Michael Hudson

a Westmorland man ((a))((a)) Reg. Matric. Univ. Oxon. P. P. fol. 87. b. born, became a poor serving child of Queens Coll. in the year 1621. and in that of his age 16, afterwards Tabarder, and in the year 1630 Fellow of that House, he being then Master of Arts. About that time he took holy Orders, married Capt..... Pollards daughter of Newnham Courtney in Oxfordshire, and was beneficed in Lincolnshire: But when his Maj. K. Ch. 1. set up his standard, he left his Benefice, adhered to him, and after Edghill battle, retiring to Oxon, was in Feb. 1642. actually created Doctor of Divinity, and made Chaplain to his Majesty. About that time he being esteemed an understanding and sober Person and of great fidelity, was made Scoutmaster General to the Army in the north parts of England, under the command of William Marquess of Newcastle, whereby he did wonderfully advantage himself in the ways and passes of those parts. In that employment he continued some years, with very good success. At length his Maj. (who usually called him his plain dealing Chaplain, because he told him his mind when others would, or durst not) having an especial respect for his signal loyalty and courage, entrusted him and John Ashbournham one of the Groomes of his Bedchamber, with his Person, at what time he left Oxon in a disguise 27. Apr. 1646, in order to surrender himself into the hands of the Scots, then besieging Newark on Trent. Afterwards his Maj. being setled for a time in Newcastle, a Serjeant at Arms, or his Deputy, was ordered by the Parliament 23 of May following, to fetch our Author Hudson to London, for conveying the King to the Scotch Army, and to bring Ashbournham with him, but they having timely notice, drew aside and escap’d the messenger. Afterwards Hudson crossing the Country in order to get to London, was discovered at Rochester, and apprehended on the 8 of June following, brought to London, and committed Prisoner to London-house. On the 18 of the same Month. he was examined by a Committee of Parliament, and confessed that the King, when he left Oxon, crossed the Country, was at Henley in Oxfordshire, Harrow on the hill, at Brentford, and almost perswaded to go to London. Afterwards he went to St. Albans, and so to Harborow in Leycestershire, where the French Agent (Monsieur de Montereal or Montrevil) was to have met him, but came not. From thence he went to Stanford in Lincolnshire, and thence to Downham in Norfolk, where he lay at a petty Alehouse, and that sometimes he passed by the name of Hudsons Tutor, at other times by the name of Doctor, and sometimes went as Ashbournhams Servant. On the 18. of Nov. the same year, he broke out of Prison, and, as ’tis ((b))((b)) In the Memorials of English affairs, p. 237. said, conveyed Letters from the King to Maj. Gen. Rowland Langhorne in Wales, which, I suppose, is false. In Janu. following, he was retaken by Maj. Gen. Sedenham Pointz, sent from Hull to London, and committed close prisoner to the Tower, with strict order given, that none should speak with him, but in the presence of his keeper. During his confinement there, he wrot,

The divine right of government, natural and political, in two books—Printed 1647. qu. wherein he shews himself to be a Scholar, as he before had, by his martial feats, a couragious Soldier. But he making an escape thence in the beginning of 1648, he went into Lincolnshire, where he raised a party of horse for his Majesty, and had engaged some of the Gentry of Norfolk and Suffolk in the like design. On the 6 of June 1648, intelligence was brought to the Parliament that the Malignants, that is the Royalists, were up in Arms in Lincolnshire under the command of Dr. Hudson, and two days following were letters read from Col. Tho. Waite that he had suppressed the insurrection of Malignants at Stanford in Lincolnshire and had killed their commander Dr. Hudson. It seems the chief body of these Malignants so called, fled to Woodcroft house in the Parish of Helpson near to Peterborow in Northamptonshire about 7 miles distant from Stanford, where Hudson was barbarously killed on the 6 of June in sixteen hundred forty and eight.1648. The manner of which was briefly thus. After the Rebels had entred into the house, and had taken most of the Royalists, Hudson with some of his couragious Soldiers went up to the battlements thereof, where they defended themselves for some time. At length upon promise of quarter they yeilded, but when the Rebels had got in among them they denied quarter: Whereupon Hudson, being thrown over the battlements, he caught hold of a spout or out-stone and there hung; but his hands being beat or cut off, he fell into the moat underneath, much wounded, and desir’d to come on land to die there. Whereupon one Egborough (servant to Mr. Spinks the intruder into the Parsonage of Castor belonging to the Bishop of Peterborough) knocked him on the head with the but-end of his musket. Which being done, one Walker a Chandler or Grocer in Stanford, cut out his tongue and carried it about the Country as a trophie. His body for the present was denied burial, yet after the enemy had left that place, he was by some Christians committed to the earth. In Aug. 1684, I was informed by the letters of Mr. Joh. Whitehall Preb. of Peterborough and Dean of Oundle that the body of the said Dr. Hudson was removed soon after his death to Uffington near Stanford in Lincolnshire where it was solemnly buried. Quaere. As for Egborough, he was not long after torn in pieces with his own gun, which burst while it was under his arm in Long Orton; and Walker since, through poverty, quitted his trade, and was become a scorn and by-word to the boys when he passed through the streets of Stanford.