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MEMOIRS

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COLONEL HUTCHINSON.
MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE

COLONEL HUTCHINSON-
GOVERNOR OF NOTTINGHAM
By his Widow LUCY V-Uc
EDITED FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT
By the REV. JULIUS HUTCHINSON
TO WHICH ARE ADDED THE LETTERS OF COLONEL HUTCHINSON
AND OTHER PAPERS
REVISED WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES
By C. H. FIRTH, M.A.
_3itlj BEett Ctcfieti portraits of flEminent personages
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I.

LONDON
JOHN C. NIMMO
14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C.
1885

PUBLISHER'S NOTE.
Three hundred copies of this book printed for England,
and two hundred, with an American Imprint, for sale in
that country. No more will be printed.

LIST OF ETCHED PORTRAITS.

VOL. I.
col. hutchinson .... Frontispiece
JAMES i  Page 112.
LORD BYRON  ,,164
LORD CHAWORTH  „ 200
SIR JOHN HOTHAM .... „ 222

INTRODUCTION.

None of the memoirs which relate to the troubled
history of the English civil wars have obtained a
greater popularity or been more widely read than
this Life of Col. Hutchinson, by his wife. Since
the first publication of this book it has been many
times reprinted, and it has also been translated into
French.1 Yet these different editions have been mere
reprints of the edition of 1806, nor has any attempt
been made either to supplement the annotations
of the original editor, or to collect the scattered
letters of Col. Hutchinson. The aim of the present
edition is to bring together the documents which
relate to the subject of these Memoirs, in order to
illustrate and explain them, and, so far as possible,
to estimate their value and authority.
1 London, i8o6,4to; 1808, 4to; 1810, 2 vols. 8vo ; 1822, 2 vols.
8vo; 1846, I vol. post 8vo, Bonn's Standard Library; 1845, in
the Travellers' Library ; translated in. Guizot's "Collection des
Memoires relatifs a. la Revolution d'Angleterre,'' with a valuable
preface ; London, 1880, Bell, post Svo, tenth edition.

x Introduction.
The Reverend Julius Hutchinson, in publishing
the first edition, gave the following account of the
manner in which the manuscript of the Memoirs
came into his hands. " The Memoirs of the Life
of Col. Hutchinson had been seen by many persons,
as well as the editor, in the possession of the late
Thomas Hutchinson, Esquire, of Owthorpe, in Not
tinghamshire, and of Hatfield Woodhall, in Hert
fordshire ; and he had been frequently solicited to
permit them to be published, particularly by the
late Mrs. Catherine Macaulay, 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:
— ist. The Life of Col. Hutchinson. 2d. A book
without a title, but which appears to have been a
kind of diary which she had kept, and afterwards
made use of when she came to write the Life of
Col. Hutchinson. 3d. 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, be-
sides the story of her life and family, several short
copies of verses, some finished, some unfinished, many
of which are above mediocrity. 4th. Two books
treating entirely of religious subjects; in which,

Introduction. xi
although the fancy may be rather too much indulged,
the judgment still maintains the ascendency, and
sentiments of exalted piety, liberality, and benevo
lence are delivered in terms apposite, dignified, and
perspicuous." These works, continues the editor, had all been
carefully read and annotated by Julius Hutchinson,
father of the Thomas Hutchinson mentioned above,
and remarks which Lady Catherine Hutchinson (his
grandmother, the second wife of Sir Thomas Hut
chinson and stepmother of Col. Hutchinson) had
communicated to him had been occasionally inserted
in the form of notes. From these sources he had
derived material for some of his own -notes.
Of the works mentioned in this list, numbers one
and three were published by the Rev. Julius Hut
chinson under the title of Memoirs of the Life of
Col. Hutchinson; number four was also published
by him in 1817, under the title of Principles
of the Christian Religion ; and number two is
now in the possession of the British Museum
(MSS. Adds. 25,901), though it is unfortunately
a fragment, a portion of it having been lost or
destroyed. The portion preserved embraces the
period extending from October 1642 to February
1645, but the dialogue relating to the attempt to
seize the Nottinghamshire powder magazine, which
the Rev. Julius Hutchinson gives in a footnote, is

xii Introduction.
not contained in this portion, though it appears
from a line or two on the first page of the manu
script to have immediately preceded it. The manu
script is thus described in a pencil note by Charles
Hutchinson, youngest son of the Rev. Julius.
" This MS. commences about page 105 of the quarto
edition of the Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson, but it
differs from the printed Memoirs in many particu
lars, generally but not always entering more at
length into statements and circumstances. The
MS. is probably Mrs. Hutchinson's earlier sketch
or journal of events, since the editor of the Memoirs,
who had all Mrs. Hutchinson's MSS. in his posses
sion, has followed one differing from this."
Mr. Charles Hutchinson is right in terming this
volume the first sketch of the Memoirs, but it can
hardly be called a journal. It is an account of
events in chronological order, but the blanks fre
quently left for dates seem to show that it was
written some little time after the events described
in it.
The narrative given in the Note-Book, as it may
be termed, is frequently repeated word for word in
the published Memoirs, and in most cases is sub
stantially the same. But the Note-Book gives the
names of persons and places when the Memoirs do
not, and particularises when the Memoirs gene
ralise. I have inserted most of these particular

Introduction. xiii
mentions of persons and places in the notes. Occa
sionally the Note-Book supplies detailed accounts
of occurrences only casually mentioned in the
Memoirs. As some of these passages throw con
siderable light on the character of Col. Hutchinson,
and the history of the civil war in Nottingham
shire, I have given several longer extracts in the
Appendix. I have not thought it necessary to reprint the
narrative of Col. Hutchinson's arrest and im-
/prisonment, which he wrote whilst in the Tower,
and succeeded in getting printed before he was
removed to Sandown Castle. It was reprinted in
the third volume of the Harleian Miscellany, and
is therefore easily accessible. Moreover it was
t evidently before the eyes of Mrs. Hutchinson when
she wrote the Memoirs, and is copied by her in
them with merely verbal changes. The narrative
itself, tested by the documents relating to the
subject amongst the Domestic State Papers, is
perfectly accurate.
The Appendix contains also a collection of letters
by Col. Hutchinson and some of the other persons
mentioned in the book, gathered from the Tanner
MSS. in the Bodleian Library, and from newspapers
and pamphlets of the time. To these are added his
petitions to the two Houses of Parliament at the
Restoration, the one to the House of Commons
vol. i. b

xiv Introduction.
from the State Paper Office, that to the Lords from
the papers of the House of Lords.
By means of this Note-Book, and by the aid of the
documents in the Appendix, it is possible to esti
mate more exactly the degree of credit due to the
Memoirs, and to the account of events given in
them by Mrs. Hutchinson. It is not possible to
ascertain the exact date at which the Memoirs were
composed, but it can be fixed approximately. Mrs.
Hutchinson relates that at the time of the colonel's
arrest Captain Wright and Lieutenant Franck were
also arrested and brought to Newark, " where they
are yet prisoners, and to this day know not why "
(Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 287). Mr Bailey, in his Annals
of Nottinghamshire, points out that as Captain
Wright was arraigned before Judge Hale at the
King's Bench on July the 7th, 1671, and then dis
charged for lack of evidence, the Memoirs must
obviously have been written between that date and
the date of Col. Hutchinson's death. Mrs. Hut
chinson commenced writing the Memoirs almost
immediately after the death of her husband, for the
purpose of describing his life and character for the
information and example of his children. " While
I am studying which way to moderate my woe, and
if it were possible to augment my love, I can for
the present find out none more just to your dear
father, nor consolatory to myself than the preserva-

Introduction. xv
tion of his memory." She goes on to represent
herself as " desiring, if my treacherous memory have
not lost the dearest treasure ever I committed to its
trust, to relate to you his holy, virtuous, honourable
life." To this great object all other aims were sub
ordinate. She neither desired to reveal the secret
springs of events, nor to give a picture of the times, _
but when it appeared necessary to explain her
husband's position or the progress of events in
Nottinghamshire, she did not shrink from narrat
ing public affairs. On these occasions Mrs. Hut
chinson generally explains the object of her digres
sion from the proper subject of her story. "Here,"
she writes, when she begins her description of the
state of England in 1642, " here T 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, I can truly
relate what I was then able to take notice of; but
I shall only mention what is necessary to be
related for the better carrying on of my purpose "
(vol. i. p. 98).
And again, " 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 but name in what posture things were
abroad in the kingdom while these affairs I relate were

xvi Introduction.
transacted at Nottingham" (vol. i. p. aio). These
digressions on public affairs appear to have been
later additions to the original sketch of her hus
band's life drawn up by Mrs. Hutchinson; at least
in the fragmentary Note-Book before referred to,
which extends from 1642 to 1644, they are absent.
For the substance of her accounts of public affairs,
Mrs. Hutchinson mainly relies on the authority of
May, making use both of his History of the Parlia
ment, and his Breviary of the History of the Parlia
ment of England. She pronounces Mr. May's
history 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" (vol. i.
p. 136). Accordingly she follows May's account
of the campaigns of 1642 and 1643, sometimes
echoing his phrases, and even copying his error
in making the queen land at Sunderland. She
takes much the same view of the policy of James
I. and the earlier part of the reign of Charles
I., and quotes with approval a remark of May's
about the Duke of Buckingham. On some ques
tions, however, she was better informed than May.
t For instance, in her account of the Short Par
liament she gives the true cause of its dissolution,
I when May does not. "The king," she states,

Introduction. xvii
"suffered it to sit but 21 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."
Mrs. Hutchinson mentions also amongst her
authorities the printed papers of the Parliament, 1
which she had no doubt studied with her husband. •
She tells us that he " applied himself to understand
the things then in dispute, and read all the public
papers that came forth between the king and Parlia
ment, besides many other private treatises, both
concerning the present and foregoing times."
It was from these authorities she gathered heri
general conception of the questions at issue whenl
the civil wars broke out, and the materials for herj
general survey of England in 1640. But she made
no attempt to imitate May's impartiality ; indeed,
as we have seen, she even blames him for it. Nor
does she hesitate to echo the most odious of the
charges which contemporary libellers brought
against James I. and the Duke of Buckingham.
Still on the whole, so far as her knowledge extends,
she is truthful and accurate. Her account of the
civil war in Nottinghamshire especially is confirmed
in almost every point by the evidence of newspapers,
letters, and State papers. Mr. Bailey in his "Annals
of Nottinghamshire" attempted to disprove Mrs.

xviii Introduction.
Hutchinson's account of the attempt to seize the
powder of the county, and expressed his disbelief
in the story of the offers made by the Marquis of
Newcastle to induce Col. Hutchinson to surrender
Nottingham ("Annals of Nottinghamshire," vol. ii.
pp. 650, 971). I have tried to show that the first
of these doubts is based on a misunderstanding of
the text, and the second is sufficiently refuted by
the correspondence of the chief actors (vide Vol. I.,
Appendix IV. and XIX.) A writer in "Notes and
Queries " (July 19, 1884) has pointed out what seems
to be an extraordinary mistake in Mrs. Hutchinson's
account of her mother, in the earlier part of the
Memoirs. On the other hand, a full confirmation
of the remarkable story told about Sir Thomas
Hutchinson and Sir Germaine Poole, is to be found
in a letter from Chamberlain to Carleton (" Court
and Times of James I.,'' vol. i. p. 231.) The sketches
given in the Memoirs of the characters of Col.
Hutchinson's opponents in the Nottingham Com
mittee are naturally extremely prejudiced, but
many of the statements made in them are borne
out by independent evidence. Several of the charges
brought against Sir John Gell and Colonel Chad-
wick are thus confirmed. The accusation of atheism
brought against Dr. Plumptre, which Mr. Bailey
asserts to be a groundless slander, was generally
accepted as true. Gervase Holies, writing in

Introduction. xix
1658, describing the last illness of the Earl of Clare
in 1637, says that Plumptre was accounted the
best physician in Nottingham, "otherwise a pro
fessed atheist." Many of the other statements
made concerning these personages are also inci
dentally confirmed ; and it should be remembered
that Lord Fairfax, the Der\j^JIouse Committee,
and the House of Commons, all substantially agreed
in deciding for the governor against the committee
of Nottingham. Still it must be admitted that
Mrs. Hutchinson frequently exaggerates the part
played by her husband in public events, and even in
less important transactions. The share she assigns
to him in the resistance to the Scotch invasion in
1651 is an instance of the former, and her accounts
of the capture of Sir Marmaduke Langdale, and the
saving of Sir John Owen, illustrate the latter. In
the Memoirs she omits certain facts she had
recorded in her Note-Book, which appeared to
her on further consideration unfavourable to her
husband's character, — such as the story of his in
sulting message to Sir Roger Cooper, and his tor
turing of the spies from Newark. When she comes
to speak of her husband's escape at the Restoration,
Mrs. Hutchinson conceals much of the truth,
and misrepresents many of the facts. Col. Hut
chinson owed his escape at the Restoration to
what the Journals of the House of Commons term

xx Introduction.
his "signal repentance," and to the exertions of
his friends on his behalf. They were able to plead
with truth his recent exertions against Lambert's
party, to which they added a number of good-
natured fictions about earlier actions in favour of
the Royalist cause during the Protectorate. Ludlow,
however, who states that Col. Hutchinson "having
joined in Monk's treacherous design, had obtained
a pardon from the king whilst he was beyond sea,"
makes far too much of the slight services Hutchin
son could have rendered Monk, and his statement
about the pardon is certainly erroneous. Mrs.
Hutchinson puts into her husband's mouth an
extremely guarded expression of regret for the
king's death, and even speaks of his " not answer
ing the Court expectations in public recantations
and dissembled repentance." But no more abject,
expression of penitence, no more humble and dis
honouring petition for life could be uttered than
Col. Hutchinson's letter to the Speaker, which was
publicly read in the House of Commons. Mrs.
Hutchinson states that she contrived and wrote
this letter, signed with her husband's name, and
ventured to send it to the Speaker, "being used
sometimes to write the letters he dictated, and her
character not much differing from his." This is
confirmed by the fact that the letter in question
found its way into the State Paper Office through

Introduction. xxi
being sent by Sir Allen Apsley to Secretary Bennet
as a specimen of Mrs. Hutchinson's handwriting.
At first Mrs. Hutchinson tells us her husband
was desirous of being made a public sacrifice, but
she prevailed with him to retire, wrought with him
not to deliver himself up, and finally devised this
expedient to save him against his will. " She 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 this deliverance." Unfortunately the existence
of a second petition, that to the House of Lords,
dated six weeks later, seems to prove that Col.
Hutchinson's share in this matter was not confined
to the passive and silent acceptance of his wife's
expedient. It was probably the knowledge of these
recantations which caused the suspicion with which
Col. Hutchinson's old fellow-soldiers regarded him,
and led in 1663 to the rumour that he had betrayed
them. This explains also the expressions used by
Algernon Sidney regarding him. " If I could write
and talk like Col. Hutchinson or Sir Gilbert
Pickering," he says in a letter dated Aug. 30, 1660,
" I believe I might be quiet. Contempt might
procure my safety, but I had rather be a vagabond
all my life than buy my being in my own country
at so dear a rate." Col. Hutchinson soon repented

xxii Introduction.
of his conduct. " When the colonel saw how the
other gentlemen were trepanned that were brought
in by proclamation ... 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 well satisfied in himself
for accepting the deliverance." He must have
shared also the feelings of the unhappy prisoners
described by Mrs. Hutchinson, "a thousand times
more miserable than those that died, who were there
by preserved from the eternal infamy and remorse,
which hope of life and estate made these poor men
bring upon themselves, by base and false recantations
of their own judgment, against their consciences"
(ii. 257)-
Thus, "whilst he saw others suffer he suffered
in his mind." In the depression which the ruin
of the cause, and the apostacy of so many of
his old associates, had produced in him, he had
doubted the justice of the cause. Now, "he again
reflected seriously upon all that was past," and
" examined the cause from the first," and " set him
self to a more diligent study of the Scriptures," and
was confirmed in his old principles. Finally, he came
to believe that he had been preserved for some Divine
purpose, " that he was yet kept for some eminent
service or suffering in this cause" (ii. 262-264). In
this temper he lived, "in silence and retiredness,"

Introduction. xxiii
longing for the time to come when he should be
free from the obligations which the clemency of the
government had imposed upon him. So when he
was again arrested, " it was the happiest release in
the world to him." For frefore, although he had
made no express engagement, yet, in regard his
life and estate had been freely left him, 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 dis
obliged him from all ties either of honour or con
science, and that he was free to act as prudence
should hereafter lead him, and thought not his
liberty out of prison worth the purchase of any
future engagement, which would again fetter him.
in obligations to such persons as every day more
and more manifested themselves 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 to his own
innocency, and to undertake nothing for him,
which, if he did, he told him he would disown. Mrs.
Hutchinson, remembering how much she had dis
pleased him in saving him before, submitted now to
suffer with him according to his own will " (ii. 313).
Thus Col. Hutchinson sought to redeem his
former weakness, and, by patiently suffering for the

xxiv Introduction.
cause he had denied and disowned, to regain the
right to defend it. The story of his recantation is
incomplete without the story of his expiation. To
some it may appear that the cowardice of his
conduct in 1660 no subsequent repentance, endur
ance, or courage could outweigh. Others will rather
sympathise with his struggles, and admire his final
victory. " I count not each man valiant that dares
die," says a Puritan poet.
" Give me that heart which in itself doth war
With many frailties (who like traitors are
In some besieged fort), and hath to do
With outward foes and inward terrors too ;
Yet of himself and them a conquest makes,
And still proceeds in what he undertakes."
How long Mrs. Hutchinson survived her husband
is uncertain. It is possible to gather from her
other writings some little information to add to the
fragment of autobiography prefixed to the Memoirs.
We see her in 1670 struggling bravely with the
pecuniary difficulties which the civil wars had
brought upon the Hutchinson family. We can
gather also from her own words to her daughter that
she had to contend with family troubles of another
kind. "My infirmities and imperfections," she
complains, "joined with my outward ill-successes,
have much weakened my authority, and made it of
no force with all persons." The preface to her
translation of Lucretius, given in the Appendix,

Introduction. xxv
and the two religious treatises, printed in 1817,
supply a few interesting glimpses of her life and her
opinions. The translation of Lucretius was written
in her "vainly curious youth," in the time when
she "was not convinced of the vanity of conver
sation which was not scandalously wicked," and
had not opened her eyes to "the sin of amusing
herself with such vain philosophy." She had heard
the doctrines of Epicurus and the atomic theory
talked of, and out of curiosity and the desire to
instruct herself read and translated the six books of
the De Rerum Natura. " I turned it into English
in a room where my children practised the several
qualities they were taught with their tutors, and I
numbered the syllables of my translation by the
threads of the canvas I wrought in, and set them
down with a pen and ink that stood by me." In
1675 Mrs. Hutchinson presented this translation,
at his own request, to Arthur Annesley, Earl of
Anglesea. But by this time she had grown more
rigid in her views, and repented ever occupying
herself in such studies. In the dedication to the
work she entreats the Earl "to conceal it as a
shame," hopes it may never become known, and
expresses her hatred and contempt for all the
heathen philosophers. All their writings show the
vanity of earthly wisdom, and the powerlessness
of human reason to attain to the knowledge of

xxvi Introduction.
things divine. Lucretius himself she terms an
atheist and a lunatic and refers to him as "this
dog." There is much in her general judgment of
the Greek and Roman philosophers that reminds one
of the opinions expressed by Milton in the fourth
book of " Paradise Regained." She herself expresses
the same views more at length in her two theo
logical treatises when she comes to discuss the
question of natural and revealed religion. In these
two works, probably her last, she displays a very
wide range of reading, and quotes not only theo
logical writers, but classical authors also. Besides
Pocockianus and Rabbi David Kimchi, Juvenal
and Horace, Sallust and Cicero, Epictetus and
Euripides are all laid under contribution, nor is
Chaucer forgotten. Her object, however, was merely
to instruct her daughter. " I write," she says, "not
for the press, but to imprint on your heart the
characters I have received of God." These princi
ples of the Christian religion she commands her
daughter to instil into her family. " Exercise your
own knowledge therein by instructing your children
and servants, for I assure you I have by that means
learnt more than by all my hearing and study, hav
ing found the Lord to open my own understanding,
and to warm my heart, while I conscientiously
laboured to communicate the light He gave me."
She goes on to explain, in words which ought to

Introduction. xxvii
vindicate her from the charge of want of modesty
which Guizot brings against her, that it is parti
cularly necessary for women to be well grounded in
the faith. " The Apostle reproaches the weakness
of our sex more than the other, when, speaking of
the prevalency of seducers, he says they lead about
silly women, who are ever learning and never able
to come to the knowledge of the truth ; therefore
every wise and holy woman ought to watch strictly
over herself that she become not one of these; but
as our sex, through ignorance and weakness of
judgment, which in the most knowing women is
inferior to the masculine understanding of men, are
apt to entertain fancies, and be pertinacious in
them, so we ought to watch over ourselves in such
a day as this, and embrace nothing rashly ; but, as
our own imbecility is made known to us, to take
heed of presumption in ourselves, and to lean by
faith upon the strength of the Lord, and to beg His
protection, that we may not be led into error."
Thus, in the investigation of religious and theo
logical questions, Mrs. Hutchinson occupied herself
iring the last years of her life ; we see her, " in a
drilling] and degenerate age, that hath hissed out '
sober and serious studies," ever anxious to learn
and to teach, but falling more and more under the
influence of a narrowing creed, a type of Puritanism
alike in her strength and her weakness.

xxviii Introduction.
In this edition the spelling of the original has
been modernised, and some alterations have been
made in the punctuation. In other respects the
text is unchanged. As Mrs. Hutchinson occasion
ally spells the name of the same person in two or
three different ways, the method of spelling used by
the persons themselves has been, when possible,
adopted. The notes added to the text by the Rev.
Julius Hutchinson are distinguished by the letters
J. H. ; for the rest of the notes and for the index
the present editor is responsible.

THE LIFE
OF
MRS. LUCY HUTCHINSON,
WRITTEN BY HERSELF.
A FRAGMENT.

The Almighty Author of all beings,1 in his various
providences, 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 stu
pidity of blind mortals, that instead of employing
their studies in these admirable books of providence,
wherein God daily exhibits to us glorious characters
of his love, kindness, wisdom, and justice, they
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
originality recommend itself, and prevent the distaste which
the air of religion it wears might give to many, in times
VOL. I. A

2 Life of Mrs. Hutchinson.
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 whereon 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 gene
ral neglect, I thought it might be a means to
stir up my thankfulness for 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
providences exercised to me, both in the entrance
and progress of my life.1 Herein I meet with so

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 reli
gious reflections will be seen to abound, but so as neither
to confuse nor fetter, but rather elevate the mind. — J. H.
1 The purpose of this sketch of her own life is here
stated by Mrs. Hutchinson, viz., to call to recollection the

Life of Mrs. Hutchinson. 3
many special indulgences as require a distinct consi
deration, 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 ad
vantages 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 goodness, so I cannot reflect on
them without deep humiliation for the small im
provement 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 prin- q
cipal city of the English isle, I was, about four of
the clock in the morning, brought forth to behold
passages of her youth, and "the general and particular
providences" exercised to her. The first of these provi
dences is the place of her birth (pp. 3-9) ; the second is
the time of her birth (pp. 9-10) ; the third is her parentage
(pp. 11-22). The last three pages (pp. 22-26) are devoted
to the passages of her youth.

4 Life of Mrs. Hutchinson.
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 quiet
ness 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, con
fers some honour upon every one of her children,
and with it an obligation to continue in that mag
nanimity and virtue, which 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,

Life of Mrs. Hutchinson. 5
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 Picts, as scorned
servitude, were driven into the barren country of
Scotland, where they have ever since remained, 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,

6 Life of Mrs. Hutchinson.
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 con
tinued, 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 founda
tion of his monarchy in the people's blood, in which
it hath swum about five hundred 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 Normal/
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 ; Nor
mans and Saxons becoming one people, who by
their valour grew terrible to all the neighbouring
princes, and have not only bravely acquitted them
selves 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.

Life of Mrs. Hutchinson. 7
/'
* Better laws and a happier constitution of govern
ment no nation ever enjoyed, it being a mixture of
monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, with suffi
cient 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 ex
cellent bounds, as will keep in wild ambition, when
princes' flatterers encourage that beast to break his
fence, which it hath often done, with miserable con
sequences 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 ingeniously prac
tised ; the English archers were the terror of Chris
tendom, and their clothes the ornament ; but these

8 Life of Mrs. Hutchinson.
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, justice, wealth, 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 world, 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 ; l Henry the
Eighth, the first prince that broke the antichristian
yoke off from his own and his subjects' necks.
Here it was that the first Christian emperor re
ceived his crown ; here began the early dawn of
gospel light, by Wickliffe and other faithful wit
nesses, 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
1 On Lucius see Bede, " Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis
Anglorum," lib. i. cap. iv. Bede says Lucius sent a letter
to Pope Eleutherius, begging to be made a Christian, and
places the date of this event somewhere between 177 and
180 A.D.

Life of Mrs. Hutchi?ison. g
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 Christians, and slaughtered multitudes
of them ; and when, by the mercy of God, the con
quering Pagans were afterwards converted, and that
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, consolations,
and preservations, which I shall have occasion to
mention in other places.
From the place of my birth I shall only desire

10 Life of Mrs. Hutchinson.
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 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 Chris
tians spring up in countries enslaved by Turkish
and antichristian tyrants, whose souls and bodies
languish under miserable slavery. None knows what
mercy it is to live under a good and wholesome
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 inconsiderately 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 midnight of popery, nor in the dawn of
the gospel's restored day, when light and shades
were blended and almost undistinguished, 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

Life of Mrs. Hutchinson. 1 1
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 conversation, 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 grate
ful memorial, and to increase my children's improve
ment of the patterns they set them ; but since I
shall detract from those I would celebrate, 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 gentle
man of a competent estate, about £700 or ^"800 a
year, in Sussex. He being descended of a younger
house, had his residence at a place called Pul-
borough ; 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 con
tinued, 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

12 Life of Mrs. Hutchinson.
daughters into other families. Particularities con
cerning 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,
v 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 -fiooa year to the eldest of
his half brothers, and annuities of £^0 a piece to
the three for their lives. He died before I was born,

Life of Mrs. Hutchinson. 13
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 grand
father, being but a youth at school, had not patience
to stay the perfecting of his studies, but put him
self 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, 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 for Cales
voyage,1 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 employ
ment in Ireland. There a rich widow, that had

1 i.e., the expedition of the Earl of Essex to Cadiz in
1596.

14 Life of Mrs. Hutchinson.
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 grandchildren were brought up in
his house after I was born. He, by God's bless
ing, and his fidelity and industry, growing in estate
and honour, received a knighthood from King James
soon after his coming to the crown, for some
eminent service done to him in Ireland, which, hav
ing 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 between 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 procured himself the office of Victualler
of the Navy, a place then both of credit and great
revenue. His friends, considering his solitude,

Life of Mrs. Hutchinson. 15
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 he
carried along with him, which would not let him
accomplish it, but brought him back to my
mother. She was of a noble family, being the
youngest daughter of Sir John St. John, of Lidiard
Tregooze in the county of Wilts ; her father and
mother died when she was not above five years
of age, and yet ..at Jjer nurse's, from whence she
was carried to be brought up in the house of
the Lord Grandison, her father's younger brother ;
an honourable 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 stepmothers. 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

1 6 Life of Mrs. Hutchinson.
her unkindly. Yet all the suitors that came to
them still turned their addresses to her, which she
in her youthful innocency neglected, till one of
greater name, estate, and reputation 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 kindness 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 aug
ment 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

Life of Mrs. Hutchinson. 17
house, secretly discontented at this accident, but
was comforted 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 concerning 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, where
upon she left his house, with a resolution to with
draw 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 impart 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 conversation, 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,1 and born at

1 The second Sir Allen Apsley : vide the interesting sketch
vol. 1. - B
'}

1 8 Life of Mrs. Hutchinson.
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 lieutenant, 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 succeeded a fever which he got
in the unfortunate voyage to the Isle of Rhe.
He died in the month of May, 1630, sadly be
wailed 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 obli
gations. 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 skilful
that he was never mistaken, but where his own
good would not let him give credit to the evil he
of his life by Mr. S. L. Lee in the " Dictionary of National
Biography," and see also on his education Sir Allen's letter
of March 20, 1628, to Lord Dorchester: Forster, Life of
Eliot, ii. 472.

Life of Mrs. Hutchinson. 19
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 main
tain 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 compas
sionate kindness their restraint, that the affliction of
a prison was not felt in his days.1 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 com
mon 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
1 Mr. Forster, in his Life of Sir John Eliot, who was one
of Sir Allen Apsley's prisoners, quotes facts and letters which
hardly bear out this account of the Lieutenant's indulgence.
" He was an honest, plain-spoken man, with no disposition
to be harsh or unjust ; but he was a king's man to the
backbone ; his only law was that of obedience to the master
he was serving under ; and the career in naval and military
service which had made him a disciplinarian, had neither
sharpened nor refined his sympathies." — Forster, Eliot, ii.
468. See also Selden's Petition, ibid. p. 469.

20 Life of Mrs. Hutchinson.
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 barondry,1
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 excelled
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 exer
cise of faith and charity, it concluded with prayers
1 " Barondry " probably means barony. Halliwell's " Dic
tionary of Archaic and Provincial Words " gives " baronady,"
"the dignity of baron." In Bohn's edition " baronetcy " is
substituted for the word in the text, but no authority given.

Life of Mrs. Hutchinson. 2 1
and blessings, which were the only consolations
his desolate family could receive in his death.
Never did any two better agree in magnanimity
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 friends' 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. Ruthven 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 knowledge 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

22 Life of Mrs. Hutchinson.
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 incon
venience 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 care of the worship and service of
God, both in her soul and her house, and the educa
tion of her children, was 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 inde
fatigable 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

Life of Mrs. Hutchinson. 23
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 complexion and favour than is
usual in so young children, that I should not live,
my mother became fonder of me, and more en
deavoured 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 sig
nified she should have a daughter of some extra
ordinary eminency ; which thing, like such vain
prophecies, wrought as far as it could its own
accomplishment : x for my father and mother fancy-
1 This is an ingenious way of accounting for the fulfil
ment of superstitious 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

24 Life of Mrs. Hutchinson.
ing me then beautiful, and more than ordinarily
apprehensive, applied all their cares, and spared no
cost to improve me in my education, which pro
cured 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 heedfully. 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
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. — J. H.

Life of Mrs. Hutchinson. 25
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 pro
gress I made in my learning, which very well
pleased my father ; though my mother would have
been contented I had not so wholly addicted my
self 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
X 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 carried me to,
I was convinced that the knowledge of God was the
-Xrnost excellent study, and accordingly applied my-

X

26 Life of Mrs. Hutchinson.
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 any thing 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
confidante 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 1 . . . 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 2 . . .
1 At this place is a great chasm, many leaves being torn
out, apparently by the writer herself. — J. H.
2 Here the story of herself abruptly ends. — J. H.

MRS. HUTCHINSON TO HER CHILDREN
CONCERNING THEIR FATHER.

"TO MY CHILDREN."
They who dote on mortal excellencies, 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 remem
brance 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 com
mand not to grieve at the common rate of desolate
women,1 while I am studying which way to moderate
1 The command of her husband at his death. It will be
readily admitted that she does indeed not grieve after any

28 Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children.
my woe, and if it were possible to augment my love,
can for the present find out none more just to your
dear father nor consolatory to myself than the pre
servation 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, speak
ing the simple truth of him, will deck him with
more substantial glory, than all the panegyrics the
best pens could ever consecrate to the virtues of
the best men.1

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 ornament and embellish, she confines herself to such
occasions as are most suitable, and employs the greatest
simplicity in her narrative. — J. H.
1 M. Guizot, in his introduction to these Memoirs, com
pares them to Madame de Mornay's Memoirs of her hus
band, Duplessis Mornay, written also for the instruction
of her son, but whilst the father whose life they contained
was yet alive. " I see you," she writes to her son, " ready to
depart to go and see the world, and make yourself acquainted
with the manners of men and the state of nations. You
are young, my son, and divers fantasies present themselves
to youth ; bear in mind always the words of the Psalmist :
' Thy testimonies, O Lord, shall be the men of my counsel.'
But that you may never be without a guide, here is one
that I give you by the hand and written by my own hand,

Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children. 29
Indeed, that resplendent body of light, which the
beginning and ending of his life made up, to dis
cover the deformities of this wicked age, and to
instruct the erring children of this generation, will,
through my apprehension and expression, 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 imperfect arithmetic can count, and the
exact figure of them such as my unskilful pen can
not describe. I fear to injure that memory which
I would honour, and to disgrace his name with a

to accompany you ; it is the example of your father, which
I adjure you always to keep before your eyes, as far as I
have been able to know his life, notwithstanding that our
company has frequently been interrupted by the misfortunes
of the times. I am infirm, and I do not think that God will
leave me long in this world : so you will keep this writing
in memory of me. And when God shall please to take me
from you, I desire that you should finish what I have begun
to write of the course of our life ; but above all, my son, I
shall believe that you will remember when I shall hear it
said that, in whatever place you are, you serve God and
imitate your father."

30 Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children.
poor monument ; but when I have beforehand laid
this necessary caution, and ingenuously confessed
that through my inability either to receive or ad
minister 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 loveli
ness in it.
Let not excess of love and delight in the stream
make us forget the fountain ; he and all his excel
lencies 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 know
ledge 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 conjunction, if we had
any with him, was indissoluble ; if we were knit

Mrs. Htdchinson to her Children. 3 1
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 dis
tance ? Faithless fools ! sorrow only makes it.
Let us but ascend to God in holy joy for the great
grace given his poor servant, and he is there with
us. He is only removed from the malice of his
enemies, for which we should not express our
love to him in being afflicted : 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 examples 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, let
us remenfber to give all his and all our glory to
God alone, who is the father and fountain of all
light and excellence.
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, honour
able 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 —

32 Mrs. ffiitchinson to her Children.

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, although 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 magnanimity 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
admirably well, but neither in youth nor riper years
made any practice of it ; he had skill in fencing,
such as became a gentleman ; he had a great love

Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children. 33
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 excel
lently 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 recrea
tions 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
vol. 1. c

34 Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children.
did with delight, free and unconstrained ; 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 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 him
self; 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

Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children. 35
health ; he never was at any time idle, and hated
to see any one else so ; in all his natural and ordi
nary inclinations and composure, there was some
thing 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 hand
some 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

36 Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children.
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 pretender to that glorious
family, who hath no tincture of it, is an impostor
and a spurious brat. This is that sacred fountain
which baptizeth all the gentle virtues that so im
mortalise the names of Cicero, Plutarch, Seneca,
and all the old philosophers; herein they are re
generated, and take a new 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.1
By Christianity I intend that universal habit of
grace which is wrought in a soul by the regenerat
ing Spirit of God, whereby the whole creature is
resigned up into the divine will and love, and all
its actions designed to the obedience and glory of
its Maker. As soon as he had improved his
natural understanding with the acquisition of learn
ing, the first studies he exercised himself in,
were the principles of religion, and the first know
ledge he laboured for was a knowledge of God,
1 Compare the views expressed by Mrs. Hutchinson in
her dedication to the translation of Lucretius, and also in
her treatise on theology. In the latter she says : " The
vanity of men's minds is not more evident in any of them
than in this science [of morality : not one true virtue is
truly taught in all Aristotle's books to Nichomachus."

Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children. 37
which by a diligent examination of the Scripture,
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 super
structures, 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 established in the truth, he was full of
love to God and all his saints.1 He hated perse
cution 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 compliances
of his adversaries, which timorous men practise
under the name of prudent and just condescensions
to avoid persecution. 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

1 Saints. An expression commonly used in that time to
signify good and religious people. — J. H.

38 Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children.
sought to by many that might have been his fathers
for counsel, which he could excellently give to him
self 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 appre
hension of men and things as no man more. He
had rather a firm impression than a great memory,
yet he was forgetful of nothing but injuries. His
own integrity made him credulous of other men's,
till reason and experience convinced him, and
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.1 He was as ready to hear as to give
counsel, and never pertinacious 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
impartially hear it debated. In matters of faith
his reason always submitted to the Word of God,
and what he could not comprehend, he would
1 It is not known what peculiar transaction this refers to,
though it may be conjectured to refer to the false protesta
tions of Monk and Sir Ashley Cooper at the Restoration ;
whom he and many others trusted much against their
will.— J. H.

Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children. 39
believe because it was written; but in all other
things, the greatest names in the world could
never lead him without reason : he would delibe
rate when there was time, but never lost an
opportunity of anything that was to be done by
tedious dispute. He would hear as well as speak,
and yet never spoke impertinently or unseason
ably. He very well understood himself 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 improve
ment of all his talents. He no less understood
and was more heedful to remark his defects, im
perfections, 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 oecumenical x administrations, which forced
even from unwilling subjects a love and reverence
of him, and endeared him to the souls of those
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,
1 CEcumenical, i.e., domestic.

40 Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children.
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 : 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 imperfec
tions 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, there did him good service, 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 excellent 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 cun
ning, but he so abhorred dissimulation that I cannot
say he was either. Greatness of courage would
not suffer him to put on a vizard, to secure him

Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children. 41
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 pre
dominant virtue in him, as which is so in its own
nature. He was as excellent in justice as in
wisdom ; the greatest advantage, nor the greatest
danger, nor the dearest interest or friend in the world,
could not 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 performance of any
thing that was in his power to fulfil. Never fear
ing 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 dis
guised hate 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

42 Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children.
heartily he desired their conversion. If he were
defective 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

Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children. 43
brought his father, as he could not have been
more dearly concerned in all their interest if she
had been his own mother — which, all things con
sidered, 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
not that just rule which it was her honour to obey,
but managed the reins of government with such
prudence and affection that she who would not
delight in such an honourable and advantageable
subjection, 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 esteemed her at a higher rate than she in her
self could have deserved, he was the author of that
virtue he doated 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 but
his pale shade. So liberal was he to her, and of

44 Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children.
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 young 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 cheer
fully 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 any 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
had they been never so injurious to himself.

Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children. 45
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 enter
prise, so he never staked it in any rash or un
warrantable hazard. He was never surprised,
amazed, nor confounded with great difficulties or
dangers, which rather served to animate than dis
tract 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 con
flicts as might signalise 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

46 Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children.
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,1 but still so ordering his familiarity
as it never raised them to a contempt, but enter
tained 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
1 Mr. J. R. Green claims that one of the gifts of Puri
tanism to England was a new conception of social equality,
and cites this passage in illustration of it. " Their common
calling, their common brotherhood in Christ, annihilated
in the mind of the Puritans that overpowering sense of
social distinctions which characterised the age of Elizabeth.
There was no open break with social traditions ; no open
revolt against the social subordination of class to class.
But within these forms of the older world beat, for the first
time, the spirit which was to characterise the new. The
meanest peasant felt himself ennobled as a child of God.
The proudest noble recognised a spiritual equality in the
poorest 'saint.' The great social revolution of the Civil
Wars and the Protectorate was already felt in the demeanour
of English gentlemen."

Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children. 47
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 commendations at
such a rate, as to act contrary to his own 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 estimation. 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 testimony against
an evil generation must suffer. Though his zeal
for truth and virtue caused the wicked, with the

48 Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children.
sharp edges of their malicious tongues, to attempt 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 endeavours
to cut it off.1 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 hos
pitality as much as he hated riot ; he could content
edly 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 gallantry;
and would rather choose to have none than mean
jewels or pictures, and such other things as were
not of absolute 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
1 Samson and Delilah.

Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children. 49
or vain-glory, nor diminish a general affability,
courtesy, and civility, that he had always to all
persons. When he was most exalted, he was
most merciful and compassionate to those that
were humbled. At the same time that he van
quished 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 opposi
tion. He was as far from meanness as from pride,
as truly generous as humble, and showed his noble
spirit more in adversity than in his prosperous con
dition ; he vanquished all the spite of his enemies
by his manly suffering, and all the contempts they
could cast upon 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
vol. 1. D

50 Mrs. Hutchinson to her Children.
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 impu
dent person. Neither in youth nor riper age could
the most fair or enticing women ever draw him so
much as 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 unblameable conversation with them,
but so as never to excite scandal or temptation.
Scurrilous discourse even among men he abhorred ;
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 good
ness of his nature to those of love and grief, but
i reason was never dethroned by them, but continued
governess and moderator in his soul.1
1 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 accord
ingly 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
Owthorp."— 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 New-
stead, 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 improve it, as much as it was their privilege to
inherit their parents' glories. Sir Thomas was he
that -removed his dwelling 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

52 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1616.
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.1
They have been in Nottinghamshire for genera
tions ; 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 begins to flourish, and long may it prosper.2
It is further observable in their descent that though
none of them before Sir Thomas Hutchinson ad
vanced beyond an esquire, yet they successively
matched into all the most eminent and noble
families in the country ; which shows that it was
the unambitious genius of the family rather than
their want of merit, 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 gene
rations of them in these parts, where their hospi-
1 At Wykeham Abbey, in the county of York, where it is
believed they still reside. — J. H.
2 It stood only two generations ; the last possessor, who
was the great-grandson of Sir Thomas Hutchinson, direct
ing by his will the estate to be sold, and the produce given
to strangers. — J. H.

1616.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 53
tality, 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.1 Although they
changed not their titles, yet every succession in
creased the real honour of their house. One dis
advantage 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 unworthy
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, ran at Poole and broke his weapon, which
1 Sir Thomas Hutchinson's son and grandson fell no way
short of him in this.— J. H.

54 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1616.
could not enter his false armour ; whereupon he
run in to him, resolved not to be murdered without
leaving some mark on the villain, 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 honour
able carriage in it procured him a great deal of
glory, and his adversary carried the mark of his
shame to the grave.1 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 engag-

1 This is a singular tale, and savours almost too much
of the ridiculous 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 second vol. " Sir German
Poole vowed revenge against a Mr. Brighthouse, shot two
pistols at him out of a window, set two servants on 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 _£noo, &c." This does not seem to have cured him;
perhaps the mark set on him by Sir Thomas H. succeeded
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 ? — J. H.

1616.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 55
ing 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 conversa
tion. 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 schoolmen,
instead of diverting it ; and having furnished him
self 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,1 he could not be exempted from ad
ministering 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 county, to be their
representative, to which he was several times

1 Country here and in many other places in these Memoirs
signifies county.

56 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1616.
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 men — Puritanism;
yet notwithstanding he continued constant 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 comeliness in all ages,1 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 ; \j
1 His picture remained at Owthorpe, and very well jus
tified this description, 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 dissatisfied 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. — J. H.

1616.J Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 5 7
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 Stan
hope, of Elvaston, a noble family in Derbyshire, 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 September, in the year 1616.1 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
Nottingham, 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
1 Mrs. Hutchinson is here in error. The great drought
took place in 1615 ; and it also appears from the registers of
St. Mary's, Nottingham, that John, son of Mr. Thomas
Hutchinson, was born on September 18, 1615. Vide Brown,
" Worthies of Nottinghamshire," p. 190.

58 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1619.
reason of a mettled horse he rid 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 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 family as any in the county, of an in
comparable 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, courteous,
patient, kind above an ordinary degree, ingenuous
to all things she would apply herself to ; and not
withstanding 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 housewifes, 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 concomitancy of all the
rest of honour's train. She was a wise and

1619.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 59
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 been
already ascended into the celestial choir.
There is a story of her father and mother so
memorable that though it be not altogether per
tinent to their grandchild's affairs, which I only
intend, yet I shall here put it in, since the third
generation, for whom I make this collection, is not
altogether unconcerned in the great grandfather.
He (the great grandfather) was not the eldest son
of his father Sir John Biron, but 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 son,
and thereupon married him to a young lady who

60 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1619.
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.1 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, 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
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 her
self 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
1 By mistake Mrs. Hutchinson calls him lord. The per
son here meant was Sir William Fitzwilliam, appointed
governor of Ireland seven times with the different titles of
Lord Justice and Lord Deputy, by that distinguishing and
judicious princess. A sufiicient eulogy ! From him descends
in a direct line the present Earl Fitzwilliam. Fortes creantur,
fortibus et bonis. The reader will most likely find this
episode too beautiful and affecting to think it needs the
apology the writer makes. — J. H.

i6i9-l Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 61
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 mourn- -
ing; 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 nume
rous 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, and alienated her most excellent understand
ing 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.1 But after that, all the art of the best
1 The twins here mentioned as daughters are said by

62 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1619.
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 con
versations. Upon this occasion her husband gave
himself up to live retired with her, as became her
condition, 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 conversation,
that the lady Arabella 1 would needs take her from
her parents, along with her to the court ; where
she minded nothing but her lady, and grew up so

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. — J. H.
1 Arabella Stuart, daughter of Lord Darnley's younger
brother, and consequently cousin of James I. She married,
in May 1610, William Seymour, son of Lord Beauchamp,
a descendant of Mary, the younger sister of Henry VIII.
Being herself a descendant of his elder sister Margaret,

1619.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 63
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, and there,
although his wife, a most prudent and virtuous
lady, laboured to comfort her with all imaginable
kindness, yet so constant was her friendship to the
unfortunate princess, that I have heard her servants
say, even after her marriage, she would steal many
melancholy hours to sit and weep in remembrance
of her. 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 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 morn-
James, who had forbidden this marriage, committed both
the culprits to prison, July 1610, where she died September
27, 1615.
See Gardiner's History of England, vol. ii. pp. 113-119,
and Miss Cooper's " Letters and Life of Arabella Stuart."

64 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1619.
ing. 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 perceived 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 providence
towards them, preventing them both from that
bitter sorrow which such separations cause, it can
be but conjectured ; but the thing being not ordi
nary, and having received it from the relation of
one of his daughters and his grandchild, I thought
it not impertinent here to insert. I shall now
proceed to our own story.
As soon as my lady Hutchinson 1 was dead, her
brother, Sir John Biron, came over and found the
most desolate afflicted widower that ever was be
held, and one of his sisters, the lady Ratcliffe, who
was the dear sister of the dead lady, scarce alive
1 The mother of Col. Hutchinson : see p. 59.

1619.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 65
for sorrow ; and indeed such an 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 friend'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 run away, overthrew it, and slightly
hurt all that were in the coach ; 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
vol. 1. E

66 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1619-
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 grow
ing 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,1 the
si 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 after 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 supercilious pedant, and so conceited
of his own pedantic forms,, that he gave Mr.
Hutchinson a disgust of him, and he profited very
1 In the Nottingham records, under the year 1615, is the
following entry, " Mr. Theobald, recommended by the
master and fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge, chosen
I the new master at the free school, at a salary of twenty
marks per annum, with the house, and liberty of taking
boarders." — Bailey, "Annals of Nottinghamshire," vol. ii.
p. 590.

1619-36.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 67
little there. At this place it was that God began
early to exercise him with affliction and tempta
tion ; he was deprived of the attendance and care
he had been used to, and met with many inconveni
ences unsuitable to his tender and nice constitution ;
but this was little, for he had such discretion in
his childhood that he understood what was fit
for him to require, and governed wherever he
lived ; for he would not be denied reasonable, and
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,1 wherein Mr. Hut
chinson most carefully attended him while he con
tinued at Lincoln ; which his father permitted 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 gentle
man, and found no success in it, he advised he
should return to his father's house, and be enter
tained 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 some-
1 i.e., epilepsy.

68 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1619-36.
thing recreated, but not cured thereby; till after
wards 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 countries'
interests, to return for some time to their own
countries, for which they served.1 Of these worthy

1 Sir Thomas Grantham was a member of both the first and
second Parliaments of Charles I. Sir Thomas Hutchinson
represented the county of Nottingham in the first Parlia
ment of Charles I. The imprisonment referred to in the
text probably took place after the dissolution of the second
Parliament, when, says Rushworth, vol. i. p. 428, " those
gentlemen who stood committed for not parting with monies
upon the Commissions for Loans, were appointed to several

1619-36.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 69
patriots, Sir Thomas Hutchinson 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 thinking 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 parts. He had only
two sons, whereof the eldest was a fine gentleman,
bred beyond the seas,, according to the best edu
cation 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 be
tween Sir Thomas Hutchinson and this gentleman,
Sir Thomas Hutchinson had a lodging always kept
for him at Lincoln, and was very often there. My
Lady Grantham had with her a very pretty young
gentlewoman, whom she brought with her out of
confinements, not in their own but foreign counties." Rush-
worth gives a list in which he states that " Sir Thomas
Grantham, and some others in the county of Lincoln, were
removed and secured in the county of Dorset." Sir Thomas
Hutchinson is not mentioned by name.

70 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1619-36.
Kent, the daughter of Sir Adam Newton ; my
lady's design was to begin an early acquaintance,
which might after 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 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 kindness 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 ; espe-
/s cially 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
endeavour to corrupt Mr. Hutchinson, who by the
V grace of God resisted, and detested his frequent
temptations of all kinds. The advantage he had
at this school, there being very many gentle
men's sons there, an old Low-country soldier was

1619-36.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 71
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 England's rights came to be disputed
with swords against encroaching princes. Sir
Thomas Grantham dying, Mr. Hutchinson was re
moved from Lincoln to the free-school at Notting
ham, 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 pharisaical 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

72 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1619-36.
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, nor restrained him
from no pleasure, nor 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 loath ; and in a year's
time he advanced exceedingly in learning, and was
sent to Cambridge. He was made a fellow-com
moner of Peter House, under the tuition of one
Mr. Norwich, an admirable scholar, who by his civil
demeanour 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, per
formed 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 improvement.
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

1619-36.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 73
he considered not the emptiness and carnality, to
say no more, of that public service which was then
in use. For his exercise he practised tennis, and
played admirable well at it ; for his diversion, he
chose music, and got a very good hand, which after
wards he improved 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 devotion, 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~aII for popish superstitious
practices ; x yet through the grace of God, notwith-

1 Dr. Gardner speaks of Peter House as "the college of
Cosin and Crashaw, the college which, more than any
other, attempted to exorcise the spirit of Puritanism"
(" Fall of the Monarchy of Charles I.," i. 28). It might have
been expected that the son of Puritan parents would be
entered rather at Sidney Sussex or Emmanuel. Sidney
Sussex was the college at which Cromwell and the Earl of
Manchester were educated. But Emmanuel was, par excel-

74 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1636-38.
standing the mutual kindness the whole household
had for him and he for them, he came away, after
five years study there, untainted with those prin
ciples or practices, though not yet enlightened to
discern the spring of them in the rights 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 Not
tingham ; 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 com
plaints, 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
lence, the Puritan college. " In the house of pure Emmanuel,"
says Corbet's "Mad Zealot"—
" I had my education,
Where my friends surmise
I dazzled mine eyes,
With the light of Revelation."
Laud, in his " Considerations presented to the King for better
settling the Church Government" (1628), complained of
these two colleges as nurseries of Puritanism. On the
Popish Practices at Peter House, vide Prynne, " Canter
bury's Doom," pp. 73, 74.

1636-38.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 75
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 ridiculous ; some he
would teach apish postures, and make them believe
themselves rare men ; some he would encourage to
be 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 afterwards unuseful to him.1
There was besides this gentleman, a young phy
sician, who was a good scholar and had a great
deal of wit, but withal a professed atheist, and
so proud, insolent a scurrilous fellow, daring to
abuse all persons how much soever above him, that
1 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. — J. H.

76 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1636-38.
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. Hutchin
son's first schoolmaster, a person once of great
learning, but afterwards 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 a 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 physi
cian, and from her childhood having been acquainted
with Mr. Hutchinson, who used to visit her grand
mother, she had conceived a kindness for him, which
though he civilly resented,1 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 company, and the melancholy he had, with some
discontents at home, she was willing to flatter her
self it was love for her, wherein, when she dis-

1 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. — J. H.

1636-38.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 77
covered 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, en
joyed but little felicity, either in their great fortunes
or in one another.1
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 game, nor the converse of wicked or vain
1 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. Julius Hutchinson read
and remarked upon this history, and the full knowledge he
had of all the circumstances of Colonel Hutchinson's life. —
J.H.

78 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1636-38.
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 disturbance : 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 exercised himself in
/ those qualities he had not had such good oppor
tunities for in the country, as dancing, fencing, and
music, wherein he had great aptness and address;
and entertaining the best tutors, was at some
expense that way, and loth to leave them off before
he had perfected himself. However, many things
putting him into the thoughts of quitting the town,
while he was in deliberation how to dispose of him
self, 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 understanding Mr. Hut
chinson had some such inclination, had almost
persuaded him to go along with him. The only

1636-38.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 79
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 mean time, 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 dis
engaged 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 gentle
man who not long before had come for some time
to lodge there, and found all the people he came
in company with, bewailing the death of a gentle
woman 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

80 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1636-38.
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 languishment. This story was
very true ; but Mr. Hutchinson was neither easy to
believe it, nor frighted at the example, thinking
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 themselves in that place, and
had frequent resort to the house where Mr. Hutchin
son tabled. The man being a skilful composer 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 acquaint
ance, 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 hand
some, 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 without any taint of incivility,
in such a way of handsome raillery reproved

1636-38.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 8 1
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, 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 Hunger-
ford, living in great honour and reputation, had in
vited her to a visit of them. This gentlewoman, 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. Hutchinson 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 ;
whereupon, inquiring more after her, he began first
vol. 1. F

82 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1636-38.
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 advan
tage. 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 had so
much indifferency for the most excellent of woman
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 satis
faction. 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 accomplished 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 gentleman saying it was believed
that a woman in the neighbourhood had made it,

1636-38.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 8

o

it was presently inquired who ; whereupon a gentle
man, 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 some
thing of rationality in the sonnet beyond the cus
tomary reach of a she-wit, although, to speak truth,
it signified very little, 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,
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 pro
duced. 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 gentle
man, " I cannot be at rest till this lady's return,
that I may be acquainted with her." The gentle
man replied, " Sir, you must not expect that, for
she is of a humour she will not be acquainted
with any of mankind ; and however this song is

84 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1636-38.
stolen forth, she is the nicest creature in the world
' of suffering her perfections to be known ; she shuns
the converse of men as the plague ; she only lives
in the enjoyment of herself, and has 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 infor
mation 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 know
ledge 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 x as they were
at dinner, bringing news that her mother and sister
would in a few days return ; and when they in
quired 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

1 It was the custom at that time to call young ladies
Mistress, not Miss. Shakespeare calls Ann Page, Mrs.
Ann.— J. H.

1636-38.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 85
felt a fainting to seize his spirits in that extraordi
nary 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 dispersion
of spirit, that all the courage he could at present
recollect, 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 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
heart could not be chid nor advised into health.
This anxiety of mind affected him so, that it sent
him to his bed that afternoon, which indeed he took
to entertain his thoughts alone that night, and

86 Metnoirs of Col. Hzttchinson. [1636-38.
having fortified himself with resolution, he gat up
the next day ; but yet could not quit himself of an
extravagant perplexity of soul concerning this un
known gentlewoman, which had not been admir
able 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 neighbour
hood to a noble treatment 1 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 per
plexity expected. This at length he obtained ; but
1 i.e., treat, entertainment.

1636-38.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 87
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 indif-
ferency, she was surprised with some unusual liking
in her soul when she saw this gentleman, who had
hair, eyes, shape, and countenance 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 unaffected-
ness and such neatness as 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 sight,
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 accom
plished ; he found withal, that though she was

88 Memoirs of Col. Hittchinson. [1636-38.
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 marrying 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 under
stood not, averted, she was troubled to return, lest
some might believe it was a secret liking for them
which had caused her dislike of 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 advan
tageously 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 enter
tained him, believed that a secret power had wrought
a mutual inclination between them, and daily fre
quented her mother's house, and had the oppor-

1636-38.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 89
tunity 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 kindness which they did not afford
commonly to others, first began to grow jealous and
envious at it, and after 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 dis
parage her, with such subtle insinuations, as would
have ruined any love less constant and honourable
than his. The women, with witty spite, represented
all her faults to him, which chiefly terminated 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 protection, as
they with all their arts could not catch. He, in the
meanwhile, prosecuted his love with so much discre-

90 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1636-38.
tion, duty, and honour, that at the length, through
many difficulties, 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 ; 2 but these are to be for
gotten 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 pas
sion 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 imperfec
tions ; 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

1 What Mrs. Hutchinson passes by, a modern author has
ventured to attempt : — The True and Romantic Love Story
of Colonel and Mrs. Hutchinson. A drama in verse, by J.
Antisell Allen. Elliot Stock. 1882. The drama is as bad
as might be expected.

1636-38.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 91
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 delightful 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 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 mis
tresses ; 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 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

92 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1636-38.
than ordinary before she recovered, 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 power
ful 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 Holborn. He lived some
time in this neighbourhood with her mother, but
four months were scarce past after their marriage
before he was in great danger to have lost her, when
she lost two children she had conceived by him.
Soon after conceiving again she grew so sickly,

1639-41.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 93
that her indulgent mother and husband, for the
advantage of her health, removed their dwelling out
of the city, to a house they took in Enfield Chase,
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 a while, 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 con
versed 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

94 Memoirs of Col. Htttchinson. [1639-41.
most choice library,1 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, 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 desi
rous to inform himself thoroughly of it, when he

1 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 committees for religion, as may be seen in Rush-
worth's collection, that he was in repute for this kind of
knowledge. — J. H.

1639-4L] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 95
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,1 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 mankind, to fix his love upon him,
arid 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 pre
served him from wallowing in the mire of sin and
wickedness, wherein most of the gentry of those

1 i.e., wrangling. This word is also used by Defoe. " In
all the unhappy contentions among parties and factions in
this brangling nation," &c. — A New Test of the Church of
England's Loyalty.

96 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1639-41.
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 re
markable providence of God 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 in 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 pene
trated with some flashes, the forerunners of the
dreadful storm which the next year was more
apparent ; but Mr. Hutchinson was not yet awak
ened till it pleased God to deliver him from a danger
into which he had run himself, had not mercy pre
vented 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 inclin
ing to the first, than to leave at once her mother,
and all the rest of her dear relations, she had pro
pounded 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
Pennyman, who hid married his cousin-german, a
very worthy gentleman, who had great respect both

I639-41*] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 97
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 pro
fits, who apprehended that if he could get an honest
man into that place, they might mutually much
advantage each other ; whereupon he persuaded
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 mean time, that arbitrary
court was, by the parliament then sitting, taken
away.1 Mr. Hutchinson was very sensible of a
peculiar providence to him herein, and resolved to
adventure no more such hazards ; but to retire to

1 It is strange that the son of a member of the popular
party should ever have contemplated purchasing a post in
the Star-chamber. It was no doubt, as Mrs. Hutchinson
hints, a result of the influence of her family, which was
thoroughly royalist in feeling, and accustomed to live by the
king's service. Offices were very generally bought and sold.
Sir Allen Apsley paid .£2400 for the Lieutenancy of the
Tower. — " Court and Times of James I," vol. i. p. 388.
VOL. I. G

98 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1639-41.
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 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 com
pany ; 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 oppression ; but I
shall only mention what is necessary to be remem
bered, for the better carrying on of my purpose.
When the dawn of the gospel began to break

1639-41.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 99
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 reli
gion, 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 can
not 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, 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 dark
ness, everywhere stirred up spirits of envy and
persecution against them. Upon the great revolu
tion which took place at the accession of Queen
Elizabeth to the crown, the nation became divided
into three great factions, the Papist, the State-pro-

100 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1639-41.
testant, and the more religious zealots, who after
wards were branded with the name of Puritan.1
In vain it was for these to address the queen and
the parliament ; 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 concern
ing worship, whereupon some even in those godly
days lost their lives.
The papists had a most inveterate hatred to all
the protestants, but especially to those who were
godly ; 2 and they again many of them suffered their
1 The full significance of these terms is set forth in a
political poem published in 1622, " The Interpreter, wherein
three principal terms of state much mistaken by the vulgar
are clearly unfolded." It is, a satire expounding, from a
Puritan point of view, the views on foreign and domestic
policy of the parties defined by these three names. A
Puritan (" so nicknamed, but indeed the sound Protestant ")
is one whose character abridged is, " he's one that would a
subject be, no slave." A Protestant ("'so will the formalist be
named ") " makes within his heart God of the king," is " an
indifferent man, that with all faiths or none hold quarter
can," " one that hath no eye beyond his private profit ; "
in short, "he's one that's no true subject, but a slave." A
Papist is " Spain's subject and a Romish slave."
" The Interpreter " is reprinted in the sixth volume of Mr.
Arber's " English Garner."
2 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. — J. H.

1639-41-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 101
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 dis
cerned 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 prac
tices, 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 ; 1 which I have often looked upon as an evi
dence that God is not pleased with the conversions
that are enforced by men's laws. We have spiritual
weapons given us for spiritual combats, and those
who go about to conquer subjects for Christ with

1 This is probably an allusion to the Corporation Act,
passed in December 1661, by which the holders of muni
cipal offices were obliged to receive the sacrament according
to the usage of the Church of England.

102 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1639-41.
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. Obtain
ing 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 fruit
ful 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 magistrates, and destroying the
properties of men, and ruling by their own arbitrary
lust, which they brought forth in the name of God's

1639-4-*-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 103
law.1 This example was so threatening to all
mankind, that the gospel itself, from the adver
saries 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 protes-
tant, 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.2 1 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. — J. H.
2 Two good instances of this practice in England occurred
in two sermons preached in 1627. Dr. Sibthorpe, preaching
on the text, " Render therefore to all their dues," asserted
that "the prince doth whatever pleaseth him. If princes
command anything which subjects may not perform, because
it is against the laws of God or nature, or impossible, yet
subjects are bound to undergo the punishment without
either resistance or railing, and so to yield a passive
obedience where they cannot exhibit an active one." At
the same time Dr. Manwaring taught that " the king is not
bound to observe the laws of the realm concerning the
subject's rights and liberties, but that his royal will and
command in imposing loans and taxes without common

104 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1639-41.
The popes of Rome had for many ages challenged
and practised a power to disthrone 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
bound to compel all their people to the right religion.
This confusion was there among the sons of dark
ness 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,1 and brought up in

consent in Parliament, doth oblige the subjects' conscience,
on pain of eternal damnation." See also the longer pas
sages quoted by Mr. Gardiner from Manwaring's sermon
("England under the Duke of Buckingham and Charles I.,"
ii. 175). James had discouraged such utterances : with his
son they marked out the preacher from whom they came
for speedy promotion.
1 Mary, Queen of Scots.— J. H.

1639-41-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 105
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 into the throne, and
educated after the strictest way of the protestant
religion according to Calvin's form. Those who
were chiefly active and instrumental in the justice
executed on this wicked queen, were the reformers
of religion in Scotland, which made the neighbour
ing idolatrous princes to 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, 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.1

1 The famous massacre on St. Bartholomew's Day at
Paris,— J. H.

1 06 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1639-41.
Now, although religion were the main ground of
those bloody quarrels, yet there were, in all these
countries, many disputes of civil right, which for
the most part bore 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 Parlia
ments ; the parliament entrusted with the legislative,
and the king with the executive power ; but several
of the kings, not satisfied with their bounded mon
archy, made attempts to convert it into an abso
lute 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 usurp
ing 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 honour
able virtue, for which they were exalted above the
vulgar, ever stood up in the people's defence and

1639-41] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 107
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 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 sup
porters, 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 growing, 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 expect1 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,

1 Expect, a Latinism ; expectare, to wait for ; or, Italian,
aspettare, id. — J. H.

108 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1639-41.
they had long since exercised it in a free common
wealth. 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 ; where
fore, 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
successes against her rebellious subjects in England
and Ireland, and for the assistance of her distressed
neighbours ; but, 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 ex
pectation 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

1639-4L] Memoirs of Col. Htttchinson. 109
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, dis
sembling the resentment of his mother's death, by
bribes and greater promises, managed a faction
in the court of the declining queen, which pre
vailed on her Sotage 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,1 the noncon
formists were cast out of doors, the offensive
ceremonies, instead of being removed, were more
strictly imposed, the penalties against papists
relaxed, and many of them taken into favour, those
families who suffered for his mother were graced
and restored as far as the times would bear, and
1 At the Hampton Court Conference.

no Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1639-41,
those who consented any way to the justice done
upon her, disfavoured. A progress was made
suitable to this beginning, the protestant interest
abroad was deserted and betrayed, the prelates at
home daily exalted in pride and pomp, and declin
ing in virtue and godliness. Arminianism crept in
to the corruption of sound doctrine, 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 ; and, notwithstanding that
hellish powder plot, the papists lost not their credit
at court, where they now wrought no longer by
open and direct ways, 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 intempe- '
ranee ; he had brought in with him a company of
poor Scots, who, coming into this plentiful kingdom,
were surfeited with riot and debaucheries, and got
all the. riches of the land only to cast away. The
honour, wealth, and glory of the nation, wherein
Queen Elizabeth left it, were soon prodigally wasted
by this thriftless heir ; and the nobility of the land
was utterly debased by setting honours to public
sale, and conferring them on persons that had
neither blood nor merit fit to wear, nor estates to
bear up their titles, but were fain to invent projects

1639-41-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 1 1 1
to pill1 the people, and pick their purses for the
maintenance of vice and lewdness. The generality
of the gentry of the land soon learned the court
fashion, and every great house in the country
became a sty of uncleanness. To keep the people
in their deplorable security, till vengeance overtook
them, they were entertained with masks, stage
plays, and sorts of ruder sports. Then began
murder, incest, adultery, drunkenness, swearing,
fornication, and all sort of ribaldry, to be no
concealed but countenanced vices, because they
held such conformity with the court example.
Next to this, a great cause of these abominations
was the mixed marriages of papist and protestant
families, which, no question, was a design of the
popish party to compass and procure ; and so suc
cessful, that I have observed that there was not
one house in ten, where such a marriage was
made, but the better party was corrupted, the
children's souls were sacrificed to devils, the wor
ship 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

1 i.e., pillage, plunder ; compare Shakspere, Richard II. ,
Act ii. sc. 2, " The commons hath he pilled with grievous
taxes, and quite lost their hearts."

112 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1639-41,
apostacy from holiness, if I may so call it, and
defection to lewdness, stirred up sorrow, indigna
tion, 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 ingrati
tude 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 him, so falsely flattered
him, that he could not endure the words of truth

JAMES I,

1639-41.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 113
and soundness, but rewarded these base, wicked,
unfaithful fawners with rich preferments, attended
with pomps and titles, which heaved 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
character, 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
kingcraft, to undermine what he durst not openly
oppose, — the true religion ; this was fenced with the
liberty of the people, and so linked together, 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 impositions in the worship of
God, he was presently reckoned among the seditious
and disturbers of the public peace, and accordingly
persecuted ; if any were grieved at the dishonour
VOL. I. H

114 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1639-41.
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 ; 1 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 person, 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
endure blasphemous oaths, ribald conversation, pro
fane scoffs, Sabbath-breaking, derision of the word

1 Compare Sir Benjamin Rudyard's speech in the Long
Parliament. " Whosoever squares his actions by any rule,
either divine or human, he is a Puritan ; whosoever would
be governed by the king's laws, he is a Puritan. He that
will not do whatsoever men would have him do, he is a
Puritan. Their great work, their masterpiece now, is to
make all those of the religion to be the suspected party of
the kingdom."

1639-41-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 115
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,1 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 suc
cessful that, unless the mercy of God confound
them by their own imaginations, we may justly fear
they will at last obtain their full wish.

1 One instance of a Puritan on the stage is Zeal-of-the-
land Busy in Jonson's "Bartholomew Fair." Another is
Tribulation Wholesome in the " Alchemist."

1 1 6 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1639-41.
But to deal impartially, we must, with sadness
enough, confess, that the wolf came into the fold in
a sheep's clothing, 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 prefer
ments, would put on a form of godliness, finding
devout people that way so liberal to them, that they
could 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 themselves 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.

1639-41*] Memoirs of Col. Htitchinson. ny
The Puritan party being weak and oppressed,
had not faith enough to disown all that adhered to
them for worldly interests, 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 injuries and reproaches, they drove many, that
never intended it, to take that party ; which in the
end got nothing but confusion by those additions.
While these parties were thus counter-working, the
treasure of the kingdom being wasted by court-
caterpillars, and parliaments called to re-supply
the royal coffers, 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 misgovernment
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, find
ing they lost ground, meditated reunion with the
popish faction, who began to be at a pretty agree
ment with them ; and now there was no more
endeavour in their public sermons to confute the

118 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1639-41.
errors of that church, but to reduce our doctrines
and theirs to an accommodation. The king, to
bring it about, was deluded 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 mis
carriages of things at the king's own door, began to
entertain a universal hatred of the Duke of Buck
ingham, raised from a knight's fourth son to that
pitch of glory, and enjoying great possessions,
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 con
stancy, it was believed he added some help to an
ague that killed that king ; 1 however the king died,
1 According to Mr. Gardiner, the suspicion was founded
on the following facts. During the last illness of King
James, " he remembered, or was reminded, that when
Buckingham had been ill in the spring, he had been bene
fited by some remedies recommended by a country doctor

1639-41-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 119
and the duke continued as high in the favour of the
next succeeding as of the deceased prince; where
upon 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." 1
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, had yet
that reverence to the king to retire into corners to
practise them. Men of learning and ingenuity in
living at Dunmow. Under the directions, it would seem,
of Buckingham's mother, a messenger was despatched to
Dunmow, and the result was a posset drink given by the
duke himself, and some plaister applied to the king's
stomach and wrists by the countess, with all the zeal which
elderly ladies are apt to throw into the administration of
remedies suggested by themselves." These remedies do
not seem to have injured the king, but they did him no
good, and naturally roused the objections of his physicians.
The story got abroad, and it became an article of belief
amongst the people, that Buckingham and his mother had
poisoned the king. See the following pamphlets — "The
Forerunner of Revenge," by George Eglisham, Harleian
Miscellany, ii. 61 ; and " Strange Apparitions, or the Ghost
of King James," Harleian Miscellany, iv. 501.
1 " Like an unhappy vapour, exhaled from the earth to so
great a height, as to cloud not only the setting but the
rising sun."— May, "History of the Long Parliament," p. 6.

1 20 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1639-41.
all arts were in esteem, and received encouragement
from the king, who was a most excellent judge and
a great lover of paintings, carvings, 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. 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 kingdom were
favoured, and, by the king's example, matched into
the best families ; the Puritans 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 plantation, 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 aU these

1639-41.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 1 2 1
things, yet was not the king satisfied till the whole
land were 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 . granting 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 gene
rosity, in him. He was the most obstinate person
in his self-will that ever was, and so bent upon
being an absolute, uncontrollable 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 prin
ciple that an honest man might be saved in any
profession; 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 preach
ing up his sovereign prerogative, and inveighing
against the Puritans as factious and disloyal, so he
protected them in their pomp and pride, and in
solent practices against all the godly and sober
people of the land. In the first parliament after
he came to the crown, the Duke of Buckingham was

122 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1639-41.
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 prac
tice ; for it is true that the duke's mother, with
out 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.1 Some other
parliaments there were, but still abruptly broken up
when they put forth any endeavour to redress griev
ances. The protestants abroad were all looked upon
as Puritans, and their interests, instead of being
protected, sadly betrayed ; ships let out to the
French king to serve against them ; all the flower
of the English gentry were lost in an ill-managed
expedition to the Isle of Rhe, under pretence of
helping them, but so ordered that it proved the loss
of Rochelle, the strong fort and best defence of all
the protestants 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 mis-
governments, and, loath to impute them to the king,
cast all the odium upon the Duke of Buckingham,
1 See note, p. 118.

1639-41*] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 123
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 judgment in the cause
of those who refused the illegal imposition ; although
there were, even in that time, found two honest
judges,1 who durst judge rightly against the king,
although he had changed the words usual in their
commissions, which were Quamdiii bene se gesserint?
into another form, Durante bene 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,3 bent their strong endeavours to dis-
1 i.e., Hutton and Croke.
2 " Quamdiu bene se gesserint," during good behaviour,
as long as they act right. "Durante bene placito," during
the king's good pleasure. — J. H.
3 At the opening of the Long Parliament, Nottingham
shire sent up a petition very hostile to episcopacy and the
existing form of church government. It was read by the

1 24 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1639-41.
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 counsellors, and these were
Laud, archbishop of Canterbury, a fellow of mean
extraction 1 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 resolution, and ambitious zeal to keep
up the glory of his own greatness. In the begin
ning 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 reputation, 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,

House of Commons on April 21, 1641, and referred to the
committee for the Ministers' Remonstrance. It was printed
at the time, in the form of a pamphlet, under the following
title : " A Petition presented to Parliament from Notting
hamshire, complaining of grievances under the ecclesiastical
government of archbishops, bishops, &c, with a schedule
of grievances, subscribed by above fifteen hundred hands
of esquires, gentlemen, and yeomen." The list of grievances
is extremely minute and exhaustive.
1 He was the son of a clothier at Reading.

I639-4-*-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 125
to be a baron, after an earl, then deputy of
Ireland; 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 accomplish
ment 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.1 But above all these the
king had another instigator of his own violent pur
pose, 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 1
of her reign was the effect of her submission to her J
1 Called by Lord Digby the grand apostate of the
Commonwealth. — J. H.

126 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1639-41.
•i 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 pro
duce 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 archbishop and his prelatical crew, both
joining in the cruel design of rooting the godly out
of the land. The foolish protestants were medi
tating reconciliations with the church of Rome, who
embraced them as far as they would go, carrying
them in hand, as if there had been a possibility of
bringing such a thing to pass ; meanwhile they
carried on their design by them, and had so ripened

1639-41- ] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 127
it, that nothing but the mercy of God prevented the
utter subversion of protestantism in the three king
doms. — But how much soever their designs were
framed in the dark, God revealed them to his ser
vants, and most miraculously ordered providences
for their preservation. 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 England with a
great army, to bring their complaints to the king,
which his unfaithful ministers did, as they sup
posed, 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
" bellum episcopale ; " but the commonalty of the
nation, being themselves under grievous bond
age, 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 disabuse the nobility
of England, and to take off their edge against them,
by remonstrating upon those grievances and oppres
sions of the prelatical innovators, which had forced
them thus to defend their religion and liberties.1

1 Mrs. Hutchinson seems to have confused the negotia
tions which took place at Berwick in 1639, with those which

128 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1639-41.
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 arch
bishops, deans, archdeacons, &c. 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

took place at Ripon in 1640. Possibly she was thinking of
the letter sent by the covenanters to the Earl of Essex
while he was at York in 1639. See Gardiner, " Fall of the
Monarchy of Charles I.," vol. i. p. 213.

1639-41-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 129
Tyne; but the soldiers being raw and heartless in
this war, and the commanders themselves inex
perienced, they were vanquished,1 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 reformed religion
was 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
in this occasion, was induced to grant the petition
of twelve noble lords,1 who at that time interposed ;
and, calling together all his lords at York, agreed
upon a parliament at London, to convene on the
third of November following. In the meantime,
a treaty was condescended to, of 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
1 At Newburn, August 28, 1640.
2 Viz., Bedford, Essex, Brooke, Warwick, Saye, Mande
ville, Hertford, Rutland, Mulgrave, Exeter, Howard of
Escrick, and Bolingbroke.
VOL. I. I

1 30 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1639-41.
- K
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.1 The archbishop of Canterbury
was also made prisoner upon an accusation of
high treason, for which he after suffered ; Wren,
bishop of Norwich, was likewise committed to the
Tower ; several other prelatical preachers were
questioned for popish and treasonable doctrines ;
the Star Chamber, an unjust and arbitrary court,
was taken away, and the High Commission
Court ; an act was procured for a triennial parlia
ment, and another for the continuation of this, that
it should not be broken up without their own con
sent. 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
1 It is only fair to give the king's own account of his
motives. " If my own person only were in danger," he
told the council, " I would gladly venture it to save Lord
Strafford's life ; but seeing my wife, children, and all my
kingdom are concerned in it, I am forced to give way
unto it."

1639-41] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 131
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, Jermyn,
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
disbanding armies in his journey, where some re
port that he secretly attempted to urge the Scotch
army against the parliament, which then succeeded
not. The houses had rejourned for some time,
and left a standing committee of fifty to prepare
business.1 About that time a plot was discovered
to them from Scotland, against the lives of some of
the greatest peers of that kingdom,2 the committee,
1 The names of this committee are given in Rushworth,
III. i. 387.
2 The plot known as " The Incident." It was directed
against Argyle and Hamilton. Montrose offered to prove
Hamilton guilty of high treason, whilst the Earl of Crawford

132 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1639-41.
fearing the like attempts from the same spring,
placed strong guards in divers parts of the city of
London. The king's design in going to Scotland
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 miscarriages, 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.1 While the
king was in Scotland, that cursed rebellion in Ire
land broke out, wherein above 200,000 were mas-

planned the violent seizure, and if necessary, assassination
of the two noblemen. See Gardiner, " Fall of the Monarchy
of Charles I.," ii. 260.
1 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. — J. H.

1639-41J Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 133
sacred in two months' space,1 being surprised, and
many of them most inhumanly butchered and tor
mented ; 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 as this sad news
came to the parliament, they vigorously set them
selves to the work of relieving them ; but then the
king returned from Scotland, and being sumptuously

1 Mrs. Hutchinson here seems to take May as her
authority, who states that " the persons of above 200,000
men, women, and children were murdered, many of them
with exquisite and unheard-of tortures, within the space of
one month." May himself relies chiefly on the "faithful
relation of Sir John Temple." Clarendon, Rushworth, and
Whitelock give equally high figures. Mr. Gardiner esti
mates the number of persons slain in cold blood at
the outbreak of the rebellion at 4000, and thinks that
about double that number may have perished from ill-
treatment. The depositions have been recently examined
and criticised by Mr. Gilbert in the appendix to the eighth
report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manu
scripts. Miss Hickson, in the work entitled " Ireland in
the Seventeenth Century," has reprinted a selection from
the depositions, with a commentary in which she success
fully refutes some of Mr. Gilbert's statements about the
depositions, and gives reasons for fixing the number of
sufferers higher than the estimate of Mr. Gardiner.

134 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1641.
welcomed home by the city, took courage thereby
against the parliament, and obstructed all its pro
ceedings 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 proclamations
printed, and care was taken that they should not
be much dispersed ; which courses afflicted all the
good protestants in England, and confirmed that
the rebellion in Ireland received countenance from
the king and queen of England. The parlia
ment, beset with so many difficulties, were forced
for their own vindication to present the king with
a petition and a remonstrance of the state of the
kingdom, 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 proceedings publicly, and the king setting
forth replies, these open debates were but the pro
logue 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 themselves not safe, desired

1641.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 135
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 1 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 in great numbers to bring
petitions to the king and parliament, 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 king
doms. 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 conducting her
to her own court, but really to manage his business
1 Lady Carlisle.

136 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1641.
abroad, and procure arms to be employed against
the parliament, by the sale of the crown jewels,
which she carried over with her. After her depar
ture, 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
parliament 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 parliament should
recommend, and might confide in ; all which he
denied, and went immediately to Newmarket, and
from thence to York ; x all this while, by many
false pretences, really obstructing the relief of
bleeding Ireland, and seducing 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 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
1 The queen sailed on February 25th. The king was at
Theobalds from February 28th to March 3d. From the 7th
to the 14th of the same month the king remained at New
market, reaching York on March 19th. — Iter Carolinum.

1641.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 137
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 1 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 judg
ment and reason to the parliament, he, thinking he
had no warrantable call at that time to do any
thing more, contented himself with praying for
peace. At that time Mr. Henry Ireton was in the
1 Reduce, Latin reducere, to bring back, restore, revive.
-J. H.

138 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1641.
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 pro
tection, that he seemed a kind of dependent upon
him, and being besides a very grave, serious,
religious person, there was a great league of
kindness and good-will between them.1 Mr.
1 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 satis
faction upon the testimony of Whitelock and Ludlow, men
of very different dispositions, 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
employed in them, having learned some grounds of law,
and having a laborious and working brain and fancy."
When he comes to speak of 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 gen
tleman was a person very active, industrious, 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

1641.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 139
Ireton being very active in promoting the parlia
ment, 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 pf them to be put out
of the commission, and others, better affected, to be
put in their rooms,1 of which Mr. Hutchinson was
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 parliament 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." — J. H.
1 See the journals of the House of Commons for February
28, 1642. Ireton presented a petition from Nottinghamshire,
complaining of the obstructions caused by Gilbert Boone,
serjeant-at-law, to the last petition presented by the county,
and the house ordered that Boone should be put out of th-e
commission of the peace.

J

140 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1641.
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 gain 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.1
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 super
stition came, the priest only took down the heads
of the images, and laid them 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 church, which he did, and upon
1 This probably refers to the declaration of the House of
Commons, on September 8th, 1641, on the subject of eccle
siastical innovations. It contained an order that all cruci
fixes, scandalous pictures of one or more persons of the
Trinity, and all images of the Virgin Mary, shall be taken
away and abolished.

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 141
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 disaffected 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 ; x
where, meeting his cousins the Birons, they were
extremely troubled to see him there on that account.
After his return, Sir John Biron being likewise
come to his house at Newstead, Mr. Hutchinson V
1 The petition is printed under the following title : "A -
Petition presented to the King's Majesty at York, the ist of
April, by the inhabitants of the county of Nottingham, and
the county of the town of Nottingham, subscribed by four
thousand five hundred and forty hands of knights, esquires,
gentlemen, freeholders, and the mayor, aldermen, and other
inhabitants of the town of Nottingham." The royalists of
the county replied to this petition by a joint letter to the
knights serving for the county, urging them to join and
comply with the king. It was signed by Sir John Digby and
eighty knights and gentlemen. See, on the presentation of
the petition, Joseph Widmerpoole's Letter in the Appendix.

142 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
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 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,1 and
that her husband had sent for the country to
acquaint them, but she feared it would be gone
before they could come in. Whereupon Mr.
Hutchinson, taking his brother from his lodgings
along- with him, presently went to the town-hall,
and going up to my Lord Newark,2 lord lieutenant,
1 On the date of this attempt to obtain possession of the
powder, and the question of the truth of Mrs. Hutchinson's
narrative, see the discussion in the Appendix.
2 Eldest son of the Earl of Kingston, and brother of two
Mr. Pierreponts 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 men
tioned in the preface, the dialogue between Lord Newark
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-lieutenant, 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 weigh
ing, my Lord Newark, the sheriff Sir John Digby, and two

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 143
told him, that hearing some dispute concerning the
country's powder, he was come to wait on his lord
ship, 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.
or three captains : Mr. Hutchinson, addressing himself to
my lord only, spoke to him : — ¦
H. My lord, hearing that there were some question con
cerning the county's powder, I am come to kiss your lord
ship's hands, and to beseech you that I may know what
your desires and intents are concerning 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 occa
sion 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 preserve, 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
aught we know, we may in less than four days be ruined

144 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642,
Mr. Hutchinson asked my lord what commission he
had from 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
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-
lieutenant, 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 committed 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 can
not dispense with it for any reasons, but must needs have it

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 145
part with their powder in so dangerous a time,
without an absolute command. My lord urged that
he would restore it 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
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 dangerous 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 down stairs, 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
VOL. 1. K

146 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
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
of their bodies before he should have it ; and said besides,
that they would go up and break my lord's neck and the
sheriffs 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 to consider the business you are about,
before you proceed further in it, for it may prove of dan
gerous 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 cheerfulness 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 countrymen 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 con
sidered. 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

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 147
daily passing of armed men through the country *-
whereof there was now one troop in the town, 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
it would very much trouble you to have a hand in the first
man's blood that should be spent in this quarrel.
A^. 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
cheerfulness 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

148 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
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
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 can it be safe in these dangerous times,
when so many troops and companies 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

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 149
consent ; my lord declared himself positively re
solved 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 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 Biron'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.
A*7. I, cousin, but your name is up already.
H. It may be so, my 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.

150 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
and two or three captains and others, that were
busy weighing the powder. By the time Mr.
Hutchinson came down, a good company of the
country was gathered together ; whom Mr. Hutchin
son 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.
Hutchins&n, 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 pursued might be of
dangerous consequence. My lord replied, it could
ot 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
Af. 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. — J. H.

/,

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 151
his lordship pleased to look out, he might see no
inconsiderable number below that would not wil
lingly 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 would stay till the country
were called in to give their consent ; 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 v
county should fall so much short of the town, who

1 5 2 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
have cheerfully lent his majesty one barrel of
powder, but it seems he can have none from you ;
/l 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 accident 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

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 153
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 for sparing their ammunition,
and locked it up with two locks, whereof the key
of the one was entrusted with the mayor of Notting
ham, the other with the sheriff of the county, which
accordingly was done.1
In the mean time, at York, the king had sent the
parliament 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 him
self, he should be able to wait upon him from
1 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 occasions, an intercourse of
friendship during the remainder of their lives. — J. H.

154 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
thence, &c. 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 himself from thence against them ; where
fore 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 23d 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 declarations about it were
published on both sides, and many cross-commands ;
the parliament authorizing Hotham to issue out
warrants to constables and other officers, to come
in armed to the defence of Hull, the king for-
/ bidding 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

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 155
parliament. He then began to entertain soldiers,
and was much encouraged by the defection of divers
lords and many of the Commons' house, who for
sook their trust and came to him at York ; where
upon he called those who remained 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 England 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,1 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
1 i.e., May 20th.

156 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
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 par
liament, &c.
" That whensoever the king makes war upon the
parliament, it is a breach of the trust reposed in
him by the people, contrary to his oath, and tend
ing to the dissolution of this government.
" That whosoever shall assist him in such wars
are traitors, by the fundamental laws of this king
dom, and have been so adjudged in two acts of
parliament, 1 1 Richard II. and 1 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 ; 1 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
1 The Earls of Northampton, Devonshire, Dover, and
Monmouth ; Lords Howard of Charleton, Rich, Grey of
Ruthyn, Coventry, and Capel. The summons w as sent on
May 30th.

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 157
settling the militia by ordinance of parliament, run
away to the king, after he had delivered up his
seal, the day before, to one the king sent for it.1
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 parlia
ment. And now they began to settle the kingdom's
militia, both by land and sea, arid made the Earl of
Warwick admiral ; which place the king had con
ferred 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 parlia
ment now, despairing of the king's return, made
an ordinance for money and plate to be brought in
for raising arms for the cause,2 which came in, in
great abundance, 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
1 Lord Keeper Littleton delivered up the seal to Tom
Elliot, groom of the privy-chamber to the king, on May
22d, and fled himself on May 23d.
2 This ordinance was made on June ioth.

158 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
crown jewels, sent out commissions of array, to arm
the people in all counties ; and mocked the parlia
ment, using their own words, wherein they invited
men to arm for the defence of the protestant reli
gion, the king's person, dignity, and authority, the
laws of the land, the peace of the kingdom, and
privilege of parliament ; and thus deceived many
people, and got contributions of plate, money, and
arms in the country. While these things were in
transaction, 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 necessary defence ;
that his desire was to maintain the protestant reli
gion, 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 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.1
When he was within two hours' march of the place,
Sir John Hotham floated the country about it, and
1 July 27th to July 30th.

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 159
Sir John Meldrum, sallying out of the town, with
five hundred townsmen, made the king's party re
treat 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 maga
zine 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 ; 1 and hither his two
nephews, Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice, came
to him, and were put into commands. The king,
marching through Nottingham, Derby, and Leicester
shire, called together the trained bands, to attend
him, disarmed those counties, and marched to
Shrewsbury,2 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 ; 8 it not .
being yet agreed who gained the victory that day.
1 On August 22d.
2 The king reached Shrewsbury on September 20th.
s Commonly called Edge-hill fight. Both king and par
liament claimed the victory, but our authoress shows rather
more candour than either. The king's main design of

1 60 Memoirs of Col. Hjitchinson. [1642.
As the king, on his part, made this progress, so
the parliament, 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 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, &c. 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,1 but the prince left the town at
their approach. My lord of Essex left a garrison
in Northampton, put others into Coventry and
Warwick, and went to Worcester. Here he made
some stay, till the king marching from Shrewsbury,
there was 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
marching to London was, however, frustrated, and therefore
the parliament might be most properlv termed gainers. —
J. H.
1 At Powick Bridge, September 22d.

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 161
motions, which the king perceiving, took an oppor
tunity, before his artillery and the foot left with it
were come up to him,1 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,2 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 ; 3 and he being returned thither, the
king was advanced as far as Colebrooke, where he
was presented with a petition from the parliament
for accommodation, to which he answered, with a
1 " By reason of the suddenness of his march and diligence
to follow the king's army, he had left behind two regiments
of his foot, one under the command of Colonel Grantham,
the other of Colonel Hampden, together with eleven troops
of horse, behind but one day's march, and left to bring on
the artillery, which was seven pieces of cannon with great
store of ammunition." — May, Long Parliament, p. 257.
2 The king entered Oxford on October 29th.
3 Essex came to Westminster on November 7th, and
received the thanks of the Parliament.
vol. 1. L

1 62 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
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 pro
positions, and to treat with them. As soon as ever
the commissioners were gone, the king advanced,
with his horse and artillery, towards London,1 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 de
stroyed 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 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.
1 November 12th. The general rendezvous mentioned a
few lines later, took place at Turnham Green on Sunday,
November 13th. The troops occupying Kingston, being
called away to join the main body, the king's retreat was
left free ; in the words of May, "a fatal door was opened to
let out the enclosed king."

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 163
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 gene
rally were the parliament's friends, were forced to
forsake their habitations, and seek other shelters :
of this sort was Nottinghamshire. 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,1 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
1 William Cavendish, earl and afterwards marquis (27th
October 1643), and Duke (March 16, 1664) of Newcastle.
See his Life by his second wife, 1667. The Duchess says, >
" he raised himself a volunteer troop of horse, which con
sisted of one hundred and twenty knights and gentlemen of
quality."

164 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
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
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.1 His eldest son 2 was lord-lieutenant
of the county, and at that time no nobleman had
a greater reputation in the court for learning and
generosity than he, who was so high in the
king's party, that the parliament was very much
1 incensed against him. Lord Chesterfield, and all
his family, were highly of the royal party ; so was
the Lord Chaworth. The Earl of Clare was very

1 Clarendon tells an amusing story of the Earl of King
ston's parsimony. — Rebellion, vi. 59.
2 Lord Newark, before spoken of. In Collins's Peerage,
under the title of Duke of Kingston, there are cited singular
proofs of this nobleman's learning. — J. H.

JOHN, LORD BYRON.

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 165
often of both parties, and, I think, never advan
taged either. All the popish gentry were wholly
for the king, whereof one Mr. Golding, next neigh
bour 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.1 Sir John Biron, after
wards Lord Biron, and all his brothers, bred up in
arms, and valiant men in their own persons, were
all passionately the king's.2 Sir John Savill, a man
of vast estate, was the like : so were Sir Gervase
Eyre, Sir John Digby, Sir Matthew Palmer, Sir

1 Mr. Golding should rather be called one of the collectors
for raising the contributions of the Roman Catholics for
carrying on the late war against the Scots. See Rushworth,
III. ii. 160-3. Mr. Golding is mentioned by Rushworth as
one of the collectors for Leicestershire.
2 Lloyd, in his " Memoirs of Excellent Personages," p. 487,
gives a brief account of Sir John Biron. He was one of
the best soldiers in the king's service, but his skill was
sullied by cruelty. In the winter of 1643 he was appointed
Field Marshal of Cheshire, Shropshire, and North Wales,
and held out in Chester till February 1646. In one of his
letters he thus relates the capture of a church occupied by
the parliamentary troops, " I put them all to the sword, which
I find the best way to proceed with these kind of people,
for mercy to them is cruelty."
There are many of his letters in the Clarendon corre
spondence, and in Carte's collection of original letters and
papers. He was succeeded in the title by his brother
Richard in 1652.

1 66 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
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.1 Of
the parliament men, Mr. Sutton, afterwards Lord
Lexington,2 and Sir Gervase 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,3 second son of
1 These names, and those of others not here mentioned,
are to be found annexed to the letter to the knights of the
shire, in reply to the petition of the county, which has
been before mentioned.
2 Robert Sutton, born 1594, died 1668, created Lord
Lexington in 1645. He was one of the leaders in the defence
of Newark, and after its surrender paid ^5000 to compound
for his estates. Major-General Whalley writes of him in
1655. — " He is in this county termed the devil of Newark ;
he exercised more cruelty, as I am informed, than any, nay,
than all that garrison against the parliament soldiers, when
they fell into his power. — Thurloe Papers, iv. 364.
3 From this gentleman the present Earl Manvers is
descended. Mr. Sanford in his " Studies and Illustrations
of the Great Rebellion " (p. 400) thus describes his position
and character : — " William Pierrepont, if any value is to be
attached to the general testimony of his contemporaries of
all parties, was a man of very superior mind and remarkable
soundness of judgment. In his family he was distinguished

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Htitchinson. 167
the Earl of Kingston, was of the parliament, though
he served not for his own country, to which not
withstanding 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
by the soubriquet of ' Wise William ; ' and the title appears
to have had a positive as well as a relative signification.
Yet, personally, we know next to nothing of him ; and his
influence on public events, whatever its extent, seems to
have been a still more silent one than that of Hampden.
He was always greatly respected and consulted on great
crises by men of the most opposite tendencies ; but his
opinion seems to have been as often rejected as followed,
and his own political conduct is marked by no little inde
cision and some inconsistency. We may, perhaps, conclude
that the aid of his calm and dispassionate judgment was sought
by many of the leaders of the Parliament, rather as a means
of opening up any subject thoroughly to their own minds,
and as a pledge of moderation to others, than with any
purpose of being entirely guided by his judgment, or of
carrying practically into effect the exact line of policy he
recommended. In his religious opinions he belonged to the
party of tolerance, and ranked himself with Vane and
Cromwell ; on civil questions he frequently took a less
decided and practical view." Pierrepont was member for
Great Wenlock.

x/

1 68 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
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 discouraged 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 after 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 pro
moter of the parliament's interest in the county,1
but finding it generally disaffected, all he could do,
when the king approached it, was to gather a troop
1 On June 30th, 1642, Henry Ireton was nominated cap
tain of the horse troop, and George White captain of the
foot company of the forces of the town of Nottingham, and
on the first of July, on the petition of the Mayor of Notting
ham, and of Ireton himself, leave was given to the latter to
carry down arms for the service of the town. — Journals of
the House of Commons.

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 169
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, might the
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 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 re
fresh himself; when, hearing of the king's inten
tions 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 Notting
ham 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 Round-

1 70 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
heads 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 Puritanism grew into a faction, the zealots
distinguished themselves, both men and women, by
several affectations of habit, looks, and words, which,
had it been a real forsaking of vanity, and an em
bracing of sobriety in all those things, would have
been most commendable in them ; but their quick
forsaking of those things, when they were where
they would be, 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 practice 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 something ridiculous to behold ;
whereupon Cleaveland, in his Hue and Cry after
them, begins,
" With hair in Characters and lugs in Text," &c.
From this custom of wearing their hair, that name
of Roundhead became the scornful term given to
the whole parliament party, whose army indeed
marched out so, but as if they had been only sent
out till their hair was grown. Two or three years
after, any stranger that had seen them, would have

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 171
J
inquired the reason of that name.1 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 em
braced 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 rather for such insig- '
nificant circumstances, than for 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 weak
nesses, censures, ingratitude, or discouraging be
haviour, with which he was abundantly exercised
all his life, make him forsake them in any thing
wherein they adhered to just and honourable prin
ciples 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
1 The portraits of the parliamentary leaders in Vicars'
"England's Worthies" (1647), and Ricraft's "Survey of
England's Champions" (1647), supply an excellent illustra
tion of this statement. Not one man is represented with
short hair.

172 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
digressing, I shall ramble into an inextricable wilder
ness, 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 be
fore 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. Imme
diately 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 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

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 173
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 any where 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 com
plaint, 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 command of Sir Lewis Dives, came to
Stanton, near Owthorpe, and searched Mr. Need-
ham'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 himself 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

1 74 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
he was gone, another company 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 Leicester
shire, 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 providence for his
wife (somewhat afflicted to be so left alone in a
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 mean time, 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 town1 of Kelmarsh, in Northamptonshire.

1 It is customary, in Nottinghamshire, to call every village
of any size a town.— J. H.

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 175
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 Not
tingham ; but Mr. Hutchinson diverted him, and
persuaded him and another gentleman of quality, to
carry in those aids they had provided for the king,
to my lord general Essex, who was then at North
ampton, 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, intelligence being brought of the
king's remove, 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
he 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

1 76 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
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 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 re
ceived 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. Hutchin
son 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

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 177
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 desired 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 en
deavour 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 bloodhounds were after, he
went and informed the prince, and made it of such
moment, as if they had taken a much more con
siderable 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, notwith
standing 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 over
took 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
vol. 1. M

1 78 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
he sent for, which three or four of the Birons, his
cousin-germans, acknowledged to be so ; yet Welch
outswore 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 Birons. 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

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 1 79
what 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 drawn out of 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 trouble
some 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 rude
ness of the king's army, and plundered upon the
account of godliness, who were now returned to
their families, and desirous to live in peace with
them ; but having, by experience, found they could
not do so, unless the parliament interest were main
tained, 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.1

1 The narrative contained in the manuscript note-book,
preserved in the British museum, commences at this point.

1 80 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
About this time Sir John Gell,1 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 circumstances, not only concern
ing his persecution 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 pre
vented 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. He himself, no man
knows 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 foremen-
1 See the note in the Appendix, on the character of Sir John
Gell, and the truth, of the charges here brought against him.

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Htitchinson. 1 8 1
tioned account, with such barbarism after his death,
that he, pretending 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,1 who
was by all the world believed to be the most
prudent and affectionate of womankind, till, being
deluded by his hypocrisies, she consented 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 diurnal-makers in pen
sion, 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.2 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
1 Mary, daughter of Sir John Radclyffe of Ordsal. —
Collins's " Peerage."
2 " There are more puppets that move by the wire of a
Diurnal, as Brereton and Gell; two of Mars his petty-toes,
such snivelling cowards, that it is a favour to call them so." —
Cleveland, " Character of a London Diurnal."

/:

1 82 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
occasion to mention him in my following discourse ;
and because, although there never was any personal
acquaintance 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 ingenuous persons, and was
better informed of the true state of things, so
oftentimes he communicated those informations 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,

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 183
and the expense he was at, to get it weekly men
tioned 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 flatteries 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 given Gell
the glory of an action wherein he was not con
cerned, Mr. Hutchinson rebuked him for it, where
upon 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 altogether 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 neighbourhood.
This man had the most factious, ambitious, vainglori
ous, envious, and malicious nature that is imaginable ;
but he was the greatest dissembler, flatterer, traitor,
and hypocrite that ever was, and herein had a kind

1 84 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
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, espe
cially 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 mouths from speak
ing ill of their benefactors. By a thousand arts
this fellow became popular, and so insinuated him
self into all the gentlemen that owned the parlia
ment's party, that till he was discovered some years
after, they believed him a most true-hearted, faith
ful, 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 business,
/thinking he could sway the scales of a country,
he raised a troop, brought them into Derby, and
published a declaration of his own for the king ;
then ran away to Nottingham, and lost all his troop
in the route there, and hid himself till the king1
1 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. — J. H.

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 185
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 alto
gether 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 neigh
bourhood, 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.1
After the battle at Edge-hill, 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 resident in the
country to meet him at Newark. Mr. Hutchinson
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.
1 " On October 31, 1642, Sir John Gell marched to Derby,
and there began to give out commissions. Some five days
after Captain White came to him out of Nottinghamshire,
with a company of dragoons, consisting of about twenty-
seven, but before he departed he made them up one hun
dred and forty, all well armed, under the command of the
said Sir John Gell."— Gell's True Relation, Glover's Derby
shire, vol. i., Appendix, p. 52.

1 86 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
Pierrepont ; and while they were reading them,
and considering what might be the meaning 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 neigh
bours, 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 whom he was gone
to Southwell, and was to go the next day to Not
tingham, to secure those places for the king. Mr.
Hutchinson immediately went with his brother and
acquainted 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

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 187
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 them
selves, the town, and country, as far as they could.
They were but few, and those not very consider
able, 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 under
standing 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 half the half 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
monopolizers and the like, they were all bitterly
malignant ; yet God awed them, that they could
not at that time hinder his people, whom he over
ruled some of their greatest enemies to assist, such

1 88 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
as were Chadwick and Plumptre, 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 the gentlemen wherever he came.1 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 dis
ease, under which he laboured some years. Upon
this occasion, Sir Thomas and both his sons gave
him much respect, and this cure gave him reputa-
1 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. — J. H.
Dr. Plumptre died on June 23d, 1660. An account of
him is given in Bailey's "Annals of Nottinghamshire," p.
869. See also Wood's " Fasti " under the year 1656.

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 189
tion, 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 remembrance 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.1 Chadwick was
1 Doubtless many adhered to the parliament's side merely
on a civil and political account, and these would naturally
unite with the independents, as having no inclination to
support the pretensions of the presbyterians. It is said by
Clarendon, that many deists took part with the indepen
dents • and it is not improbable that Dr. Plumptre 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

t 90 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
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
trenches 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 ; then, I know not how, got to be a parcel-
judge in Ireland,1 and came over to his own

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 descendant of
Colonel Hutchinson's master gunner, who will be spoken
of hereafter: they are all in a jocose or satirical style; but
one of them, a short advertisement, which too well 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 Jacobite.
-J. H.
1 There is a mention of Chadwick in Strafford's Cor
respondence. Laud was induced to recommend him to

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 191
country swelled with the reputation 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.1 At the beginning of the
parliament they would have prosecuted him for',it,

Strafford for a second baron's place in the Exchequer.
Strafford replied, " Mr. Chadwick is not held here so fit as
yet for the bench : nay the chief baron hath a very mean
opinion of his judgment in his own profession." — Strafford,
Correspondence, i. 268-299.
1 On the history of the court of the Honour of Peveril,
see Briscoe's " Old Nottinghamshire," first series, p. 91.
Nottingham had been exempted from this court by the
charter of Edward II. in 1321. It was purchased from the
Eland family by a branch of the Hutchinson family which
settled at Basford, and by this " unworthy branch," as Mrs.
Hutchinson calls it, it was allowed to fall into disuse. The
king revived the court in 1638, for the benefit of Lord
Goring. At the opening of the Long Parliament, its juris
diction again came to a stop. In 1658 Whalley attempted
to restore it, but on a letter from the corporation of Notting
ham the design was given up. On August 1, 1659, there
' was read in the House of Commons, "the humble petition
of divers of the inhabitants of the counties of Nottingham
and Derby, against setting up a Court of Record and
Court of Equity in the county of Nottingham, by the steward
of the Honour of Peveril." It was referred to a committee,
of which Colonel Hutchinson was one. A petition against
Colonel Chadwick had also been presented on February 13,
1657 (Journals of the House of Commons).

192 Metnoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
but my lord Goring begged of Sir Thomas Hutchin
son 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 re
corder of Nottingham, 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 ; x yet 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. 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

1 Mr. Bailey gives the following extract from the Hull
Book of Nottingham, which explains the incident alluded
to. The king arrived at Nottingham on July 21, 1642.
"July 21, 1642. This company (i.e. the mayor and corpora
tion) do hold it fitting to present the prince with fifty
pounds in gold and a purse ; and Mr. Chadwick, at the
request of the company, is content to prepare a speech to the
prince's highness, and to present the same purse and gold."

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 1 93
great a prodigal in spending as knave in getting,
and among other villanies which he secretly prac
tised, 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 pre
tended more sanctity than these two, she having
a 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 delighting in mischief and treachery,
and was so exquisite a villain, that he destroyed
those designs he might have thriven by, with over
laying them with fresh knaveries.1 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
1 Major-general Whalley gives a much more favourable
character of Chadwick. "The business for ejecting ministers
goes on very well in Lincolnshire ; I had almost forgot to
tell you that Colonel Chadwick is very forward to serve his
highness in this business, both at Nottingham and Derby,
being recorder for both the towns, and being very able and
well-esteemed of, even amongst honest and godly men, as
far as I can hitherto learn. Certainly it was not a true
character that was given of him to his highness." — Letter
to Thurloe, November 17, 1655.
VOL. I. N

1 94 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
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
excellent 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.1
Mr. Francis Thornhagh, the eldest son of Sir
Francis Thornhagh, was a man of a most upright
faithful heart to God and his people, and to his
country's true interest, comprehended in the parlia
ment'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 excel
lent good nature to all men, and zealous for his
friend ; he wanted counsel and deliberation, and was
1 Mr. Francis Pierrepont, who will frequently be men
tioned again in the course of the story, when it will be
clearly seen that Mrs. Hutchinson here speaks with candour,
or rather favour of him, though he was her husband's
opponent. — J. H.

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 195
sometimes too facile to flatterers, but had judgment
enough to discern his errors when they were repre
sented to him, and worth enough not to persist in
an injurious mistake because he had once entertained
it.1 Mr. Pigott was a very religious, serious, wise
gentlemen, 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 un
dertake, 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 than in action ; no man in his nature,
and his whole deportment, showed himself more of
a gentleman than he.2 There was one Mr. Wid-

1 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 Thornhagh con
tinued 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 possessions to have centered in a
female who was the lady of Francis Ferrand Foljambe,
Esq.— J. H.
2 Mr. Pigott survived Colonel Hutchinson about five years.
He was summoned to parliament by Cromwell, but it is

1 96 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
merpoole, a man of good extraction, but reduced to
a small fortune, had declined all the splendour
of an old house, and 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 parsimony of his nature, less
interest in the country.1 To yoke with him, there

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. — J. H.
1 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. — J. H.

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 197
was a very honest man, who could not be reckoned
among the gentry, though he was called by the
name of Mr. Lomax,1 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. Salusbury, who
had very good abilities with his pen, upon which he
was taken in to be their secretary; but he proved
ambitious and froward, and being poor, when he
was after made treasurer, fell into some temp
tation ; but carried at first a fair colour of re
ligion and honesty. These were they with whom
Mr. 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 pre
vented 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. Whereupon, upon the
parliament's commission for settling the militia
sometime before, there having been three colonels
nominated, viz. Sir Francis Thornhagh, Sir Francis
Molineux, and Mr. Francis Pierrepont, they pro-

1 A letter by Mr. Lomax is printed in the " Fairfax Cor
respondence, Memorials of the Civil Wars," vol. i. p. 229.

198 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
pounded to them to raise their regiments. 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 imme
diately a very good standing company of foot,
formed out of those townsmen who first came in to
list 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 per
suaded to put on a sword, or to list any men,
which at length he did, of substantial honest towns
men ; and Mr. Poulton, a nephew of Sir Thomas
Hutchinson, a stout young gentleman, who had
seen some service abroad, was his captain-lieu
tenant. There were two companies more raised,
one under Captain Lomax, and another under one
Captain Scrimpshire. The first thing these gentle
men 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

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 199
assistance of that place, when the king attempted
it. They also sent to the Earl of Essex, to desire
that Captain Ireton, with a troop of horse, which
he had carried out of the country into his excel
lency'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, sequestring, and the like. The com
mittee appointed were the parliament-men that
served for the county, Mr Francis Pierrepont, Mr.
John Hutchinson, Mr. Francis Thornhagh, Mr.
Gervase Pigott, Mr. Henry Ireton, Mr. George
Hutchinson, Mr. Joseph Widmerpoole, Mr. Gervase
Lomax, Dr. Plumptre, the mayor of Nottingham,
Mr. James Chadwick, and Mr. Thomas Salusbury.
Then did neighbouring counties everywhere asso
ciate 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 regiments. Not
tinghamshire was put into the association with
Leicestershire and other counties, whereof Lord
Grey of Grooby, eldest son of the Earl of Stam
ford, was commander-in-chief, and from him the

200 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
gentlemen of Nottingham took their first commis
sions.1
s The high sheriff and the malignant gentry, find
ing an opposition they expected not, wrote a letter
to Mr. Francis Pierrepont and Mr. John Hutchin
son, 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 ; 2 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 William
son, Mr. Sutton, Sir Gervase Eyre, Sir John Digby,
Sir Roger Cooper, Mr. Palmer, Mr. John Millington.
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

1 The ordinance for the association of the counties of
Northampton, Leicester, Derby, Rutland, Nottingham,
Huntingdon, Bedford, and Buckingham is given in Rush-
worth, Vol. III. ii. 119. It is dated January 16, 1643.
2 The correspondence relative to the proposed treaty of
neutrality for Nottinghamshire is printed in the appendix,
from the copies in Mrs. Hutchinson's Note-Book in the
British Museum.

LORD CHAWORTH,

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 201
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. 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 dis
appointing of him, and for their bringing strange
soldiers into Newark, which they pretended was to
save the town from the plunder of some Lincoln
shire 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.1
1 On the 14th of December the corporation of Nottingham
subscribed ^ioo, and the members of the committee £200,
for the payment of the soldiers then in the town. On the
18th the members of the corporation, in company with ten
other gentlemen, held a meeting at the Guildhall, when it

202 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
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

was unanimously agreed to invite the gentlemen of the
county to join with the townspeople for the defence of the
town. — Bailey, " Annals of Notts," p. 973.
The troops in the town at this time seem to have been
mainly Derbyshire men. Gell's " True Relation " says,
" Derbyshire being cleared, Captain White went to Not
tingham Castle, seized upon all the arms, and sent to Sir
John Gell immediately to assist him with some foot, where
upon he sent his Major Mollanus with three hundred foot,
when he began to fortify Nottingham, and set them in a
posture of defence, and assisted Colonel Pierrepont to make
up his regiment of foot, and we continued there some nine
or ten days." After their departure Sir John Henderson
writes from Newark on January 5, 1643 : " There is no force
at all in Nottingham except Captain White's, who has
retired to the castle and victualled it. They have cast
three pieces of ordinance in Nottingham which lie as yet
in the town."— Sixth Report of Hist. MSS. Commission,
p. 1 (where it is wrongly dated 1644).

1642.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 203
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 up higher at a place called Wilden Ferry,
where the enemy also had a garrison.1 The
attempting to preserve this place, in the midst 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 inconsideration 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 other-
1 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. — J. H.

204 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1642.
wise, 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 gentlemen 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 inde
fensible town. Although his colonel 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. Hutchinson, 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 considerations, and
cheerfully resigned up his life, and all other par
ticular interests, to God's dispose, though in all
human probability he was more like 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,

1643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 205
giving them no discouragement, but promoting all
their desires to the parliament very effectually.1
By reason of the coldness of the colonel,2 the
affairs of the war at Nottingham went on more
tardily than else they would have done ; but the
gentlemen there, thinking it would be easier to pre
vent Newark from being made a fortified garrison,
than to take it when it was so, sent over to Lincoln
and Derby, to propound the business to them.3 At
length, about Candlemas, it was agreed and ap
pointed 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

1 The reader is desired to bear this in mind, as it tends
much to invalidate 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 ? — J. H.
2 i.e., Colonel Francis Pierrepont.
3 " February 24th, 1643, by an order from his excellence
the late Earl of Essex, he was commanded to send what
strength he could well spare under the command of Major-
general Ballard against Newark, whereupon he sent Major
Mollanus with 500 foot." — " A True Relation of what Service
hath been done by Colonel Sir John Gell."

206 Memoirs of Col. Htttchinson. [1643.
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 Lincoln
shire. 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 benefactors.
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 appoint
ment ; 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 contrived. 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 ordinance 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

1643] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 207
them.1 The next day, notwithstanding Mr. Hutchin
son 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
entrenched 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 Lincolnshire,2 had taken a
street, cut up a chain, and placed a drake 3 in a
house ; whereupon the Newark gentlemen were
1 Saturday was the 25th of February. Ballard's united
forces came before Newark on Monday, February 27th.
On that day, says the royalist account, Henderson having
no guns, planted his cavalry on Beacon Hill to delay the
advance of the parliamentarians. " The enemy seeing him
so planted, advanced upon him with the whole body of
their army, and still as they came forwards, forced him to
retire by the advantage of their cannon, which he wanted ;
till at length, by three removes he drew more near unto his
works, and so at last unto the town."
A brief relation of the remarkable occurrences in the
northern parts, viz., the landing of the Queen's Majesty at
Burlington Bay, and the repulse given unto the rebels at
the town of Newark.
2 Probably the Colonel King whose quarrel with Lord
Willoughby is recorded in the Journals of the House of
Lords for 1644, vol. vi., pp. 528, 536, 543, 558.
3 Drake, a piece of cannon so called. — J. H.

2o8 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
almost resolved to yield up the town, and some of
;hem 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.1 At this,
two hundred Lincolnshire men, whom Ballard with
much entreaty had sent to relieve them, first ran
away, and then Sir John Gell's grey coats made
their retreat after them. Major Hutchinson and
Captain White all this while kept their trenches,
1 This account is confirmed by Sir John Gell's "True
Relation," where it is stated that Major Mollanus, being
asked on his return how they had fared at Newark, said,
" That he readily thought they were betrayed by' the com
mander-in-chief, which was Major-general Ballard, for that
they had entered the* town and mastered the works, and
then commanded back by the said Ballard, without doing
anything at all, and so returned with the loss of some men
and one drake, and had not Nottingham men and his stood
against the said Ballard's will, closely one to another, they
had lost all their ordnance, which they fetched off, whether
he would or not."

i643-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 209
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.1 The next day all the
captains importuned Ballard that they might fall
on again, but he would neither consent nor give
any reason of his denial ; so that the Nottingham
forces returned with great dissatisfaction, though
Ballard, to stop their mouths, gave them two pieces
of ordnance.2

1 Mrs. Hutchinson's Note-Book gives a few details.
" There was a drake planted by them against the enemy,
which when they could by no means procure any horses to
draw off, a dragooner of Nottingham charged with a double
charge, and rammed it up to the mouth with stones, and
discharged it upon the enemy as they began to sally forth,
which made them retreat into the town."
2 " Mercurius Aulicus " of April 5th mentions that the com
mittee of Nottingham have sent two gentlemen to complain
of Ballard and request his removal. The Journals of the
House of Commons show that this deputation appeared
before the House on March 30th, 1643, an<*l their complaints
about Ballard were then referred to the Committee of Safety.
On April 19th, a petition from the Nottingham Committee
VOL. 1. O

210 Memoirs of Col. Htitchinson. [1643.
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 trans
acted at Nottingham. After the retreat from
Brainford fight, a treaty was ineffectually carried
on between the king and parliament from the
31st of January, 1643, t0 tne l7^- °f 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 on the king's side, the king
himself being in a place where he saw them. A
few days after, Reading was yielded upon composi
tion to the Earl of Essex, whose soldiers having
been promised their pay and a gratuity to spare the
plunder of the town, fell into a mutiny upon the
failing of the performance, and many of them dis
banded.1 Among those who remained there was a

was presented by Colonel Hutchinson, and in answer to it
the Committee of Safety were ordered " to appoint and
despatch away a commander-in-chief, such as the gentlemen
of Nottinghamshire, upon perusal of the list of reformado
officers with the clerk of that committee, shall make choice
of." The despatch of Sir John Meldrum in June was the
result of this. .
1 Reading was taken on April 27th. The encounter

1643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 211
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 countries 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 diligence, prevented the designs of the royal
party ; these were so successful the first year in all
other places, and the parliament's condition appeared
so desperate, as 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 tak
ing 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 peaching his accom
plices, was permitted to buy his life for ten thousand
referred to took place at Caversham Bridge on April 25th.
May thus explains the mutiny, "the parliament, before
Reading was delivered up, had approved of the conditions
and promised to the Lord- General's soldiers, to forbear
plundering, twelve shillings a man, besides their pay. But
neither of those were then performed." — " History of the
Long Parliament," p. 279.

2 1 2 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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 had been
victorious in many encounters.1 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 New
castle, did at the siege of Hull.2 My Lord New-

1 Waller's plot was detected on May 31st, 1643. The
battle of Roundway Down, in which Waller's army was
" utterly defeated, scattered, and ruined," was fought on
July 13th. Bristol was taken on July 26th, and Exeter on
September 4th. With regard to the resistance of Gloucester
May uses an expression rather similar to Mrs. Hutchinson's,
"the king was full of indignation that such a forlorn city
should stand out against him."
2 The impolicy of this measure is more fully noticed and
explained, and the cause of it set down by Sir Philip War
wick, in his Memoirs, p. 260. " One or the like counsel in
both quarters, north and west, soon blasted the prosperity
in each place, for the king pitched upon that fatal resolu
tion, recommended to him by Lord Culpeper, of besieging

1643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 213
castle was general of the north, 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

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 resolved 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 Newcastle 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, or 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 mis
fortunes the Earl of Newcastle's too much affecting inde
pendency, 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 par
liament, 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 disadvantage 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. — J. H.

214 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
came off conquerors.1 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, 1643,1 landed near
Sunderland, coming out of Holland, with large pro
visions of arms, ammunition, and commanders of
note, with which she was convoyed, by the Earl of
Newcastle, to York ; and thither came to her the Earl
of Montrose, out of Scotland, with a hundred and
twenty horse : 2 then Sir Hugh Cholmly, governor
1 In fact, the resistance so long maintained, and fre
quently 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. — J. H.
2 Mrs. Hutchinson's figures seem to be derived from
May, who mentions the landing of Lord Goring with 200
commanders from Holland, that of General King with 6000
arms, and the coming of Montrose with 120 horse. The

1 643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 215
of Scarborough, revolted from the parliament, where
of he was a member, and came to the queen, with
three hundred men. Browne Bushell also, who was
left in charge with 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, it was 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 commissions to arm in the
king's defence,1 and now the queen was preparing
queen landed at Bridlington on February 22d, but Mrs.
Hutchinson follows May even in his errors. He writes "in
the same month also the queen landing from Holland, near
to Sunderland, with great provision of arms and ammunition,
and many commanders of note in her retinue," &c.
1 The king instructed Newcastle to do so by a letter
dated September 23d, 1642.
" Newcastle, — This is to tell you that the rebellion is
grown to that height, that I must not look what opinion
men are who at this time are willing and able to serve me.
Therefore I do not only permit, but command you, to make
use of all my loving subjects' services, without examining
their consciences, more than their loyalty to us, as you
shall find most to conduce to the upholding of my just
regal power. So I rest your most assured faithful friend,
" Charles R."
— Warburton's " Prince Rupert," v. 317.

216 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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 parlia
ment, 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 suspense, by his example ; where
upon the gentlemen of Nottingham 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 continu
ally 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 the committee, to understand his
affections from himself, and to press him to declare
for the parliament, in that so needful a season.

1643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 2 1 7
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 be
tween them ; " which God was pleased to bring to
pass a few months after ; for he, going to Gains
borough, 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 : 1 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 forbear shooting ; 2 but as soon as he appeared, a
cannon-bullet flew from the king's army, and divided
him in the middle, being then in the parliament's
pinnace, who perished according to his own unhappy
imprecation. His declaring himself for the king, as it
enforced the royal, so it weakened the other party.
1 Gainsborough was taken July 16, 1643. The Earl of
Kingston's death took place July 30th.
2 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. — J. H.

2 1 8 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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 Nottingham.1 Ashby
de la Zouch, within eighteen miles of Nottingham, 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 Notting
ham, thus beleaguered with enemies, seemed very
unlikely to be able either to resist the enemy or
support itself.2 Therefore the gentlemen, upon
the news of my Lord Newcastle's intended approach
that way, sent up Mr. John Hutchinson to acquaint
the parliament 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.3 Accordingly, in the
1 Wiverton House and Shelford Manor. — J. H.
2 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." — J. H.
" Lieutenant-colonel Hutchinson presented a petition
from the Nottingham Committee to the House of Commons

i643-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 219
Whitsun holidays, 1643, 'hey all came, and the
younger Hotham also brought some more rude
troops out of Yorkshire, and joined himself to them.1
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

on April 19, 1643. The House ordered "that Mr. Milling-
ton do prepare a letter to be sent to the Lord Grey, the
son of the Earl of Stamford ; to Sir John Gell, and to the
committee of Lincoln respectively, to desire them to send
what aid and assistance they can to the towp of Nottingham,
the House having a special regard of that place, as a place
of great importance to be preserved." On April 28th the
House approved the draft of a letter to be sent to the Lord-
general to take special care for the preservation of Notting
ham. See Appendix.
1 See note on the rendezvous at Nottingham in Appendix.

220 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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 them, devoured them ; and
Hotham's soldiers, having taken away goods from
some honest men, he went to him to desire restitu
tion 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. Hutchinson was
passionately concerned, and this being in the open
field, Colonel Cromwell, who had likewise had
great provocations from him, began to show him-

1643] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 221
self affected with the country's injuries, and the idle
waste of such a considerable force, through the
inexperience of the chief commander, and the dis
obedience and irregularities of the others. So they,
at that time, being equally zealous for the public
service, 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 ; 1 him they sent away
immediately from the place, to inform the parlia
ment of Hotham's carriages, and the strong pre
sumptions 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, a too great
favourer 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 commander-in-chief of all those united forces.
When they marched away, a troop of my Lord

1 The messenger was Captain White, whose name is
given in the Note-Book.

222 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1633,
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 deserved it ; but
from that time, growing into more intimate acquaint
ance with him, he always used to profess the most
hearty affections for him, and the greatest delight
in his plainness and open-heartedness that was
imaginable. 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.1 The parliament 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 busi-

1 Vendome, as I have explained in the Appendix, is pro
bably a mistake for Von Dohna.

SIR JOHN HOTHAM,

1643] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 223
ness ; 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 Gains
borough, 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 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 deliberation he had judged not fit to
leave in the hands it was, nor in Colonel Pierre-
pont's, who, with some appearance, lay under
suspicion at that time ; and therefore conceiving
Mr. Hutchinson the most able to manage, and the

224 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
most responsible for it,1 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
subscribed, though with a secret discontent in
his heart ; not from any ill opinion or ill affection
he had to Mr. Hutchinson's person, but for that
he resented it as a great affront that himself
was passed by. It is true that this discontent
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 acknowledgment 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 uninhabit
able, neither affording room to lodge soldiers nor
1 The Note-Book gives this further explanation of respon
sible. " Captain Lomax, that was in the castle, though
esteemed a very honest man, yet Sir John Meldrum said
his estate in the county was not responsible for it."

i643-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 225
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 enlarge
ments 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 sur
prised 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 en
trance 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
not without some wonder that at the top of all
the rock there is 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-coat 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
vol. 1. p

226 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
walled, but the walls were all down, only it was situ
ated 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 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 Hankered,1 and there were no works about it,
1 Flankered, i.e., there were no flanking works or outworks.

i643-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 227
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
town, that whatsoever honest persons desired to
secure themselves 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 receiv
ing 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 Gains
borough, leaving the town to be guarded by few
more than the very townsmen.1 There had been

1 Meldrum had already made one brief expedition from
Nottingham to join Gell in besieging Tulbury ; immediately
on his return he was summoned to relieve Gainsborough.
"So soon as Sir John Meldrum came to Nottingham, he
drew out all the forces then in the town, excepting some
four hundred, which he left in the castle with Colonel
Hutchinson, and marched southwards towards Peterborough;
but Nottingham townsmen sent forward to Colonel Gell to
assist them, while they were removing their goods into the

sS

228 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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 parlia
ment, 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. Here
upon the governor sent Alderman Drury, with
fourteen more, that 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, 1st. 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. 2ndly. He had often visited the
guards, and found them much exposed by their

castle, for they were left in a most miserable condition : he
presently made ready three hundred dragoons and sent
thither his said Major Mollanus, to continue there till they
had removed their goods into the castle, and left the town
desolate, but some few of the townsmen within." — Gell's
"True Relation," Glover's Derbyshire, vol. i. Appendix,
p. 64.

1643] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 229
carelessness, wherefore he thought it his duty to
preserve them, by soldiers more under his com
mand. 3rdly. Intelligence was brought to the
committee, by a friend, then with the Earl of
Newcastle, that Mr. Francis Pierrepont kept intelli
gence 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 cannonier was
secured, who, as soon as he obtained his .liberty,
ran away to Newark. 4thly. 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. 5*-hly- 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 consider
able 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 malignants that

230 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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 pre
vent 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
malignants 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

1643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 231
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 sum
moned 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 com
mittee had employed some of the governor's soldiers,
for the levying of an assessment, which his brother
would not pay, and this distress he called the
governor's affront to his family.1 Though these

1 The cause of the challenge is explained more in detail
in the Note-Book. "About the beginning of September,
there came a base, insolent challenge to the governor from
Dr. Plumptre, which he neglected and gave no answer to
at that time. The occasion that stirred his choler into such
a rage was this. Mr. Nicholas Plumptre, the doctor's brother,
had a long time before been assessed by the committee,
and they having great occasion of money sent to him for
it, which he having with delays from day to day put off,
they sent some of the governor's own soldiers with a cart
to distrain for it, which the governor knew not of, but when
the goods were in the cart, Dr. Plumptre's sister came and
compounded, so that they were not brought up. This Dr.
Plumptre in his challenge termed an affront from the
governor, to whom he allowed not the style of a gentleman,
an affront to his family." — 21 b.

232 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
passages may seem too impertinent here, yet they
having been grounds and beginnings of injurious
prosecutions, wherewith the governor was after
wards much exercised, it was not altogether un
necessary 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 Notting
hamshire, marched away with Sir John Meldrum,
which were Colonel Thornhagh, Major Ireton,
Captain White, and Captain Farmer's troops ; who,
together with Captain Lomax and Captain Schrimp-
shire's foot companies, joining with Colonel Crom
well'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 ; l
and this was opportunely done, while my Lord New-

1 Cromwell writes, " I marched after the taking of
Burleigh House upon Wednesday to Grantham, where I
met about three hundred horse and dragooners from Not
tingham ; with these by agreement we met the Lincolners
at North Scarle, which is about ten miles from Gains
borough, upon Thursday, in the evening."
The battle took place on Friday, July 28th, 1643. "The
Lincoln troops had the van, two Northampton and three
small troops of Nottingham the battle, and Colonel Crom
well the rear." — Carlyle's " Cromwell : " Cromwell's Twelfth
Letter, and letter in Appendix V.

i643-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 233
castle was hastening to come over the water and
join them, 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
to relieve Gainsborough, and made a very honour
able 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 performed by the besiegers ;
for all my Lord Willoughby's men were disarmed
contrary to articles,1 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 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
1 Particularly noticed by Whitelock.

234 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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 regiment, and
began an inseparable league with Colonel Crom
well, whose son-in-law he after was.1 None of
them could return to Nottingham, by reason of my
Lord Newcastle's army, which lay between them
and 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 discourage
ments ; 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 concerned in
private interests than in the cause itself, had some
1 Ireton married Bridget Cromwell on June 15, 1646.

1643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 235
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-affected 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 cheer
fully 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
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

236 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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,1
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 Gervase Clifton's
house. Notwithstanding this public resolution in
the hall to his company, he told them, and
many others in private, that he preferred the
interest of the town above that of his life, and
t 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

1 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 John," 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. — J. H.
This question proves "the particular account" which the
Rev. Julius Hutchinson had before him to be the Note-Book,
at present in the British Museum.

1643-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 237
things in private ; but he openly, both to the
governor and others, approved and encouraged their
going into the castle. According 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 ; some honest and well
affected, but 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 ; his men all disbanded
except about forty, who came into the castle and
filled up the broken companies there. At length,
out of all the 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 increased the store of provision
as much as the present poverty of their condition
would permit him. Then the committee of Notting
ham, 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 dispend for the several

238 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
necessities of the soldiers and garrison ; yet were
the soldiers then, and a long time after, kept to
gether as long as they could live, without any pay,
and after paid part in victuals, and the rest run
on in arrears.
The townsmen who came into the castle disposed
^heir 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 ; 1 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 ioth 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 Mr. Hutchinsons that they were sprightly
1 "To the' commander-in-chief and the rest of the gen
tlemen at Nottingham, these.
" Gentlemen, — I have received a message in writing from
my Lord General with command to send it unto you, which
I hold fit to do by a gentleman, and to that end I desire a
safe-conduct for Major Cartwright, which not doubting of
I shall rest, — Your servant, RICH. BlRON.
" Newark, this 6th of August, 1643."
This letter, which is copied in the Note-Book, was sent by
a trumpet on August 7th. Major Cartwright's visit took
place on August 9th.

1 643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 239
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." 1 At which the
governor, being angry, told him he was much mis
taken, for 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.2 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
1 "Then will I hold up my finger at you and laugh." —
Note-Book. 2 The Note-Book gives also a message sent by the governor
to Sir Roger Cooper. See Appendix.

240 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
not justly impute it to him, it being their own
election. For after this summons they must ex
pect 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, 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 fortifications, 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 his 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 lives and all
their interests in it. The soldiers were none of
them terrified at the dangers which threatened their
undertaking ; but at the latter end of August took,
upon the solemn fast-day, the national covenant,
and besides it, a particular mutual covenant between

i643-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 24 1
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 tc
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 uncivil than to any others that were governors
in that place. Whether it were that the dissension
of brethren is always most spitefully pursued, or
that Sir Richard Biron, 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 confidence, knowing
the condition of the place, that it would have been
yielded to a piece of paper. The governor imme
diately set upon the fortification of his castle, made
a work behind it, another on the Line side, turned
the dovecote into a platform, and made a court of
guard in Mortimer's Hole.
vol. 1. Q

242 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
At this time Sir Thomas Hutchinson died in
London,1 and gave all his personal estate, and all
that was unsettled at Mr. Hutchinson's marriage,
to his second wife and her children ; 2 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,3 he brought down 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 were no small charge to him ;
who he had a noble heart, and could not basely

1 August 18, 1643, as appeared by his tombstone, under
the communion table in St. Paul's, Covent Garden, London,
and that he was 55 when he died. — J. H.
A marginal note, written by Julius Hutchinson, grand
father of the editor.
" The estate was much impaired by the war, for on
November 17, 1645, the House of Commons resolved "that
the Lady Catherine Hutchinson, widow of Sir Thomas
Hutchinson, late a member of this house, who hath lost all
and been ruined by the king's forces, for her great and
constant affections to the parliament, shall have four pounds
allowed to her weekly for her present support out of the
king's revenue." — Journals of the House of Commons.
3 The letter is dated August 26, 1643, vide Appendix.

1643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 243
evade the expense, which that place necessarily
drew upon him, not only by the constant entertain
ment 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
besides gave them much from his own house, espe
cially 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 him
self in with other gentlemen, and taken up for the
supply of the garrison and carrying on of the public
service. Although 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, only in the public service,
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

244 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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 unoccupied, 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 which the enemy forced them
to redeem themselves out of prison withal, 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 subscriptions,1 but

1 By subscriptions are here meant acknowledgments or
certificates given by the committees, which parliament pro
fessed to make good, but many times did not. But Colonel
Hutchinson's disinterestedness and devotion to the cause
did not suffice to exempt him from calumny, for in Walker's
" History of Independency," p. 166, et seq., a list is given of
members of parliament, who were unduly returned, who
held commands 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

i643*] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 245
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 those
services contracted. 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 service ; 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 : all prize the soldiers had, and he never shared
with them ; all the malignants' goods the committee
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 himself1 by violence and rapine. If in a
judicial way, he was forced at any time, in discharge
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 invi
diously accused of getting ,£40,000 — hit how ? it was the
personal estate of his own father ! — J. H.
1 Make himself up, make himself whole, reimburse him
self.— J. H.

246 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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
testimony 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 in
formation 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
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

1 643-] Metnoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 247
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
childhood, that ever any father was blessed in,
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 de
fective 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 un
engaged 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 publicly a person so popular,
that they disturbed not Sir Thomas his 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

248 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
to peace, which he did not out of policy, but out
of conscience to his country, and by a wise fore
sight of the sad consequences of a conquest by
either side ; for he hath often expressed, that accom
modation was far more desirable than war, and
he dreaded that the spirits of those men would be
come most insolent after conquest, who were so
violently bent to prosecute a war; that some of
them whom we have since known to be vile
apostates, then professed they abhorred accommo
dation. This report of Sir Thomas his 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 any 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.1
1 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 approved of his

1 643-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 249
Soon after the death of his father, one Mr.
Ayscough, a gentleman of the country, allied to
Sir Richard, since Lord Biron, then governor of
Newark, came to the governor of Nottingham, and
told him that Sir Richard Biron, out of that
tender, natural affection which he ever had for
him, and still preserved, desired him now to con
sider his wife and children, and the loss of his
whole estate, which was inevitable, 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
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, con
tributes largely to corroborate it in all. In the very instance
before us there seems much more reason for the opinion of
Mrs. Hutchinson 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

250 Memoirs 0/ Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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 com
passion 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

the reform of religion ; sat with the parliament after the
war was deeply engaged in ; sent his sons arms, and pro
moted 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 brother
and family, and jealous of Sir Thomas Hutchinson's chil
dren by his former wife, influenced him to their disadvan
tage 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. — J. H.

1643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 251
he, he can plead, " you were an inconsiderate
young man, rashly engaged, and dares assure
himself to beg 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,1 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 Biron's blood in him, that he should very
much scorn to betray or quit a trust he had under
taken ; 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 fears, and there
fore 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 committee had before been informed that she
carried intelligence between Colonel Pierrepont and
his mother, the countess of Kingston. The woman
1 Mr. Salusbury and Mr. Widmerpoole.

252 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
was now going through Nottingham, with letters
from the old countess to her daughter-in-law, the
colonel's 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 enclosed 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

i643-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 253
to be their captain.1 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, 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 feed
ing at the governor's table, who gave him room in
his own lodgings, and all imaginable 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

1 The Thomason Collection in the British Museum con
tains a sermon by Mr. Palmer.
" St. Paul's Politiques, a sermon against neutrality,
preached at^Margaret's, Westminster, on the Lord's Day,
December 18, 1644, divers of the honourable House of
Commons being present. By Laurence Palmer, Rector of
the mediety of Gedling, in the county of Nottingham, and
captain of a troop of horse raised for the service of the king
and parliament." The text is Phil. ii. 4, and the sermon is
dedicated to Gilbert Millington.

254 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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 gover
nor, 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 after
wards looked upon the governor with a clear eye,
but sought to blow up all factions against him
whenever he found opportunity, and in the mean
time dissembled it as well as he could. And now,
before his troop was well raised, Colonel Thornhagh
being recovered, brought back his troop from Lin
coln, and both the troops quartered in the town,
which being a bait to invite the enemy, the gover
nor 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

1643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 255
quarters ; but they having, many of them, wives
and better accommodations in the town, by stealth
disobeyed his commands, 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
aldermen ; but the most 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
alarum 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, 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 cava
liers 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

256 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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 alarum 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 ; where
fore 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 was
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 great
hazard ; and one weak old man was shot the first

1643] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 257
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 New
ark, 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,1
whereupon an honest townsman, seeing four or five
commanders go into his own house, procured a cun
ning boy that came by him, while the enemy re
garded 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 Biron had surprised
the town, Mr. Hastings, since made lord of Lough
borough, then governor of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, came

1 It appears, by Deering's account of Nottingham, that
these once occupied a considerable portion of the market
place. — J. H.
vol. 1. R

258 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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 gentle
men to themselves ; who, as they made a fort at
the bridges, threw down the half moons and bul
warks 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 Cart
wright 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 was by them
that watched.1 At length, on Saturday, September
¦ 23d, in the afternoon, the governor saw a great
many goods and persons going over the Line bridge,
1 " During the time of the enemy's stay in the town many
of those men that lay hid came in the night by the Line
side, in women's apparel and other disguises, up to the
castle, so that by Saturday there were about eight-score
come."— Note-Book.

1643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 259
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 Hutch
inson, 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 only in
the head of sixteen men, when Sir Richard Biron,
with Captain Hacker, followed by a whole troop of
horse and a foot company, 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 Biron down, and
they had his hat, but he escaped, though his horse
was so wounded that it fell dead in the next street.1
1 Major Hutchinson did not allow his cousinship to pre-

260 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
These men that came to the governor's relief
were Captain White with his troop, who were
quartered at Leicester, in his return from Lin
colnshire, from whence he was coming back to
Nottingham, and at Leicester met the messenger
the governor had sent for assistance, which he
prosecuted so, that from the two garrisons of Lei
cester and Derby, with his own troop, he brought
about four hundred men.1 As soon as they were

vent him telling his men to take or shoot Sir Richard
Biron ; he also bade them " not to let him scape though
they cut his legs off." — Note-Book.
1 " A while after news came that the enemy had entered
the town, and had besieged the castle ; the governor with
the committee did most earnestly send unto Colonel Gell,
that he would with all speed send them assistance, other
wise the castle would be taken, because most of their
soldiers were in the town, and many an honest man would
so be starved, who had privily hid themselves. Sir John
presently made ready all the strength he could, and got
together all the horses in the country, and horsed some five
hundred musketeers, with the assistance of two or three
troops at Leicester, and so with all that strength marched
to Nottingham, Major Mollanus being commander-in-chief.
The enemy was then at least five or six hundred in Not
tingham town, horse and foot, and stood all in battalio in
the market-place, and all our forces were not five hundred.
The said Major Mollanus, with Captain Hacker, now Colonel
Hacker, entered the town with their horse, were presently
beaten back, lost four or five horses ; instantly after the
said Major broke through the enemy and brought in the

i643-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 261
come into the town, Sir John Gell'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, Gell's men were 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
dragoons, and entered the town again, and drove the enemy
before them, many of them slain, and one hundred and
sixty three taken prisoners, but one man of our side slain,
which was one Captain-lieutenant Lenerick, who led Colonel
Gell's own troop, three men wounded, and some five or six
horses killed. We relieved at the same time at least four
hundred townsmen and soldiers of the castle, who were
almost famished. The remainder of the enemy fled to Not
tingham bridge, which they were then fortifying." — Gell's
"True Relation," Glover's Derbyshire, vol. i., Appendix,
p. 65.

262 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
they had means of carrying them off by the bridge,
where they left Captain Hacker governor J 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 committee of Nottingham,
whom they found prisoner at the marshal's house in
the town, and released, went 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 parlia
ment ; had received a protection from the governor
of Newark, and had divers meetings with the
Newark officers ; yet after all this had the impu
dence to come into the town of Nottingham : and
in all the taverns and ale-houses he came into, to

1 The brother of Colonel Hacker, who was tried, con
demned, 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 confiscation 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. — J. H.

1643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 263
belch 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 retired to Derby.1 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 hand
some behaviour so pleased the governor, that he
freely gave him his liberty without exchange.
1 "When they went out of the town he also went out
with them, and as he passed by Sir Thomas Hutchinson's
house bade Mrs. Cotton, with most nasty uncivil term, tell
that proud Hutchinson that in spite of his teeth he was
now free." — Note-Book.

264 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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 recollect their confused
souls, after their chase ; but the major 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 dis
contented 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 enter
tained 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 noth
ing else to do, walked up and down the castleyard,

i643-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 265
insulting and beating the poor prisoners as they
were brought up. In the encounter, one of the
Derby captains was slain, and five of our men hurt,
who for want of 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.1
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,

1 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 knowledge 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 extraordinary woman, and this is not one of the least
singular, nor least amiable instances of it. — J. H.

266 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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 whither two
or three others the governor had called to meet
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 afterwards 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 neighbour forces returned
home. Colonel Thornhagh having lost most of his
troop, went to London to get another. Captain
White stayed at Nottingham with his, where intelli
gence being given that the cavaliers intended to
possess themselves of Broxtowe and Woollerton
(two gentlemen's houses within two miles apiece of

1 643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 267
Nottingham), Captain Palmer was sent, with the
remainder of his men, to keep Broxtowe-house, and
the governor's captain-lieutenant,1 with his company,
to Woollerton. The governor, at Nottingham,
broke up the Line Bridge to prevent 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 ap
proaches to the castle ; and having the experience
of the mischief of it, pulled down St. Nicholas'
church by the advice of the committee.2
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 to
gether it was perpetually attempted, fire being laid
to hay-barns and other combustible places, insomuch
that the women were forced to walk fifty in a
night 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 instruments, if so much as one
house were fired, they would fire all the cavaliers'
1 Captain-lieutenant Dolphin. — Note-Book.
2 It is said, in Deering's " History of Nottingham," that
this church was pulled down by Colonel Hutchinson, and
the bells 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

268 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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.1
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 ; 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
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 pro
perly 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.
-J. H.
The Note-Book gives an additional detail or two: "the
lofts were fired and the walls undermined, that it might fall
more speedily."
1 The Note-Book describes the letter as "a quibbling
answer, in which they utterly disclaimed having any hand
in the fire."

1643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 269
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 opportunity, 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
Broxtowe1 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 in
tended for rolling trenches. All things, betimes in
the morning, being gotten into perfect readiness,

1 " The horse that were in Broxtowe, and a foot company
that lay in Wollerton House." — Note- Book.

270 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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 tempestuous and rainy, seemed to have com
bined with his enemies and withstood the attempt ;
but the soldiers were rather animated than dis
couraged, 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 Mr. George Hutchinson's company went
through the lanes, to 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,

1643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 2 7 1
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 works, which they continued all that
day, and the cavaliers attempted no more sallies.
At evening the ordnance were brought down
and planted within musket-shot of the fort, and
then the governor despatched a messenger to
Derby to tell Sir John Gell, 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.1
1 In Gell's two narratives a larger amount of credit is
claimed for the Derbyshire forces. " Within ten days after,
the committee of Nottingham again sent to Colonel Gell,
that he might needs send them present aid and assistance
to beat the enemy from the bridge, otherwise they would be
so restrained, that they would not be able to keep the castle ;
the enemy possessing the bridge, the castle was to no effect.
Colonel Gell presently commanded between three and four
hundred horse and dragoons to march to Nottingham and
assist them, whereof Major Mollanus was chief commander;
and thither went and drove the enemy away, so that it will

272 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643,
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, burning all night, the governor's men
wrought all that night in their trenches, and cut a
trench in the meadows, some 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 garri
son, which much encouraged them, but the gover-
be adjudged by any council of war, that Nottingham town
and castle had been long since in the enemy's possession,
had they not had the assistance of Sir John Gell in driving
the enemy from them at every time of need, as the colonels
and committee of Nottingham did ever acknowledge." In
Gell's second narrative it is said " after some time we beat
the enemy from the bridge, which was of such importance
that the governor of the castle professed to Major Mollanus,
that unless our soldiers would stay and take the bridge, he
would quit the castle, let the parliament do with him what
they would."

i643-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 273
nor's presence and alacrity among them 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
which 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 dissua
sion 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 morn-
vol. 1. s

274 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
ing had pitched two colours in the island, within
carbine-shot of the fort, and the governor's com
pany had as much advanced their approach on the
other side. When they in the fort saw, in the
morning, 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 Gell's men came but on
Tuesday, on Thursday the second messenger came
from him, to call them back. The governor en
treated 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 morn
ing, and for that purpose, after he had left them
with all things provided in their trenches, he went
to the castle to see the fire-balls and other neces
saries 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

1643O Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 275
all the garrison had stolen away, and had left be
hind 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 pro
fession, 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 company 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 pre
served, notwithstanding 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 overthrow by Cromwell ; and that my Lord
Newcastle had been forced to raise his siege of
Hull with great loss and dishonour.1 Some time

1 The battle of Winceby or Horncastle took place on
October il, 1643. On the same day Lord Fairfax, by a

276 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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 mes
sage, 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 such
a message would not obtain credit, unless he
had some propositions in writing ; whereupon
he called for pen and ink, and writ 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 paper when Mr.
Wood had received, Sir Richard Biron came 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 rejected : which Mr. Wood hear
ing, 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 successes,
successful sally from Hull, forced Newcastle to raise the
siege.

i643-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 277
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 imaginable, 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 inventions for the defence of
the place. The governor also caused a mount near
the castle to be bulwarked, and made a platform
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.1
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, considering 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 main-
1 The Note-Book is rather more detailed. "The close
before the castle was fortified, and a mount built there and
ordnance planted on it, and a court of guard made there."
There was also "a new inwork made and a work on
Snenton side."

278 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
tained, 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 disin
genuously to the governor, that 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. Widmer-
poole 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 com
mission under the governor for a company; and
those soldiers of Colonel Pierrepont's not know
ing what to do, it was determined at a council of
war of strangers, whereof Sir William Fairfax was

1643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 279
president, that they should enlist under Captain
Poulton.1 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
intentions to deliver Nottingham to the king.
About this time Chadwick, the deputy recorder
of Nottingham, and one of the committee, came to
Nottingham, from whence he went away, when the
soldiers were all drawn out, and all that were
fearful went to other places to secure themselves.
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 pro
secuting their business, 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 commission
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 con
sidering his great abilities, would needs enforce
1 The arrangement made is more clearly explained in
the Note-Book. " It was ordered that the company which
was formerly in the regiment of Colonel Pierrepont as his
own company, should remain in the regiment of Colonel
Hutchinson, and receive for their captain, Captain Thomas
Poulton."

280 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
upon him. In execution of this, he raised seven
men, which were his menial servants, went into
Staffordshire, possessed a papist's fine house, and
fired it to run away by the light, when the
enemy was thirty miles off from it,1 and 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, and coming up to the castle, behaving
himself somewhat insolently, 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,

1 I have not found any confirmation of this story.
According to " Mercurius Aulicus," for December 2, 1643,
Chadwick endeavoured to raise forces to assist Sir John
Gell in the defence of Derby about this time. That journal
notes the defeat of two thousand moorlanders, "English
highlanders," near Leek, by a detachment from the Marquis
of Newcastle's forces under Colonel Dudley. It states that
five hundred prisoners were taken, including "their com
mander-in-chief, General Chadwick, learned in the law,
well known in Nottingham."

1643] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 281
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 immedi
ately 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. Salusbury, their secretary, had
also put in the government of the town, but
Colonel Hutchinson caused him to put it out ; and
the governor, being informed that Colonel Pierre
pont, at London, was labouring to obtain a regi
ment, and to be sent down as governor of the
town, he for the more speedy despatch, sent his
own chaplain with the committee'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 mentioned, as a thing, where
by 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
blessing, for the parliament's service ; he therefore
desired a commission for the castle only.

282 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
As soon as Mr. Allsop came to London, he was
immediately despatched again to Nottingham, with
an order of parliament, dated November 20, 1643,
for Colonel Hutchinson to be governor both of the
town and castle of Nottingham, with an acknow
ledgment 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 government of
both the town and castle. These coming both
together, although the general and the parliament
had added the government of the town to that of
the castle, as more honour to him, Colonel Hutchin
son was for many reasons much troubled at it,
among which these were some of his considera
tions. First, they were almost all malignants, there
being scarcely a man left who was to be confided
in, except those who were already listed into the
castle. Secondly, they were not so much open,
professed enemies, as close, hypocritical, false
hearted people ; amongst whom were some lead
ing 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

1643] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 283
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 there
after censured and exclaimed at. Fourthly, the
townsmen, being such as had lived free and plenti
fully of 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, re
proach, and ingratitude, 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 unprofit
able expense of his time, estate, and labours, where he
should reap neither glory nor advantage to himself, he
considered, that since he had rather declined than

284 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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 for, upon him,
it was a work which 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 endeavour to do and deserve well ; and
then he never regarded the praise or dispraise of
men, for he knew that it was impossible 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 advan
tageous 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 com
mission, 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,1 the governor, by the
1 When Newcastle was forced to raise the siege of Hull

i643-l Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 285
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 them
selves abridged by it, or any other inconvenience
to the public service, he would resign it, and never
make use of his commission. 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

he marched to York, " where," says the duchess, " he
remained but a few days to refresh his army, and receiving
intelligence that the enemy was got into Derbyshire and
did grow numerous there, and busy in seducing the people,
that country being under my lord's command, he resolved
to direct his course thither, in the beginning of November
1643, to suppress their further growth ; and to that end
quartered his army in Chesterfield, and in all the parts
thereabout for a certain time." In December, she con
tinues, he marched " from Chesterfield to Bolsover in the
same county, and from thence to Welbeck in Nottingham
shire, to his own house and garrison, in which parts he
staid some time, both to refresh his army and to settle and
reform some disorders he found there." — Life of the Duke
of Newcastle, pp. 48-50, ed. Rimbault, 1872.

286 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
himself to a seeming content, though the truth
is he had some emulation but not malice, to 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 passages, by which others also of
the committee, who durst not before reveal their en
vious hearts, showed themselves displeased. Where
upon, 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 under
take it, if they had any jealousies 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 mistaken, 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 rejoiced not in
it, but looked upon it as a great burthen; yet since

1643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 287
it was conferred as an honour upon him, he should
not decline serving them therein that 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 exceed
ingly well pleased in it. Then the governor told
them, if they were real,1 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, for the
good of the garrison : and again earnestly desired
them, if they had any dislikes, either of himself
personally, 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

1 Real — Fr. Vrais — sincere. The Note-Book has "really
as they professed themselves."

288 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. L1643.
endeavour to uphold him in it than in any way to
retrench it.
Now was my Lord Newcastle's army come into
Derbyshire, and having taken some places there,
nothing was expected at Derby and Nottingham
but a siege ; 1 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 oppor
tunity 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
Nottingham were Sir Marmaduke Langdale's and
Colonel Dacre's, who had been a familiar acquaint
ance of Lieutenant-colonel Hutchinson's when he was
in the north, and they loved each other as well as

1 At this point occurs in the Note-Book an episode headed
" the quarrel between the Derby committee and ours about
powder." The extract is given in the Appendix.

i643] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 289
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, per
suaded 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 Nottingham, 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
governor sent him a ticket for them to come in ; and
though usually they kept no sentinels in the town,
yet he sent down some officers and soldiers to show
him a guard at his entrance. When the lieutenant-
colonel came to him, he made many endearing ex
pressions 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, not
withstanding 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
vol. 1. T

290 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
easily be able to do that. " Well," said Dacre,
"you and I must have some discourse in private,1
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 on 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. Col. 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

1 Though this may appear somewhat improbable at a
time when religious opinions have so little effect upon
political ones, it was otherwise 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. — J. H.

1643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 291
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 mistake, where
upon the gentlemen were sent for to the castle.
Dacre returned complimental answers to them both,
and writ 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 communicated to
the committee, they would fain have had the lieu
tenant-colonel to have gone, but he held firm to his
resolution 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

292 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
themselves, and do the king excellent service. Cap
tain 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 lieu
tenant-colonel would deliver up the bridges he
should have three thousand pounds, and what com
mand he would ask in the army ; and offered Cap
tain Poulton two thousand pounds to effect this.
The captain told him, for his own part, nothing
should buy him to such a villany, 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 autho
rity, 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 Hut
chinson and Lieutenant-colonel Hutchinson for the
delivery of Nottingham Castle and the bridges, and
to make them large promises, which shall be per
formed by W. Newcastle." Having shown him
this warrant, the colonel was very importunate 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 very disdainful

1643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 293
refusals they all had written to 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 appointment, 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.1
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 alarum 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
morning. After this charge the horse immediately
retreated and would not stand another, and the
1 This correspondence is given in the Appendix : the
letters to Colonel Dacre were published at the time, and
reprinted by Vicars in his Parliamentary Chronicle (God's
Ark, p. 144) : the original of Langdale's letter is in the
Bodleian Library.

294 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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 dis
putes, 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 advantage-
able to the public service, and much discouraged to
find such obstructions from the envious pride and
humour of those who should have been his assis
tants ; 1 but he bore with it as long as himself only
suffered by it, and was willing for quietness' 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.2 Then
he applied himself to the thing, and called a full
1 The Note-Book specially mentions Charles White as
disputing the colonel's command over the horse.
2 On the fortification of the town, and the meeting held
to discuss it, see the extract from the Note-Book given in
the Appendix.

1 643.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 295
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 overlooked many things that he
saw, and made use of all the advantages they gave
him ; and did not manifest his resentment at any
thing which they could cloak under a specious
pretence, how disadvantageably soever it were
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 protection
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.1 About this time Sir Thomas Fairfax
being to march into Staffordshire, sent for some
arms he had left in Nottingham castle ; and by the

1 See Colonel Hutchinson's letter to Mr. Millington,
January 3, 1644, in the Appendix.

296 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1643.
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
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 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 cheerjul 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 employment.1 They had

1 On the representation of the governor that the protec
tion of some of the horse was necessary during the fortifica
tion of the town, Fairfax gave him permission to keep

1644J Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 297
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.1 The governor,
notwithstanding these obstacles from secret enemies
and refractory friends, carried on his business with
good success, and had many events according
to his endeavours. Among the rest, his men en
countering a party where Colonel Frecheville
and Sir Henry Humlack were in person, fought
them, killed many of their men, and took Freche
ville prisoner ; but his captain-lieutenant Jammot
came to his rescue and freed him, though he him
self was taken in his stead and brought to Notting
ham.2 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 there
upon raised a great clamour at the governor.
But before his escape, upon the 15 th of January,
intelligence was brought that all the forces in
Newark were marched on a design upon Sleaford
in Lincolnshire. The governor, not trusting that
Captain White's troop, but reiterated the command to send
the rest. — Note-Book, p. 42 b.
1 The two troops were those of Captains Clerk and
Taylor. — Note-Book.
2 A detailed account of this skirmish and the incidents
which led to it is given in the Note-Book. See Appendix.

298 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1644.
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.1 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 alarum 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 per
ceiving 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 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 pro
tection to come in and lay down arms.2 The
1 Colonel Hutchinson's letter of January 16-17, 1644,
gives a full account of this attack. See Appendix.
2 " Upon Sunday morning, the 14th of January, Mr. Philip
Laycock came to the governor, and showed him a letter
that his brother, Lieutenant-colonel Cartwright, had written

s644-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 299
enemy being entered, possessed themselves 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
so a generous shame, that they dismounted, and all
took muskets to serve as foot, with which they did
so very good service, that they exceedingly well re
gained 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 them 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 ;
to him, wherein he entreated his brother to speak to the
governor to grant him a protection to lay down his arms,
and live quietly at home, and to send him word speedily
whether he could have it or no, for he was resolved to give
over, and if he had not this protection he would try another
way. The governor took time to consider of it." — Note-
Book, 44 b.

300 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1644.
or if he would not deliver it, that then he should
send down the mayor and aldermen, threatening,
that if they came not immediately, 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 Derby and Leicester forces, if they should
have made any attempt to come in, to the assist
ance 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 roundheads were sally
ing 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 run away confusedly : the
first that went out shot their pistols into the

i644- ] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 301
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. Their horse faced the town
in a valley where their reserve stood, while their
foot marched away, 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 with 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
that 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 con
dition were more eager of fires and warm meat
than of plunder, which saved many men's goods,
and their security, that did not believe an enemy,
who had unhandsomely, to speak truth, suffered

302 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1644.
them to enter the town without any dispute,
would have durst, 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 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 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, re
turned fiercely upon the same men, after their
refreshment, 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
signalize their valour upon a foe who was not
vanquished 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

i644-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 303
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 reproaches of their faults, with showing
them the way to repair them, retrieved their strag
gling 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 into
the enemy's quarters, which he gave orders to the
horse to do ; but Colonel Thornhagh 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 to
gether, and represented to them the mercy of God

304 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1644.
and the malice of their enemies, who, without regard
of any friends they had among them, came pur
posely to fire the town, which God alone preserved ;
and, having showed them their danger, Jie 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 ; 1 but the captains refusing, the
soldiers that day went home unlisted, 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,2 an attorney, a great cavalier, but a
reserved, silent man, who, for an austere knit of his
brow, and a grave, severe countenance, had the

1 The Note-Book mentions five persons, viz., Mr. Mayer,
Mr. Coates, Alderman Drury, Mr. John Gregory, and Mr.
Mason; "but of all these captains there was not one but
Mr. Coates that would stand, which so discouraged the
soldiers that they also returned home unlisted." Mr. Mason
seems to have been persuaded to accept a commission a
few days later.
2 The same whom, when put into confinement at the
castle, the governor invited to his table. — J. H.

1 644.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 305
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 par
liament; which protection the governor gave him.1
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.2
The governor went on again successfully in his
employment, 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
1 About the same time the Earl of Clare sought to make
his peace with the parliament. See the extract from the
Note-Book in the Appendix.
2 The letter in question is the one already referred to.
About this time occurs the capture of King's Mills, which is
described in the Note-Book. See extract in the Appendix.
VOL. I. U

306 Metnoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1644.
him ; and first made a motion to send to London
for 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.1
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, 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
1 The other three signers of the warrant were Widmer-
poole, Salusbury, and James. — Note-Book.

1644.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 307
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 occa
sion 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 fortifica
tions, I conceive he is only to be accountable 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 negligent in those things which con
duced 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 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 to him only, told him, " that from the first
opening of his commission he had manifested his

308 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1644.
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 condescen
sions 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 advantageable design, a whole troop, unknown
to him, was by the committee 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 disposal of the chief officer
that went out; so that if a corporal went out, he

1644] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. .309
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 1 the committee sent for the
governor, who coming to them, one of them drew
a paper out of his pocket, and offered some pro
positions 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 close committee, What
were the several powers of a governor and a com
mittee ? And, lastly, that he would draw up what
he conceived his power to be. To this the gover
nor 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 ; 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
1 The 13th of February. — Note-Book.

310. Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1644.
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 par
liament, and therefore wrote a letter to Mr. Milling
ton with extraordinary commendations of the gover
nor, yet desiring to know the extent of his power,
and showed it to him. He told them, if they be
lieved those things they wrote of him, he wondered
whence all this discontent should arise, for he
appealed to them all, whether, ever since he under
took the government, he had usurped any command
over them, or done so much as the most incon
siderable act without acquainting them, and receiv
ing 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 on the parliament, who
without his seeking had added that to him. One

1644.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 311
of them replied, they had so worthy an opinion of
him, that they wished the assessing of the country
too might be only put into his power. 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, 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 fitted
for it ; and thus for the present it rested.
The design they prevented by sending out the
troop unknown to him, was, the saving the town of
Southwell from being made a garrison for the
king ; 1 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
1 " The design the governor was then prevented of was :
the cavaliers had begun to fortify the minster and the
bishop's palace at Southwell ; the town being much troubled
at it, sent word that there were there but one hundred foot
and one hundred horse, and if the force that Nottingham
could send out would come and fall on them in their
quarters, the town would rise with them." The governor
intended to review the horse on the 12th, and send them
out on the 13th February. — Note-Book.

3 1 2 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1644.
some soldiers that intended to fortify themselves
there ; but the horse, by reason of their employ
ment, failing on those two days, and extraordinary
ill weather coming after, that opportunity was lost :
this was about the middle of February. Captain
White continued still afterwards to prevent all
designs whose events might in any way have con
duced 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 exercised 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 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

i644-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 313
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 of the
clock on Saturday, the 17th of February, they took
twelve of them1 upon the bridge, disguised like
market men and women, with pistols, long knives,
hatchets, daggers, and great pieces of iron about
them ; 2 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 commanders, 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

1 Hacker's soldiers.
2 See the portion of Colonel Hutchinson's letter given in
the Appendix. .

3 14 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1644.
to be released as prisoners of war, 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 x pulled close about
his face, but denied that he was of the design ; yet
after, upon trial at a court-martial, he was con
demned and executed. The governor had sent out
some horse and foot,2 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, Salusbury, 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

1 A kind of cap so called.
2 " Six score of his own and the Major's foot, and Cap
tain White's and Captain Palmer's horse." — Note-Book.

1644.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 315
forty shillings and odd money ; which the soldiers,
being madded at, 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 determined by the
unanimous vote of all but Mr. Salusbury, 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 Salusbury
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 them that sat there.
After this, about eighteen of the lieutenant-colonel's
men went out and met twenty-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,1 that though the
number was unequal, they would fight with them ;
and passing 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 gentlemen, who having
enlisted themselves in the prince's own troop, after
1 " After some scolding." — Note-Book.

316 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1644.
the death of Sir Thomas Biron that commanded
under the prince, were assigned to my Lord Went
worth, at which being discontented, they were now
returning into their own country, being almost all
of them gentlemen. Sir Richard Biron, for his
brother's memory, exchanged them for prisoners
of Nottingham, taken when the town was first
surprised.1 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.2 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

1 These Nottingham prisoners had been confined in
Pontefract Castle. — Note-Book.
2 " On the fast day the national covenant was generally
taken throughout the whole garrison : the women and those
that were not soldiers took it at their parish churches.
After the sermon, which in every church was made pur
posely for that occasion, all the soldiery, both horse and
foot, were drawn forth into the field, and after the covenant
being read and prayer made in three several places, the
governor and every captain in the head of their companies,
with all their soldiers, solemnly took the covenant, and to
express their joy, there was a general shout throughout the
whole field, and a psalm sung, after which they went all
according to their several companies into the town and
subscribed it." — Note-Book, 55 a.

1644.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 3 1 7
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 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,1 and then marching to no
purpose against it, lost his opportunity of taking ;
yet God, by a providence, gave it up with 200 men
that kept it to the parliament's forces, who, had
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 ; themselves
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

1 "They should have marched the next day, but Sir
Edward Hartup had more mind to drink, and went not till
Friday." — Note-Book.

o

1 8 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1644.

to the town side and gave a strong alarm,1 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 was 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 intreated 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

1 "They all being drawn out and come as far as the
Lings." — N ote-B 00k.

i644.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 319
so refractory to commands, and so piquing in all
punctilios of superiority, that it galled the poor old
gentleman to the heart ; who, having commanded
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 vain contentions ; whereas, had they
joined in the assault when he then would have
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 testified, 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 parliament. Sir John said he would
not injure him so much as to make any such certi
ficate of a thing not called into question ; but if
there should be any doubt of it, he should be ready

320 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1644.
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 Leicestershire the
whole country rose with him, and the governor of
Leicester brought out foot and cannon to assist
him.1 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

1 This account of the behaviour of Sir E. Hartup (or
Hartopp) is confirmed, with additional details, in the pam
phlet entitled, " A brief relation of the siege at Newark, as it
was delivered to the Council of State at Derby House by
Lieutenant-colonel Bury, whom the Earl of Manchester
sent to report." Hartup returned towards Newark on
Tuesday night, and the battle took place on Thursday.

1644.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 321
Jammot, that 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 forces, discouraged at
this carriage, returned to their garrisons and
marched no more with him.1
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

1 In Whitelock'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. — J. H.
VOL. I. X

322 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1644.
was late upon Wednesday night when the governor
came home, and was certainly informed that Prince
Rupert was, that afternoon, marched by to raise
the siege with about six thousand men.1 Immedi
ately the governor sent two men, excellently well
mounted upon his own horses, to carry the alarm
to Sir John Meldrum, who by two of the clock on
Thursday morning delivered him their letters, and
he presently prepared to fight with the prince, who
about nine or ten of the clock came. Sir John had
drawn all his ordnance into the walls of a ruined
house, called the Spittle, and the horse were the
first to charge the enemy.2 Colonel 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 they ever
charged, and left Colonel Thornhagh engaged, with
1 See the pamphlet entitled, " His Highness Prince
Rupert's Raising of the Siege at Newark, March 21, 1643.
Written by an eye-witness to a person of honour."
2 " The Spittle or Exeter House, a little more than
musket-shot from the town." — Prince Rupert's Raising of the
Siege, Sec. In the account of the former siege, in February
1643, it is described as, "the Earl of Exeter's House, which
was an hospital heretofore dependent on the see of Lincoln,
but now assured upon the family by an Act of Parliament
made this session."

1644.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 323
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 Derbyshire major, to be their
commander. Colonel Thornhagh was sent home
in a wagon to Nottingham. Sir John himself,
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.1 The horse that were
1 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. — J. H.

324 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1644.
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
endeavouring 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 discovering 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.1 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,
1 The Note-Book speaks of "squibs that should go off
like muskets." In Colonel Bury's narrative the conduct of
this detachment in thus abandoning the bridge is severely
censured.

i644-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 325
for had they stayed the choicest arms in the garri
son had been lost, and the best and most confiding
soldiers disarmed. For Sir John 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 prince
broke all these conditions, and pillaged them to
their shirts, and sent many captains quite naked
away.1 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,
1 In the royalist narrative it is stated that "for the
horsemen's carrying away their arms, and others their
pikes, with more than was conditioned, our unruly soldiers
(especially those that had been so before used at Lincoln
by the Parliamenteers), taking this occasion to quarrel with
the rebels, took more from them than by the articles they
should have done : but for this were divers of them slashed
by the prince, and the rebels' colours sent back unto them."
The arms taken were, according to the same authority,
"between three and four thousand muskets, and a great
quantity of pikes and pistols, also eleven fair brass pieces,
two mortar pieces, and one basilisk of Hull."

o

26 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1644.

and raised a fort in the midst of the meadows to pre
serve the float, and fortified the Trent bridges more
strongly ; and, expecting the enemy every hour, was
forced to let the work go on all 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 inso
lence, as he and his men were, all the time of this
great exigence, so backward that they were rather
an obstruction than assistance, and there was
much ado to get them either to the works or the
guards. Indeed such a blow was given to the
parliament interest, in all these parts, that it might
well discourage the ill-affected, when even the most
zealous were cast down and gave up all for lost ;
but the governor, who in no occasion ever let his
courage fall, but, when things were at the lowest,
recollected 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
malign ants 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

i644-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 327
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 committee, yet some of them, who were
loath the town should lose any that wished ill to
the governor and his undertakings, privately, with
out 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 Gainsborough, Lin
coln, and Sleaford ; 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.1 To which the governor returned them
answer, that as he never engaged himself in this

1 This letter, together with a letter from the governor of
Nottingham Castle, was read in the House of Commons
on March 29th, and referred to the committee of both
kingdoms. I have not been able to find them. Colonel
Hutchinson's answer was amongst the letters in the posses
sion of Warburton,. when he wrote his "Life of Prince
Rupert" (see vol. i., p. 520), but it did not pass into the
possession of the British Museum as many of those papers
did.

328 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1644.
service, with respect to the success or actions of
other places, so though the whole kingdom were
quit besides 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 after vindicate
him to have been a defender, and not a destroyer
of his country. The copy of the letter which the
Newark commissioners 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 condition 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 re
turned 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 threaten-

i644-l Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 329
ing danger.1 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 it ; 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 which he, by the instigation of
the ministers and the godly people, whom they
animated almost to mutiny, had put them, for sepa
rating from the public worship, and keeping little
conventicles in their own chamber. It was with
some reluctancy 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
1 Rupert returned by way of Shrewsbury and Hereford,
reaching Oxford on April 25th, to take part in an important
council of war. Clarendon says he was called away from
Newark by the Earl of Derby's appeals for the relief of
Latham.

330 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1644.
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.1
1 The chief of these cannoniers was that Lawrence
Collin mentioned in a former note. He continued at
Nottingham after all the wars were over, but being perse
cuted on account of his religion, applied to Cromwell for
protection, and was effectually screened by him from 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 an ti- revolutionist party, while the Plumptres
and Hutchinsons embraced the Hanover or Whig party, as
mentioned in the note, p. 190, just spoken of.
Since the publication of the first edition, there has ap
peared a very candid critique of this work in the Annual
Review for 1806, 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 which he claimed for himself."
The Editor thought it his duty, upon this suggestion, to

1644] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 331
It will not be amiss, in this place, to carry on
the parliament story, that we may the better judge
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, &c.
make further inquiry, and has in pursuance of it been fur
nished 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 offer
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"
Sewell's 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:'—]. H.

\

332 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1644.
The Earl of Essex's army lay sick about London
for recruits ; Sir William Waller, after many vic
tories 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,
that they were advanced into Nottingham and Lin
colnshire, and the adjacent counties. The parlia
ment, 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 cessation of
arms with the Irish rebels, and brought over the
English army, that had been honoured with so
many successes 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, disdain
ing 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

i644-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 333
for ever lost that opportunity he lately had of
marching up to London, and in probability of sub
duing the parliament. My Lord Newcastle, 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 successes
with 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.1
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,
1 The first battle of Newbury took place on September
20, 1643 ; the defeat of the Irish army at Nantwich, January
25, 1646 ; Waller's victory at Alresford, March 29, 1644 ;
Essex's surrender in Cornwall on September 2, 1644 ; and
the battle of Marston on July 2, 1644.

0OL

Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1644.

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 fighting. 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, hav
ing 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 Marston 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

1644.] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 335
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 York
shire, 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 parliament, but to no purpose ; for
the king's false dealing and disingenuity therein
was so apparent that they came to nothing, but a
further discovery of the king's falsehood, and favour
of the Irish rebels, with whom he now employed
Ormond to treat and conclude a peace. This treaty
was that at Uxbridge, 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 prevail for the accom
plishment of his own ends.1
1 Whoever will take the pains to read the king's letters in
Clarendon's State Papers, will see that this is a true repre-

336 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. [1644.
It was too apparent how much the whole parlia
ment cause had been often hazarded, how many
opportunities of finishing the war had been over-
slipped by the Earl of Essex his army ; and it was
believed that he himself, with his commanders,
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 shame, 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 parlia
ment, of both houses, were discharged of their
commands in the army. Cromwell had a particular
exception, when Essex, Manchester, and Denbigh,
surrendered their commissions ; and Sir Thomas
Fairfax was made general of the new-modelled
army, 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 to the dis-

sentation of his sentiments ; but Heylin pretends the failure
of the treaty arose from the extreme pertinacity of the rigid
presbyterians : we may very well allow both their share.
-J. H.

1 644-] Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 337
tracted kingdom, and accordingly it succeeded in
their hands.1

1 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 wqre 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 par
liament 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 happi
ness, 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. — J. H.

VOL. I.

APPENDIX.

Fold out

APPENDIX.

Extract from the preface of the Rev. fulius Hutchinson to
the first edition of the Memoirs, giving an account of
the descendants of Colonel Hutchinson.
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 accident 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. Hutchinson, addressing one of her
books of devotion to her daughter, Mrs. OrgiU, 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.

342 Appendix.
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
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 obtained
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 Notting
ham 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
connexions 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
Hampshire, 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 tradi
tion 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 memorandum 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
assistance, from the mention Mrs. Hutchinson makes of her
husband's debts, and from an expression contained in that

Appendix. 343
book which she addresses to her daughter, Mrs. OrgiU
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 ex
cite 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.

II.
A true relation of some remarkable passages concerning the
Nottinghamshire Petition, &c, written from an
Esquire of Nottinghamshire {being one of the gentle
men who presented their petition at York), and sent to
his brother dwelling in London.
" Loving Brother, — I was this last week at York, with
twenty gentlemen more and divers others, to deliver a peti
tion to his majesty, which was done on Thursday last
being the last of March ; and Lincolnshire delivered one
on Monday before : Yorkshire delivers one about Tues
day next, and Derbyshire about Wednesday, or Thursday
next ; all which are much tending to one effect, that is,
humbly to entreat his majesty to abide near, and hearken

344 Appendix.
to his parliament, and to remove evil counsellors from about
him, with some other things. I have copies of them all, but
they are too long for me to copy out at this time ; ours I am
confident John Drewrey showed you the last week, if not,
Master Fakingham can show it you, and you may show him
this answer given to us under the secretary's hand with his
majesty's direction, and it is the very same Lincolnshire
gentlemen received from his majesty to their petition.
Yorkshire it is said will appear fourteen thousand in person
to avow theirs — the sheriff is a chief man in it. Derby is
said to be three hundred at least — the sheriff, baronets,
knights, esquires, gentlemen, and others. Lincolnshire, Sir
Richard Earle delivered it with some twenty gentlemen of
quality, who were scoffed at by the courtiers and citizens
and called Roundheads ; they lay in York on Sunday, being
coronation day, where was bonfires made and much disorder ;
and about midnight that night, about three score persons
with clubs and bills assaulted the house where they lay, and
swore they would have the bloods of them ; the gentlemen
being up, and the rogues got into the house, they were
forced to put out their lights, and betake themselves to their
swords, which done the unknown rascals departed, giving
threatening speeches that they would cut the throats of them
that came next ; yet I praise God we had reasonable fair
quarter with them. The city of York we perceive offers
these abuses to petitioners on purpose to deter them for
coming to the king, because they would have (him) reside
with them ; those that are well affected (which are but few
in comparison of tne multitude) do join with us willingly
and freely, both in judgment and matter. The court is very
thin as yet, but increaseth daily. The latter declaration
mentioned in our answer is not yet in print ; the king's first
answer was, he refers us to the Kentish petition, but we
pressing for a further and more satisfactory answer, had as
you may here see with hopes still of a better. The Kentish

Appendix. 345
petition was ordered to be printed, but speeding so badly at
London, it is stopped as yet ; much more I could tell you
but my occasions will not permit me, therefore with our best
affections to you all, I commit you to the Lord's protection
and rest — Your ever loving brother, while
Joseph Widmerpoole.
"Report this from me to be a true copy of our answer
there." The pamphlet also contains the Nottinghamshire Peti
tion, a brief answer from the king, and the king's message
of April 8th to the Parliament.

III.
Copy of a letter from a gentleman near Nottingham to his
friend in London.
" I received your last letter and books for which I thank
you, as also D. D. for his. I came on Wednesday night
last from the court at Nottingham, where I saw the king
set up his standard on Monday night before. The manner
thereof was this : His majesty came into the castle-yard,
accompanied with the prince, duke, Prince Robert and
Maurice his brother, the Duke of Richmond and divers
other courtiers and cavaliers, and finding out the highest
pointed hill in the yard, from whence it might be perspicuous,
the standard was brought in, and there erected. At which
time all the courtiers and spectators flung up their caps,
and whooped, crying " God save King Charles and hang
up the Roundheads," and so whooped the king to his lodg
ings. After which, the standard was thence removed to the
highest tower of the castle, where it hangs blowing, and so
must, till the king advanceth his camp forward, then it

346 Appendix.
removes with him. It is a long pole, like a maypole,
painted red on the upper end, whereof hangs a large silk
flag (in form of a scutcheon), with a red cross and two lions
passant upon two crowns. The Prince Robert was next
day made general of the horse, and had a ribbon and George
delivered him ; and so had the Duke of York. And the
king made declaration that whoso would go that afternoon
with Prince Rupert against Coventry and Warwick, it
should be acceptable service. Whereupon he and divers
others went away thither, where the king had sent about
six hundred horse and foot a week before, who, on Saturday
and Sunday last, had been beaten by the men of Coventry
(who keep the Cavaliers out), having slain one, and wounded
divers of them, and themselves lost two or three. Warwick
Castle keeps them off, where twelve men have been slain,
most of the king's side. There is no considerable party at
Nottingham to do anything. Monday and Tuesday, very
few came in ; but there is great expectation of multitudes
from Wales and Westmoreland. Yorkshire stands firm.
Drums beat about Nottingham for volunteers for the king,
who will be at Lincoln this night, where all the gentry are
summoned to meet him. Troops of horse are coming to be
billeted in our county ; we fear outrages by them. They
commit rapine and spoil already about Nottingham, having
ransacked gentlemen's houses, made one Master Needham's
own cart bring away to Nottingham bedding, linen, pewter,
butter, cheese, and other things out of his house ; he is
accounted a Roundhead. So at York ; sixteen of them
beset a knight's house (whom the king had disjusticed),
broke in, sought for the knight, whom they would have slain
(as themselves declared), but he getting away (by the help
of his servants), they took £jo in money, his plate, and
divers other things, and so returned. Some of them are
apprehended. They give out that Roundheads' estates
shall be free prize ; and indeed against them is the quarrel,

Appendix. 347
whom I hope the Lord will protect. My house is much
threatened and I do verily expect an assault, for which I
have prepared to defend myself. We think the parliament
forces too slow in coming down."
Mr. Bailey, who quotes this letter in his History of Notting
hamshire, thinks that it is by Col. Hutchinson, on account
of the reference to the plunder of Mr. Needham's house
which is mentioned in the Memoirs, and the writer's own
danger.

IV.
The attempt to obtain possession of the powder in the
magazine of the county of Nottinghamshire, and other
incidents which took place during ihe king's stay at
Nottinghamshire.
Mr. Bailey in his "Annals of Nottinghamshire" (vol. ii.
p. 651) concludes that the account given in these Memoirs
of the attempt made to seize for the king's service the
powder belonging to the county, and Colonel Hutchinson's
successful intervention to save it, is entirely fictitious. He
argues that the story told by Mrs. Hutchinson contradicts
itself, because she represents her husband in one place as
interfering in time to prevent the powder being carried off,
in another as being informed of the attempt too late to
prevent it (vol. i. pp. 153-169). He also brings forward an
entry in the records of the town council, which states that
the town willingly agreed to lend the king some powder,
and asserts that this disproves Mrs. Hutchinson's narrative.
But the contradiction referred to does not in reality exist
at all. True or untrue, Mrs. Hutchinson's story is perfectly
consistent. The two passages which are cited as contradic
tory refer, not to the same, but to different events. The

348 Appendix.
first is the account of an attempt which failed, the second
of an attempt which succeeded. Nor does the municipal
record disprove Mrs. Hutchinson's statements, for the entry
in question relates to the powder of the town, whilst her
narrative relates to that of the county. That entry, on the
contrary, confirms her account, and helps to fix the date of
the events mentioned in it. The entry in the Hall Book of
the Corporation is as follows: — -"August 3d, 1642. This
company are content at my Lord Newark's motion, to lend
out of the town's magazine one barrel of powder, which is
promised to be returned again within ten days next ensuing,
and also by a note under Sir Nicholas Byron's hand, in Mr.
Mayor's custody." In the dialogue between Lord Newark
and Mr. Hutchinson, the former states that the town have
cheerfully lent the king a barrel of powder, therefore this
attempt to obtain possession of the powder of the county
probably took place about the middle of August. Charles
arrived at Nottingham from York on August ioth, and
set out again on the 18th for Warwickshire. On the
20th he made his unsuccessful attempt to enter Coventry.
It was most likely during the interval between August 3d
and August 20th that the unsuccessful attempt to ob
tain possession of the powder took place. Vicars in his
" Parliamentary Chronicle," and several newspapers of the
time,1 mention the king's unsuccessful endeavours to secure
the aid of the Nottingham train bands, and the use of their
magazine for this expedition. A contemporary pamphlet
entitled " The King's Majesty's proposition to the Gentry and
Commonalty of Nottingham " (in the Thomason Collection
in the British Museum, E. 116) says : —
"The king's most excellent majesty having within a few
days taken into consideration the great and manifold pre
parations that are now making for war here in the south,
1 e.g., "Special Passages," No. 2, August 16-23.

Appendix. 349
and in divers places of this kingdom, and being informed
of some of his council of the proceedings in Warwickshire,
forthwith resolved to send some aid to the Earl of Nor
thampton, so that he might by that means the better perform
the trust reposed in him, and to that end his highness
intended to send out warrants to all the adjoining counties
for their appearance, to aid and assist his majesty therein,
but the greatest part refused to come to obey the warrant.
His royal majesty being somewhat displeased thereat, that
they should deny to obey his command, sent out a strict
command that they should resign up their arms, and restore
them to those which he had appointed to take charge of
them ; and having a great confidence of his subjects of
Nottingham, thought it meet and expedient to desire the
aid and assistance of the trained band of that city to guard
his royal person towards Coventry, and to that end pro
pounded these following propositions to them, viz. : —
" 1. That they would be pleased to go along with him
towards Coventry in Warwickshire, for the aid and assist
ance of his royal person against all those that should
presume to oppose him.
" 2. That his majesty desired all his loving subjects of that
county to make their appearance at Nottingham, where his
majesty hath now set up his standard, to assist him against
the rebels (meaning the parliament's forces), but the county
refused the same, vowing to lose their dearest lives in the
defence of his royal majesty and the parliament against the
bloodsucking cavaliers.
" 3. His majesty propounded unto them, that the trained
band of that county might go along with him, to guard his
royal person from his foes and enemies, but they utterly
denied these his majesty's demands, and would by no means
condescend thereunto.
" 4. His majesty desired that they would be pleased to lend
him the magazine of the said county, promising to see them

350 Appendix.
have it again ere long time, but they likewise denied this
his majesty's request, and would not give their consents
that it should be transported out of their own county."
Thus Mrs. Hutchinson's statement that an attempt was
made by the king to obtain the powder in the county
magazine is confirmed, though she doubtless exaggerates
the part played by Mr. Hutchinson in protecting it.
The newspaper which bears the name of " Special Passages"
supplies many details respecting the king's stay at Not
tingham. It mentions amongst other things the plunder of
Mr. Millington's house, and another paper names Mr. Piggot
as a sufferer. The successful attempt to obtain possession
of the powder doubtless took place after the raising of the
standard, when the king had collected two or three thousand
men, and disarmed the trained bands. The Memoirs, how
ever, seem to fix it as taking place directly the king's soldiers
came to the town. " Special Passages," No. 3 (August 22-29),
states that after the setting up of the standard, " the cavaliers
having disarmed all the townsmen that had arms sent them
from the parliament, three householders refusing to deliver
arms which they bought with their own money -were com
mitted to the castle." But the general disarmament of the
Nottinghamshire trained bands took place later. A letter
dated Northampton, September 12, gives the following
account of it (A Continuation of our Weekly Intelligence
from his Majesty's Army).
From its full knowledge of events at Nottingham, it is
possible that this letter may have been written by Colonel
Hutchinson, who left Nottingham a few days earlier, and,
after passing a little time in Leicestershire, visited Essex at
Northampton. " My good Friend,— I sent fuller, but it was intercepted
in the way. In brief, the king wants money, the pay is
nothing but dollars, the town is forced to take that for six

Appendix.

3o*

shillings which is not worth five shillings, — besides the king
called the gentry of that shire together to desire of them
five hundred pounds, a relic of ship-money left in the then
high sheriff's hands, the beginning of parliament : the middle-
sized gentry, though they made appearance, were not called
up, did not give their consent, being discontented ; however,
the five hundred pounds was taken. Many of the king's
servants go away for want of pay ; for ordnance there is no
more noise of any, only I hear an inkling, as if they were
making some iron ones ; for foot they have some more ; the
king desired to see them complete, there were of them nigh
three thousand, men and boys, but not above half armed,
and eighty of them were hired for one shilling a man for a
day, and to mend the matter, to deceive to the full, they
gave up in a list to the king five thousand. The parliament
army disquiets Nottingham, and so they are resolved to go
further off, to Derby first and then westward, and perhaps
north-west too therefrom. I do believe it is yet to be
resolved. It is sure two pieces of ordnance went to Derby
on Wednesday last, some arms and ammunition ; on
Saturday it was expected more should go, and this day the
king was to go ; whether to return it is not yet resolved,
but it is most probable they will leave Nottingham. They
threaten to pillage it before they take their leaves, and some
rascals talk of worse, but sure they dare not do it. The
king soon moved the trained bands of Nottinghamshire, the
appearance was thin ; they told him (he told them ?) he
never received so much loyalty and affection from any
county ; and though he called them to appear in person
with their arms, yet because of harvest, and because of their
wives and children, it should suffice to send him their arms,
and on the word of a king to return them when he had
settled his kingdom in peace. They cried out they would
go with him ; however, their arms were commanded to the
castle for that night, and next morning they were forced to

3 5 2 Appendix.
return disarmed. So they served Leicestershire. I guess
his counsels vary, and did he know how to bestow his
ordnance, he would be altogether in a flying posture, and
turn his foot into dragooners, which yet he may do if foot
come in no faster. They will incline westward or north-west,
and in the way get up what arms they can, by speeches and
perforces. Derby was forced to resign some, that shire is
righter than most. We get nothing in the counties by this
deliberation, and I find, if they were not seeing people,
they would to the cavaliers, as Nottingham and such towns,
when promises have been made in vain." . . .

Sir fohn Gell.
Mrs. Hutchinson's account of Sir. John Gell has been
often quoted and often criticised, and seems therefore to
demand an examination. The first two charges relate to
his treatment of Sir John Stanhope. It should be remem-'
bered that Sir Thomas Hutchinson's second wife was the
daughter of Sir John Stanhope, and that Sir John Gell's ill-
treatment of a person so nearly allied to Mrs. Hutchinson
might well incline her to look on all his actions with con
siderable prejudice. Sir John Gell was Sheriff of Derby
shire in 1635, and in that capacity had to raise ^3500 from
the county. Mr. Garrard in one of his letters to Stafford
(Jan. 8, 163!, Stafford Correspondence, vol. i., p. 505) gives
the following account of Stanhope's case : — " Sir John Stan
hope was sent for up by a sergeant-at-arms, his misde
meanour thus : the Sheriff demanded of him what he was
assessed at for the shipping-money. He answered he had
no money, but offered to show him plate or cattle : the

Appendix. 353
sheriff took some cows to raise the money and drove them
away, not putting them off suddenly he sold them under the
money Stanhope was set at, so comes again to drive more.
Sir John Stanhope, a choleric man, withstands the sheriff's
bailiffs, gives them ill words, and he and his men rescue the
cattle from them. He is not yet come to answer this : the
sergeant returned with affidavits from the neighbour justices,
that he is so afflicted with the stone and pains of the gout,
that he cannot stir without danger of his life." This account
is confirmed by the notices in the Calendars of Domestic
State Papers for the years 1635 and 1636. Sir John Stan
hope being unable to appear before the council, entered into
a bond to conform to their orders, and paid eight pounds,
which may have been the sum at which he was originally
assessed or the balance due. Sir John Gell himself claims
(March 14, 1636) that he was specially considerate in the
levy of ship-money : " he had special care that the poorer
sort paid nothing at all, and that those who were in debt, or
had charge of children, to their desire, and any other that
came or sent to him was abated."
The account given of his devastations at Elvaston is thus
confirmed by " Mercurius Aulicus " for Feb. 15, 1643. From
Derbyshire the carriage and behaviour of Sir John Gell, the
ringleader of the rebels there, was certified in these words
that follow : — " Sir John Gell with his forces consisting of
about 400 men came to Elvaston in Derbyshire, an house of
the Lady Stanhope's, widow of Sir John Stanhope's, to whom
Gell (though never a friend), yet in his lifetime durst not
declare himself an enemy. But after his death, making use
of the power given him by the fundamental laws of the king
dom, he plundered his house of all the arms, money, and
goods of worth he could find, to the value of ,£1500. Not
contented with this, and to make it more plainly appear that
his coming was as much for malice as plunder, he went into
the garden (in which the good lady, taking very much
vol. 1. 7.

354 Appendix.
delight, had made it a very pleasant place, with handsome
walks and diversities of the best flowers), which he caused
to be digged up, and utterly ruined. He left not here, but
to add more to her vexation, and to please himself in doing
mischief, he went into the church, where she had lately
erected a tomb for her husband which cost her ^500, that
he caused to be demolished, and the stones to be broken
into several pieces, that no possibility was left to repair it.
But his act of greatest inhumanity was to go with his
soldiers into the vault, where the dead of the family were
usually buried, and to run their swords through their dead
bodies." Gell's soldiers, like most of the local levies of the
parliament, were badly disciplined and very irregularly paid ;
they were therefore generally obliged to subsist by requisi
tions, and "lay upon free quarter," as they did whilst at
Nottingham. Sir John Gell in his "True Relation" of his
services admits, whilst endeavouring to excuse, the plunder of
the Earl of Chesterfield's house at Bretby. A letter of the
2d January, 1643, from the inhabitants of various villages in
Derbyshire, accuses him of plundering many other royalist
gentlemen. It is given in the Appendix to Glover's Derby
shire. Mrs. Hutchinson also accuses Gell of cowardice at the
battle of Hopton Heath, when "some that knew him well
said his men held him up, among a ^stand of pikes, while
they obtained a glorious victory." It is only fair to quote
Gell's own account of the battle. The horse with the ex
ception of about 200 troopers fled and left the foot to con
tend against the Earl of Northampton's victorious cavalry.
" Our colonel quit his horse and went to the foot, being then
in great fear and disorder, many of them ready to run and
standing with their pikes advanced : the colonel, with his
own hands, put down their pikes, encouraged both them and
the musketeers, who were all disorderly crowded together ;
he speedily got them into order and gave the enemy such a

Appendix. 355
volley of shot upon their charge that they first wheeled . . .
and presently fled." The charge of cowardice is not sup
ported by facts, nor by probability. Gell seems, in short, to
have resembled his own soldiers, " good, stout, fighting men,
bul licentious, ungovernable wretches."
Another charge which Mrs. Hutchinson brings against
Gell is that he pensioned the diurnal-makers in order to pur
chase himself a name. Such an accusation it is impossible
to prove or disprove. It is certain that Gell is more often
mentioned in the diurnals than his services seem to merit,
and that very small exploits of his are recorded at dispro
portionate length. It is worth remarking also that the
paper entitled " Perfect Occurences " possessed, at least
during 1644, a correspondent at Derby who hardly allowed
a week to pass without a letter about the doings of Sir John
Gell, and even chronicled his capture of Major Hacker's
charger. Two accounts of Sir John Gell's services were drawn up
under his own supervision and are printed in the Appendix
to Glover's Derbyshire. One of them is also printed in
the Ninth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical
Manuscripts, together with numerous extracts from the
Gell Papers at Hopton Hall. Gell's narratives supply many
valuable illustrations of Nottinghamshire history during this
period, but they are both avowedly of the nature of apologies,
and therefore to be used with caution.

356 Appendix. VI.
Six Letters relating to the proposed treaty of neutrality for
Notts. Dec. 1642.
From MSS. in the British Museum, No. 25,901.

Sir John Digby, his summons.
For his honoured friends I sham Perkins and John Hutchin
son, Esq., or to either of them this with speed.
Sir, — Upon conference with divers gentlemen we
thought it very convenient that the justices of this county
should meet together to confer of such things as may best
tend in these sad times to the peace and safety of this county.
Wherefore I have thought it my part to request you whose
names are here underwritten to give me meeting at the sign
of the Talbutt, Newark, upon Tuesday the tenth of this
month. There we may together confer of such things as may
be fittest both according to the law of the land and the law
of nature, for the defence of our country and safety of our
persons and estates. — Hoping hereof you will not fail, I rest
your assured loving friend, John Digby.
December "]th, 1642.
Postscript. — For Isham Perkins, Esq., and John Hutch
inson, Esquire. I have sent the like intimation to all the
Justices of Peace.
For John Hutchinson, Esquire, at Nottingham.
Sir, — We received a letter from the high sheriff, Sir
John Digby, dated the 9th of this month, importing his
desire of a meeting of all the justices of this county, to con
sider of such things as might be fittest for the peace and

Appendix. 357
safety of this county, and safety of our persons and estates,
to which effect he informs us he also writ to you. Accord
ing to which his letter, we, whose names are here under
written, did meet in hope of an universal concurrence of the
whole body of the county to so pious a work, which might
avoid the effusion of blood, preserve our estates in peace for
the present, and prevent factions for the future in our pos
terities, but unhappily we find here a slender appearance.
The cause hereof we cannot guess, unless it be the report of
some small forces which Mr. Sheriff hath brought here for
the guard of his own person, and this meeting, for which he
hath good cause, as he hath made appear to us and will like
wise to you upon your meeting ; which force, if you please
to give a meeting, shall be forthwith removed, with assur
ance upon our honour and reputation that no other shall be
raised, if you, likewise, will give assurance upon your honour
and reputation that none of your forces shall stir, nor any
other by you be brought into this county during the present
treaty; and if you please to come to this town, where we stay
your answer, we shall give you the same assurance of safety
both in coming hither, staying here, and returning, and if
you shall think any other place more fit we shall meet you
there, first receiving upon your honour and reputations the
same assurance of safety. We profess before Almighty God
we are here, as loyal hearts to his majesty, faithful hearts
to the parliament, and compassionate hearts for the peace
of this county, and if you shall meet us with the like we hope
God will be with us, and his blessing.
Chaworth.
Thomas Williamson.
Robert Sutton.
Matthew Palmer.
Roger Cooper.
John Millington.

358 Appendix.

For the Honourable the Lord Chaworth and the rest of the
gentlemen at Newark.
Sirs, — We do most joyfully receive your most favourable,
and we are confident real, expressions of regard to us, and
especial care of the general peace and safety of this county,
which we take God to witness was the first ground of the
course we are now in, and the only end of the same, wherein
we beseech God to send us success answerable to the integ
rity of our hearts. For our giving you meeting we are most
willing to do the same in any place secure, which we are
assured will be to us wheresoever you shall pass your honour
and reputations for our safeties ; but yet we conceive no place
so fit for the business we all intend as this town of Notting
ham, being the county town, where we assure you upon our
honour and reputation, you shall not only receive a free and
glad admittance, a welcome continuance, and a friendly
return, but a most friendly concurrence of us in all things
for the public good. Although we were making us ready, as
well for our own safeties, as also for the mutual assistance
of those counties, when it shall be required, with which we
have entered into an association, yet we had not so speedily
set ourselves in this posture, had not a late warrant of so
strange a nature issued forth through this county from Sir
John Digby, and certain information being given us of a
great force which he commanded to attend him from Mans
field to Southwell and Newark, and as we were further
informed from thence to Nottingham, which put this town
and the places adjacent into a great trouble and amazement;
which said posture, though most sorry for the occasion
thereof, we cannot decline for the reasons herein specified ;
yet we intend not thereby the least disturbance of any of you
performing, as we hope you will, all good offices in your
power for the good and tranquillity of this country; in full

Appendix. 359
testimony whereof we do earnestly entreat you to lay aside
all endeavours of raising a force in the country, and do us
the favour to let us attend you at the place formerly desired,
and then we do heartily wish and shall faithfully endeavour
a perfect union and harmony in this whole county for our
mutual defence in these miserable distractions. The town
of Nottingham do most joyfully concur with us in the said
course, as it may appear to you by a letter from the town of
Nottingham to the corporation of Newark. We do earnestly
entreat your speedy answer. Francis Pierrepont,
John Hutchinson.

To the Honourable Francis Pierrepont, and our noble friend
John Hutchinson, Esquire.
Your kind entertainment of our letter we are exceeding
glad of, such is our zeal to the peace of this country. This
our intended meeting by God's blessing will uphold us, even
as it were now sliding into blood and faction, which meeting
that it may be most free and all scruples be removed, we
have entreated two gentlemen, namely, Mr. John Wood and
Mr. Robert Butler, of known moderation and discretion, to
bring to us from you an explanation of one part of your
letter, which seems to be conditional, which words are, " that
we intend not hereby the least disturbance of any of you
performing, as we hope you will, all good offices in your
power by the tranquillity of this county;" by which words of
your letter, you seem to us to be the judges whether we, or
any of our carriage, be or have been, such as be good offices
for the tranquillity of this county, for if they be not so
esteemed by you we put ourselves under your power, you
keeping yourselves in your posture of force. Sir, for the
place, though it be out of our county and that, an indif-

360 Appendix.
ferent place was most fittest for all, yet such is our desire for
the peace and quiet of this county as we shall comply with
your desires, and, though all our hearts tell us there is
nothing why we should doubt, yet discretion certainly bids
us desire a clear explanation of those words. Then, sir, we
or at least two of us, come to you what day you please with
hearts full of hope for the public, and rest with our prayers
to God for a blessing.
Chaworth.
Thomas Williamson.
Matthew Palmer.
Roger Cooper.
Robert Sutton.
December the l$lh, 1642. JOHN MILLINGTON.

To our honourable good friends Francis Pierrepont and
John Hutchinson, Esquires, these present.
Honourable Sir, — Nothing but peace, nothing but the
safety of the county is intended by us, we protest before
Almighty God ; the hopes of which was near lost yesternight
if this town had been surprised by some troops of Lincoln
shire horse who presented themselves near the town; to pre
vent which and to preserve this much threatened town from
foreigners, and the county from this barbarous and never
enough to be hated plundering, the truth is we were not
unwilling to continue those forces sent into this town by the
Lord of Newcastle his excellency ; which upon the settle
ment of peace among us we hope we shall be able to prevail
with his excellency to remove, or place others, or none at
all, as we shall agree for the peace of the country. Sir,
unless you otherwise dispose we will wait on you at the lodge

Appendix. 36 1
formerly appointed, betwixt ten or eleven of the clock or
thereabouts, to-morrow, and we do engage our reputations
that you shall have all safety, in coming, staying, and return
ing, and the same assurance, sir, we desire to have from you,
though we hope it is needless from any of us, our hearts
being so full of integrity to the happy issue of this work
which, all other, set aside, is the sole aim and shall be endea
vour of your friends and servants, John Digby, Vic. Com.
Roger Cooper.
Gervase Eyre.
Robert Sutton.
Newark, John Millington.
230? December 1642.
Postscript. — Noble Sir, — Upon the honourable parole of
a gentleman from me and my troops, you shall be safe to
come and go to the place appointed during the time of the
treaty. This I underwrite with my hand,
J. Henderson.

To the Honourable Mr. Francis Pierrepont, and to our noble
friend John Hutchinson, Esquire.
Honourable Sir, — Your being upon the place, as it
justifies you, so it may seem to lay some weight upon us.
Give us leave to assure you that we are neither so uncivil to
yourselves, or so careless of our country's peace, as to have
made the least fail of our parts, but the truth is we received
not your letter until four of the clock yesterday, the hour
being one, so as at that distance there was no possibility left
us either to come or to send our excuse, not being certain of
your being there, and, however, certain that you would be cer-

362 Appendix.
tainly gone before we could make any address to you. Now
we have thus excused ourselves, we shall send the gentleman
who you pleased- to propose in your letter, to you, from
whom we may receive what time and place you please to
appoint, which by God's leave we will not fail to attend, nor
in the meantime to supplicate the great God of peace so to
direct our meeting as may be to His glory, the peace of this
country, in which if we be so happy for the public we shall
not fail of the blessing of peace-makers. We shall trouble
you no more at this time, but wait your resolutions, and rest
your assured friends and servants,
Chaworth. Robert Sutton.
Gervase Eyre.
Newark, John Millington.
December 24th, 1642.
Postscript. — Though a day's loss of time is very consider
able in this great business, yet in respect to morrow is Christ
mas day, we shall spend it in our devotions for a blessing to
our endeavours, and not send to you until Monday morning.
[Note. — This letter was received on Christmas day at noon.]

VII.
Letter to Lord Fairfax instructing him to guard
Nottingham.
May it please your Excellence, — I am commanded by the
House of Commons to represent unto you that the town of
Nottingham is a piece of that importance, both in regard of
the pass, being seated upon the river of Trent, and in regard
of the situation in relation to the neighbouring counties,

Appendix. 363
that it much deserves your consideration for a seasonable aid
and supply. And the rather in regard that at this present
they are improved with strong force at Newark and Welbeck
and elsewhere of malignant enemies : they themselves on
the contrary are in a weak and languishing condition : it is
therefore the desire of the House unto your excellence that
you would be pleased to afford them what aid you in your
great wisdom shall think fit for the relief of their pressing
and urgent necessities. — And so I rest your very loving
friend, *  .
April 29th, 1643.
Tanner MSS.. vol. lxii. p. 87. (The signature of the
letter is missing, and the letter is probably merely a draft
of the one actually sent. ) VIII.
The rendezvous at Nottingham. May andfune, 1643.
The original design was that the troops thus collected
should, in response to repeated appeals, join Lord Fairfax
in Yorkshire (see Lord Fairfax's letter in Rushworth and
the Fairfax Correspondence). But directly they came to
gether, Hotham and the other commanders began to hesitate
and raise objections to the plan of marching unto Yorkshire,
(see the two letters of May 24th and June 2d from the
commanders at Nottingham in the Fairfax Correspondence).
Cromwell, who was eager to carry out a scheme which might
have anticipated Marston Moor, was in desperate straits for
want of money to pay and clothe his men, and obliged also
to act with the other four commanders. Whilst they still
lingered at Nottingham, uncertain whether to join Fairfax
or not, Lord Gray took the opportunity of attacking
Wiverton House. The siege is thus described in Mrs.
Hutchinson's Note-Book : — "There is a house of my Lord

364 Appendix.
Chaworth's in the Vale called Wiverton House, this place
the enemy had possessed and fortified, and done more
mischief to Nottingham, by plundering passengers, market
folks, and carriers, than ever Newark did. My Lord Gray
with all the force, which was at that time about 5000, went
against that house, and beat them from their outworks, but
left the house and marched another way. Yet within a day
or two returned again to it, and planted their cannon against
it within pistol shot, and were resolved to lie there that
night, but news was brought that all Newcastle's force was
marched out with Newark, which news, though Major
Ireton told my Lord that it would be a great deed of dis
honour to him to retreat, and that they were there able to
fight with them if they should come, yet they all drew off
and returned to Nottingham." The Memoirs mention also
that battle was offered by the enemy and refused. This
incident is thus described in the letter of the five com
manders, dated June 2d : — " Tuesday last there was towards
fifty troops of horse and dragooners appeared in a body some
four miles from this place ; and we hear behind them stood
their foot. We drew out to fight them ; but they had chosen
such a ground as we could not come to them without great
disadvantage. At night they drew away and are still with
in six or seven miles, hovering up and down the country "
(Fairfax Correspondence, Civil Wars, i. 46). The queen's
march to Newark, at which place she arrived on June 16th,
led finally, with the consent of Fairfax, to the abandonment
of the march unto Yorkshire. It became an object of the
first importance to prevent her joining the king ; meanwhile
Hotham's conduct had become too suspicious to be left
unnoticed. Mrs. Hutchinson's Note-Book gives rather a
fuller and more detailed account of the charges against him
than the printed Memoirs, but they agree in all important
points. Hotham was arrested on June 18th, escaped almost
immediately, and wrote on the 24th of June to the Speaker

Appendix. 365*
from Lincoln complaining of the treatment he had received.
From Lincoln he went to his father at Hull, where both were
seized and made prisoners on June 28th. For the charges
against Hotham see the " Commons Journals" of June 21,
" Rushworth," part iii. vol. ii. pp. 799-800, and the letters
in Sanford's " Studies and Illustrations," pp. 552-556.
On June 21, according to Dugdale's Diary, the queen's
forces attacked the parliamentary troops. According to the
statement of " Mercurius Aulicus " they took eighty prisoners
and killed fifty, " though with the loss of a noble gentle
man who was the Baron of Donaw in Germany, who was
slain with a piece of their great ordnance." This " Baron
of Donaw," or " Baron Done," as Dugdale calls him, is evi
dently Mrs. Hutchinson's Duke of Vendome's son, which is
probably a mistake for Von Dohna (see Brown's " Annals
of Newark," p. 167). The queen finally gave up the idea of
forcing her way through the enemy at Nottingham. On
Tuesday, June 27th, she wrote to the king from Newark
announcing her intention of marching on Friday ("Rush-
worth," v. 274), and on the 2d of July she took Burton,
and so made her way to Oxford, which she entered on the
14th. The dispersion of the troops at Nottingham must
also have taken place at the end of June, for it is notified in
" Mercurius Aulicus " for July 4th. It is there said that
Meldrum, with 1500 foot and seven troops of horse and
dragooners, was left in command at Nottingham.

IX.
Colonel Hutchinson's quarrel with Sir Roger Cooper.
Some days before Sir Roger Cooper had written a letter
to Mr. Wightman, Master of the Ordnance, who was his
nephew, wherein upon no occasion he had railed most

366 Appendix.
bitterly against the whole committee, and given them most
unworthy terms and speeches, which the governor, taking
himself to have interest in, after they had done speaking
with Major Cartwright about my Lord Newcastle, took
exception to take notice of, and desired Major Cartwright
to ask from him that cuckoldy ass Sir Roger Cooper, what
he had to do to abuse honester men than himself, as he
had done the committee of Nottingham in his letter to his
nephew, and said that he believed the letter was indited by
that cowardly conceited fellow his brother, himself not
having sense enough to write it, which words Cartwright
told Sir Roger Cooper, who some time after sent the
governor a challenge to meet him in single duel, but the
governor sent him another letter to tell him, that if he had
not known him too much taken up with the service of the
state, to mend such an inconsiderable thing as he was, he
durst not have written him a challenge ; that when the state
was quiet, and he had no better quarrel to venture his life
in, it would be time to satisfy him — that if he, or any of his
cavalier party, would come to Nottingham castle, he should
there receive the chastisement of his folly. — Mrs. Hutchin
son's Note Book, British Museum, Additional MSS., 25,901.

X.
For our honoured friend Gilbert Millington, Esq.
Sir, — We have been acquainted with a letter written
by Lieutenant-colonel Hutchinson (now governor of this
castle), whereby he declareth how himself and this com
mittee are straitened and deprived of that liberty they
formerly enjoyed with their families in the town ; for when
our horse dragoons and some foot were drawn out into
Lincolnshire, and but two companies left in town (not able

Appendix. 367
to defend it), and many of those soldiers so ill affected that
some are since gone to the enemy, and the greatest part of
the town so malignant, that they were ready to deliver up
the town to the enemy, had he made any attempt upon it,
we durst no longer hazard ourselves there, the watches and
guard being so neglected by the soldiery for want of pay,
but were forced to remove into the castle, and dispose of
our wives and families elsewhere. We have great cause to
second his motion for a table at the public charge, we
having hitherto sustained our wives and families out of our
own estates, more than any committee in England have
done besides ourselves (as we verily believe). We have
had our houses and grounds plundered abroad in the
country, and almost all we have taken away because we
are engaged in this service here. We are but five or six
of us, and a table for so many, with some few officers
-besides, will not much burthen the country, the charge of
the whole garrison being now contracted into a narrow
compass. We would not presume to erect a table of our
selves, without the approbation of that honourable assembly,
though there be precedent for it not far from us. We pur
pose to be as thrifty as it may be possible, so that the
charge of it will not be considerable ; it will afford us some
conveniency, which is the thing first moved us to it, and
we humbly conceive it not to be unreasonable.
Sir, we have hitherto been burthened with great and
chargeable work for fortification of the town and otherwise,
and having of a long time had no horse or dragoons to
fetch in means to defray those charges, or for the pay of
our soldiers, are now into arrear with them. If you would
therefore be pleased to move the House for some money to
be allowed us from them, though it were but ^500, we
never yet having received one penny from the parliament
(though more active than some who have wasted vast sums
and done no great service to the public), we should then

368 Appendix.
hope with God's assistance to defend this town and castle
(though we have not above three hundred soldiers), and be
able to render a good account of the trust reposed in us.
Which favours, Sir, we earnestly crave from you, whose
former readiness to do us good, doth still embolden us to
cast ourselves upon your further care of us. — Your faithful,
thankful servants,
Francis Thornhagh.
George Hutchinson.
Joseph Widmerpoole.
Nottingham Castle, T. SALUSBURY.
26A& August 1643.
The original of this letter is in the Tanner MSS. in the
Bodleian Library, vol. Ixii. p. 295.
The letter was read in the House of Commons on the 5th
September, and the request of the committee granted. —
Commons Journals.

XI.
Quarrel between the committees of Derby and Nottingham.
Derby at that time being in great danger they sent hither
for powder ; two of the committee with two troops of horse
came to borrow and convoy it, but their request for ten
barrels of powder being so unreasonable a demand out of
the store of our poor castle, the governor told them that to
spare any of their magazine in such an extremity as this
was a thing that no wise man would do, but their demand
of so many barrels was as much as they could have expected
from any magazine in the kingdom, yet so much respect he
had to them that what could possibly be spared out of the
store of the castle should be allowed them, whereupon hav-

Appendix. 369
ing spoken with the Master of the Magazine he told them
they should have four barrels, but they in a great chafe at
it flung out of the room, and went to Sir Thomas Fairfax
into the Vale. Yet the next day returning they were some
thing more calm and came and desired five barrels, which
the governor having more respect unto the public good
than to their frowardness allowed to them, but Sir John
Gell was very angry they had not their full demand, and
from that time grew into a little more strangeness with the
governor and committee of Nottingham, and they were not so
much troubled with his letters as before. — Note-Book, p. 36.

XII.
A discovery of the treacherous attempts of the Cavaliers to
have procured the betraying of Nottingham Castle,
expressed in a letter sent to Mr. Millington, and four
more at the same time.
Sir, — I have thrice been tempted upon the offers of great
rewards and honours, to betray this castle. The first was by
Sir Richard Biron, another by Mr. Sutton, both which I
acquainted the committee withal, and returned scornful
refusals unto ; but now being this third time solicited unto
it, I thought it my duty to acquaint those that have here
entrusted me, both for their satisfaction and my own dis
charge, if anything should happen to my prejudice hereafter:
for I expect that now they see their attempts in this kind
fruitless, they will as basely endeavour to blemish with false
aspersions that honesty which with bribes they cannot
corrupt ; be pleased therefore to understand the whole pro
ceeding of this last offer, and the occasion, which was this.
Colonel Dacre, one which was formerly in the north a fami
liar friend and acquaintance of my brother's, sent to me to
VOL. I. 2 A

370 Appendix.
desire that he might have the liberty to see him, to which
with the knowledge of the committee I gave consent ; and
then being in his company, he desired some words in private
with my brother, pretending a desire to be satisfied in some
doubts of his concerning this war ; but some accidents then
falling out, he was prevented of that private conference, and
therefore desired that my brother some two days after would
come to his quarters ; but he, to prevent all suspicions, would
not go, but writ him a denial : after which Colonel Dacre
writ very earnestly to him to come again, and invited
Captain Poulton to come with him ; but my brother would
not, only with the leave of the committee he sent Captain
Poulton to excuse it, of whose going we intended to make
such use, as, if we could, to discover how the enemy lay, and
what their intentions were. So soon as he came thither he
was most kindly entertained, and Colonel Dacre taking him
aside, told him, that now the governor of Nottingham and
his brother had an occasion offered to gain themselves great
honour, to do the king very good service, and to receive a
great recompense for so doing ; which he demanding how
that was, the colonel told him, that if I would deliver up the
castle, the command of it should be confirmed to me and my
heirs, I should receive ten thousand pound, and be well
assured of it before ever I delivered the castle, and that I
should be made the best Lord in Nottinghamshire, that my
brother should have three thousand pound to deliver the
bridges, and that Captain Poulton should have two thousand
pound to get this effected ; to which Captain Poulton
answered, that he thought it was an impossible thing, for
the governor had formerly been tempted with such like offers
and had refused them, that we all scorned so base an act,
and for his own part, he would starve and rot before he
would betray his trust. The colonel was further importu
nate with him, to move it to me, and " that you may," saith
he, " be better assured I do not this without commission,"

Appendix. 371
¦he then pulled out of his pocket a paper written with these
words, or to this effect—" These are to authorise Col. Dacre
to treat with Col. Hutchinson and Lieutenant - colonel
Hutchinson, for the surrendering up of the castle and bridges
of Nottingham for the service of his majesty, and to make
them large promises which shall be performed," and this
paper signed with W. Newcastle at the bottom : and he
further desired that he might but come to the castle to speak
with me. When Captain Poulton told him there was no
hope of obtaining that, he entreated him that he would but
deliver the message to me, which he told him he would do ;
and the colonel told him, that if I would not deliver the
castle, yet if he himself would but leave us, and come away,
he should immediately have a regiment of horse delivered
into his command ; and earnestly pressed that I would send
him an answer : which presently after both my brother and I
did, the copies whereof I have here sent you. There were
also two officers of Captain White's troop, whom we sent
along with Captain Poulton, whom Colonel Dacre also took
aside, and made large offers,1 both to Captain White, and
them, if they would procure him to turn to their side. But
Captain White hath so often scorned and refused such
unworthy offers, that this did but increase his contempt of
them, whose faith and honesty hath been apparently great
in this cause.
I confess, had it not been for drawing a scandal or
jealousy on myself, I would have gone so far as to have
gotten the propositions under Col. Dacre his hand, if not
under the Marquess his hand ; but this I durst not do, lest my
own honest intentions should in the mean time have been
mistaken : I therefore thought it sufficient to make it known
to the committee, and so to acquaint you with it, and withal
1 The offers to Captain White were 10,000 li. and 100 to his
officers to procure it. — (Marginal note in Vicars.)

372 Appendix.
to assure you, that were I certain we should utterly be
deserted and left (as, for any relief I yet hear of, we are like to
be, our soldiers being thirty weeks behind with pay, and the
whole country now possessed by the enemy), yet I would
maintain my faithfulness to the parliament so long as I
have one drop of blood left in me : and when I am forced to
the last extremity, I am confident God will give me strength
to maintain this Christian resolution, that I have by cove
nant both with God and man bound myself unto ; which
is that I will rather choose to die ten thousand deaths with
a clear conscience to God, and an honest heart to my
county, than sell my soul for the purchase of my life, and
all the wealth and honours this world can bestow upon
me. Your sons are both well here in the castle, and I hear
your wife is so in the county ; only I hear your goods and
corn are wholly plundered. What service I am able to do
for you here, if you please, you may command. — Your friend
and servant, John HUTCHINSON.
Nottingham Castle,
December \%th, 1643.
Postscript.— Six, just as my letters were going to Colonel
Dacre, there came one from him to Captain Poulton ; the
copy of which, with Captain Poulton's answer, I have here
also sent you — the original I preserve by me as a testimony
of their unworthy proffers. To Colonel Dacre.
Sir, — You have now convinced me of an error. I once
thought it possible that some rash misled young men might
still among the Cavaliers have retained a sense of gallantry
and honour, though no religion, and have been enriched with
those moral virtues which made the heathen famous ; such a
one I believed you to be ; but since you did attempt to buy me

Appendix. 373
to so great a villany, as you did in your late propositions by
Captain Poulton, I must needs be persuaded you would never
offer me what you yourself would not have done. 'Tis, I con
fess, strange to me you could imagine, that a Christian, a
gentleman, or a Commonwealth's-man could ever prove such
a villain as for a little gaudy dirt to sell his soul, his honour,
and his country. Perish that most contemned gain with all
that can accept or offer it ! Dacre, 'twas base in you to
think so of me ; I am sure you cannot so misinterpret any
act of mine, as to receive from it the least ground of encour
agement to such an opinion ; and had you known my brother,
you would have thought it easier for you yourself alone to
have conquered all the men now fighting in the kingdom,
than to corrupt that guard of virtues which protect his con
stant soul from treacherous thoughts. Did you think men
of sense will part with real honour for a title ? you are not
capable of a religious consideration, or I could tell you, that
our souls (redeemed with an unvaluable price) are by you
most unequally valued at a poor inconsiderable sum of
money : look upon earth and give me an example where
ever any traitor preserved his foul name from an horrid
blot of infamy on him and on his house for ever ? How
can you think, he that will by you be corrupted to betray
another's trust, will not by another be again corrupted to
betray yours ? Keep your despised coin to tempt some frail
waiting woman — it may work with her to procure such honest
things as you affect ; but desist these base attempts on men
of noble spirits, with whom they will but render you as con
temptible as your offers. Consider the unworthy message
you sent, and blush at the remembrance of your guilt in it,
and if you have so much worth left in you repent the injury
you did to him that was your friend. Farewell that name
for evermore between us, GEORGE HUTCHINSON.
Trent Bridges,
December 16, 1643.

374 Appendix.

To Colonel Dacre.
' Sir, — Your propositions sent to me on Wednesday last by
Captain Poulton (for which you showed him my Lord New
castle's commission), were so unworthy of a gentleman, so
wicked, and base, that once I thought in contempt and scorn
to have forgotten them ; yet lest my silence may receive too
favourable an interpretation from you, know and tell your
general that set you on this brave employment, that I abhor
the thought of treason to my country, though I might there
by grow as great for wickedness as he. Tell him I'll wear
no title but what my faith and virtue purchaseth, and I'll
leave my children an honest, though a small inheritance, to
whom my spotless name, not tainted with the foul blot
of treason, shall be an ornament, when the remembrance
of all treacherous apostates shall rot with infamy; and
I doubt not but my gracious prince, once cured of his
mistake, will reward my constant faithfulness to his regal
power and parliament, with a larger recompense than he
propounds for my corruption : if he do not, virtue is its own
reward. Tell your most excellent general, his threats and
promises are both alike contemptible to me ; I fear not those
and I hate these. I fight not to repair a broken fortune, but
to maintain a just quarrel ; in which may that man perish
and fall low as the depth of hell, that can be hired to prove
unfaithful. Tell him, if you dare, that it had been an em
ployment more beseeming you, or any gentleman, had he
sent you with ten thousand armed men, to assault our well-
defended walls, than with so many pieces of contemned
gold, to lay your siege against an honest heart. I could
honour an enemy for performing brave and gallant things,
but such attempts as these will render your persons as
odious to all honest men, as your rebellion : and I am sorry

Appendix. 375
you should undertake such a service, as to deserve the just
neglect and scorn of John Hutchinson.
Nottingham Castle,
December 18, 1643.
Postscript. — Pray, sir, send me word what you should have
had for the procuring this, that I may know at what rate the
enemy valueth this castle.

To his truly noble friend, Captain Poulton.
Noble Sir, — I -was in hopes to have waited on you this
day, but indeed I received an express last night from my
Lord General, wherein I am commanded to wait on his
Excellency near Chesterfield this day. Sir, I hope you
remember the business I spoke to you of when you were at
my quarter ; I will engage myself upon my life, that what I
promised shall be really performed ; if you please but to
consider and truly value the business, I make no question
but I may obtain my desires ; which I assure you is not for
any particular ends, but in the first place to serve my
gracious king and then my friends, which I will assure you
I shall ever esteem your lieutenant-colonel and yourself to
be ; desiring very much to hear from you by this bearer,
wishing us all to agree, for upon my word it troubles me to
think, that all honest men should not be of one side, which
the Lord grant that we may all be, I remaining always, sir —
Your most humble servant, Richard Dacre.
Watnell, Friday morning,
the X^th of December.
My humble service to my truly noble friend your lieu
tenant-colonel, and tell him I wish him as my own soul.

376 Appendix.

To Colonel Dacre.
Sir, — Had the Cavaliers since found out a way to perform
their promises better than they did at Bristol, Gainsborough,
&c, you might have had some hopes of a young man whose
best fortune is his sword ; but so unworthy have their deal
ings ever been, so little faith and honour do you give testi
mony of, in tempting me to act such things as gallant
men would not accept, if offered, that I must tell you these
unworthy ways you take to advance your cause, are but so
many confirmations to me in this I do maintain against you.
He that fights for honour, not for plunder, to which the
Dutch prince hath well trained all your armies, would scorn
to receive his enemy's fort on any conditions, but such as
were purchased by his prevailing valour, not undermining
treachery : to which, Sir, I am as inflexible, as you to worth
and goodness. The governor I believe and his brother have
returned you their answers, and you may in this receive
the negative resolution of, Thomas POULTON.
Nottingham Castle,
December 1 6, 1643.
The correspondence published in the contemporary
pamphlet, and in the third part of Vicars' " Parliamentary
Chronicle," is concluded in the two following letters which
are to be found amongst the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian
Library, vol. 62, p. 467.

Mr. Millington.
The messenger by whom I sent your letters staying some
what longer than I thought he would, gave me opportunity
to send you a copy of Colonel Langdale his answer to the
letters we sent to Colonel Dacre, in whose absence Sir
Marmaduke Langdale received, and opened, and answered

Appendix. 377
the letters, which answer may confirm you in the truth of
what before was written to you, by your most affectionate
friend and servant, John Hutchinson.
Nottingham Castle,
December 19, 1643.
For John Hutchinson Esquire, George Hutchinson, and
Thomas Poulton, these.
Gentlemen, — In the absence of Colonel Dacre, I have
received your letters and am sorry you so much mistake
Colonel Dacre his affection for you, in endeavouring to
draw you from that rebellious course of life you seem to glory
in. If you please to read all the histories of this nation,
from the conquest to this time, and you shall find all rebels'
pretences of taking up arms against the sacred person of the
king varnished over with the title of love to the laws of the
land, liberty of the subject and loyalty to his majesty ; yea
in those times when they deposed their natural prince and
set up others ; wherein although the event sometimes suc
ceeded for a while, yet the authors had cause commonly to
repent before their deaths ; and certainly there never was
yet law of this land, nor religion publicly professed here, did
ever allow subjects to take up arms against their natural
sovereign. For his excellency the Marquess of Newcastle,
you are much mistaken in his desire to corrupt any man. I
rather believe it was his affection to you, having known two
of your fathers, and his desire to preserve your estates that
are now in a lost condition by your own follies. For my own
part,as I am not known to you, so I should neverhave tendered
you that good offer, but will go on in that way that I doubt
not shall gain the king his right forth of the usurper's hand
wherever I find it, wherein you shall find a gentleman called
Marmaduke Langdale.
West Hallam,
December iS, 1643.

378 Appendix.
This correspondence, including the letter from Langdale,
was read in the House of Commons on December 25, 1643.
" Ordered, that Mr. Millington do write a letter of thanks
from this House to Colonel Hutchinson, for his fidelity to
religion and the parliament ; and to encourage him to per
severe in his resolutions therein ; and that this House will
not be unmindful of so deserving a person : and that he be
desired, that those records which are in Nottingham be
safely kept.
" Ordered, that the Committee for the Safety do consider
how the garrison in the castle of Nottingham may be sup
plied with all necessaries, and the care of this is especially
recommended to Mr. Millington." — (Commons Journals.)

XIII.
Town meeting at Nottingham lo decide the question of
fortifying the town.
" The governor so soon as this was concluded on called a
general and full Hall, wherein he read his commission, and
desired them to choose out some men among them to come
upon all occasions to consult with him in matter concern
ing the town, and that they might choose fit men he pro
pounded to them two aldermen, two very honest religious
men, and two neuters, rather Cavaliers than other, that so
they might be pleased of all sides ; but they on the contrary
called to their Hall Serjeant Browne, a delinquent to the
parliament, and put out these honest men, and made choice
of the most malignant among them, which choice when the
governor saw he sent them word that he could not accept
their choice, nor yet would he do anything prejudicial or
burdensome to them without their knowledge, and having
called another Hall he propounded to the town whether
they were willing it should be fortified or no, whereupon

Appendix. 379
they all in general voted it should be fortified, only Alder
man Drury and some other few malignant inconsiderable
rascals, being but a very few, voted against it. Whereupon
the works were presently set out, but the governor at that
meeting, after he had satisfied all their doubts and some
articles which they propounded to him, told them that if
they fortified the town they must beforehand weigh the
danger of it, which was that if the enemy should fall in
while the works were imperfect, which was much to be
feared they would, they still, though something further off,
continuing in the country, they would utterly spoil the town
and disenable it for ever being made a garrison any more ;
and on the other side, if it were not fortified but lay open,
then all poor tradesmen would be undone, there being no
possibility of trading in the town." — MSS. Note-Book, p.
41, a-b.
A note on p. 42 gives the further information that during
the fortification the horse were for a fortnight to have free
quarter in the town, and after that the governor had pro
mised they should not burthen it. He therefore in the
meantime caused some certain houses to be appointed for
their quarter, and a steward appointed to every house to
see the diet ordered, a whole troop being to be quartered
in every house.

XIV.
Letter to Mr. Millington, fanuary 3, 1 644.
SIR, — Though I had not in my letter to you any aim to
be made so public as I now am, but only to clear myself
from all blemishes which my concealing those offers might
have made me capable of, yet I think myself happy that by
this means the House hath been pleased to take notice of
this poor neglected garrison, which if the enemy could get

3 80 Appendix.
into their possession you may perceive they would make
much account of it ; but I shall endeavour, so far as God
enable me, to preserve it from them, and if in this low con
dition we are now reduced to we might receive some
assistance to re-establish this place in a posture of defence,
it would be a great encouragement both to the commander
and soldiers. I am now making the works, but if I cannot
procure money to pay the garrison, poverty will make us
unable to defend them. I have now in this castle five full
companies of foot in pay, besides two which are raising in
the town and two more in the country which I am con
fident will speedily be raised ; here is also four hundred
horse and more raising, but 1 assure you these that are
raised in so lamentable a condition, that they have not
money to shoe their horses, and the foot so miserably poor,
being plundered of all they have, that they are almost naked
for want of clothes, and those which have families see their
wives and children ready to perish for want. The country is
on the north side plundered by my Lord Newcastle's forces,
and so oppressed on the other side by Newark, Wiverton,
Shelford, and Belvoir, all in the enemy's hand, that it can
withal scarcely provision to supply
the garrison if we had a force able to command it. Myself
and the rest of the committee have been so plundered in our
estates, which now remain in the enemy's possession, our en
gagements and layings out above our abilities so great, that
both our purses and credits are quite exhausted ; nor did
we who are commanders and gentlemen of this county ever
yet receive a farthing of pay. Sir, it concerns me as having
this garrison in my charge to acquaint you with the condi
tion of it, and if the House would but now please to look
upon it and afford us some supply of monies answerable to
our great necessities in any reasonable proportion, I hope
by God's assistance we shall give a good account of it ; if
it were possible to obtain two thousand pounds we should I
hope be in such a condition as we should not need to crave

Appendix. 381
assistance again. We never yet received any, although
places of less consequence have had as large a proportion,
but our extremities are so great that whatever the parlia
ment please to think us worthy of would be most exceeding
welcome to us. Sir, I know your affections are so good,
and your care so great and tender of us, that I need not
press you to use your best endeavours for us ; if you can
procure us any money it will exceedingly oblige your
country to you and encourage the languishing hopes of
your assured friend and servant,
John Hutchinson.
Nottingham Castle,
January yd, 1644.
[Tanner MSS. lxvi. 224, where the letter is misdated 1641.]
This letter was read in the House of Commons on
January 15th, 1644, and it was ordered " that the monies
coming from the excise arising within the town of Notting
ham and county of the same, be allowed and designed upon
account for the maintenance of the garrison in the castle
and town of Nottingham, and that it be referred to the
commissioners of excise to take care herein."

XV.
Account of a skirmish in January 1644.
At the time that Sir Thomas Fairfax commanded out the
troop there came a woman with a note to the governor from
Sir Miles Hubbard, intimating a design he had to fall upon
Newark, and desiring that Nottingham and Derby with all
the horse and dragoons they could make would fall upon
Muscam and Kellam bridges and break them up to pre
vent any assistance from coming to them on this side.
Between Nottingham and Derby there were about 800 or

382 , Appendix.
1000 horse and dragoons prepared ready for the design, and
the plot was laid and all things necessary for the design
made ready, and it was given out that they went to Wink-
field Manor. The horse were marched out and the dragoons
horsed to follow them, when the gentlewoman came again
from Sir Miles Hubbard to let the governor know that
Newark had surprised 300 of their horse so that the design
could not go forward at that time, whereupon the governor
dismissed most of the dragoons, and sent to the horse that
they should go to Mansfield to gather a cessment (ceaze-
ment) there and to Derby men that the design held not.
The horse went to Mansfield but did not gather their cess
ment, and Captain White sent that night a messenger to the
governor to desire him to send some dragoons and some
carts to fetch away my Lord Biron's goods at Newstead,
which he did, and there the horse met them and came along
homeward with them, but when they were within four or five
miles of home the horse came all away except about forty,
whom they left with the dragoons and carriages : there were
when they were together between five and six hundred horse
and dragoons, but they had not left above six score with the
carriages and most of them dragoons without so much as a
captain with them, and in the evening as they were at
Bescod Park a hundred of the enemy's horse fell into their
rear-guard, but the dragoons got behind the pale and shot
at them, and killed four of them dead upon the place. As
the soldiers were stripping two of the slain Colonel Freche-
ville charged rashly among them, and was engaged so that
he had been taken prisoner, if his captain-lieutenant had
not ridden in and rescued him, who was himself made a
prisoner for his pains. Sir Henry Humlock was wounded
in the arm, and Frecheville cut in the hand. Some of our
horse by this time were returned to them, which when the
Cavaliers saw, without stop or stay they ran as fast as they
could.

Appendix. 383

XVI.
Two letters describing ihe attack made on Nottingham,
January 16, 1644.
Sir, — About six of the clock in the morning, Jan. 16th,
1643, the enemy faced us on both sides of the town ; and our
horse with two foot companies went to the works, but they
being a very great body, and the works not yet defensible in
many places they (to give them their due) very bravely came
on, and forced their entry into the town, and our horse and
foot were both forced to retreat to the castle, but we had
not one man slain or wounded in the retreat. Our ordnance
from the castle made a lane among them at their entry,
and our musketeers killed many of them as they retreated
into the castle. The enemy possessed themselves of St.
Peter's Church, and those houses and street ends, which
hindered our sallying out, but when our horse saw they were
able to do no service (their body of horse being far greater),
Colonel Thornhagh and all the other horse commanders
encouraged their troopers to take muskets in their hands and
serve as foot (which to their great glory they very cheerfully
and courageously did), and with a foot company joined to
part of them, sallied out and beat the Cavaliers out of the
nearest houses to the castle and possessed them. When we
saw our sally and retreat, both made indifferent safe, we drew
out two other foot companies, and all the rest of the troopers
with muskets, who went on with so great courage and valour,
that they drove the enemy before them out of the town, with
a" great deal of dishonour and confusion. We have now
eighty prisoners and all their arms, and a great many killed,
the certain number whereof I cannot relate ; divers of them
were wounded and carried dead off from the field, some

384 Appendix.
they had buried in the field before they had entered the
town ; we traced them two miles in the snow by much
blood which we found spilt, and we hear that they left dead
and wounded men in the towns as they passed. I do not
perceive that we have any prisoners above the quality of a
captain-lieutenant, but the reason is, because the com
manders ran away in such haste, that they left their own
and got troopers' horses, and took no care of their men,
but left them without command, being happy who could
first scape away. We lost not all this day but one man
slain, and two or three wounded. At last the enemy
rallied in a valley about a mile from the town (where
they had a body of horse which never came into the town) ;
we faced one another, but we, finding their body so much
exceeding all our force, would not hazard the whole garrison
upon such unequal terms ; towards night the enemy marched
away to their several garrisons. Col. Cartwright had his
.horse killed under him with a cannon bullet ; they say (but
I am not certain) that he himself is shot. That you may
know their devilishness, give me leave to acquaint you with
their design as it was related to us. They were resolved
to have surprised us this morning by two of the clock, but
the bitterness of the snowy weather which fell hindered so
speedy a march of their foot as they expected ; therefore,
failing of that, their further design was, to try if they could
get the town, which if they could, they then resolved to
summon the castle, and if they could neither win nor have
it delivered up, they resolved to plunder, and then fire the
town. To this purpose and with these threats they had
prepared a letter to send me, and when they could find
none that would venture to carry it, they seized on Mr.
Majores, and would with many threats have compelled
him to carry it to me ; one clause of it was that if I would
not send them the mayor and aldermen, nor deliver the
castle, they would proceed to plunder and fire. Before
Mr. Majores was well out of doors with his letter, there

Appendix. 385
was so quick and unexpected an answer sent them by four
hundred musketeers, which sallied out upon them, that
they were in too great haste to take with them the plunder
of the town, so that in that respect the town escaped well
and lost nothing of value ; we must acknowledge it was a
wonderful mercy of God that it escaped firing, for they
cast a many coals of fire amongst a great deal of hay, in
Captain White's quarters, and laid fire to divers houses,
and had prepared divers gorse bushes to fire, and shot
muskets and pistols into the thatch of houses as they passed
by, and into barns, but God preserved us from all these
dangers, so that though the fire was found, half an hour
after they were gone, quick in the hay, yet there was not
so much as a smoke in the town. The number of these
forces were (as near as we could guess, or find out by the
prisoners), 1500 horse and foot, being all the force that
could be gathered together from Newark, Sir Charles
Lucas, Colonel Fretchvile, with other forces drawn from
Bolsover, and Welbeck, and Shelford : they faced us on
the other side of the Trent with between two and three
hundred horse and dragoons which came from Hastings,
Belvoir, and Wiverton. By this you may see how we are
straitened and how over potent our enemies are, and you
may imagine how impossible it is for this poor garrison to
subsist without some relief of money to encourage our
soldiers, and, the truth is, to make them able to live to do
the public service. Therefore, Sir, I beseech you, prosecute
my desires in my last letter to you as the greatest service
you can do your country and obligation you can lay on
your loving friend and servant, J. H.
Nottingham Castle,
January 6, 1643.
In all this day's service we had not any assistance from
the townsmen (besides those which have all this year been
in the castle with me), though I had twice summoned them
VOL. I. 2 B

386 Appendix.
to receive arms for the defence of the town, but could not
persuade them to do it ; but now I am in some hopes that
they will by this be brought to concur more cheerfully with
me for their own defence, and that the Cavaliers (though
they have no cause to brag of this) will more dearly buy
their next entrance. I hear since that most of the enemy's
foot are run away, which were about five or six hundred ;
all their foot flung their arms away, that they might run
the lighter.
Sir, since I writ this letter I am certainly informed that
there are above a hundred Cavaliers lying dead in Thorn-
leigh and Sansom woods, and Nottingham coppice, the
weather being so sharp that their wounds bled to death,
and some of them starved with cold, and we have since
found many of them dead in the town that were wounded,
and hid themselves in houses, and there bled to death ; they
have left many wounded all along the towns as they
dispersed themselves to their several garrisons from whence
they came. The greatness of their loss is more than yet
we can discover, and what I related to you is less than we
know to be true. We have some prisoners that were in the
parliament's service in Ireland, and are now taken with the
enemy ; I desire to know the pleasure of the House con
cerning them — whether they shall be tried by a council of
war, as runaways, or exchanged, because it may be our
fortune to meet with more considerable men of the same
kind. — Your servant, J. H.
Nottingham Castle,
January 17, 164I.
On January 26th, 164^, this letter was read in the
House of Commons, and it was ordered "that a thousand
pound shall be borrowed from the monies that come in upon
the sequestrations and employed for the service of Notting
ham garrison, and paid to Mr. Millington, or such as he
shall appoint to receive the same, after that the monies

Appendix. 387
assigned to Sir Thomas Middleton and the Earl of Denbigh
out of the sequestrations shall be satisfied and complied
with." Mr. Millington was at the same time desired to write
and inquire about the prisoners taken, who had come out
of Ireland. — (Journals of the House of Commons.) Mrs.
Hutchinson blames Mr. Millington because the money
never came. The cause of this, however, was not his negli
gent prosecution, but the precedent conditions on which
the grant was made to depend.

To our much honoured friend, Gilbert Millington, Esquire,
one of the Members of the House of Commons.
SIR, — In expression of our thankfulness to God for His
great deliverance to this garrison, we desire to communicate
to yourself, and to our friends, in what manner the Lord of
Hosts was pleased to manifest Himself in our preservation
(even miraculously) from the bloody hands of a cruel and
merciless enemy, entreating you to join with us in returning
prayers (praise ? ) to his sacred name.
Sir, we drew forth the last week to meet Derby forces
upon a design, which failing, we marched to Mansfield,
and in our retreat we sequestered some of the goods of the
Lord Biron's at Newstead ; whereof Colonel Fretchvile,
and Colonel Humblock having notice, they being then
plundering about Felley, with three troops fell upon us in
our retreat ; but our horse and dragoons facing about,
engaged them, and we took one Jammot, a Wallon, captain-
lieutenant or major to Colonel Fretchvile, with three more ;
killed one lieutenant and a cornet with some others ;
wounded both the colonels, with many more, and but two
men of ours wounded, whereof one died since. In revenge
whereof, on Tuesday morning last, the enemy gave us an
alarum, and about seven of the clock approached near
the town, and being betwixt two and three thousand

388 Appendix.
horse and foot, beat in our men, and the fortifications of
the town being imperfect entered it, and forced our horse
and foot into the castle; we then immediately put mus
kets into the hands of our troopers, and by them and
some foot, possessed ourselves of some houses, which
played into the market-place, and some other parts of
the town ; then we sallied out with most of our foot,
considering, if we did not make a desperate adventure,
we were in a great hazard ; so we fell upon the enemy
in several houses, killed divers of them in the streets, in
which God's great power did wonderfully appear, for in
one house three or four of our men took sixteen, and in
another, two took six, and the like was done in divers
places, whereby it pleased God to strike the enemy with
such a terror, that they presently fled, and we pursuing
them out of the works, took about eighty prisoners, about
two hundred arms, killed above twenty in the town, besides
many who died in the retreat, as we hear above fifty, and
very many ran from their colours, and some came to us
with their arms, in all (according to our intelligence), the
enemy lost near three hundred men and arms ; in which
service we lost but one boy, two were slightly wounded,
and not one taken prisoner.
Sir Charles Lucas, who reports himself general of this
county, and Lincolnshire, did draw what force he could
from Pontefract, Wingfield Manor, Bolsover, Welbeck,
Ashby, Belvoir, Newark, Wiverton, and Shelford. Thus
they conspired our destruction, their plot being, to enter
the town, and to summon the castle, and if that was not
yielded, to plunder the town and fire it ; which accordingly
they attempted, for they put burning coals, lighted match,
and shot their muskets and pistols into the hay, in Captain
White's quarters and divers other places, but through God's
mercy the fire did not take anywhere.
This is a true relation of the passages, although sundry
reports are given out by the enemy which we know to be

Appendix. 389
various and false, as that the town did give them three or
four thousand pounds to quit it, and that they lost but three
men, and that they were commanded away by several
packets, and others of the like nature ; yet some of their
commanders who were ingenuous, did at Southwell, upon
their retreat, confess, that they had been upon most designs
with Prince Rupert, yet did never see hotter service, nor
more execution done with ordnance. We having this
experience of God's dealing with us, hope it will encourage
us, and all others engaged in this cause, to continue faith
ful to Him, which is and ever shall be, the prayers of us,
Sir, your faithful servants,
John Hutchinson.
George Hutchinson.
Joseph Widmerpoole.
Charles White.
Thomas Salusbury.
Nottingham Castle,
the 20th of January, 1643.
We are credibly informed since the writing hereof, that
Colonel Eyre of Hassop was slain, one Captain Cartwright
is not yet heard of, and Lieutenant-colonel Cartwright and
some other commanders wounded.

XVII.
The Earl of Clare prepares to make his peace with the
Parliament.
The Earl of Clare sent to the governor privately by Mr.
West to excuse his passion to him when he was in town,
and to tell him it was much for his advantage, for if he had
been more familiarly entertained the enemy was resolved

39° Appendix.
to have taken him, hearing that he was returning to the
parliament ; and as a matter of great trust acquainted the
governor that he had an intent to go immediately to
London, but that he had some things of value which he
desired to secure in this garrison, and for that purpose
wanting trunks he desired leave to carry some out of my
lady's house in this town, which he said he would con
vey privately back again with all the best things he had,
and desired that Hooper might build a room for them at
his own charge in the castle, with other contrivances that
he had to carry his daughter to London and to get thither
himself; which the governor hearing was very willing to
consent to, but that being to have been done within two or
three days the governor heard no more of him. — Note-
Book, 54-6.

XVIII.
Capture of King's Mills.
" Upon the melting of the snow there being a great flood,
the horse went out with a design to pull down Muscam and
Kellam bridges, but it was discovered to the enemy over
night, so that the design was prevented, but they went to
Aram grounds, and brought away 60 fat oxen of Sir
Richard Biron's and Mr. Sutton's and about 100 horse.
The next week Sir John Gell sent to borrow all the horse
which were sent to him, but Colonel Thornhagh being
sent for by Sir John Meldrum went himself to Gainsborough.
The horse that were at Derby marched out with Sir John
Gell, but they both lost themselves all night, whereupon
that design was broke. Yet the horse went with Sir John
Gell to King's Millnes, hard by Wilden Ferry, where there
is a very strong house, wherein the enemy kept garrison,

Appendix. 391
against which Sir John Gell had planted his ordnance on
the other side the river, where his foot also were, but his
horse and ours were all on the same side the house stood.
The weather being very tempestuous they resolved to finish
it at once, and thereupon drew out five men out of every
troop to begin the assault, these five of every troop made
thirty in all; they had attempted, but fruitlessly, to fire
the house, so these thirty men in the night got over their
works, and slided down the bank, which was very steep,
till they came just under the walls, which when they within
the house perceived they caUed for a parley, and desired to
march out with bag and baggage, but the soldiers would
grant them no conditions but to yield to their mercy, so
when they were just about to open the door by force, the
soldiers within the house let them in and yielded themselves,
there being in the house forty-seven, a captain, a lieutenant,
and two more officers.
"The captain that kept the house was Captain Daniel,
uncle to Captain White's lieutenant, who desired of Sir
John Gell that he might bring him and his lieutenant to
Nottingham, which Sir John Gell condescended unto." —
Note-Book, p. 47 a-b.

XIX.
Attempt to surprise Nottingham, February 17, 1644.
"The Kingdom's Weekly Intelligencer," February 20, 27,
164I, contains the following : — " For the plot to betray the
garrison at Nottingham it hath been already in part related.
I shall only add some part of a letter from the valiant
gentleman the governor of Nottingham, dated the 1 8th of
February, 1643, subscribed J. H., in these words : —
" ' Sir, this day God hath wrought for us a great deliver-

39 2 Appendix.
ance from a design the enemy had against our bridges,
which are the very key of our garrison ; this being the
market day, Shelford and Wiverton had chosen out thirty
of their men who in disguises should come like women and
market people, and with long knives, daggers, hatchets,
and such kind of weapons as they had hid under their
clothes, seize on the guards, and given a shout just when
they had done, and then the rest of their horse and foot
should have fallen on with those in the disguises, should
have murdered the men at the bridge, and seized upon the
gates next the town. But I, having notice of this plot,
sent over night to the lieutenant-colonel to be very careful,
and in the morning gave order that all the horse and foot
should be gotten ready, but drew them not out, because the
enemy should have no knowledge of my warning. My
brother set out the sentries beyond the bridge and took the
first twelve with their weapons, which were upon the bridge
and should first have fallen upon the guards. Our horse
went out after, but the enemy perceiving the bustling at the
bridge when the first were taken, ran away ; and in pursuit
our men took nine more, and drove nine of them into the
Trent with their captain ; the captain escaped, but five of
them were drowned, and three taken.' "
An account of this incident, rather different in the details,
is given by Vicars, " Parliamentary Chronicle," part iii.,
p. 163.

end of vol. I.

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