The Gunpowder Plot and Lord Mounteagle's Letter Part 40

(2) To depose Elizabeth, whom they regarded as morally no true claimant for the throne, until dispensed from her illegitimacy by the Pope.

(3) To place Mary Stuart on the throne of England.

(4) Above all, to restore "the ancient faith," which they did in Durham, Staindrop, Darlington, Richmond, Ripon, and some of the churches in Cleveland, for a very brief season.

It is to be remembered that the Rising of the North in 1569 was not joined in by _all_ the Catholics of Yorks.h.i.+re, nor by any of the Catholics of Lancas.h.i.+re. This latter fact, together with the influence of Cardinal Allen, of Rossall, partly accounts for the circ.u.mstance that Lancas.h.i.+re (especially the neighbourhood of "Wigan and Ashton-on-Makerfield, and, above all, the Fylde, that region between Lancaster and Preston, whence "the great Allen" sprang) is "the Rome of England" to this day. It is said that the Parish Church of Bispham (near which the well-known sea-side resort, Blackpool, is situated) was the parish church where last the parochial Latin Ma.s.s was said publicly in Lancas.h.i.+re, the priest being Jerome Allen, uncle to the Cardinal. In the white-washed yeoman dwellings of the Fylde have been reared many of the st.u.r.diest and most solidly pious of the post-Reformation English Catholic Priests. William Allen's plain, honest, finely-touched spirit seems to have brooded over this fruitful, western, wind-swept land which is well worthy of exploration by all philosophic historians that visit Blackpool.

Also, all who travel in Yorks.h.i.+re, either by road or rail, from Knaresbrough and Harrogate to Ripon, and thence to Topcliffe, Thirsk, Darlington, Durham, and Alnwick, pa.s.s through a part of the North of England whose very air is laden with historic memories of the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. And how often, when visiting Bishop Thornton (an idyllic hamlet betwixt Harrogate, Pateley Bridge, and Ripon, that is still a stronghold of "the ancient faith," which, as in a last Yorks.h.i.+re retreat, has _there_ never died out), has the writer recalled the following lines from the old "Ballad of the Rising of the North":--

"Lord Westmoreland his ancyent [_i.e._, ensign] raisde, The Dun Bull he rais'd on hye; Three dogs with golden collars brave, Were there set out most royallye.

Earl Percy there his ancyent spred, The half moon s.h.i.+ning all so fair; The Nortons ancyent had the Cross And the Five Wounds Our Lord did beare."

Norton Conyers, in the Parish of Wath, near Ripon, was forfeited by the Nortons after the Rebellion of 1569. It is now, I believe, the property of Sir Reginald Graham, Bart. If the Grantley estate belonged to the Nortons in 1569, it was not forfeited, or else it was recovered to the Norton family. Grantley, however, may have possibly belonged to the Markenfields, and, being forfeited by them, granted to Francis Norton, the eldest son of old Richard Norton.--See "_Sir Ralph Sadlers Papers_," Ed. by Sir Walter Scott.--The present Lord Grantley is descended from Thomas Norton, who was sixth in descent from old Richard Norton, and fifth in descent from Francis, the eldest of the famous "eight good sons." The Grantley property belonged to Lord Grantley until it was recently disposed of to Sir Christopher Furness, M.P. Lord Grantley's ancestor, Sir Fletcher Norton, was created Lord Grantley and Baron Markenfield in 1782. Sir Fletcher Norton's mother was a Fletcher, of Little Strickland, in the County of Westmoreland. The present Sir Henry Fletcher, Bart., M.P., belongs to a branch of the Fletcher family, who originally came from c.o.c.kermouth, in c.u.mberland. There is a tradition that when Mary Queen of Scots had been defeated at the Battle of Langside, after her romantic escape from Lochleven Castle, Henry Fletcher, of c.o.c.kermouth Hall, waited on the Scots' Queen when she first landed at Workington. Henry Fletcher "entertained" the Queen at c.o.c.kermouth Hall (17th May, 1568), "most magnificently, presenting her with robes of velvet." It is further said that when James I. came to the English Throne he treated Henry Fletcher's son, Thomas Fletcher, with great distinction, and offered to bestow upon him a knighthood.--See Nicholson & Burns' "_History of c.u.mberland and Westmoreland_."

As to the Nortons and Markenfields, see Wordsworth's "_White Doe of Rylstone_"; "_Memorials of the Rebellion of 1569_" (1840); Froude's "_History of England_"; "_Memorials of Cardinal Allen_"[A] (Ed. by Dr.

Knox, published by Nutt, London); and J. S. Fletcher's "_Picturesque Yorks.h.i.+re_" (Dent & Co.). In Hailstone's "_Portraits of Yorks.h.i.+re Worthies_" (two magnificent volumes published by Cundall & Fleming) are photographs of old Richard Norton and of his brother Thomas, and of the former's seventh son, Christopher. The photographs are taken from paintings in the possession of Lord Grantley, now, I believe, at Markenfield Hall.

The same valuable work also contains a photograph of a portrait of "the Blessed" Thomas Percy Earl of Northumberland, from a painting belonging to the Slingsbies, of Scriven.

From the Ripon Minster Registers of Baptisms, Marriages, and Deaths, it is plain that, between the years 1589 and 1601, a "Norton," described as "_generosus_," lived at Sawley, close to Bishop Thornton and Grantley, near Ripon.]

[Footnote 44:--In 1569 the Norton Conyers estate seems to have been vested in a Nicholas Norton, probably as a trustee.--See "_Sir Ralph Sadler's Papers_," and see _ante_, Supplementum III.

The Winters were also related to the Markenfields, their aunt, Isabel Ingleby, having married Thomas Markenfield, of Markenfield.

The Wrights and Winters were also, through the Inglebies, connected with the Yorkes, of Gowthwaite, in Nidderdale, of which family, most probably, sprang Captain Roland Yorke (who introduced the use of the rapier into England--see Camden's "_Elizabeth_"), the friend of Sir Philip Sidney, in the Netherlands.--See Foster's Edition of "_Glover's Visitation of Yorks.h.i.+re_"; "_The Earl of Leicester's Correspondence_" (Camden Soc.); also "_Cardinal Allen's Defence of Sir William Stanley's Surrender of Deventer, 29th January, 1586-87_" (Chetham Soc.).

The Wards, of Mulwith, Newby, and Givendale, were related to the Nortons, old Richard Norton's grandmother being Margaret, daughter of Roger Ward, of Givendale. Richard Norton's mother was Ann, daughter and heiress of Miles Ratcliffe, of Rylstone. Through her came to the Nortons the Rylstone estates. Hence the t.i.tle of the immortal poem of the Lake poet.

Rylstone and Barden (or Norton) Tower are both near Skipton-in-Craven.

Skipton Castle was the seat of the Cliffords Earls of c.u.mberland. The Craven estates of the Nortons, it is said, were granted by James I. to Francis Earl of c.u.mberland. (I visited Norton Tower in company with my friend, Mr. William Whitwell, F.L.S., now of Balham, a gentleman of varied literary and scientific acquirements, in the year 1883. Norton Tower, built on Rylstone Fell, between the valleys which separate the Rivers Aire and Wharfe, commands a magnificent prospect "without bound, of plain and dell, dark moor and gleam of pool and stream."--See Dr. Whitaker's "_Craven_.")]

[Footnote A: Cardinal Allen, though a Lancas.h.i.+reman by his father, was a Yorks.h.i.+reman by his mother, who was Jane Lister, of the County of York.--See Fitzherbert's Life of Allen, in "_Memorials of Cardinal Allen_."--Lord Ribblesdale, of Gisburn Park, in the West Riding of the County of York, is the representative of this ancient Yorks.h.i.+re family of Lister. Lord Masham is a representative of a younger branch of the same family.

By a remarkable coincidence, on the 16th day of October, 1900, there were presented to Pope Leo XIII., at Rome, on the occasion of the English Pilgrimage, the Rev. Philip Fletcher, M.A., and Lister Drummond, Esq., barrister-at-law, representatives respectively of the families of both Fletcher and Lister.]

[Footnote 45:--That Thomas Percy (of the Percies, of Beverley, not of Scotton, I feel certain), the eldest of the conspirators, must have been a Roman Catholic as a young man is plain from the fact that Marmaduke Ward, brother-in-law to John Wright and Christopher Wright, had a designment "to match" his gifted and beautiful eldest daughter, Mary, with Thomas Percy who, however, singularly enough married Martha Wright, Mary Ward's aunt.--See "_Life of Mary Ward_," by Mary Catherine Elizabeth Chambers (Burns & Oates, 1882), vol. i., pp. 12 and 13.--Percy, being agent for his kinsman, the Earl of Northumberland, would frequently reside at the Percy palace at Topcliffe, which was only distant twelve miles or so of pleasant riding across a breezy, charming country to Mulwith and Newby. Sampson Ingleby, uncle to the Winters, succeeded Thomas Percy as the Earl's agent in Yorks.h.i.+re. Sampson Ingleby was a very trusty man. A photograph of a painting of him is in Hailstone's "_Yorks.h.i.+re Worthies_," taken from a painting at Ripley Castle.

Edmund Neville Earl of Westmoreland, _de jure_, was afterwards one of the many unsuccessful suitors for the hand of Mary Ward.--See her "_Life_,"

vol. i.--The Government would have liked to implicate Neville in the Gunpowder Plot, but utterly failed to do so. He eventually became a Priest of the Society of Jesus. He pet.i.tioned James to restore to him the Neville estates, but without avail; so that historic Middleham and Kirbymoorside (in Yorks.h.i.+re), and Raby and Brancepeth (in Durham), finally pa.s.sed from the once proud house of Neville, one of whom was the well-known Warwick, the King-maker, owing to the chivalrous, ill-fated Rising of 1569. This Rising first broke out at Topcliffe, between Ripon and Thirsk, where the Earl of Northumberland was then sojourning at his palace, the site of which is pointed out to this day. Topcliffe is situated on the waters of the River Swale, which (like the East Riding river, the Derwent) is sacred to St. Paulinus, the disciple of St. Augustine, the disciple of St.

Gregory the Great, the most unselfish, disinterested friend the English and Yorks.h.i.+re people ever had.

The first Pilgrimage of Grace, under Robert Aske, of Aughton, broke out on the banks of the Derwent. Hence, each of "the holy rivers" of Yorks.h.i.+re inspired a crusade--a thing worth memory.

Mr. Thomas P. Cooper, of York (author of "_York: the History of its Walls and Castles_"), kindly refers me to "_Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII., 1537_," p. 87, for evidence tending to prove that Robert Aske was executed "on the height of the castle dungeon," where the High Sheriff of Yorks.h.i.+re had jurisdiction, and _not_ the Sheriffs of the City of York.

This would be Clifford's Tower, not The Pavement, where Aske is sometimes said to have met his fate. I think Mr. Cooper has, most probably, settled the point by his discovery of this important letter of "the old Duke of Norfolk" to Thomas Cromwell.]

[Footnote 46:--Father Gerard's "Narrative of Gunpowder Plot" in "_Conditions of Catholics under James I._" Edited by Father Morris, S.J.

(Longmans, 1872).]

[Footnote 47:--The "very imperfect proof" to which I refer is contained in a certain marriage entry in the Registers at Ripon Minster. The date is "10th July, 1588" (the year and month of the Spanish Armada), and _seems_ to me to be as follows: "Xpofer Wayde et Margaret Wayrde." Now, "Margaret"

was a family name of the Wardes, of Givendale, Newby, and Mulwith, and the clergyman making the entry _may_ have written "Wayde" instead of Wright.

We cannot tell. Therefore, alone, it is a mere _scintilla_ of evidence to show that Christopher Wright married a Warde, of Mulwith.

Further research among those of the Ward (or Warde) papers that are yet extant may clear the question as to whom Christopher Wright married. The mysterious silence which broods over the life and career of Marmaduke Ward, subsequent to the year 1605, suggests to my mind many far-reaching supposals. Marmaduke Ward seems to have died before the year 1614, but the "burials" of the Ripon Registers are lost for this period apparently.]

[Footnote 48:--Born 1563. Father Oswald Tesimond was for six years at Hindlip Hall, along with Father Oldcorne. Ralph Ashley, a Jesuit lay-brother, was Oldcorne's servant.]

[Footnote 49:--John Wright was born about 1568. Christopher Wright was born about 1570. Had they a brother Francis, living at Newbie (or Newby), who had a son Robert?--See Ripon Registers, which records the baptism of a Robert Wright, 25th March, 1601, the son of Francis Wright, of Newbie; also of a Francis Wright, son of Francis Wright, of Newby, under date 2nd February, 1592.

The Welwick Church Registers for this period are lost apparently, though the burial is recorded, under date 13th October, 1654, of ffrauncis Wright, Esquire, and of another ffrauncis Wright, under date 2nd May, 1664, both at Welwick. (Communicated to me by the Rev. D. V. Stoddart, M.A., Vicar of Welwick.) Probably the Francis Wrights, of Newby (or Newbie), are those buried at Welwick, being father and son respectively.

Certainly the coincidence is remarkable.--See _ante_.]

[Footnote 50:--Foley's "_Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus_," vol. iv., pp. 203-5 (Burns & Oates, 1878).]

[Footnote 51:--Quoted in Foley's "_Records_," vol. iv., p. 213.]

[Footnote 52:--It is noteworthy, as ill.u.s.trative of Father Oldcorne's character, that Robert Winter says in his letter to the Lords Commissioners, 21st January, 1605-6: "After our departure from Holbeach, about some ten days, we [_i.e._, himself and Stephen Littleton, the Master of Holbeach] met Humphrey Littleton, cousin to Stephen Littleton, and we then entreated him to seek out one Mr. Hall [an alias of Oldcorne] for us, and desire him to help us to some resting place."--See Jardine's "_Criminal Trials, Gunpowder Plot_," vol. ii., p. 146.]

[Footnote 53:--Schismatic Catholics were those Catholics that went to Ma.s.s in private houses, and then, more or less, frequented their parish church afterwards to escape the fines. They were further divided into Communicants and Non-communicants. Very often the men of a family were Catholics of this sort, and the womenkind strict Catholics. Indeed, it was mainly the women and the priests that have kept "the Pope's religion"

alive in England: although, of course, _many_ men of great mental and physical powers were papists of the most rigid cla.s.s. The practice of "going to the Protestant church," as English Roman Catholics term the practice to this day, was deliberately condemned by the Council of Trent.

The cause of the historic controversy between the Jesuits and the Secular Priests in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. lies in a nut-sh.e.l.l. It was this: the Jesuits, and especially their extraordinarily able leader, Father Parsons, thought that the Secular Priests required watching. And so they did; and so do all other human creatures. But the mistake that Parsons made was this: his prejudices and prepossessions blinded him to the fact that the proper watchers of Secular Priests are Bishops and the Pope, and not a society of Presbyters, however grave, however gifted, or however pious.]

[Footnote 54:--"_Collecti Cardwelli_," Public Record Office, Brussels Vitae Mart, p. 147.

In Foley's "_Records_," vol. iv., there is a beautiful picture of Father Edward Oldcorne, S.J., now "the Venerable Edward Oldcorne," one of York's most remarkable sons. In the left-hand corner of the portrait is a representation of a portion of Old Ouse Bridge, with St. William's Chapel (at present the site of which is occupied by Messrs. Varvills'

establishment). St. Sampson's Church, the ancient church which gave the name of the parish where Oldcorne first saw the light of the sun, is still standing. It is near Holy Trinity, King's Court, or Christ's Parish, where "the Venerable," Margaret c.l.i.therow lived. Oldcorne must have known that great York citizen well. She was born in Davygate, and was the second wife of a butcher, named John c.l.i.therow, of the Parish of Christ, in the City of York. She was married in the Church of St. Martin, Coney Street, in 1571. She was one of Nature's gentlewomen, by birth: and the Church of Rome, ever mindful of her own, declared in 1886 (just three hundred years after the martyr's death in the Tolbooth, on Old Ouse Bridge) that Margaret c.l.i.therow, a shrewd, honest, devout York tradeswoman, is one of the Church's "Venerable Servants of G.o.d," by grace.--See J. B. Milburn's Life of this extraordinary Elizabethan Yorks.h.i.+re-woman, ent.i.tled, "_A Martyr of Old York_" (Burns & Oates, London).]

[Footnote 55:--This crossing-out of the word "yowe" is noticed in Nash's "_History of Worcesters.h.i.+re_."]

[Footnote 56:--The word "good" is omitted in the copy of the Letter given in the "_Authorised Discourse_," which is remarkable. I think it was done designedly, in order to minimize the merit of the revealing plotter.]

[Footnote 57:--King James's interpretation of these enigmatical words was simply fantastical. It may be read in Gerard's "_Narrative_," and in most contemporary relations of the Plot.]

[Footnote 58:--I am of opinion that one of Father Oldcorne's servants, Ralph Ashley by name, a Jesuit lay-brother, was the person that actually conveyed the Letter to the page who was in the street adjoining Lord Mounteagle's Hoxton residence, on the evening of Sat.u.r.day, the 26th of October, 1605. My reason for being of the opinion that Ralph Ashley conveyed the Letter will be seen hereafter, in due course of this Inquiry.

The page's evidence went to show that the deliverer of the Letter was a tall man, or a reasonably tall man. There is nothing inconsistent in this account of the height of the Letter-carrier with what we know of the size of Ashley, which is negative knowledge merely. I mean we are not told anywhere that he was of short stature, as we are told in the case (1) of the Jesuit lay-brother, Brother Ralph Emerson, a native of the County of Durham, and the servant of Edmund Campion--see Simpson's "_Life of Campion_"--whom the genial orator playfully called "his little man"--"_homulus_"; and in the case (2) of the Jesuit lay-brother, Brother Nicholas Owen, the servant of Garnet, who was affectionately termed "little John" by the Catholics in whose castles, manor-houses, and halls, up and down the country, he constructed most ingenious secret places for the hiding of priests.

Ralph Ashley had acted in some humble capacity at the English Catholic College of Valladolid, which had been founded in Spain from Rheims, through the generosity of n.o.ble-hearted Spanish Catholics, among whom was that majestic soul, Dona Luisa de Carvajal.--See her "_Life_," by the late Lady Georgiana Fullerton (Burns & Oates).--See also "_The Life of the Venerable John Roberts, O.S.B._," by the Rev. Bede Camm, O.S.B. (Sands & Co.)--Father Roberts founded the Benedictine College at Douay, still in existence. Cardinal Allen's secular priests' College is now used as a French Barracks. Ushaw College, Durham, and St. Edmund's College, Ware, are the lineal successors of Cardinal Allen's College at Douay.

(By the way, when are the letters of the late Dr. Lingard likely to be published? Lingard, after Wiseman, was the greatest man Ushaw has produced, and his letters would be interesting reading; for Lingard must have known many of the most considerable personages of his day. Lingard died at Hornby, near Lancaster, not far from Hornby Castle, the seat of the once famous Lord Mounteagle.)

Brother Raphael (or Ralph) Ashley, was possibly akin to the Ashleys, of Goule Hall, in the Towns.h.i.+p of Cliffe, in the Parish of Hemingbrough, in the East Riding of Yorks.h.i.+re, or to the Ashleys, of Todwick, near Sheffield, in the south-east of Yorks.h.i.+re. He came to England along with Father Oswald Tesimond, in 1597.--See "Father Tesimond's landing in England," in Morris's "_Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers_," first series (Burns & Oates).--If Ashley were a Yorks.h.i.+reman, one can easily understand his being the chosen companion of the two Yorks.h.i.+re Jesuits, Oldcorne and Tesimond.

This Jesuit lay-brother was acquainted with London; and as, _Qui facit per alium facit per se_, it was pre-eminently likely that Oldcorne would employ his confidential servant to perform so weighty a mission as the one I have attributed unto him.