Richard was baptised at Warton near Lancaster, Lancashire on 8 June 1628.[1][2] His father is described in his baptism record as of Yealand Redman (now Yealand Redmayne).[2] He was the only son of John and Jane Hubberthorne; he had two sisters.[1]
In the late 1640s Richard joined Oliver Cromwell's army,[1] serving as a cavalry captain[3] and fighting in the battles of Dunbar (1650) and Worcester (1651).[1]
In 1652 Richard heard George Fox speak, and this led him to join the Quaker movement.[1] He went on to become one of the set of early Quaker missionaries known as the Valiant Sixty.[4] In 1652 he accompanied George Fox on a journey which took them across the sands of Morecambe Bay.[5] He travelled extensively in England and suffered periods of imprisonment.[1][3] In contrast to some other members of the Valiant Sixty, he appears to have been mild in the way he expressed things: one of his opponents, Adam Martindale, described him as "most rationall, calme-spirited man of his judgement that I was ever publickly engaged against."[1]
In the mid-1650s, during the controversy involving James Nayler, Richard tried to persuade Nayler to distance himself from those who appeared to be encouraging him to set himself up as a rival leader to George Fox.[6] During the period of this controversy, George Fox had a time of imprisonment at Launceston, Cornwall: Richard unsuccessfully petitioned Oliver Cromwell to be allowed to take Fox's place.[7]
Richard was one of the signatories of the Quakers' 1661 peace testimony,[1] on the drafting of which he collaborated with George Fix.[8]
In 1660 Richard had an interview with King Charles II, in which Charles appeared to have favoured religious toleration.[1][9] He wrote an account of this.[10] But toleration did not follow. In 1662, when Quakers were enduring a period of harsh persecution, Richard was arrested and consigned to Newgate Prison, London.[1]
Richard very soon became ill in Newgate Prison. He died there on 17 August 1662.[11][12] He was buried at Bunhill Fields Quaker Burial Ground, Middlesex.[12]
Richard wrote several tracts.[13] They included:
Some of his works were brought together in a quarto published in 1663.[15]
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H > Hubberthorne > Richard Hubberthorne
Categories: Quaker Authors | Battle of Worcester | Battle of Dunbar (1650) | Bunhill Fields Friends Burial Ground, Islington, Middlesex | Quaker Notables | Valiant Sixty