People of Note
John Hewett (1614–1658)
Hewett, Hewytt, Huett
Dr John Hewett was chaplain to King Charles l and later executed in 1658 for being loyal to King Charles ll during his exile and before he came to the throne.
John Hewett, was fourth of seven sons of Thomas Hewett, a clothworker, was born at Eccles, Lancashire, in September 1614, and educated at Bolton-le-Moors. He was at Oxford as one of Charles I's chaplains, and received the degree of D.D. in October, 1643.
He became chaplain to Montague Bertie, the second Earl of Lindsey, at Havering in Essex, but moved to St. Gregory's Church, close to St. Paul's, London, where, despite the general prohibition against ministers of the Church of England, he had been allowed to preach to large congregations. Cromwell's daughter Mary was privately married by him to Lord Falconbridge in November 1657.
His loyalty to King Charles ll during his exile was so openly manifested that he occasionally made collections in his church by urging the congregation to 'remember a distressed friend'.
When the Marquis of Ormond came to England in 1657 to ascertain the state of the royalist preparations, Hewett is said to have harboured him in London, although in his speech on the scaffold he declared that he could not remember ever having seen him. He was at the time actively engaged in correspondence with those who were attempting to organise a rising.
In April 1658, John Stapley was arrested by Cromwell and confessed the plot in which he was with Hewett and told of a commission offered by Hewett from the King. As a result Hewett was arrested, and brought for trial. He refused to plead, claiming the right to a trial by jury.
He was sentenced in June 1658 to be beheaded and was buried on the 8th June in St. Gregory's Church.
Hewett married twice. On 18th December, 1636, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Skinner, a merchant tailor of London.. They had three children John, Charles (to whom King Charles stood sponsor), and another. Charles died young from an accident, failing from a tree in sight of his aunt, who thereupon through fright was deprived of her sight and hearing. John, the eldest, became a merchant, and engaged in a foreign traffic to Barbadoes, in which place he lived for some time.
Extract: Genealogies of Barbados Families (p667) by James C. Brandow
John his son was expelled by Cromwell, and like so many loyalists, he was rewarded by grants of lands in the West Indies.
He then married Mary Bertie(1618–1669), daughter of Robert Bertie(1582–1642), first Earl of Lindsey, naval officer and royalist army officer, and Elizabeth Montague (1586- 1654). They had two daughters - Elizabeth and Jane who both died young. Mary Bertie was the Aunt of Bridget Bertie who married the 1st Duke of Leeds
In March 1659, during the parliament of Richard Cromwell. a petition was presented on behalf of Hewitt's widow which asked that she and his eldest son, John, might receive some recompense. In February 1661 Hewitt's son, issued another petition seeking money to set up in trade and eventually, an annuity of £100. was granted to him.
Lady Mary Hewit was shortly afterwards re-married to Sir Abraham Shipman and later, in 1667, to Thomas Lee of Islington.
Dr John Hewett's grandson John became the 1st Rector of Harthill. Upon his death his son also John Hewett (1664-1725?) became Rector at Harthill in 1715/16 until his death in about 1725. His son another John, Rector of Shireoaks, who built Shireoaks Chapel in 1809. He died in 1811 without issue having never married. and the estate went to a niece's son, John Wheatley who sold it immediately.
NB (Nov.2008):The Pedigree has father of Dr John Hewit being William instead of Thomas:
Name: John Hewett
College: PEMBROKE
Entered: Easter, 1633
More Information: Matric. sizar (age 18) from PEMBROKE, Easter, 1633. S. of Thomas, clothworker, of Eccles, Lancs. B. there, Sept. 1614. Schools, Bolton-le-Moors and Merchant Taylors'. Created D.D. (Oxford) 1643. Chaplain to Charles I; and to the Earl of Lindsey. V. of St Gregory by St Paul's, London, c. 1653-58. R. of St Mary Magdalene, Old Fish St. Executed on Tower Hill for complicity in a royalist plot, June 8, 1658. Author of devotional works. Buried at St Gregory's. (F.M.G., 1030; D.N.B.; Al. Oxon.)
