HILDESLEY, John (c.1597-1681), of Hinton Admiral, Christchurch, Hants.

Hildesley was probably born in 1597, since he was in his 84th year at his death in January 1681.35The Gen. n.s. x. 225. His family background is obscure, although he may have had some connection with the Hildesleys of Berkshire and Oxfordshire.36Vis. Berks. 1664-6 ed. W.C. Metcalfe (1882), 47-8; Vis. Surr. (Harl. Soc. lx), 59. He seems to have been the brother – probably the elder brother – of Mark Hildesley, who was apprenticed as a Vintner in London in 1615, who later became a prominent godly citizen, and who was made a burgess of the corporation of Christchurch in 1652.37GL, 15211/2, pp. 120, 170; Christchurch Bor. Council, Minute Bk. p. 564; PROB11/297/294; Hants RO, 1680A054/1; C9/123/58. Hildesley himself had some legal training, perhaps at an inn of chancery, and was reported to have been a servant to one Goldwaye, an attorney in the court of common pleas, before himself becoming an attorney in the same court.38E215/752.

In the 1630s Hildesley came to prominence in Hampshire. In 1632, described as a ‘gentleman’, he was involved in a transaction over the manor of Ringwood.39Wilts RO, 2667/1/28/4. The next year he became a burgess of Christchurch and was also granted with John Button I* and Henry Tulse I* a share of the tithes of Somerford by Richard Venne, a London alderman.40Dorset RO, DC/CC/B2/2/1; G.F.T. Sherwood, The Pedigree Reg. (1907-10), ii. 263. In 1635 Hildesley joined Tulse as a freeman of Lymington.41Hants RO, 27M74/DBC2, ff. 29v, 51v. By this time he had already participated in the corporation activity at Christchurch and been paid for legal work for the borough.42Dorset RO, DC/CC/C/5/2/6, DC/CC/A2/1-2; DC/CC/D/7/10; C8/42/78. In April 1637 Catholic peer Thomas Arundell, 1st Baron Arundell of Wardour, who was lord of the manor, petitioned the privy council, complaining that at Michaelmas 1635 Hildesley, ‘an attorney at law’, had ‘procured himself to be unduly chosen portreeve’ – an office which ‘of late hath been called mayor’ – despite the fact that, contrary to tradition, he was ‘no burgess or inhabitant’. Arundell’s steward had refused to admit him at the court leet, but at Michaelmas 1636, ‘by a private combination with some factious persons’, Hildesley had again procured the portreeve’s place. This elicited the same response from the steward, whereupon Hildesley had appeared at the next court ‘and by indirect practice with some of the ... borough, got the mace from the old portreeve and put him out’; he had then ‘taken upon him without authority to exercise the office of mayor’ and without legitimacy, since ‘he inhabiteth near three miles distant from the said borough, and cometh very seldom to [it]’.43SP16/352, f. 94; Dorset RO, DC/CC/A/2/1. A counter-petition from the inhabitants and commonalty of the borough alleged that the election of Hildesley as mayor had been conducted peaceably in the usual form, that he was a resident of the parish of Christchurch and that he had been ‘very careful and diligent to preserve the ancient government’ of the borough.44Dorset RO, DC/CC/A2/2. The council referred the dispute to the lord chief justices of king’s bench and common pleas, but Hildesley’s attendance was quickly dismissed, and he evidently remained mayor.45SP16/355, ff. 62-63v, 162; Christchurch Bor. Council, Minute Bk. p. 73; Dorset RO, DC/CC/D11/4; DC/CC/C2/17.

In 1640 Hildesley signed both election indentures at Christchurch returning Henry Tulse and Matthew Davies* and he continued to engage in borough business.46Dorset RO, DC/CC/F1/8-9; DC/CC/F2/9; DC/CC/C5/2/7; DC/CC/D/1/25. His roots there were strengthened by his marriage – some time after September 1642 – to Henry Tulse’s widow and his acquisition of the Tulse residence at Hinton Admiral.47Hants RO, 27M74/DBC2, ff. 37v, 38v, 45v; The Gen. n.s. x. 224-5; PROB6/18, f. 159. He was probably a supporter of Parliament from the outbreak of civil war, but until April 1644 Christchurch was in royalist hands, so his base in that period was presumably elsewhere.48CSP Dom. 1644, p. 102. Proposed in the summer of 1643 as solicitor for sequestrations in the county, he apparently asked John Lisle* to be excused from the post, but by that September he was active as a receiver for the Isle of Wight.49I.o.W. RO, Swainswick MS, Hall 2; OG/BB/479; SP28/154, unfol. In October 1644 he wrote to Anthony Ashley Cooper* from Hurst Castle, where he was on parliamentarian service of some kind.50PRO30/24/2/45. His stature may have grown as, into 1645, Christchurch continued to be threatened by royalist troops and to be regarded by the Committee of Both Kingdoms as worth defending.51CSP Dom. 1644, pp. 256, 258, 272, 273. That summer and autumn Hildersley was once again mayor, presiding over preparations for a by-election to replace the deceased Tulse and the disabled Davies.52Christchurch Bor. Council, Old Letters, pp. 39, 44. During the year he was also included on the county committee, and at its end nominated as a Presbyterian elder.53Add. 24860, ff. 145, 152; King, Bor. and Par. Lymington, 262-3. He became a treasurer for maimed soldiers sometime before joining the commission of the peace in March 1647, and was among those in the county to the fore in countering royalist insurgency in the summer of 1648.54Add. 24861, f. 39; C231/6, pp. 76; F. Tilney, A Declaration of the Committee for the Safetie of Southampton (1648, 669.f.12.50); LJ x. 447b.

At some date Hildesley became an ally of the regicide John Lisle, whom he replaced as recorder of Winchester in August 1650, and he was also on friendly terms with another radical, Sir Henry Mildmay*.55Southampton RO, SC2/1/8, f. 77v; Hants RO, W/B1/5, ff. 27v; Bodl. Tanner 57, f. 141. Mark Hildesley had been named in the ordinance for the City militia in the aftermath of the collapse of the Presbyterian coup of July-August 1647, and nominated as commissioner customs, for dean and chapter lands and for the high court of justice in 1649; in the latter year he also served as churchwarden of the Independent congregation at St Stephen Coleman Street.56CJ v. 289a; vii. 55a, C8/100/166; A. and O.; CSP Dom. 1650, p. 215; 1651, p. 39; 1654, p. 4; 1655, p. 437; 1655-6, pp. 2, 48, 402. It seems likely that John Hildesley, who remained active on the county committee, as a commissioner for sequestrations and as a justice of the peace under the republic, was of a similar stamp.57SP23/248, p. 69; SP28/154, unfol.; CSP Dom. 1649-50, p. 334; 1650, p. 223. He was regarded as reliable by the council of state, who sent him instructions on matters such as Christchurch fort and timber supplies; he was probably the Mr Hildesley who by March 1650 was steward of the New Forest.58Add. 24861, f. 54; CSP Dom. 1649-50, p. 334; 1651, p. 293; 1651-2, p. 461; SP25/95, f. 63. However, he left office as recorder of Winchester sometime before March 1652, perhaps on account of unspecified accusations levelled against him, perhaps owing to his ‘long sickness and infirmity of body’.59Hants RO, W/B1/5, f. 56v; Add. 24861, f. 65.

Notwithstanding this, Hildesley was chosen as a Member for Hampshire to sit in the Nominated Assembly of 1653, by a process and for reasons that do not appear. He was named to just three committees: those for petitions (20 July), investigating allegations of bribery surrounding public debt (20 July), and inspecting treasuries in relation to the excise (1 Aug.), the two latter calling on his experience as a sequestrator.60CJ vii. 287a, 293b. Apparently no supporter of religious toleration, he was recorded as having supported the maintenance of a public preaching ministry.61A Catalogue of the Names of the Members of the Last Parliament (1654, 669.f.19.3) In October 1653 he was nominated by the council of state with Richard Norton*, Richard Maijor*, Richard Cromwell* and others to help find ministers for the churches in Southampton, and the following August as a commissioner for scandalous ministers.62CSP Dom. 1653-4, p. 217; A. and O.

Hildesley’s willingness to accommodate the protectorate was soon apparent. In December 1653 he was made a commissioner for the probate of wills, with an annual salary of £300, and in January 1654 a member of the Army Committee, eventually being rewarded with a salary of £150; he retained both posts until the departure of Richard Cromwell*.63CSP Dom. 1654, p. 385; 1655, p. 178; 1655-6, pp. 290, 320; 1656-7, p. 180; 1657-8, pp. 76, 282, 334; 1658-9, pp. 31, 374; 1658-9, pp. 31, 48; Mercurius Politicus no. 447 (16-23 Dec. 1658), 84 (E.760.24); Stowe 185, f. 88. Hildesley was returned to the 1654 Parliament for Winchester, the reservations of some about his service as recorder clearly overcome by the endorsement of others.64Hants RO, W/B1/5, f. 66v. Once again he played a relatively minor part in the proceedings, receiving only five committee appointments (between 25 September and 24 November) on a variety of issues including further moves against scandalous ministers, reform of abuses in the legal system, and assessments.65CJ vii. 370a, 373a, 373b, 381b, 388b. There is no record of his contributing to debates and no sign of his attendance in the last two months of the Parliament.

Evidently regarded as a loyal servant of the regime, in 1655 Hildesley was made a master in chancery.66C216/2/191. Named in March to the commission of oyer and terminer for Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset in a context of insurgency, he was active in the role, and in June, like Norton, Maijor and Richard Cromwell, was directed to investigate disaffection on the Southampton corporation.67C181/6, p. 99; Dorset RO, DC/CC/C/6/1; TSP iii. 296; CSP Dom. 1655, pp. 98, 222. Although nominated as sheriff of Hampshire in 1656, Hildesley was re-elected to Parliament that year as Member for Winchester, despite the persistence of allegations against him.68Hants RO, W/B1/5, f. 94; Add. 24861, ff. 118-19. His shrieval duties in the county, not to mention his responsibilities in the probate court, required his absence from Westminster during part of the session, but he played a more active role in this assembly than in its predecessor.69Burton’s Diary, i. 286-7. At the outset he was named to the committee for privileges.70CJ vii. 424a; CSP Dom. 1656-7, p. 180. Most of his nine further committee appointments in the first session concerned either private bills or socio-economic matters (the preservation of forests; Carlisle market; the preventing of uncontrolled building in London), requiring his financial or legal experience; most notably, perhaps, he was added to those MPs considering the petition of civil lawyers (1 Dec.).71CJ vii. 434b, 444b, 457a, 462b, 488b, 501a, 504a, 505b, 532a. He was occasionally seconded to council committees on specific matters, and made reports to them on more than one local issue.72CSP Dom. 1656-7, p. 385; 1657-8, pp. 52, 282. His most important contribution to the proceedings came in a debate on the Humble Petition and Advice (19 Mar. 1657), when he was a teller with Robert Jenkinson* for those who tried unsuccessfully to oppose the inclusion of a clause aimed at protecting religious dissenters ‘from all injury and molestation in the profession of the faith and exercise of their religion’.73CJ vii. 507b. He made no recorded contribution to debates on the subject of kingship, but was not listed as having been a ‘kingling’.74Narrative of the Late Parliament, 474. There is no sign of him in the second session of the Parliament, but in his capacity as a member of the Army Committee, Hildesley participated in the funeral procession of Oliver Cromwell* in November 1658.75Burton’s Diary ii. 524.

Hildesley was again returned for Winchester to the Parliament of Richard Cromwell.76Hants RO, W/B1/5, f. 131v. His only committee appointment was to consider the petition from the widow of John Lilburne (5 Feb. 1659).77CJ vii. 600a. In the turbulent months following the dissolution of the protectorate Hildesley’s allegiance is unclear, although it is likely that he favoured a civilian regime. In March 1660 he was elected to the Convention as one of the burgesses for Christchurch, alongside his step-son Henry Tulse II*. Although his visible contribution to proceedings was meagre, he was marked as a friend by Philip Wharton, 4th Baron Wharton.78Dorset RO, DC/CC/F1/11; Christchurch Bor. Council, Minute Bk. p. 566; HP Commons 1660-1690.

After the Restoration Hildesley was quickly removed from the commission of the peace, and later from civic office at Christchurch under the terms of the corporation act.79Christchurch Bor. Council, Minute Bk. p. 99. His house in Christchurch was licensed for Presbyterian worship in July 1672.80CSP Dom. 1672, p. 299. Hildesley died childless on 20 January 1681, and was buried in Christchurch Priory.81The Gen. n. s. x. 225. He left the income of six messuages in Christchurch for ‘pious, godly and learned nonconformist ministers’ and his divinity books (valued at £5) and his copy of John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments to Elizabeth Tulse, his step-daughter. After the payment of £1,000 to a kinswoman, Elizabeth Phelps, the residue of his estate – the extent of which would appear to be considerably greater than meets the eye – went to his kinsman (almost certainly nephew) Mark Hildesley, a barrister and son of the vintner, and then to his son John who also received the former MP’s law books (valued at £10).82Hants RO, 1680A054/1-2. No further member of the family sat in Parliament.