Arthur Hildersham (1563–1632) was an English clergyman, a

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

and nonconforming preacher.

Life

Arthur Hildersham was born at Stetchworth, and brought up as a Roman Catholic. He was educated in

Saffron Walden Saffron Walden is a market town and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and north of London. It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. Th ...

and at

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

. Through the patronage of Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, he became vicar of St Helen's Church, Ashby-de-la-Zouch. According to Benjamin Brook, the Leicestershire connection was through the good offices of John Ireton, who became vicar of

Kegworth Kegworth () is a large village and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, in the East Midlands region, England. It forms part of the border with Nottinghamshire and is situated 6 miles north of Loughborough, ...

, and who offered help to Hildersham when his family objected to his conversion to Protestantism. He was literary executor, with John Dod, to Thomas Cartwright, who died in 1603. He was one of the promoters of the Millenary Petition, with Stephen Egerton. It was presented to James I in 1603; but he was excluded from the subsequent

Hampton Court Conference The Hampton Court Conference was a meeting in January 1604, convened at Hampton Court Palace, for discussion between King James I of England and representatives of the Church of England, including leading English Puritans. The conference resulted ...

, where four moderate voices represented the Puritan trend. He was deprived of his living in 1605, and then relied on lecturing positions. William Lilly (born 1602) was educated in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and described the "silenced" Hildersham in his ''History of His Life and Times''. Lilly's teacher was John Brinsley the elder, one of Hildersham's circle. One place he was a lecturer was at

Burton-on-Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 censu ...

. With Peter Eccleshall he had been conducting a 'common exercise' in Burton by 1596. Related to this religious activity was Isabel Foljambe and the case of Thomas Darling, who became celebrated as a result of efforts at

exorcism Exorcism () is the religious or spiritual practice of evicting demons, jinns, or other malevolent spiritual entities from a person, or an area, that is believed to be possessed. Depending on the spiritual beliefs of the exorcist, this may be do ...

. Hildersham supported the exorcist John Darrell. Also he had connections with the

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Heresy in Christian ...

case of Edward Wightman, burned in 1612. Around 1615, he encountered Francis Higginson, who in 1629 settled in

Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located on the North Shore (Massachusetts), North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem was one ...

. Under Hildersham's influence he became a nonconformist, setting off the train of events leading to Higginson's emigration.

Family

He had royal blood, being a great-grandson of Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury, the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. This accounts for the story that Elizabeth I called him "cousin Hildersham". His parents were Ann Pole (daughter of Geoffrey Pole), and Thomas Hildersham and was reported to have been "cast off" by his parents because of his Puritan beliefs. He was married to Anne Barfoot, daughter of John Barfoot of Lamborne, on 5 January 1590. They had four children: including Samuel, Timothy, Sarah, and an unnamed son. Anne died in 1639. Their son Samuel Hildersham (1594?–1674), a Westminster Divine and minister who was ejected in 1662, married Mary Goodyear, and died in 1674.

Works

*''Lectures upon the Fourth of John'' (1629) * Verklaring van psalm 51.

External Resources

*Arthur Hildersham manuscripts
Eng Ms 524
at the

John Rylands Library The John Rylands Research Institute and Library is a Victorian era, late-Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, neo-Gothic building on Deansgate in Manchester, England. It is part of the University of Manchester. The library, which opened to t ...

, Manchester.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hildersham, Arthur 1563 births 1632 deaths English Jacobean nonconforming clergy People from Ashby-de-la-Zouch 16th-century English Puritan ministers