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Thomas Vavasour M.D.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Richard Rex
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Extract

The names of Dr. Thomas Vavasour and of his wife Dorothy are not uncommon in the chronicles of English Catholic recusancy and in related studies. The poignancy of their story—of a husband and wife practising their religion in the face of persecution and ending their lives in different prisons after a long period of enforced separation—and the relative richness of the relevant sources have together assured them at least a passing mention in such diverse works as Aveling’s studies of Yorkshire recusancy, Cliffe’s account of the Yorkshire gentry, and Claire Cross’ biography of Henry Hastings, third earl of Huntingdon. Although Thomas Vavasour has been described as ‘a very shadowy figure’, he and his wife are in fact among the best documented of the early lay recusants. It is all the more surprising, then, that no attempt has previously been made to bring together the disparate sources to give a reasonably full and coherent account of Thomas Vavasour’s career and family. This article aims to fill that gap. Its attempt to do so is greatly facilitated by the availability in print of much of the basic documentation.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , October 1991 , pp. 436 - 454
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1973

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References

Notes

1 J. C. H. Aveling, Catholic Recusancy in the City of York 1558–1791, C.R.S. Monograph Series 2 (1970), pp. 35,42 et al, and Northern Catholics: the CatholicRecusants of the North Riding of Yorkshire 1558–1790 (London, 1966), pp. 60 and 186; Cliffe, J. T., The Yorkshire Gentry from the Reformation to the Civil War (London, 1969), p. 173 Google Scholar; and Cross, C., The Puritan Earl: the life of Henry Hastings third earl of Huntingdon 1536–1595 (London, 1966), pp. 229–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Longley, K. M., ‘Three Sites in the City of York’, Recusant History 12 (1973–74), pp. 1–7, at p. 5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 ‘Father Grene’s MS., Book F’ in Foley, H. (ed.), Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus (7 vols., London, 1875–83), 3, pp. 214–57 Google Scholar, esp. pp. 233–9; Morris, J. (ed), The Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers, related by themselves, 3rd ser. (London, 1877), pp. 299–315 Google Scholar, esp. pp. 299–300, transcribing notes written by William Hutton, a friend and fellow-prisoner of Mrs. Vavasour; and Aveling, York Recusancy, appendix I, pp. 165–292, esp. pp. 169–99.

4 Bossy, J., The English Catholic Community, 1570–1850 (London, 1975)Google Scholar and Haigh, C., ‘The Continuity of Catholicism in the English Reformation’, Past and Present 93 (1981), pp. 37–69 CrossRefGoogle Scholar are the basic texts for this debate. See also Haigh’s, ‘Revisionism, the Reformation and the History of English Catholicism’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 36 (1985), pp. 394–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 The late 17th-century Jesuit Christopher Grene mentioned that Thomas was a knight’s son and that his mother was Lord Windsor’s daughter. See Foley, Records, 3, p. 239. The identification of Vavasour’s family is confirmed by the heraldic visitation of Yorkshire in 1563–4, where it is noted that Sir Peter married Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew, Baron Windsor, and their children are listed—John, George, William, Andrew, Anthony, Henry, and Thomas; Mary, Elizabeth, and Anne. See C. B. Norcliffe (ed), The Visitation of Yorkshire in the Years 1563 and 1564, Harleian Society 16 (1881), p. 331. Irrefutable corroboration of Vavasour’s descent from Andrew, Baron Windsor can be derived from the latter’s will of 16 March 1543, where ‘Dame Elizabeth Vavasour wife of Sir Peter Vavasour of Spaldington in the Countie of York knyghť is listed as one of the testator’s daughters. See PRO, Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Probate, 23 Spert.

6 Bateson, M., Grace Book B, Part II (Cambridge, 1905), pp. 196 and 212–3 Google Scholar, records his graduations. Graces to proceed to these degrees are given in Grace Book Ã, ed. W. G. Searle (Cambridge, 1908), pp. 303 and 327. Vavasour’s traditional connection with St. John’s (see e.g. C. H. and T. Cooper, A thenae Cantabrigienses [2 vols., Cambridge, 1858–61], 1, p. 327, where he is described as a pensioner of the college) is confirmed by his appearance in the grace for BA together with Christopher Browne, who was elected as an internal candidate to a fellowship in St. John’s in 1539. Where several individuals appear in a single grace, this is often a sign that they were from the same college.

7 I hope at some future date to explore the religious conservatism of St. John’s in its early years. For some preliminary remarks on this, see my ‘The English Campaign against Luther in the 1520s’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., 39 (1989), pp. 85–106, esp. pp. 91–5.

8 Harrison, W.J. and Lloyd, A. H., Notes on the Masters, Fellows, Scholars and Exhibitioners of Clare College, Cambridge (Cambridge, 1953), p. 25.Google Scholar Vavasour was still at Clare in 1543, but not by 1549.

9 Admissions to Trinity College, Cambridge, ed. W. W. Rouse Ball and J. A. Venn (5 vols., London, 1911–16), 2, p. 11. Cambridge, Trinity College, Senior Bursars’ Accounts 1547–63, fols. 11. r, paying him £3 ‘for the commons when he was steward’ (1547); 46.r, naming Thomas Vavasour as Junior Bursar (1548). I would like to thank Colin Armstrong of Trinity College for allowing me to use a draft of his dissertation on religious conservatism in mid-Tudor England (which brings out the conservatism of Trinity), and for bringing the accounts to my attention.

10 PRO SP10/7, fols. 39.r–40.v, W. Rogers to Sir Thomas Smith, 14 May 1549, at fol. 39.v on the subject of papists at Trinity: ‘There is such a nest of them as the like can not be espied within the Realm. Young, Vavasour,… ’.I owe this reference to Colin Armstrong.

11 The translation is mine. The Latin is printed in Lamb, John (ed.). A Collection of Letters, Statutes, and Other Documents… illustrative of the history of the University of Cambridge (London, 1838), p. 120:Google Scholar

Career et exilium mulctae plagaeque minaeque

Praemia sunt doctis sola relicta viris.

Non hac ad musas iter est. Resipiscite vos qui

Vovistis veterum solvere jura patrum.

Aut ruet in miseram praeceps Achademia cladem

Cogeturque alium quaerere musa locum.

12 Foxe, J., Acts and Monuments, ed. G. Townend (8 vols., London, 1843–9), 6, pp. 328–32 Google Scholar, esp. p. 331. See also Lamb, Documents, p. 115.

13 A general point that I owe to a paper on ‘The Conservative Clergy under Edward VI’ presented by Colin Armstrong to the Tudor History Seminar in the Cambridge History Faculty.

14 Senior Bursars’ Accounts, fols. 81.v, 130.v, 178.v, 209.v, and 246.v record varying and irregular stipend payments to him from 1550 to 1554. The livery lists give a good idea of who was and was not resident. Vavasour appears on them in 1550 and 1551 (fols. 91.v and 138.v), but not in 1552 or 1553 (fols. 186.v–87.r and 218.r–19.r). In 1554 and 1555 his name appears, but with no sum of money entered (fols. 259.V and 300.v). He probably departed in midsummer 1552, when his stipend increased from 13s 4d to 33s 4d a quarter. In 1554 he received £4 a half year.

15 ‘Fr Grene’s MS’, in Foley, Records, 3, p. 237. See also Dickens, A. G., Lollards and Protestants in the Diocese of York 1509–1558 (Oxford, 1959), pp. 218–9.Google Scholar

16 Palmer, R., The Studio of Venice and its Graduates in the Sixteenth Century (Trieste and Padova, 1983), p. 137.Google Scholar Vavasour was examined on 11 and 12 Dec 1553. The Studio of Venice awarded degrees, chiefly in medicine, but had few teaching facilities. Many students from Padua chose to graduate in Venice because its degrees were cheaper. See Palmer, pp. 7 and 32–3.

17 Senior Bursars’ Accounts, fols. 287.v (stipend list) and 300.v (livery list). His name appears in both lists, but without any entries for payments. A single payment of 40s to Dr. Vavasour is recorded on fol. 305.v. Unfortunately, the accounts for the years 1556–59 are missing, so we cannot verify the conjecture that Vavasour resigned his fellowship in 1555.

18 Munk, W., The Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London (2nd. edn., London, 1878), 1, pp. 56–7.Google Scholar

19 York, Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, Probate Register 15a, fol. 209.r–v, will of Sir Peter Vavasour of Spaldington, knight, 25 Jan 1556. The will began in traditional fashion with a bequest of the soul to Almighty God, creator and redeemer, Our Lady, and all the holy angels in heaven, which suggests conservative religious affiliation. The will of his son and heir, John Vavasour, 2 May 1558, is distinctly Catholic, invoking the intercession of the saints and prayers for the dead, and leaving £6 towards the restitution of a chalice which John had formerly had from the parish church of Bubwith. See Borthwick Institute, Probate Register 16, fol. 22.r.–23.v.

20 Borthwick Institute, Probate Register 17a, fol. 60. v., will of George Vavasour of Spaldington, 22 June 1561. George makes a small bequest to his brother Thomas and his wife. His will began with the same formula as his father’s, which suggests that the Elizabethan Settlement had made little immediate impact in Spaldington.

21 Longley, , ‘Three Sites’, p. 5 Google Scholar. Longley identifies her as one of at least three daughters of a certain Kent, from Hemingford in Huntingdonshire.

22 Longley, ‘Three Sites’, p. 5. The parish registers for Holy Trinity survive only from 1573.

23 ‘Fr Grene’s MS’, in Foley, Records, 3, p. 235.

24 Palliser, D. M., Tudor York (Oxford, 1979)Google ScholarPubMed, ch. 9, ‘Religion and the Reformation’, esp. pp. 243–5. See also his The Reformation in York 1534–1553, Borthwick Papers 40 (York, 1971). For an account of Grindal’s episcopate at York, see Collinson, P., Archbishop Crindal 1519–1583: the struggle for a Reformed Church (London, 1979), chs. 10–11, pp. 187–215.Google Scholar

25 Aveling, York Recusancy, p. 169.

26 Aveling, York Recusancy, p. 42. Aveling agrees here that Vavasour was a recusant from the start.

27 ‘Fr Grene’s MS’, excerpting Fletcher’s narrative, Foley, Records, 3, pp. 215–20, esp. p. 216. For Cumberford see Aveling, , York Recusancy, pp. 41–6.Google Scholar

28 Aveling, , York Recusancy, pp. 170–1.Google Scholar The excommunication was proclaimed in York Minster’by one Moulton, sometime a religious man, but at this time a pestiferous and malt-mouthed apostate’: ‘Fr Grene’s MS’, in Foley, Records, 3, p. 237.

29 PRO SP15/17, no. 72, letter to Cecil, 6 Feb 1570.

30 Aveling, , York Recusancy, pp. 227 and 237.Google Scholar

31 The Louvain matriculation registers are missing for the years around 1560, so we cannot tell when Ralph Vavasour went there. As nobody of this name was to be ordained abroad, he presumably died before completing his studies.

32 SP15/19, nos. 78 and 85, pp. 365 and 368–9, notes of interrogations of Henry Simpson and Edward Vavasour, Oct 1571. Edward Vavasour, hatter, was admitted freeman of York in 1567 (Register of the Freemen of the City of York, volume II, 1559–1759, Surtees Society 102 (1900, p. 9). Sir William was the head of the senior branch of the family, based at Hazelwood Castle. It is interesting to note the connection with the Spaldington branch, as represented by Dr. Vavasour.

33 ‘Fr Grene’s MS’, in Foley, Records, 3, p. 237. The two sheriffs of York were elected each year to serve from Michaelmas (29 Sept) to Michaelmas (see Palliser, , Tudor York, p. 65)Google Scholar. Askwith was sheriff in 1572–73: see Drake, F., Eboracum (London, 1736), p. 365.Google Scholar

34 PRO, Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Probate, Register Peter, fols. 274.r–5.v. Will of Peter Vavasour, Esq., of the Middle Temple and Bubwith Parish (Yorks), 6 April 1573, with codicils of 1 Sept. and 1 Nov., proved 28 Nov. 1573. The witnesses to the final codicil (1 Nov.) included the names Thomas Vavasour and John Mush. As John Mush, later a seminary priest and the biographer of St. Margaret Clitheroe, was at this time an apprentice to Dr. Vavasour (see below, note 58), the identification seems secure. Although Peter’s will begins with an apparently Protestant preamble and contains no overtly Catholic indications, his sole executor is his brother Edward (later turned out of the Middle Temple for recalcitrance in religion, see below, note 82), and he shows respect for his uncle.

35 For a thorough biography of this zealous Protestant nobleman, see Cross, The Puritan Earl.

36 Aveling, , York Recusancy, pp. 313–14.Google Scholar

37 Hodgetts, M., ‘A Topographical Index of Hiding Places’, Recusant History 16(1892), pp. 146–216 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 203. Hodgetts dates Vavasour’s arrest to early Nov. 1574, but this depends on identifying Vavasour’s commitment to the custody of Alderman Brook upon his appearance before High Commission on 9 Nov. 1574 with the commitment to Brook’s custody which followed his original capture. In fact, a letter of Archbishop Grindal’s (see below) of 13 Nov. 1574, reporting Vavasour’s recent court appearance, states that the doctor had been openly tolerated in his house for three quarters of a year. This puts Vavasour’s arrest back to about February 1574. Since Hutton’s memoir refers to his arrest as following on his homecoming, this would fit with his having been in London at his nephew’s death-bed in Nov. 1573.

38 ‘Hutton’s notes’, in Morris, Troubles, pp. 299–300.

39 ‘Fr Grene’s MS’, in Foley, Records, 3, p. 237.

40 ‘Fr Grene’s MS’, in Foley, Records, 3, p. 235. Brook was sheriff 1574–75 (Drake, Eboracum, p. 365).

41 On the dowager, see Cross, The Puritan Earl, pp. 16,34 and 85. She had helped her son in his financial difficulties, and so may have been able to demand favours from him. Huntingdon’s wife was a Dudley. I have been unable to trace any link between the Vavasours and either the Poles or the Dudleys. There may be a Huntingdon link through Dorothy, whose father lived in Huntingdonshire.

42 ‘Fr Grene’s MS’, Foley, Records, 3, p. 238.

43 Aveling, , York Recusancy, p. 173.Google Scholar

44 The Remains of Edmund Grindal, ed. W. Nicholson (Cambridge, 1843), pp. 350–1, letter to Lord Burleigh, 13 Nov. 1574. Grindal often took the trouble to argue in person with recusants (Collinson, Archbishop Grindal, pp. 212–3). He had similarly found fault with John Fletcher’s sense of humour (Foley, Records, 3, p. 215). Cecil was a member of St. John’s at the same time as Vavasour.

45 Aveling, , York Recusancy, p. 173.Google Scholar ‘Fr Grene’s MS’, Foley, Records, p. 238.

46 Public records show that Vavasour’s appearances were before the ecclesiastical court of High Commission, although the recusant narratives have it that his dealings were with the secular Council of the North. The confusion is easily explained. All members of the Council were ex officio members of High Commission, and to the casual observer the two tribunals were probably indistinguishable.

47 Aveling, , York Recusancy, pp. 175–6 Google Scholar, and ‘Fr Grene’s MS’, Foley, Records, 3, p. 238.

48 Aveling, , York Recusancy, p. 182.Google Scholar

49 SP 12/149, fols. 144–5, ‘Catholici in portu sive Castro Hullensis incarcerati, in camerata custodia detinentur, ut non liceat cuiquam eas invisere, nedum eis quicquam subministrare. Ultra septem asses pre septem hebdomadas non acceperunt, praeterea ad vitae victusque sustentationem aliud non habent, praeter panem et cerenisiam ac modicam salsi piscis portionem, quae illis a quadragesimali tempore restabat, carnes a festo Paschali hactenus non degustavint. Pro una cerenisiae quarta septem asses, sive Anglicanos denarios solvere cogentur, tum quod valde inhumanum est, aqua ad eorum necessitates supplendas illis denegatur, nisi eiusmodi quae putrida sit, velint acceptare’. References to the torture of Ralph Sherwin fix the document’s date in 1581.

50 ‘Fr Grene’s MS’, Foley, Records, 3, p. 238 for Vavasour’s medical labours, and pp. 241 and 248 for crowding in cells.

51 ‘Fr Grene’s MS’, Foley, Records, 3, p. 239. He was buried in the churchyard at Drypool, Hull.

52 PRO SP12/165, no. 19, fol. 70.r, W. Vavasour to Walsingham, and no. 20, fol. 72.v, T. Vavasour to Walsingham, no dates. The Calendar wrongly suggests the date 1583 for these letters. See Trimble, W. R., The Catholic Laity in Elizabethan England 1558–1603 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1964), p. 117 CrossRefGoogle Scholar for a hint that the Vavasour who conformed might be Dr. Vavasour of York.

53 SP 12/149, no. 83, fol. 188.r is a list of Catholic prisoners in London. It is transcribed by Foley, in Records, iii, p. 291. Thomas Vavasour is recorded as having been released from the Gatehouse. His name is erased on a similar list at fol. 187.r, and does not appear at all on a third list at fol. 185.r. The three lists are conflated by J. H. Pollen in ‘Official Lists of Catholic Prisoners during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, part II, 1581–1602’, C.R.S. 2 (1906), pp. 219–88, at pp. 219–20. Ralph Sherwin’s presence on the lists gives us an approximate dating. Sherwin was captured with Campion on 16 July 1581, and Vavasour was free by Sept. The letters of William and Thomas Vavasour in SP12/165 are bound immediately after papers relating to Laurence Vaux and Gilbert Tichborne, who are also named on the lists, confirming that the papers relate to the lists.

54 The First and Second Diaries of the English College at Douai, ed. T. F. Knox, Records of the English Catholics under the Penal Laws 1 (London, 1878), p. 105, under 8 June: ‘tres ex Anglia clari adolescentes ad nos accesserunt, quorum duo Mr. Vavicerus et Mr. Pudsaeus nobiles sunt, istiusque [i.e. the former, Vavasour] pater nobilis, valde longas carceris injurias pro fide cathfolica] perpessus, hune filli sui ad nos adventum pro maxima consolatione habet’.

55 Douai Diaries, p. 174. Compare the names here with those in SP12/149, fols. 187–8.

56 Douai Diaries, pp. 166–8, 170 and 261.

57 SP12/149, fols. 187.r–8.r. Compare the proximity of the names of Vaux and Tichborne, as also of Pole and Dibdale. For Kirby, see Douai Diaries, p. 167.

58 SP12/149, fol. 188.r. Dibdale, e.g., was back at Douai on 14 March 1583. Douai Diaries, p. 194.

59 Douai Diaries, p. 182.

60 Longley, ‘Three Sites’, p. 5.

61 Aveling, , Yorkshire Recusancy, pp. 173 and 184.Google Scholar The list was dated 6 June 1576.

62 They were married on 1 July 1571 in her parish. See The Parish Registers of St. Martin, Coney Street, York 1557–1812, ed. R. B. Cook, Publications of the Yorkshire Parish Register Society 36 (1909), p. 50. John Clitherow conformed to the established religion, but as his wife was a martyr, his brother and two of his sons all priests, and one daughter a nun, it is unlikely that his conformity was more than skin-deep (Aveling, York Recusancy, p. 346).

63 Thomas Middleton’s will, transcribed in Morris, Troubles, pp. 347–9, requests prayers for his soul. It was dated 14 Dec 1560, but he was buried on 16 May 1567 (Parish Registers of St. Martin, Coney Street, P. 73).

64 John Mush’s ‘Life of Margaret Clitherow’, in Morris, Troubles, pp. 360–440, at p. 368.

65 On Mush’s connection with Dr. Vavasour, see Aveling, York Recusancy, p. 71.

66 Aveling, , York Recusancy, pp. 45–6.Google Scholar

67 Morris, Troubles, p. 250. A few years later, Thomas and his wife were described in a list of York recusants as ‘worth nothing, but very wilful’. The list accompanied a letter from Edward Sandys (archbishop of York from 1576) to the Privy Council, 28 Oct. 1577. See Chapters in the History of Yorkshire, ed. J. J. Cartwright (Wakefield, 1872), pp. 147–54, esp. 150–1.

68 Morris, Troubles, p. 252.

69 Aveling, , York Recusancy, pp. 187 and 180.Google Scholar

70 Morris, , Troubles, pp. 261–3.Google Scholar

71 ‘Fr Grene’s MS’, Foley, Records, 3, pp. 235–6. For the legal proceedings see Aveling, , York Recusancy, pp. 181–2.Google Scholar

72 Acts of the Privy Council, new series, 13,pp. 107–8, minute of a lett er sent by the Privy Council to the Archbishop of York and the Lord President on 17 July 1580.

73 The best account of Campion is Waugh’s, Evelyn Edmund Campion (London, 1935)Google Scholar. See also Reynolds, E. E., Campion and Parsons: the Jesuit mission of 1580–81 (London, 1980)Google Scholar.

74 The letter from the Privy Council to the Lord President is transcribed in Report on the Manuscripts of Reginald Rawdon Hastings (3 vols., London, 1928–34; Historical Manuscripts Commission 78), 2, p. 35. Aveling alludes to Campion’s visit to York in Northern Catholics, p. 60, yet asserts in York Recusancy, p. 70, that Campion avoided York.

75 Aveling, , York Recusancy, pp. 198–9.Google Scholar ‘Hutton’s notes’, Morris, , Troubles, p. 311.Google Scholar

76 Cartwright, , Chapters of Yorkshire History, p. 154,Google Scholar in the schedule to Sandys’s letter of 28 Oct. 1577, where heis described as poor. He was apparently banished in 1585. See Miscellanea XII, C.R.S. 22(1921), p. 35, note 2.

77 Aveling, , York Recusancy, pp. 198–9.Google Scholar

78 Morris, , Troubles, pp. 283–4 Google Scholar. Aveling, , York Recusancy, pp. 224–5.Google Scholar

79 ‘Hutton’s notes’, Morris, Troubles, pp. 302–4.

80 Drake, , Eboracum, p. 365 Google Scholar. Fr Grene gives Beckwith’s name as James (Foley, Records, 3, p. 236).

81 ‘Fr Grene’s MS’, Foley, Records, 3, p. 237.

82 He arrived at Douai on 9 March 1576. Douai Diaries, p. 101. See also Anstruther, G., The Seminary Priests (4 vols., Ushaw, 1968–77), 1, pp. 240–1.Google Scholar

83 Douai Diaries, p. 183. Foley, Records, 6, p. 551, transcribing entries from the Pilgrim Book of the English College. James immediately follows Thomas in the list.

84 Anstruther, Seminary Priests, 1, p. 366 (on James). Liber Ruber Venerabilis Collegii Anglorum de Urbe, I: Annales Collegii. Pars Prima. Nomina Alumnorum 1579–1630, ed. W. Kelly, C.R.S. 37 (1940), pp. 33–4. Thomas was aged 23, James 20. Thomas’s murder is mentioned in a letter from Christopher Buxton (in Paris) to William Holt, 9 June 1587. See Unpublished Documents relating to the English Martyrs I, 1584–1603, ed. J. H. Pollen, C.R.S. 5 (1908), pp. 146–7.

85 Longley, ‘Three Sites’, p. 5, cites a conveyance of 1604 which names Peter Vavasour of Spaldington, gent., Elizabeth Barker of Bubwith, Dorothy Lawson of Cawood, Frances Hunt of North Luffenham (Rutland), and Anne Arnall of Scarborough as Dr. Vavasour’s surviving children.

86 Annewas on the first recusant roll in 1592–93 as the wife of Peter, gent, of Bubwith. See Recusant Roll I, 1592–3, ed. M.M.C. Calthrop, C.R.S. 18(1916), p. 83. She appears among the recusants of Bubwith as the wife of Peter, gent, of Willytoft in 1595. See Miscellanea: Recusant Records, ed. C. Talbot, C.R.S. 53 (1960), p. 22. Anne appears again, now with daughters, in 1604. See Peacock, Roman Catholics, p. 134. Under the circumstances, this Peter is most probably Dr. Vavasour’s son. But the identification is not certain, as Dr. Vavasour’s brother George also had a son called Peter.

87 A List of the Roman Catholics in the County of Yorkin 1604, ed. E. Peacock (London, 1872),p. 134, which notes that their marriage was secret, as was the christening of their first child. See Morris, Troubles, pp. 459–61, for notes by the seminary priest Fr ‘Pollard’ (Sharpe) of Barker’s sufferings. Barker had already been a recusant in 1595, before his marriage. See Miscellanea, C.R.S. 53, p. 22.

88 ‘Fr Grene’s MS’, Foley, Records, 3, p. 236. Aveling, York Recusancy, p. 221.

89 Peacock, Roman Catholics, p. 132. Elizabeth was the daughter of John Vavasour (d. 1558). Her husband is mentioned as a brother in the will of her brother John (d. 1566, Borthwick Institute, Probate Register 17b, fols. 620.v–l.r), and they are mentioned in the will of her brother Peter (d. 1573, see above note 33). Thomas Dolman was marked as ‘meane or lesse evyll’ in Sir Thomas Gargrave’s analysis of the religious affiliations of Yorkshire gentry prepared for Lord Burleigh in 1572. See Cartwright, , Chapters in the History of Yorkshire, pp. 64–72 Google Scholar, at p. 70.

90 Miscellanea XII, C.R.S. 22 (1921), pp. 16 and 106. This Anne was the daughter of Thomas’s brother William. John was a recusant in 1582. See Recusants in the Exchequer Pipe Rolls 1581–1592, ed. H. Bowler and T. J. McCann, C.R.S. 71 (1986), p. 116.

91 Aveling, , York Recusancy, p. 429 Google Scholar, index under Vavasour, gives a hint of this. Morris, , Troubles, p. 459 Google Scholar, gives the case of Sir William or Walter Vavasour of Hazelwood, a recusant three of whose thirteen children became priests, and another three nuns. See also Foley, Records, 3, pp. 233–5, note 15.

92 ‘Fr Grene’s MS’, Foley, Records, 3, p. 237.