The arrival of Royalist reinforcements from Warwick, led to the Battle of Tipton Green from which both sides retired claiming victory. The Roundheads’ withdrew to Walsall and Dudley celebrated with feasting and music whilst the castle was repaired.

Later the same year, the bulk of the Royalists were absent when Roundheads raided the town, sprang 26 prisoners from the lightly guarded church, stole some horses, and departed unopposed.

John married Ann around 1645 but most Dudley marriage records were lost during the war, so we don’t know her full name. By the time their first daughter (Ann) arrived the following January, the tide of war had turned, and Royalist garrisons were falling. In preparation for the inevitable siege ahead, Royalists cleared away St Edmund’s church and burnt nearby houses, removing potential enemy cover.

Ann would have smelt the acrid smell of her town afire as she clutched her baby and perhaps helped drive cattle into the streets to slow the Roundheads’ arrival on 27 April 1646. The town was in chaos with buildings alight, cattle everywhere, and the townspeople refusing to help restore order.

After dousing the fires, the Roundheads promptly used stone from the demolished church to build breastworks and lay siege to the castle. Inside, an officer’s wife lay dying and asked to join her infant daughter in St Edmund’s churchyar. With the church in ruins, arrangements were made for a cease fire enabling her hasty burial at St Thomas’ at the other end of town. John and Ann would have felt for this young officer who the Parliamentarians prevented from attending his wife to her grave.

Leveson sent urgent messages to the king who had already surrendered. The siege was short-lived and Leveson negotiated excellent terms which allowed his soldiers to return peaceably to their homes. However, the face of Dudley was changed forever: the east end of town lay in ruins, and the castle was slighted by the Parliamentarians (i.e., deliberately damaged to prevent re-use). For John and Ann Hodgetts, this devastating loss was compounded later that year by the death of baby Ann.

In 1648, agitation from the imprisoned king triggered the 2nd Civil War. While there was no action in Dudley itself, Dud Dudley (son of the local baron) raised a force of 200 men for the king. His junior officer was John’s cousin—Thomas Hodgetts from Halesowen. Betrayed and captured while training at Boscobel Wood, Dud and his officers were sentenced to death, but escaped.

It was all in vain. By the end of 1648, the Parliamentarians and their New Model Army had full control of the country and removed the risk of further uprisings by beheading the king.
Back at Dudley, John and Ann soon welcomed two more children and looked to the future. With much rebuilding required, John joined the parish council led by the new Puritan minister. While this might sound inconsistent for a Royalist, reality had to be faced. A refusal to accept the new regime could result in the confiscation of John’s property and no legal support to collect unpaid debts. John’s father had died the year before so, as well as Ann and the children to think of, his inheritance was at stake.

Besides, churchwardens ran the town. They collected levies, made decisions, and disbursed monies—why leave that to the victors? It appears John and his fellow wardens practiced passive resistance on occasions. For example, they were all “too weary” to complete the minister’s parish survey.

John served as a churchwarden for forty years including one year as “supervisor of ye highwaies”, and one as “overseer of ye poor.” In his time, the parish council oversaw road-paving and the construction of a new town hall.

John accumulated land and became a yeoman (small farmer) before Ann died in 1692. John lived to age 83 but was in ill health for his final ten years. They had five children survive to adulthood; we descend from their youngest son Edward.

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Sources & Notes

There were Hodgettses on both sides of the Civil War. Henry Hodgetts of Sedgley and William Hodgetts of Handsworth were Parliamentarians and there was a Royalist Cornet (Ensign) Hodgetts said to have been captured along with Dud Dudley in 1648. His first name is unknown. (Source: Civil War Petition of Dud Dudley, 1660, Rtd 1/8/2026).

Indirect evidence John was a royalist based at Dudley:

• a) His first child was baptised and buried there placing Ann in Dudley Jan-Dec 1646 (a Parliamentarian would not have lodged his wife there).
• b) Nailers joined the Royalists: William Brereton, A Journal of the English Civil War, McFarland Incorporated, 2012, p97-98 (Rtd via Google Books 23/7/2022) .
• c) John is not listed in The Cromwell Association Online Directory of Parliamentarian Army Officers, ed. Stephen K Roberts (2017), British History Online, Rtd 29/3/2022.

St Thomas’ Churchwardens book 1618-1725, Midland Ancestors.

Marriage: Only two Dudley marriage records from the Civil War period survived. Later wills suggest possible maiden names for Ann are Jackson, Bradley and Payton.

Civil War: Edward Chitham, The Story of Dudley, The History Press, 2014, p68-71.

Post-war: Paul H Hardacre, The Royalists under the Commonwealth 1649–1653, p65.