The Minor Family of Somerset

Name Suffix:<NSFX> M.P.
MP 1547
Sir Gilbert Hoghton's Companie
Sir Gilbert Hoghton of Hoghton Tower and the Civil Wars in Lanca
shire
Author: Alan Radford
Originally appeared in the Sealed Knot Magazine - Orders of th
e Day, Volume 33, Issue 3, 2001 reproduced by kind permission o
f the author
Hoghton Tower is a large fortified house on a hilltop between Pr
eston and Blackburn. Itwas built around a medieval pele tower
, which originally stood between the inner and outer courtyard
s of the present house. The ancestral home of the deHoghton fam
ily since the Norman Conquest, Hoghton Tower is one of the mos
tdramatic-looKing houses in the North of England. The present h
ouse was builtalmost entirely in the Elizabethan period and i
s reached by an impressive steep, straight carriageway over hal
f a mile long. Construction was completed byThomas Hoghton in 1
565, but he, a recusant, lived in it only four years before flee
ing to the Low Countries, where he died.
Thomas's nephew Richard heldrather more politically correct vie
ws, and earned the favour of James I, whomade him a baronet i
n 1611. He stayed at Hoghton in 1617 before visiting thehome o
f the Earl of Derby, Lathom House, which was to be the site of t
he most heroic Royalist defence in the whole of the Civil Wars
. Sir Richard laidout the red carpet for James' visit for the e
ntire length of the half mile avenue leading to the house. The B
anqueting Hall, with its Minstrel's Gallery,is where James I du
bbed the loin of beef 'Sirloin' in August 1617 and where previou
sly William Shakespeare had started his worKing life as a tutor
. Thehouse still contains the King's Bedchamber, Audience Chamb
er, Ballroom and other staterooms used by the King, the Duke o
f BucKingham and other nobles. There is also a Tudor well hous
e with its horse-drawn pump and oaken windlass, the undergroun
d passages with dungeons, wine cellar and the stone cells whic
h housed malefactors and cattle thieves.
On the SunDay of the King's stay at Hoghton Tower he receive
d a petition, signed principally by the Lancashire peasants, tra
despeople and servants, representing that they were debarred fro
mlawful recreations upon SunDay, after evening prayers, and upo
n holy Days, and praying that the restrictions imposed by Commis
sioners in the reign of Queen Elizabeth against "pipers and mins
trels playing, maKing and frequenting bear-baiting and bull-bait
ing, on the Sabbath Days, or upon any other Days in time of divi
ne service; and also upon superstitious ringing of bells, wake
sand common feasts; drunkenness, gaming and other vicious pursu
its". The Kingdeclared such restrictions incompatible with th
e privilege of his subjects, and offered redress in the form o
f a proclamation. This declaration formed thebasis of "The Boo
k of Sports" issued to all bishops in 1618 to be read and publis
hed in all parish Churches. The subsequent re-issue of "The Boo
k of Sports" by Charles I early in his reign, antagonising clerg
y and Parliament, was one of the root causes of the subsequent C
ivil Wars.
King James must havebeen impressed by the lavish welcome and th
e feasting which followed. These honours were all very well, bu
t as a result of his great expenditure on entertainment, aggrava
ted by an overdue mortgage on his alum mines at Hoghton, SirRic
hard became bankrupt and was imprisoned for a time in Fleet Pris
on.
SirRichard died in 1630, and was succeeded to the baronetcy b
y his son Gilbert.On 7th April 1637, the House of Hoghton was h
onoured by Charles I by a Grantto the Baronet and his eldest so
n of the right to wear special livery, the Hunting Stewart tarta
n.
Sir Gilbert Hoghton was aged 51 at the outbreak of hostilities i
n 1642, comparatively old for that time, and he was only promine
nt in the early stages of the conflict. He was an important Roya
list in the county, serving as one of the several Deputy-Lieut