HULTON, William (1625-94), of Over Hulton, Deane, Lancs.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

16 July 1660

Family and Education

b. 9 Sept. 1625, o.s. of Adam Hulton of Over Hulton by Grace, da. of Edmund Howarth of Howarth. m. 1656, Anne, da. and h. of William Jessop, clerk of the Council 1654-May 1660, of Holborn, Mdx., 5s. (1 d.v.p.) 1da. suc. fa. 1652.1

Offices Held

J.p. Lancs. 1658-Apr. 1688, Oct. 1688-d., commr. for militia 1659, Mar. 1660, assessment Aug. 1660-1, 1673-4, 1689-90.2

Biography

Hulton was ultimately of Welsh descent, but his ancestors had been established on the property from which they took their name since the 12th century. They espoused the more radical version of Protestantism under Elizabeth, but never achieved the status of county magnates. During the Civil War Hulton’s grandfather raised forces for Parliament from his estates, and it was probably his father who was the Capt. Hulton imprisoned by the Royalists in Chester Castle in 1643. Nevertheless Hulton would scarcely have harboured parliamentary aspirations before he became the son-in-law of one of the most powerful servants of the Protectorate. At the general election of 1660 he was defeated at Clitheroe by William White, who had a majority of the freemen; but the House seated him on petition on the burgage franchise. An inactive Member of the Convention, he was named only to the committee on a bill to nominate commissioners of sewers. His father-in-law was acting as clerk of the Commons, and Hulton certainly stayed in town long enough to hear that the King at the request of the House had consented to grant him a life patent, for at the end of the first session he wrote to a Lancashire neighbour that the bill for settling ministers in their livings had passed, adding that any benefit from it must be ascribed only to the King and Commons. It is not known whether he attended the second session, when Sir Allen Brodrick was sent to ask the lord chancellor to expedite the passing of Jessop’s patent. Cromwellians were out of fashion, however, and when the Cavalier Parliament met another clerk had been appointed. Neither was Hulton in the House, and indeed he never stood again, so far as is known, though dissenters found him an active and sympathetic county magistrate. He died on 27 Mar. 1694 and was buried at Deane, the only member of the family to sit in Parliament.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: M. W. Helms / Irene Cassidy

Notes

  • 1. Vis. Lancs. (Chetham Soc. lxxxv), 159; Croston, Lancs. iii. 142; Lancs. RO, Hulton mss 46/1, 2; G. E. Aylmer, State’s Servants, 237; Deane Par. Reg. (Lancs. Par. Reg. Soc. liv), 473.
  • 2. Lancs. RO, QSC 59-113.
  • 3. VCH Lancs. v. 26; R. Halley, Puritanism and Nonconformity in Lancs. 7, 164, HMC Kenyon, 61, 63, 67, 158; CJ, viii. 90, 169, 230; O. C. Williams, Clerical Organization of the House of Commons, 8; O. Heywood, Diaries, i. 197; Deane Par. Reg. 478.