Arthur Hildersham was an English clergyman, a Puritan

Puritan

The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...

 and nonconforming preacher.

Life

Arthur Hildersham was born at Stetchworth

Stetchworth

Stetchworth is a small village and civil parish in East Cambridgeshire, England, to the south of the horse-racing centre of Newmarket and around east of Cambridge.-History:...

, and brought up as a Roman Catholic. He was educated in Saffron Walden

Saffron Walden

Saffron Walden is a medium-sized market town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England. It is located north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and approx north of London...

 and at Christ's College, Cambridge

Christ's College, Cambridge

Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.With a reputation for high academic standards, Christ's College averaged top place in the Tompkins Table from 1980-2000 . In 2011, Christ's was placed sixth.-College history:...

. Through the patronage of Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon

Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon

Sir Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, KG KB was the eldest son of Francis Hastings, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon and Catherine Pole.-Ancestry:...

, he became vicar of St Helen's Church, Ashby-de-la-Zouch

St Helen's Church, Ashby-de-la-Zouch

St. Helen's Church, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, is a parish church in the Church of England in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire.-Description:The church is largely fourteenth century but was rebuilt in 1878 by James Piers St Aubyn with the addition of outer nave aisles...

. According to Benjamin Brook

Benjamin Brook

-Life:He was born at Nether Thong, near Huddersfield. When young he was admitted to membership in the independent church at Holmfield, under the Rev. Robert Gallond. In 1797 he entered Rotherham College as a student for the ministry...

, the Leicestershire connection was through the good offices of John Ireton, who became vicar of Kegworth

Kegworth

Kegworth is a large village and civil parish in Leicestershire, England....

, and who offered help to Hildersham when his family objected to his conversion to Protestantism. He was literary executor, with John Dod

John Dod

John Dod , known as “Decalogue Dod”, was a non-conforming English clergyman, taking his nickname for his emphasis on the Ten Commandments. He is known for his widely circulated writings...

, to Thomas Cartwright, who died in 1603.

He was one of the promoters of the Millenary Petition

Millenary Petition

The Millenary Petition was a list of requests given to James I by Puritans in 1603 when he was travelling to London in order to claim the English throne. It is claimed, but not proven, that this petition had 1,000 signatures of Puritan ministers...

, with Stephen Egerton

Stephen Egerton (clergyman)

Stephen Egerton was an English clergyman, a leading Puritan preacher of his time also active in organizing for reform of the Church of England.-Life:...

. It was presented to James I

James I of England

James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

 in 1603; but he was excluded from the subsequent Hampton Court Conference

Hampton Court Conference

The Hampton Court Conference was a meeting in January 1604, convened at Hampton Court Palace, for discussion between King James I of England and representatives of the Church of England, including leading English Puritans.-Attendance:...

, where four moderate voices represented the Puritan trend. He was deprived of his living in 1605, and then relied on lecturing positions. William Lilly

William Lilly

William Lilly , was an English astrologer famed during his time. Lilly was particularly adept at interpreting the astrological charts drawn up for horary questions, as this was his speciality....

 (born 1602) was educated in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and described the "silenced" Hildersham in his History of His Life and Times. Lilly's teacher was John Brinsley the elder

John Brinsley the elder

John Brinsley the elder was an English schoolmaster, known for his educational works.-Life:He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1584 and M.A. in 1588. He became the master of the school at Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, brought there by Henry Hastings,...

, one of Hildersham's circle.

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

Exorcism

Exorcism is the religious practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed...

. Hildersham supported the exorcist John Darrell

John Darrell

John Darrell was an Anglican clergyman, noted for his Puritan views and practice as an exorcist.Darrell was a sizar of Queens' College, Cambridge. In 1586 he exorcised a girl in Derbyshire, and published an account of his work. In 1596-7 he conducted further exorcisms, mainly at St. Mary's...

. Also he had connections with the heresy

Heresy

Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...

 case of Edward Wightman

Edward Wightman

Edward Wightman was an English radical Anabaptist, executed at Lichfield for his activities promoting himself as the divine Paraclete and Savior of the world...

, burned in 1612.

Around 1615 he encountered Francis Higginson

Francis Higginson

Francis Higginson was an early Puritan minister in Colonial New England, and the first minister of Salem, Massachusetts.-Biography:...

, who in 1629 settled in Salem, Massachusetts

Salem, Massachusetts

Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...

. Under Hildersham's influence he became a nonconformist, setting off the train of events leading to Higginson's emigration.

Family

He had royal blood, being a great-grandson of Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury

Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury

Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury was an English peeress, one of two women in sixteenth-century England to be a peeress in her own right with no titled husband, the daughter of George of Clarence, the brother of King Edward IV and King Richard III...

, the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. This accounts for the story that Elizabeth I called him “cousin Hildersham”.

Samuel Hildersham (1594?–1674), Westminster Divine and minister ejected in 1662, was his son.