HESILRIGE (or HESELRIG), SIR ARTHUR, 2ND BART. (d. i661), English parliamentarian, was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Hesilrige, 1st baronet (c. 1622), of Noseley, Leicestershire. He sat for Leicestershire in the Short and Long Parliaments in 164o, and took a principal part in Strafford's attainder, the Root and Branch Bill and the Militia Bill of Dec. 7, 1641, and was one of the five members impeached on Jan. 3, 1642. He raised a troop of horse for Essex, fought at Edgehill, commanded in the West under Waller, being nicknamed his fides Ac1zates, and distinguished him• self at the head of his cuirassiers, "The Lobsters," at Lansdown on July 5, 1643, at Roundway Down on July 13, at both of which battles he was wounded, and at Cheriton, March 29, 1644. On the occasion of the breach between the army and the parliament, Hesilrige supported the army, took Cromwell's part in his dispute with Manchester and Essex, and on the passing of the Self-denying Ordinance gave up his commission and became one of the leaders of the Independent party in parliament. On Dec. 3o, 1647 he was appointed governor of Newcastle, which he successfully defended; he defeated the Royalists on July 2, 1648 and regained Tynemouth. In October he accompanied Cromwell to Scotland, and gave him valuable support in the Scottish expedition in 165o. Hesilrige, though he approved of the king's execution, had declined to act as judge on his trial. Cromwell's expulsion of the Long Parliament threw him into antagonism, and he opposed the Protectorate and refused to pay taxes. He was returned for Leicester to the parlia ments of 1654, 1656 and 1659, but was excluded from the two former. He succeeded in again obtaining admission to the Com mons in January 1658. On Cromwell's death Hesilrige refused support to Richard; after Richard's downfall he attempted to maintain a republican parliamentary administration, "to keep the sword subservient to the civil magistrate," and when Lambert expelled the parliament, Hesilrige turned to Monk for support, and helped him by securing Portsmouth on Dec. 3, 1659. He marched to London, was appointed one of the council of state, and on Feb. 1 I became a commissioner for the army. He was com pletely outwitted by Monk, and trusting to his assurance of fidelity to "the good old cause" consented to the retirement of his regiment from London. At the Restoration his life was saved by Monk's intervention, but he died in the Tower on Jan. 7, 1661. See article on Hesilrige by C. H. Firth in the Dkt. of Nat. Biog raphy, and authorities there quoted.