in shape, was built at St. Saviourgate in 1692 (registered 8 April 1693). Sir John Hewley died at his country residence, Bell Hall, near York, on 24 Aug. 1697, and was buried in St. Saviour's Church, York.
Dame Hewley, his widow, spent large sums in works of charity. In 1700 she built and endowed an almshouse at York for ten poor women of her own religious views [see Bowles, Edward]; in 1705 she contributed 200l. to charity schools founded at York by Archbishop Sharpe.
On 13 Jan. 1704–5 Dame Hewley conveyed to trustees a landed estate, of which the income was, after her death, to be devoted to benevolent objects, including the support of ‘poor and godly preachers for the time being of Christ's holy gospel.’ The benefactions were increased by a further deed (26 April 1707) and by her will (9 July 1707, codicil 21 Aug. 1710). The will was contested without result. Though the trustees were all presbyterian, grants were made to ministers of the ‘three denominations.’ By the end of the last century all the trustees and a majority of the presbyterian recipients were unitarian; but by a judgment of the House of Lords (5 Aug. 1842) three congregationalists, three orthodox presbyterians, and one baptist were appointed trustees. The income of the trust was then 2,830l., and has since increased.
Dame Hewley died on 23 Aug. 1710, and was buried with her husband. Portraits of Sir John Hewley and his wife are preserved in the vestry of St. Saviourgate Chapel. Their two children, Wolrych and John, died in infancy.
[Manchester Socinian Controversy, by George Hadfield (1787–1879) [q. v.], 1825, pp. 195 sq.; Historical Illustrations and Proofs, Shore v. Attorney-General, by Joseph Hunter [q. v.], 1839, pp. 95 sq.; the Foundation Deeds, &c., relating to Dame S. Hewley's Charity, 1849; James's Hist. Litig. and Legis. Presb. Chapels and Charities, 1867, pp. 228 sq.; Kenrick's Memorials of the Presb. Chapel, St. Saviourgate, York, 1869, pp. 28 sq.]
HEWSON, JOHN (d. 1662), regicide, was, according to Wood, ‘sometime an honest shoemaker in Westminster’ (Fasti, 1649). This statement seems confirmed by the fact that on 26 Feb. 1628 the Massachusetts Company agreed to purchase of John Hewson eight pairs of shoes (Young, Chronicles of the first Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1846, p. 46). Hewson served in the parliamentary army from the beginning of the war, first in the armies of Essex and Manchester, and then as lieutenant-colonel of Pickering's regiment in the new model (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1654, p. 33; Sprigge, Anglia Rediviva, ed. 1854, p. 329). At the storming of Bridgwater (22 July 1647) the forlorn hope was led by Hewson, and in December following, on Pickering's death, he succeeded to the command of his regiment (ib. p. 78). In the quarrel between the army and parliament Hewson sided with the former, was one of the commissioners appointed to represent the grievances of the soldiers in April 1647, and one of the presenters of the charge against the eleven members (Rushworth, vii. 458, 481). He is mentioned as praying in the meeting of the army council at Windsor on 21 Dec. 1647 (ib. viii. 974). Fairfax, in his account of the fight at Maidstone (1 June 1648), notices ‘the valour and resolution of Col. Hewson, whose regiment had the hardest task’ (Fairfax, Correspondence, iv. 32). Hewson took part also, under the command of Colonel Rich, in the relief of Dover and in the defeat of the cavaliers before Deal (14 Aug. 1648; Rushworth, viii. 1149, 1228). He was one of the king's judges, sat regularly, and signed the death-warrant (Noble, Regicides, i. 352). On 19 May 1649 he was created M.A. at Oxford.
Hewson commanded a foot regiment in Cromwell's expedition to Ireland, relieved Arklow, captured Ballyronan and Leighlinbridge, was wounded at the storming of Kilkenny, and became governor of Dublin (Murphy, Cromwell in Ireland, pp. 140, 281, 283, 287, 299). A number of his letters during his service in Ireland are printed in ‘Mercurius Politicus’ and ‘Proceedings in Parliament’ (see also Old Parliamentary History, xix. 462, 481, xx. 32; Cary, Memorials of the Civil War, ii. 273). An independent of the extreme type, he joined the church established by John Rogers at Dublin, giving him an account of his religious experience, which was printed by Rogers in the pamphlet entitled ‘Ohel, or Bethshemesh,’ pp. 395, 412, 1653. He favoured the anabaptists, petitioned the Protector (2 Dec. 1655) to send Fleetwood back to Ireland, and headed a faction which gave much trouble to Henry Cromwell (Thurloe, iv. 276, 348, 422, 742). According to Ludlow, he was bribed to support the Protector by the payment of his arrears, but he was far from being a thoroughgoing supporter of his government (ib. v. 327, vi. 94; Ludlow, ed. 1751, p. 195; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1654, p. 13; Burton, Diary, i. 421). Hewson represented Ireland in the Little parliament of 1653, Dublin in 1654, and Guildford in 1656 (ib. iv. 492). He was knighted by Cromwell in December 1657, and was also called to his ‘House of Lords’ (Mercurius Politicus, 3–10 Dec. 1657;
