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Richard Langhorne and the Popish Plot1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Thomas M. McCoog S.J.
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Extract

Late in February of 1677/8, Edward Petre wrote about the approaching provincial congregation to his fellow Jesuit William Tunstall. He reminded Tunstall that, as one of the senior professed fathers of the English province, Tunstall ought to be present at the meeting and he relayed the provincial's instructions that the individual Jesuits be in London on 21 April so that the actual congregation could convene on the 24th. ‘Lest occasion should be given to suspect the designe,’ no one should either appear in London before 21 April or travel publicly around the city. If Tunstall were unable to attend, he was to inform the provincial as soon as possible so that another could be named in his stead.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , October 1989 , pp. 499 - 508
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1988

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References

Notes

1 An earlier version of this article was presented at the annual Post-Reformation English Catholic History conference at St. Anne's College, Oxford, in July of 1986. 1 would like to thank Antony Allison for his critical reading of that draft and his suggestions for its improvement.

2 HMC Fitzherbert, p. 113.

3 Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu, Congr. 80, ff. 192-199. Much of the congregation's acta was published in John, Gerard ‘The Jesuit “Consult” of April 24th 1678,’ The Month 102 (1903) 311–316.Google Scholar

4 Cf. Thomas, M. McCoog, S.J. ‘The Society of Jesus in England, 1623-1688: An Institutional Study’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Warwick, 1984) pp. 146–148 Google Scholar for details.

5 Quoted in Michael, Berkeley ‘Blessed Anthony Turner and the Popish Plot,’ The Venerabile 15 (1950–1952) 102.Google Scholar

6 PRO, PC 2/68/pp. 123, 147, 163; SP 29/411/157; HMC Kenyon, p. 113.

7 The History of the English Persecution of Catholics and the Presbyterian Plot, edited by Birrell, T. A. 2 vols. (London, 1953, 1955) II, 484.Google Scholar CRS 47, 48.

8 Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus (Roehampton and London, 1875–1883) V, 59–60n.Google Scholar Cf. also the appendix of the above cited edition of Warner's History, II, 533-536.

9 The Popish Plot (London, 1972), p. 167.

10 (Tunbridge Wells, 1985) pp. 87-89.

11 Archives of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, MS 46/24/1/p. 169.

12 William Cooke of Clifford's Inn and his wife Anne had received these properties from Mervin Tuchett, Richard Langhorne, William Gawen, and Thomas Langhorne. Cf. PRO, SP 44/336/p. 412.

13 The Society never stipulated the exact size of a college's foundation. Its legislation always spoke in terms of number of Jesuits not about the size of the endowment. A college's foundation was expected to provide the support for a specified number of Jesuits. The precise number varied throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Because such requirements did not apply in the Indies and the trans-Alpine regions, this should not have been a concern for the English Jesuits. For more on the finances of the colleges, cf. Thomas M. McCoog, S.J. ‘The Finances of the English Province of the Society of Jesus in the Seventeenth Century: An Introduction,’ Recusant History 18 (1986) 15–23.Google Scholar

14 PRO PC2/8/p. 461; 2/69/pp. 62-63; C 205/19/1; T 52/9/pp. 28, 30; T 53/3/p. 14; T 60/39/p. 16; ADM 77/2/37; HMC Kenyon, p. 126. My discussion and analysis of the entire Travers affair isforthcoming.

15 BM, Add MS 15897, f. 50; PRO, SP 44/336/p. 412; Bodleian Library, Dept c 233, ff. 27v-28.

16 Cf. McCoog, ‘The Society of Jesus in England,’ pp. 344-348, 395-398.

17 Ibid., pp. 328-333.

18 Ibid., pp. 370-373. Cf. also T. G. Holt, S.J. ‘The Wintours, the Jesuits and Evelench Farm, Tibberton—A Secret Trust,’ Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society 3rd series 10 (1986) 71–79.Google Scholar

19 Interestingly, in December of 1678, Sir John Talbot, one of the earl's trustees and acting on behalf of Lady Mary Stonor, the sister of the Earl of Shrewsbury, petitioned the Privy Council for the return of all the financial papers and records of the business transactions carried out for the earl by Langhorne (PRO, PC 2/66/p. 471). Talbot claimed ‘the Want whereof doth much prejudice their affairs.’ The earl's affairs would clearly have been prejudiced if his transactions with the Jesuits had become known. The earl himself became a Protestant in 1679. One of the ‘Immortal Seven’ who invited William of Orange ‘to come and rescue the nation,’ he was elevated to the dukedom in 1694. Perhaps it was this precautionary measure that prevented scavengers like Titus Oates and John Travers from discovering any evidence of financial dealings and initiating lawsuits.

20 Cf. supra, footnote 14.

21 PRO, SP 44/366/p. 412.

22 Cf. McCoog, ‘The Society of Jesus in England,’ p. 416-418.

23 Langhorne's claim that he held no financial papers was not true. After Langhorne's execution, many sought official permission to search his chambers in the hope of finding records of Jesuit financial transactions. We have already noted John Travers’ success in his search and the legal action that followed.

24 Included among the Fitzherbert papers is a summary of a number of John Fenwick's (vere Caldwell's) financial records. One was the 1677 will of William Petre. His entire estate was made over to Pierce Butler, Edward Coleman, and William Gawen (HMC Fitzherbert, pp. 115-117). Humphrey Weld, who had earlier assisted the province in the recovery of Newnham Abbey from John Travers, was admitted to the Inner Temple in November of 1630. He died in 1685 and was buried in Henry VII's Chapel in Westminster Abbey (cf. Alice Constable Maxwell, Avenue of Ancestors [Dumfries, 1965] p. 223, and John Venn, Alumni Cantabrigiensis, pt. 1, vol. 4, p. 360). Edmund Plowden died on 23 November 1677 (Walter F. C. Chicheley Plowden, Records of the Chicheley Plowdens [London, 1914] p. 9). Weld and Plowden had been used as trustees of Furness Abbey for Sir Thomas Preston after he entered the Society of Jesus in 1674 (cf. McCoog, ‘The Society of Jesus in England,’ pp. 403-407). Pierce Butler was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in June of 1637 (Records of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn. Vol. 1. Admissions from A.D. 1420 to A.D. 1799 [London, 1896] 232) and William Gawen to the Middle Temple in October of 1641 (Sturgess, H.A.C. ed., Register of Admissions to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple from thefifteenth century to the year 1944 [London, 1949] Vol. 1, 139).Google Scholar Edward Coleman had been secretary to the Duke of York before he was executed on 3 December 1678 for involvement in the Popish Plot. Thomas Eyre had long been a friend of the English Jesuits (McCoog, ‘The Society of Jesus in England,’ pp. 338, 416).

25 William Pargiter was admitted as a pensioner to Pembroke College, Cambridge, on 15 March 1646/7. On 3 September 1649 he was admitted to Gray's Inn. Knighted on 20 January 1672/3, he died on 11 August 1678 (cf. Joseph, Foster ed., The Register of Admissions to Gray's Inn, 1521-1899 [London, 1889] p. 251.Google Scholar Pargiter came from Maveson Ridware, Staffordshire, had been an officer in the parliamentary army during the civil war, and had had business dealings with the Eyres of Hassop, one of Staffordshire's most prominent Catholic families (cf. Rosamond, Meredith ‘A Derbyshire Family in the Seventeenth Century: the Eyres of Hassop and their forfeited estates,’ Recusant History 8 (1965) 37–38.Google Scholar

26 PRO T 54/8/p. 15.

27 Cf. McCoog, ‘The Finances of the English Province,’ 30-32.

28 On the 5th of June (o.s.?), Henry Guy, a Groom of the Bedchamber, wrote to Richard Graham in the Treasury to ask him to peruse Neville's deeds and to prepare a bill in Exchequer against the mortgages in order to entitle the king to the £2500 that allegedly belonged to the Jesuits (PRO, T 27/5/p. 66; T 54/8/35).

29 Unfortunately, all the Jesuit papers have been lost. The Cwm papers were sent to London andthere they disappeared. Whitbread's papers were forward to Richard Graham in the Treasury. Threeof his ledgers were turned over to Titus Oates. All the other Jesuit material was handed over to Graham. What then happened to them, no one knows. It is possible that they were destroyed in the Whitehall fire of 1698. Cf. PRO T 27/6/p. 122; T 54/8/p. 268; PC 2/68/p. 292.

30 PRO SP 45/12/p. 395.

31 Charles II: Royal Politician (London, 1987) p. 189.Google Scholar

32 Kenyon, The Popish Plot, p. 205.