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Hutton John is the next remarkable spot in this
neighbourhood, and is called, (I do not know upon what
authority,) by Mr Grey, Hutton St John. This estate
belonged to a family of the name of Hutton for many years,
and at last came into the Huddleston family, by a marriage
between an only daughter of the Hutton family, and Andrew
Huddleston, son of Sir John Huddleston of Millum Castle, in
this county. The last possessor of the name of Hutton is
worth the mentioning, on account of a very singular fact;
for, having suffered forty years imprisonment, when he at
length regained his liberty, his tenants refused to
acknowledge him as their Lord: after much altercation, the
dispute was at last compromised, and in token thereof, the
tenants were to send two men on foot, and one man on
horseback to the beacon.
This place produced the famous Father John Huddleston,
Hodlestone, or Hurlstone, (for in each of these forms his
name appears in King Charles's letters,) who made himself so
conspicuous for his unshaken loyalty to Charles the II. He
was educated in the English college at Douay in Flanders,
and took priest's orders in the Popish communion: He then
came to England, where he was happily instrumental in
preserving the King after his defeat at Worcester. Nor did
his services end here; for in disguise he attended his
unhappy, banished sovereign, through innumerable hardships
and perils, never leaving him till he and the British
constitution were restored to their distracted country. In
reward for his services, he was at the Restoration appointed
First Chaplain and Confessor to the Queen, and, (as
afterwards appeared,) Private Confessor to the King: while
the parliament, to shew their gratitude to the preserver of
their sacred monarch, excepted him by name from every act
which they passed for the suppression of Popery. Previous to
the death of Charles the II. Father Huddlestone administered
to the him the sacraments according to the Romish church,
and upon his pronouncing the absolution, the King expressed
his gratitude in these very striking terms, "You have saved
me twice; first my body, after the fight at Worcester, and
now my soul." He then asked the Father if he should declare
his religious opinions to the world? to which he replied, He
would take upon himself to inform the world of that
particular; and this he afterward did, at the command of
James the II. He published at the same time some papers of
the King's own writing, in defence of the Romish communion,
which were found after his death in his strong box; together
with a little treatise written by Richard Huddleston
*, which is said to have been a principal means of
converting the King (during his stay at Boscobel) to
the Church of Rome.
On all these accounts, James the II. made him superintendent
of the chapel at Somerset-House, and settled a pension upon
him sufficient to enable him to pass the remainder of his
days in ease and peace. These he enjoyed through all the
intermediate changes, till the year 1704, when this reverend
old gentleman died at the age of 96, and was buried in the
body of the chapel. A strict attention to the duties of
religion, honour, and humanity, was the distinguishing
feature of his character: he lived in the strictest
temperance, and divided greatest part of those fortunes his
loyalty had raised, between charitable uses, and the
repairing and improvement of the English seminary at Doway.
At his death he bequeathed the rest of his property in trust
to the Lord Feversham, to be applied to the finishing those
undertakings he had already begun.
Though this truly good and exemplary man escaped so many
dangers, his family suffered many heavy losses in the Royal
Cause; for Cromwell seized their valuable possessions in
Oxfordshire, Lancashire, and Westmorland, and sold them for
the use of the Commonwealth; nor did Hutton John escape his
traiterous malice, for it was laid under a sequestration
till the restoration of the King.
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