Old Hewson the Cobbler

The most satisfactory account of "old Hewson" is the following, extracted from *The Loyal Martyrology, by William Winstanley*, small 8vo. 1665, (p. 123.):— "John Hewson, who, from a cobbler, rose by degrees to be a colonel, and though a person of no parts either in body or mind, yet made by Cromwell one of his pageant lords. He was a fellow fit for any mischief, and capable of nothing else; a sordid lump of ignorance and impiety, and therefore the more fit to share in Cromwell's designs, and to act in that horrid murther of his Majesty. Upon the turn of the times, he ran away for fear of Squir…