Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Spittlehouse, John
SPITTLEHOUSE, JOHN (fl. 1653), pamphleteer, fought for the parliament against the king at Gainsborough and at the siege of Newark (1644), remaining in the army till after the battle of Worcester (1651) (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1654, p. 62). When Cromwell dissolved the Long parliament (20 April 1653), Spittlehouse published several pamphlets in defence of that action, and urged that Cromwell should imitate Moses in appointing governors for the people. On 5 Dec. 1653 the sergeant-at-arms was ordered to apprehend him and bring him before council to answer for certain petitions presented by him to council and parliament (ib. 1653–4, pp. 272, 294, 446). He was released by order of council on 6 April 1654, but his arrest was again directed on 19 Oct. for publishing an abusive answer to Cromwell's speech of 4 Sept. 1654 (ib. 1654, pp. 378, 434). His release, on giving a bond to the extent of 200l. to live peaceably, was voted on 1 Feb. 1656 (ib. 1655–6, p. 155). The date of his death is not known.
Spittlehouse was the author of: 1. ‘The Army Vindicated in their late Dissolution of the Parliament,’ 1653, 4to. 2. ‘A Warning Piece Discharged,’ 1653 (on these two tracts see Gardiner's Commonwealth and Protectorate, ii. 223). 3. ‘An Answer to one Part of the Lord Protector's Speech, or a Vindication of the Fifth-Monarchy Men,’ 1654. 4. ‘The Picture of a New Courtier, drawn in a Conference between Mr. Plainheart and Mr. Timeserver,’ 1656.
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