Background
Arthur Hildersham was born at Stetchworth, and brought up as a Roman Catholic.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Arthur Hildersham
Edit ProfileEducation
He was educated in Saffron Walden and at Christ"s College, Cambridge.
Career
Through the patronage of Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, he became vicar of Street Helen"s Church, Ashby-de-la-Zouch. 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.
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 and Times. One place he was a lecturer was at Burton-on-Trent.
With Peter Eccleshall he had been conducting a "common exercise" in Burton by 1596. Related to this religious activity was the case of Thomas Darling, who became celebrated as a result of efforts at exorcism.
Hildersham supported the exorcist John Darrell.
Also he had connections with the heresy case of Edward Wightman, burned in 1612. Around 1615 he encountered Francis Higginson, who in 1629 settled in Salem, Massachusetts. Under Hildersham"s influence he became a nonconformist, setting off the train of events leading to Higginson"s emigration.
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”. 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.
