Colonel
John Hewson (Hughson) (died in 1662) was a soldier in the
New Model ArmyThe New Model Army of Great Britain was formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, and disbanded in 1660 after the Restoration. It differed from other armies in the same conflict in that it was intended as an army liable for service anywhere in the country, rather than being...
and signed the death warrant of King
Charles ICharles I, , the second son of James VI of Scotland and I of England, was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. Charles famously engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England...
, making him a
regicideThe broad definition of regicide is the deliberate killing of a monarch, or the person responsible for the killing of a monarch. In a narrower sense, in the British tradition, it refers to the judicial execution of a king after alleged due process of law....
.
When
John LilburneJohn Lilburne , also known as Freeborn John, was an English political agitator before, during and after English Civil Wars 1642-1650. A libertarian, he coined the term "freeborn rights", defining them as rights with which every human being is born, as opposed to rights bestowed by government or...
was his apprentice in the 1630s, he introduced Lilburne to the Puritan physician
John Bastwick-Life:He was born at Writtle, Essex. He entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, on 19 May 1614, but remained there only a very short time, and left the university without a degree. He travelled and served for a time as a soldier, probably in the Dutch army. He then studied medicine abroad, and took...
, an active pamphleteer who was persecuted by Archbishop
William LaudArchbishop William Laud was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645. One of the High Church Caroline divines, he opposed radical forms of Puritanism...
.
He was second in command of
John PickeringJohn Pickering served as Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court of Judicature and as Judge for the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire...
's Regiment of Foot, one of the original twelve foot regiments of the
New Model ArmyThe New Model Army of Great Britain was formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, and disbanded in 1660 after the Restoration. It differed from other armies in the same conflict in that it was intended as an army liable for service anywhere in the country, rather than being...
.
Colonel
John Hewson (Hughson) (died in 1662) was a soldier in the
New Model ArmyThe New Model Army of Great Britain was formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, and disbanded in 1660 after the Restoration. It differed from other armies in the same conflict in that it was intended as an army liable for service anywhere in the country, rather than being...
and signed the death warrant of King
Charles ICharles I, , the second son of James VI of Scotland and I of England, was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. Charles famously engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England...
, making him a
regicideThe broad definition of regicide is the deliberate killing of a monarch, or the person responsible for the killing of a monarch. In a narrower sense, in the British tradition, it refers to the judicial execution of a king after alleged due process of law....
.
Life
When
John LilburneJohn Lilburne , also known as Freeborn John, was an English political agitator before, during and after English Civil Wars 1642-1650. A libertarian, he coined the term "freeborn rights", defining them as rights with which every human being is born, as opposed to rights bestowed by government or...
was his apprentice in the 1630s, he introduced Lilburne to the Puritan physician
John Bastwick-Life:He was born at Writtle, Essex. He entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, on 19 May 1614, but remained there only a very short time, and left the university without a degree. He travelled and served for a time as a soldier, probably in the Dutch army. He then studied medicine abroad, and took...
, an active pamphleteer who was persecuted by Archbishop
William LaudArchbishop William Laud was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645. One of the High Church Caroline divines, he opposed radical forms of Puritanism...
.
He was second in command of
John PickeringJohn Pickering served as Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court of Judicature and as Judge for the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire...
's Regiment of Foot, one of the original twelve foot regiments of the
New Model ArmyThe New Model Army of Great Britain was formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, and disbanded in 1660 after the Restoration. It differed from other armies in the same conflict in that it was intended as an army liable for service anywhere in the country, rather than being...
. When John Pickering died on November 24 1645 he took command of the regiment; and, as was then the custom then, the Regiment became known as John Hewson Regiment of Foot.
In 1647 Parliament passed an act against religious festivals, regarding them as "vain and superstitious observances" when the Mayor of
CanterburyCanterbury lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a local government district of Kent, in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
tried to enforce this act and stop Christmas there was a riot and John Hewson Regiment of Foot were sent to restore order which they did quickly. In 1648 Hewson played a key role in
Pride's PurgePride’s Purge is an event in December 1648, during the Second English Civil War, when troops under the command of Colonel Thomas Pride forcibly removed from the Long Parliament all those who were not supporters of the Grandees in the New Model Army and the Independents...
and the Army's occupation of London.
In January 1649 he signed the death warrant for Charles I marking him as a regicide. Later that year his regiment refused to fight in Ireland until the Leveller reform programme was implemented; as a result 300 men were cashiered out of the army without arrears of pay. While in Ireland he was involved in the
Siege of DroghedaDrogheda, a town in eastern Ireland, was besieged twice in the 1640s, during the Irish Confederate Wars and the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The first siege occurred during the Irish Rebellion of 1641, when Phelim O'Neill and the insurgents failed to take the town...
and commanded an English force during the siege and
battle of TecroghanThe Battle of Tecroghan took place near Trim, in west Leinster, Ireland in June 1650. It was fought between the armies of Confederate Ireland and the English Parliament during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. An English force under Hewson and Reynolds had surrounded the formidable castle of Tecroghan...
.
On the restoration of the monarchy he fled to
AmsterdamAmsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country...
where he died in 1662.
Reputation
Richard Neville (later Lord Braybrooke) in a footnote from his 1825 edition of Samuel Pepys' diary: