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Reverberations in Durham: The Case of Eleanor Jackson and the Gunpowder Plot

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2017

Joseph B. Gavin
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Extract

On 13 December 1605 there appeared in Durham Consistory Court before William James, the dean of Durham, and William Morton, John Barnes, and Robert Cooper, justices of the peace, the first of five witnesses in a trial which resulted from the Gunpowder Plot of 5 November 1605. The case concerned a recusant Catholic, Eleanor Jackson, the wife of Thomas Jackson of Bishop Auckland. The trial and tragic end of this unknown woman are of especial interest since they point to the intense search to uncover as many plotters as possible after the discovery of the Plot. Eleanor's unhappy story serves to emphasize both the fear which gripped the country and the hysteria which swept all England and enveloped the innocent or foolish in the aftermath of the Plot.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 11 , Issue 6 , October 1972 , pp. 299 - 305
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1972

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References

Notes

1. Usher, R. G., The Reconstruction of the English Church (London, 1910), 1, pp. 131–204, 302Google Scholar; Tyler, P., ‘The Ecclesiastical Commission for the Province of York, 1561-1641’ (Oxford University, D. Phil. Thesis, 1965), pp. 300–303 Google Scholar; Willson, D. H., King James VI & I (London, 1956), pp. 148–49, 217-18Google Scholar; McGrath, P., Papists and Puritans under Elizabeth I (London, 1967), pp. 363-67Google Scholar; Declaration Presented to the English King by the English Catholics Concerning their Religious Affairs of His Kingdom, 1603 (PRO, S.P., 14/1/56).

2. McGrath, Papists and Puritans, p. 364; Declaration Presented to the English King … (PRO, S.P., 14/1/56); Bishop Tobias Matthew to Sir Robert Cecil, 24 November 1603 (PRO, S.P.. 14/4/92).

3. Bishop Tobias Matthew to Sir Robert Cecil, 24 November 1603 (PRO, S.P., 14/4/92).

4. McGrath, Papists and Puritans, pp. 364-65; Willson, James VI & I, p. 219; A Copy of the King's Letter to the Lord Archbishop of York and the Lord President, 19 February 1605 (The Correspondence of Matthew Hutton, Surtees Society, 17 (1843), pp. 171-73).

5. Bishop Tobias Matthew and Dr. Bennett to Sir Robert Cecil, 14 January 1605 (Hatfield House, Cecil Papers, 103/111); the Names of the Recusants indicted in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, November 1605 (PRO, S.P., 14/16/123); Dean William James to Sir Robert Cecil, 9 December 1605 (PRO, S.P., 14/17/20).

6. Willson, James VI & I, pp. 217-23; McGrath, Papists and Puritans, p. 367.

7. There is a considerable literature on the Gunpowder Plot: Edwards, Francis, Guy Fawkes: The Real Story of the Gunpowder Plot? (London, 1969)Google Scholar; Williamson, H. R., The Gunpowder Plot (London, 1951)Google Scholar; Garnett, Henry, Portrait of Guy Fawkes (London, 1962)Google Scholar; Caraman, Philip, Henry Garnet, 1555-1606, and the Gunpowder Plot (London, 1964)Google Scholar; Durst, Paul, Intended Treason: What Really Happened in the Gunpowder Plot (London, 1970)Google Scholar; De Luna, B. N., Jonson's Romish Plot (Oxford, 1967)Google Scholar; Gerard, John, Thomas Winter's Confession and the Gunpowder Plot (London, 1898)Google Scholar; Gardiner, S. R., What the Gunpowder Plot Was (London, 1897)Google Scholar; Hurstfield, Joel, ‘Gunpowder Plot and the Politics of Dissent’ in Rainmuth, Howard (ed.), Early Stuart Studies (Minneapolis, 1970), pp. 95–121 Google Scholar.

8. McGrath, , Papists and Puritans, p. 368 Google Scholar.

9. Talbot, Clare (ed.), ‘Miscellaneous Recusant Records’ in The Catholic Record Society, 53 (1961), p. 47 Google Scholar. Eleanor was convicted for recusancy on 25 July 1596, 4 July 1597, 4 August 1600, 5 August 1605 (PRO, E., 377/9, 13).

10. Deposition of William Sonkey, 13 December 1605 (PRO, S.P., 15/37/91 II/f. 167v).

11. Deposition of John Pattison, 24 December 1605 (PRO, S.P., 15/37/91 III/f. 167v).

12. Deposition of Charles Wren. 28 December 1605 (PRO, S.P., 15/37/91/f. 167).

13. The Examination of Eleanor Jackson, 4 January 1605/1606 (PRO, S.P., 14/18/5/f. 9).

14. Ibid.

15. It was to the Trollop home that the newly-arrived priests from the Continent went. Here they were given assistance in the way of food, portable altars, clothing, massing equipment, and other necessities before beginning their priestly ministry in co. Durham and elsewhere in the north country.

16. Deposition of Jane Bainbridge, 5 January 1605/1606 (PRO, S.P., 15/37/91 I/f. 167).

17. Dean William James to Sir Robert Cecil, 19 January 1605/1606 (PRO, S.P., 14/18/28/f. 50).

18. Dean William James to Sir Robert Cecil, 30 April 1606 (Hatfield House, Cecil Papers, 116/25).