HUDDLESTON, JOHN

Benedictine monk; b. (place unknown) 1608; d. London, Sept. 22, 1698. The second son of Joseph of Farington Hall, near Preston, Lancashire, he is said to have served in the army of Charles I during the Civil Wars. He is considered to have been educated and ordained at Douay College, although his name is not found in the Douay lists. When he came to the English mission, he served first in Wensleydale, Yorkshire, and then at the home of Mr. Whitgrave at Moseley, Staffordshire. On Sept. 3, 1651, charles ii was defeated by Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester, and fleeing in disguise he came to Moseley, where huddleston hid him in his own room for several days. Charles never forgot that Huddleston had saved his life, and when he returned to power he lodged him in the palace of Somerset House in London as chaplain to the Queen Mother, Henrietta Maria, and after her death in 1669 appointed him chaplain to Queen Catherine of Braganza. When Charles was on his deathbed, he was asked by his Catholic brother, the future James II, if he wanted a priest. Replying fervently that he did, the king was converted and received the Last Sacraments from Huddleston, who had been fetched secretly by a back stair to the bedroom, after the Protestant clergy had departed.

Bibliography: b. weldon, Chronological Notes (London 1881). j. gillow, A Literary and Biographical History or Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics from 1534 to the Present time, 5 v. (London-New York 1885–1902; repr. New York 1961) 3:463–465. h. foley, Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, 7 v. (London 1877–82). j. s. clarke, Life of James II, 2 v. (London 1816).

[b. whelan]