Sir John Hotham, 1st Baronet

Sir John Hotham, 1st Baronet (c. July 1589 – 3 January 1645) of Scorborough Hall, near Driffield, Yorkshire, was an English Member of Parliament who was Governor of Hull in 1642 shortly before the start of the Civil War.

Later in the Civil War he and his son John Hotham the younger were accused of treachery to the Parliamentarian cause, found guilty and executed on Tower Hill.

Later he promised his prisoner, George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol, that he would surrender the town to the king, but when Charles appeared again he refused a second time and drove away the besiegers.

The younger Hotham was beheaded at Tower Hill on 2 January 1645, and despite efforts made by the House of Lords and the Presbyterians to save him, his father suffered the same fate on the following day.

[8] In 2017, a play called The Hypocrite, written by Richard Bean was performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at Hull Truck Theatre and Stratford.