(Carlyle, Cromwell, letters cxxxix. cxli.) After the battle Hesilrige was charged with the custody of the Scottish prisoners, of whose miserable condition he gives an account in a letter to the council of state (Old Parliamentary Hist. xix. 417).
During this period of service in the north Hesilrige was freely accused of abusing his position for his own emolument (A true and exact Account of the great and heavy Pressures and Grievances the well-affected Northern Counties be under by Sir Arthur Hesilrige's Misgovernment, by John Musgrave, 1650; answered in Musgrave Muzzled, or the Traducer gagged, 1650; Surtees, Hist. of Durham, ii. 21). He was accused of unjust and oppressive dealings with respect to some collieries at Harraton, Durham, part of the confiscated estate of John Headworth (Surtees, ii. 178; Headworth, The Oppressed Man's Outcry). He became engaged in a long lawsuit with the Collingwood family for the possession of the manor of Esselington, Northumberland, which finally ended in a verdict for his opponent (Nichols, p. 745; Mercurius Politicus, 16 June 1658). Still more notorious was his quarrel with John Lilburne, who accused him of unlawfully ejecting his uncle, George Lilburne, from some estates in Durham (A Preparative to an Hue and Cry after Sir Arthur Haslerig, 1649; A Just Reproof to Haberdashers' Hall, 1651; these pamphlets are answered in An Anatomy of Lieut.-Col. John Lilburne's Spirit, 1649; Lilburne Tried and Cast, 1653; A true Narrative concerning Sir Arthur Haslerig's possessing of Lieut.-Col. John Lilburne's Estate, 1653). On 23 Dec. 1651 the parliament appointed a committee to examine into these charges. It reported them to be false, and Lilburne was sentenced (15 Jan. 1652) to pay 2,000l. damages to Hesilrige, to pay a fine of 3,000l. to the state, and to be banished for life (Commons' Journals, vii. 71; Godwin, Commonwealth, iii. 333–7). During the same period Hesilrige was building up a great estate by purchasing the lands of the see of Durham, which parliament had confiscated and put up to sale. He bought for 6,102l. the manor of Bishop Auckland, for 5,833l. that of Easingwood borough, and for 6,704l. Wolsingham manor (Nichols, ii. 745). Contemporary satirists continually refer to these purchases; one styles him
Of the bishops Uriah-like fall the contriver,
To get the fair Bathsheba of the revenue
(The Rump, 1662, i. 346, ii. 15, 63).
In public affairs, so long as the Commonwealth lasted, Hesilrige took a very prominent part. He had been appointed one of the king's judges, but refused to act, and also refused to take the engagement retrospectively, although approving of it (Nalson, Trial of Charles I, p. 3; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1649–50, p. 9). He made a merit of this abstention at the Restoration, but spoke approvingly of the king's execution in 1659 (Burton, Diary, iii. 96, 99). Hesilrige was a member of every council of state elected during the Commonwealth, and steadfastly resisted the army's proposal that parliament should dissolve themselves and devolve their authority on a small select council. ‘I told them,’ he says, ‘that the work they went about was accursed, that it was impossible to devolve this trust’ (ib. p. 98; cf. Ludlow, p. 176). From the day when Cromwell forcibly expelled the Long parliament, Hesilrige was the bitter enemy of his government. He refused to pay taxes not levied by parliament, and preferred to see his ‘oxen of value’ sold for 20s. and 40s. apiece (Burton, iii. 57). In 1654, 1656, and 1659 he was returned to parliament for Leicester. At the beginning of the parliament of 1654 he was ‘very instrumental in opening the eyes of the young members’ to Cromwell's usurpation, but was soon excluded (12 Sept.) for refusing to take the engagement to the Protector and the new constitution (Ludlow, p. 190; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1654, p. 286). For the same reason he was excluded at the opening of the parliament of 1656, and his name appears at the head of the list of those who signed the protest (Whitelocke, Memorials, ed. 1853, iv. 274). In order to keep him out of the House of Commons, the Protector appointed him one of the upper house, constituted in 1657 in accordance with the terms of the ‘Petition and Advice.’ But Hesilrige, in spite of all pressure, refused this dignity, and on 25 Jan. 1658 succeeded in taking his seat in the commons (Ludlow, p. 227; Burton, ii. 346). ‘I will not take the Bishops' seat,’ he said, ‘because I know not how long after I shall keep the Bishops' lands’ (ib. ii. 423). Forthwith he proceeded to attack the new second chamber, denounced it as a return to the bondage of a monarchy, and urged the rejection of its claim to be acknowledged as the House of Lords (ib. ii. 403, 407, 436, 462).
In the parliament called by Richard Cromwell, Hesilrige played a still more prominent part in attacking the government. He opposed the recognition of the new protector, and the admission of the representatives of Ireland and Scotland. He opposed, also, the vote to transact business with ‘the other house,’ saying, ‘If this pass, we shall next vote canvas breeches and wooden shoes for
