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The Vale's very own regicide Portrait of Francis Hacker from Charles Malcolm Brown via Catherine Pincott-Allen. In a field close to Stathern, you'll see a field with several low platforms. These are thought to be remnants of an old hall, once the home of Colonel Francis Hacker (circa 1618 to 1660), one of the officers supervising the execution of Charles I during the Civil War. Catherine Pincott-Allen, a member of The Field Detectives, has thoroughly investigated Hacker's life and discovered that much of what has been written about him is incorrect. Until [2024], it was always claimed that he was born in about 1618, the son of Francis Hacker and Margaret Rossell née Whalley, and this was based on their known marriage in 1617 and the assumption that Francis was born a year later. This belief would have made him fourteen years old when he married Isabel Brunts in 1632. However, extensive research by The Field Detectives has uncovered that his baptism took place on 16th March 1605, at All Hallows Church, Gedling, Nottinghamshire, and that his mother was Anne, therefore, making him twenty-seven years old at the time of his marriage. There were twelve siblings, a few of whom did not survive childhood. Anne died in 1616, and it was following her death that Francis married Margaret Rossell née Whalley in 1617, the daughter of Walter Whalley of Cotgrave, Nottinghamshire. Source: archives.blog.parliament.uk/2024/05/28/colonel-francis-hacker/ Francis inherited the family lands at Colston Bassett and Stathern in Leicestershire, and brought his bride to live at Stathern Hall. Her name was Isabell Brunts, of East Bridgford, one of the four daughters of Gabriel Brunts of the same village, who died 18 July 1638 and was buried there by Isabella, his wife, daughter of Rowland Wand of Mansfield Woodhouse. Francis and his wife, Isabel, had seven, children; they were Francis 1633–93, Anne 1634–unknown, Elizabeth 1637–66, Isabel 1638–46, Mary 1639–unknown, Barbara 1641–6 and Samuel c.1648–1723. There is a belief that Colonel Hacker’s eldest son, Francis, went to America after his father was executed, however, this is not true. By 1661, he is recorded in the Stathern Churchwardens’ Accounts as paying one of the largest levies for land, beast and sheep in the village, and by 1662 this has doubled, becoming the largest levy. He was a physician and later moved to London where he died in 1693. Source: archives.blog.parliament.uk/2024/05/28/colonel-francis-hacker/ Hacker was constable of the village in 1635, as appears from an entry in the constables' accounts for the village: 'Mr. Hacker chosen Constabell of Statherne in the countie of Lessester in the year 1635 and in the 5th day of April.' One of his duties apparently was to see that the ale brewed in the village was up to assize standards and to report on the matter to the justice of the peace. He also had to collect the ship-money, the tax which, imposed on ports and coast towns in 1634, was extended to the inland counties in 1635 and caused so much discontent. There is the entry:- 'Ittem payd to him (Mr. Elston) which was owing in tax for the ships.' Francis Hacker owned a house, known as Stathern Hall, and rented a farm with its own farmhouse. Stathern Hall was demolished in the seventeenth century, perhaps – as Catherine Pincott-Allen suggests – to provide building stone for the 1654 to 1668 rebuild of Belvoir Castle. See The search for Stathern Hall and Catherine Pincott-Allen's book A Further Account of the Hacker Family Details of Hacker's role in the execution of King Charles I can be found here: archives.blog.parliament.uk/2024/05/28/colonel-francis-hacker/. Note: Colonel Francis Hacker did not sign King Charles I's Death Warrant. But he did sign the Execution Order and he was on the platform when Charles was beheaded 30th January 1649. In May 1660 the Stuart monarchy was reinstated and those involved in the death of Charles I arrested. Hacker's trial took place on 15 October 1660. He made no serious attempt to defend himself: 'I have no more to say for myself but that I was a soldier, and under command, and what I did was by the commission you have read.' Hacker was sentenced to death and hanged at Tyburn on 19 October 1660. His body, instead of being quartered, was given to his friends for burial, and is said to have been interred in the church of St Nicholas Cole Abbey, London, the advowson of which was, at one time, vested in the Hacker family. However local lore in Stathern say he was buried just outside the chancel door of St Guthlac's church (Joyce Lee Who's Buried Where in Leicestershire [Leicestershire Libraries 1991] p159). The historian C.H. Firth suggested that the concession of hanging and burial rather than the usual punishment being hanged, drawn and quartered was probably because other members of his family were Royalists. One brother, Thomas Hacker, was killed fighting for the king's cause. Another, Rowland Hacker, was an active commander for the king in Nottinghamshire, and lost a hand in his service. As with all convicted traitors, Hacker's property was forfeited to the Crown. His estate passed to the Duke of York, but was bought back by Rowland Hacker, and was still in the possession of the Hacker family in 1890. In 1941 H.L. Hubbard wrote: 'The house [at Stathern] was destroyed soon after Hacker's execution but, incorporated in the boundary of one of the present fields on the site, there still remains the buttress of one of the outside walls, with part of the mortar in the interstices of the stones, protected by the hawthorn hedge which continues the boundary of the field; running from the buttress as a boundary is about fifteen yards of a stone wall, whose stones are remarkably even and smooth, save on the top where the wall has collapsed and been rebuilt, a wall which is probably part of that surrounding the grounds of the old hall. At right angles to this is another stone wall forming, with a hedge, the boundary of a field, but this is a rough structure and probably no part of the hall, although stone from it was used in the wall's construction. The field which is the site of the hall still has a number of undulations and mounds covering the foundations of the hall; there can also be discerned the outlines of a terrace. The drive to the hall survives in the form of a cart-road which debouches on to the road halfway up the Mill Hill. The earth in one part of the field has recently been disturbed for the erection of a blockhouse and, in the debris, were numerous fragments of rough pottery, made from local clay and discoloured by the iron-ore in it. An aerial photograph of the site would probably recover the complete ground-plan of the building and gardens.' source H.L. Hubbard, 1941, 'Colonel Francis Hacker, parliamentarian and regicide', Transactions of the Thoroton Society, Vol.45. Grateful thanks to Richard Pincott for bringing Colonel Francis Hacker's house to my attention and to Catherine Pincott-Allen for making major corrections to the first iteration of this entry. 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Chronicle entries home page what's new? the geology of the Vale the boundaries and rivers of the Vale long, long ago prehistory in the Vale prehistoric boundaries in the Vale north-south prehistoric routeways Romans roads in the Vale Roman settlements in and near the Vale long ago introduction to Anglo-Saxons place-names of the Vale waterborne transport around the sixth century Orston's early church Anglo-Saxon sculpture in the Vale why Orston lost out to Bingham and Bottesford what the Normans did for the Vale Granby's importance in 1086 Granby's lost castle the Vale's watermills in 1086 Romanesque sculpture in the Vale St Remigius why Bottesford is in Leicestershire the Vale in medieval times medieval gargoyles of the Vale Eastwell's chancel screen St Ethelburga's church other early saints Elston's old chapel Muston and Long Clawson saltways of the Vale the Vale's medieval tile collection the Vale in Tudor times Dissolution in the Vale not that long ago the Vale in the C17th the 'great and the good' of the Vale Bottesford's effigies 'wicked practice and sorcerye' the whales on the Whalley memorial Car Colston's bigoted GP cum JP the Vale's very own regicide Wiverton Hall five rare C17th fonts in the Vale pinfolds and pounds in the Vale dovecotes in the Vale the Vale in the C18th turnpiking the Vale gravestones and C18th trade routes goodbye 'Belvoir Angels' C18th gravestone carvers in the Vale Daffy's Elixir the Marquess of Granby Stilton from the Vale springs and spas of the Vale outstanding organs in the Vale Grantham canal changes in the Vale's agriculture since 1800 Eastwell's recusant priest house and chapel Colston Bassett's ruined church seems like yesterday windmills in the Vale stained glass in the Vale village life in the southern Vale 1850 to 1880 folklore of the Vale Flintham museum lacemaking in the Vale gypsum pits in the Vale brick and tile works in the Vale ironstone quarrying in the Vale ironstone railways ironstone quarries of Leicestershire (YouTube video) The Vale's railway stations Orston's famous architect Mothers Union banners of the Vale redundant telephone exchanges in the Vale WWII airfields and pillboxes in the Vale the Vale in 1944 location shooting at Belvoir Castle Screveton's giants researching and writing local history the Vale as a verb getting started free advice from 2005 asking curious questions (YouTube video) local history groups in and around the Vale Aslockton (Cranmer LHG) Bingham Heritage Trails Association Bottesford Eastwell Harby Harlaxton Hickling Redmile archive Belvoir Villages History and Memories Group Belvoir Angel Society Grantham Canal Society you may also be interested in free PDFs written by Bob Trubshaw Earliest Churches in Nottinghamshire How Anglo-Saxons Found Their Way Anglo-Saxon Leicestershire Conversations in Churchyards Little-known Leicestershire and Rutland Bob Trubshaw's YouTube channel Introduction to medieval carvings Anglo-Saxon and Romanesque carvings How Anglo-Saxons found their way Anglo-Saxon shrines at fords Meetings at triangles Rota's Land and Franni's Land Reading Romanesque fonts Church and manor The significances of square headdresses Early churches and waterborne trade Charnwood slate gravestones and C18th trade routes Ironstone quarries of Leicestershire Roman roads in north-east Leicestershire Salt ways in Leicestershire Why Melton Mowbray needed to called 'middle town' Evolving Anglo-Saxon agriculture Nottinghamshire's earliest churches Ploughs not piety? Economic regeneration in the C7th Were Anglo-Saxon weaving huts women-only places? Barrowby Until Now website Rutland Village by Village website Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland