Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson

First published in 1806, this record of Colonel John Hutchinson (1615-1664) by his widow, Lucy Hutchinson (1620-1681), was intended to justify his action in 1649, as one of 59 commissioners on the high court, in signing the death warrant of Charles I. John Hutchinson went on to serve on the Council of State, before becoming disillusioned with Cromwell; he was later arrested and died in prison. Lucy Hutchinson turned her journal of that period into a memoir that presented her husband as a gentleman who strongly supported the Puritan cause. An important work that shows the author as a highly educated woman who wrote and translated Latin at a time when most women were illiterate.-Print ed.