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The Catholics in Worcestershire 1642–1651

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

C. D. Gilbert
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Extract

Worcestershire in the early seventeenth century was not a county, by comparison with some others, with a large percentage of Roman Catholics. Many of the leading families in the county, however, were Catholic, for example the Talbots of Grafton (from 1618 Earls of Shrewsbury), the Sheldons of Beoley, the Habingtons of Hindlip, the Middlemores of King’s Norton (and Edgbaston in Warwickshire) and the Wintours of Huddington. All these families had suffered for the Catholic faith by way of recusancy fines and, in some cases, by imprisonment, loss of property and even by loss of life. In this last connection one might instance the deaths of the Carthusian monk Humphrey Middlemore in 1535, of Edward Habington in 1586, and of Robert and Thomas Wintour, the Gunpowder Plot conspirators. The Catholics of Worcestershire were powerful enough and organised enough to act as a group in connection with the 1601 and 1604 elections for the Knights of the Shire, though in neither case were they successful.

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British Catholic History , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , May 1991 , pp. 336 - 357
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1973

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References

Notes

1 On the numbers of Catholics in the English counties in 1641–42 see Magee, Brian, English Recusants (1938), p. 201 Google Scholar and Bossy, p. 405. The estimated number of Catholics in Worcestershire at this period is about 10 per 1,000 (i.e. 1%).

2 ‘G.E.C.’, Complete Peerage, II, p. 717.

3 On these elections see Grosvenor, I. D., Recusant History, 14 (1977–8), pp. 149f.Google Scholar and Gruenfelder, J. K., Midland History, 3(1976) pp. 241fGoogle Scholar. On Humphrey Middlemore see Worcs. Rec. 13(1969) p. 7 and Knowles, David, The Religious Orders in England 3, pp. 232–3 Google Scholar; on Thomas and Robert Wintour, and Edward Habington see D.N.B.

4 Worcestershire Quarter Sessions Records, 1591–1643 (ed. J. W. Willis-Bund), p. ccxvii. Some Worcestershire Catholics who escapted presentment in their native county (e.g. Sir Walter Blount) were presented in Middlesex (ibidem pp. ccxv–vi). See also Worcs. Rec. I, pp. 14f.

5 Havran, M. J., The Catholics in Caroline England (1962), p. 105 Google Scholar and Bossy p. 187.

6 H.W.R.O., Ref. 110: 79/22 and 110: 80/23. Both date to 1642 and are signed by Edward Vernon, High Sheriff, 1641–2. On Theophilus Mascall see Dickins, M., A Thousand Years in Tardebigge, pp. 72, 77 and 81.Google Scholar

7 Brian Manning in Parry, R. H. (ed.), The English Civil War and After, p. 6 Google Scholar; Fletcher, pp. 204–5.

8 Townshend, 2, 44 (letter of Sir Edward Littleton, dated November 18th 1641).

9 Fletcher, pp. 332–3. In September 1642 the King negotiated with the Catholics of Staffordshire and Shropshire and received nearly £5,000 from them by way of advances on recusancy fines. (Clarendon 6, p. 65; Hutton p. 30; V.C.H. Staffordshire, 1, p. 259).

10 Bodleian Library, Tanner MS. 63, f. 84.

11 Sir Henry Spiller (d. 1650) had held the post of Receiver of Recusants’ Revenue. His (second) wife was convicted of recusancy in 1640 and he himself was tried in January 1641 for refusing to receive indictments against recusants at the Middlesex Quarter Sessions (Townshend, 1, p. 20). See also Hodgson, A. M. in Worcs. Rec. 1, p. 27fGoogle Scholar. Spiller purchased the estate at Eldersfield in 1613 but spent most of his time in or near London.

12 On the term ‘Church papist’ see Dures, Alan, English Catholicism 1558–1642 (1983), p. 33 Google Scholar and Newman, P. R., Recusant History, 15(1979–81), pp. 148fGoogle Scholar. Cf. Bossy, p. 187, who says (wrongly, I feel) ‘church papists were a virtually extinct race in 1641’.

13 Townshend, 2, pp. 63–4. Catholics had previously been disarmed in 1610, 1625 and 1638.

14 Hutton, pp. 10–11.

15 Townshend, 2, p. 70. The list of subscribers is on pp. 70–71.

16 Lincolnshire Notes and Queries, no. 8(1904) pp. 145–6; Holmes, Clive, 17th Century Lincolnshire, pp. 147–50.Google Scholar

17 On such ‘third forces’ see Fletcher, pp. 35f.

18 Townshend, 2, pp. 77–8. The relevant page in Townshend’s original MS. (H.W.R.O., B.A. 1714, ff. 271–2) is torn, so only an approximate figure for the horses and men to be provided is possible.

19 This is also an approximate figure. The names include those of John Wylde and Humphrey Salway, the M.P.s for the county and firm supporters of Parliament. It is unlikely that they would contribute to such a scheme, however localist it was in intent.

21 Andrews, F. B. in Transactions of the Birmingham Archaeological Society, vol. 43(1916) p. 79 Google Scholar and V.C.H., 4, p. 73.

21 C.C.C, p. 2644; C.A.M. p. 675; V.C.H. 4, p. 267; Firth and Rait, 2, p. 632.

22 Visitation of the County of Worcestershire, 1634 (Camden Society, vol. 90): ‘Slain at the battle of Worcester 1643, aged 60’.

23 H.W.R.O., B.A. 1751/5. cf. Thomas Blount, Boscobel (ed. C. G. Thomas, 1894), pp. 17–18, where he is said to have brought forty horse to the review on Pitchcroft, Worcester on August 26th 1651.

24 C.S.P.D. 1660–61, p. 150. See also Hodgson, A. M. in Worcs. Rec. 3(1964) pp. 36fGoogle Scholar. Finch supplied food for Prince Maurice and for the garrison at Hartlebury Castle. He was (Townshend 1, pp. 196–7) taken prisoner by the Parliament forces and ‘enforced to compound’. He married Jane Thornborough, the convert daughter of Bishop John Thornborough of Worcester.

25 Townshend, 3, p. 244; C.C.C, p. 3242; Firth and Rait, 2, p. 632.

26 T.W.A.S., 3rd ser., vol. 10(1986), pp. 71–2; C.A.M. p. 1255; C.C.C, p. 2124; V.C.H. 3, p. 410; Nash 1, p. 592.

27 Nash 2, pp. 109–10; C.A.M. p. 1187; C.C.C, p. 3182; V.C.H. 4, pp. 50–51.

28 Worcs. Rec. 41(1983) p. 35 and H.W.R.O., B.A. 81, Ref. 705: 24/108:’ … your [petitioner] was never in arms against the Parliament’.

29 On the Packington family of Harvington in Corbett, Chaddesley see Recusant History, 12(1973–4) pp. 203fGoogle Scholar. On November 17th 1642 Abigail Packington was given permission to travel into Holland by the Speaker of the House of Commons.

30 P.R.O.: S.P. 28/188. She claimed that Waller’s forces had taken ‘brass, pewter, bedding, suits of hangings, wearing apparel’ and provisions to the value of £500.

31 Worcs. Rec. 41(1983) p. 29. For Thomas Russell’s sequestration for recusancy see C.C.C, p. 3197.

32 C.C.C, pp. 1809 and 1857.

33 Townshend, 2, p. 79.

34 On Sir William Russell during this period see Hutton, pp. 76f.

35 C.S.P.D., 1603–10, p. 593 (1610), where one Thomas Gurlin is granted the benefit of his recusancy.

36 Parliamentary Diary of Sir John Northcote (Camden Soc. 1877), pp. 57–8.

37 Townshend 2, p. 133.

38 H.W.R.O., Ref. 110: 79/23.

39 For complaints against Sir James Hamilton see Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS. 918. f. 145 (March 18th 1642–3: he had commandeered the county stock of small arms). On January 1st 1643 Lieut. Col. David Hide at a dinner in Worcester called Hamilton ‘a Scotchman and a papist’ and challenged him to a duel (Webb, 1, p. 219).

40 Warburton 3, p. 70.

41 Townshend 2, p. 149.

42 Symonds p. 11.

43 Nash 2, p. 162.

44 Townshend 2, p. 149. For his detailed accounts Dec. 4th 1642–April 29th 1643 see Townshend 1, pp. xxix–xxxi.

45 Register of St. Michael’s in Bedwardine, Worcester, under February 20th 1643–4.

46 Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, no. 8(1924) p. 174 (article by F. J. Powicke on Thomas Hall).

47 Hutton, p. 79.

48 Townshend, 2, p. 152.

49 A List of the Officers claiming to the £60,000 granted by his sacred Majesty for the relief of his truly loyal and indigent party (1663). There is a copy in P.R.O.: S.P.29/68.

50 Nash 2, p. 162. Blount, Thomas, Boscobel, pp. 17–18 Google Scholar, lists ‘Mr. Peter Blount’ and ‘Mr. Edward Blount’ as among those present at the review in Pitchcroft, Worcester on August 26th 1651.

51 Nash 2, p. 162.

52 Young, Peter, Edgehill, 1642 (1967), p. 169.Google Scholar

53 Nash 2, p. 162.

54 C.A.M. p. 1110. Cf. C.S.P.D., 1644, p. 222, where the then owner of Edgbaston Hall, Richard Middlemore, the father of Robert (Richard died in 1647) is described as ‘a delinquent and a papist’.

55 C.C.C. p. 1421. See Phillimore and Carter, pp. 102–4. George Middlemore had an estate worth ‘£500 or £600 yearly’.

56 A List of [Indigent] Officers 1663 (See note 49). This Thomas Middlemore may have been the 3rd son of John Middlemore of Hawkesley (Phillimore and Carter, p. 189).

57 V.C.H. 3, p. 184. William was the son of John Middlemore (who died in October 1643), in Worcester gaol for debt from 1637 to 1643. See Phillimore and Carter, pp. 186f.

58 Barnard, E. A. B., The Sheldons, pp. 105fGoogle Scholar. and C.C.C, p. 1965. On the question of his Catholicism see Barnard, p. 107. He claimed (ibidem pp. 106–7) never to have held any commission or command against Parliament.

59 Young, Peter, Naseby, 1645 (1985), p. 45.Google Scholar

60 A List of [Indigent] Officers 1663.

61 Young, Peter, Edgehill, 1642, pp. 141, 208.Google Scholar

62 Nash, 1, p. 144.

63 Hutton p. 79.

64 Young, Peter, Edgehill, 1642, pp. 54, 226.Google Scholar

65 Hutton p. 147.

66 Willis-Bund p. 94. The reference, however, could, if the description ‘Captain’ were inexact, be to Sir John Beaumont himself.

67 On Thomas Leveson see Hutton pp. 100f.

68 Willis-Bund, pp. 55–6 (quoting ‘Mercurius Rusticus’) and Webb, 1, p. 154.

69 Archaeologia 35 (1853) p. 330.

70 Birthplace Record Office, Stratford-on-Avon, Archer MSS., Box 87.

71 Nash, 2, p. 159.

72 T.W.A.S., n.s. 5(1927–8) pp. 90–91.

73 This was the excuse offered by Capt. Scriven at Bartlett’s house (Willis-Bund p. 55).

74 Webb, 2, p. 143; cf. Dugdale, ‘Diary etc.’, p. 77.

75 Newman, P. R., Recusant History 15 (1979–81), p. 397 Google Scholar, quotes two cases of non-Catholic officers who resigned their commissions because of, they claimed, ‘the great countenance given to Papists’.

76 C.S.P.D., 1645–47, p. 157.

77 Styles, pp. 216, 221–2.

78 Townshend 2, p. 88.

79 ‘G.E.C.’, Complete Peerage, 8 and British Library, E. 240.2 (a Parliamentary Newspaper).

80 On Edward Stamford see Toynbee, Margaret and Young, Peter, Cropredy Bridge (1970), p. 135 Google Scholar; H.M.C., 4th Report, App., pp. 268–70, 276; Willis-Bund, pp. 106–7, 115–17; C.C.C, p. 1192; C.S.P.D., 1644, p. 238.

81 Styles, pp. 225–6; Bond p. 377 (strangers and their servants to work one day a week on the defences) and p. 404 (‘gentlemen strangers do not pay at all’). For feeling against ‘foreigners’ who set up in trade in Worcester see Styles, p. 244.

82 Young, Peter, Naseby 1645 (1985), pp. 39–40.Google Scholar

83 Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. ‘reformado’.

84 Symonds, p. 181.

85 H.W.R.O., B.A. 8681/236, f. 606 (printed in Burton, J. R., A History of Bewdley (1883), App., p. xxxii)Google Scholar.

86 Symonds, p. 223.

87 Townshend, 1, p. 113. Cf. Bond, p. 407 (Jan. 1646), a refusal to pay Lord Astley £70 a month ‘for his reformadoes’.

88 D.N.B., under ‘Molyneux, Sir Richard, second Viscount Maryborough’.

89 ’Townshend 2, pp. 181f.

90 Warburton 3, p. 54.

91 H.W.R.O., B.A. 1714, f. 768.

92 Ibid, f. 768. That there is a distinct list of Catholics is not made clear by the arrangement of names at Townshend, 2, p. 184.

93 C.J., 2, p. 711: order to arrest the Bailiffs of Droitwich and Henry Harris. The Earl owned property in the town. In 1647 one man admitted (S.P. 28/188) he had ‘taken two horses from the Earl of Shrewsbury which this accomptant conceiveth… a lawful prize to the soldiers in regard the said Earl was in actual arms against the Parliament, worth £5. The loss of these horses seems to be the subject of a letter, dated June 19th 1644(?), from the Earl of Shrewsbury to the Earl of Denbigh, Parliament’s Commander in the West Midlands. The letter (in the Record Office at Warwick) perhaps shows how the Earl came to abandon his neutrality, despite his respect for Denbigh.

94 Allott. William Habington and William Sheldon were the collectors of the Worcestershire contribution to the subscription asked for by the Queen in 1639 for the war against the Scots (Webb, 1, p. 29n).

95 C.J. 2, p. 85.

96 V.C.H., Warwickshire, 3, pp. 76 and 81 and, for his sequestration for recusancy, see C.C.C. p. 2710.

97 C.A.M. p. 871; C.C.C, pp. 1953f.

98 Barnard, E. A. B., The Sheldons, pp. 49–50 Google Scholar; for the siege of Beoley House see Warburton, 1, p. 500 (letter of December 3rd 1643 of Sir Gilbert Gerard to Prince Rupert). The siege commenced on December 2nd (Bodleian, Firth MS.C6, f. 275) and lasted until December 31st (Dugdale, Diary, etc., p. 59).

99 Townshend, 1, p. 197. Sheldon stated (C.C.C, p. 1953) that ‘he never acted for the King’s party save when forced’. His son Ralph probably fought at the Battle of Worcester in 1651 (Thomas Blount, Boscobel, pp. 17–18).

100 C.C.C, p. 3179.

101 Firth and Rait 2, p. 625.

102 C.A.M. p. 1352; C.C.C, p. 1774.

103 C.C.C, p. 1758.

104 C.A.M. p. 1278.

105 Whitelocke, Bulstrode, Memorials of English Affairs (1853 ed.), 1, p. 388.Google Scholar

106 Quoted in Peter Young, Naseby 1645 (1985), p. 224.

107 Allott, pp. 101f. and p. 162; H.M.C., Various Collections, 2, p. 320; Thomas Habington, A Survey of Worcestershire (ed. J. Amphlett 1895–99) 1, pp. 18–19.

108 C.A.M. p. 1397. One indication of Lord Shrewsbury’s new commitment was that in 1645 he gave Lord Herbert £100 which he had taken out of ‘Mr. Brooke’s trunk at Grafton’ (Foley, H., Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus (1877–87), 4, p. 29)Google Scholar. On the Jesuits at Grafton see Holt, T. G. in Worcs. Rec. 20(1972), pp. 45fGoogle Scholar. and A. M. Hodgson ibidem no. 8 (1967) pp. 24f.

109 Wood, A., Athenae Oxonienses 3, p. 225 Google Scholar. His mother, Mary, claimed in 1652 that she had been active in advancing the interests of Parliament against ‘the Scottish party’ (S.P. 23/94, f. 537).

110 As it is by Allott, p. xli; cf. Bentley, G. E., The Jacobean and Caroline Stage, 4, p. 521.Google Scholar

111 Townshend 3, pp. 223–4 (to the churchwardens and constable of Stock and Bradley).

112 Hutton, pp. 160f. See also Hutton, in Midland History, 5 (1979–80) pp. 40–49.Google Scholar

113 Townshend, 3, pp. 221–23. Their later declaration of December 6th 1645 (ibidem 2 pp 241–43) is still bitterly anti-Catholic (deliberately issued on the anniversary of the 1644 meeting?).

114 For the list of the leading members of the Association see Bodleian Library, Dugdale MS. 19, f. 102. On Thomas Lord Cromwell, created Earl of Ardglass in January 1645, see ‘G.E.C.’ Complete Peerage, 1, pp. 192–3. He had property at Throwleigh and Ilam in Staffordshire. On Walter, 2nd Lord Aston see ‘G.E.C.’, Complete Peerage 1, p. 286.

115 C.S.P.D. 1650, pp. 425, 559. Thomas, the son of Wingfield Cromwell and Mary Russell, was bom at Strensham in November 1653.

116 Townshend 2, p. 223.

117 Hutton, pp. 160–61.

118 Gladwish, P. in Midland History, 10 (1985) pp. 62fGoogle Scholar.

119 Roy, Ian and Porter, Stephen, ‘The Population of Worcester in 1646’, Local Population Studies, 28 (1982) pp. 32fGoogle Scholar.

120 For similar overcrowding in Oxford in the Civil War see the introduction to Toynbee, Margaret and Young, Peter, Strangers in Oxford (1973), esp. pp. 10–11.Google Scholar

121 Bond, p. 407.

122 Townshend, 1, p. 130.

123 Ibidern 1, p. 164.

124 He was created Baron Carrington on October 31st 1643. After the sequestration of his estate in 1646 he lived abroad until the Restoration (Copinger, W. A., The Smyth-Carington Family (1907) pp. 266fGoogle Scholar.; V. C. H. Warwickshire, 3, pp. 198–99 and C.C.C, p. 109). In 1665 he was murdered in France by his valet.

125 Townshend 1, pp. 144–45.

126 Probably Edward Pesall or Pershall of Horsley, Staffordshire, of a recusant family which was related to the Stamfords of Perry Barr Hall, Staffordshire and the Blounts of Sodington, Worcestershire.

127 Townshend, 1, pp. 151–52.

128 C.A.M. p. 886.

129 Gray, Anchitell, Debates of the House of commons from… 1667 to… 1694 (1769), 2, p. 35 Google Scholar; The History of Parliament: The House of Commons, 1660–1690 (ed. B. D. Henning) p. 532; Bate, Frank, The Declaration of Indulgence, 1672 (1908) p. 112 Google Scholar (one speaker had suggested Catholics should receive toleration because they had supported the King in the Civil War).

130 Young, Peter, Edgehill, 1642, pp. 294–300 Google Scholar, and, for Catholics who fought at Edgehill, see Malcolm, Joyce, Caesar’s Due (1983) p. 95 Google Scholar. Capt. John Smyth (later Major-General Sir John Smyth) was killed at Alresford in 1644.

131 C.C.C, p. 1478.

132 Dures, Alan, English Catholicism, 1558–1642, p. 81.Google Scholar

133 P.R.O., S.P. 23/1, f. 236, printed in C.S.P.D., 1645–47, p. 456.

134 On Edward Sheldon (1599–1687) see Barnard, E. A. B., The Sheldons, pp. 46–7 Google Scholar; V. C. H. Warwickshire, 4, p. 14; Worcs. Rec. 5 (1965) p. 8.

135 C.C.C. pp. 1696–8.

136 C.C.C. p. 2144.

137 C.C.C. p. 3154.

138 Edmund Downes of Bodney, Norfolk, was a friend of William Habington, whose son Thomas (born 1638) later married Margaret, daughter of Edmund Downes (C.C.C, p. 2770).

139 C.C.C. pp. 1479, 1991. He was ‘a papist in arms’ in ‘both wars’. Thomas Blount, Boscobel, pp. 17–18 lists him among those present at the Pitchcroft review on August 26th 1651.

140 C.A.M. p. 225 (anno 1643). He was knighted on February 28th 1644–5 (Symonds, p. 162). He had been Deputy Governor of Malmesbury, Wiltshire, and Governor of Chepstow. He held the rank of Colonel in the King’s army.

141 Possibly Capt. Anthony Dormer, formerly of Sir John Beaumont’s regiment (Peter Young, Edgehill, 1642, pp. 149, 226).

142 Townshend 1, p. 164. He may be Edward Harnage of Norbury, Shropshire, a recusant who suffered sequestration (Worcs. Rec. 26 (1975) p. 17).

143 The Huddlestones of Sawston Hall, Cambridgeshire were perhaps the leading recusant family in that county. The Huddlestone in question was Lt. Col. Henry Huddlestone.

144 Worcs. Rec., 22(1973) p. 6. Cf. C.S.P.D., 1654, p. 298, where ‘Elizabeth Guise, widow’, states that £100 p.a. had been granted her out of Hornyold’s estate and asks for ‘a sum from the sale of his woods in Hanley and Great Malvern’ instead of the £100 p.a.

145 C.A.M. p. 1397.

146 ‘G.E.C.’, Complete Peerage vol. 11 pp. 719–20.

147 Lindley, Keith, ‘The Part played by Catholics’ in Brian Manning (ed.) Politics, Religion and the English Civil War (1973) pp. 127fGoogle Scholar.

148 Using C.C.C., C.A.M. and P.R.O., C.203/4 (printed in Worcs. Rec., 26 (1975) pp. 13f.) The last of these documents gives sequestrations still in force in 1656. It lists a few people from other counties who were presumably either resident in Worcestershire or had property there.

149 Mosler, David F. in Recusant History, 15 (1979–81) pp. 259fGoogle Scholar.

150 Lancashire, Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Monmouthshire, Suffolk and Hampshire.

151 Newman, P. R. in Recusant History, 14 (1977–78) pp. 26fGoogle Scholar. and 15 (1979–81) pp. 396f.

152 Little evidence on lower-class Catholics in the Civil War exists, for Worcestershire at least, but it cannot be assumed without question that Catholics who were servants or tenants of Catholic gentlemen followed their lead. On plebeian Catholics in Worcestershire under Queen Elizabeth see V.C.H., 2, p. 54 and, generally in the 1640s and 1650s, Blackwood, B. G., Recusant History, 18 (1986–7) pp. 42fGoogle Scholar. Though the evidence is largely lacking, it seems very likely that large numbers of the tenants of the Blount, Middlemore, Sheldon and Wintour families did follow the lead of their masters (see the Townshend, C.C.C, and C.A.M. references quoted above).

153 These two Northamptonshire peers are discussed by Lindley, pp. 150–51 (see note 147). William Habington wrote a poem to Robert, Lord Brudenell’s son (Allott, pp. 16–17) and Robert’s daughter Anne-Maria married Francis, 11th Earl of Shrewsbury.

154 To what degree this middle section consciously acted as a group can only be a matter of speculation but it is probable that they did so to some degree. The leading Worcestershire Catholics seem to have done this in 1581 in their joint reaction to the Act of that year (Lambeth Palace, Cart. Antiq. et Misc., 4, 183, f. 5: ‘for so they have agreed among themselves’) and again in the 1604 election. Some Worcestershire Catholics (see above) formed an indentifiable sub-group among the signatories to the petition of December 1644, and the Catholics as a whole (not just the Worcestershire ones) constituted an interest group during the siege of Worcester in 1646.