The Gunpowder Plot and Lord Mounteagle's Letter Part 42

Ma.s.s also was said (before the present Roman Catholic Chapel was built at Bishop Thornton) at Raventoftes Hall, in the Ripon Chapelry of Bishop Thornton, once the home of the stanch old Catholic family of Walworth.

Then Ma.s.s was said in the top chamber, running the whole length of the priest's present house. Afterwards (about 1778) followed the present stone Chapel. Clare Lady Howard, of Glossop, built the Schools at Bishop Thornton a few years ago.

F. Reynard, Esquire, J.P., of Hob Green, Markington and Sunderlandwick, Driffield, now owns Raventoftes Hall, which has a splendid view towards Sawley, How Hill, and Ripon. It is rented by a Roman Catholic, named Mr.

F. Stubbs, who is akin to the Hawkesworths, the Shanns, the Darnbroughs, and other old Bishop Thornton and Ripon families.

Peac.o.c.k, in his "_List_," speaks of William Norton as a grandson of Richard Norton, but, according to Burke's "_Peerage_," he must have been a great-grandson. The Nortons may have saved the Sawley estate from forfeiture, somehow or another, or perchance they bought it in afterwards from some Crown nominee. Francis Norton, the eldest son and heir of old Richard Norton, fled with his father to the continent. His son was Edmund, and _his_ son was William Norton, of Sawley, whose descendant was the first Lord Grantley.

Gabetis Norton, Esquire, owned Dole Bank, between Markington and Bishop Thornton, where Miss Lascelles, Miss Butcher, and others of Mary Ward's followers, lived a semi-conventual life during the reign of Charles II., previously to their taking up their abode near Micklegate Bar, York.--See "_Annals of St. Mary's Convent, York_," Edited by H. J. Coleridge, S.J.

(Burns & Oates).--Sir Thomas Gascoigne, of Barnbow, Aberford, was the benefactor of these ladies, both at Dole Bank and York; Dole Bank probably at that time belonging to this "fine old English gentleman," who died a very aged man at the Benedictine Abbey of Lambspring, in Germany, a voluntary exile for his faith. Dole Bank came to Gabetis Norton, Esquire, in the eighteenth century, from his sister, who was the wife of Colonel Thornton, of Thornville Royal (now Stourton Castle, near Knaresbrough, the seat of the Lord Mowbray and Stourton) and of Old Thornville, Little Cattal, now the property of William Machin, Esq. (Derived from old t.i.tle-deeds and writings in the possession of representatives of William Hawkes, yeoman, of Great Cattal.) Dole Bank, I believe, now belongs to Captain Greenwood, of Swarcliffe Hall, Birstwith, Nidderdale. During the early part of the nineteenth century the Darnbroughs rented Dole Bank, the present tenant being Mr. Atkinson.]

[Footnote 79:--I think that Thomas Warde may have been born about the beginning of Elizabeth's reign; for if he were married in 1579, and was, say, twenty-one years of age at the time of his marriage, this would fix his birth about the year 1558. Early marriages were characteristic of the period. Mounteagle, for example, was married before he was eighteen. The Ripon Registers begin in fairly regular course in 1587, though there are fragments from 1574, but not earlier. If Christopher Wright, the plotter, lived in Bondgate, Ripon, and had a child born to him in 1589 (the year after the Spanish Armada), he must, like Mounteagle, have been married when about eighteen years of age. These instances should be carefully noted by students of Shakespeare, inasmuch as they render the poet's marriage with Anne Hathaway in 1582, when he was little more than eighteen and a-half years old, less startling.--See Sidney Lee's "_Life of Shakespeare_," p. 18 (Smith & Elder, 1898).

I should like also to add that I think there is a great deal in Halliwell-Phillips' contention as to Shakespeare having made the "troth-plight."--Concerning the "troth-plight" see Lawrence Vaux's "_Catechism_," Edited by T. G. Law, with a valuable historical preface (Chetham Soc).--Shakespeare's "mentor" in the days of his youth was, most probably, some old Marian Priest, like Vaux, who was a former Warden of the Collegiate Church at Manchester, and with "the great Allen" and men like Vivian Haydock--see Gillow's "_Haydock Papers_" (Burns & Oates)--retained Lancas.h.i.+re in its allegiance to Rome--so that "the jannock" Lancas.h.i.+re Catholics style their county, "G.o.d's County" even unto this day.]

[Footnote 80:--The strong and, within due limits, admirable spirit of "clannishness" that still animates the natives of Yorks.h.i.+re--a valiant, adventurous, jovial race, fresh from Dame Nature's hand--is evidenced by the fact that within a very recent date the Yorks.h.i.+remen who have gone up to the great metropolis, like many another before them, to seek their livelihood, and maybe their fortune, have formed an a.s.sociation of their own. This excellent inst.i.tution for promoting good fellows.h.i.+p among those hailing from the county of broad acres has for Patron during the present year, 1901, the Duke of Cornwall and York (now H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, December, 1901), and that typical Yorks.h.i.+reman, Viscount Halifax, for President. The Earl of Crewe, Lord Grantley, Sir Albert K. Rollit, Knt., M.P., _c.u.m multis aliis_, are members. May it flourish _ad multos annos_!]

[Footnote 81:--In the Record Office, Chancery Lane, London.]

[Footnote 82:--The Earl of Northumberland was fined by the Star Chamber 30,000, ordered to forfeit all offices he held under the Crown, and to be imprisoned in the Tower for life. He paid 11,000 of the fine; and was released in 1621. He was the son of Henry Percy eighth Earl of Northumberland, and nephew of "the Blessed" Thomas Percy seventh Earl of Northumberland, and of Mary Slingsby, the wife of Francis Slingsby, of Scriven, near Knaresbrough. Although the Earl of Northumberland that was Star-Chambered was by his own declaration no papist, he was looked up to by the English Roman Catholics as their natural leader. His kins.h.i.+p with the conspirator, Thomas Percy, alone is usually thought to have involved the Earl in this trouble; but probably the inner circle of the Government knew more than they thought it policy to publish. "Simple truth,"

moreover, was not this Government's "utmost skill."

Lord Montague compounded for a fine of 4,000. Guy Fawkes, for a time, was a member of this peer's household.--See "_Calendar of State Papers, James I._"

Lord Stourton compounded for 1,000.

Lord Mordaunt's fine was remitted after his death, which took place in 1608. Robert Keyes and his wife were members of this peer's household.--See "_Calendar of State Papers, James I._"

These three n.o.blemen were absent from Parliament on the 5th of November, no doubt having received a hint so to do from the conspirators. This fact of absence the Government construed into a charge of Concealment of Treason and Contempt in not obeying the King's Summons to Parliament.--See Jardine's "_Narrative_," pp. 159-164.

The Gascoignes, through whom the Earl of Northumberland and the Wardes were connected, belonged to the same family as the famous Chief Justice of Henry IV., who committed to prison Henry V., when "Harry Prince of Wales."--See Shakespeare's "King Henry IV." and "King Henry V."

The Gascoignes were a celebrated Yorks.h.i.+re family, their seats being Gawthorpe, Barnbow, and Parlington, in the West Riding. They were strongly attached to their hereditary faith, and suffered much for it, from the infliction of heavy fines. Like Lord William Howard, the Inglebies, of Lawkland, near Bentham, the Plumptons, of Plumpton, near Knaresbrough, and the Fairfaxes, of Gilling, near Ampleforth, the Gascoignes were greatly attached to the ancient Benedictine Order, which took such remarkable root in England through St. Gregory the Great, St. Augustine, and his forty missionaries, all of whom were Benedictines.--See Taunton's "_The English Black Monks of St. Benedict_" (Methuen & Co.); also Dr. Gasquet's standard work on "_English Monasteries_" (John Hodges).

It may be, perhaps, gratifying to the historic feeling of my readers to learn that the influence of these old Yorks.h.i.+re Roman Catholic families, the Gascoignes, the Inglebies, and the Plumptons, is still felt at Bentham and in the old Benedictine Missions of Aberford, near Barnbow, and of Knaresbrough, near picturesque Plumpton, notwithstanding that the places which once so well knew the Gascoignes and the Plumptons now know them no more. The present gallant Colonel Gascoigne, of Parlington, I believe, is not himself descended from the Roman Catholic Gascoignes in the direct male line of descent; the Inglebies, of Lawkland, recently died out; and the Plumptons to-day are not even represented in name.

The stately Benedictine Abbey of St. Lawrence, Ampleforth, in the Vale of Mowbray, will long perpetuate the memory of the Fairfaxes, of Gilling; H.

C. Fairfax-Cholmeley, Esquire, J.P., of Brandsby Hall, now represents this ancient family.]

[Footnote 83:--See "_Condition of Catholics under James I._," by the Rev.

John Morris, S.J., pp. 256, 257 (Longmans). The charge of complicity was based on an alleged reception of Father John Gerard, S.J. (the friend of Sir Everard Digby, and author of the contemporary Narrative of the Plot), by Sir John Yorke at Gowthwaite Hall, after the Gunpowder Treason. Gerard left England in 1606, and there is no evidence whatever that he had anything to do with the Plot. I do not know, for certain, how Sir John Yorke fared as to the upshot of his prosecution. But I strongly suspect that the tradition that obtains among the dalesmen of Nidderdale to the effect that the Yorkes, of Gowthwaite (or Goulthwaite, as it is styled in the Valley), were once heavily fined by the Star Chamber for acting in the great Chamber of Gowthwaite a political play, wherein the Protestant actors were worsted by the Catholic actors, sprang from these proceedings against Sir John Yorke anent the Gunpowder Plot. For long years after the reign of James I., the Yorkes, like the Inglebies their relatives, were rigid Catholics. This ancient and honourable family of Yorke is still in existence, being represented by T. E. Yorke, Esquire, J.P., of Bewerley Hall, Pateley Bridge. The old home of the Yorkes, Gowthwaite Hall, where doubtless many priests were harboured "in the days of persecution," is about to be pulled down to make way for the Bradford Reservoir. I visited, about 1890, the charming old Hall built of grey stone, with mullioned windows. A description of this historic memorial of the days of Queen Elizabeth and James I. is to be seen in "_Nidderdale_," by H. Speight, p.

468 (Elliot Stock); also in Fletcher's "_Picturesque Yorks.h.i.+re_" (Dent & Co.), which latter work contains a picture of the place, a structure "rich with the spoils of time," but, alas! destined soon to be "now no more."

Ripley Castle, the home of the Inglebies, at the entrance to Nidderdale (truly the Switzerland of England), still rears its ancient towers, and still is the roof-tree of those who worthily bear an honoured historic name for ever "to historic memory dear."

"_From Eden Vale to the Plains of York_," by Edmund Bogg, contains sketches of both Ripley Castle and Gowthwaite Hall. Lucas's "_Nidderdale_"

(Elliot Stock) is also well worth consulting for its account of the dialect of this part of Yorks.h.i.+re which, like the West Riding generally, retains strong Cymric traces. There are also British characteristics in the build and personal appearance of the people, as also in their marvellous gift of song. The Leeds Musical Festival and its Chorus, for example, are renowned throughout the whole musical world.]

[Footnote 84:--It is, moreover, possible that Mounteagle may have met his connection, and probably kinsman, Thomas Warde, at White Webbs, about the year 1602. Mounteagle, at that time, like the Earl of Southampton and the Earl of Rutland, was not allowed to attend Elizabeth's Court on account of his share in the Ess.e.x tumult. He was, in fact, then mixed up with the schemes of Father Robert Parsons' then-expiring Spanish faction among the English Catholics. If a certain Thomas Grey, to whom Garnet at White Webbs showed the papal breves (which the latter burnt in 1603, on James I. being proclaimed King by applause), were the same person as Sir Thomas Gray, he would be, most probably, a relative of Thomas Warde. For the Wardes, of Mulwith, certainly were related to a Sir Thomas Gray.--See "_Life of Mary Ward_," vol. i., p. 221, where it is said that, "through the Nevilles and Gascoignes," the Wards were related to the families of Sir Ralph and Sir Thomas Gray.[A]

As to father Garnet showing the breves to Thomas Grey, see Foley's "_Records_," vol. iv., p. 159, where it says:--Garnet "confesseth that in the Queen's lifetyme he received two Breefs (one was addressed by the Pope to the English clergy, the other to the laity) concerning the succession, and immediately upon the receipt thereof, be shewed them to Mr. Catesby and Thomas Winter, then being at White Webbs; whereof they seemed to be very glad and showed it (_sic_) also unto Thomas Grey at White Webbs before one of his journies into Scotland in the late Queen's tyme."

It will be remembered that Thomas Percy, who married Martha Wright, Ursula Warde's sister, was one of those who waited upon James VI. of Scotland before Elizabeth's death, in order to obtain from him a promise of toleration for the unhappy Catholics. James, the English Catholics declared, did then promise toleration, and they considered that they had been tricked by the "weasel Scot." Fonblanque, in his "_Annals of the House of Percy_," vol. ii., p. 254 (Clay & Sons), thinks that Percy was a man of action rather than of words, and that the reason he entered into the Plot was that he was stung by the reproaches of the disappointed Catholics, whom he had given to understand James intended to tolerate, and that his vanity (or rather, I should say, self-love) was likewise wounded at the recollection of the proved fruitlessness of his mission or missions into Scotland. I think this is a very likely explanation. For, according to "Winter's Confession"--see Gardiner's "_Gunpowder Plot_" (Longmans), and Gerard's three recent works (Osgood & Co. and Harper Bros.)--Thomas Percy seems to have shown a stupendous determination "to see the Plot through," a fact which I have always been very much struck with. But if, in addition to other motives, Percy had the incentive of "injured pride,"

we have an explanation of his extraordinarily ferocious anger and spirit of revenge. For well does the Latin poet of "the tale of Troy divine"

insist with emphasis on the fact that it was "the _despised_ beauty"--"_spretaeque_ injuria _formae_"--of Juno, the G.o.ddess, that spurred her to such deathless hatred against the ill-starred house of Priam. What a knowledge of the springs of human action does not this portray!]

[Footnote A: Were Sir Ralph and Sir Thomas Gray of the Grays (or Greys), of Chillingham, Northumberland? It may be remarked that, about the year 1597-98, Marmaduke Ward and his wife and some of his family went to live in Northumberland, maybe at Alnwick; and as Thomas Percy was connected with Marmaduke Ward, it is at least possible that Marmaduke Ward went himself into Scotland on the mission to King James VI. in the company of his brother-in-law, Thomas Percy.

But the Wards may have gone to Chillingham about 1597-9, and not to Alnwick. Sir Thomas Gray, of Chillingham, married Lady Catherine Neville, one of the four daughters of Charles Neville sixth Earl of Westmoreland, whose wife was Lady Jane Howard, daughter of Henry Howard Earl of Surrey.

Lady Margaret Neville was married to Sir Nicholas Pudsey, of Bolton-in-Bowland, Yorks.h.i.+re, I think. Lady Anne Neville was married to David Ingleby, of Ripley, a cousin of Marmaduke Ward and of Ursula Wright.

Lady Margaret Neville conformed to the Establishment, but afterwards, I believe, the lady relapsed to popery.--See the "_Hutton Correspondence_"

(Surtees Soc.), and "_Sir Ralph Sadler's Papers_," Edited by Sir Walter Scott.]

[Footnote 85:--Interesting evidence of the connection of Mounteagle with not only these great northern families of Preston and Leybourne (whose places that once so well knew them now know them no more), but also with the Lords Dacres of the North and with the Earls of Arundel, is contained in Stockdale's book on the beautiful and historic Parish of Cartmel, on the west coast of Lancas.h.i.+re, "North of the Sands."--See Stockdale's "_Annales Caermoelenses_," p. 410, a work, I believe, now out of print.--Stockdale says that in the old Holker Hall (which seems to have been built by George Preston, in the reign of James I.), in the Parish of Cartmel, there was over the mantel-piece in the entrance-hall an elaborately ornamented oak-wood carving, on which were displayed, in alto-relievo, twelve coats-of-arms, namely:--Those of (1) King James I., with the lion and unicorn as supporters. (2) The Preston family, younger branch; from whom, through an heiress, the Dukes of Devons.h.i.+re to-day own the Holker estates. The younger branch of the Prestons, viz., those of Holker, were probably Schismatic Catholics, or "Church-papists," for some time, but gradually they conformed entirely to the Established Church. The elder branch of the Prestons, namely, the Prestons, of the Manor Furness, were strict Roman Catholics. Margaret Preston was married to Sir Francis Howard, of Corby, third son of Lord William Howard, of Naworth. The last of the Prestons, of the Manor, was Sir Thomas Preston, Bart., who, in 1674, became a Jesuit at the age of thirty-two.--See Foley's "_Records_,"

vol. iv., p. 534, and vol. v., p. 358.--Sir Thomas Preston, S.J., had been twice married, but had him surviving only two daughters, whom he amply provided for, and then gave his Furness estates to the Society he had joined. A subsequent Act of Parliament, however, defeated his intention almost entirely. (3) Arundel impaling Dacre; Philip Howard Earl of Arundel having married Anne Dacre, or Dacres, daughter of Thomas Lord Dacres of the North. (4) Howard impaling Dacre; Lord William Howard having married Elizabeth Dacre, or Dacres, sister to Anne Dacres Countess of Arundel and Surrey. Through Elizabeth Howard, the Earls of Carlisle have the Naworth Castle and Hinderskelfe (or Castle Howard) estates. (5) Morley impaling Stanley; Edward Parker Lord Morley having married, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Elizabeth Stanley, only daughter of Lord Mounteagle, of Hornby Castle, Lancas.h.i.+re (these were the parents of Lord Mounteagle, who married Elizabeth Tresham). (6) Dacre impaling Leybourne, of Cunswick, near Kendal; Thomas Lord Dacre having married Elizabeth Leybourne, daughter of Sir James Leybourne, of Cunswick. (7) Stanley impaling Leybourne; William Stanley third Lord Mounteagle, of Hornby Castle, having married Anne Leybourne, sister to Elizabeth Lady Dacre. (8) Leybourne impaling Preston; Ellen (Stockdale by mistake says Eleanor), daughter of Sir Thomas Preston, of Westmoreland and Lancas.h.i.+re, having married Sir James Leybourne, of Cunswick; this lady afterwards married Thomas Stanley second Lord Mounteagle, the father of her son-in-law, William Stanley third Lord Mounteagle, who married her daughter, Anne Leybourne, and who was the grandfather of Lord Mounteagle, who married Elizabeth Tresham. (9) Cavendish impaling Keighley; William Cavendish first Earl of Devons.h.i.+re having married Anne Keighley, daughter of Sir Henry Keighley, of Keighley, Yorks. (10) Keighley impaling Carus; Henry Keighley, of Keighley, having married Mary Carus, daughter of Sir Thomas Carus, of Kirkby Lonsdale. (11) Carus impaling Preston; Sir Thomas Carus, of Kirkby Lonsdale, having married Catherine Preston, daughter of Sir Thomas Preston, about the reign of Philip and Mary. (12) Middleton impaling Carus; Edward Middleton, of Middleton Hall (who died in 1599), having married Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Carus, of Kirkby Lonsdale.[A]

Fittingly does that great master of English, Frederic Harrison, quote approvingly, in his charming book, "_Annals of an Old Manor House_"

(_i.e._, Sutton Place, Guildford, the home of the Westons, and the dwelling, for a time, of the above-mentioned Anne Dacres Countess of Arundel and Surrey--that queenly Elizabethan woman), the words of a historian-friend of his: "Sink a shaft, as it were, in some chosen spot in the annals of England, and you will come upon much that is never found in the books of general history." The late Robert Steggall, of Lewes, wrote a fine poem in blank verse on "the Venerable" Philip Howard Earl of Arundel and Surrey, the husband of Anne Dacres. It appeared in "_The Month_" some years ago.]

[Footnote A: The arms of Lord Mounteagle were az., between two bars, sa., charged with three bezants, a lion pa.s.sant, gu., in chief three bucks'

heads caboshed of the second.

The t.i.tle Morley and Mounteagle is now in abeyance--see Burke's "_Extinct Peerages_"--since the year 1686, the reign of James II.

The last Lord Morley and Mounteagle died without issue. The issue of two aunts of the deceased baron were his representatives. One aunt was Katherine, who married John Savage second Earl of Rivers, and had issue; the other aunt was Elizabeth, who married Edward Cranfield.

The present Earl of Morley, Chairman of Committees of the House of Lords, though a Parker, is of the Parkers of Devons.h.i.+re, a different family from the Parkers of Ess.e.x.]

[Footnote 86:--The beautiful and pathetic "Lament," so well known to Scotsmen under the t.i.tle of "The Flowers of the Forest," was penned to express "the lamentation, mourning, and woe" that filled the historic land of "mountain and of flood," on the tidings reaching "brave, bonnie Scotland" of the "woeful fight" of Flodden Field. At the funeral of that gallant soldier and fine Scotsman, the late General Wauchope, of the Regiment known as the Black Watch, the pipers played this plaintive air, "The Flowers of the Forest." Who does not hope that those funereal strains may be prophetic that, through the power of far-sighted wisdom, human sympathy, and the healing hand of Time, there may be a reconciliation as real and deep and true betwixt England's kinsman-foe of to-day and herself as there is betwixt herself and her kinsman-foe of the year 1513--the year of Flodden Field!

See also Professor Aytoun's "Edinburgh after Flodden," in his "_Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers_" (Routledge & Sons); also, of course, Sir Walter Scott's well-known "Marmion."]

[Footnote 87:--It should be remembered that Baines says that Nichols, in his "_Progresses of James I._," describes Hornby Castle in Yorks.h.i.+re, by mistake, for the one in Lancas.h.i.+re.

The sunny, balmy, health-giving watering-place of Grange-over-Sands, built at the foot of Yewbarrow, a pine-clad, hazel-loving fell, "by Kent sand-side," is in the ancient Parish of Cartmel; and, in connection with the family of Lord Mounteagle, the following will be read with interest by those who are privileged to know that golden land of the westering sun, the paradise of the weak of chest.

About three miles from the Grange--so called because here was formerly a Grange, or House, for the storing of grain by the Friars, or black Canons, of the Augustinian Priory at Cartmel--is the square Peel Tower known as Wraysholme Tower. In the windows of the old tower were formerly arms and crests of the Harrington and Stanley families. A few miles to the west of Cartmel were Adlingham and Gleaston, ancient possessions of the Harringtons, which likewise became a portion of the Mounteagles' Hornby Castle estates. All this portion of the north of England abounded in adherents of the ancient faith up to about the time of the Gunpowder Plot.

The Duke of Guise had planned that the Spanish Armada should disembark at the large and commodious port of the Pile of Fouldrey, in the Parish of Dalton-in-Furness, "North of the Sands." This rock of the Pile of Fouldrey, from which the port took its name, was not only near Adlingham and Gleaston, but also near the Manor Furness, the seat of the elder branch of the Prestons, from whom Mounteagle, on his mother's side, was descended.[A]]

[Footnote A: William Parker fourth Lord Mounteagle's great-great-uncle, James Leybourne (or Labourn), of Cunswick and Skelsmergh, in the County of Westmoreland, was hanged, drawn, and quartered by Queen Elizabeth, in the year 1583.--See "_The Acts of the English Martyrs_," by the Rev. J. H.

Pollen, S.J. (Burns & Oates).--James Leybourne is not reckoned "a Catholic martyr" by Challoner, because he denied that Elizabeth was "his lawful Queen." There has been a doubt as to where this gentleman suffered "a traitor's death." Baines says that he was executed at Lancaster, that his head was exposed on Manchester Church steeple, and that prior to his execution Leybourne was imprisoned in the New Fleet, Manchester. This is probably a correct statement of the case. Burke, however, in his "_Tudor Portraits_" (Hodges, London), says that Leybourne was executed at Preston.

Though a minute point, it would be interesting to know what the truth of the matter is.

There is a marble tablet on the north wall of the east end of the fine old Parish Church of Kendal, to the memory of John Leybourne, Esquire, the last of his race, and formerly owners of Cunswick, Skelsmergh, and Witherslack Halls. The tablet bears the arms of the Leybournes, and shows that the last male representative of this ancient Westmoreland family died on the 9th December, 1737, aged sixty-nine years, evidently reconciled to the faith of his ancestors.]

[Footnote 88:--The exact relations.h.i.+p of Marmaduke Ward and Thomas Warde to Sir Christopher Ward has been not yet traced out. Sir Christopher Ward was the last of the Wards in the direct line. He died in the year 1521, but left no male heir. His eldest daughter, Anne, married Francis Neville, of Thornton Bridge, in the Parish of Brafferton, near Boroughbridge; his second daughter, Johanna, married Edward Musgrave, of Westmoreland; and his third daughter, Margaret, married John Lawrence, of Barley Court (probably near St. Dennis' Church), York. A grand-daughter married a Francis Neville, of Holt, in Leicesters.h.i.+re.--But see the "_Plumpton Correspondence_" (Camden Soc.).

I find that, along with Thomas Hallat, one Edmund Ward was Wakeman (or Mayor) of Ripon, in 1524. He is described as "Gentleman." He may have been the grandfather, or even possibly the father, of Marmaduke and Thomas Ward.--Concerning the Ward family down to Sir Christopher Ward, see Slater's "_Guiseley_," Yorks. (Hamilton Adams), and the "_Life of Mary Ward_," vol. i., p. 102.--There is still to be found the name Edmund Ward at Thornton Bridge (June, 1901); possibly of the same family as the Wards of the sixteenth century; for Christian names run in families for generations.

It is, however, possible that the name of the father of Marmaduke and Thomas Ward may have been Marmaduke. For I find an entry in the Ripon Registers, under date the 16th December, 1594, of the burial of "Susannay wife of Marmaduke Wayrde of Newby." (At least, so I read the entry.) When this Marmaduke died I do not know. Nor, indeed, have I been able to ascertain when Marmaduke, the father of Mary Ward, died. It is probable that Marmaduke Ward, the younger, sold the Newby estate prior to 1614. At what date the Mulwith and Givendale estates were sold, I cannot say.