Colonel John Hewson, also spelt Hughson (died 1662), was a shoemaker from London and religious Independent who fought for Parliament and the Commonwealth in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, reaching the rank of colonel. Considered one of Oliver Cromwell's most reliable supporters within the New Model Army, his unit played a prominent part in Pride's Purge of December 1648. Hewson signed the death warrant for the Execution of Charles I in January 1649, for which he reportedly sourced the headsman, while soldiers from his regiment provided security. During the 1649 to 1660 Interregnum, he served as Governor of Dublin and MP for County Dublin until 1656. He then returned to England and was MP for Guildford before being elevated to Cromwell's Other House in 1658. As one of the surviving Regicides of Charles I, he was exempted from the Indemnity and Oblivion Act after the 1660 Stuart Restoration. He went into exile in the Dutch Republic, and is thought to have died in Amsterdam in 1662. Personal details Very little is known of Hewson's life prior to 1642, other than that he worked as a shoemaker in Westminster during the late 1620s and 1630s. In February 1628, he is recorded as having sold eight pairs of shoes to the Massachusetts Bay Company; this suggests he was born prior to 1604, since doing so required him to be a freeman of the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers, and at least 24 years old. Hewson himself later testified he had lived as a "child of wrath" in a "wicked and profane family" in London, before being converted through the influence of a godly preacher. He was later accused of being an Anabaptist, a sect viewed as radical revolutionaries, and in consequence persecuted by Catholics and mainstream Protestants alike. Hewson was married twice; his first wife died in Dublin in January 1652, and he quickly remarried. The names of his partners, and whether either marriage produced children, are unknown, although one source claims he had three unrecorded "Anabaptist" sons. First English Civil War Prior to the outbreak of the First English Civil War in August 1642, Hewson probably served in the Westminster Trained Bands, which fought at Turnham Green. He subsequently joined the Parliamentarian field army, and is thought to be the "John Huson" listed in November 1642 as a captain in the Earl of Essex Regiment. At some point in 1643, he