Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/310

 command at Chatham and Maidstone. He was also made colonel-commandant of a new second battalion added to the 5th foot. In 1801 the headquarters of the recruiting department were removed from Chatham to Parkhurst, Isle of Wight, and Hewett was appointed to command the island as a part of the south-western district. He was transferred to the colonelcy of the 61st foot, 4 April 1800. In 1803 he was made inspector-general of the royal army of reserve, a force of forty thousand men raised by ballot under the Defence Acts (see Ann. Reg. 1804, Appendix). In 1805 he became barrackmaster-general, and in 1806 was appointed commander-in-chief in the East Indies. He landed in India 17 Oct. 1807, and left 18 Dec. 1811. Among the events of that period were the unfortunate disputes between the Madras officers and the government, and the despatch from India of the expeditions against the Isle of France (Mauritius) and Java. He was commander of the forces in Ireland in 1813–16, and was created a baronet in 1818. Hewett was a G.C.B., a full general, colonel 61st foot, and an Irish privy councillor. He married at Bath, 26 July 1785, Julia, daughter of John Johnson of Blackheath, by whom he had five sons and seven daughters. He is described as a tall, soldierly old man, much beloved in private life. He had resided some years at his seat, Freemantle Park, near Southampton (now the local suburb of that name), and had expressed a particular desire to see the 61st, of which he had been colonel for forty years, on its return home. By a curious coincidence he died suddenly the day the regiment landed at Southampton, 21 March 1840. He was buried in Shirley Church, and a monument was erected to him in the adjacent parish church of Millbrook. 

HEWETT, WILLIAM (d. 1567), lord mayor of London, son of Edmund Hewett, was born in Wales, a hamlet of Laughton-en-le-Morthen in South Yorkshire. His family had been settled in the adjoining county of Derby from early times. He followed the trade of a clothworker, and after duly serving his apprenticeship was admitted to the freedom of the Clothworkers' Company of London before 1529, in which year he himself took an apprentice as a freeman (Records of the Company). He succeeded well in commerce (Stow estimates his ‘estate’ at 6,000l. per annum), and was joined by many of his relatives and friends from Yorkshire. He employed his brother Thomas and the latter's son Henry to assist him in his business, which he probably carried on at a house called the Three Cranes in Candlewick Street, which he bequeathed to his nephew Henry, with remainder to Thomas Hewett.

Hewett became master of the Clothworkers' Company in 1543. He was elected alderman of Vintry on 16 Sept. 1550, and on refusing to serve was committed to Newgate (City Records, Repertory 12, pt. ii. fol. 261 a). He represented Vintry ward until 9 July 1554, when he removed to Candlewick (ib. 13, pt. i. fol. 67). On 11 Feb. 1556–7, in view of the approaching mayoralty duties, he begged to be discharged ‘of his cloke and room’ (ib. 13, pt. ii. fol. 478 b), but a small committee appointed by the court of aldermen (1 June) prevailed upon him to alter his decision (ib. fol. 512 b). He served the office of sheriff in 1553, and was charged with carrying out the sentences of execution upon Lady Jane Grey and her husband, and on Sir Thomas Wyatt's adherents. In the same year he countersigned, with other principal citizens, the letters patent of Edward VI leaving the crown to Lady Jane Grey (, Early History of the Merchant Taylors' Company, ii. 119). In 1559 he became lord mayor, being the first member of the Clothworkers' Company to attain that dignity. On 8 June 1560 he presided at the trial of one Chamberlain for treason (State Papers, Dom. 1547–1580, p. 160), and on 4 Oct. the queen wrote directing him to affix the marks of a greyhound and portcullis on the testoons in currency, to distinguish the base from the better sort (ib. Addit. 1547–65, p. 503). He was knighted at Greenwich by Elizabeth on 21 Jan. 1559–60. Hewett's name appears on the register of admissions to Gray's Inn on 4 March 1565–6, but this date is clearly wrong, since he is described as ‘after lord mayor of London’ (, Register of Admissions to Gray's Inn, 1889, col. 35). His arms, inscribed with his name, are in Gray's Inn Hall (, Origines Jurid. p. 306).

Hewett lived in Philpot Lane. He had also a country house at Highgate, and Chief-justice Sir Roger Cholmeley chose him as one of the six governors of his newly established grammar school there in 1565 (, Environs of London, iii. 64). He also possessed the manor of Parsloes in Dagenham, Essex (ib. iv. 75), and various other manors and estates in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Not-