Description: The tiny hamlet of Owthorpe was home to the Hutchinson family during the 17th century. John Hutchinson was born in 1615 in Nottingham. His father, Sir Thomas Hutchinson, was a member of the House of Commons, his sympathies being with Parliament. His mother was the sister of Sir John Byron of Newstead, whose sons became closely involved with the events of the Civil War on the Royalist side. After a university education studying law at Cambridge, John Hutchinson lived the life of a dilettante in London until he met Lucy, daughter of Sir Allen Apsley, Lieutenant of the Tower of London. Lucy was born at the Tower in 1620. She was a studious, intelligent child. After three years of marriage they moved from London to the Hutchinson family home of Owthorpe. They were 'happy in their own house till the Kingdom began to blaze out with the long conceived claim of Civil War.' John and Lucy Hutchinson, both Puritans, were highly critical of the way King Charles was ruling the country. An incident in August 1642 drew Hutchinson into the centre of the growing conflict in Nottingham. Lord Newark (the Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire), Sir John Digby (the High Sheriff) and some of the King's supporters, came to take the county store of ammunition and gunpowder. They were in the process of removing the arms when Hutchinson ordered them to stop. At first they ignored his demands but when he returned shortly afterwards with an angry group of townspeople 'prepared to lose their blood', Lord Newark eventually backed down, warning Hutchinson that he would thereafter be 'a marked man'. According to Lucy, her husband carried 'an awe in his presence that his enemies could not withstand'. Hutchinson was, in some ways, an untypical Roundhead - reserved by nature, polite in manner, fashionable in dress and with his thick hair 'curling into loose greate rings at the ends'. He had friends and relatives in both armies. His younger brother George, extrovert and popular, fought beside him throughout the war and married Lucy's younger sister, Barbara. His mother's family, the Byron's, were all 'passionately the King's' - so too was Lucy's eldest brother, another Sir Allen Apsley. By Lucy's account, Hutchinson treated his enemies well, even insisting on entertaining some of the prisoners to supper. Lucy too saw much of the action, busily acting as nurse at Nottingham Castle. Hutchinson defender Nottingham with great vigour and authority throughout the perilous years of the first Civil War. Drunkenness, swearing and trouble making were punished by imprisonment. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Nottingham in 1646 spending much time in London where he was joined later by Lucy and their children. In November 1648, with Cromwell in command in the north and Ireton's forces occupying London, Colonel Pride was sent to Westminster to throw out all Presbyterian Members of Parliament. This left only fifty hardline Parliamentarians, the 'Rump' who nominated 135 commissioners or judges to try the King. Less than half of these attended the trial which found the King guilty. With Cromwell shouting down the waverers, fifty nine of the commissioners signed a warrant condemning the King to death. The thirteenth to sign was John Hutchinson. Lucy tells how he prayed for guidance 'and finding ... a confirmation in his conscience that it was his duty to act as he did, he ... proceeded to signe the sentence against the King'. Cromwell dissolved the Rump Parliament in 1652 with his immortal words 'In the name of God, go', and the Hutchinsons returned to Owthorpe. There they rebuilt the hall, laid out extensive gardens with trees, canals and fishponds, and built the small church to be seen today, in place of a larger one standing on the same site. The 1650s was a decade of happiness for the family. The Colonel played his viol, went hawking and educated his children, relishing the 'freedome in the country life ... where innocence and safe delights abound'. But these safe delights were soon over. The restoration of Charles II in 1660 was in reality a death sentence for the regicides, Hutchinson included. Lucy, convinced that her husband would not defend himself adequately, wrote a letter to the speaker of the House of Commons pleading his case. Adopting his handwriting style and using his signature, Lucy's letter, along with Hutchinson's declared support for King Charles II, enabled the Colonel to avoid death. The reprieve was short lived. On the 11th October 1663, 'as bitter a stormie, pitchie, dark, blacke raynie night as anie that came that yeare' soldiers arrived and took the Colonel away to Newark where he was thrown into 'a most vile roome' at the Talbot Inn (later called the Clinton Arms). Falsely accused by the Duke of Buckingham of implication in the 'Northern Plot' against King Charles II, Hutchinson was taken to the Tower of London. After six months of harsh treatment there he was transferred to Sandown Castle in Kent. Lucy rented rooms nearby and visited her husband regularly, but whilst she was away in Owthorpe fetching her children, the Colonel caught a fever among the rat infested dungeons of the old castle and died on 11th September 1664. His body was brought back to Owthorpe for burial beneath the north wall of the Church. The monument in the church bears an inscription thought to have been written by Lucy Hutchinson, but the year of his death is incorrectly given as 1663. After the Colonel's death, Lucy began her famous 'Memoirs' written specifically for her children, to vindicate her husband's memory. These writings have recorded many incidents of the conflict in Nottinghamshire for posterity, and give us a revealing account of a county plunged into the confusions of civil strife. Lucy outlived her husband by at least eleven years, but her widowhood was overshadowed by some loss of respect within her family. Her Royalist half-brother, Charles, bought Owthorpe Hall but showed little sympathy towards the regicide's family. The Hall passed out of the family during the 18th century and was demolished in the early 1800s after being 'in a deserted state' for many years. (information from 'A Guide to the Civil War in Nottinghamshire' by Ian Brown)