutchinson, O colonel,” 
 said he, “ did I ever imagine we could be brought to this? 
 Could I have suspected it, when I brought them Lambert in 
 
 ^ This speech will probably be considered as a specimen of art carried 
 as far as a man of honour would permit himself to go, and managed 
 with as much refinement and dexterity as the longest premeditation 
 could have produced; accordingly it furnished his friends with a topic 
 for his defence, without giving his adversaries grounds for reproaching 
 him with tergiversation. 
 
 L 
 
32:2 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 the other day^ this sword should have redeemed us from 
 being dealt with as criminals^ by that people for whom we 
 had so gloriously exposed ourselves.” The colonel told him 
 he had foreseen^ ever since those usurpers thrust out the 
 lawful authority of the land to enthrone themselves^ it could 
 end in nothing else; but the integrity of his hearty in all he 
 had done, made him as cheerfully ready to suffer as to 
 triumph in a good cause. The result of the house that day 
 was to suspend Colonel Hutchinson and the rest from sitting 
 in the house. Monk, after all his great professions, now sat 
 still, and had not one word to interpose for any person, but 
 was as forward to set vengeance on foot as any man. 
 
 Mrs. Hutchinson, whom to keep quiet, her husband had 
 hitherto persuaded that no man would lose or suffer by this 
 change, at this beginning was awakened, and saw that he 
 was ambitious of being a public sacrifice, and therefore, 
 herein only in her whole life, resolved to disobey him, and 
 to improve all the affection he had to her for his safety, and 
 prevailed with him to retire ; for she said, she would not live 
 to see him a prisoner. With her unquietness, she drove him 
 out of her own lodgings into the custody of a friend, in order 
 to his further retreat, if occasion should be, and then made 
 it her business to solicit all her friends for his safety. Mean- 
 while, it was first resolved in the house, that mercy should 
 be shown to some, and exemplary justice to others; then 
 the number was defined, and voted it should not exceed 
 seven; then upon the king’s own solicitation, that his sub- 
 jects should be put out of their fears, those seven were named, 
 and after that a proclamation was sent for the rest to come 
 in. Colonel Hutchinson not being of the number of those 
 seven, was advised by all his friends to surrender himself, 
 in order to secure his estate, and he was very earnest to do 
 it, when Mrs. Hutchinson would by no means hear of it: 
 but being exceedingly urged by his friends, that she would 
 hereby obstinately lose all their estate, she would not yet 
 consent that the colonel should give himself into custody, 
 and she had wrought him to a strong engagement, that he 
 would not dispose of himself without her. At length, being 
 accused of obstinacy, in not giving him up, she devised a way 
 to try the house, and wrote a letter in his name to the 
 Speaker, to urge what might be in his favour, and to let 
 him know, that by reason of some inconveniency it might 
 
Mrs. Hutchinson’s Letter 323 
 
 be to him^ he desired not to come under custody^ and yet 
 should be ready to appear at their call ; and if they intended 
 any mercy to him^ he begged they would begin it in per- 
 mitting him his liberty upon his parole^ till they should 
 finally determine of him. This letter she conceived would 
 try the temper of the house; if they granted this^ she had 
 her end^ for he was still free; if they denied it, she might 
 be satisfied in keeping him from surrendering himself. 
 
 Having contrived and written this letter, before she carried 
 it to the colonel, a friend came to her out of the house, near 
 which her lodgings then were, and told her that if they had 
 but any ground to begin, the house was that day in a most 
 excellent temper towards her husband ; whereupon she wrote 
 her husband’s name to the letter, and ventured to send it in, 
 being used sometimes to write the letters he dictated, and 
 her character not much differing from his. These gentle- 
 men who were moved to try this opportunity, were not the 
 friends she relied on; but God, to show that it was he, not 
 they, sent two common friends, who had such good success 
 that the letter was very well received ; and upon *that occa- 
 sion all of all parties spoke so kindly and effectually for him, 
 that he had not only what he desired, but was voted to be 
 free without any engagement ; and his punishment was only 
 that he should be discharged from the present parliament, 
 and from all offices, military or civil, in the state for ever; 
 and upon his petition of thanks for this, his estate also was 
 voted to be free from all mulcts and confiscations. Many 
 providential circumstances concurred in this thing. That 
 which put the house into so good a humour towards the 
 colonel that day, was, that having taken the business of the 
 king’s trial into consideration, certain committees were found 
 to be appointed to order the preparation of the court, the 
 chairs and cushions, and other formalities, wherein Colonel 
 Hutchinson had nothing to do ; ^ but when they had passed 
 their votes for his absolute discharge and came to the sitting 
 of the court, he was found not to have been one day away. A 
 rogue that had been one of their clerks had brought in all 
 
 ^ In Nelson’s Trial of Charles it appears, that on Friday, January 
 12, when a committee was appointed for ordering the trial, and many 
 minute particulars agreed to for the management of it. Colonel Hutchin- 
 son was absent, but attended most other days. On January 25, how- 
 ever, when the sentence was suggested, he was absent, but was present 
 at the signing, and himself signed the warrant for execution. 
 
324 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 these informations; and above all, poor Mrs. Hacker, think- 
 ing to save her husband, had brought up the warrant for 
 execution, with all their hands and seals. ^ 
 
 Sir Allen Apsley too, who, with all the kindest zeal of 
 friendship that can be imagined, endeavoured to bring off the 
 colonel, and used some artifice in engaging his friends for 
 him. There was a young gentleman, a kinsman of his, who 
 thirstily aspired after preferment, and Sir Allen had given 
 him hopes, upon his effectual endeavours for the colonel, 
 to introduce him ; who being a person that had understand- 
 ing enough, made no conscience of truth, when an officious lie 
 might serve his turn. This man, although he owed his life 
 to the colonel, and had a thousand obligations to Mrs. 
 Hutchinson’s parents, yet not for their sakes, nor for virtue, 
 nor for gratitude, but for his own hopes, which he had of 
 Sir Allen Apsley, told some of the leading men among the 
 court party, that it was the king’s desire to have favour 
 shown to the colonel; whereupon Mr. Palmer, since Castle- 
 main,^ was the first man that spoke for the colonel, whom 
 Pinch most eloquently seconded. Then Sir George Booth 
 ■and his party all appeared for the colonel, in gratitude for 
 his civility to them. For when the parliament had passed 
 by the rebellion of Lambert and Fleetwood, and those who 
 joined with them, and would not make their offences capital, 
 he had told the house, they could not without great par- 
 tiality punish these, and had moved much in their favour. 
 Mr. Pierrepont, and all the old sage parliament men, out of 
 very hearty kindness, spoke and laboured very effectually to 
 bring him clear off ; and there was not at that day any man 
 that received a more general testimony of love and good 
 esteem from all parties than he did, not one of the most 
 violent hunters of blood opposing favour, and divers mo§t 
 worthy persons giving a true and honourable testimony of 
 
 ^ To those who have not read or not remembered the trials of the 
 regicides, it may be useful to remark, that Colonel Hacker was tried 
 for superintending the execution of the king in his military capacity, 
 for which it seems this warrant was expected to prove a sufficient 
 justification: and perhaps it ought to have been so considered: but 
 it is extraordinary that his wife, before she gave up an instrument 
 which seemed so precious to those who were seeking revenge, had not 
 stipulated for her husband’s pardon. 
 
 2 This Mr. Palmer was the husband of the celebrated Mrs. Palmer, 
 mistress to Charles II., afterwards created Lady Castlemain and 
 Duchess of Cleveland. See Grammonfs Memoirs. 
 
Discharged the House 325 
 
 him. Although they knew his principles to be contrary to' 
 theirs, yet they so justified his clear and upright carriage, 
 according to his own persuasion, that it was a record much 
 advancing his honour, and such as no man else in that day 
 received.^ 
 
 Yet though he very well deserved it, I cannot so much 
 attribute that universal concurrence that was in the whole 
 house to express esteem for him and desire to save him,, 
 to their justice and gratitude, as to an overruling power of 
 Him that orders all men’s hearts, v/ho was then pleased to 
 reserve his servant, even by the good and true testimony of 
 some that afterwards hated him and sought his ruin, for the 
 perseverance in that goodness, which then forced them to be 
 his advocates; for even the worst and basest men have a 
 secret conviction of worth and virtue, which they never dare 
 to persecute in its own name. The colonel being thus dis- 
 charged the house, retired to a lodging further from West- 
 minster, and lay very private in the town, not coming into 
 any company of one sort or other, waiting till the act of 
 oblivion were perfected, to go down again into the country; 
 but when the act came to be passed in the house, then the 
 Lord Lexington set divers friends at work in the commons^ 
 house to get a proviso inserted, that the Newarkers’ money, 
 which he paid into the committee of Haberdashers’ Hall, 
 and was by that committee paid to the colonel for his pay, 
 might, with all the use of it, be paid out of the colonel’s 
 estate. He forged many false pretences to obtain this; but 
 it was rejected in the commons’ house, and the bill going up 
 to the lords, it was passed without any provisoes. Only the 
 gentlemen who were the late king’s judges, and who were 
 decoyed to surrender themselves to custody by the house’s- 
 proclamation, after they had voted only seven to suffer, were • 
 now given up to trial, both for their lives and estates, and puL 
 into close prison; where they were miserably kept, brought 
 shortly after to trial, condemned, and all their estates con- 
 fiscated and taken away, themselves kept in miserable bond- 
 age under that inhuman, bloody jailor, the lieutenant of the 
 Tower, who stifled some of them to death for want of air; 
 and when they had not one penny, but what was given them 
 
 ^ Mr. Lassels (probably Lascelles) enjoyed exactly a similar exemp- 
 tion, the peculiar reasons for it are not accurately known, but it is 
 natural to suppose they were similar. 
 
326 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 to feed themselves and their families, exacted abominable 
 rates for bare, unfurnished prisons; of some forty pounds 
 for one miserable chamber; of others double, besides undue 
 and unjust fees, which their poor wives were forced to beg 
 and engage their jointures and make miserable shifts for; 
 and yet this rogue had all this while three pounds a week 
 paid out of the exchequer for every one of them. At last, 
 when this would not kill them fast enough, and when some 
 alms were thus privately stolen into them, they were sent 
 away to remote and dismal islands, where relief could not 
 reach them, nor any of their relations take care of them : in 
 this they were a thousand times more miserable than those 
 that died, who were thereby prevented from the eternal in- 
 famy and remorse, which hope of life and estate made these 
 poor men bring upon themselves, by base and false recanta- 
 tions of their own judgments, against their consciences; 
 which they wounded for no advantage, but lived ever after- 
 wards in misery themselves, augmented by seeing the misery 
 of their wretched families, and in the daily apprehension of 
 death, which, without any more formality, they are to expect 
 whenever the tyrant gives the word. And these are the 
 
 tender mercies of the wicked ^ Among which I cannot 
 forget one passage that I saw. Monk and his wife, before 
 they were removed to the Tower, while they were yet pri- 
 soners at Lambeth House, came one evening to the garden 
 and caused them to be brought down only to stare at them, 
 — which was such a barbarism, for that man, who had be- 
 
 ^ Almost all who have written any account of the transactions of 
 those days show a desire to gratify the faction which then prevailed, 
 and have endeavoured to establish a notion that great lenity was shown 
 to all the regicides who were not of the seven excepted: what it was 
 we here learn. 
 
 The English nation have long dealt on the hackneyed theme of 
 French oppression, lettres de cachet, bastilles, etc., and have affected 
 an ignorance of what has passed here, in full sight of a British parlia- 
 ment. Those who have viewed the matter near at hand know very 
 well that these superlative powers were not at all more dangerous, nor 
 so much abused in France as here, nor the treatment near so rigorous. 
 The prisons of state there were always under the command of noble- 
 men and military officers, who were little likely to practise the jailor’s 
 arts. The more any office is despised, the more vile hands will it fall 
 into, and the more atrociously will it be executed; this reasoning 
 sufficiently establishes the necessity of watching with a jealous eye the 
 conduct of these ministers of justice, if such they should be called, in a 
 country like this. A more desolating picture of misery long drawn 
 out can hardly be imagined. We shall again have to notice the con- 
 duct of this lieutenant of the Tower. 
 
Exertions in His Favour 
 
 327 
 
 trayed so many poor men to death and misery that never 
 hurt him^ but who had honoured him^ and had trusted their 
 lives and interest with him, to glut his bloody eyes with 
 beholding them in their bondage, that no story can parallel 
 this inhumanity. 
 
 Colonel Scrope, who had been cleared by vote as the 
 colonel was, was afterwards rased out for nothing, and had 
 the honour to die a noble martyr. 
 
 Although the colonel was cleared both for life and estate in 
 the house of commons, yet he not answering the court expecta- 
 tions in public recantations and dissembled repentance, and 
 applause of their cruelty to his fellows, the chancellor was 
 cruelly exasperated against him, and there were very great 
 endeavours to have rased him out of the act of oblivion. But 
 then Sir Allen Apsley solicited all his friends, as if it had 
 been for his own life, and divers honourable persons drew up a 
 certificate, with all the advantage they could, to procure him 
 favour ; who in all things that were not against the interest of 
 the state had ever pitied and protected them in their dis- 
 tresses.^ The Countess of Rochester wrote a very effectual 
 letter to the Earl of Manchester, making her request that the 
 favour to him might be confirmed as an obligation to her, 
 to quit some that she, and, as she supposed, her lord had 
 received from him. This letter was read in the house, and 
 Sir Allen Apsley’s candidate for preferment again made no 
 conscience of deceiving several lords, that the preserving of 
 the colonel would be acceptable to the king and the chan- 
 cellor, who he now knew hated his life. Many lords also of the 
 colonel’s relations and acquaintance, out of kindness and 
 gratitude (for there was not one of them whom he had not 
 in his day more or less obliged), used very hearty endeavours 
 for him. Yet Sir Allen Apsley’s interest and most fervent 
 endeavours for him, was that only which turned the scales, 
 and the colonel was not excepted in the act of oblivion to 
 anything but offices. 
 
 ^ The Countess of Rochester was the wife of Wilmot, general of the 
 horse for the king, who upon disgust quitted his service, and, receiving 
 a passport, went abroad; his wife expressed loyalty to, and received 
 much favour from, the parliament, as Whitelocke informs us; very 
 likely by the procurement of Colonel Hutchinson. The passage before 
 us (and many others such like) may serve as a useful memento to those 
 who are engaged in civil broils, to maintain all they can of private 
 kindness, consistently with what they think their public duty. Fo 
 the honour of human nature let due notice be taken of the steady 
 friendship of Sir Allen Apsley. ' 
 
328 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 The provisoes to the act of oblivion were all cut off, and it 
 was determined that those things should pass in particular 
 acts; when the Lord Lexington got one for that Newark 
 money to be repaid out of the colonel’s estate, with all the 
 interest for fourteen years. This act was committed, and the 
 colonel had counsel to plead against it, and the Marquis 
 Dorchester^ having the chair, was wonderfully civil to the 
 colonel. The adverse counsel, having been men that 
 practised under the parliament, thought they could no way 
 ingratiate themselves so well as by making invectives against 
 those they formerly clawed with, and when, quite beside 
 their matter, they fell into railings against the injustice of 
 the former times and scandals of the colonel, the marquis 
 checked them severely, and bade them mind their cause: 
 but Mr. Finch, one of the colonel’s counsel, after a lawyer 
 had made a long railing speech, which held them a tedious 
 while, he replied, “ My lord, this gentleman hath taken up 
 a great deal of time to tell your lordship how unjust that 
 parliament was, how their committees perverted judgment 
 and right, which he sets forth with all his power of language 
 to make them odious, and in conclusion would persuade your 
 lordship therefore to do the same things.” After the hearing 
 at the committee, a report was made so favourable for the 
 colonel that the bill was cast aside, and the house being then 
 ready to adjourn, most of the colonel’s friends went out of 
 town, which opportunity Lexington taking notice of, the 
 very last day in a huddle got the bill past the lords’ house.^ 
 
 Then the colonel went down into the country, and found 
 it necessary to reduce and change his family, which were 
 many of them people he took in for charity, when they could 
 no where else be received; and they had been more humble 
 
 ^ The same whom, when Viscount Newark, Colonel Hutchinson 
 rescued from the violence of the countrymen at Nottingham; to 
 whom afterwards the colonel made, at the request of her friends, the 
 offer of the hand and fortune of Lady Anne Somerset, and who so 
 handsomely now evinces his candour and gratitude. His character 
 is well contrasted with that of Lord Lexington, who in the first place 
 obtained a peerage for the sacrifice of this very money; next refused 
 payment of it to the Newarkers, of whom he had borrowed it; then, 
 upon being compelled to pay it, procured easy terms by the colonel’s 
 interference; and now attempts to plunder his benefactor of the 
 whole ! 
 
 ^ The practice of parliament at that time must have differed from 
 what it now is, for such a bill to originate in the house of lords: we 
 shall presently see it miscarry in the commons. 
 
His Studies in the Country 329 
 
 and dutiful while they were under hatches^ but now that they 
 might find better preferments, they were not to be confided 
 in; yet he dismissed not any of them without bountiful 
 rewards, and such kind dismissions as none but that false 
 generation would not have been obliged by. But some of 
 them soon afterwards betrayed him as much as was in their 
 power, who§e prudence had so lived with them, that they 
 knew nothing that could hurt his person. 
 
 When the colonel saw how the other poor gentlemen were 
 trepanned that were brought in by proclamation, and how the 
 whole cause itself, from the beginning to the ending, was 
 betrayed and condemned, notwithstanding that he himself, 
 by a wonderfully overruling providence of God, in that day 
 was preserved; yet he looked upon himself as judged in 
 their judgment, and executed in their execution; and 
 although he was most thankful to God, yet he was not very 
 well satisfied in himself for accepting the deliverance. His 
 wife, who thought she had never deserved so well of him, as 
 in the endeavours and labours she exercised to bring him off, 
 never displeased him more in her life, and had much ado to 
 persuade him to be contented with his deliverance; which, 
 as it was eminently wrought by God, he acknowledged it 
 with thankfulness. But while he saw others suffer, he 
 suffered with them in his mind, and, had not his wife per- 
 suaded him, he had offered himself a voluntary sacrifice; 
 but being by her convinced that God’s eminent appearance 
 seemed to have singled him out for preservation, he with 
 thanks acquiesced in that thing; and further remembering 
 that he was but young at the time when he entered into this 
 engagement, and that many who had preached and led the 
 people into it, and many of that parliament who had declared 
 it to be treason not to advance and promote that cause, were 
 all now apostatised, and as much preached against it, and 
 called it rebellion and murder, and sat on the tribunal to 
 judge it; he again reflected seriously upon all that was past, 
 and begged humbly of God to enlighten him and show him 
 his sin if ignorance or misunderstanding had led him into 
 error. But the more he examined the cause from the first, 
 the more he became confirmed in it, and from that time set 
 himself to a more diligent study of the scriptures, whereby 
 he attained confirmation in many principles he had before, 
 and daily greater enlightenings concerning the free grace and 
 
 L2 
 
330 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 love of God in Jesus Christy and the spiritual worship under 
 the gospel^ and the gospel liberty, which ought not to be 
 subjected to the wills and ordinances of men in the service 
 of God. This made him rejoice in all he had done in the 
 Lord’s cause, and he would often say, the Lord had not 
 thus eminently preserved him for nothing,, but that he 
 was yet kept for some eminent service or suffering in this 
 cause ; although having been freely pardoned by the present 
 powers, he resolved not to do anything against the king, but 
 thought himself obliged to sit still and wish his prosperity 
 in all things that were not destructive to the interest of 
 Christ and his members on earth; yet as he could not wish 
 well to any ill way, so he believed that God had set him aside, 
 and that therefore he ought to mourn in silence and retired- 
 ness, while he lay under this obligation. 
 
 He had not been long at home before a pursuivant from 
 the council was sent to fetch him from his house at Owthorpe, 
 who carried him to the attorney -general. He, with all 
 preparatory insinuations, how much he would express his 
 gratitude to the king and his repentance for his error, if he 
 would now deal ingenuously, in bearing testimony to what 
 he should be examined, sifted him very thoroughly; but the 
 colonel, who was piqued at heart that they should thus use 
 him, to reserve him with an imagination that he would serve 
 their turns in witnessing to the destruction of the rest, com- 
 posed himself as well as he could, and resolved upon another 
 testimony than they expected, if they had really called him 
 to any. But the attorney-general was so ill-satisfied with 
 his private examination that he would not venture a public 
 one. He dealt with him with all the art and flatteries that 
 could be, to make him but appear, in the least thing, to have 
 deserted his own and embraced the king’s party; and he 
 brought the warrant of execution to the colonel, and would 
 fain have persuaded him to own some of the hands, and to 
 have imparted some circumstances of the sealing, because 
 himself was present. But the colonel answered him, that in 
 a business transacted so many years ago, wherein life was 
 concerned, he durst not bear a testimony, having at that time 
 been so little an observer, that he could not remember the 
 least tittle of that most eminent circumstance, of Cromwell’s 
 forcing Colonel Ingoldsby to set his unwilling hand, which, if 
 his life had depended on that circumstance, he could not have 
 
His Appearance in Court 331 
 
 affirmed. “ And then^ Sir/’ said he^ if I have lost so great 
 a thing as that^ it cannot be expected less eminent passages 
 remain with me.” Then being shown the gentlemen’s hands^ 
 he told him he was not well acquainted v/ith them^ as having 
 had commerce with but few of them by letters ; and those 
 he could own^ he could only say they resembled the writings 
 which he was acquainted with ; among these he only picked 
 out Cromwell’s^ Ireton’s^and my Lord Grey’s. The attorney- 
 general^ very ill-satisfied with his private examination^ dis- 
 missed him; yet was he served with a writ to appear in the 
 court the next day. The colonel had been told that^ when 
 they were in distress for witnesses to make up their formality^ 
 Colonel Ingoldsby had put them upon sending for him, 
 which made him give that instance to the attorney.^ The 
 next day the court sat, and the colonel was fetched in and 
 made to pass before the prisoners’ faces, but examined in 
 nothing; which he much waited for, for the sight of the 
 prisoners, with whom he believed himself to stand at the bar ; 
 and the sight of their judges, among whom was that vile 
 traitor who had sold the men that trusted him; and he that 
 openly said he abhorred the word accommodation, when 
 moderate men would have prevented the war; and the 
 colonel’s own dear friend, who had wished damnation to his 
 soul if he ever suffered penny of any man’s estate, or hair of 
 any man’s head, to be touched ; — the sight of these ^ had so 
 provoked his spirit that, if he had been called to speak, he 
 was resolved to have borne testimony to the cause and 
 against the court; but they asking him nothing, he went to 
 his lodging, and so out of town, and would not come any 
 more into their court, but sent the attorney-general word he 
 could witness nothing, and was sick with being kept in the 
 crowd and in the press, and therefore desired to be excused 
 from coming any more thither. The attorney made a very 
 malicious report of him to the chancellor and to the king, 
 
 1 Risum teneatis. The subject is too serious for laughter, but an 
 involuntary smile will be excited by this sarcasm, so well pointed. It 
 is no wonder the attorney- general did not wish to examine him further! 
 
 ^ Monk, Ashley Cooper, and Hollis. Does not every one feel his 
 indignation roused at this wanton outrage upon decency? Perhaps 
 Colonel Hutchinson’s appearance in court may have been misconstrued 
 by many, as they might be ignorant that it was involuntary, and no 
 one but himself could know that he meant to give evidence contrary 
 to what was desired of him. 
 
332 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 insomuch that his ruin was then determined, and an oppor- 
 tunity only was watched to effect it.^ 
 
 When Sir A. Apsley came to the chancellor he was in a 
 great rage and passion^ and fell upon him with much vehe- 
 mence. “ 0 Nall/^ said he, what have you done? you 
 have saved a man that would be ready, if he had opportunity, 
 to mischief us as much as ever he did.” Sir Allen was forced 
 to stop his mouth, and tell him, that he believed his brother 
 a less dangerous person than those he had brought into the 
 king’s council, meaning Maynard and Glynne ; ^ but the truth 
 is, from that time, all kindness that any one expressed to the 
 colonel was ill resented, and the Countess of Rochester was 
 also severely rebuked for having appeared so kind to the 
 colonel. 
 
 When the parliament sat again, the colonel sent up his 
 wife to solicit his business in the house, that the Lord Lexing- 
 ton’s bill might not pass the lower house. At her first 
 coming to town a parliament-man, a creature of Worcester- 
 house, being in his coach, she out of hers called to him, who 
 was her kinsman, and desired his vigilance to prevent her 
 injury. “ I could wish,” said he, it had been finished last 
 time, for your husband hath lately behaved himself so ill, that 
 it will pass against him.” She answered, ‘‘ I pray let my 
 friends but do their endeavours for me, and then let it be as 
 God will.” He, smiling at her, replied, It is not now as 
 God willy^ hut as we wilL^^ However, notwithstanding many 
 other discouragements, she waited upon the business every 
 day, when her adversaries as diligently solicited against her. 
 One day a friend came out of the house and told her that they 
 were that day so engaged that she might go home and rest 
 secure that nothing would be done; and that day most of her 
 friends were away, and her opposites took this opportunity 
 to bring it into the house, which was now much alienated, 
 especially all the court party, from the colonel ; but God, to 
 
 ^ The king intimated to the lords, when there were disputes on foot 
 respecting the exceptions to the bill of indemnity, that “ other ways 
 might be found to meet with those of turbulent and factious spirits: ” 
 thereby showing that he had, like the rest of his family, secret reserves 
 for rendering insignificant his public acts. 
 
 ^ Maynard and Glynne had chimed in not only with the parliament 
 but with Cromwell, under whom both held offices. The chancellor will 
 hereafter find them dangerous inmates; — in pushing the affair of his 
 accusation and exile. 
 
 ^ This well marks the change of style that had taken place. 
 
His Wife Tempted by a Kinsman 333: 
 
 show that not friends^ nor diligence, preserved our estates, 
 stirred up the hearts of strangers to do us justice, and the bill 
 was thrown out when we had scarce one of those friends we 
 relied on in the house. 
 
 Presently after Mrs. Hutchinson came to town, a kinsman 
 of hers, fallen into the wicked counsels of the court, came to 
 visit her one evening, and had been so freely drinking as to 
 unlock his bosom, when he told her that the king had been 
 lately among them where he was, and told them that they 
 had saved a man, meaning Colonel Hutchinson, who would 
 do the same thing for him that he had done for his father; 
 for he was still unchanged in his principles, and readier to 
 protect than to accuse any of his associates, and would not 
 discover any counsels or designs, or any party, though he was 
 known to have hated them.^ Then this gentleman told her 
 how contemptuous a carriage it was, that he would only own 
 to the signatures of those who were dead, and how they were 
 resolved his pardon should never pass the seal, and what a 
 desperate condition he was reduced to. Having thus af- 
 frighted her, then, to draw her in by examples, he told her 
 how the late statesmen’s wives came and offered them all the 
 informations they had gathered from their husbands, and 
 how she could not but know more than any of them; and if 
 yet she would impart anything that might show her gratitude, 
 she might redeem her family from ruin; and then he parti- 
 cularly told her how her husband had been intimate with 
 Vane, Pierrepont, and St. John, whose counsels they knew had 
 gone far in this matter, and that if she would prevent others 
 in the declaring them, she might much advantage herself. 
 But she told him, she perceived that any safety one could 
 buy of them was not worth the price of honour and con- 
 science ; that she knew nothing of state managements, or if 
 she did, she would not establish herself upon any man’s blood 
 and ruin. Then he employed all his wits to circumvent her in 
 discourse, and to have gotten something out of her concerning 
 some persons they aimed at, which, if he could, I believe it 
 
 ^ The king’s satirical favourite, Rochester, reports of him that he 
 never said a foolish thing; but surely this was not a very wise one! 
 How could he have faith in any such sudden changes? What he did 
 not mean to do he did, which was to establish Colonel Hutchinson’s 
 steadiness and consistency beyond question. We know from this 
 history that Colonel Hutchinson’s sense of honour was a complete 
 safeguard against him; but this was a principle of which Charles felt 
 not, and affected to disbelieve, the existence. 
 
334 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 VN^ould have been beneficial to him: but she discerned his: 
 drifts and scorned to become an informer^ and made him 
 believe she was ignorant^ though she could have enlightened 
 him in the very thing he sought for; which they are now 
 never likely to know much of^ it being locked up in the 
 grave^ and they that survive not knowing that their secrets 
 are removed into another cabinet.^ After all^ natural affec- 
 tion working at that time with the gentleman^ he in great 
 kindness advised her that her husband should leave England. 
 She told him he could not conveniently^ and the act of 
 
 ^ Any who are delighted with the discovery of a secret will be dis- 
 appointed that Mrs. Hutchinson did not even here reveal hers, but 
 resisted the bewitching vanity of showing the confidence that had been 
 reposed in her by betraying it. She might' perhaps, with great pro- 
 priety, think it not prudent to commit it to writing, though it was to 
 he read only by her own family. Of the persons here named. Sir H. 
 Vane, it is well known, was sacrificed to the manes of Lord Strafford, 
 whose attainder he was supposed in a great measure to have procured; 
 but there seems not to have been any pretence for excepting him out 
 of the amnesty. He view^ed his fate, and the king who sentenced him 
 to it, with equal contempt; and the passage before us is a proof of the 
 fidelity he maintained towards his associates. St. John was excluded 
 from all offices ; but Pierrepont escaped untouched in all respects, and 
 represented the county of Nottingham in the short parliament which 
 restored the king, but appears not to have been re-chosen in that which 
 succeeded it. That he who was so deeply engaged should have come 
 off so well, is matter of wonder, and the more so when we take into 
 consideration the following particulars. 
 
 The ingenious writer of the critique of this work in the Annual 
 Review conjectures that the secret which this friend of Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son endeavoured to extcr' from her was, the name of that considerable 
 person who had formed the ..esign of settling the state under Richard Crom- 
 well, as mentioned in p. i ji: this is highly probable, and still more so 
 that this person v/as Mr. William Pierrepont, and that the royalists 
 aimed peculiarly at his destruction, as will appear from many passages 
 that are to be found in the third volume of Clarendon’s State Papers. 
 In one part the good will of Pierrepont to Richard Cromwell and 
 Richard’s respect for him is spoken of: in another Hyde instructs his 
 spies to “ gain Thurloe, whom he thinks considerable, and he would 
 gain St. John and Pierrepont,” adding significantly, “ they have- 
 manifested that they have no inveterate objection to a single person, 
 and the right heir is the best person.” In another place it is said by 
 one of the spies that “ St. John, Pierrepont, and Thurloe, continue to 
 cabal and press the general (Monk) ; three such evil beasts do not exist"" 
 But when Pierrepont is reported to be ill, the most eager washes are 
 expressed tor his death. No doubt but the virtuous ministers of 
 Charles II. dreaded his abilities and integrity as they coveted his pro- 
 perty: but supported by such connexions he as was, they could not 
 venture to attack him without some clear and strong information 
 against him. That these harpies v/ere disappointed in their project 
 of extinguishing this eminent patriot and his family, and pouncing on 
 their possessions, may then most likely be attributed to the constancy 
 and discretion of Mrs. Hutchinson. 
 
Lord Lexington’s Bill 335 
 
 oblivion being passed^ she knew not why he should fear, who 
 was resolved to do nothing that might forfeit the grace he 
 had found. But he told her it was determined that, if there 
 was the least pretence in the world, the colonel would be 
 imprisoned, and never be again let loose, which warning, 
 though others of her friends said it was but an effect of his 
 wine, the consequence proved it but too true. 
 
 She advertised the colonel and persuaded him, being also 
 advised to the same by other friends, to go out of England, 
 but he would not: he said this was the place where God had 
 set him, and protected him hitherto, and it would be in him 
 an ungrateful distrust of God to forsake it.^ At this time he 
 would have sold part of his estate to pay his debts, but the 
 purchasers scrupled, desiring to see his pardon, which he not 
 having, was fain to break off the treaty; and though all his 
 friends laboured for it, the chancellor utterly refused it. 
 There was a thousand pounds offered to one person to pro- 
 cure it, but it was tried several times and could not be passed, 
 by reason of wliich he lost the opportunity then of settling his 
 estate; yet a year afterwards a little solicitor shuffled it in 
 among many others, and managed it so dexterously that it 
 passed all the seals. The colonel’s estate being in mortgage 
 with a peevish alderman, who designed to have bought it for 
 little or nothing, he had a great trouble with him; for having 
 procured him his money, he would not assign the mortgage, 
 and the others would not lend the money without assignment 
 from him, so that it put the colonel to many inconveniences 
 and great expense. 
 
 This parliament being risen, another was called by the 
 king’s writ, wherein the act of oblivion was again confirmed, 
 not without some convassing and opposition; and here again 
 another act about that money of the Lord Lexington’s was 
 prepared and twice read in the house, through divers abomin- 
 able untruths which they had forged and possessed the 
 members withal. The colonel himself solicited his own 
 defence, and had all the injustice and foul play imaginable 
 at the committee appointed to examine it, and it was so 
 
 ^ This is a pregnant instance of Colonel Hutchinson’s strong belief in 
 the decrees of providence, and at the same time of his sincere conformity 
 to them; it is much to be regretted that he adhered so minutely and 
 literally to it, instead of making use of his own and his friends’ dis- 
 cretion. He might well have lived to see the happy Revolution, and 
 have returned and benefited his native country again by his spirit, 
 wisdom, and experience. 
 
336 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 desperate that all his friends persuaded him to compound it; 
 but he would not^ though his enemies offered it, but he said 
 he would either be cleared by a just, or ruined by an unjust 
 sentence, and, pursuing it with his usual alacrity and vigour 
 in all things, he at last removed that prepossession that some 
 of the gentlemen had against him; and clearing himself to 
 some that were most violent, it pleased God to turn the 
 hearts of the house at last to do him justice, and to throw out 
 the bill for evermore, which was a great mercy to him and 
 his family, for it was to have thrown him out of possession of 
 all the estates he had, and to have put them into his enemies’ 
 hands till they had satisfied themselves. But the defending 
 himself was very chargeable to him, and not only so, but this 
 rumour of trouble upon his estate, and the brags of his 
 enemies, and the cloud he lay under, hindered him both from 
 letting and selling, and improving his estate, so that it very 
 much augmented his debt. 
 
 Before this time, in December, 1660, Captain Cooper sent 
 one Broughton, a lieutenant, and Andrews, a cornet, with a 
 company of soldiers, who plundered his house at Owthorpe, 
 while he was absent, of all the weapons they found in it, to 
 his very wearing-swords, and his own armour for himself, 
 although at that time there was no prohibition of any person 
 whatsoever to have or wear arms. The colonel was not then 
 at home, and the arms vfere laid up in a closet within his 
 chamber, which they searched, and all the house over, to see 
 if they could have found plate or anything else; but when 
 they could not, they carried these away, which one of his 
 servants, whom he had dismissed with a good reward, be- 
 trayed to them. His eldest son went to the Marquis of 
 Newcastle, lord lieutenant of the county, and complained of 
 the violence of the soldiers, and my lord gave him an order 
 to have the swords and other things back, and some pistols 
 which were the Lord Byron’s, but Mr. Cooper contemned my 
 lord’s order, and would not obey it. The arms were worth 
 near £ 100 . 
 
 Also an order came down from the secretary, commanding 
 certain pictures and other things the colonel had bought 
 out of the late king’s collection, which had cost him in ready 
 money between £1000 and £1500, and were of more value; 
 and these, notwithstanding the act of oblivion, were all taken 
 from him. 
 
Death of His Daughter-in-law 337 
 
 After these troubles were over from without^ the colonel 
 lived with all imaginable retiredness at home, and because 
 his active spirit could not be idle nor very sordidly employed, 
 he took up his time in opening springs, and planting trees, 
 and dressing his plantations ; and these were his recreations, 
 wherein he relieved many poor labourers when they wanted 
 work, which was a very comfortable charity to them and 
 their families : with these he would entertain himself, giving 
 them such encouragement in their honest labours, so that 
 they delighted to be employed by him. His business was 
 serious revolving the law of God, wherein he laboured to in- 
 struct his children and servants, and enjoyed himself with 
 much patience and comfort, not envying the glories and 
 honours of the court, nor the prosperity of the wicked ; but 
 only grieved that the straitness of his own revenues would 
 not supply his large heart to the poor people in affliction. 
 Some little troubles he had in his own house. His son, un- 
 known to him, married a very worthy person,^ but with the 
 manner of which he was so discontented that he once re- 
 solved to have banished them for ever, but his good nature 
 was soon overcome, and he received them into his bosom; 
 and for the short time he enjoyed her, he had no less love 
 for her than for any of his own children. And indeed she 
 was worthy of it, applying herself with such humble dutiful- 
 ness and kindness to repair her fault, and to please him in 
 all things he delighted in, that he was ravished with the joy 
 of her, who loved the place not as his own wife did, only 
 because she was placed in it, but with a natural affection, 
 which encouraged him in all the pains he took to adorn it, 
 when he had one to leave it to that would esteem it. She 
 was besides naturalised into his house and interests, as if she 
 had had no other regard in the world; she was pious and 
 cheerful, liberal and thrifty, complaisant and kind to all the 
 family, and the freest from humour of any woman; loving 
 home, without melancholy or sullenness, observant of her 
 father and mother, not with regret, but with delight, and the 
 most submissive, affectionate wife that ever was. But she, 
 and all the joy of her sweet, saint-like conversation, ended 
 in a lamented grave, about a year after her marriage, when 
 she died in childbirth, and left the sweetest babe behind her 
 that ever was beheld, whose face promised all its mother’s 
 
 ^ The daughter of Sir Alexander Ratcliffe, of the Royalist party. 
 
338 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 graces, but death within eight weeks after her birth, ravished 
 this sweet blossom, whose fall opened fresh the wounds of 
 sorrow for her mother, thus doubly lost. While the mother 
 lived, which was ten days after her delivery, the colonel and 
 his wife employed all imaginable pains and cares for her re- 
 covery, whereof they had often hopes, but in the end all was 
 in vain; she died, and left the whole house in very sensible 
 affliction, which continued upon the colonel and his wife till 
 new strokes awakened them out of the silent sorrow of this 
 funeral. Her husband having no joy in the world after she 
 was gone, for some months shut himself up with his grief in 
 his chamber, out of which he was hardly persuaded to go, and 
 when he did, every place about home so much renewed 
 his remembrance of her, that he could not think of her but 
 with deep affliction; so, being invited by his friends abroad 
 to divert his melancholy,^ he grew a little out of love with 
 home, which was a great damping to the pleasures his father 
 took in the place: but he, how eager soever he was in the 
 love of any worldly thing, had that moderation of spirit that 
 he submitted his will always to God, and endeavoured to 
 give him thanks in all things. 
 
 This winter, about October and the following months, the 
 papists began to be very high, and some strangers were come 
 into Nottingham, who were observed to distinguish them- 
 selves by scarlet ribbons in their hats; and one night, in a 
 drunken humour, a papist fired a hay barn in a wood-yard 
 in Nottingham, which, if not discovered and prevented by 
 many providences, might have endangered much of the town : 
 but it did £200 worth of mischief ; but the matter was shuffled 
 up and compounded, although on the same night several 
 other towns were attempted to be fired. A great papist, at 
 Eastwold, was known to assemble two hundred men in arms 
 in the night, and some of the Lord Carrington’s tenants, who 
 went to Arundel House to speak with their landlord, observed 
 very strange suspicious signs of some great business on foot 
 among the papists, who, both in Nottinghamshire and Leices- 
 tershire, were so exalted, that the very country people 
 everywhere apprehended some insurrection. Among the 
 rest, there was a light-headed, debauched young knight, living 
 in the next town to Owthorpe, who vapoured beyond all 
 
 ^ Mr. Thomas Hutchinson did not marry again, but died without 
 issue. 
 
Misconduct of the Papists 339 
 
 bounds, and had twelve pair of holsters for pistols at one 
 time of the colonel’s saddler, and rode at that time with half 
 a dozen men armed, up and down the country, and sent them, 
 and went himself, to several men who had been soldiers in 
 the army, to offer them brave terms to enlist under him, 
 telling them, that they, meaning the papists, should have a 
 day for it. Besides, he, with the parson of the parish, and 
 some other men, at an alehouse, began a health to the con- 
 fusion of all the protestants in England; and one of the 
 colonel’s maids going to Colson, to have a sore eye cured by a 
 woman in the town, heard there that he had vapoured that 
 the papists should shortly have their day, and that he would 
 not leave one alive in the colonel’s house. He sent to the 
 preacher of Cotgrove, to forbid him to preach on gunpowder 
 treason-day, threatening to kill him if he did, insomuch that 
 the town were forced to keep a guard all that day upon the 
 steeple. 
 
 The men whom the papists had endeavoured to enlist ac- 
 quainted the colonel with it, whereof some being in Leicester- 
 shire, the colonel sent his son to Sir George Villiers, one of 
 the deputy-lieutenants of that county, to acquaint him with 
 it; but he slighted the matter, although at that time it 
 could have been proved that Golding brought a whole 
 coach laden with pistols, as many as they could stuff under 
 the seats and in the boots, to the house of one Smith, 
 a papist, dwelling at Quineborough, in Leicestershire. The 
 colonel also sent to the deputy-lieutenants of our county to 
 acquaint them with the public danger, and how he himself 
 was threatened; and, by reason that his house had been 
 disarmed, desired that he might have leave to procure some 
 arms necessary to defend it ; but they sent him word that the 
 insurrection of the papists was but a fanatic jealousy, and 
 if he were afraid, they would send him a guard, but durst 
 not allow him to arm his house. He, disdaining their 
 security who would not trust him with his own, would have 
 taken a house at Nottingham for his wife to lie in, who being 
 then big with child, was near her account; but although she 
 was fearful, yet when she found him resolved to stay in his 
 own house, she would not go; whereupon he made strong 
 shutters to all his low windows with iron bars ; and that very 
 night that they sat up, the house was attempted to be broken 
 in, and the glass of one of the great casements broken, and 
 
340 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 the little iron bars of it crashed asunder. Mrs. Hutchinson 
 being up late, heard the noise, and thought somebody had 
 been forcing the doors, but, as we since heard, it was Golding 
 who made the attempt. The common people, everywhere 
 falling into suspicion of the papists, began to be highly 
 offended at their insolence, and to mutter strange words; 
 whether it was this, or what else we know not, but their 
 design proceeded no further; yet there is nothing more 
 certain than that at that time they had a design of rising 
 generally all over England in arms. But the colonel lived 
 so retired that he never understood how it was taken up, 
 and how it fell off, yet, although they would not take the 
 alarm from him, even the gentlemen of the county after- 
 wards believed they were hatching some mischief, and 
 feared it. 
 
 The colonel continued his usual retirement all that winter 
 and the next summer, about the end of which he dreamt one 
 night that he saw certain men in a boat upon the Thames, 
 labouring against wind and tide, to bring their boat, which 
 stuck in the sands, to shore; at which he, being in the boat, 
 was angry with them, and told them they toiled in vain, and 
 would never effect their purpose ; but, said he, let it alone and 
 let me try ; whereupon he laid himself down in the boat, and 
 applying his breast to the head of it, gently shoved it along, 
 till he came to land on the Southwark side, and there, going 
 out of the boat, he walked into the most pleasant lovely fields, 
 so green and flourishing, and so embellished with the cheer- 
 ful sun that shone upon them, that he never saw anything so 
 delightful, and there he met his father, who gave him certain 
 leaves of laurel which had many words written on them 
 which he could not read. The colonel was never super- 
 stitious of dreams, but this stuck a little in his mind, and 
 we were therefore seeking applications of it, which proved to 
 be nothing in the event, but that having afforded one, I know 
 not whether the dream might not have been inspired. The 
 boat represented the commonwealth, which several unquiet 
 people sought to enfranchise, by vain endeavours against 
 wind and tide, paralleling the plots and designs some im- 
 patient people then carried on without strength, or council, 
 or unity among themselves; his lying down and shoving it 
 with his breast, might signify the advancement of the cause 
 by the patient suffering of the martyrs, among which his own 
 
Anecdote of the Nonconformists 341 
 
 was to be eminent; and on the other side of the river his 
 landing, into walks of everlasting pleasure, he dying on that 
 shore, and his father’s giving him these laurel leaves with 
 unintelligible characters, foretold him those triumphs which 
 he could not read in his mortal estate. But to let dreams 
 pass, — 
 
 I cannot here omit one story, though not altogether so 
 much of the colonel’s concern, yet happening this summer, 
 is not unworthy of mention. Mr. Palmer, a certain non- 
 conformist preacher, was taken at his owm house in Notting- 
 ham, by the mayor of the to\\Ti, for preaching upon the 
 Lord’s day, and some others with him (wLereof one w^as 
 formerly a servant of the colonel’s, and had married one of 
 his maids), and put into the towm’s gaol, w’here they continued 
 about tw^o or three months. There being a grated window 
 in the prison, w^hich was almost even with the ground, and 
 looked into the street, all people coming by might see these 
 poor people, kept in a damp, ill-favoured room, wLere they 
 patiently exhorted and cheered one another. One Lord’s 
 day, after sermon time, the prisoners were singing a psalm, 
 and the people as they passed up and dowm, when they came 
 to the prison, stood still, till there were a great many gathered 
 about the window at w’hich Mr. Palmer w^as preaching; 
 w'hereupon the mayor, one Toplady, w^ho had formerly been 
 a parliament officer, but w^as now a renegade, came \iolently 
 with his officers, and beat the people, and thrust some into 
 prison that w^ere but passing the street, kicked and pinched 
 the men’s wives in his rage, and w^as but the more exasperated, 
 wffien some of them told him, how' ill his iury became him 
 wffio had once been one of them. The next day, or a few days 
 after, having given order that the prisoners should every 
 Lord’s day after be locked in the coal-house, he went to 
 London and made information, I heard on oath, to the council, 
 that a thousand of the country came into the towm armed, 
 and marched to the prison window^ to hear the prisoner 
 preach ; wffiereupon he procured an order for a troop of horse to 
 be sent down to quarter at Nottingham to keep the fanatics 
 in awe. But one wffio had a relation to the towm, being 
 then at court, and knowing this to be false, certified to the 
 contrar}^ and prevented the troop. After the mayor came 
 down, he w*as one night taken with a vomiting of blood, and 
 being ill, called his man and his maid, wffio also at the same 
 
342 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 time fell a bleedings and were all ready to be choked in their 
 own blood, which at last stopping, they came to assist him; 
 but after that he never lifted up his head, but languished 
 for a few months and died. 
 
 While these poor people were in prison, the colonel sent 
 them some money, and as soon as their time was expired^ 
 Mr. Palmer came to Owthorpe to give him thanks, and 
 preached there one Lord’s day.^ Whether this was taken 
 notice of is not evident, but within a short time after, upon 
 the Lord’s day, the nth of October, 1663, the colonel having 
 that day finished the expounding of the Epistle to the Romans 
 to his household, and the servants being gone off out of the 
 parlour from him, one of them came in and told him soldiers 
 were come into the house. He was not at all surprised, but 
 stayed in the room till they came in, who were conducted by 
 Atkinson, one of those Newark men, who had so violently 
 before prosecuted him at the parliament, and he told the 
 colonel he must go along with them, after they had searched 
 the house; for which the colonel required their commission, 
 which at the first they said they need not show, but after- 
 wards they showed him an order from Mr. Francis Leke, 
 one of the deputy-lieutenants, forthwith to repair to his 
 house, to search for and bring away what arms they could 
 
 ^ This transaction is seemingly of small note ; but will be found of 
 the last importance to the parties concerned. By the declaration 
 from Breda, — “ Liberty was granted to tender consciences, and none 
 were to be questioned for difference of opinion in matters of religion, 
 which do not disturb the peace of the kingdom.” But the parliament 
 which was chosen after the restoration, and which consisted in a great 
 degree of tories and high churchmen, encouraged and led on by the 
 chancellor, passed several severe acts against all dissenters indis- 
 criminately. Particularly one called the Act of Uniformity, and this 
 they followed up with an act forbidding nonconformists to frequent 
 conventicles, under which probably Mr. Palmer was seized. As it 
 had been declared that those who differed from the church could not 
 fail to be enemies to the state, and that the fanatics as they called 
 them, resorted to these means under pretence of religion, but in reality 
 to form and ripen plots and seditions, and that principally for this 
 reason these acts were framed, this renegade very aptly introduced 
 his thousand men in arms. 
 
 How far it was discreet in Colonel Hutchinson at such a juncture to 
 let this man preach at Owthorpe, on whom a mark had been set, is 
 doubtful; it seems that in general he confined his religious opinions 
 and worship to his own house, and was of course inoffensive even to 
 the captious government under which he lived. 
 
 The manner, time, and place of his being seized, demonstrate the 
 falsehood of the legend contained in Throsby’s edition of Thoroton’s 
 Nottinghamshire, of his long concealment in his own house, and at 
 last being taken coming home from church. 
 
Confinement at Newark 343 
 
 find^ and to seize his person. All which they did^ and found 
 no arms in the house but four birding-guns^ that hung open 
 in the kitchen^ which being the young gentleman’s, they left 
 at that time. It was after sunset when they came, and they 
 were at least two hours searching every corner and all about 
 the house, and the colonel was not at that time very well 
 in health, and not having been on horseback for six months 
 before, had neither horses nor saddles at that time in the 
 house; the coachman was also gone away, and the coach- 
 horses turned out, and it was as bitter a stormy, pitchy, dark, 
 black, rainy night as any that year; all which considered, 
 the colonel desired that they would but stay for the morning 
 light, that he might accommodate himself; but they would 
 not, but forced him to go along with them then, his eldest 
 son lending him a horse, and also voluntarily accompanying 
 him to Newark, where, about four o’clock in the morning, 
 he was brought into the Talbot, and put into a most vile 
 room, and two soldiers kept guard upon him in that room. 
 
 And now what they ailed we knew not, but they were all 
 seized with a panic fear, and the whole country fiercely 
 alarmed, and kept at Newark many days at intolerable 
 charges, and I think they never yet knew what they were 
 sent for in to do, but to guard Colonel Hutchinson; who 
 being at first put into a room that looked into the street, 
 was afterwards removed into a back room, worse, if worse 
 could be, and so bad that they would not let the Duke of 
 Buckingham’s footmen lodge in it; and here he continued, 
 no man coming to him nor letting him know why he was 
 brought in. The next day Mrs. Hutchinson sent him some 
 linen, and as soon as the man came, Tomson, the host of the 
 inn, would not suffer him to see his master, but seized him 
 and kept him prisoner two days. Mr. Thomas Hutchinson 
 had a mare which the innkeeper had a desire to buy, and his 
 father persuaded him to let him have her though worth more 
 money, who thereupon agreed on the price, only Tomson 
 desired him to let him try che mare six miles, which he conde- 
 scended to, upon condition that if Tomson rode the mare above 
 six miles he should pay the money for her, and furnish Mr. 
 Hutchinson with a horse home, or to my Lord of Newcastle’s, 
 or for any other occasion he had while he was at Newark. 
 Upon this bargain Tomson had the mare, but instead of 
 going but six miles, he led a greater party of horse than 
 
344 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 those who had first seized the colonel^ to Owthorpe^ and 
 coming in after sunset, to the affright of Mrs. Hutchinson 
 and her children, again searched their house more narrowly 
 if possible than at first, with much more insolent behaviour, 
 although they found no more than at first; but they took 
 away the birding-guns they had left before, and from Ow- 
 thorpe went to Nottingham, where they took one Captain 
 Wright and Lieutenant Frank, who had been Lambert’s 
 adjutant-general, and brought the poor men to Newark, 
 where they are yet prisoners, and to this day know not why.^ 
 Several others were taken prisoners, among the rest one 
 Whittington, a lieutenant, who, being carried to prison, 
 ‘‘Colonel Hutchinson,” said he, “hath betrayed us all;” 
 such were the base jealousies of our own party over him, who, 
 because he was not hanged at first, imagined and spoke among 
 themselves all the scandals that could be devised of him, as 
 one that had deserted the cause, and lay private here in the 
 country to trepan all the party, and to gather and transmit 
 all intelligence to the court, and a thousand such things, 
 giving each other warning to take heed of coming near him. 
 Those who began to render him thus odious among his own 
 party were the Lambertonians, in malice because he had 
 openly opposed their rebellious insolencies against the parlia- 
 ment. Frank, Whittington, etc., were of these, but the 
 colonel would not hazard himself to rectify their unjust 
 thoughts, and had no resort of his own friends, the more 
 sober and honest men of the party; only, as much as the 
 straits that were upon him would allow, he would send 
 them relief when any of them were in distress. Hereupon 
 some, convinced of the injuries they did him, about this time 
 sought to do him right, in some meeting where one of the 
 Buckingham’s trepans was, and said he was unchanged in 
 his principles, which was all that ever I could hear was in- 
 formed against him, but anything would serve for those who 
 sought a pretence.^ 
 
 ^ This shows that the confinement of these persons lasted still longer 
 than Colonel Hutchinson’s, and likewise that this history was written 
 while the events were still recent and fresh in the memory. 
 
 ^ The whole history of the reign of Charles the Second is filled with 
 plots, real or imaginary, but mostly the latter. Of all the engines of 
 state the most nefarious is that at this time much employed, of sham 
 or pretended fomenters of sedition or trepans, who drew unwary per- 
 sons either into some confederacy or expression of discontent, and 
 
Insulted and Ill-used at Newark 345 
 
 While the colonel was at Newark, Golding, the papist, 
 was a very busy fellow in spying and watching his house at 
 Owthorpe, and sending in frivolous stories, which amounted 
 to nothing, but declaring his pitiful malice, as they that 
 received them afterwards told the colonel. 
 
 When Tomson came back, Mr. Hutchinson, out of the 
 window, spied his own gun, which some of the men brought in, 
 and soon understood that tliis rogue had made use of his own 
 horse to plunder him. At night Tomson, the host, came up 
 into the colonel’s chamber, and behaved himself most inso- 
 lently, whereupon the colonel snatched up a candlestick and 
 laid him over the chaps with it ; whereupon Mr. Leke, being 
 in the house, and hearing the bustle, with others, came in 
 with drawn swords, and the colonel took that opportunity to 
 tell him that he stood upon his justification, and desired to 
 know his crime and his accusers, and that till then he was 
 content to be kept as safe as they would have him, but 
 desired to be delivered out of the hands of that insolent 
 fellow, and to have accommodation fit for a gentleman ; which 
 when they saw he would not be without, for he would eat no 
 more meat in that house, two days after they removed him to 
 the next inn, where he was civilly treated, with guards still 
 remaining upon him. 
 
 It was not passion which made the colonel do this, for he 
 was not at all angry, but despised all the malice of his enemies ; 
 but he having been now four days in Newark, Mr. Leke 
 came every day to the house where he was kept by Leke’s 
 warrant, and never vouchsafed so much as to look on him, but 
 put him into the hands of a drunken insolent host, v/ho daily 
 affronted him; which, if he would have suffered, he saw 
 would be continued upon him, therefore knowing that Leke 
 was then in the house, he took that occasion to oblige him 
 come to him, and thereupon obtained a removal to an accom- 
 modation more befitting a gentleman. 
 
 While he was at the other inn, several gentlemen of the 
 king’s party came to him, some whom he had known, and 
 some whom he had never seen, complimenting him, as if he 
 had not been a prisoner: which he very much wondered at, 
 and yet could never understand, for by his former usage he 
 
 then gave information, probably heightened by invention. Many 
 have thought the information given against Lord Russell and Algernon 
 Sidney, whereon they were tried and condemned, was no better. 
 
34^ Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 saw it was not their good nature: but whether this carriage 
 of his had made them believe innocence was the ground of 
 his confidence, or whether the appearance of his great spirit 
 had made them willing to oblige him, or whether even his 
 virtue had stricken them with a guilty dread of him, though 
 a prisoner, certain it is, that some who had been his greatest 
 enemies began to flatter him; whereupon, in a Bible he 
 carried in his pocket, and marked upon all occasions, he 
 marked that place, Prov. xvi. 7, ‘‘ When a man’s ways please 
 the Lord, he maketh his enemies to be at peace with him.” 
 
 The 19th of October, Mr. Leke, with a party of horse, car- 
 ried the colonel to the Marquis of Newcastle’s, who treated 
 him very honourably; and then falling into discourse with 
 him, “ Colonel,” saith he, they say you desire to know your 
 accusers, which is more than I know.” And thereupon very 
 freely showed him the Duke of Buckingham’s letter, com- 
 manding him to imprison the colonel, and others, upon sus- 
 picion of a plot; which my lord was so fully satisfied the 
 colonel was innocent of, that he dismissed him without a 
 guard to his own house, only engaging him to stay there one 
 week, till he gave account to the council, upon which he was 
 confident of his liberty.^ The colonel thus dismissed, came 
 
 ^ Here shines out the genuine spirit of a noble Briton ! This was 
 the same man, who, commanding a host, against which the forces 
 Colonel Hutchinson had to defend Nottingham Castle with were but 
 as a dwarf before a giant, yet, saw his fidelity to be proof both against 
 danger, and the temptation of great rewards, and had generosity 
 enough to see and value virtue in an adversary; he well knew that 
 such a person as the colonel was safer in the keeping of his own honour 
 than of all the guards or prisons of his enemies. Who can fail to regret 
 that such a man should have been so long the dupe of his loyalty to 
 the Stuarts, and above all that he should have to receive mandates 
 from the infamous sycophants of Charles the Second? If a man were 
 inevitably to be persecuted, it made much for his honour, and somewhat 
 for his satisfaction, to have two men of such opposite characters as 
 Newcastle and Buckingham, the one for his protector, the other for 
 his persecutor. 
 
 Of Buckingham we shall again have occasion to speak. 
 
 As we shall not again see anything more of this truly noble man, the 
 Marquis of Newcastle, we take this opportunity to cite, from a tradi- 
 tion preserved by Deering in his History of Nottingham, that at the 
 time of the great revolution, another Cavendish, Earl, and afterwards 
 Duke of Devonshire, together with Lord Delamere, son of that Sir 
 George Booth whose life and fortunes Colonel Hutchinson preserved, 
 together with Colonel Hutchinson’s half-brother, and others of that 
 country, set up their standard at Nottingham; there waked again the 
 soul of liberty and patriotism, which had slept ever since Colonel 
 Hutchinson’s days, and causing the trumpet to sound to arms, and 
 telhng the inhabitants a Stuart was at hand with all his army, saw the 
 
Taken Back to Newark 347 
 
 home^ and upon the 22nd day of October a party of horse, 
 sent only with a wretched corporal, came about eleven o’clock 
 with a warrant from Mr. Leke, and fetched him back to 
 Newark, to the inn where he was before, Mr. Twentyman’s, 
 who being still civil to him, whispered him as soon as he 
 alighted, that it was determined he should be close prisoner; 
 whereupon the colonel said he would no more pay any sen- 
 tinels that they set upon him, yet they set two hired soldiers, 
 having now dismissed the county, but the colonel forbade 
 the inn to give them any drink, or anything else upon his 
 account. The next day, being the 23rd, Mr. Leke came to 
 him and showed him a letter from my Lord Newcastle, 
 wherein my lord wrote that he was sorry he could not pursue 
 that kindness he intended the colonel, believing him inno- 
 cent, for that he had received a command from Buckingham 
 to keep him a close prisoner, without pen, ink, or paper; 
 and to show the reality of this, with the order he sent a copy 
 of the duke’s letter, which was also shown the colonel; and 
 in it was this expression, “ that though he could not make it out 
 as yet, he hoped he should bring Mr. Hutchinson into the plot.^^ 
 Mr. Leke having communicated these orders to Mr. Hutchin- 
 son, told him he was to go to London, and should leave him 
 in the charge of the mayor of Newark. 
 
 Because here is so much noise of a plot, it is necessary to 
 tell what it hath since appeared. The Duke of Buckingham 
 set at work one Gore, sheriff of Yorkshire, and others, who 
 sent out trepanners among the discontented people, to stir 
 them up to insurrection to restore the old parliament, gospel 
 ministry, and English liberty; which specious things found 
 very many ready to entertain them, and abundance of simple 
 people were caught in the net; whereof some lost their lives, 
 and others fled.^ But the colonel had no hand in it, holding 
 himself obliged at that time to be quiet. It is true he still 
 
 whole people fly to arms, some on horseback, some on foot, with all 
 the various weapons they could find, march all as one man to meet 
 him, and take their determined stand at that pass of the Trent where 
 their old governor had repeatedly fought and conquered, and whose 
 spirit they imagined to hover over, and inspire them with its wonted 
 energy. Having thus tried their temper, he committed to the guard 
 of these true-born sons of freedom, that princess (Anne) who was to 
 carry the British name to its highest pitch of glory. 
 
 ^ Rapin speaks slightly and cursorily of this, under the name of the 
 Northern Plot; but plainly shows that some of the principal persons 
 whom it was pretended had been concerned in it, neither were nor 
 could be. 
 
348 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 suspected insurrections of the papists^ and had secured his*, 
 house and his yards^ better than it was the winter before., 
 against any sudden night assaults. 
 
 After Mr. Leke was gone^ the mayor, one Herring, of 
 Newark, a rich, but simple fellow, sent the jailor to Mr. 
 Hutchinson, to tell him he must go to his house; which the: 
 colonel refusing to do voluntarily, without a mittimus from 
 some magistrate, the mayor sent five constables and twO' 
 soldiers, who by violence both forced the colonel out of his 
 quarters, and into the gaol without any legal commitment, 
 although the colonel warned both the jailor and the men of 
 the danger of the law, by this illegal imprisonment. The 
 colonel would not advance at all into the prison, into which 
 the men would fain have entreated him; but when they saw 
 they could not persuade, they violently thrust him in, where 
 the jailor afterwards used him pretty civilly: but the room 
 being unfit for him, he got cold and fell very sick, when, upon 
 the 27th of October, Mr. Leke, with the marquis’s secretary, 
 came to him, and found him so, and acquainted him that the 
 marquis had received express orders from the king, to send 
 him up in safe custody to London. Mr. Leke finding him so 
 ill, was so civil as to permit him to go by his own house^ 
 which was as near a road, that he might there take accommo- 
 dations for his journey, and be carried up at more ease in his 
 own coach ; Mr. Leke himself went away before, being neces- 
 sitated to make more haste than he could have done if he had 
 stayed for the party that was to guard the colonel, and left his 
 orders for sending him away with Mr. Atkinson, who first 
 seized him. The same 27th day, at night, his house at 
 Owthorpe was again searched, and he and his wife being 
 abroad, all their boxes and cabinets were broken open, and 
 all their papers rifled, but yet for all this they could find 
 nothing to colour their injustice to him. 
 
 Having been falsely and illegally imprisoned, from six 
 o’clock on Friday night, the 23rd of October, till ten o’clock 
 in the morning, October 28, he was then, in order to his 
 going to London, brought by Beek, the jailor, to Twenty man’s 
 inn, from whence he was hailed, to stay there till a com- 
 manded party of the county horse came to guard him to 
 London. But one division of the county who had warrants 
 sent them, not coming in, Atkinson sent into that part where 
 the colonel lived, and his own neighbours coming slowly and 
 
Seized with Illness 
 
 349 
 
 unwillingly to that service, he was forced to stay there all 
 that day till night in the custody of the jailor. At night, 
 when he was in bed, the mayor being drunk, commanded him 
 to be carried back to the jail, but the jailor, weary of his 
 drunken commands, sat up with two soldiers, and guarded 
 him in the inn. 
 
 The next day, the party not being come in, one Corporal 
 Wilson, a mean fellow, who was appointed to command 
 the colonel’s guard, came and told him that he must not go 
 by his own house, nor have the privilege of his coach, but 
 be carried up another way; whereupon the colonel sent to 
 Atkinson, to desire him he might not be denied that civility 
 Mr. Leke had allowed him ; but he was so peevish and obstin- 
 ate that the colonel was sending his son post to the Marquis 
 of Newcastle’s to complain of his malicious inhumanity, who 
 would have forced him on horseback without any accommo- 
 dation, when he was so taken ill that he could not have 
 ridden one stage without manifest hazard of his life : and yet 
 Mr. Cecil Cooper and Mr. Whally, though justices and deputy 
 lieutenants, could not prevail with him, till he saw the colonel 
 as resolute as himself: and then at last, by their mediation 
 (wherein Mr. Cecil Cooper did something to redeem his 
 former causeless hatred, which made him plunder the house, 
 and detain the plunder when it was ordered back), the 
 colonel, about sunset, was sent out of Newark, with those 
 horse that were come in, to stay for the rest at his own house. 
 Being driven in the night by an unskilful coachman, the 
 coach was overturned and broken; but about twelve o’clock 
 at night they came safe home. Thus tdie colonel took his 
 last leave of Newark, which being a place he had formerly 
 subdued, and replete with so many malicious enemies to the 
 whole party, and more particularly to him, upon no other 
 account but that he had been the most formidable protector 
 of the other party in this country, he expected far worse 
 treatment from the generality of the town; who were so far 
 from joining in joy of his captivity, that when he was forced 
 through their streets, they gave him very civil respect, and 
 when he came away, civil farewells, and all muttered ex- 
 ceedingly at their mayor, and said he would undo their town 
 by such simple illegal proceedings. The colonel regarded all 
 these civilities from the town, who were generally much con- 
 cerned in his injuries, and from Cooper and others, not as of 
 
350 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 themselves^ but as from God^ who at that time overawed the 
 hearts of his enemies^ as once he did Laban’s and Esau’s; 
 and he was much confirmed in the favour of God thereby^ 
 and nothing at all daunted at the malice of his prosecutors^ 
 but went as cheerfully into captivity as another would have 
 come out of it. 
 
 They were forced to stay a day at Owthorpe, for the mend- 
 ing of the coach and the coming in of the soldiers^ where the 
 colonel had the opportunity to take leave of his poor labourers^ 
 who all wept bitterly when he paid them off; but he com- 
 forted them and smiled^ and without any regret went away 
 from his bitterly weeping children^ and servants^ and tenants^ 
 his wife and his eldest son and daughter going with him^ 
 upon Saturday, the 31st of October. 
 
 Golding, the night before he went, had sent him a pot of 
 marmalade to eat in the coach, and a letter to desire all 
 grudges might be forgotten, and high flattering stuff, by his 
 man who was to be one of the guard, whom, he said, he had 
 chosen out from the best he had, and his best horse, and if 
 he did not pay him all respect, he would turn him away ; and 
 as the colonel came by his door, he came out with wine, and 
 would fain have brought him into the house to eat oysters, 
 but the colonel only drank with him, and bid him friendly 
 farewell, and went on, not guarded as a prisoner, but waited 
 on by his neighbours. Mrs. Hutchinson was exceedingly 
 sad, but he encouraged and kindly chid her out of it, and told 
 her it would blemish his innocence for her to appear afflicted, 
 and told her if she had but patience to wait the event, she 
 would see it was all for the best, and bade her be thankful 
 for the mercy that she was permitted this comfort to accom- 
 pany him in the journey; and he with divers excellent 
 exhortations cheered her who was not wholly abandoned to 
 sorrow, while he was with her, who, to divert her, made him- 
 self sport with his guards, and deceived the way, till upon 
 the 3rd of November he was brought to the Crown, in Hol- 
 born. From thence, the next day, he was carried by Mr. 
 Leke to the Tower, and committed there close prisoner, by 
 warrant, signed by Secretary Bennett, the 20th of October, 
 whereby he stood committed for treasonable practices, though 
 he had never yet been examined by any magistrate, one or 
 another. .His wife, by his command, restrained herself as 
 much as she could from showing her sadness, whom he bade 
 
Interview with Secretary Bennett 3 5 i 
 
 to remember how often he had told her that God never pre- 
 served him so extraordinarily at first, but for some great work 
 he had further for him to do or to suffer in this cause ; and 
 bade her be thankful for the mercy by which they had so long 
 in peace enjoyed one another, since this eminent change; and 
 bade her trust God with him, whose faith and cheerfulness 
 were so encouraging that it a little upheld her; but, alas! 
 her divining heart was not to be comforted : she remembered 
 what had been told her of the cruel resolutions taken against 
 him, and saw now the execution of them. 
 
 On Friday, November the 6th, he was sent for by Secretary 
 Bennett, to his lodgings at Whitehall, which was the first 
 time he was examined, and the questions he asked him were : 
 First. “ Where he had lived this four or five months? ” To 
 which he answered, Constantly at home, at his own house 
 in Nottinghamshire.” Second. “ What company used to 
 resort to his house? ” He told him, “ None, not so much as 
 his nearest relations, who scarcely ever saw him.” Third. 
 “ What company he frequented? ” He told him, None; 
 and that he never stirred out of his own house to visit any.” 
 Bennett said, ‘‘ That was very much.” Fourth. Whether 
 he knew Mr. Henry Nevill? ” He answered, “ Very well.” 
 Fifth. ‘‘ When he saw him ? ” He said, “ To his best remem- 
 brance never since the king came in.” Sixth. “ When he 
 wrote to him? ” He said, ‘'Never in his life.” Seventh. 
 “When Mr. Nevill wrote to him?” He said, “Never.” 
 Eighth. “ Whether any messages had past between them? ” 
 He said, “ None at all.” Ninth. “ Whether none had moved 
 anything to him concerning a republic? ” He answered, 
 “ He knew none so indiscreet.” Tenth. “ What children 
 he had?” He said, “Four sons and four daughters.” 
 Eleventh. “How old his sons were?” He said, “Two 
 were at men’s estate, and two little children.” Twelfth. 
 “ Whether his sons had not done anything to injure him? ” 
 He replied, “ Never that he knew of, and he was confident 
 they had not.” Thirteenth. “ Where he went to church to 
 hear divine service, common prayer?” He said, “No 
 where, for he never stirred out of his own house.” Four- 
 teenth. “Whether he heard it not read there?” He 
 answered, “ To speak ingenuously, no.” Fifteenth. “ How 
 he then did for his soul’s comfort? ” He replied, “ Sir, I 
 hope you leave me that to account between God and my own 
 
352 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 soul.” Then Bennett told him his answers to these had cut 
 him off of many questions he should have asked^ and he 
 might return. So he was carried back to the Tower with 
 only two of the warders which brought him thither.^ 
 
 Not long afterwards one Waters was brought prisoner out 
 of Yorkshire^ a fellow of a timorous spirit, who, being taken, 
 was in so great a fear, that he accused many, guilty and not 
 guilty, to save himself ; and caused his own wife to be put in 
 prison, and hanged the dearest friend he had in the world, 
 and brought his wife’s brother into the same danger; some 
 say through fear, others that he was a trepanner from the 
 beginning, for he drew in all the people whom he accused. 
 Whatever he was, he was so utter a stranger to Colonel 
 Hutchinson, that he never saw his face; yet the day he was 
 examined at Whitehall, Colonel Hutchinson was in great 
 haste fetched away from his dinner at the Tower, and told he 
 should be examined in the king’s own hearing ; which he was 
 very glad of, and, with great haste, and formality, and strict- 
 ness he was carried by the deputy lieutenant and a strong 
 guard by water from the Tower to Whitehall; and when he 
 came to land at Whitehall Stairs, one Andrews, an officer, 
 with two files of musketeers, was ready to receive him, and led 
 him to Bennett’s lodgings, where he observed a great deal of 
 care to place the guard at the outward door in the court, and 
 to keep the chamber door continually shut, that none might 
 peep in, but a few gentlemen who were admitted to come 
 
 ^ What will the reader think of this examination when he is reminded, 
 or, if he knew it not before, is informed, that this gentleman who is so 
 anxious for the welfare of Colonel Hutchinson’s soul, and so earnest 
 for his frequenting the church, was himself a concealed papist, and 
 privy to the king’s being so too! It is necessary to be here observed, 
 that upon the publication of the act of uniformity a very great number 
 of the parochial clergy quitted their benefices, and were replaced by 
 others; it is highly probable this would be the case at Owthorpe, and 
 it was a very natural consequence of it that Colonel Hutchinson should 
 absent himself from his church, where, although he had heretofore 
 taken much pains to get a good minister established and his salary 
 augmented, he had now to expect, instead of spiritual comfort, such 
 pulpit railings as he had been assailed with at Nottingham. Accord- 
 ingly he performed the worship of God in his own family, much as a 
 protestant father of a family would have done in a catholic country. 
 And the history informs us he was so occupied when the soldiers came 
 to seize him : but it was prudent to say nothing of this to the secretary 
 confessor ! 
 
 Mr. Nevill, whom he speaks of, made a considerable figure in the 
 latter times of the long parliament, as a staunch republican, a man of 
 strict integrity, and a steady opposer of all the usurpations. 
 
His Wife Admitted to See Him 353 
 
 now and then and stare him in the face at the door^ but none 
 were in the room for a long space but Andrews and himself, 
 till at the last the keeper thrust himself in. The colonel, 
 having stayed two hours, concluded that he should now be 
 confronted by some accuser, or at least have an examination 
 more tending to treasonable practices than his first seemed to 
 do, especially understanding that Mr. Waters had been many 
 hours before in the house, and was yet there. But at last, 
 parturiunt monies I and out comes Secretary Bennett ! who, 
 taking him to a window apart from Mr. Andrews and the 
 keeper, most formally begins thus: ‘‘Mr. Hutchinson, you 
 have now been some days in prison, have you recollected 
 yourself to say any more than when I last spoke to you? ’’ 
 Mr. Hutchinson answered, “ He had nothing to recollect, nor 
 more to say.’’ “ Are you sure of that? ” said the secretary. 
 “ Very sure,” said Mr. Hutchinson. “ Then,” said Bennett, 
 “you must return to prison.” And accordingly he was 
 carried by the same guard back again to the Tower, where 
 he was kept with a great deal of strictness, and some weeks 
 passed before his wife was admitted to see him; for whom, 
 at the last. Sir Allen Apsley procured an order that she might 
 visit him, but they limited it that it might not be but in the 
 presence of his keeper. The lieutenant, in hopes of a fee, 
 gave leave that her son and daughter might go into the room 
 with her, who else must have stood without doors ; but he 
 would not permit her to take lodgings in the Tower, which, 
 being in a sharp winter season, put her to great toil and 
 inconvenience, besides excessive charge of providing his meat 
 at the Tower, and her company in another place : meanwhile 
 he was kept a close prisoner, and had no air allowed him, but 
 a pair of leads over his chamber, which were so high and 
 cold, that he had no benefit from them; and every night he 
 had three doors shut upon him, and a sentinel at the outmost. 
 His chamber was a room where it is said the two young 
 princes. King Edward the Fifth and his brother, were mur- 
 dered in former days, and the room that led to it was a dark 
 great room, that had no window in it, where the portcullis 
 to one of the inward Tower gates was drawn up and let down, 
 under which there sat every night a court of guard. There 
 is a tradition, that in this room the Duke of Clarence was 
 drowned in a butt of malmsey; from which murder this 
 room, and that joining it, where Mr. Hutchinson lay, was 
 
 M 
 
354 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 called the Bloody Tower. Between Mr. Hutchinson’s 
 chamber and the dark room there was a door^ which Mr. 
 Hutchinson desired the lieutenant might be left open in the 
 nighty because it left a little necessary house open to the 
 chamber^ which he and his man had occasion of in the nighty 
 having gotten fluxes with their bad accommodations and diet : 
 but the lieutenant would not allow it him, although, when 
 that was open, there were two doors more shut upon him, 
 and he could not have any way attempted any escape, but 
 he must, if it had been possible to work through the walls, 
 have fallen upon a court of guard. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this strictness, which was also exer- 
 cised on most of the other prisoners, yet their own sentinels 
 hated the lieutenant, and his Cerberus, Cresset, because they 
 cheated them, and had nothing of generosity or bounty to 
 engage the hearts of their soldiers, who, seeing so much of 
 their wickedness, abhorred them, and pitied the poor gentle- 
 men that were so barbarously used by them; and whether 
 out of humanity, or necessity, or villainy, I know, not, but 
 they would offer the prisoners many courtesies, and convey 
 letters between them. Mr. Hutchinson was never so im- 
 prudent to trust any of them with his, having within an hour 
 of his imprisonment been instructed by another prisoner a 
 safer and more convenient way ; yet was it their interest to 
 use courteously all those who offered themselves to do them 
 service. Among the rest, as he was one day sitting by the 
 fire, the sentinel at the door peeped in his head and called to 
 him: “Sir,” said he, “God bless you! I have sometimes 
 guarded you in another manner at the parliament house, and 
 am grieved to see the change of your condition, and only 
 take this employment now, to be more able to serve you, still 
 hoping to see you restored to what I have seen you.” The 
 colonel, not turning his head, told the man that language 
 suited not the coat he wore, bade him mind his present duty, 
 and told him he had no employment of his service. “ Well,” 
 said the soldier, “ I perceive, sir, you dare not trust me, but 
 my Lady Vane and my Lady Lambert know me, and if you 
 have any service to command me to them, I will bring you a 
 testimony from them.” The colonel took no more notice of 
 him, but the fellow, offlcious, or hoping to get money, went 
 to my Lady Lambert’s house, and told her that he had 
 formerly been her husband’s soldier, and that he wished his 
 
Story of the Sentinel 355 
 
 restitution, and that he used sometimes to guard the prisoners, 
 and would carry her letters to any of them, and that he had 
 lately been sentinel at Colonel Hutchinson’s chamber, and 
 would carry anything she would send to him. She only bade 
 him remember her service to him, and tell him she wished 
 him liberty; and the fellow flattering her with professing 
 his love to her lord, she expressed some pleasure with his 
 speeches, and gave him some money; which her daughter 
 considering, as soon as he was gone out told her that she had 
 done unwarily to open herself so much to one of the soldiers 
 in present employment, whom she did not know but he might 
 be set on purpose to trepan her. My lady, to prevent any 
 inconvenience of her error, thought it the best way to go 
 immediately and complain that one of the soldiers had come 
 to her to trepan her, under colour of a message from Colonel 
 Hutchinson, v/hich she had not entertained; and desired 
 they might not be allowed to do any such thing, protesting 
 her" own loyalty and readiness to discover any that were 
 false to them. This was extremely well represented of her 
 at the court, and as ill of Colonel Hutchinson, that he had 
 not done the like; and Colonel Leg, whose company it was 
 that then had the guard of the tower, was commanded to 
 find out and punish this soldier, who, as it proved afterwards, 
 was a good honest fellow, and was the only protestant in that 
 company, the rest being most of them Irish and papists, and 
 some rebels. This poor fellow, having been a parliament 
 soldier, enlisted among them to get a living, but was very 
 tender-hearted to the prisoners, and had a desire to do them 
 kindness. Hereupon he came to the colonel’s man, and 
 desired his master would not own him, and that he would 
 send to my Lady Lambert to do the same, which the colonel 
 did; but when she was sent to by him, she sent a maid to 
 see all the soldiers, who owned the man, and he was put in 
 prison, and cashiered and undone, for nothing but offering 
 his service to have done the prisoners slight services. And 
 Colonel Hutchinson was ill thought of at the court, because 
 when Colonel Leg brought his men under the window of his 
 prison, and came up to Mr. Hutchinson and desired him to 
 view them all, he would not accuse any of them; which if 
 he had, he would not only have cut off his own, but all the 
 other prisoners’ ways of sending to their friends abroad; 
 yet he never made use of this fellow, nor any of them, in 
 
 M2 
 
35^ Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 any business of trusty although he thought it not good^to 
 discourage any that appeared to wish them well, among so 
 many bloody murderers as they were given up to. 
 
 The colonel endured his prison patiently till the trial of 
 those they called conspirators in Yorkshire was over; but 
 when he had lain from November till Candlemas term in 
 prison, he sent his wife to Secretary Bennett to desire that 
 such persons as had business with him might have liberty to 
 come to him. She had before been with some of the privy 
 council who were her husband’s friends and allies, to com- 
 plain of his unjust imprisonment, and his harsh usage there, 
 contrary to all law from the beginning to the ending, even 
 their own laws ; and they had told her that they were sensible 
 of it, but that they only stood for cyphers, while the chan- 
 cellor and Bennett managed all things without their privity, 
 in most oppressive and illegal ways.^ She, as she was advised, 
 
 ^ ^ It was thought better to bring together here several observations 
 relating to Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, and chancellor Bennett, Earl of 
 Arlington, and secretary, and Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham. 
 The first is well known from his history and letters to have been an un- 
 reasonable enemy to presbytery and presby terians ; which prejudice 
 induced him to persuade his royal master, whose confidence for a great 
 length of time he almost entirely engrossed, to violate all his promises 
 to them, though gratitude as well as honour should have made him 
 keep them. About this time his credit began to diminish by the in- 
 troduction of Bennett to be secretary of state instead of Nicholas, 
 who was the particular friend of Hyde. But at the period here spoken 
 of, this had taken effect but partially, and not enough to furnish for 
 those who were oppressed by the one, a succour in the opposition of 
 the other; nor did there appear much reason to hope for moderation 
 in either. Who it was of the privy council that gave Mrs. Hutchinson 
 her information cannot be conjectured; but there is no doubt that the 
 too great ascendency of the chancellor did, no long time after, cause 
 him to be impeached in parliament, and accused of all the misconduct 
 of many years. It was in vain that he endeavoured, in the written 
 defence he sent to the parliament, to distribute the odium among the 
 council in general; the information here given to Mrs. Hutchinson 
 obtained general belief; he was condemned, and died in banishment. 
 He very justly, in the same writing, attributes a good deal of the hatred 
 and bitterness which prevailed against him to his many refusals of 
 setting the seal to pardons and other indulgences. When, among the 
 speakers against him, we see the names of Maynard, St. John, Hampden, 
 and Prynn,^ we may well conclude that these men, though they had a 
 little temporised, were glad to assist in the downfall of the man who 
 had persecuted the more zealous of their former associates, and pleased 
 to see him sue for that clemency which his own former severity gave 
 him good reason to despair of. Bennett was several years after im- 
 peached together with Buckingham, the same who first entrapped and 
 caused Colonel Hutchinson to be seized, and whose infamous letter 
 
 Rapin, vol. ii. p. 648. 
 
His Wife’s Meeting with Bennett 357 
 
 went therefore to Bennett and told him that, by reason of 
 some engagements for money her husband had upon his 
 estate, this very close imprisonment had been infinitely pre- 
 judicial to him, both his tenants and his creditors taking 
 advantage of his incapacity (by reason of his close restraint) 
 to defend himself, or to speak with lawyers or others about 
 affairs that nearly concerned his estate ; besides the neglect 
 of all his business, and the intolerable charge and incon- 
 venience of his disordered family, dispersed into three several 
 places, which would suddenly bring ruin upon his whole 
 family, besides the destruction of his health. Bennett told 
 her, her husband was a very unfortunate person in regard to 
 his former crimes. She told him she had rather hoped he 
 had been happy in being comprised in the act of oblivion, 
 which allowed him not to be remembered as a criminal ; and 
 that she had chosen to make her addresses to him on this 
 occasion, because some of the council had told her the king 
 left all the management of these things to him. He was 
 
 the Marquis of Newcastle showed the colonel. On this occasion he 
 employed his usual treachery, and criminated the earl, who was fain 
 to save himself from the indignation of the parliament by a total 
 change of conduct ; by practising the hypocrisy he had recommended 
 to Colonel Hutchinson, of frequenting the communion of a church he 
 was averse to, and persecuting the papists, whom he had protected, 
 and wished to protect. On account of his conduct a strict inquiry 
 was made by the commons concerning the commitment of persons by 
 order of council, and amendments were made in the Habeas Corpus 
 Act, which, if they had existed in the Colonel’s time, would have pre- 
 served him from his long and unjust imprisonment. Buckingham, 
 after bringing the family of Fairfax to extinction by marrying and 
 slighting his daughter, heightening and exposing his master’s vices, 
 and passing his whole life in playing, by countless alternations, the parts 
 of traitor and sycophant, died in disgrace and beggary, and, to sum 
 all up in that which to him would be the greatest suffering, his memory 
 remains hung up to ridicule in the chains of never-dying satire by 
 Pope, in some of the best lines he has written. 
 
 To those who believe in the peculiar interposition of God in human 
 affairs, as our author did, it must h'e very striking, and to her, if she 
 hved to witness it, highly gratifying, to observe this course of events. 
 Mr. Hutchinson’s three great enemies, Buckingham, Clarendon, and 
 Arlington, ruin each other, and two of them, Clarpdon and Arlington, 
 without the design of doing anything so good, laid the foundations of 
 an alUance which furnished the assertors of British liberty and tolera- 
 tion with a champion who overthrew, it is hoped never to rise again, 
 despotism in church and state; for Clarendon recommended Charles 
 the Second to constrain his brother to marry his daughter, whom he 
 had dishonoured; she brought him the Princesses Mary and Anne, 
 successively queens of England; and Bennett, Earl of Arlington, to 
 gain himself popularity in a moment of need, first proposed the match 
 between Mary and the Prince of Orange, afterwards William the 
 Third! 
 
358 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 very urgent with her to know who it was that informed her 
 that he was the sole actor in these businesses ; but she desired 
 to be excused from naming any author in that things which 
 she had not mentioned but that she thought it his honour to 
 own ; but he told her he would not move for any more liberty 
 for her husband than he had_, unless he could be assured it 
 might be done with more safety to his majesty than he could 
 apprehend from it. “ But/’ said he^ “ Mrs. Hutchinson^ 
 I have some papers of yours which I would show^ not to 
 examine you^ but to see whether you will inform me anything 
 of them.” She told him she had curiosity enough to see 
 anything that passed under her name; whereupon he called 
 forth his man^ who brought out a great bundle of papers, 
 called examinations, taken at Grantham, of passages between 
 Mrs. Hutchinson and Mrs. Vane. First he showed her a 
 character which contained cyphers for the names of many 
 gentlemen and women who were not very distant neighbours, 
 with others whom she knew not at all. She told him she 
 understood nothing at all of that paper; then he turned 
 down the rest, and showed her a letter, beginning, ‘‘ My dear 
 Amaranta ; ” which she told him she knew not at all. “ But,” 
 said he, “ you will yet own your own hand; ” and showed 
 her among these papers the copy of the letter that was sent 
 to the house of parliament in her husband’s name, written 
 in her hand, which when she saw she was a little confounded, 
 wondering how it should come into his hands; but she told 
 him that she could not absolutely say that was her writing, 
 though it had some resemblance. So when she had again 
 urged the business she came for, and could obtain nothing 
 from him, she went away, and left in the room with the 
 ^secretary. Sir Robert Byron, a cousin-german of her husband’s, 
 who had by chance come in thither upon some business of 
 his own, and had stood by while she urged to the secretary 
 the mischief and ruin her husband’s imprisonment had 
 brought upon his family and estate. As soon as she was 
 gone, the secretary told Sir Robert that he had heard Mrs. 
 Hutchinson relate the sad condition of her husband and his 
 house; “ and,” said he, “ you may here take notice how the 
 justice of God pursues those murderers, that, though the 
 king pardoned both his life and estate, yet by the hand of 
 divine justice they were now likely to come to ruin for that 
 crime; ” which words being told Mr. Hutchinson, he laughed 
 
Petitions of Nevill and Salloway 359 
 
 much at the simple folly of the man^ who could call his own 
 illegal persecutions and oppressions of innocence the judg- 
 ments of God. The papers which he showed Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son she afterwards learned to have been some letters between 
 Mrs. Vane^ one of Sir Henry Vane’s daughters^ and one 
 Mrs. Hutchinson^ a gentlewoman who used to come thither^, 
 filled with such frivolous intelligence of private amours and 
 intrigues as young people used to communicate to their 
 confidants, and such as any wise statesman would have be- 
 lieved himself affronted to have had brought to him, and not 
 made such politic inquiries, and imprisoned those with whom 
 they were found, about so unconcerning a matter. 
 
 Mr. Henry Nevill and Mr. Salloway had been put into the 
 Tower upon the same suspicion which they had of Mr. 
 Hutchinson — a northern plot, for which there was a peculiar 
 assizes, and some men were executed; and the judges, at 
 their return, said that their confessions almost amounted 
 to treason; but that almost served their turns. As soon as 
 those assizes were past, Mr. Hutchinson sent to Mr. Nevill 
 and Mr. Salloway, that he thought it now time for them to 
 endeavour their liberty, and therefore desired to know what 
 course they intended to proceed in, that they might all take 
 one way. They both sent Mr. Hutchinson word that they 
 looked upon him as the best befriended, and they were 
 resolved to see first what success he had, and to make him 
 their leading card. Hereupon he, fearful of doing anything 
 which they could not, sat still deliberating, while they, with- 
 out giving him the least notice, wrought their own liberties 
 secretly, Mr. Nevill desiring to travel, and Mr. Salloway 
 making such a false, flattering petition, that no honest man 
 could make such another, and a less after his would have but 
 more exasperated. It took so, that immediately he had his 
 liberty, both of them taking some oaths to confirm their 
 loyalty, which were given them by the clerk of the Tower.^ 
 They had a mind at court that Mr. Hutchinson should have 
 made such another petition, and therefore Salloway’s was 
 shown to a friend of his; the words of which were, ‘‘ That 
 since God by his miraculous providence had set his majesty 
 
 ^ Mr. Nevill, as just before mentioned, had acted with steadiness and 
 integrity; Mr. Salloway had been more valuable, and had been suc- 
 cessively of the council of state, of the Rump parliament, of the com- 
 mittee of safety, and council of officers. 
 
360 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 over us^ he had acquiesced thankfully under it, and never, 
 not so much as in thought, made a wish against it; ’’ and 
 promises of the like nature: which perhaps were no truer 
 than his professions, for they were utterly false; for at his 
 iirst coming into the Tower no man had muttered more than 
 he, who scarce refrained even from blasphemies against God 
 himself for bringing him into bondage. After his release he 
 went to their common prayer, and pleased them so well that 
 it was said they would give him an office. But when they 
 found that, notwithstanding their hint, Mr. Hutchinson 
 would not follow his example, their malice grew very bitter 
 against him at the court, insomuch that a gentleman having 
 treated with Mrs. Hutchinson for a niece of his, to whom he 
 was guardian, that would have been a convenient fortune 
 for her son, the Chancellor sent for the gentleman and 
 peremptorily forbade him to proceed in the affair,^ and openly 
 said, “ he must keep their family down^ 
 
 Mr. Hutchinson was not at all dismayed, but wonderfully 
 pleased with all these things, and told his wife this captivity 
 was the happiest release in the world for him; for before, 
 although he had made no express engagement, yet, in regard 
 that his life and estate had been freely left him when they 
 took away others, he thought himself obliged to sit still all the 
 while this king reigned, whatever opportunity he might have ; 
 but now he thought this usage had utterly disobliged him 
 from all ties either of honour or conscience, and that he was 
 free to act as prudence should hereafter lead him, and that 
 he thought not his liberty out of prison worth purchasing 
 by any future engagement, which would again fetter him in 
 obligations to such persons as every day more and more 
 manifested themselves to be enemies to all just and godly 
 interests. He therefore charged his wife that she should not 
 make applications to any person whatsoever, and made it his 
 earnest request to Sir Allen Apsley to let him stand and fall 
 by his own innocency, and to undertake nothing for him, 
 which, if he did, he told him he would disown. Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son, remembering how much she had displeased him in saving 
 him before, submitted now to suffer with him, according to 
 
 ^ What base and atrocious malice ! 3^et this was the virtuous Lord 
 Clarendon ! This method of alternately persecuting those whom they 
 suspect, and suspecting those they persecute, has for ever been the 
 practice of bad ministers, and has for ever created rebels, and will for 
 ever continue to create new ones in the place of those they destroy. 
 
Design of Transporting Him 361 
 
 his'^own will/ who^ as he would do nothing that might en- 
 tangle him for his freedom, so he patiently suffered their 
 unjust bondage, and had no guilt found in him; yet was he 
 cruelly and maliciously persecuted and hated; and criminals, 
 with threats and promises, were tried in all ways to see if 
 they could bring out any accusation against him, but all 
 they could arrive at was only that he was an unchanged per- 
 son, yet they kept him still as close a prisoner as at the first. 
 After Salloway was released. Sir Allen Apsley asking the 
 Chancellor why his brother was not let out as well as Sallo- 
 way; What,’’ said the Chancellor, “make you no differ- 
 ence between your brother and Salloway ? ” Sir Allen replied, 
 he thought his brother as innocent. “ Surely,” said the 
 Chancellor, “ there is a great difference; Salloway conforms 
 to the government, and goes to church, but your brother is 
 the most unchanged person of the party.” 
 
 The colonel, at last, with some other prisoners were delib- 
 erating to sue out a habeas corpus, and in order thereunto 
 sent to the lieutenant of the Tower to desire a copy of the 
 warrant whereby he stood committed, which indeed was so 
 imperfect, that he could not legally be kept upon that, for 
 there was neither his Christian name nor any place of resi- 
 dence mentioned in it, so that any other Hutchinson might 
 as well have been kept upon it as he; but the lieutenant 
 refused to give him a copy, and his jailor told the prisoner it 
 was altered after they had kept him four or five months in 
 prison: then the colonel wrote to Bennett, but neither from 
 him could he obtain any copy of his commitment. 
 
 After this a friend gave him notice that they had a design 
 to transport him to some island or plantation ; whereupon he 
 wrote a narrative of his imprisonment, and procured it to be 
 secretly printed, to have left behind him, if he had been sent 
 away, to acquaint the parliament, which was then shortly to 
 assemble, and to leave with his friends ; but he kept it in the 
 meantime privately.^ 
 
 ^ There does not appear reason for supposing that Colonel Hutchin- 
 son had any distinct prospect of manifesting his sentiments with effect, 
 nor can these declarations be accounted for upon any principle but 
 that of general disdain. The complete and generous attachment of 
 Mrs. Hutchinson deserves a higher term; if our language would admit 
 of it, as the French does dcvouement, we should call it devotion. 
 
 ^ At the time of Colonel Hutchinson’s imprisonment the parliament 
 were so devoted to the views of the court, that they might very likely 
 have taken httle notice of his representations. Many years elapsed 
 
362 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 At lengthy through the lies that the lieutenant of the Tower 
 told of his prisoners^ and the malice of their wicked perse- 
 cutors, who envied even the bread which charity sent in to 
 feed some of the men whose estates were wholly taken away, 
 warrants were signed for carrying away most of the prisoners, 
 some to Tangiers, and some to other barbarous and distant 
 places: among the rest Colonel Hutchinson was destined to 
 the Isle of Man, which Sir Allen Apsley hearing of, told the 
 king he had some private business of trusts with the colonel 
 concerning his own estate, for which he obtained a respite 
 for him for three months, with liberty for lawyers to come 
 to him. But when the colonel heard of it, he was more dis- 
 pleased with this petty favour than with all their rigour, and 
 had resolved to have done something to reverse it, but that 
 his wife persuaded him to rest till she made a short voyage 
 into the country to fetch him supplies, which he did. 
 
 As soon as she was gone, the lieutenant of the Tower sent 
 his jailer, Mr. Edward Cresset, early in the morning, upon the 
 1 6th day of April, 1664, to fetch Mr. Hutchinson to his lodg- 
 ings, whither being come. Cresset withdrew, and the lieu- 
 tenant told Mr. Hutchinson that he had been civil to him in 
 permitting his children to come to him with their mother, and 
 yet he had not paid him his fees and dues, although that 
 warrant which allowed the access of his wife did not mention 
 his children, and therefore he now demanded his dues. Mr. 
 Hutchinson told him, “At his departure out of the Tower he 
 should not be behind hand with him for the civility of suifer- 
 ing his children to come to him.” Robinson replied, “ That 
 signified nothing, he expected his dues, and would have 
 them.” Mr. Hutchinson answered, “ His was not every 
 prisoner’s condition, for he had been now twenty-four weeks 
 kept close prisoner, and yet never knew accuser nor accusa- 
 tion against him, and therefore he should desire to consider 
 before he parted with his money; but for any civilities he 
 should repay them.” Robinson said, “ He meddled with no 
 man’s crimes, but whether guilty or not guilty, he expected 
 his dues, which he could recover by law if they were refused.” 
 
 before they animadverted as they ought upon such arbitrary and un- 
 just proceedings. Probably the time will never arrive when parlia- 
 ments will become sensible of the solecism of making good laws and 
 then dispensing with the execution of them. The fact is, that governors 
 and makers of laws seldom feel the effects of them in their own persons : 
 to the governed, any variableness destroys the benefit of all law. 
 
Refused to Pay the Dues 363 
 
 Mr. Hutchinson asking, “What they were?” He said, 
 
 Fifty pounds.” Further demanding, By what law they 
 were due, whereby he could recover them.^ ” Robinson 
 answered, By custom.” Mr. Hutchinson told him, “ He 
 was confident that^pretence would not recover them ; and if 
 he thought it would, he would go to a civil and fair trial with 
 him the next term; yet due or not due, what civilities he 
 either had or should afford him, he would recompense at 
 parting.” Robinson answered, “ He stood upon his right, 
 and he would make Mr. Hutchinson, or somebody else, pay 
 it.” Mr. Hutchinson told him, “ He knew not whom he 
 meant by somebody else, but if his liberty were taken from 
 him without any reason that he knew of, he would not so 
 part with his money, if he could help it.” He then, in anger, 
 said, “ he would lock him up close, and let nobody come to 
 him.” Mr. Hutchinson told him, He could be locked no 
 closer than he had been all this time, and he hoped he would 
 not forbid those coming to him who had warrant from the 
 secretary; for the rest he might use his pleasure.” He, in 
 fury, commanded Mr. Hutchinson to be taken away, and 
 locked him up, so that no person could come to him; and he 
 gave order at the Tower Gates to keep out his children and 
 all his relations that should come to inquire for him ; and he 
 sent word to Serjeant Fountaine who had an order to come 
 in, that he should not be admitted, although his business was 
 of great concernment to others, and not to Colonel Hutchin- 
 son, who being a trustee for some of his relations, was to 
 have made some settlements in their affairs ; which could not 
 be done, but they, to their prejudice, were forced to go with- 
 out it.^ Although his commands were executed to the full, 
 
 ^ The same respectable friend who, proceeding upon an intimation 
 contained in the Annual Review, communicated to the editor the 
 particulars of the deliverance of George Fox, given in page 201, has 
 upon a similar intimation pointed out several passages in the life of 
 William Penn, demonstrating the officious readiness of this same Sir 
 John Robinson to act as the minister of oppression and persecution. 
 He first sends a serjeant from the Tower to watch Penn; the serjeant 
 finds him preaching to friends, seizes him, drags him away to the 
 Tower, and sends to Whitehall for Robinson — Robinson comes, sits 
 as magistrate, overrules the just and legal objections of Penn, and 
 commits him to gaol. Penn, whilst in prison, writes a very sensible 
 and moderate letter to Bennett, Earl of Arlington, complaining of 
 coarse treatment in prison, although the secretary had pretended to 
 give orders for his decent accommodation. At the trial of Penn, Sir 
 John Robinson sits as assessor to the recorder, and at the same time 
 obtrudes himself upon the court as an evidence, interferes to influence 
 
 M3 
 
364 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 yet Mr. Hutchinson’s eldest son found means to steal into 
 the Tower^ and to inform his father of a malicious lie which 
 the lieutenant had made of him at courts on that day that he 
 fell out with him; which was this. — Robinson told the king^ 
 that when Mr. Henningham and others were carried out of 
 the Tower to be shipped away^ Mr. Hutchinson, looking out of 
 his window, bade them take courage, for they should yet have 
 a day for it. This lie coming to Mr. Hutchinson’s know- 
 ledge on the 19th of April, moved him more than all his other 
 base usage; whereupon he wrote a letter to Robinson, to 
 tell him he should have taken care of provoking his prisoners 
 to speak, who had so much exposed himself to every one of 
 them; and to let him know what he himself had observed 
 and could prove, he drew it up under certain heads, which 
 he told him, if he continued his vile usage of him, he would 
 publish. The articles were: — 
 
 First. That Robinson had affirmed that the king gave no 
 allowance to his prisoners, not so much as to those who had all 
 their estates taken from them ; and accordingly he gave them 
 none, but converted what the king allowed them to his own 
 use, and threatened some of the prisoners with death if they 
 offered to demand it; and suffered others, at twelve o’clock 
 at night, to make such a miserable outcry for bread, that it 
 was heard in some parts of the city, and one was absolutely 
 starved to death for want of relief ; although the king at that 
 time told a prisoner, that he took more care for the prisoners 
 than for his own table. 
 
 Second. That he set down to the king seven pounds a week 
 for one prisoner, for whom he never laid out above twenty- 
 seven or thirty shillings a week at the most. 
 
 Third. That he not only kept back the prisoners’ allowances, 
 but exacted of them excessive rents for bare prison lodgings, 
 and empty warders’ houses, unfurnished; and if they had 
 not punctually paid him, would have stifled them up by 
 close imprisonment, without any order, although he knew 
 
 the jury against the prisoner, and abuses the foreman because he will 
 not suffer himself to be browbeaten nor biassed. At last, when a 
 verdict could not be obtained conformable to the views of the judges, 
 they fine the jury for that which they have given, and Penn for con- 
 tempt of the court. To enumerate, from the Histories of the Suffer- 
 ings of the Quakers the instances of his oppression and cruelty, would 
 fill a volume. Suffice it to hold him up here to infamy as lasting as the 
 fame of those two virtuous men, in the hope of deterring other ministers 
 of injustice from doing the like. 
 
The Articles Against Robinson 365 
 
 they had not a penny to buy breads but what came from the 
 charity of good people. 
 
 Fourth. That he received salary of the king for forty 
 warders^ and had not near so many^ but filled up the list with 
 false names^ and took the pay to himself. 
 
 Fifth. That when he had received money for those warders 
 he kept^ he had detained it many months, to his own use, 
 while the poor men were thereby in miserable wants. 
 
 Sixth. That he sold the warders’ places, and let them 
 houses at a dear rate, and yet took the most considerable 
 prisoners, which ought to have been committed to them, 
 into his own house, and made them pay him excessive rates 
 for bed-rooms, and set his man. Cresset, over them, making 
 them pay him for attendance, which the warders should have 
 had. 
 
 Seventh. That he made many false musters in his own com- 
 pany belonging to the Tower, and though he had received 
 the soldiers’ money, yet it was run in arrears to them five or 
 six pounds a man; at which they cruelly murmured, be- 
 cause by this means their maintenance was straitened, and 
 their duty brought more frequently upon them. 
 
 Eighth. That notwithstanding all his defrauding, oppres- 
 sive, and exacting ways of raising money, he had ungratefully 
 complained of the king’s scanty recompense of his service. 
 
 Ninth. That after the starving of the poor prisoners and 
 their miserable outcry, when shame forced him to allov/ about 
 a dozen poor tradesmen ten shillings a piece,^ though at that 
 time he received forty from the king for each of them, he and 
 his man. Cresset, denied the king’s allowance, and said it was 
 his own charity. 
 
 Tenth. That he was frequently drunk, out of the Tower till 
 twelve, one, and two o’clock, and threatened one of the war- 
 ders, who came one night to fetch him home, with Newgate, 
 and spited him ever after. 
 
 All these things being notoriously true, this letter put him 
 into a great rage, and a no less dread that the colonel, as he 
 had threatened him, would publish it; whereupon, as soon 
 as these things were laid to his charge, within ten days he 
 paid his soldiers fifteen months’ pay out of twenty-two due to 
 
 ^ It hence appears that many more in number, and persons of a 
 different description from what other accounts mention, were made 
 prisoners of state at this time. 
 
366 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 them when the letter was written, he having all that while 
 kept back eighteen pence a week out of every soldier’s pay; 
 and the soldiers, understanding that Colonel Hutchinson’s 
 observations of his fraud had procured them this satisfaction, 
 used to give him thanks when they came to stand sentinels at 
 his door. 
 
 Presently after he received the letter, he went to Sir 
 Allen Apsley and complained to him that the colonel had 
 sent him a vile letter, but did not show it to Sir Allen, as he 
 sent word to the colonel he would; whereupon Sir Allen 
 Apsley sent Mr. George Hutchinson with a letter to Sir John 
 Robinson, to tell him that if he would let him go to his 
 brother, he doubted not but it would be a good means to 
 persuade the colonel to pay him his fees, and to reconcile the 
 differences between them. Sir John, upon the 21st of April, 
 went along with Mr. George Hutchinson to his brother, and 
 at his entrance, in a passion began to quarrel at the colonel’s 
 sour looks; who told him, if he had known they would not 
 have pleased him, and had had notice of his coming, he 
 would have set them in a glass for him. Then Robinson 
 told him, in a rage, he had written him a libel. Mr. Hutchin- 
 son answered it was no libel, for he had set his name to it, 
 and they were truths, which if he put him to it, he could 
 prove by sufficient testimonies. Whereupon he fell into 
 horrible railing and cruel language, but by Mr. George 
 Hutchinson’s interposition at length all was pacified, and he 
 was fairly going out of the room, with Mr. George Hutchinson, 
 when his man Cresset, reminding him that the colonel had 
 a foul copy of his letter, which he had said he would send to 
 Sir Allen, who had desired to see it; Robinson resolved to 
 take that draught away from him; but the colonel, foresee- 
 ing that, had sent copies of it long before out of the Tower, 
 which Robinson’s dull head not dreaming of, came back 
 and insolently commanded the colonel to give him the first 
 draught of the letter. The colonel desired to be excused, 
 whereupon Robinson said he would have his pockets searched, 
 and accordingly bade Cresset feel in them. The colonel, a 
 little moved, took a bottle in his hand, and bade Cresset 
 forbear, if he loved his head, and told Sir John if he had any 
 warrant to search him from the king or council, he would 
 submit to it, but otherwise he would not suffer it, especially 
 for a paper which was only of private concernment between 
 
The Inhumanity of His Jailers 367 
 
 them; for all this^ when Sir John saw that Cresset durst not 
 approach the colonel, he commanded one Wale, a warder, 
 to search his pockets, who coming with entreaties to the 
 colonel to permit it, he suffered him. And then the lieu- 
 tenant caused a little dressing box which the colonel had to 
 be opened, and took away all the papers he found in it, among 
 which there was one wherein the colonel had written a verse 
 out of the 43rd Psalm; it was the first verse, to be joined 
 with the narrative of his imprisonment, that he had pro- 
 vided to leave behind him for the satisfaction of his friends. 
 This paper Robinson carried to court, and said, that by the 
 deceitful and unjust man the colonel intended the king, 
 although the application was of his own making. In the 
 meantime, while they were ransacking his box and pockets 
 Robinson fell a railing at the colonel, giving him the base 
 terms of rebel and murderer, and such language as none 
 could have learned, but such as had been conversant with 
 the civil society of Picked-hatch, Turnbull-street, and Billings- 
 gate, near which last place the hero had his education.^ 
 When the colonel patiently told him he transgressed the act 
 of oblivion, he said he knew that well enough, and bade him 
 sue out his remedy; then in fury and rage he turned the 
 colonel’s servant out of his chamber, who had been locked 
 up with him ail the time of his imprisonment, and left him 
 altogether unattended, which having never been before in 
 his whole life, put him into a cold and a flux, with a feverish 
 distemper: but the greatness of his mind was not broken 
 by the feebleness of his constitution, nor by the barbarous 
 inhumanity of his jailers, which he received v/ith disdain, 
 and laughed at, but lost not anger on them. 
 
 ^ In a former note we remarked that the evils of imprisonment were 
 considerably enhanced by the custody of prisons, and peculiarly prisons 
 of state, being committed to persons of low education and sordid mind ; 
 it is here strongly exemplified, and doubly painful must it have been 
 to Mrs. Hutchinson to witness the unworthy treatment her husband 
 now received, and to compare it with that which the persons confined 
 in this same place had experienced from her father, a man of liberal 
 and noble mind. Considering the prejudice which reigns against 
 prisons and prisoners, and therefore how few visit them, and how few 
 prisoners dare make observations or remonstrances, it is to be feared 
 many abuses pass unknown and uncorrected; it is but once, in ages, 
 that there appears a Howard! These considerations ought to render 
 the guardians of the public welfare extremely tender of the liberty of 
 individuals : but if such things as state prisons be at all necessary, then 
 careful to provide for their being superintended by gentlemen, and 
 men of Liberal and benevolent minds. 
 
368 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 After these things^ Mrs. Hutchinson coming out of the 
 country was, by the lieutenant’s order, denied to see her 
 husband, but at her lodgings she found letters from him con- 
 veyed to her every day, in spite of all his guards ; and there- 
 upon she wrote to Robinson to desire to know whether the 
 secretary had countermanded his first order for her to see her 
 husband, or whether he denied obedience to it; whereupon 
 Robinson sent to her to come to him the next da}^, but when 
 she came he was gone forth, and she was not admitted within 
 the gates, and thereupon she went back to her lodgings and 
 wrote him a smart letter, and sent him with it a copy of 
 her husband’s letter, which she told him she would publish, 
 and not suffer him to be murdered to extort undue money 
 from him. The next day, being the Lord’s day, he sent one 
 of the warders to entreat her to come to her husband, and 
 the blood-hound Cresset met her at the gate, and led her to 
 her husband, and left her all the day alone with him, which 
 they had never done before during all the time of his imprison- 
 ment, and in the evening Sir John Robinson sent for her, 
 and partly expostulated with and partly flattered her, and 
 told her that her husband would have been sent to the Isle 
 of Man,^ but that he in kindness had procured a better place 
 for him, and that he was not covetous, but since her hus- 
 band would not pay him his fees, he might use his pleasure, 
 and she and his children and relations might freely go to 
 him. She received this as befitted her, being in his hands, 
 and knowing that not good nature, but fear she would put 
 him in print, moved him to this gentler course; and this she 
 understood, both by the inquiries his servants made of the 
 colonel’s warder concerning her intentions, and by Robin- 
 son’s. continuing, notwithstanding all his dissimulation, to 
 make a thousand false insinuations against the colonel every- 
 where, and to do him all ill offices at court; even if there 
 were not a more abominable wickedness than all this prac- 
 tised, nam_ely, a lingering poison given him, which, though 
 we had not wickedness enough to suspect then, the events 
 
 1 An exile, for the second time, to the Isle of Man is mentioned. 
 Had the colonel, or his friends, been properly informed, they would 
 not have wished to exchange it for the flat coast of Kent. In our times, 
 when it has become the retreat of the gay and imprudent, it must seem 
 strange to hear it spoken of as a spot to be dreaded. Had he been sent 
 there he would very likely have lived to see the downfall of his enemies, 
 and have returned to shine in the autumn of his life as an evening sun, 
 when his virtues would have been recognised and revered. 
 
Suspicions of Poison 369 
 
 that have since ensued make a little doubtful. It is certain 
 that Cresset did make that attempt upon Sir Henry Vane 
 and others, and two or three days before the colonel was sent 
 away, he brought into his chamber, when he came to lock 
 him up at night, a bottle of excellent wine, under pretence 
 of kindness, which he, the colonel, and the warder drank 
 together, and the warder and the colonel both died within 
 four months; the colonel presently after fell sick, but was 
 very unsuspicious, and we must leave it to the great day, 
 when all crimes, how secret soever, will be made manifest, 
 whether they added poison to all their other iniquity, whereby 
 they certainly murdered this guiltless servant of God. 
 
 A few days after, at nine o’clock at night, after his wife 
 was gone from him. Cresset brought the colonel a warrant, 
 to tell him that he must, the next morning tide, go down to 
 Sandown Castle, in Kent; which he was not surprised at, it 
 being the barbarous custom of that place to send away the 
 prisoners, when they had no knowledge of, nor time to accom- 
 modate themselves for their journey. But instead of putting 
 him into a boat at the morning tide, about eight o’clock Sir 
 Henry Wroth came with a party of horse to receive him of 
 the lieutenant, and finding him sick, and not well able to 
 endure riding in the heat of the day, he was so civil as to let 
 him go by water in the evening tide to Gravesend, with a 
 guard of soldiers in boats hired at his own charge, where the 
 horse guard met him. By these means he got opportunity 
 to take leave of his children which were in town, and about 
 four o’clock he was sent out of the Tower, with one Gregory, 
 designed to be his fellow prisoner ; who, going over the draw- 
 bridge, turned back to the lieutenant, and told him he would 
 have accepted it as a greater mercy if the king had commanded 
 him to have been shot to death there, rather than have sent 
 him to a distant place to be starved, he having nothing but 
 his trade to maintain him, and his friends would now be so 
 far removed from him, that he could expect nothing.^ The 
 lieutenant in scorn told him, he went with a charitable man 
 who would not suffer him to starve, whereby he exposed the 
 malice of their intentions to the colonel ; who thought it not 
 enough to send him to a far prison not much differing from 
 
 ^ This Gregory seems to have been a low man, but had probably 
 commanded a company in some of the city regiments during the latter 
 times of the parliament. 
 
370 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 exile^ but to charge him with a companion, whom however 
 his kindness might have rendered him charitable to, yet they 
 ought not to have put upon him; neither would the colonel 
 take notice of their imposition, though he designed kindness 
 to the man, had he been worthy of it. 
 
 The colonel’s wife and children got a boat and followed 
 him to Gravesend, whither also Gregory’s wife, and one that 
 called him brother, went; and that night all the company 
 and all the guards supped at the colonel’s charge, and many 
 of the guards lay in the chamber with him, who, with the re- 
 freshment of the evening air, and the content he felt in being 
 out of Robinson’s claws, found himself, or through the live- 
 liness of his spirit fancied himself, something better than he 
 was in the Tower. The next morning, very early, his guards 
 hurried him away on horseback ; but, to speak the truth, they 
 were civil to him. His son went along with him to see the 
 place he was sent to, and Sir Allen Apsley had procured an 
 order for his servant to continue with him in the prison; his 
 wife went back to London, to stay there to provide him such 
 accommodation as she could hear he had need of. 
 
 When he came to the castle, he found it a lamentable old 
 ruined place, almost a mile distant from the town, the rooms 
 all out of repair, not weather proof, no kind of accommodation 
 either for lodging or diet, or any conveniency of life. Before 
 he came, there were not above half a dozen soldiers in it, and 
 a poor lieutenant with his wife and children, and two or three 
 cannoniers, and a few guns almost dismounted, upon rotten 
 carriages ; but at the colonel’s coming thither, a, company of 
 foot besides were sent from Dover to help to guard the place, 
 pitiful weak fellows, half-starved and eaten up with vermin, 
 whom the governor of Dover cheated of half their pay, and 
 the other half they spent in drink. These had no beds, but 
 a nasty court of guard, where a sutler lived, within a partition 
 made of boards, with his wife and family, and this was all 
 the accommodation the colonel had for his victuals, which 
 were bought at a dear rate in the town, and most horribly 
 dressed at the sutler’s. For beds he was forced to send to 
 an inn in the town, and at a most unconscionable rate hire 
 three, for himself, his man, and Captain Gregory ; he had to 
 get his chamber glazed, which was a thoroughfare room^ 
 having five doors in it, one of which opened upon a platform, 
 that had nothing but the bleak air of the sea, whilst every 
 
His Residence in the Castle 371 
 
 tide washed the foot of the castle walls. This air made the 
 chamber so unwholesome and damp, that even in the summer 
 time the colonel’s hat-case and trunks, and everything of 
 leather, would be every day all covered over with mould,— 
 wipe them as clean as you could one morning, by the next 
 they would be mouldy again; and though the walls were 
 four yards thick, yet it rained in through the cracks in them, 
 and then one might sweep a peck of saltpetre off of them 
 every day, which stood in a perpetual sweat upon them. 
 Notwithstanding all this, the colonel was very cheerful, and 
 made the best shifts he could, with things as he found them ; 
 when the lieutenant’s wife, seeing his stomach could not well 
 bear his food, offered to board him, and so he and his man 
 dieted with her for twenty shillings a week, he finding wine 
 besides, and linen, etc. Whilst the sutler provided his meat, 
 Gregory ate with him; but v/hen he tabled with the captain, 
 Gregory’s son coming to him, he had his meat from the 
 town, and soon after a woman came down who left not the 
 man destitute and comfortless. The worst part of the 
 colonel’s sufferings in this prison, was the company of this 
 fellow, who being a fellow prisoner, and poor, and the colonel 
 having no particular retreat, he could not wholly decline his 
 company; and he being a carnal person, without any fear of 
 God, or any good, but rather scandalous conversation, he 
 could take no pleasure in him ; meanwhile, many of his friends 
 gave caution to his wife concerning him, as suspecting him to 
 be a trepanner, which Vv^e had afterwards some cause to fear. 
 
 The captain of the castle, one Freeman, had all this while 
 a chamber which was a little warmer, and had a bed in it, 
 but this he reserved, intending to set a rate upon it, and this 
 too was so dark that one could not have read by the fire or 
 the bedside without a candle at noon day. 
 
 When the colonel’s wife understood her husband’s bad 
 accommodation, she made all the means she could through 
 her friends to procure liberty that she might be in the castle 
 with him, but that was absolutely denied; whereupon she 
 and her son and daughter went to Deal, and there took lodg- 
 ings, from whence they walked every day on foot to dinner 
 and back again at night, with horrible toil and inconvenience; 
 and though they procured the captain’s wife to diet them with 
 the colonel, when they had meat good enough, yet through 
 the poverty of the people, and their want of all necessaries. 
 
372 
 
 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 and the faculty of ordering things as they should be, 
 it was very inconvenient to them ; yet the colonel endured it 
 so cheerfully that he was never more pleasant and contented 
 in his whole life. When no other recreations were left him, 
 he diverted himself with sorting and shadowing cockle-shells, 
 which his wife and daughter gathered for him, with as much 
 delight as he used to take in the richest agates and onyxes 
 he could compass, with the most artificial engravings, which 
 were things, when he recreated himself from more serious 
 studies, he as much delighted in as any piece of art. But 
 his fancy showed itself so excellent in sorting and dressing 
 these shells, that none of us could imitate it, and the cockles 
 began to be admired by several persons who saw them. 
 These were but his trifling diversions, his business and con- 
 tinual study was the Scripture, which the more he conversed 
 in, the more it delighted him ; insomuch that his wife having 
 brought down some books to entertain him in his solitude, 
 he thanked her, and told her that if he should continue as 
 long as he lived in prison, he would read nothing there but 
 his bible. His wife bore all her own toils joyfully enough 
 for the love of him, but could not but be very sad at the sight 
 of his undeserved sufferings ; and he would very sweetly and 
 kindly chide her for it, and tell her that if she were but 
 cheerful, he should think this suffering the happiest thing 
 that ever befell him; he would also bid her consider what 
 reason she had to rejoice that the Lord supported him, and 
 how much more intolerable it would have been if the Lord 
 had suffered his spirits to have sunk, or his patience to have 
 been lost under this. One day when she was weeping, after 
 he had said many things to comfort her, he gave her reasons 
 why she should hope and be assured that this cause would 
 revive, because the interest of God was so much involved in 
 it that he was entitled to it.^ She told him she did not 
 
 ^ The notion of the revival of The Cause, and of the advancement of 
 it by their sufferings, seems to have been very prevalent with tl^ose 
 who fell in these times; accordingly they supported their fate with 
 the true spirit of martyrs. The speech of Colonel Okey at the time of 
 his execution, preserved in the Trials of the Regicides, maintains the 
 style of prophetic eloquence with so much dignity and firmness, as 
 almost to captivate the imagination of the coolest reasoner. These 
 sentences following are extracted from it: — 
 
 “ And truly, as to the Cause, I am as confident, even as I am of my 
 resurrection, that that cause which we first took up the sword for, 
 which was for righteousness and justice, and for the advancement of a 
 godly magistracy and a good ministry (however some men turned 
 
Comforts His Wife 
 
 373 
 
 doubt but the cause would revive; but^ said she^ notwith- 
 standing all your resolution, I know this will conquer the 
 weakness of your constitution, and you will die in prison. 
 He replied, I think I shall not, if but I do, my blood will be 
 so innocent, I shall advance the cause more by my death 
 hastening the vengeance of God upon my unjust enemies, than 
 I could do by all the actions of my life. Another time, when 
 she was telling him she feared they had but placed him on 
 the sea-shore in order to transport him to Tangier, he told 
 her, if they had, God was the same God at Tangier as at 
 Owthorpe; prithee, said he, trust God with me, if he carry 
 me away, he will bring me back again. 
 
 Sometimes when he would not be persuaded to do things 
 wherein he had a liberty, for fear of putting a snare and 
 stumbling-block before others that had not so, and when she 
 would expostulate with him, why he should make himself a 
 martyr for people who had been so censorious of him, and so 
 unthankful and insensible of all his merits, he would say, he 
 did it not for them, but for the cause they owned. When 
 many ill usages he had received from godly people have been 
 urged to him, he would say, that if they were truly the people 
 of God, all their failings were to be borne; that if God had 
 a people in the land, as he was confident he had, it was 
 among them, and not among the cavaliers, and therefore 
 although he should ever be severe against their miscarriages 
 in any person in whomsoever he found them, yet he would 
 adhere to them that owned God, how unkindly soever they 
 dealt with him. Sometimes he would say, that if ever he 
 should live to see the parliament power up again, he would 
 never meddle any more either in councils or in armies ; and 
 then sometimes again, when he saw or heard of any of the 
 debaucheries of the times, he would say, he would act only as 
 a justice of the peace in the country, and be severe against 
 drunkards, and suffer none in his neighbourhood. Often- 
 times he would say, that if ever he were at liberty in the world, 
 
 about for their own ends), shall yet revive again. I am confident, I say, 
 that cause for which so much blood hath been shed, will have another 
 resurrection, and that you will have a blessed fruit of those many 
 thousands that have been killed in the late war. I would say to all 
 good men, rather to suffer than take any indirect means to deliver 
 themselves; and God, when it shall make most for his own glory and 
 the good of his people, will deliver, and that in such a way that himself 
 shall have glory in, and the gospel have no reproach by.” 
 
374 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 he would flee the conversation of the cavaliers, and would 
 write upon his doors, 
 
 Procul hinc, procul este, profani! 
 
 and that, though he had in his former conversation with 
 them never had any communication with their manners nor 
 vices, yet henceforth he would never, in one kind or other, 
 have any commerce at all with them; and indeed it was a 
 resolution he would oftener repeat than any other, telling 
 us that he was convinced there was a serpentine seed in 
 them. Yet he had many apprehensions of the rash, hot- 
 heated spirits of many of our party, and fears that their 
 pride and self-conceit of their own abilities would again 
 bring us into confusion, if they should ever have the reins 
 again in their hands; and therefore he would bid us advise 
 his son, and would himself advise him, if ever we lived to 
 see a change, not to fall in with the first, how fair soever 
 their pretences were; but to wait to see how their practices 
 suited them. For he would say, that a hot-spirited people 
 would first get up and put all into confusion, and then a 
 sober party must settle things ; and he would say, let my son 
 stay to fall in with these. He foresaw that the courses which 
 the king and his party took to establish themselves would be 
 their ruin, and would say, that whenever the king had an 
 army it would be his destruction.^ Once when his wife was 
 lamenting his condition, having said many things to comfort 
 her, he told her he could not have been without this afflic- 
 tion, for if he had flourished while all the people of God 
 were corrected, he should have feared he had not been ac- 
 counted among his children, as he had not shared their lot. 
 Then would he with thankfulness repeat the kind and gentle 
 dealings of the Lord at all times toward him, and erect a 
 firm and mighty hope upon it, and wonderfully encourage her 
 to bear it patiently, not only by words, but by his own 
 admirable example. 
 
 After Mr. Hutchinson had been some time prisoner at 
 Sandown, the governor of the Castle came over, and would 
 fain have let him his chamber for 20s. a week, which Mr. 
 
 1 Is it permissible to extend this prediction to the time when J ames 
 the Second mustered his army near Salisbury, and in their almost 
 general defection received his irrevocable doom? If it is, it will appear 
 a very signal instance of foresight. The king then reigning, Charles 
 II. never made but one, and that a very short-lived attempt to raise 
 an army, which was speedily disbanded. 
 
Insolence of the Captain 375 
 
 Hutchinson told him he would give him, if his wife might 
 come there to him; but the governor refused that without 
 an express order, which was endeavoured but could not be 
 obtained. Then Freeman demanded a mark a week of the 
 colonel for fees, but the colonel told him, except he could 
 show how it w'as due by any known law, he would not pay 
 it. Some time after, the governor of Dover came over, with 
 the governor of Sandown and one Mr. Masters, and Freeman 
 consulting his master of Dover how he should get money of 
 the colonel, the governor of Dover advised him to put him 
 into a dungeon, but the fellow durst not attempt it. Yet 
 some time afterwards he came to the castle, and passing into 
 his own chamber, through Mr. Hutchinson’s, who was there, 
 — as he went by with his lieutenant, Moyle, at his heels, he 
 called out to Mr. Hutchinson’s man, and bade him desire 
 Hutchinson to come to him, without the addition of so much 
 as the title of a gentleman. Mrs. Hutchinson being then in 
 the room with her husband, desired that she might go in with 
 him and answer the captain’s insolency, and that he would 
 take no notice of it; upon which he told her that he would 
 not, neither should she, and so they both went into the 
 captain’s chamber, who had also called Gregory. When they 
 were both there, the captain, turning to Moyle, said, Cap- 
 tain Moyle, I ordain you to quarter Hutchinson and Gregory 
 together in the next room; and if Hutchinson will make a 
 partition at his own charge, he may have that part of the 
 chamber which has the chimney, and for this you must ex- 
 pect a mark a week of Hutchinson, and a noble of Gregory; 
 and if they will have any enlargement besides, they must pay 
 for it.” ^ Mr. Hutchinson laughed at him, and bade his wife 
 report his usage of him to the secretary at London, to whom 
 she immediately wrote an account of it, and sent it to Sir 
 Allen Apsley, desiring him either to procure an order for 
 removal, or else for better accommodation, and she showed 
 this letter to Gregory before it went, representing equally his 
 condition with her husband’s. Seeing she could not get 
 
 ^ In speaking of the persons who had command of the castle, and the 
 custody of the prisoners, there seems in some parts of the narrative to 
 be a little perplexity; but this passage shows clearly that Freeman 
 was captain, but did not reside at it ; and that Moyle was his lieutenant, 
 and did reside at it. The former was the person who, on this and 
 some other occasions, attempted to extort money from Colonel Hutchin- 
 son and his family ; the latter w'as the person whose wife boarded and 
 accommodated them. 
 
376 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 admission into the castle^ she took a house in the town^ to 
 which she intended to have brought her children for the 
 winter^ had not God prevented it. 
 
 Not ^ long after^ the colonel’s brother^ Mr. George Hutchin- 
 son^ came down^ and brought with him an order^ signed by 
 the secretary Bennett^ to allow the colonel leave to walk by 
 the sea-side with a keeper^ which order Sir Allen Apsley and 
 his lady had at length procured with some difficulty and sent 
 him ; wherewith he was so well satisfied^ that now he thought 
 not his prison insupportable ; neither indeed was it so to him 
 before^ for his patience and faith wonderfully carried him 
 through all his sufferings. As it now drew nigh to the latter 
 end of the year^ Mrs. Hutchinson^ having prepared the house, 
 was necessitated to go to Owthorpe to fetch her children, and 
 other supplies for her husband ; whom, when the time of her 
 departure came, she left with a very sad and ill-presaging 
 heart, rather dreading that while he lay so ready on the sea- 
 coast, he might some time or other be shipped away to some 
 barbarous place in her absence, than that which afterwards 
 ensued. The colonel comforted her all he could, and on the 
 morning she went away said, Now I myself begin to be loth 
 to part with thee.” But yet, according to his usual cheerful- 
 ness, he encouraged himself and her, and sent his son along 
 with her. His daughter and his brother stayed at Deal, who, 
 coming to him every day, he walked out with them by the 
 sea-side, and would discourse of the public concernments, 
 and say that the ill-management of the state would cause 
 
 ^ We now hasten to the conclusion of our tragedy, and accordingly 
 here are all the principal characters in their proper places and attitudes ; 
 our hero suffering with fortitude, calmness, and dignity; the kind- 
 hearted brother, the idolising devoted wife, the observant son and 
 daughter, soothing him with their assiduities, and the constant friend 
 procuring and sending alleviations. Evils so endured, so consoled, 
 almost begin to partake of the nature of enjoyments; but even this 
 state of things will prove very transient, and like the last gleams of 
 departing day, and we must speedily descend into the vale of tears; 
 those who sohcited this exile as a mitigation of oppression, and this 
 licence of walking on the shore as a relief, little knew or thought of 
 the effect this situation on this low shore would have on the constitu- 
 tion of a person tenderly brought up, and who had lived all his time 
 in the centre of the kingdom; or that walks by the sea-side, in the 
 decline of the day and of the year, would add considerably to the 
 danger. Those who are acquainted with these parts are well aware 
 of it, and probably so were those who granted both. 
 
 Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes. 
 
 Trust not the fraudful present of a foe. 
 
H is Wife Obliged to Leave Him 377 
 
 discontented wild parties to mutiny and rise against the 
 present powers^ but that they would only put things in con- 
 fusion; it must be a sober party that must then arise and 
 settle them. He would often say to his son and his wife^ as 
 he did now to his brother, Let not my son, how fairly soever 
 they pretend, too rashly engage with the first, but stay to see 
 what they make good, and engage with those who are for 
 settlement, who will have need of men of interest to assist 
 them ; let him keep clear and take heed of too rash attempts, 
 and he will be courted if he behave, himself piously and 
 prudently, and keep free of all faction, making the public 
 interest only his own.” He would sometimes in discourse 
 say, that when these people once had an army, which they 
 seemed to aim at, that army would be their destruction, for 
 he was very confident God would bring them down ; he would 
 often say they could not stand, and that whoever had any- 
 thing to do with them could not prosper. He once used this 
 expression, ‘‘ Although,” said he, “I am free from any 
 truckling with them, yet even that consenting submission 
 which I had, hath brought this suffering upon me.” And 
 he would often say, he would never have so much as a civil 
 correspondence with any of them again; yet when he men- 
 tioned Sir Allen Apsley, he would say, he would never serve 
 any that would not for his sake serve the person that had 
 preserved him. When his wife went away he was exceeding 
 well and cheerful, and so confident of seeing Owthorpe, that 
 he gave her directions in a paper for planting trees, and for 
 many other things belonging to the house and gardens. 
 ‘‘You give me,” said she, “ these orders, as if you were to 
 see that place again.” “If I do not,” said he, “I thank 
 God I can cheerfully forego it, but I will not distrust that God 
 will bring me back again, and therefore I will take care to 
 keep it while I have it.” 
 
 On the third of September, being Saturday, he had been 
 walking by the sea-side, and coming home found himself 
 aguish, with a kind of shivering and pain in his bones, and 
 going to bed did sweat exceedingly: the next day he was 
 a little better, and came down ; but on the Monday, expecting 
 another fit, which came upon him, he lay in bed all day, and 
 rose again the next day, but went not down; and after that 
 he slept no more till his last sleep came upon him, but con- 
 tinued in a feverish distemper, with violent sweatings, after 
 
37^ Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 which he used to rise out of his bed to refresh him, and when 
 he was up used to read much in his bible. He had directed 
 his wife, when she went away, to send him the Dutch Annota- 
 Hons on the Bible, and she had sent it down with some other 
 things ; which he presently caused to be brought him, though 
 he was in his bed, and some places in the Epistle to the 
 Romans read, which having heard, these annotations,’’ 
 said he, are short; ” and then looking over some notes upon 
 that Epistle, which his wife had gathered from him, and had 
 written in a book ; “ I have,” said he, discovered much more 
 of the mystery of truth in that Epistle, and when my wife 
 returns I will make her set it down; for,” said he, I will no 
 more observe their, cross humours, but when her children are 
 near, I will have her in my chamber with me, and they shall 
 not pluck her out of my arms ; and then, in the winter nights, 
 she shall collect several observations I have made of this 
 Epistle since I came into prison.” The continual study of 
 the Scriptures did infinitely ravish and refine his soul, and 
 take it oh from all lower exercise, and he continued it in his 
 sickness even to the last, desiring his brother, when he was 
 in bed and could not read himself, to read it to him. He 
 found himself every day growing weaker, yet was not exceed- 
 ing sick, only he could not sleep at all, day nor night. There 
 was a country physician at Deal, who had formerly belonged 
 to the army, and had some gifts, and used to exercise them 
 among godly people in their meetings; but having been 
 taken there once by the persecutors, and being married to a 
 wicked unquiet woman, she and the love of the world had 
 perverted him to forsake all religious meetings ; yet the man 
 continued civil and fair-conditioned, and was much employed 
 thereabouts. He being sent for to Mr. Hutchinson, found 
 that on Friday his mouth grew very sore, whereupon he told 
 Mr. George Hutchinson that he distrusted his own skill in 
 looking to it, and apprehending some danger, advised him 
 to send for a very famous physician who was at Canterbury, 
 which they did, and he came on Saturday. As he came along 
 he inquired of the messenger that fetched him what kind of 
 person the colonel was, and how he had lived; and what he 
 had been accustomed to, and which chamber of the castle he 
 was now lodged in ? Which when the man had told him, he 
 said his journey would be to no purpose, for that chamber 
 had killed him. Accordingly, when he came, he told the 
 
Seized with Illness 
 
 379 
 
 coloners brother, on Saturday night, that he apprehended 
 danger, and appointed some remedies, and some applications 
 to his temples, and a cordial to procure rest, but it had no 
 effect. There was a nurse watching in his chamber, and she 
 told them after his death, that she heard him pray in the night, 
 with the deepest sighs that ever she heard. The next morn- 
 ing, before the doctor and his daughter, and brother and 
 servants came to him, the gentlewoman of the castle came up 
 and asked him how he did ? He told her, incomparably well, 
 and full of faith. 
 
 Some time after, when the doctor came, he told his brother 
 that the fever had seized his head, and that he believed he 
 should soon fall into ravings and die, and therefore wished 
 him, if he had anything to say to him, to speak while he was 
 in his perfect senses. So Mr. George Hutchinson came to 
 him, and told him he believed he could not live, and therefore 
 desired him if he had anything to do, to despatch it, for he 
 believed his end was approaching. The colonel, without the 
 least dejection or amazement, replied, very composedly and 
 cheerfully, “ The will of the Lord be done: I am ready for 
 it.’’ And then he told them that he did now confirm the will 
 he wrote in the Tower as his last will and testament, and all 
 others were to be void. The doctor, who had, when religion 
 was in fashion, been a pretender to it, came to him and asked 
 him if his peace was made with God; to which he replied, 
 “ I hope you do not think me so ill a Christian, to have been 
 thus long in prison, and have that to do now! ” The doctor 
 asked him concerning the ground of his hope; to which he 
 answered, ‘‘ There’s none but Christ, none but Christ, in 
 whom I have unspeakable joy, more than I can express; yet 
 I should utter more, but that the soreness of my mouth makes 
 it difficult for me to speak.” Then they asked him where he 
 would be buried ? He told them, in his vault at Owthorpe ; 
 his brother told him it would be a long way to carry him : he 
 answered, “ Let my wife order the manner of it as she will, 
 only I would lie there.” He left a kind message to his wife, 
 “ Let her,” said he, ‘‘ as she is above other women, show 
 herself, in this occasion, a good Christian, and above the 
 pitch of ordinary women.” ^ He commanded his daughter 
 
 ^ This is that command of her husband which Mrs. Hutchinson 
 speaks of at the beginning of her narrative, where she says she has 
 determined to employ her thoughts upon the preservation of his 
 memory, not the fruitless bewaiUng of it. 
 
380 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 who was present to tell the rest, that he would have them all 
 guided by her counsels; and left with his brother the same 
 message to his eldest son, I would,’’ said he, “ have spoken 
 to my wife and son, but it is not the will of God; ” then, as 
 he was going to utter something, ‘‘ here’s none but friends; ” 
 his brother reminded him that the doctor was present; ‘‘ Oh, 
 I thank you,” said he; and such was their amazement in 
 their sorrow, that they did not think of speaking to the 
 doctor to retire, but lost what he would have said, which 
 I am confident was some advice to his son how to demean 
 himself in public concernments. He lay all the day very 
 sensible and very cheerful, to the admiration both of the 
 doctors and of all that saw him; and as his daughter sat 
 weeping by him, ‘‘ Fie, Bab,” said he, “ do you mourn for 
 me as for one without hope? There is hope.” He desired 
 his brother to remember him to Sir Allen Apsley, and tell 
 him that he hoped God would reward his labour of love to 
 him. While he was thus speaking to them, his spirits 
 decayed exceedingly fast, and his pulse grew very low, and 
 his head was already earth in the upper part; yet he raised 
 himself in his bed, And now,” said he to the doctor, ‘‘ I 
 would fain know your reason why you fancy me dying; I feel 
 nothing in myself, my head is well, my heart is well, and I 
 have no pain nor sickness anywhere.” The doctor, seeing 
 this, was amazed; ‘‘ Sir,” said he, I would be glad to be 
 deceived; ” and being at a stand, he told Mr. George Hutchin- 
 son he was surprised, and knew not what to think, to see 
 him so cheerful and undisturbed, when his pulse was gone; 
 which if it were not death, must be some strange working of 
 the spleen, and therefore advised him to send away for Dr. 
 Ridgely, which he would before have done, but that the 
 doctor told him he feared it would be in vain, and that he 
 would be dead before the doctor could come. While they 
 were preparing to write, the colonel spoke only these words : 
 ’Tis as I would have it: ’tis where I would have it: ” and 
 spoke no more, for convulsions wrought his mouth, yet did 
 his sense remain perfect to his last breath; for when some 
 named Mrs. Hutchinson, and said, “ Alas, how will she be 
 surprised! ” he fetched a sigh, and within a little while de- 
 parted; his countenance settling so amiably and cheerfully 
 after death, that he looked after he was dead as he used to do 
 when best pleased in life. It was observable that at the same 
 
H is Peaceful End 
 
 381 
 
 hour^ and the same day of the months and the same day of 
 the week, that the wicked soldiers fetched him out of his own 
 rest and quiet condition at home, eleven months before, the 
 Lord of hosts sent his holy angels to fetch him out of their 
 cruel hands up to his everlasting and blessed rest above; 
 this being the Lord’s day, about seven o’clock at night, the 
 eleventh day of September, 1664; that, the same day and 
 hour, the eleventh of October, 1663. 
 
 The two doctors, though mere strangers to him, were so 
 moved that they both wept as if he had been their brother ; 
 and he of Canterbury said, he had been with many eminent 
 persons, but he never in his wLole life saw any one receive 
 death with more Christian courage, constancy of mind, and 
 stedfastness of faith, than the colonel had expressed from 
 the first to the last; so that, considering the height of his 
 fever, and his want of rest, there was an evidence of a divine 
 assistance that overruled all the powers and operations of 
 nature. This doctor, who was called Dr. Jachin, had most 
 curiously and strictly observed all his motions. I know not 
 by what impulse, but he afterwards said that, on account of 
 the colonel’s former engagements, he knew he should be ex- 
 amined of all these circumstances, and therefore was resolved 
 diligently to observe them; and as he guessed, it afterwards 
 fell out, for the gentlemen of the country, being of the royal 
 party, were busy in their inquiries, which the doctor answered 
 with such truth and clearness as made them ready to burst 
 with envy at the peace and joy the Lord was pleased to give 
 his servant, in taking him out of this wicked world. I am 
 apt to think that it was not tenderness of nature alone, 
 but conviction of their own disturbed peace, which drew 
 those tears from the doctors, when they saw in him that 
 blessed peace and joy which crowns the Lord’s constant 
 martyrs : whatever it was, the men were faithful in divulg- 
 ing the glory of the Lord’s wonderful presence with his 
 servant. 
 
 As soon as the colonel was dead, his brother sent away a 
 messenger to carry the sad news to his house, and caused his 
 body to be embalmed in order to his funeral, as he had thrice 
 ordered. When he was disembowelled, all his inwards were 
 found exceeding sound, and no taint in any part, only two 
 or three purple spots on his lungs : his gall, the doctor said, 
 was the largest that ever he saw in any man, and observed 
 
382 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 it to be a miracle of grace that he had been so patient as he 
 had seen him. 
 
 Some two or three days before the colonel fell sick, Freeman, 
 the captain of the castle, had sent down a very strict order 
 that the colonel should carry nothing out of the castle; in 
 pursuance of which the soldiers would not suffer them to take 
 out his beds, furniture, or clothes, which Mr. Hutchinson 
 forbore till an order came for them. 
 
 As soon as the news came to Owthorpe, the colonel’s two 
 eldest sons and all his household servants went up to London 
 with his horses, and made ready a hearse, tricked with 
 escutcheons and six horses in mourning, with a mourning 
 coach and six horses to wait on it, and came down to Deal 
 with an order from the secretary for the body; but when 
 they came thither. Captain Freeman, in spite, would not de- 
 liver it, because Mrs. Hutchinson herself was not come to 
 fetch it; so they were forced, at an intolerable expense, to 
 keep all this equipage at Deal, while they sent to the secretary 
 for another order, which they got directed to the lieutenant 
 in the absence of the captain, and as soon as it came they 
 delivered it to him, who immediately suffered them to take 
 away the body, which they did at that very hour, though it 
 was night, fearing a further dispute with Freeman. For he, 
 after the body had been ten days embalmed, said he would 
 have a jury empanelled, and a coroner to sit upon it, to see 
 whether he died a natural death. Mr. Hutchinson asked him 
 why he urged that, when it lay on their side to have sought 
 satisfaction. He said he must do it to clear the king’s garri- 
 son. Mr. Hutchinson told him he had slipped his time; it 
 should have been done at the first, before the embalming. 
 He said he would have it unlapped, and accordingly he sent 
 for a coroner and a jury, who, when they came, would not 
 unlap the body, but called those persons who had been about 
 him, and examined them as to the occasion of his death. 
 They made affidavit, which remains yet upon record, that the 
 doctor said that the place had killed him, and, satisfied with 
 this, they did not unlap the body. As it came into Deal, 
 Freeman met it, and said, if he had been in the castle they 
 should not have had it till they had paid the money he de- 
 manded; which, when he could not justify any right to it by 
 any law, he began to beg most basely and unworthily, but had 
 nothing given him for that. However, though the secretary 
 
Buried at Owthorpe 383 
 
 had also ordered that the colonel should have his things out^ 
 yet he detained all he found in the castle^ his trunks, and beds, 
 and furniture, which could never be gotten out of his hands. 
 Although this spite of his put the colonebs family to an 
 excessive charge in staying so long in that cut-throat town 
 of Deal, yet there was a providence of the Lord in it; for 
 the colonel’s daughter who was there, through grief had con- 
 tracted a violent sickness, which took her with great severity, 
 and wrought off of her stomach in black vomits, which made 
 her for the present desperately ill, and the doctor that was 
 with her said that if she had then been on her journey, as she 
 would have been had they not been delayed by Freeman’s 
 cruel spite, she could not have lived. 
 
 The next day after they had gotten out the body, they 
 brought it with a handsome private equipage to Canterbury, 
 and so forwards towards London, meeting no affronts in their 
 way but at one town, where there was a fair, the priest of 
 which place came out, with his clerk in his fool’s coat, to 
 offer them burial, and they laid hold of the horses to stop their 
 hearse ; but the attendants putting them by, the wicked rout 
 at the fair took part with them, and set upon the horsemen ; 
 but they broke several of their heads, and made their way 
 clear, having beaten off all the town and the fair, and came on 
 to London. They passed through Southwark, over the bridge, 
 and through the whole heart of the city, in the day time, to 
 their lodging in Hoiborn, and had not one reviling word or 
 indignity offered them all the way, but several people were 
 very much moved at that sad witness of the murderous 
 cruelty of the men then in power. 
 
 From London he was brought down to Owthorpe, very 
 seriously bewailed all the way he came along by all those 
 who had been better acquainted with his worth than the 
 strangers were among whom he died; and he was brought 
 home with honour to his grave through the dominions of 
 his murderers, who were ashamed of his glories, which all 
 their tyrannies could not extinguish with his life. 
 
384 Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 INSCRIPTION ON THE MONUMENT OF ] 
 
 COLONEL HUTCHINSON, ' 
 
 AT OWTHORPE, IN NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, 
 
 (Supposed to have been written by Mrs. Hutchinson.) 
 
 Quousque Domine I 
 In a vault under this wall lieth the body of 
 
 JOHN HUTCHINSON, 
 
 Of Owthorpe, in the county of Nottingham, Esq., 
 
 Eldest sonne and heire of Sir Thomas Hutchinson, by his first wife, 
 the Lady Margaret, daughter of Sir John Biron, of Newsted, 
 in the said county. 
 
 This monument doth not commemorate 
 Vaine ayrie glorious titles, birth, and state; 
 
 But sacred is to free, illustrious grace, 
 
 Conducting happily a mortal’s race; 
 
 To end in triumph over death and hell. 
 
 When, like the prophet’s cloake, the fraile flesh fell. 
 Forsaken as a dull impediment. 
 
 Whilst love’s swift fiery chariot climb’d th’ ascent. 
 
 Nor are the reliques lost, but only torn. 
 
 To be new made, and in more lustre worn. 
 
 Full of this ioy he mounted, he lay downe. 
 
 Threw off his ashes, and took up his crowne. 
 
 Those who lost all their splendor in his grave, 
 
 Ev’n there yet no inglorious period have. 
 
 He married Lucy, the daughter of Sir Allen Apsley, lieu- 
 tenant of the Tower of London, by his third wife, the 
 Lady Lucy, daughter of Sir John St. John, of Lidiard 
 Tregos, in the county of Wilts, who dying at Owthorpe, 
 October ii, 1659, lieth buried in the same vault. 
 
 He left surviving by the sayd Lucy 4 sons; Thomas, who 
 married Jane, the daughter of Sir Alexander Radclifle, 
 buried in the same vault: and Edward, Lucius, and John: 
 and 4 daughters; Barbara, Lucy, Margaret, and Adeliza; 
 which last lies buried in the same vault. 
 
 He died at Sandowne Castle, in Kent, after ii months’ 
 harsh and strict imprisonment, — without crime or accusa- 
 tion, — upon the nth day of Sept. 1664, in the 49th yeare 
 of his age, full of joy, in assured hope of a glorious 
 resurrection. 
 
VERSES WRITTEN BY MRS. HUTCHINSON, 
 
 In the small Book containing her own Life^ and most probably composed 
 by her during her Husband’s retirement from public business 
 to his seat at Owthorpe. 
 
 All sorts of men through various labours press 
 To the same end, contented quietness ; 
 
 Great princes vex their labouring thoughts to be 
 Possessed of an unbounded sovereignty; 
 
 The hardy soldier doth all toils sustain 
 That he may conquer first, and after reign; 
 
 Th’ industrious merchant ploughs the angry seas 
 That he may bring home wealth, and live at ease. 
 These none of them attain : for sweet repose 
 But seldom to the splendid palace goes; 
 
 A troop of restless passions wander there. 
 
 And only private lives are free from care. 
 
 Sleep to the cottage bringeth happy nights. 
 
 But to the court hung round with flaring lights. 
 Which th’ office of the vanished day supply. 
 
 His image only comes to close the eye. 
 
 But gives the troubled mind no ease of care. 
 While country slumbers undisturbed are; 
 
 Where, if the active fancy dreams present. 
 
 They bring no horrors to the innocent. 
 
 Ambition doth incessently aspire, 
 
 And each advance leads on to new desire; 
 
 Nor yet can riches av’rice satisfy. 
 
 For want and wealth together multiply: 
 
 Nor can voluptuous men more fulness find. 
 
 For enjoyed pleasures leave their stings behind. 
 He’s only rich who knows no want; he reigns 
 Whose will no severe tyranny constrains; 
 
 And he alone possesseth true delight 
 Whose spotless soul no guilty fears affright. 
 
 This freedom in the country life is found, 
 
 385 
 
386 Memoirs ot Colonel Hutchinson 
 
 Where innocence and safe delights abound. 
 
 Here man’s a prince; his subjects ne’er repine 
 When on his back their wealthy fleeces shine : 
 
 If for his appetite the fattest die^ 
 
 Those who survive will raise no mutiny : 
 
 His table is with home-got dainties crowned^ 
 
 With friends^ not flatterers^ encompassed round; 
 
 No spies nor traitors on his trencher wait^ 
 
 Nor is his mirth confined to rules of state; 
 
 An armed guard he neither hath nor needs, 
 
 Nor fears a poisoned morsel when he feeds; 
 
 Bright constellations hang above his head, 
 
 Beneath his feet are flow’ry carpets spread; 
 
 The merry birds delight him with their songs. 
 
 And healthful air his happy life prolongs ; 
 
 At harvest merril}^ his flocks he shears. 
 
 And in cold weather their warm fleeces wears; 
 
 Unto his ease he fashions all his clothes; 
 
 His cup with uninfected liquor flows : 
 
 The vulgar breath doth not his thoughts elate, 
 
 Nor can he be o’erwhelmed by their hate. 
 
 Yet, if ambitiously he seeks for fame. 
 
 One village feast shall gain a greater name 
 Than his who wears the imperial diadem. 
 
 Whom the rude multitude do still condemn. 
 
 Sweet peace and joy his blest companions are; 
 
 Fear, sorrow, envy, lust, revenge, and care. 
 
 And all that troop which breeds the world’s offence. 
 With pomp and majesty, are banish’d thence. 
 
 What court then can such liberty afford ? • 
 
 Or where is man so uncontroll’d a lord? 
 
 THE TEMPLE PRESS, PRINTERS, LETCHWORTH 
 
INDEX 
 
 Apsley, account of the family of, 
 7 
 
 Apsley, Sir Allen, Sen., his pubhc 
 and private character, lo, ii 
 Apsley, Sir Allen, Jun., quarters 
 near Mrs. Hutchinson, 98; his 
 composition on the surrender of 
 Barnstaple, 239; annoyed by a 
 woman, 281; his zeal for Mr. 
 Hutchinson’s safety, 324, 327; 
 his intercession for his release, 
 361 
 
 Apsley, Mrs. See Mrs. Hutchinson 
 Army, right of, to act indepen- 
 dently of the parhament, 235; 
 imprisons some of the members, 
 263-4; effect of the withdrawal 
 of, 300; keeps a day of humili- 
 ation, 302; declaration of the, 
 302; army-court at Walling- 
 ford House, 308 
 Ashburnham, plot of, 74 
 Ayscough, Mr., his advice, 137; 
 overcome by drink, 190 
 
 Ballard, Mr., his disgraceful con- 
 duct, 1 1 4- 5 
 
 Bennett, secretary, his conduct, 
 35i> 353; remarks on, 356 
 Booth, Sir George, 103, 104, 303 
 Buckingham, Duke of, attends 
 Charles I. in Spain, 67; im- 
 peached for murdering J ames I., 
 69 ; murdered, 69 ; remarks on, 
 356 n. 
 
 Byron, Col. Gilbert, his plot, 245, 
 248 
 
 Byron, Sir J ohn, brother of Lady 
 Hutchinson, marriage of his 
 daughter to Sir T. Hutchinson, 
 29; buries his sister, 36; brings 
 up Colonel Hutchinson at Bul- 
 well, 37; troubled at Col. Hut- 
 chinson, 50; joins the king, 93 
 Byron, Sir Richard, 119; his 
 advice to Colonel Hutchinson, 
 137; discovery of a letter to, 
 184; his plot to rob Colonel 
 Hutchinson, 305 
 
 Byron, Sir Thomas, capture of his 
 troop, 172 
 
 Cartwright, Major, summons 
 Nottingham, 130; letter to 
 Colonel Hutchinson, 141 
 
 Chadwick, his character, 106; his 
 behaviour, 152; exposure of, 
 194 
 
 Charles I., his court, 67; his char- 
 acter, 68 ; levies an • army 
 against the Scots, 72 ; as- 
 sembles a parhament, 1640, 72; 
 second army against the Scots, 
 72; attends parhament with a 
 large guard, 76; petitioned to 
 relieve Ireland, 77; petitioned 
 at York, 80; attempts to seize 
 the powder-magazine at Hull, 
 87 ; began to entertain soldiers, 
 87; his proclamations against 
 parhament, 89; raises an army 
 and besieges Hull, 90 ; sets up a 
 mint at Shrewsbury, 90 ; battle 
 of Edgehill, 90; retires to Ox- 
 ford, 91; marches to London, 
 91; his injudicious actions, 
 181 ; escapes from Oxford, 182; 
 repairs to Newark from Wales, 
 225 ; goes over to the Scots, 231 ; 
 delivered up to the parhament, 
 237; his various removals, 241, 
 242; his flight to the Isle of 
 Wight, 246; his trial and exe- 
 cution, 265-6 
 
 Charles II., arrival in London, 319 
 
 Chaworth, Lord, 93; meeting with 
 Colonel Hutchinson, in; de- 
 sires protection of parhament, 
 166 
 
 Chesterfield, Lord, 93 
 
 Clarendon, Earl of, remarks on, 
 356 
 
 Clare, Earl of, 93, 107 
 
 Clarke, Mr., master of Lincoln 
 free-school, 37 
 
 Chfton, Sir Gervas, 93, 129, 138 
 
 Coates, Mr., a minister, made a 
 captain, 166 
 
 387 
 
388 
 
 Collin, Langford, io6 n. ; persecu- 
 tion of, 179 
 
 Cooper, Sir A. A., his friendship, 
 314; and duplicity, 314 
 Covenant, national, taken by 
 Nottingham garrison, 172 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 120, 121; his 
 victory at Newark, 1505 
 MarstonMoor, 182; lieutenant- 
 general of the new army, 184; 
 his progress, 254-5; effect of 
 prosperity on, 272; his pro- 
 fessions, 273; made general, 
 275 ; his march to Scotland, 282 ; 
 his return, 284; his dissolution 
 of the parliament, 288; his 
 wantonness in power, 293; dis- 
 covers all plots against himself, 
 296; his death, 299 
 Cromwell, Richard, his pro- 
 tectorate, 299 
 
 Dacre, Colonel, desires a convoy, 
 
 157 
 
 Delinquents, treatment of, 259 
 Derby, mayor of, 144 
 Digby, Sir J ohn, 85, 93 ; designs to 
 secure the county, 104 
 Dives, Sir Lewis, plunders Mr. 
 Needham’s house, 97 
 
 Edgehill, battle of, 90 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 56, 60, 71 
 England, happiness of, 2; con- 
 stitution of, 4; civil govern- 
 ment of, 59 
 
 Essex, tumults in, 247 
 Essex, Earl of, 76; general of 
 the parliamentary army, 90; 
 quarters about London, 91 ; his 
 proceedings against the enemy, 
 182; his misfortunes in Corn- 
 wall, 182; his want of zeal, 183 
 Excise, abuse of the, 216 
 
 Fairfax, Sir Thomas, 117; visits 
 Nottingham, 15 1; desires the 
 Nottingham horse, 161 ; victory 
 over the king’s army, 182; 
 justifies Colonel Hutchinson to 
 the committee, 197-8; at 
 Naseby, 224; conduct of his 
 wife, 237; throws up his com- 
 mission, 274 
 
 Fleetwood, Mr., discovers the 
 committee’s conspiracy, 204; 
 marries Ireton’s widow, and 
 deputy of Ireland, 287 ; betrayal 
 
 
 of trust of parliament, 308; 
 tries to secure Colonel Hutchin- 
 son, 31 1 
 
 Fox, George, extract from his 
 journal, 180 n. 
 
 France, persecutions in, 59 
 Frecheville, Colonel, taken 
 prisoner, 162 
 
 Gainsborough surprised, 122; re- 
 covered, and again lost to the 
 parliament, 127 
 
 Gell, Sir John, character of, loi; 
 malice to Sir John Stanhope, 
 loi; conduct of his men, 142; 
 at Nottingham with his men, 
 149; encourages the com- 
 mittee’s conspiracy, 203-4 
 Germyn, plot of, 74 
 Gloucester, siege of, 116 
 Golding, a papist, 93 
 Goodhall, preaches against the 
 governor, 201 
 Goring, Lord, 74, 107, 117 
 Government, new form of, 268 
 Grandison, Lord, 100 
 Grantham, Lady, designs a 
 
 marriage for Colonel Hutchin- 
 son, 39 , , 
 
 Grantham, Sir Thomas, confined - 
 in Kent with Sir T. Hutchin- 
 son, 38; his death, 40 = 
 
 Grey, Lord, in, 162 ^ 
 
 Hamilton, Duke, defeated at \ 
 
 Preston and taken, 255 
 Harrison, Major-general, his pre- ^ 
 cept and practice, 277 ^ 
 
 Hartup, Sir E., his misadventure ^ 
 at Newark, 172; his want of 
 valour at Muscam bridge, i74 
 Henrietta, Queen, her character, 
 71; goes to Holland, 77 *> 
 pawns the crown jewels, 89; 
 returns to England, ii7'* her 1 
 activity, 180; goes over to . 
 France, 183 ] 
 
 Hooper, Mr., the engineer, 151; 
 letter to, from committee, 167; ^ 
 falls out with Captain Pendock, •* 
 187; goes to Cromwell, 200; . 
 returns to Nottingham, 223 j 
 Hopton, Sir Ralph, 180 
 Hotham, Sir John, defends the 
 magazine at Hull, 87; pro- 
 claimed traitor, 87; floats the 
 county, 90; his conduct at 
 Nottingham, 120 
 
 Index 
 
Index 
 
 3^9 
 
 Hutchinson, Sir Thomas, father of 
 Colonel Hutchinson, 29; his 
 adventure with his guardian, 
 30; his studious habits, 31; 
 confined in Kent, 38; his 
 second marriage, 40 ; sits in 
 parliament, 55; on the parlia- 
 ment side, 94; Lord Lindsey- 
 quartered with him, 96, 97 ; his 
 respect for Plumptre, 106; 
 death of, 132; division of his 
 estate, 135 
 
 Hutchinson, Lady Margaret, 
 mother of Colonel Hutchinson, 
 29; her death and character, 
 33; anecdotes of her parents, 
 33; her affection for Lady 
 Arabella Stuart, 35 
 
 Hutchinson, Mr. George, his birth, 
 33 ; seized with falling sickness, 
 37; arrested by Captain Welsh, 
 99; chosen captain of a troop 
 at Nottingham, 105; major, 
 no; his charge at Nottingham, 
 142; hears of designs against 
 his brother, 190; impudence of 
 committee to him, 202; his 
 character, 219; rescues his 
 brother 228; visits his brother 
 in the Tower, 366 
 
 Hutchinson, Mrs., her birth and 
 parentage, 2; her advantages, 
 6; her skill in medicine, 12; 
 her education, 14; her descrip- 
 tion of her husband, 18; Col. 
 Hutchinson’s first desire to see 
 her, 45 ; their first meeting, 48 ; 
 courtship, 50 ; fell sick of small- 
 pox,5i; marriage, 51; brought 
 to bed with twins, 52; visited 
 by Capt. Welsh, 98; birth of 
 her eldest daughter, 100; her 
 skill in dressing wounds, 145; 
 imbibes baptist sentiments, 
 238; her conduct on Lord 
 Byron’s plot, 305-6; her be- 
 haviour to Major Grove, 31 1; 
 effect of her advice, 318; her 
 endeavours for her husband’s 
 safety, 322; her contrivances, 
 322; her further solicitations, 
 332; tempted by a relative, 
 333; distress for her husband, 
 350; her interview with Secre- 
 tary Bennett, 357; refused ac- 
 commodation at Sandown, 371; 
 returns to Owthorpe, 376; lines 
 written by, 385 
 
 Hutchinson, Colonel, his char- 
 acter, as written by his wife, 
 18, etc.; his birth and parent- 
 age, 29; his mother’s death, 
 33; his childhood, 37; designs 
 for his marriage, 39; sent to 
 Cambridge, 40; leaves the uni- 
 versity and resides in London, 
 41; his early love affairs, 42; 
 studies the law, 43; story of a 
 gentleman dying of love, 44; 
 goes to Richmond, 44 ; hears of 
 Mrs. Apsley, 45 ; his first meet- 
 ing her, 48; his courtship, 50; 
 his marriage, 5 1 ; studies school 
 divinity, 52; purposes buying 
 an office in the Star Chamber, 
 54; takes his wife to Owthorpe, 
 55; studies the public papers, 
 78; called a puritan, 80; pre- 
 sented a petition to the king, 
 80; his conference with Lord 
 Newark, 81; endeavours to 
 prevent the king from taking 
 the county’s ammunition, 95; 
 adventure with a soldier of 
 Lord Lindsey’s, 96; warrant to 
 seize him, 97; escapes to North- 
 amptonshire, 97; rebukes a 
 writer in the daily journals, 
 103; persuades the Notting- 
 ham people to defend them- 
 selves, 105; appointed 
 lieutenant-colonel, no; brings 
 his wife to Nottingham, 112; 
 governor of Nottingham Castle, 
 123; preparation for defence, 
 129; addresses the soldiers, 
 1 31; his hospitality, 133; his 
 prospects on his father’s death, 
 135; pulls down St. Nicholas 
 church, 146; recovers the forts 
 at Nottingham, 148-50; made 
 governor of the town of Not- 
 tingham, 153; his distress on 
 this account, 154; proposal to 
 him to give up the castle, 159; 
 sends to Leicester for his arms 
 and horse, 160; independence 
 of the horse, 161; his dispute 
 with committee about Hooper, 
 167; advises Sir J. Meldrum of 
 Prince Rupert’s approach, 175; 
 his troubles with the factions 
 in Nottingham, 178-9; his ex- 
 cursion to Elston and Sierston, 
 186; meeting of the priests 
 against him, 188; goes to Lon- 
 N 
 
Index 
 
 390 
 
 don, 189; factions against him, 
 189 ; his faith in Mr. Millington, 
 191; his disagreements with 
 the committee, 193; kindness 
 to Colonel Thornhagh, 196; in 
 London again, 201; with the 
 committee of parliament, 205; 
 his return, 210; determined 
 conduct in London, 221 ; elected 
 member of parliament, 230; 
 his escapes, 231; takes his seat 
 in parliament, 233; his change 
 of opinion on baptism, 238; his 
 illness, 240; disturbed at Ow- 
 thorpe, 244; incident with his 
 chaplain, 250; interview with 
 Cromwell, 252; slighted by 
 Cromwell, 257; return of his 
 illness in London, 261 ; chosen 
 in council of state, 269; offered 
 government of Hull, 271 ; trans- 
 actions with Lady Somerset, 
 275; anxieties respecting it, 
 278 ; his zeal for the oppressed, 
 280; his conduct at Ireton’s 
 funeral, 286; his activity in his 
 county, 289; his return to par- 
 liament, 291; his patronage of 
 art, 292; his social life, 293; 
 interview with Cromwell, 297; 
 returned as sheriff, 300; inter- 
 view with Richard Cromwell, 
 his opinion, 300; his kindness 
 to Mr. R. Pierrepont, 308; ad- 
 venture with troopers, 309; 
 returns to parliament, 312; his 
 speeches, 313; tempted by the 
 king’s party, 314-5; return to 
 new parliament, 319; his 
 defence, 321 ; his suspension, 
 322; exertions of his friends, 
 324; his return to the country, 
 328 ; his devotion to his country 
 330; his examinations at court, 
 331; advised to leave the 
 country, 335; expense of his 
 defence, 336; his habits at 
 Owthorpe, 337; marriage of his 
 son, and death of his daughter- 
 in-law, 337; his dream, 340; 
 carried to Newark, 343 ; his ilk 
 treatment there, 343; taken to 
 Marquis of Newcastle, 346; to 
 Owthorpe, 346; again to New- 
 ark, 347; his illness, 348; 
 journey to London, 348; com- 
 mitted to the Tower, examina- 
 tion at Whitehall, 350-1; his 
 
 re-examination, 353; his treat- 
 ment in the Tower, 353; his 
 thoughts on his confinement, 
 360; interview with Robinson, 
 362; his articles against him, 
 364 ; searched by a warder, 367 ; 
 suspicions of poison, 369; re- 
 moval to Sandown, 369; his 
 accommodation there, 370; his 
 recreations, 372; his resigned 
 spirit, 372; thoughts on the 
 state of parties, 373-4; parting 
 with his wife, 376; his study of 
 the scriptures, 378; his final 
 illness, 378-9; his last conversa- 
 tion, 379-80; his death, 381; 
 removal of his body to Ow- 
 thorpe, and burial there, 381-3 
 Hutchinson, Rev. Julius, his ac- 
 count of Colonel Hutchinson’s 
 family and of the collateral 
 branches, Preface. 
 
 Ingoldsby, Mr., his defence, 320-1 
 Inscription on Colonel Hutchin- 
 son’s monument, 384 
 Insurrection, 247 
 Ireton, Mr. Henry, 78; his char- 
 acter, 94; married Cromwell’s 
 daughter, 258; death of, 285 
 Irish rebellion, 75, 78 
 
 J achin, Dr., attends him in his last 
 illness, 381 
 
 J ames, Alderman, character of, 
 
 105 
 
 James, L, 61; character of his 
 court, 62 
 
 Kent, tumults in, 247 
 Kingston, Earl of, 93; his in- 
 tended neutrality, 118; his 
 death, 119 
 
 Lambert, his pride, 286; made 
 general, and marches into the 
 country, 303-4; his dissolution 
 of the parliament, 307; de- 
 serted by his men, 312 
 Langdale, Sir M., his capture and 
 escape, 258 
 
 Laud, archbishop of Canterbury, 
 70; accused of treason, 73 
 Leicester, loss and recovery of, 
 224, 225 
 
 Lenthall, Mr., his defence, 320 
 Levellers, origin of name of, 
 252 
 
Index 
 
 391 
 
 Leven, General, his Scotch army, 
 182; takes the town of New- 
 castle, 183 
 
 Lexington, Lord, 93; his endea- 
 vours against Colonel Hutchin- 
 son, 328; revival of his, 335 
 Lindsey, Lord, quartered with Sir 
 Thomas Hutchinson, 96, 97 
 Lomax, Mr., his character, 109 
 London, state of things in, 251 
 Lucas, Sir Charles, demands Not- 
 tingham Castle, 163 ; his death, 
 248 
 
 Marston Moor, battle of, 182 
 Mary Queen of Scots, 58; her 
 death, 61 
 
 Mason, Mr., 145 ; made a captain 
 at Nottingham, 166; revives 
 the old mutiny, 177 
 Maurice, Prince, put in command, 
 90; possesses the west for the 
 king, 180 
 
 Mel drum. Sir John, 90, 12 1-3; 
 marches to the relief of Gains- 
 borough, 125; complains of the 
 envyings of the associated 
 captains, 173; skirmish with 
 Prince Rupert, 175 
 Millington, Mr., his neglect of the 
 garrison of Nottingham, 166; 
 his duplicity, 189; his abuse 
 of Colonel Hutchinson’s confi- 
 dence, 192; reasons for his 
 enmity, 195; his marriage, 207; 
 loses credit, 222; his subse- 
 quent career, 223 
 Monk, contests of, with Lambert, 
 312; his tergiversation, 322; 
 barbarity of, 326 
 
 Nasfcby, battle of, 224 
 Needham, Mr., his house 
 plundered, 97 
 
 Nevill, Mr., confinement and 
 release, 359 
 
 Newark fortified, 1 12 ; assault on, 
 delayed, 173; letter of com- 
 missioners of, 177; surrenders, 
 231 
 
 Newark, Lord, Colonel Hutchin- 
 son’s conference with, 81 ; his 
 character, 93 
 
 Newcastle, Earl of, his character, 
 92; besieges Hull, 116; raises 
 the siege, 150; comes to Derby, 
 156; his army wasted, 181; 
 goes to Germany, 183 
 
 Northampton, Earl of, 102 
 Northumberland, Earl of, 89 
 Norwich, Mr., 40 
 Nottingham, importance of, 112; 
 in difficulties, 114; expected 
 attack on, 128; treacherously 
 given up, 140; evacuated, 142; 
 attempted firing of, 146; for- 
 tification commenced, 161; 
 enemy enter, 163; enemy 
 driven out, 164; companies 
 raised in the town, 166; letter 
 of committee of, to parliament, 
 169; fast at, 173; apprehended 
 attack by Prince Rupert, 175; 
 petition to parliament, 188; 
 malpractices of committee, 
 198-9; ibid. 202; ibid. 204.] con- 
 tinued factions of, 209; flight 
 of, 21 1 ; treatment of soldiers 
 of, 213; surprise at Trent 
 bridges, 220; fort given up, 
 224; eagerness of, for return of 
 the king, 317; disturbances in, 
 317; papists attempt to fire, 
 338 
 
 Nottingham Castle, description of, 
 123; soldiers of, will not 
 mutiny, 217; garrison reduced, 
 244; demolishing of, 284 
 Noy, Attorney-general, 69 
 
 Oblivion, act of, 322; confirma- 
 tion of, 335 
 O’ Neale, 74 
 
 Owen, Sir J., ingratitude of, 
 270 
 
 Owthorpe, incident at, 244; de- 
 scription of, 290; plundered of 
 arms, 336; attempt to enter, 
 339-40 
 
 Palmer, Mr., his character, 138; 
 riotous conduct of, 144-5; 
 discovers Hacker’s design to 
 surprise Nottingham, 170; his 
 provoking conduct, 208 ; re- 
 signs his commission, 225 
 Palmer, a preacher, account of, 
 
 341 
 
 Papists, activity of, 338 
 Parliament, present a petition to 
 Charles L, 75-6; proclamations 
 against the king, 88; make an 
 ordinance for money and plate, 
 89 ; battle of Edgehill, 90 ; 
 create Earl of Essex general, 
 90; petition the king at Cole-. 
 
Index 
 
 392 
 
 brooke, 91; commission major- 
 generals, loi; solemn league 
 and covenant, in; state of its 
 affairs in the counties, 182; 
 Uxbridge treaty with the king, 
 183; devise the self-denying 
 ordinance, 183; difficulties of 
 committee of, 222; their pro- 
 positions to the king, 236; king 
 delivered to them, 237; dis- 
 tractions of, 241; propositions 
 to the king, 246; factions in 
 261; re-assembling of, 302; 
 struggles between parliament 
 and army, 307; restoration of, 
 312 
 
 Pendock, Captain, his backward- 
 ness, 186; insults Hooper the 
 engineer, 187 
 
 Penn, account of, in prison, 363 n. 
 Pennington, Sir John, 89 
 Pennyman, Sir William, 54 
 Percy, 74 
 
 Pierrepoint, Mr. William, 93 ; pre- 
 sumed to be the secret friend, 
 300, 334 n. 
 
 Pierrepoint, Mr. Francis (Col.), 
 104; his character, 108; his 
 duplicity, 129; his wife’s cor- 
 respondence, 138; strives to be 
 governor of Nottingham, 152; 
 his interview with Sir J. Mel- 
 drum, 174; kindness shown to, 
 280 
 
 Pigott, Mr., his character, 108-9 
 Plumptre, Dr., 42; character 
 of, 105; conduct to Colonel 
 Hutchinson, 126; behaviour at 
 Nottingham, 143; his insolence 
 to Colonel Hutchinson, 188; 
 ibid. 189 
 Pollard, 74 
 
 Poole, Sir Germaine, attempts to 
 assassinate Sir T. Hutchinson, 
 30 
 
 Poulton, Captain, no; interview 
 with Col. Dacre, 159; made 
 governor of Nottingham, 244; 
 retires, 284 
 
 Poyntz, Captain, 225 ; his energy, 
 231 
 
 Presbyterians, Jealousies of, 240-1 ; 
 espouse the royal interest, 302 ; 
 bloodthirstiness of, 320 
 Preston, battle of, 255 
 Pridgeon, Dr., attends Mr. George 
 Hutchinson, 37 
 Puritans, rise of, 56, 63 
 
 Radcliffe, Lady, 36 
 Reading delivered up, 116 
 Reformation, progress of, 56, 57 
 Regicides, trial and condemna- 
 tion of, 320-2 
 
 Robinson, Sir John, heutenant of 
 the Tower, 353; hatred of, by 
 his men, 354; complains to Sir 
 A. Apsley, 3^ 
 
 Rochester, Countess of, her inter- 
 cession, 327 
 
 Roundhead, origin of the name,. 
 95 
 
 Rump, burning of the, 317 
 Rupert, Prince, put in command,. 
 90; plunders the country, 91; 
 skirmish near Muscam Bridge,' 
 175; at Marston Moor, 182 
 
 Sahsbury, Mr., his character, 109; 
 cheats the soldiers of their pay, 
 171; raises a faction, 189; his 
 flight, and breach of trust, 21 1 
 Salloway, Mr., his confinement 
 and release, 359 
 
 Sandown Castle, 369; exorbit- 
 ance of the keeper of, 375; in- 
 solence of the captain of, 375 
 Saunders, Colonel, commands 
 Thornhagh’s regiment, 256 
 Savill, Sir John, 93 
 Sentinel, story of the, 354-5 
 Shelford, taking of, 226, 227 
 Shrewsbury, battle of, 91 
 Skippon, Major-general of new 
 army, 184 
 
 Southwell made a garrison for the 
 king, 170 
 
 St. John, Mrs., mother of Mrs. 
 
 Hutchinson, 9 
 Stanhope, Mr. William, 93 
 Stanhope, Sir John, malice cf Sir 
 John Gell, 10 1 
 
 Strafford, Earl of, his character, 
 70; impeachment of, 73; plot 
 for his rescue, 74 
 Stuart, Lady Arabella, took Lady 
 Hutchinson to court, 35 
 Suckling, 74 
 
 Theobalds, Mr., master of Not- 
 tingham free-school, 37 
 Thornhagh, Colonel, schoolfellow 
 of Colonel Hutchinson, 39; his 
 character, 108; appointed lieu- 
 tenant-colonel, no; his narrow 
 escape, 127-8; gallant attack 
 of Prince Rupert, 175; his un- 
 
Index 
 
 just suspicions, 196; chosen 
 burgess of Retford, 231; death 
 
 of, 255 
 
 Toplady, Alderman, treachery of, 
 140; his death, 341-2 
 
 Uniformity, act of, 342 
 
 Vane, Sir H., 205 ; his honourable 
 advice, 210 
 
 Waller, Mr., plot of, 116 
 Waller, Sir W., rout of, 180; with 
 his new army routs Hopton, 
 181-2 
 
 Warwick, Earl of, created ad- 
 miral by Parliament, 8g ; ibid. 
 
 254 
 
 393 
 
 Welch, Captain, visits Mrs. Hut- 
 chinson, 98 ; arrests her brother, 
 99 
 
 White, Captain, character of, 103- 
 4; his assistance at Notting- 
 ham, 142; his envy of Colonel 
 Hutchinson, 166; his annoyance 
 of the same, 170; his endea- 
 vours to thwart the governor, 
 185; goes to London, 190; his 
 return, and further insults, 19 1 ; 
 his marriage, 207; his miscon- 
 duct, 212-3 
 
 Widmerpoole, Mr., his character, 
 109 
 
 Wilmot, 74 
 
 Worcester, battle of, 284 
 
 Wren, bishop of Norwich, 73 
 
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