HUDSON, Edmund (c.1595-1658), of King’s Lynn, Norf.

It is probable, but not certain, that the draper Edmund Hudson of Castle Acre, Norfolk, who died in 1606, was the father of this MP. The older Edmund Hudson died leaving a son and namesake, who was still a minor, and it is known that the future MP was then aged about 11.9PROB11/108/197; Le Neve, Monumenta, v. 34. If the identification is correct, Hudson inherited properties at Castle Acre and in the neighbouring parishes of South Acre and Newton by Castle Acre. Other bequests would have included Hudson senior’s horses, his plough, his cart and £66 in cash.10PROB11/108/197. Evidently, Hudson’s likely father was of relatively humble social rank – probably no more than a yeoman. Hudson senior’s wife, Mary, seems to have remarried, for she was probably the woman described as ‘Mary Emes, wife of Edmund Hudson, draper, daughter of Edward Barkham, of Southacre’ who was buried at Castle Acre in August 1608.11Blomfield, Norf. viii. 362.

Hudson’s adult life was spent as a woollendraper and citizen of King’s Lynn. Having completed an apprenticeship to one of the town’s aldermen, Thomas Grinnell, in about 1620, that he was admitted as a freeman.12Cal. Lynn Freemen, 142. He was soon operating his own drapery business and by 1633 had himself been raised to aldermanic rank.13Cal. Lynn Freemen, 147, 152, 161, 164; King’s Lynn Borough Archives, KL/C7/9, f. 387.

Although there is little to indicate that Hudson was strongly committed to either side in the civil war, he was accused, possibly with some justification, of complicity in the royalist occupation of King’s Lynn in 1643. In late March, he was one of three members of the corporation who accompanied John Spelman* to Cambridge to deliver to Oliver Cromwell* a letter asking for assistance from Parliament to ensure that the town was properly defended.14HMC 11th Rep. iii. 180. The precautions taken for the town’s defence were inadequate, however, and on 13 August Sir Hamon L’Estrange† seized it in the name of the king. This placed the corporation in an invidious position and Hudson may well have been among those leading townsmen who believed that they had a duty to cooperate with the occupying forces in order to protect the best interests of the inhabitants. Possibly for that reason, he was elected as mayor for the forthcoming year on 29 August, while the town was under siege from the 2nd earl of Manchester (Edward Mountagu†).15King’s Lynn Borough Archives, KL/C7/10, f. 122v. A couple of weeks later he was part of the delegation which successfully negotiated the town’s surrender to the earl.16H.J. Hillen, Hist. of the Borough of King’s Lynn (Norwich, 1907), i. 360-1. The Commons viewed his conduct with suspicion and so on 10 October he was summoned to London for questioning. One of the town’s MPs, John Percival*, was appointed to deputise for him while he was away.17CJ iii. 271b, 287a. Hudson was able to resume his duties as mayor on his return.18King’s Lynn Borough Archives, KL/C7/10, ff. 125-140v. It was during that year that the corporation appointed the zealous parliamentarian (and, by 1646, leading political Independent) Miles Corbett* as their recorder, which was hardly the action of a body inclined to support the king. Hudson himself, as a member of the parliamentary standing committee in the town, played a active part during the early months of 1644 in encouraging the thorough collection of the assessments revenue from the county for the use of the parliamentarian armies.19Add. 22619, ff. 43, 51, 54, 175, 179.

In January 1646, steps were taken to fill the vacancy created by Percival’s death the previous August. A writ for a by-election was issued on 26 January and the election took place at some point over the next three weeks.20King’s Lynn Borough Archives, KL/C7/10, f. 178v; CJ iv. 394a. A detailed record of the poll is lacking, but Hudson was declared to be the new MP only for that result to be immediately challenged. A group within the corporation petitioned the Commons on 18 February against Hudson’s election, whereupon the ‘matters of crime’ alleged by them were referred to the Committee for Examinations. It was claimed that Hudson had ‘been in arms against Parliament’.21CJ iv. 447a. Most conveniently for Hudson’s critics, the chairman of the Committee for Examinations was none other than Miles Corbett, who was almost certainly a supporter of the anti-Hudson faction. With Hudson unable to sit in Parliament in the meantime, Corbett was probably in no hurry to press on with the investigation. The corporation was less patient, if only because they wanted to send a replacement MP to Westminster, and so complained to Corbett in February 1647 about the continuing uncertainty.22King’s Lynn Borough Archives, KL/C7/10, f. 206. Eventually, on 5 July 1647, right in the middle of the Eleven Members crisis, Corbett reported to the Commons that his committee had found that Hudson ‘was actually assisting in the rising at Lynne Regis’.23CJ v. 233b. Hudson was accordingly disabled from sitting for the rest of this Parliament and a new writ was then issued.24CJ v. 233b; vi. 239a. One possibility would be that Hudson’s election was opposed both locally and at Westminster not because he was indeed a royalist collaborator, but because he was seen as a Presbyterian sympathiser.

Thereafter Hudson largely withdrew from politics. Despite the allegations against him, he was not treated as a delinquent or required to compound. From February 1648 he stopped attending meetings of the King’s Lynn corporation.25King’s Lynn Borough Archives, KL/C7/10, ff. 227v-250. In May 1649, apparently after making repeated requests to be allowed to do so, he resigned as an alderman.26King’s Lynn Borough Archives, KL/C7/10, f. 250. This was presumably intended to indicate his disapproval of the new republic. He died, aged 63, on 29 April 1658, and was buried in St Margaret’s, King’s Lynn two days later.27St Margaret, King’s Lynn par. reg. The memorial erected there, as well as mentioning that he had been MP for the town, paid fulsome tribute to his dignity, virtue and sense of duty.28Le Neve, Monumenta, v. 34. No will has been traced, but his son, Edmund, appears to have been his heir. As it seems unlikely that Hudson had ever taken his seat at Westminster, it cannot even be said that he was the only member of his family ever to sit in Parliament.