How John Hewson Signed His Name: Or, How to Spot a Monster in an Archive

• In Event: Print and Manuscript Cultures in Early Modern Dublin

Abstract

Drawing on material in Marsh’s Library, this paper examines two dozen or so surviving signatures of John Hewson, an officer in Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army during the late 1640s and 1650s. He signed the death warrant of Charles I and served as military governor of Dublin during the 1650s. He wrote no literary or political texts and bequeathed no personal papers to posterity. The only surviving traces of his writing come from his signatures on official documents. It will be suggested that his signature changed from its initial simple form into a very elaborate flourish once he began to amass political power and economic wealth during the 1650s. Informed by performance theory and gender studies, it is argued that one can tell much about him personally from a series of death sentences he signed during 1652 and 1653, many of them sentencing women who had been accused of spying.

Author

• Jason J. McElligott, Marsh's Library, Dublin