John Hutchinson (Colonel)

Colonel John Hutchinson

Colonel John Hutchinson (1615–1664) was one of the Puritan leaders, and a prominent Roundhead in the English Civil War to the extent of being the 13th of 39 Commissioners to sign the death-warrant of King Charles I.

Biography

John Hutchinson was the son of Sir Thomas Hutchinson (1587–1643) of Owlthorpe Hall and Lady Margaret Byron of Newstead Abbey. He was educated at Nottingham Grammar School, Lincoln Grammar School and Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1636 he entered Lincoln's Inn to study law. He became Lord of Radcliffe after the death of his father in 1643.

He was Lieut-colonel of Foot in the parliamentary forces in 1642-3 and raised to colonel in 1643-7. From 1643 to 1647 Colonel Hutchinson was the governor of Nottingham Castle. After the Civil War he was elected MP for Nottinghamshire in 1646, taking his father's seat in Parliament. Hutchinson broke partnership as a republican with Cromwell when Cromwell became Lord Protector and assumed sovereign power in all but name, and sullenly refused to be reconciled to the Protector, though he begged him towards his end beseechingly as his old comrade in arms. Colonel Hutchinson studied at Peterhouse, Cambridge,^[1] before his marriage to Lucy Apsley in London.

After the Interregnum he was also returned by Nottingham as a member of the Convention Parliament (1660) until banned by the House of Commons from any public office for his part in the Regicide. Charles II signed the Declaration of Breda which was an amnesty to all involved in the English Civil War, which meant Hutchinson was to be a free man. It also paved the way for Charles I son to become King, as Charles II. The House of Commons voted to remove Hutchinson's name as a Regicide. The House of Lords ruled with the House of Commons on the issue. Hutchinson was imprisoned in Sandown Castle in Kent. His wife Lucy went before the House of Lords to gain his release, but to no avail. He died on September 11, 1664 after drinking wine in his prison cell with two gentlemen. The two gentlemen died within two months themselves. He is buried in the small church at Owthorpe, his family estate. The Owlthorpe estate was sold by his impoverished family to his brother Charles.

Family

He was married to Lucy, daughter of Sir Allen Apsley Lord Lieutenant of the Tower of London. John and Lucy had 9 children.

His wife was the author of his biography Memoirs of the life of colonel Hutchinson. Although the book was not published until several years after her death, she had known many of the people in that conflict and was in an ideal position to chronicle the events of the war.He was a puritan.^[2]

Notes

1. ^ Hutchinson, John in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
2. ^  Hutchinson, John (1891). "Hutchinson, John". In Sidney Lee. Dictionary of National Biography. 28. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 

References

• C. H. Firth, in Dictionary of National Biography, volume xxviii (London, 1891)
• Records of the English House of Lords, pre-1707
• This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.
• This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.
• Records of the English House of Commons, pre-1707

Persondata
Name	Hutchinson, John
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Short description
Date of birth	1615
Place of birth
Date of death	1664
Place of death