Worship; Recusants in Elizabethan & Stuart Lancashire

It seems odd to me that just a few weeks back I was writing about Protestant refugees escaping religious persecution in France, by coming to England, and this week I'm writing about Catholic persecution in England. Suffice to say, the 15-1700s were times of significant religious unrest in Europe, and it's not surprising that we have people in our ancestry that suffered some sort of persecution for their various religious beliefs.

Richard Sherborn was a Tudor gent and land owner in the county of Lancashire, who died in 1597, towards the end of Elizabeth I's reign. Elizabeth had taken the throne in 1558, and prior to her time as ruler of England the country had undergone a huge religious shift. Her father, Henry VIII had famously split England from the Catholic church, when he sought to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, so he could marry Anne Boleyn. What followed was decades of religious change, sometimes towards more 'new age' protestantism, sometimes back to Catholicism, and sometimes towards a more traditional protestantism that verged on Catholicism. 

Henry VIII

After Henry VIII died, and his son Edward took the throne, the country wavered closer to the more progressive version of Protestantism. For the 7 years of Edward's reign the reformist regency council worked to create a new church of England, and some say that 1548 was the year that the Church of England was formed, not the 1530s when his father split from Rome. 

Edward VIII

On Edward's death in 1553, his eldest sister, Mary I, took the throne.  Mary was the daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife, the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon. She was catholic and was resolved to return England to Rome. She married Philip II of Spain, another Catholic monarch, and worked hard over the 5 years of her reign to restore the 'old faith' to the country. She was fairly successful in her efforts; the general population welcomed the old ways, and by the end of her reign protestantism was in the decline. This was not to last. She died without issue, and so the throne passed to her younger sister, the daughter of Anne Boleyn- a protestant.

Mary I

Elizabeth I ruled England from 1558 to 1603. During that time her religious reformations caused the catholic faith to become "the faith of a small sect". Many laws had been passed in those 45 years which resulted in many penalties for those continuing to practise a catholic faith. 

Elilzabeth I

One of the first acts of Parliament to affect everyday English catholics was the Act to Restrain Popish Recusants, which was enacted in 1593. It defined popish recusants as "convicted for not repairing to some Church, Chapel, or usual place of Common Prayer to hear Devine Service there, but forebearing the same contrary to the tenor of the laws and statutes heretofore made and provided in that behalf".

In 1559 an further act of Parliament made it illegal to defend the authority of the pope over the church. To support the Pope, and the Roman Catholic faith, a person could be punished by a loss of goods, on the first offence, loss of life long liberty on the second, and if repeated a third time, loss of life. To be Catholic was considered an act of high treason for which men could be hanged, drawn and quartered, and women could be burned at the stake. To say or to attend a catholic mass would entail fines and imprisonment, and all parishioners had to attend services at the local Anglican church, or suffer a fine.

There were three kinds of Catholics at this time, in England. First were the 'recusants'; people who refused to attend protestant church, and as such would bear the full brunt of the law. Next were the 'non communicants' who were the people who would attend protestant church services, and therefore avoid the recusancy fines, but would refuse to take communion. Finally there were the 'schismatics' who were those that would attend protestant services, and take communion, but remain at heart, a catholic. The second and third type of Catholic were referred to at the time as 'Church Papists'. During James I's reign a survey of Lancashire showed that whilst there was a high number of 'non communicants' (2,392), there was also a fairly high number of 'recusants' (2, 075). 

Vincenzo Carducci, “Martyrdom of the Priors of the English Carthusians
of London, Nottingham and Axholme”, c. 1639

Lancashire was considered a county with a large catholic population, although the catholic population did seem to be smaller in the northern hundreds (parts) of the county. The town or village that our ancestor lived in was Heysham; a small coastal community close to the city of Lancaster. Heysham was situated in the northern part of the county of Lancashire; a hundred known as Lonsdale where approximately 1/3 of the gentry population were Catholic. Of this Catholic population, 2/3 were living in rural areas. One such family was that of Richard Sherborn.

Richard Sherborn owned land in, amongst other parts of Lancashire, Heysham; a beautiful manor just to the west of the city of Lancaster, on the north west coast of England. At the time that he died the house that would come to be known as Heysham Old Hall was  in the process of being built on his land. A survey of 1580 noted that the house was in construction but well enough built to house the 3 tenants; Robert Edmondson taking half of the property, his son Robert Edmondson taking a quarter, and  William Mashiter taking the final quarter. The construction of the hall wasn't to be finished until 1598; a year after Richard Sherborn had died. Richard was married to an Ellen Browne and they had 5 children; 3 boys names Thomas, Robert and Richard, and two daughters one named Alice and another daughter, whose name is unknown. It is thought that Richard was catholic, and a recusant, although I have not found any record of him having been penalised for his faith. Richard left his property, including the land and Heysham Old Hall to his wife, and upon her death, to his son Thomas.

Thomas Sherborn was married to Elizabeth (nee Breres), and he was most definitely a recusant. In 1631/2 he paid a fine for refusing a knighthood, and in 1633 paid another fine for not going to church for a full month. In 1581 the Act to Retain the Queen Majesties Subjects in Their Due Obedience  was passed, and under this act convicted recusants could be charged £20 for each month they had missed Anglican services. This was a huge amount of money, that would have ben unaffordable for anyone, except the wealthy. 

Thomas died in 1635, leaving his land to Richard Sherborn his brother and legacies to his wife Elizabeth, sister Alice Holland, and his nephew Robert Edmondson of Heysham. Elizabeth died just two years later, when she left to her brother-in-law Richard Sherborn of "Heisham" sheets and pillow "beares". She also mentioned in her will her 'cousins' Robert and Thomas Edmondson, brothers. The executor of her will was her 'lovinge brother-in-lawe Richard Sherburn of Heisham". 

Richard Sherborn (junior) inherited the estate in 1635, when his brother Thomas died. He was married to Jane Leybourne. She remarried after Richard's death, and whilst we don't have a date for Richard Sherborn's death, we know that he must have died sometime between 1640 (when he inherited property from his cousin Hugh Sherborn of the Laund), and 1654 when Jane his wife was referred to as the widow of Richard Sherborn in papers relating to contracts drawn up by her new husband, Thomas Clarkson. 

In 1587 a second act of parliament was passed, in relation to recusancy fines. This act had the unwiedly title of the Act for the More Speedy and Due Execution of Certain Branches of a Statutes Made in the 23rd Year of the Queen Majesty's Reign. This act was designed to overhaul the work of the previous act, and was hoped to complete the job of forcing all catholics to convert to protestantism. One of the results of this act related to those recusants who had defaulted on their payment of fines for not attending Anglican church. It gave the state the ability to seize the recusant's goods and two thirds of their lands. 

Heysham Old Hall

Richard Sherborn (junior) had land sequestered from him by the state, suggesting that he had accrued significant debts due to mounting recusancy fines. He may also have been subjected to composition rents, which came about following an act of parliament in Charles I's reign, in 1627. Composition rent was an agreement between a recusant and the state whereby the recusant agreed to pay an annual rent based on the two thirds of the value of the property. This agreement was made usually, when the arrears for recusancy fines had become insurmountable. When Richard died without issue his land and property was passed on to Robert Edmondson his nephew, and son of his sister (for whom I have not been able to find a name).

Robert Edmondson (senior) had married the unnamed daughter of Richard Sherborn (senior) at some point prior to his death in 1597. Together they had at least 3 sons; Robert, Thomas, and William. Robert Edmondson (junior) was my 9x great grandfather, and it was he who inherited the property from Richard Sherborn (junior) sometime between 1640- 1654. A Robert Edmondson was described in 1607 as a "poor popish recusant unable to pay 8d fine", although I can't be sure whether it was the father or son that was described as such. The Edmondson family were living in Heysham Old Hall from at least 1580 when a survey was taken and recorded the following;

"Note this tenement is divided into three parts whereof this Robert Edmondson hath half, his son  William a fourth part and William Mashiter another fourth part: either fourth part is 9s 1 1/2d rent with the mussel silver."
(Mussel silver referred to money raised by collecting and selling mussels from the beach. The last name 'Mashiter' was a common name for the area, the family having been well established. Records pertaining to following generations sometimes included the last name Mashiter, who may well have also been a recusant.)

At the time of this survey the construction of the hall had not yet been finished, but was presumably well enough completed as to allow people to reside there. Heysham Old Hall was completed by 1598, which is a fact echoed by the stone in the east gable which bears the date, plus the letters R.E., and a Tudor rose. It's not a huge jump to consider that the letters stand for Robert Edmondson, even if he hadn't been an owner of the hall in that year. It is also possible that the stone carving was done at a later date, as Robert Edmondson's (junior) son Richard (1663- 1742) was a mason.

Unfortunately Robert Edmondson's (junior) ownership of the hall was not completely secure. By the year 1654 he was in serious debt to William West, of the nearby town of Middleton. It seems that he had taken a loan from William West in 1653, and put his inheritance from Richard Sherborn as collateral. Unfortunately for William West, Robert was neither able to pay the debt, nor hand over the property, as all of the Sherborn inheritance remained in the hands of the state. Mr West took this matter to court, and petitioned that since he was no recusant he hoped the court would allow him the use of the land so he could benefit from it, until the debt was paid. The court granted his request, and William West was allowed to use the land to his benefit for the following 21 years, after which we assume Robert Edmondson was allowed to continue using the land for his own income. 

The Heysham land and hall were held by these four men in turn, Richard Sherborn (senior), Thomas Sherborn, Richard Sherborn (junior), and finally Robert Edmondson (grandson of the first Richard, and nephew of the latter two), who were all punished into poverty for their refusal to give up their catholic faith and worship in a protestant church. Continual fines for refusing knighthoods, and lack of attendance at Anglican church services, composition rents, and seizing of land would have caused them to lose whatever wealth they had fairly fast.

Later, in the 1700s a further penalty was created for those of the catholic faith to deal with; the inability to make a will or inherit property. Robert Edmondson's son and grandson, Richard and Edmond Edmondson respectively, both died in 1742, neither having left a will. Instead they both left inventories of all that they owned at the time of their passing, drawn up by friends and neighbours (including in Richard's inventory, William Mashiter). This suggests that Richard and Edmond were the fourth and fifth generations of recusants to live in Heysham Old Hall.  The fourth and fifth generations to be penalised and financially abused for their faith.

Heysham Head

It is interesting to consider why, at the beginning of this story, would a family under threat of continual fines and other financial penalties, make an expensive decision, to build a new house. A story from the Victorian era might offer an answer for us. In 1888  Reverend C T Royds bought Heysham Old Hall, and it was he who had various work done to the building. The house was somewhat dilapidated and in need of renovation. It was during this work that a priest hole was discovered, in the west wing of the house, between the inner walls and underneath the floor. From a secret opening in the floor there was access to the left chimney breast of a huge fireplace. Hidden stairs ran up to the attic and an underground secret passageway led out of the grounds. Priest holes were designed to provide catholic priests with a space in which they could hide and avoid capture by the local law enforcers. A Jesuit priest by the name of Nicholas Owen was famous for building similar priest holes at about this time.

"With incomparable skill Owen knew how to conduct priests to a place of safety along subterranean passages, to hide them between walls and bury them in impenetrable recesses, and to entangle them in labyrinths and a thousand windings. But what was much more difficult of an accomplishments, he so disguised the entrances to these as to make them most unlike what they really were. Moreover, he ket these places so close a secret that he would never disclose to another the place of concealment of any Catholic. he alone was both their architect and their builder. No one knows how many he made. Some may still be undiscovered."

Could the building of Heysham Old Hall have been the work of Nicholas Owen? And was the original purpose of the hall to provide sanctuary for Catholic priests? We will never know, but what we do know is that this family, over several generations, were severely financially punished by the English state, for their faith and their desire to worship as Roman Catholics.

Heysham Old Hall is now a fabulous looking pub, with apparently a resident ghost. 
I wonder if that ghost could be an ancestor of mine?

#Holding

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https://muse.jhu.edu/article/50912#:~:text=The%20Execution%20of%20Catholics%20under%20Queen%20Elizabeth%20Tudor&text=The%201559%20bills%20made%20English,and%20by%20burning%20offending%20women.

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(page 1997)

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https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13918/13918-h/13918-h.htm