392 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°*S. VIII. Nov. 12.'69. 



the City and County, very orthodox, and to 

 •whose church they of the king's party frequently 

 resort." (lb.) He was the author of the Soules 

 Conflict, published for H. Broome, 1661, 8vo. 

 (Keunett, Register and Chronicle (mdccxxvii), 

 p. 349. ; Fu.sti Oxon., vol. ii. col. 723.) ; and also 

 other works. 



He married " Lady Mary Bertie (5.), daughter 

 of Robert, 1st Earl of Lindsey" (inscription on 

 portrait) " and sister to the gallant lord who died 

 fighting for the king at Edghill." (Lord Somers's 

 Tracts, by Scott, vol. iii. p. 484. note.) 



He became Chaplain to Cbas. L (inscription on 

 portrait and other sources) ; and his loyalty to his 

 son Chas. II. brought him into disrepute with 

 "that tyrant O. Cromwell" (Dugdale) ; and as, 

 says the same authority {Troubles in England, 

 A.D. 1658, MDCCLXxxi, p. 456.), " it being once 

 more expedient to renew those terrors to the peo- 

 ple, he (Oliver) caused his bloody theatre, called 

 the High Court of Justice, to be again erected in 

 Westminster Hall ; where, for the mere formali- 

 ties sake, the persons whom he did deign for de- 

 struction were brought— the one Dr. John Hewet, 

 D.D., a reverend divine ; Sir Harry Slingsby, 

 Peter Legh, and others," 1st June, 1658. 



Here, before Lord President Lisle, he was in- 

 dicted, that he " minding and intending to em- 

 broil the commonwealth in new and intestine 

 wars, &c., did, together with divers persons, trai- 

 torously, and advisedly, and maliciously hold 

 intelligence and correspondence with Charles 

 Stuart." {State Trials.) " The prisoner sitting 

 covered while his impeachment was being read, 

 the Lord President commanded hia hat to be 

 taken off"." {lb.) 



The prisoner then demanded to be allowed 

 counsel who should conduct his case, but this 

 right was of course refused by the " bloody theatre 

 called the Court of Justice." When called upon 

 to plead guilty o^ not guilty, the staunch old 

 Cavalier, who would not take off" his hat to a 

 court not convened by his rightful king, stoutly 

 contested the power and right of any court not 

 commissioned by the monarch of England, to sit 

 in judgment upon him, and demanded, by 5 & 6 

 E(iw. VI., trial by jury. He supported his rights 

 by arguments which displayed considerable legal 

 acumen and great skill, but his pleas, of course, 

 availed nothing. Being repeatedly challenged to 

 plead guilty or not guilty, he finally persisted in 

 his refusal to recognise the authority of the court, 

 and obstinately rejected compliance, repeatedly 

 declaring, " I would rather die ten thousand 

 deaths, than I will be guilty of giving up my fel- 

 low freemen's liberties and privileges," until at 

 length the court, wearied with his steady courage, 

 cried, " Take him away ; take him away ! " {State 

 Trials.) 



He was condemned to suflfer death, and ex- 



hibited a written plea and demurrer (given at 

 length in State Trials), the composition of which 

 evinces even greater skill and legal knowledge 

 than is displayed in his speeches. 



While lying under sentence of death, his wife, 

 " Lady Mary Huet, and his friends" (as says the 

 author of the fourth part of The History of Indepen- 

 dence) " used engagements, persuasions, and money, 

 and the deep, continued, and earnest entreaties of 

 Mrs. Claypole — Cromwell's best beloved daugh- 

 ter " — could not soften the Protector's obdurate 

 heart; " but," proceeds Dugdale, "it concerning him 

 (Cromwell) at that time so much in point of policy 

 to sacrifice some for a terror to others, neither the 

 incessant supplications of Mrs. (or Lady Eliza- 

 beth) Claypole, nor tears could prevail ;" for, says 

 the axithor first quoted, " so inexorable continued 

 he, that, like the deaf adder, he stopped his ears 

 to the charmer, charm he never so wisely or so 

 well ; at wliich unheard-of cruelty, and for that 

 Dr. Hewett's lady was (as was said) with child, 

 Mrs. Claypole took such excessive grief, that she 

 suddenly fell sick, the increase of her sickness 

 making her rave in a most lamentable manner, 

 calling out against her father for Hewet's blood, 

 and the like ; the violence of which extravagant 

 passions, working upon her great weakness of 

 body, carried her (6th Aug. 1658) into another 

 world." See also Dugdale, Whitelocke's Memoirs, 

 and Peck's Desiderata Curiosa (1779), vols. i. and 

 ii. p. 538. 



But the Protector's vindictive cruelty happily 

 reacted upon himself: for not only did it cause 

 the death of his daughter, but "her reproaches 

 on her death-bed soon after are said to have 

 deeply affected him, and disturbed his peace of 

 mind." {Lives of Eminent and Illustrious English- 

 men, by Cunningham, 1838, vol. ii. partii. p. 445. ; 

 also. Clarendon, Bulstrode.) It is well known 

 that Cromwell never recovered his daughter's death, 

 and that her reproaches, and his own guilty con- 

 science, wounded him deeply ; and this presents a 

 remarkable instance in which the commission of a 

 crime has, by means of retributive justice, reacted 

 on the offender — who in this case was pierced 

 by the arrow he unjustly pointed at one whose 

 greatest crime was not attempted assassination, but 

 fidelity to his king. Had Cromwell listened to the 

 prayers preferred by his daughter, she would not 

 probably at that period have been seized with 

 fatal illness ; and had she not died with her mouth 

 filled with reproaches, he would not have been 

 rendered a miserable broken-hearted man, nor 

 have gone to the grave so early. Thus Dr. Hewett 

 by his martyrdom was the unconscious weapon 

 by means of which the world was ridded of a 

 tyrant, and at one blow heaven avenged the crime 

 of murder, and the more venal sin of usurpation. 



Dr. John Hewett was executed on Tower Hill 

 (MS. account, Brit. Mus, Add. 11,043.) 8th June, 



