John Souch of Chester c.1593-1645

both half length, he wearing a red tunic with white collar and cuffs and a black hat, a sword in his right hand, she wearing a black dress and a headdress with white lace collar and cuffs, holding a fan

Lord Hastings, Melton Constable, Norfolk

Prince Duleep Singh, Portraits in Norfolk Houses, 1927, Vol. II, p.35, no.141

The sitter was a important figure in the English Civil War. He was the son of Sir Thomas Hutchinson of Owthorpe, Nottinghamshire by Margaret, daughter of Sir John Byron of Newstead. At the outbreak of the Civil War he took the side of the Parliamentary cause and in 1643 was made Governor of Nottingham Castle. He defended it against the forces of Charles I, and was subsequently one of the signatories of the king's death warrant. He was elected M.P. for Nottinghamshire in 1646, and also sat in the Long Parliament in 1659. He found his fortunes reversed at the Restoration, and in 1663 he was arrested on suspicion of being involved with the Yorkshire Plot. He was confined in the Tower of London where he died the following year. In 1638 he married Lucy Apsley, daughter of Sir Allen Apsley, who wrote a biography of her husband.