THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
KINGSTON-UPON-HULL.

" These are they whom we had sometime in derision,
and for a parable of reproach."
"We fools esteemed their life raadness, and their end
without honour."
" Behold, now they are nurabered araong the children of
God, and their lot is among the Saints. . . . Their reward
is with the Lord, and the care of them with the Most
High."— Wisdom v.' 3, 4, .5, 16.

View of Hull, shewim; the North and South JjLockhouses, the. Castle
AND St. I-'eter's Church, Drvpool.
{From Hollar's ein^rnvitig, tfilO).

THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
KINGSTON-UPON-HULL, AND WHO WENT THERE.
A Glimpse of Catholic Life in the Penal Times, and a
Missing Page of Local History.
BY
JOSEPH H. HIRST, M.S.A.. M.S.R.A,
With an Introduction by the
REV. FRANCIS J. HALL. M.R., V.F.

' You have yet the faith still, and intend to keep it alway.''
' Sir Thos. More,
' Sometime Lord Chancellor of England.
(Written in the Tower, 1584 )

A. BROWN & SONS. LIMITED.
London and Hull.

1913-
SECOND EDITIOM,

Printed and Published for the Author by
A. Brown & Sons, Limited, Hull and London.

H)e5icateb to
THOSE BRAVE MeN AND WOMEN
WHO PASSED THROUGH THE GLOOMY PORTALS OF
THE Blockhouses
INTO THE Light beyond.

INTRODUCTION.
The dtholics of the North of England, and
especially of York, Durham, Lancaster, and
Ripon, have kept alive in various ways the
memory of those noble-hearted and resolute
GithoHcs who suffered fines, imprisonment,
torture, and death for the sake of their religion
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
In York the annual pilgrimage to Tyburn, and
in other towns to the places where the martyrs
suffered death for conscience' sake, has aroused
a pious interest cimongst their descendants, and
a tradition has arisen which keeps them in
honourable remembrance.
It is true that Hull was not the actual scene
of any Catholic execution, but it was, at any rate,
the place of imprisonment of many of those who
were taken from its Castle and Blockhouses to
suffer death elsewhere.
When the Tyburns of London and York
begem to claim their victims, Hull became
notorious for strictness and severity, and for
the utter discomfort and hardship meted out
by its jailers to Catholic prisoners under the
Penal Laws, Many Catholics died of starvation
and ill-usage in the Hull Castle and Blockhouses,
martyrs for the Faith, who, not being publicly
executed, were soon forgotten.

viii INTRODUCTION.
In order to make the Catholics of England
better acquainted with the history of the prisoners
who were confined in the Castle and, especially
in the Blockhouses of Hull, for their staunch
adherence to the Faith of their fathers, is the
principal object of this book.
To others who can admire firm adherence to
principle and the patient endurance of suffering
for justice' sake, or to those who take an interest
in the records of the past, it is hoped that this
book will appeal.
The Penal Laws are well known by name and
in general terms, but the actual details of what
they made punishable and of what those punish
ments consisted, are known but to a few. This
book will give full details and precise information
on these points, and make one appreciate the
strong Faith of our forefathers, who could patiently
endure such tyranny.
Some will say, " Why stir up the painful
memory of these cruelties ? " Why should we
not ? Are we ashamed to confess the same
Faith as these confessors and martyrs of Christ ?
History, written with a purpose, may ignore
them and make light of the Penal Laws, or, hiding
behind a legal technicality, may boldly assert
that these persons suffered justly, as they were
traitors according to law.
To make known the injustice of such laws,
and to show that the persecution was directed
against the adherents of the old religion of
England who were loyal to the Holy See of

INTRODUCTION. ix
Rome and to its supremacy in all things spiritual,
is a further object of this book.
When Henry VIII., being thwarted by the
Pope in his lustful desire to divorce his lawful
wife, had caused himself to be declared by
Parliament Supreme Head of the Church in
England, the country was taken by surprise, and
was astounded at such an unheard-of assumption
cind scarce knew what to think or how to act.
Bishop Fisher and Lord Chancellor More, more
clear-sighted, refused to admit that any such
spiritual supremacy could be vested in the King
by mere Act of Parliament, and for this denial
they suffered death.
Thence onwards for a century and a half —
except for a short respite in Queen Mary's reign
— the storm of persecution raged against those
who courageously thought and acted as Fisher
and More.
The names of many such have been preserved
or recovered by diligent search in the public
records, local histories, lists of prisoners, and
similar documents.
Eighteen years ago Mr. Joseph H. Hirst,
M,S.A., the writer of this book, came into pos
session of a copy of an old plan of the Castle and
Blockhouses of Hull, and in looking further into
the history of these buildings, an occasional
reference was found to certain " popish recu
sants " who had been confined therein.
In local histories of Hull these prisoners are
practically unnoticed, and so for this reason.

X INTRODUCTION.
together with the fact that at least one of his
ancestors had been executed, and several others
brought to beggary for adherence to the old
religion, he undertook the task of gathering
together all the information he could find re
garding the prisoners in Hull, and he has made
it indeed a labour of love.
This attempt to permanently place on record
the names and some particulars of the lives,
together with some extracts from the letters of
the Catholics who were imprisoned for their
religion under the Penal Laws in the Blockhouses
of Hull, should prove interesting reading to the
Catholics who now live in this city and neigh
bourhood. The profits arising from the sale of this book
the author very generously proposes to devote
to the support of St. Vincent's Orphan Boys'
Home in Hull, and as Treasurer of that Institu
tion, and on behalf of the Committee, I tender
to Mr. Hirst my warmest thanks.

FRANCIS J. HALL.

St. Charles' Rectory,
Hull.

CONTENTS. CHAPTER I.
PACE
THE BUILDING OF THE CASTLE AND BLOCK
HOUSES  1
CHAPTER II.
CHANGING THE RELIGION OF ENGLAND . 7
CHAPTER III.
THE PENAL LAWS  14
CHAPTER IV.
SUFFERINGS OF RECUSANTS . .31
CHAPTER V.
WHO WENT TO THE BLOCKHOUSES . . 69

Authorities Quoted  131
Dates for Reference .132
Index to Persons  133
Index to Places .138

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

The Castle and Blockhouses in
1604  Frontispiece,
Plan of the Blockhouses . To face page 4

Plan of Castle . . . „

„ 6

View of Hull shewing Gallows

„ 12

Penal Time Vestments . . „

„ 22

Badge of Pilgrimage of Grace

., 31

Dismembered, Bowelled, and

Quartered . . . „

„ 34

Arrest of a Priest . . „

„ 46

Holy Trinity Church

„ 52

The "Scavenger's Daughter"

„ 64

Recusants Imprisoned in Dungeon „

„ 72

Execution of two Priests

„ 88

Drawn to Execution

„ 90

Old St. Peter's, Drypool

„ 102

Ven. Edward Oldcorne, S.J. .

„ 106

The South Blockhouse .

„ 118

Ven. Thomas Atkinson .

„ 122

Entry in Drypool Registers .

,. 124

THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. CHAPTER I.
the building of the castle and block
houses.
King Henry VIII. visited Hull on the 1st
October, 1540, cUid made an inspection of the
fortifications, which then existed on the north,
west, and south sides of the town. With these
walls, gates, and moats Henry expressed himself
satisfied, but he determined that adequate means
of defence should be constructed on the east or
harbour side. Orders were therefore issued for
the immediate erection of a Castle and two Block
houses, and the King himself appears to have
taken a particular interest in the details of the
work. In the original document, giving in
structions for " the advancement of the work,"
several corrections are made in Henry's own
hand, his particular instructions being that the
buildings should be made " mighty strong."

2 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
No time was lost after these conamands, for
within four months of the King's visit, i.e., on
the 22nd February, 1541. the foundations were
laid. The stone and other materials from the nave
of St. Mary's Church, Lowgate (which fell in
1518 owing to defective foundations), were used
in the construction of the Castle and Block
houses, as were also the materials from the
tower of the same church (pulled down in 1 540
by order of King Henry), together with the
materials from the Blackfriary, the Whitefriary,
and the Carthusian Priory in Hull, and the
Cistercian Priory of Swine in Holderness, all of
which extensive and magnificent buildings had
previously been suppressed and confiscated.
Three centuries afterwards, when Henry's
buildings were being taken down, large quan
tities of these old materials again came to light.
Some of the stone was re-used at St. Peter's
Schools, Drypool, and at other buildings then
in progress. During the demolition of the Castle
and Blockhouses, several sculptured and in
scribed stones were collected and subsequently
put together, and built in the form of a monument,
which still remains near the pathway of St. Mary's
Church, Sculcoates. Upon these stones may be
seen the following fragmentary inscriptions,

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 3
which indicate that many of the slabs have
originally been grave covers removed from one
or other of the religious houses of Hull, where
they had once marked the resting-place of some
prior or illustrious brother : —
1. Hie jacet Johannes Cottingham frater,
requiescat. Amen.
2. Venerabilis pater dominus Radulphus.
3. Requiescat in pace.
4. Ricardus.
5. Johs.
6. Frater.
7. Hie jacet quondam * * * * q Joj^q
M.CCCCUIL, Amen.
8. Hie jacet frater Jacobus Beauyogholm.
9. Tercius.
10. Abbas.
Little did these friars think when erecting
their religious houses in Hull that the very stones
wherewith their friaries had been constructed,
nay, even their own grave covers, would one
day form part of the walls of the dungeons in
which were to be imprisoned and tortured inno
cent men and women professing the Faith which
the friars themselves had done so much to
preserve. Henry's fortifications were erected east of and

4 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
parallel to the River Hull. The North Block
house occupied a site a little south-east of the
present North Bridge. The South Blockhouse
stood on the Humber Bank in a position south
east of the present South Bridge. The Castle
was built midway between the two Blockhouses.
All three buildings were connected by a moat
and an embattled wall extending northwards
from the Humber for a distance of about three-
quarters of a mile (see frontispiece).
The Castle comprised an inner and an outer
building. The keep or inner building was of
three stories, and measured sixty-six feet in
length and fifty feet in width. There were two
rooms or dungeons on each floor, with walls
eight feet in thickness. The keep was surrounded
by an extensive courtyard, which in turn was
enclosed by the outer Castle. This latter was
of two stories, and measured 174 feet square,
with projecting rooms or dungeons on the east
and west sides. A vaulted corridor encircled the
building within the thickness of the walls. The
only entrance, five feet six inches in width,
looked towards the south. The walls of the
Castle were nineteen feet in thickness.
The Blockhouses were planned as a trefoil,
and resembled a club on an ordinary playing
card. The entrance was arranged in the square

^2 ^

1

i>«l^ ^

^

«l
^. Er
B. Cc
GROUClIi PUfl
TRfiMCE.ORTYflRb.
)C1QE0MS.
JHH
Ground Plan of the Blockhouses.
{Draan hy the writer from a 16lh Century M.S.).
KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 5
or flat part of the structure, and communicated
with an open courtyard thirty-seven feet square
giving access to three projecting dungeons. The
Blockhouses were of two stories, with walls
fifteen feet in thickness. Circular staircases of
stone built within the walls provided means of
communication between the upper and lower
floors of both the Castle and Blockhouses.
To repeat the story of the Castle and Block
houses, when used as a means of defence, is
unnecessary. That story has been well told and
retold by all local historians. There have been
Wcirs, sieges, lawsuits, royal warrants and plots
enough to give the buildings an air of romance,
while the following collection of scattered records
enshroud the grim buildings in tragic gloom.
For a considerable period the Castle and Block
houses were used as prisons for Catholics con
victed under the Penal Laws, where they endured
unlimited iniquities and horrors, imposed by the
most inhuman of keepers. Light and ventilation
there were none, neither were the ordinary con
veniences and necessities of life provided. At
spring tides many of the floors were flooded, and
the number of prisoners who died there is posi
tively appalling. For food, and, indeed, for
everything, they were entirely at the mercy of
their keepers, who charged the most exorbitant

6 BLOCKHOUSES OF KINGSTON-UPON-HULL.
rates for the vilest fare, and when any complained
there were the irons and screws to enforce silence
and submission.
During three long centuries the Castle and
Blockhouses survived many vicissitudes, serving
at different times the purposes of a fortress and
a prison. The buildings, however, have long
since ceased to exist. They have vanished utterly,
and their sites have been converted to the com
mercial requirements of a bustling seaport. The
present generation knows them only by repute.
The North Blockhouse was taken down in 1 80 1 ,
the South Blockhouse was sold and demolished
in 1863, and the Castle was sold for building
purposes and removed in 1864.

The C^a>TLE. Km&s.Toei-oFoe5 = ^OLL.

EfiTRflCICE

B. CoORTYflRb.
e. bUHGEOnS.

GlROUMD IpLfin.

JHH

Ground Plan of the Castle.
Drawn bv the writer Irom a tUh Century MS.).

CHAPTER II.
changing the religion of ENGLAND.
Hadley in his History of Kingston-upon-Hull,
says that " Henry VIII. died on the 27th January,
1 547, leaving behind him a memorial of perfidy,
bigotry, rapacity, profusion of cruelty, contra
diction, violence, and lust." A rare character
indeed for the man who is supposed by many
to have re-formed religion in England. His
efforts to change the religious belief of the English
people also included the " reforming " of the
buildings. This he most effectively carried out,
as witness the numberless ruined priories and
abbeys scattered throughout the length and
breadth of the land. Not content with dis
mantling the buildings, he carried his work of
reformation to such an extent that many grand
old piles were completely razed and their sites
obliterated. Of these the Blackfriary, the White
friary, and the Carthusian Priory are a few of the
buildings which until Henry's time charmed with
their quaint architecture the stranger who visited
the picturesque old town of Hull. Of these once
magnificent buildings nothing now remains.

8 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
" Having existed for more than three
centuries under different forms, in poverty
and in wealth, in meanness and in magni
ficence, in misfortune and in success, they
finally succumbed to the Royal will. The
day came — ^and that a drear winter day —
when their last Mass was sung, their last
censer waved, their last congregation bent in
wrapt and lowly adoration before the Altar
there ; and doubtless as the last tones of that
day's evensong died away in the vaulted roof,
there were not wanting those who lingered
in the solemn stillness of the old massive
piles, and who, as the lights disappeared
one by one, felt that for them there was now
a void which could never be filled, because
their old Friaries, with their beautiful services,
their frequent means of grace, their hospi
tality to strangers, and their loving care for
God's poor, had passed away like an early
morning dream and were gone for ever."
A well-known historian has had the courage to
remark that it was not the good, but the goods of
the Church which gave Henry so much concern,
and the original accounts of the Treasurer of the
Court of Augmentation, which are still kept in
the Public Record Office, confirm his opinion.
The cash received by Henry VIII., as the result

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 9
of the dissolution of the monasteries, is shewn to
be between fourteen and fifteen million pounds
sterling in present money value. By the fall of
the monasteries there was also transferred from
the Church and the poor to the Royal purse a
yearly income of more than two million pounds
sterling.* But these enormous sums did not
nearly represent the whole of the spoils. The
officials selected by the King for the work of
demolition were men after his own heart, and
subsequent inquiries by Henry and by Elizabeth
revealed the fact that these officers appropriated
vast sums of money to their own use. These
officials, who were men of exceedingly question
able character, had evidently concluded that they
v/ere as much entitled to the monastic spoils as
Henry himself was.
The King's dishonest actions with regard to
the religious houses at length exasperated the
people to such an extent that they rose up in open
violence, and England was on the eve of civil war.
According to State papers it is evident that the
English people most strenuously objected to the
re-forming of their religious belief. The numbers
of those who took up arms against the King in
the neighbourhood of Hull is incredible. In
Lincolnshire, sixty thousand; in Hull and the
* Gasquet.

10 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
East Riding, twenty thousand ; in Beverley and
district, nine thousand ; at Doncaster, eight
thousand ; at Pontefract, five thousand ; and at
Durham twelve thousand mounted knights and
esquires in complete armour. The significance
of these numbers will be better realised when
compared with the population of the town of
Hull, which at that period was four thousand
three hundred.* These vast armies were led
by men of immense popularity, including the
Earl of Westmorland, Lord Darcy, Sir Robert
Constable, Lord Lumley, Lord Latimer, and
Robert Aske, barrister, of Augton, near Howden.
" So general was the uprising that the
clash of the alarm bells from the villages on
the Yorkshire side of the Humber went
pealing across the water, and the warning
lights leaping from hill to hill, and from
church to church were seen shooting towards
the sky ; all Yorkshire was in motion. The
fisherman on the North Sea saw the lights
flickering in the darkness from Spurn to
Scarborough, and from thence to Berwick-
upon-Tweed. They streamed westward,
over the long marshes, across Spalding Moor,
up the Ouse and the Wharf, to the watershed
* State Paper Office MS.

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 1 ]
whence the rivers flow into the Irish Sea.
The mountains of Westmorland sent on the
message to Kendal, to Cockermouth, to
Penrith, to Carlisle ; and for days and
nights there was one loud storm of bells and
blaze of beacons, from the Trent to the
Cheviot Hills." *
Henry v,^as mightily alarmed, and dare not
meet the people in open battle. Their over
whelming numbers caused him the greatest
anxiety, but, true to his character, he adopted
a course which for dishonesty and ferocity has
no parallel in the annals of history. He arranged
a conference with the leaders to discuss the cause
of the people's disaffection, and he made such
excellent proposals and promises that the leaders
accepted his word as an ultimate and satisfactory
settlement of their grievances. They immediately
conveyed the good news to their followers, and
the assembled armies, trusting to the honour of
the King, returned to their homes. Henry,
meanwhile, had no intention of carrying out his
promises, for no sooner had the insurgents dis
persed than he caused martial law to be pro
claimed in all the northern counties.
In order to strike terror into the hearts of the
* Todd.

12 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
people the King's orders to his commander in
the north were most complete.
" Our pleasure is that before you shall
close up our said banner again, you shall in
any wise cause such dreadful execution to
be done upon a good number of the inhabi
tants of every town, village, and hamlet, as
have offended in this rebellion, as well by,
the hanging them up in trees as by the
quartering of them, and the setting of their
heads and quarters in every town, great and
small, and in all such other places as they
may be a fearful spectacle to all others
hereafter that would practise any like matter,
which we require you to do without pity or
respect, according to our former letters."
These directions were implicitly obeyed, and
the North Country was converted into a veritable
shambles. The towns on the banks of the Tweed,
the Tyne, the Tees, the Don, and the Trent were
rendered loathsome with the ghastly heads and
reeking members of the people who had taken part
in what is known as the Pilgrimage of Grace.*
Amongst those who suffered locally may be
named John Hallam, Thomas Walters, and John
Proude, all of whom were leaders at Hull. They
* State Papers, Henry VIII., vol. v., p. 9L

Plan of part of Hull shewing the Triple G.allows, upon which
H-Allam, Walters and Proude were hanced.
The present Monument Bridge occupies the site of tlie bridge near
the three windmills.
{From an ancient drji^''.ng in the British Mu^euir,).

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 13
were all three hanged on a gallows which stood
outside the town walls, and which occupied a
position a little to the west of the De la Pole
statue in King Edward Street.
All the other leaders shared a similar fate. Lord
Darcy was beheaded on Tower Hill, London.
Robert Aske was executed in the Pavement at
York, and afterwards hanged in chains on Heworth
Moor. Sir Robert Constable was executed at
Hull and his body hanged in chains on a high
gibbet above Beverley Gate, which was then the
principal entrance to the town. His death is thus
described in a letter written to the Lord Privy
Seal dated July 8th, 1537:—
" On Frydaye, beying Market daye at
Hull, Sir Robert Constable suffred, and
dothe hang in cheynes, as this berer can
shewe you, and I think his boones woll hang
there this hundrethe yere."

CHAPTER III.
the penal laws.
English historians omit to place on record the
many details connected with the coercing of men's
consciences which took place after the re-forming
of religious belief by King Henry VIII. Although
the State documents (preserved in the Public
Record Office) covering this most interesting
period are easy of access, few people have even
the remotest idea of the iniquity of what are
known as the Penal Laws.
The general impression gained by the reading
of history is that Mary Tudor was the only sove
reign who interfered with the religious belief of
the people, and that alv/ays in a most sanguinary
manner. The great trait of English character is
that of fairness, and a desire to hear both sides,
but how can a correct idea of the social condition
of the people be gained when historians pur
posely omit half the facts? The reading of
unbiased documents should convince the most
prejudiced mind that Mary has been a much
libelled Queen. Marks, in his history of Tyburn,
gives the number of persons executed there
14

BLOCKHOUSES OF KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 15
during five reigns, and sums up the figures thus :
Henry VIII., 9940; Edward VI., 3360; Mary,
1400; Elizabeth, 6160; James I., 3080.
With regard to the local executions, the Rev.
John Tickell, a clergyman of the Established
Church, in his well-known History of Hull, says
that " it does not appear that any person was
executed in this town either for treason or religion
during all Mary's reign."
Henry, having proclaimed himself Head of the
English Church, left to his successors the task
of compelling their subjects to abandon the old
religion and to adopt the new. The people,
however, did not readily embrace the new form
of belief, with the result that a long series of Acts
was passed which had for their object the
forcing of unwilling people into the newly-
established Church, and although they remained
true to their lifelong convictions, they were
speedily converted into lawbreakers and criminals.
This was accomplished by the imposition of laws
the like of which are unknown. To really under
stand these Acts, and to properly appreciate the
sufferings of the prisoners whose biographies are
recorded in the following pages, some attention
must be given to a resume of the Penal Laws.
These enactments, which were passed with the
object of exterminating all Englishmen who

16 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
professed to be Catholics, are not at all nice reading,
hence in school histories they are dismissed with
the barest reference or altogether ignored. Yet
for a period of over two hundred and seventy
years the statutes against Catholics were in
operation. It was not until 1829, upon the
passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act, that
most of the Penal Laws were repealed, and
England has now almost forgotten, if she ever
really knew, the tragic story of the Penal times.
The Acts particularly relating to Recusants
were passed in the reigns of Elizabeth, James I.,
and Charles I., and it is quite clear that, having
possessed themselves of the estates and revenues
of the Church, their sole object was the total
suppression of Catholicism. But before con
sidering the statutes, it may be necessary to
explain the term Recusant. Popish Recusants,
therefore, were Catholics who refused to attend
the new religious worship prescribed by the Act
of Uniformity. After being once convicted they
were referred to as Popish Recusants Convict.
From the year 1533 many Acts were passed
which had for their object the abolition of
Catholic worship. It may be said, however, that
the first Penal Statute was passed in 1 558. This
Act required ministers to carry out all the Services
as directed by the Book of Common Prayer.

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 17
Penalty for non-compliance : — First offence, six
months' imprisonment and a fine of one year's
income ; second offence, deprivation of office
and one year's imprisonment ; third offence,
imprisonment for life. This Act also required
all persons to attend the Established Church on
Sundays under fines for every offence. A further
Act provided that all Spiritual and Ecclesiastical
power should remain with the sovereign. It pro
hibited the maintaining or defending of the
Spiritual Authority of the Pope. Penalties : —
First offence, forfeiture of all personal property ;
second offence, forfeiture of all property and
imprisonment ; third offence, death.
An Act of 1 562 prohibited the writing, cipher
ing, printing, preaching, or teaching any defence
of the Spiritual Authority of the Pope. Penalty :
First offence, forfeiture of goods and imprison
ment for life ; second offence, death. This Act
also provided that for refusing to take the oath
of the Sovereign's Supremacy in matters of
religious belief within twelve months, the penalty
was : for the first offence, forfeiture of all goods
and imprisonment for life, and for the second
offence, death.
An Act of 1570 prohibited the bringing into
the realm of any religious emblem, picture, cross,
bead, etc., or offering the same to any person.

18 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
Penalty : first offence, forfeiture of property, and
second, imprisonment for life. A further Act
prohibited the absolution or reconciliation of any
person to the Catholic Faith, the promising to
reconcile any person, or being absolved or re
conciled. Penalty, death.
An Act of 1580 prohibited the absolution,
persuasion, or withdrawal of any person from the
Established religion to the Catholic religion, or
to move any person within the dominions to
promise spiritual obedience to the Pope. Penalty,
death. A further Act prohibited the saying or
singing of Mass. Penalty, 200 marks and im
prisonment for twelve months or until the fine
was paid. It also prohibited the hearing of Mass.
Penalty, fine of 100 marks and imprisonment for
twelve months. A further Act prohibited the
keeping of any schoolmaster who did not attend
the EstabUshed Church. Penalty, fine of £10.
The schoolmaster himself to be imprisoned for
twelve months.
An Act of 1584 prohibited priests or ecclesi
astical persons coming into or remaining in the
realm. Penalty, death. This Act also provided
that all laymen educated in a Catholic college
or school abroad should return and take the oath
of the sovereign's supremacy in religious matters
within six months. Penalty, death. A further

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 19
Act prohibited a Catholic sending relief directly
or indirectly to any Catholic college or school
abroad, or to any person of or in the same.
Penalty, forfeiture of all property and imprison
ment for life.
The ordinances of the Lords and Commons of
the years 1 643- 1 652 appointed sequestrators who
were empowered to seize two-thirds of all the
estates of every Catholic, or which any person
had in trust or for the use of any Catholic. For
the carrying out of these seizures the following
were deemed to be Catholics : Any person who
should harbour a priest ; any person who should
hear Mass ; any person whose child or grand
child, or anyone living in the house with him
under tuition in the Catholic faith, and any
person of the age of 21 who refused to take the
oath abjuring the Catholic religion. The seques
trators were empowered to examine upon oath
any person as to the property or whereabouts of
Catholics. They could call in any assistance
they thought fit, and the assistants were to be paid
one shilling in the pound of all lands, moneys,
or goods discovered. They were to have the
protection of both Houses of Parliament, and to
be esteemed as persons who did service to the
Commonwealth. They were authorised to break
open, either day or night, all locks, bolts, bars.

20 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
doors, or other strength, when money or goods
were upon probable grounds suspected to be
concealed, and seize the same.
The instructions to sequestrators were very
clear, and were contained in thirteen articles.
It will suffice to give an example of one. " You
are to seize two parts of the estates both real and
personal of all Papists, and you are to understand
by two parts of Papists' estates, two of the whole
lands, and two of the goods, into three to be
divided." Austin, an eye-witness of the sequestrations,
says : — " When the sequestrators have thus seized
unto their hands two-thirds of the most
innocent Recusants' lands and goods, then
come the excisemen, tax-gatherers, and other
collectors, and pinch away no small part of
the poor third penny that was left them ; so
that after these deductions, I have known
some estates of three hundred pounds a year
reduced to less than threescore, a lean
pittance to maintain them and their children,
being persons for the most part of good
quality and civil education. And as for
priests, it is made as great a crime to have
taken orders after the rites of their Church

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 21
as to have committed the most heinous
treason that can be imagined, and they are far
more cruelly punished than those who murder
their own parents. Besides these extreme
and fatal penalties that lie upon the Re
cusants merely for their conscience, there are
many other afflictions whereof few take notice,
which, though of lesser weight, yet being
added to the former, quite sink them down
to the bottom of sorrow and perplexity, as
their continual fear of having their houses
broke open and searched by pursuivants,
who enter at what hours they please, and do
what there they list, taking away not only
all the instruments of their religion, but
oftentimes money, plate, watches, and other
such Popish idols, especially if they be found
in the same room with any pictures, and so
infected with a relative superstition."
An Act of 1 627 prohibited the sending of any
child or person abroad to any Catholic University,
college, school, or private house to be educated.
It also prohibited any money being sent for the
maintenance of any child or person. Penalty :
First offence. Catholics were rendered unable to
sue at law, or be executor, etc., for any person,
or to bear office within the realm or during their

22 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
lifetime ; second offence, forfeiture of all their
property. An Act of 1661 prohibited the appointing to
any position under a Corporation of any person
who had not taken the Sacrament according to
the rites of the Established Church of England
within one year of their appointment. *
An Act of 1662 prohibited any person above
sixteen years of age attending any assembly or
meeting under colour or pretence of religion in
any other manner than that of the Established
Church of England, where there were five or
more persons present in addition to those of the
household. Penalty : First offence, five shillings ;
second offence, ten shillings. The preacher was
also fined, for the first offence, £20 ; for the
second offence, £40. Penalty on persons allowing
religious meetings in their houses or barns, £200.
An Act of 1 672 insisted that schoolmasters in
private families should obtain permission from
the Protestant Bishop, and also that they should
conform to the Established Church of England.
Penalty, First offence, three months' imprison
ment ; second and subsequent offences, two
months' imprisonment and a fine of £5.
An Act of 1 673 prohibited any person holding
office or place of trust, civil or military, or to be
admitted to the household of the King or Duke

Photo by] iFf- Wannyn.
Old Penal Time Vestments, of all the Liturgical Colours (Black
ON the reverse side), worn by Hunted Priests when saying jNIass
in the vicinity of Hull.
(.Voii* in the possession of the Rev. Francis J. Hall, U.R. : V.F.).

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 23
of York, who had not taken the Sacrament
according to the useige of the Established Church
of England and who had not made a written
declaration of disbelief in Catholic doctrine.
An Act of 1 678 prohibited any Peer or Member
of Parliament sitting or voting without first taking
the Oath of the Spiritual Supremacy of the Sove
reign and making a declaration against Catholic
doctrine. Penalty, £500.
In 1679 a Parliamentary Order was issued for
the ejectment of all Catholics from the College
of Physicians.
An Act of 1683 prohibited the keeping of a
school without the licence of a Protestant Bishop.
Penalty, £2 per day. There was a similar penalty
for acting as schoolmaster without the same
licence. A further Act prohibited parents or
Guetfdians sending children to any school abroad.
Penalty, £100. The child so sent was unable to
succeed to any real or personal estate whatsoever
in England.
An Act of 1685 prohibited the importation, the
printing, selling, or bringing of any Catholic book
of any kind, printed or written in any language.
Penalty, £2 for every book, and all such books
were to be burnt. A further Act prohibited the
acceptance of service abroad without having taken
the Oath of the Sovereign's Spiritual Supremacy.

24 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
Offenders were treated as felons and punished
as such. No person was permitted to serve any
foreign prince unless he became bound in sureties
in the sum of at least £20 that he would not
become a Catholic.
A further Act prohibited any person absolving,
persuading, or withdrawing others, or themselves
persuaded or withdrawn, either upon the seas or
beyond the seas. Penalty, death.
Another Act prohibited any person once con
victed of being a Catholic, marrying a woman
(other than an heiress) except according to the
rites of the Established Church of England.
Penalty, £100. If an heiress, the husband was
prohibited having any interest in her lands or
property. Again an Act prohibited any child being bap
tized other than according to the rites of the
Established Church of England, and that within
a month of birth. Penalty, £100. If the child
died within the month the fine was still imposed.
This Act also prohibited the burial of any
Catholic anywhere but in the churchyard and
according to the rites of the Established Church
of England. Penalty, £20.
A further Act compelled every widow, once
convicted of being a Catholic, to conform to the
Established Church of England, and to receive the

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 25
Sacrament within one year of her husband's
death. Penalty, forfeiture of two-thirds of her
jointure and two-thirds of her dower during her
lifetime, and all share in her husband's goods
and chattels.
A married woman who had once been convicted
of being a Catholic was also compelled to conform
to the Established Church of England and take
the Sacrament within three months of her first
conviction. Penalty, imprisonment until she did
conform. The husband, however, could pay £10
per month, or yield a third of his property, so
long as he kept her at liberty.
A further Act prohibited a Catholic being a
witness, an administrator, a surety, an attorney,
a procurator for any person, or an executor, and
it denied him Christian burial. He could not
be a lawyer or physician, or accept any public
office, either in person or by deputy. The
Protestant husband of a woman once convicted
of being a Catholic came under the same law,
if his children above nine years of age or his
servants did not conform to the Established
Church of England.
Catholics over sixteen years of age who had
once been convicted as such, were to repair to
their usual place of abode, and not move more than
five miles therefrom, without a written licence

26 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
from the Sovereign or three Privy Councillors,
or four local Justices, with the Bishop, Lord
Lieutenant, or Deputy Lieutenant. Within
twenty days of his return he was to report himself
to the Protestant chaplain of the parish, and the
Town Constable, who would notify the matter
in the records. Penalty for moving more than
five miles, or failing to report return, forfeiture
of all possessions. If these did not exceed £20,
and the offender did not conform to the Estab
lished Church of England within three months,
he was to abjure the realm and depart out of it
at once. The penalty for not leaving the country
was death.
Another Act prevented any Catholic presenting
to any living, benefice, or prebend, or to nominate
to any free school, hospital, etc., or to grant the
assurance of any living, benefice, etc. His rights
in these matters were handed over to the Univer
sities of Oxford and Cambridge.
A further Act prohibited any person, once con
victed of being a Catholic, entering Court, or any
house where the King or his heir might be
present, unless commanded by the King himself.
Penalty, £100.
Again an Act compelled Catholics to pay to
the King £20 and two-thirds of all his lands,
leases, and farms. If a Catholic did conform to

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 27
the Established Church, but did not take the
Sacrament at the Parish Church within twelve
months, he was fined £20 for the first year, £40
-for the second year, and £60 for each succeeding
year until he did receive the Sacrament. Every
person who had under his roof any servant or
stranger who did not attend the Parish Church
was fined £10 and a like sum for every month
they were absent.
The Act of 1689 prohibited any Catholic
entering or remaining in the presence of the
King or Queen, or holding any place of trust,
civil or military, or to sit or vote in either of
the Houses of Parliament, to sue or take any
action at law, or to be guardian, executor, or
administrator, legatee, or donee. Penalty,
£500. Any person once convicted of being a Catholic
v/as forbidden to remain within ten miles of
London after ten days of his trial. Penalty,
£100. All arms, armour, and ammunition found in
the houses of Catholics could be taken by warrant.
Any two Justices, and the Mayor, Bailiffs, etc.,
could search houses of Catholics and deface or
burn any altar, pix, picture, or other religious
object. All books, crucifixes, or relics were to
be defaced at the Quarter Sessions.

28 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
An Act of 1689 empowered any two Justices
to enter the houses of Catholics and seize any
arms or ammunition, and any horse above the
value of £10, for the King's use. If there were
any concealment the penalty was three months'
imprisonment and a fine of treble the value of
the goods.
Under an Act of 1689 Justices could require
any person found attending any religious meeting
to subscribe to a declaration against Catholic
belief, and also to take the Oath of the Sovereign's
Supremacy in religious matters.
A further Act provided that in case the sove
reign became a Catholic, or married a Catholic,
the crown was to pass to the next Protestant
heir. An Act of 1 695-6 prohibited Catholics entering
the professions of counsellor-at-law, barrister,
attorney, solicitor, or notary.
This Act also provided that persons refusing
to take the Oath of the Sovereign's Supremacy
in religious matters should suffer as Popish
Recusants Convict, and it prohibited them
voting at the election of Members of Parlia
ment. An Act of 1699 imposed " over and above the
good laws already made," imprisonment for life
upon any bishop or priest saying Mass, or per-

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 29
forming any office of a Catholic Bishop or priest
within the realm.
A Catholic was prohibited opening a school,
or assuming the education of youth. Penalty,
perpetual imprisonment.
A Catholic who had not taken the Oath of the
King's Supremacy in religious matters within
six months of his eighteenth birthday could not
inherit by descent any lands or property. Penalty,
all lands or property to pass directly to the next-
of-kin being a Protestant.
Catholics were also incapable either in their
own or any other name, of purchasing any lands,
houses, or property.
An Act of 1714 granted to the King all lands,
buildings, money, goods, etc., given or bequeathed
to religious houses, colleges, or for the education
of youth in Great Britain or elsewhere, or to any
other Catholic use.
An Act of 1716 provided that sales by Catholics
to Protestants might be good unless some person
entitled to enter by previous statute had already
eisserted his claim.
Looking backward over the events of the
Penal times there does not appear to be any
evidence that the people joined the Established
Church from conviction. On the contrary,
whoever went to the Parish Churches did so out

30 BLOCKHOUSES OF KINGSTON-UPON-HULL.
of fear and because they were coerced into
attending. They had no cause to disagree with
the old Faith, and they certainly did not welcome
the new. This fact has always been recognised
on the Continent. In England we are beginning
to realise it now.

Badge of Pilgrimage of Grace.

CHAPTER IV.
the sufferings of recusants.
After passing Acts involving heavy penalties it
only remained for the Governemnt to find willing
officials to carry the law into effect. Twenty
pounds were offered, under a Royal Proclamation,
for the arrest of a priest, and one hundred pounds
for the arrest of a Jesuit.
Such tempting offers as these induced large
numbers of persons of both sexes to engage
themselves in the role of priest-hunters. These
pursuivants were of infamous character, and their
new profession suited them admirably, for they
positively revelled in the work of bringing their
fellow-countrymen to the gallows.
Not content with the large rewards to be
obtained, the priest-hunters offered to restore
their prisoners to liberty for a monetary con
sideration, and if at times they were successful
in extorting money, they did not hesitate to re
arrest the unfortunate priests whom they had
just released. This, of course, entitled the priest-
hunter to claim his legal reward as well.
It is inconceivable that any Government would
31

32 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
hang men on the unsupported evidence of such
pursuivants. Hatton was a common thief,
Newham a convicted highwayman, Dingley an
outlawed bankrupt, Bedam a deprived parson,
and Dales a notorious murderer. Yet these v/ere
the men to whom the State looked for assistance
in establishing the new religion. They were good
men for the purpose, and they did their work well.
Documents at the Public Record Office shew that
Humphrey Cross claimed £50 per head for eight
priests, which he stated he had caught in one day.
John Grey claimed the rewards in respect of
thirty-two priests whom he caused to be arrested.
Francis Nevrton claimed for twenty-nine priests,
while James Wadsworth, Francis Newton,
Thomas Mayo, and Robert Luke, who formed
themselves into a company for the purpose, made
a claim for thirty-eight priests captured. The
Francis Newton mentioned was of scandalous
life and behaviour. Having arrested Father
Morse, he offered to restore him to liberty for
£5. He at the same time threatened to arrest
Francis Smith as a priest unless he gave him £5.
Newton, however, over-reached himself, and a
petition was presented against him for unlawful
practices. Whether Elizabeth paid all these claims for
priest-hunting is doubtful, knowing her as we

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 33
do. Atkinson, the Hull priest-hunter, did not
get the reward he claimed. Reeves (whose efforts
resulted in the hanging, drawing, and quartering
of Father Postgate, a priest 79 years of age) never
got the £20 he expected, which so preyed upon
his mind that he shortly afterwards drowned
himself in a shallow ditch.
The names of Elizabeth's priest-hunters are
legion. Eglesfield, Ewbank, Topcliffe, Pollard,
Collier, Rollinson, Reynold, Cawdwell, Scarcroft,
with hosts of others. So great, in fact, was the
army that in the search for Father Haywood the
Privy Council engaged six hundred pursuivants.
Father Haywood was ultimately captured upon
the information of a female priest-hunter.
The pursuivants, urged on by the promise of
money, did not spare any pains in their efforts
to arrest priests. They inquired into and searched
every conceivable place. They forced an entrance
into every house they pleased, sometimes almost
demolishing it, in their anxiety to find a hiding-
place. No building was safe for priests to enter,
hence they were often compelled to hide them
selves in haystacks and outhouses. Some of
them took refuge in woods and plantations, but
here, if they did not die of privation and hard
ships, they were not safe, for the pursuivants are
known to have surrounded the woods with nets
E

34 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
and then to hunt out the priests with dogs, and
when success attended their efforts the priests
were arrested, hanged, drawn, bowelled, and
quartered. An eye-witness of the carrying out of such an
execution says : " After he (the priest) had been
hung awhile, they cut the rope and let him fall,
and the hangman, who was but a boy, drew him
along by the rope yet alive, and then dismembered
and bowelled him, and cast his bowels into the
fire. Taking his heart he cast it there also. Then
the hangman cut off his head and held it up,
saying, ' Behold the head of a traitor ! ' His
quarters, after they were boiled in a cauldron,
were buried in the baker's dunghill." Other
cruel details are also included in the letter, but
they are altogether too horrible to repeat here.
The expenses incurred in executing a Priest
were somewhat heavy, probably on account of
the difficulty experienced in finding anyone
willing to carry out the sentence. The Muni
cipal Accounts of Newcastle shew what was
actually paid for an execution.
Paid to a Frenchman, which did
take forth the Seminary Priest's
bowels after he was hanged . . . 20s.
For coals, which made the fire at the
execution of the Seminary Priest, 6d.,

« —

O!

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 35
and for a wright's axe, which headed
the Seminary, 4s. 6d. = . . . . 5s.
For a hand axe, and a cutting knife
which did rip and quarter the
Seminary Priest, 14d. ; and for a
horse which trailed him from off the
sledge to the gallows, 1 2d. = . . . 2s. 2d,
For four iron stanchels, with hooks
on them, for the hanging of the
Seminary's four quarters on the
four gates  3s. 8d.
To a mason for two days' work,
setting the stanchels of the gates
fast, lOd. a day =  20d,
In order to procure evidence against recusants*
their houses were searched by armed pursuivants,
who pierced the floors, battered the walls, broke
up the stciirs, dug up the pavements with pick
and spade, and turned everything upside down.
They made bonfires in the halls and threw in all
the valuable books, manuscripts, and pictures
they could find.
At one house, after trying every bed and
cupboard with their swords, and finding nothing,
they tied the family two and two together, and
drove them off to jail, and, taking four of the
youngest children from their beds, they turned
them out and left them standing in their night-«

36 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
gowns, until some neighbours, seeing their plight,
took them away.
Payment for such meritorious services was
very easily arranged, as the Government com
missioned the searchers to help themselves to
whatever they found. Certain towns were
assigned to the different bands of pursui
vants, who were always at liberty to break into
houses and seize money, jewels, and veJuables.
After carrying off all that was movable, they
mercilessly destroyed furniture, clothes, and pro
visions. Cattle which could not be conveniently
taken were slaughtered. A certain Catholic
house was not only plundered, but permanently
dccupied and turned into a public-house. The
notorious Nicholas Thomes, who died in 1592,
turned mciny Catholics from their homes euid
took possession of their dwellings. He was very
partial to cattle, and drove hundreds of beasts
from Catholic farmsteads. His operations were
extensive, and included the seizure of the pos
sessions of George Cooke, William Poker, John
Coher, Timothy Brown, Widow Wade, Ricliard
Fitzherbert, Knowles, and many others.
Among the MSS. collected by Mr. Charles
Weld is an " Account of the Present State of the
Persecution." It is dated the 15th November,
1618, and relates that " the persecution of

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 37
Catholics in the northern parts at that time ex
ceeded in intensity all former vexations and
afflictions." There were at that period three sorts of officials
employed in the execution of the laws against
Catholics, viz., the Sheriffs, the pursuivants, and
the Justices. Of the pursuivants there were
twelve kinds.
The first were those of the Privy Council, and
were employed in the search after, the arrest, and
committed to prison of Catholics according to the
instructions of the Council.
The second were those of the Protestant
Bishops, who each month cited Catholics to the
Bishops' Courts, where the Oath of Supremacy
was tendered to them. Catholics were made
to pay the expenses of the pursuivants at thirteen
pence per mile, and this was exacted from male
and female, rich and poor, including servants.
The third were the special pursuivants of the
Protestant Bishops, the chief of whom was a man
named Harrison, who, with his son, set out with
forged letters as coming from a priest, and
addressed to Catholic noblemen and gentlemen,
concerning their sons at the seminaries on the
Continent. Armed with these letters they caused
many innocent persons to be committed to prison.
Under pretext of searching for Catholic books,

38 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
they carried off all the books that fell into their
hands. They alwa3rs went about accompeimed
by a body of men armed with pistols and
muskets. The fourth kind possessed a higher authority
than the third. The head of this class was one
Dales, a servant of the Governor of York, %vho
was notorious on account of having committed
two or three murders, and who had also caused
a priest to be martyred. He sent laymen to
prison as priests, and was willing to Hberate any
priest for £10 as a ransom. He examined anj^one
he met m the pubhc streets of the towns, on the
roads in the coimtry, and at the inns. He carried
off everything he could lay hold of, and committed
to prison " with all fury."
Of the fifth kind the head was one Beverley,
the compamon of Dales, who went about every
where, plundering necklaces, jewellery, and gold.
This man's authority was such that he compelled
whole Parishes to compound with him for annual
sums of money.
Of the sixth kind the chief was a man also
named Harrison, and who exceeded all the others
in robbery and violence, taking sometimes as
much as £60 in the streets as ransom money
from priests. Searching a certain house he badly
woimded the master of it and killed the servant.

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 39
and yet he was allowed to go free and to pursue
his office as before.
Of the seventh kind the head was one Laiman.
He had power to call upon the principal Magis
trates for their assistance at night. He went
about, followed by a great crowd, to the houses
of leading Catholics, and where no one could be
found in the houses he carried off all books, etc.,
under pretext of searching for arms.
Of the eighth kind the chief was another
servant of the Governor of York, with the same
authority as the others, except that his operations
were carried out in country places.
Of the ninth land William Johnson was the
head. He went about secretly with his own
bailiffs, and discovered to the Governor all the
old hiding-places of priests, together with the
usucJ resorts of any other priests.
The above pursuivants had no other income
except that which could be secured from the
plimder of Catholics, who were thus reduced to
a state of the greatest poverty and misery, far
worse, indeed, than in the times of Elizabeth
herself. Of the tenth kind the chief was Hayton, " lately
out of prison." He was occupied in obtaining
information about Recusants' wives. He spent
his time among the merchants, in the fairs, and

40 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
in public streets, and compelled women either to
pay him ransom money or else to take the oath,
or in default they were dragged to prison.
Of the eleventh kind the head was one Brad
ford, who sought out the Catholics who had
compounded. Some had already done so five
times, but he compelled them to pay again.
The twelfth kind were the ordinary bailiffs.
They were very numerous and malicious, and
executed their duties rigorously.
The searches were made not only in the houses
of Catholics, but in any house the pursuivants
thought fit to enter. Sometimes a general search
of a town or district was ordered by the Lord
President himself. There is a letter among the
records of the Corporation from Huntingdon to
the Mayor of Hull, insisting upon a thorough
search of all the houses in the town : —
" To my lovinge f rends the Maior and
Aldermen of Kingeston-uppon-Hull. — ^After
my hartie comendacons, &c. — Wheareas
divers of her Mats, disloiall and unnaturall
subiectes have of late most wickedly and
traiterously devised and attempted sundry
detestable plotts to the dangeringe of her
heighnes pson : (whom God long preserve)
the practasers whereof have ben, and (as is
suspected) are yet secretely fostered, main-

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 41
teyned, and covered, and thereby kept from
iustice by some men of theire disposicon
contrary to lawe and theire alleadgance, for
the discoverie of weh, and all ¦ other evill
affected psons, I do most earnestly require
you, and in her Mats, name streightly charge
and comand you, that on Wednesday next,
betwene ten of the clock in the night and
viij a clock uppon Thursday in the momynge,
you do make diligent search in all places
wthin the tovm and conte of Kingsto-uppo-
Hull, but especially and most carefully in all
such houses as you shall knowe or suspect
to be lykelyest to harboure and interteyne
such lewde and evill disposed psons. And
in this search I would have you to have
speciall care for the apprehencon of Edward
Windsor, als Digby, David Ingelby, and
John Bost, als Harekley, and of any Jesuite,
semenary, and of any other suspected or
unknov/en pson. And in case you shall in
this search happen to apprehend any of the
ptyes before named, or any Jesuite, semen-
arie, or any other pson suspected, I would
require you that they may forthwth be
brought hether unto me to York, in safe
custody, wthout conference eyther amonge
themselves or wth any other. And in this

42 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
search you are to have especiall regard to
the diligent searchinge of all innes, taverns,
and alehouses. And for yr better assistance
in this servis you may call unto you such
other psons as you shall think fitt to ioyne
wth you for the better accomplishmt thereof.
Thus I do comytt you to God. At York
XlXth of Septemb., 1586.
" Yr lovinge frende,
" H. Huntyngdon."
The mention of Father David Ingleby by
Huntingdon introduces a famous Hull priest-
hunter, Anthony Atkinson, who, in addition to
his appointment as Customs searcher, adopted
the profession of priest-hunting.
In a letter dated 1 3th February, 1 593, addressed
to Sir Robert Cecil, Atkinson says : —
" Before I came home the Lord President
had made a search, and by that means David
Englebye did absent himself from his usual
places of resort. I have laid a sure bail for
him, and have hounds abroad, which I
trust will lodge him as well as I lodged
Boost.* If I observe one proviso in your
warrant, commanding me to take a public
* Fr; Boast was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Durham.

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 43
officer with me, I shall not prevail of my
purpose. I have experience by Boost. I
have two men and horses of my charges
watching to effect this matter and daily
expect some good news to advertise you.
Will shew myself as forward as in Boost's
apprehension, but must use many policies,
he is as crafty a fox as Boost was, and hath
many places of refuge."*
Notwithstanding the efforts of Atkinson and
his men, horses, and hounds. Father Ingleby
evaded arrest. Eleven months afterwards Atkin
son again wrote a letter to Cecil with reference to
Father Ingleby, and incidentally laments the non
payment of his fees for the capture of Father
Boost : — " The bearer, Mr. Falkingham, can ac
quaint you what is done and what may be
done about Da. Englebie, and of our last
service about the late seminary and his
adherents, whom we have delivered to my
Lord President, with all their popish trash,
books, and relics. The bearers' intelligences
are great, and his partakers and friends are
many in these parts. My Lord President
has written to your father in our behalf for
* Hatfield MSS.

44 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
Boost's apprehension, and this priest and
others. My humble suit unto your honour
is to be a means unto our Majesty for us, for
you know her Highness promised that we
should have recompense, and the bearer and
myself and one Francis Eglisfield did take
Boost of our own charge. Hull, 13 January,
1594."*
There are two interesting letters from Atkinson
preserved among the Hatfield MSS., one addressed
to the Earl of Essex and the other to Sir Robert
Cecil. Both have reference to Father Ingleby,
who was still in possession of his freedom.
Anthony Atkinson to the Earl of Essex : —
" There is sundry places in Yorkshire and
Lincolnshire that are well knov/n to me that
harboureth Joseph Constable, and sundry
traitorous priests that are kept in houses by
servants and friends belonging to the Lady
Constable, and all under her charges, as I
am credibly informed. Da Engleby coming
and going among them ; and as is reported
by such as are of that crew, that he hath
gotten of the Earl of Westmorland his whole
title of lands, and sundry in the north are
in belief that he shall have all at his pleasure,
* Hatfield MSS.

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 45
so that seminaries comes over seas daily, and
are more harboured and accounted of that
ever they were, and the number increaseth
and grows headstrong since my Lord of
Huntingdon died, and they expect a day for
their purpose as they imagine. I will with
your warrant venture my life for their appre
hension. I have none to countenance me
since my lord of Huntingdon died. If the
Queen wishes I can tell more, but without
protectors I cannot escape the wolves.
"Hufl, 10th September, 1596."
Anthony Atkinson to Sir Robert Cecil : —
" In Lincolnshire there is a place called
Twigmore, and four or five tenements
adjoining that harboureth a number of,
traitorous Jesuits, seminaries, and others,
that are their consorts, and it is credibly
informed me that Davie Engleby, alias
Jefford, is often there. The place is one of
the worst in Her Majesty's dominions, and
is used like a Popish college, for traitors
that use the north parts are there harboured,
.... This bearer. Mar. Eyre, can more
at large inform you therein. If it please
you to grant a commission to John Gaytes,
Esqre., one of her Majesty's Justices in

46 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
Yorkshire, and to me, to make search in the
said place and all other places known or
suspected in the north parts, then I trust we
shall do Her Majesty's good service before it
be long ; your warrant being directed unto us,
commanding the Mayor of Kingston-upon-
Hull and his brethren, etc., to aid us with
men and weapons, that good service be done
in one night without suspicion. Your
answer I humbly require by this bearer.
Men of Hull are most fitted for that service.
"Hull, this 12th of July, 1597."
" P.S. — ^After I had taken Boost the sem
inary, I took one Markland, seminary, who
was con^panion with Engleby ; and one
Warcop, who harboureth the said Markland,
was taken by me, and in prison at York, and
he escaped. Now he is taken again, and in
his company a Jesuit. This Warcop was of
Babbington's conspiracy, and was of counsel
with Engleby in all matters, and is a most
dangerous person."
Atkinson, who appears to have been an in
genious letter-writer, was also a successful pur
suivant. On Christmas Eve, 1594, at midnight. Outlaw,
another pursuivant, was sent to search a house

Arrest of a Priest for saying IMass.
{From a scries of old pyinis in possession of ihe wrilcr).

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 47
in or about Winsley Wood, and there he met
Anthony Atkinson, the searcher of Hull, who
had brought with him thirty men. They entered
the house, and after breaking down walls and
otherwise damaging the place, arrested Mr.
Warcop, Jno. Sadler, two menservants, and
Father Alexeinder Rawlings, who were all after
wards imprisoned.
Like all other priest-hunters he was a man
entirely devoid of character, as is shewn by the
fact that in May, 1597, John Chapman, the then
Mayor of Hull, and the Aldermen, wrote to Sir
Robert Cecil, complaining " that Atkinson was
using his position for his own advantage," and
they suggested the " placing of one or two honest
men in the place of Searcher and removing him
that is in."
Whether he was removed in consequence of
the complaint of the Mayor is not clear, but in
the State calendars, 1602, pp. 209-220, it appears
that " a certain Anthony Atkinson, who with
certain others, got into trouble for speaking dis
respectfully of a member of the Privy Council in
1602, and was thereupon sentenced by the Star
Chamber to whipping, to the pillory, the galleys,
etc., etc. Atkinson, however, was excused the
whip, and the nailing up by the ears to the pillory,
" because he had betrayed his fellows."

48 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
In addition to the priest-hunters, there v/as
another class of men who helped to carry out
the Penal Laws. They were known as spies, and
their business was to gain access, under pre
tence of being Catholics, to colleges, schools, and
private houses. In this way they obtained the
information which ultimately brought death to
those who had become their intimate friends.
One of these spies, John Fawether, was a native
of Hull. Passing over to the Continent he entered
the English College at Douay, on the 2nd
October, 1601. During his stay he obtained a
fund of information with regard to the masters,
and students and their families. He compiled a
list for the information of the Government, giving
the names of over forty residents of the college
and a reference to fourteen non-residents.
Among the students at Douay was Robert
Watkinson, who arrived from Rome on the 29th
November, 1601, about two months after the
advent of Fawether. On the 25th March, 1602,
Robert Watkinson v/as ordained priest and left
for England on the 3rd April. Meanwhile, on
the 30th March, Fawether is shewn by the
college books to have " departed secretly,"
evidently with the intention of placing his feUow-
student under arrest. Meeting Father Watkinson
in London he immediately betrayed him to the

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 49
authorities. Father Watkinson was apprehended,
arraigned, and condemned on the 15th April,
and was hanged, drawn, bowelled, and quartered
at Tyburn on the 20th April, 1602.
Not only were Catholics watched and spied
upon, but they were not allowed to move freely
about. They were restricted to a radius of five
miles from their homes. Sometimes they were
permitted for urgent reasons to exceed this limit,
and even then a written pass had to be obtained.
A few of these permits still exist. The following
copy of such a document contains some well-
known local names : —
" Whereas Thomas Owst, of Halsham, in
the East Riding of the County of York,
yeoman, is a Popish Recusant, and therefore
by the Act of Parliament cannot go and
travell out of the compass of Five miles from
the usual place of his abode unless upon
necessary occasions or Business, and first
taking the Oath and being licensed thereto
as the Act of Parliament directs. And
whereas the said Thomas Owst hath re
quested us Four of his Majesties' Justices
of the Peace for the said Riding with the
privity and assent of one of the Deputy-
Lieutenants for the said Riding, to grant
unto him a Licence to travel from his said

50 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
usual place of abode to Drax, in the West
Riding of the County of York, to see his
wife, who is very ill there at the house of
his son-in-law, and he having made Oath
thereof as the Act directs. These are, there
fore, to Licence the said Thomas Owst to
go and travell this day from his usual habi
tation to Drax aforesaid, and to return to his
said usual Habitation on Wednesday, the
Fifteenth day of January next or sooner.
Given under our Hands and Seals this
Eighteenth day of December, 1745."
" Frans. Appleyard.
" Hugh Bethel.
" James Gee.
" Rd. Barnard.
" Marm, Constable,
Deputy-Lieutenant of
the said Riding."*
Under the Corporation Act of 1661 , which was
a religious, as well as a political test, all Cor
poration officials were required to have taken the
Sacrament according to the rites of the Church
of England within one year before their elections,
and upon being elected, to take the oath recog
nising the reigning monarch as supreme head of
* Cath. Reed. Sec.

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 51
the Church. All the members of the Corporation
forsook the religion of their fathers except Alder
men Raikes and Vevors, who were dismissed and
their seats declared vacant.
In 1 673 the Test Act prevented anyone holding
any office or place of trust, civil or military, or
being admitted to the King's or Duke of York's
households who did not receive the Sacrament
according to the usage of the Church of England
and who had not taken the oath against the Mass
as imder stood by Ciatholics.
This Act was rigorously enforced, no matter
what previous services a Catholic might have
rendered. A notable instance of the ingratitude
of these times is that of Lord John Belasyse, who
was for some time connected with Hull. He had
been a commander in the time of the Civil Wars,
and was in 1644 created a Lord by Charles I.
He was appointed Lieutenant-General of the
Counties of York, Nottingham, Lincoln, and
Derby ; Governor of the City of York, Captain
of the Garrison of Newark, and Captain-General
of His Majesty's Guards. He held commands
and fought with distinguished valour at the
battles of Edgehill, Newbury, and Naseby, and
also at the sieges of Reading and Bristol. After
wards, whilst Commander-in-Chief of all the
King's forces in Yorkshire, he fought the Battle

52 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
of Selby. As Governor of Newark he valiantly
defended the garrison against the armies of
England and Scotland. He was several times
wounded, and because of his adherence to the
King he was three times imprisoned in the Tower
of London. On the restoration of Charles II. he
was constituted Captain-General of the Forces in
Africa, Governor of Tangier, Lord Lieutenant of
the East Riding of Yorkshire, Governor of Hull,
and Colonel of a regiment of foot. In 1670 he
v/as appointed High Steward of Hull, and held
the office until 1 673. Being a Catholic he declined
to take the oath required by the Test Act, and
he was thereupon compelled to vacate the office
and give up all his other honours and commands.
In 1678 he was committed to the Tower on the
information of the infamous Titus Oates, where
he remained a prisoner until 1683, when he was
released on bail.*
As a further consequence of the Test Act, the
office of High Steward of Hull was again declared
vacant in 1689. Henry, Lord Dover, had not
received the Sacrament as administered by the
Church of England, nor had he taken the oaths
under the Act, the Corporation therefore
appointed the Earl of Kingston to succeed him.
In this year also the office of Recorder was
* Sheahan

Holy Trinity Church, Hull.

lireeted over 600 years ago lor Catholic Worship, the observance oi which, huine centuricb
later, caused the adherents ol the Old Faith to be imprisoned in the Jjloekhoubcs.

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 53
declared vacant. Marmaduke, Lord Langdale,
who had held the position since the preceding
reign, was forced to retire because he was a
Catholic, and his place was filled by Robert
Hollis, of Gray's Inn.*
During the year 1 680 the Privy Council required
Corporations to return the names of all persons
holding office who had not subscribed to the
Test and Corporation Acts. The Mayor and
Aldermen of Hull thereupon informed the Council
" that all persons within their jurisdiction who
exercised any office of authority were of the
Church of England and had received the Sacra
ment and taken the oaths according to law,
except Mr. Daniel Hoar, Alderman, elected to
that office nine years ago." They therefore
declared his election to be void.
In the year 1689, Aldermen William Skinner
and William Hayes, of Hull, refused to take the
Sacrament or the Oaths. They were each fined
£40, and their seats were declared vacant.
Anthony Iveson and Richard Grey were after
wards selected for the positions.* According to
the Registers of Holy Trinity for 1682 William
Skinner had previously been fined £5 for refusing
to take the oath.
The Acts prohibiting the employment of a
* Tickell.

54 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
Catholic teacher were most oppressive, and were
carried to extremes. Where a priest was engaged
to teach children, even in private houses, pur
suivants, assisted by an armed force, were des
patched to the locality. The house was com
pletely surrounded, the priest and pupils arrested,
the building searched, and all books, etc., carried
off. The children were then committed to the
houses of Protestants, and compelled to attend
the Established Church Services. In State
Papers, vol. 303, Charles I., are several original
orders of the Council with respect to the edu
cation of Catholic children.
The Council on the 9th December, 1635,
ordered Sir William Wilmar, a Protestant, to keep
in custody at his house, William Andrew, a boy
of twelve years of age, because at his own father's
house he had been educated as a Catholic.
On the 12th February, 1584, at three o'clock
in the morning, the Under-Sheriff and twenty
armed men effected an entrance to the dwelling
of John Sankay and seized four youths, Thomas,
Robert, Richard, and John Worthington, the
eldest not being more than sixteen years of age,
all of whom were being educated by a priest.
By threats and terror the pursuivants tried to
extract admissions from the boys against them-

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 55
selves. Being unable to shake their constancy,
the two elder boys were brought before the Com
missioners, but without any better result. All
four were then examined by a new Commission.
The youngest boy, not yet twelve, was kept
without food until after six p.m., and then offered
wine, so that he would give the answers which
they desired. The eldest boy was promised a
position as Page of Honour if he would persuade
his brothers to go to the Protestant Church and
hear a sermon. After further questions and
persuasions the boys were sent to prison. During
their imprisonment their food and comfort were
daily stinted. In the Queen's name they were
commanded to go to church, which they refused
to do, cind were consequently pronounced to be
guilty of high treason, and were to be tried at the
next Assizes. Meanwhile a rough fellow named
Bull (rather appropriately) was engaged to whip
them. Armed with four or five long, thin rods,
he entered the boys' room early in the morning,
and asked them if they would go to Church. As
they refused, he dreigged them out of bed and
inflicted twenty strokes upon the back of the
eldest boy, and served the second in like manner,
afterwards shutting them up in separate rooms.
The two younger boys, after being dragged from
one Magistrate to another, were sent one to the

56 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
house of the Protestant Bishop, and the other to
the house of a rigid Puritan. The two eldest
boys were now sent to a school kept by a Protes
tant preacher named Cartwright. Again all the
four brothers were summoned before the Protes
tant Bishop and Commissioners, and one of them
was promised that if he would hear a sermon he
should succeed to his father's estates (already
confiscated to the Queen) to the exclusion of his
other three brothers. As nothing seemed to
avail, however, an order was given for three or
four constables to drag them to church by force.
During all this time they remained in custody,
and eventually the eldest and the youngest escaped.
Robert, who was examined v/ithout success as
to their whereabouts, was condemned to Chester
Castle, but on the way he was rescued by his
friends. The three boys were afterwards captured
at a house in Staffordshire, but they again escaped.
Thomas was seized at Islington and imprisoned
in the Gatehouse at Westminster. Robert once
more effected his escape, and, with Richard and
John, eventually got away to Rheims, and entered
the English College as students for the priest
hood.* At Hull equally severe measures were adopted
in respect of the education of boys. John Ellerker,
* Records S. J;

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 57
of Anlaby, was summoned in 1 703 to appear at
the Hull Quarter Sessions, and " to bring with
him his eldest son to be shewn in Court, which
if he did refuse to do he would be proceeded
against according to law, being a Catholic, and
suspected of having conveyed his son to some
seminary or Catholic school beyond the seas to
be brought up in the Catholic religion, contrary
to the laws of England."
Fifteen years after this incident an Act was
passed " to oblige Papists to register their names
and real estates." The Ellerkers then appear
among " Catholic Nonjurors of 1715 " : —
" John Ellerker, of Anlaby, gent.. Estate
there and at North Ferriby, in fee charged
with £275 to Benjamin Ellerker, £45.
" Elizabeth Ellerker, of Willerby, widow.
Farm for life, £16 10s.
" Thomas Ellerker, of Haltemprice, gent.,
House there and land at Willerby, £17."
In their anxiety to perform the rites and cere
monies prescribed for baptisms, marriages, and
burials, the adherents of the old Faith experienced
the greatest difficulties. To some extent the
Bodleian MSS. shew this in a " List of Catholics
in Yorkshire in 1604." One of the many items
recorded in these documents shews how, at that

58 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
period, every circumstance was entered against
Recusants. " Private baptisme. Bartholomewe George,
a childe borne in January last, which he
refused to bring to the Church to be bap
tized, and since, as they heare, it was baptized
secretlie at Mr. Barthram's house, with some
popish priest, for two strangers were sene
ther in the night tyme."
In the celebration of marriage the greatest
secrecy had to be observed in order to prevent
discovery. The records of the Dean and Chapter
of York, dated the 1st May, 1604, tell us howi
" Richard Cholmley and Mary Hungate
were married in a field in Saxton Parish at
ten o'clock at night. The ceremony being
performed by Father Francis Smith, in the
presence of John Wilson, William Martin,
Hugh Hope, and Christopher Danyell, by
the light of a candle in a lanthorn."
There was likewise much difficulty in disposing
of the dead. The Parish churchyards, where their
forefathers had been buried for centuries, were
closed against Catholic burials. Some interments
took place in open fields, others in disused ceme
teries, and some upon private estates. But no

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 59
matter where they were laid. Recusants were all
buried by stealth. The old Parish registers
contain entries to the effect that Catholics were
" buried by night," or "as recusants clandestinely
by night."
The result of all this persecution was that
Recusants were reduced to a most pitiable con
dition. Poor folks died of starvation, and rich
folks were reduced to poverty.
Sir Ralph Bapthorp, of Osgodby, near Howden,
when in his prosperity had forty servants, but he
was so constantly fined for being a Catholic that
at last he was reduced to a single attendant. His
death in 1618 probably disappointed the Lord
President of an execution. His widow, referring
to the terrors of the times says : " For the poor
Catholics in our Parish the persecution has been
greater than I can relate, for no Catholic could
keep any goods ; no, not the poor folks could
keep a cow to give their children milk, but it was
taken from them. If they had no money they
took such things as they found in the houses,
pots, pans, and clothes, and those that had
nothing they sent to jail."
Mrs. Thorpe, a lady of good birth, and allied
to the best families in the country, after the
death of her husband, lost her house and all she
possessed because she was a Catholic, and at

60 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
length came to misery and want. She was forced
to come to the Manor House, where she had
previously been mistress, but now occupied by
a stranger, and there hid in an outhouse, where
she had neither bed, meat, nor drink. Some of
her former tenants, however, brought food and
other necessaries, but not for very long. She was
arrested, and remained a prisoner many years in
York Castle.
John Barker, having previously compounded
and paid to the King two-thirds of all his goods,
was further harassed by the driving away of his
cattle three times in one year, and the selling at
half value the hay, corn, wood, and other goods
about the house.
Churchwardens were ordered to enter houses
and seize, in lieu of fines for non-attendance
at the church, any goods they could find. They
thus filled the vestries with pots, pans, pewter,
and furniture. Some Recusants were sent to
prison because they had nothing to seize. Some
had the bedclothes taken, others their cooking
utensils. One poor woman had spun some cloth
to clothe her children in the winter, and this was
taken. One old man, a beggar, had nothing, so
he was violently assaulted in his cottage, and
having some milk in a pan over the fire, the
pursuivants poured the milk into the fire and

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 61
took the pan away. In the case of a poor lame
man who was unable to move, they ransacked
his cottage, and found so little that they took
away the pot in which his children's dinner was
cooking and uncording the bed on which he lay,
they took away the bed and bedstocks.*
Even the dead were not exempt from fines.
Their next-of-kin was forced to pay arrears
contracted under the Penal Laws. One heir-at-
law was compelled to pay as much as £300 for
his father, who had failed to pay his fines during
the last months of his lifetime. f
In 1608 the Protestant Bishop of Bristol was
sent to Yorkshire to assist in bringing the people
into the Church, and " tyrannized over them in
an atrocious and unheard-of manner." Having
impounded the herds belonging to Catholics, he
allowed them to redeem them by purchase, and
then he seized them again, so that some had to
re-purchase their own property repeatedly, one,
indeed, as many as seven times. f
At each of the four law terms summonses were
directed to all judges and justices, who were
commanded to search out all Catholics and send
them to London to take the Oath, without refer
ence to age, sex, or condition. Sickness, old age,
* Morris' Troubles.
t Annual Letters, 1625.

62 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
poverty, length of journey, the inclemency of the
season, the serious illness of wife or children,
were all pleaded in vain. Refusal signified total
loss of goods and perpetual imprisonment. Those
who did take the Oath were summoned to London,
in some cases four times a year, for fear they fell
away. They had to travel hundreds of miles in
the depth of winter, encountering the perils of
the roads, to await the convenience of the judges,
and to fee, at no small cost, the officials and
underlings of the Courts. They were also com
pelled to give bail for their good behaviour under
most grievous penalties.
Money in the reign of Elizabeth was at least
ten or twelve times the value of money at the
present time, so that it would be perfectly correct
to say that a penny at the end of the sixteenth
century was equal to a shilling in our own time.
The sums mentioned in these records should be
increased about twelve times to ascertain what
the figures really mean. Thus £20 per month
for being absent from church represents about
£240 in present value. This at thirteen months
to the year amounts to £3,120, rather a heavy tax
for the privilege of being a Catholic. During the
last twenty years of Elizabeth's life she actually
received in hard cash, from people who refused

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 63
to come to church, the sum of £120,305 19s.
7id.* The amounts forfeited in fines by Catholics
during the reign of James I. are so enormous as
to be almost beyond belief. Abbot Gasquet
gives some significant figures from the State
Papers of James I., dated the 10th July, 1612,
" The forfeitures of recusants paid into Court
from Michaelmas in the ninth year of the King's
reign to the end of Trinity term in the tenth
year of the same reign cast up to £371,060."
This means that in one year there was confiscated
to the Crown an amount equal to £4,452,720.
Four and a hcilf million pounds actually received
in London. The greater part of the fines, how
ever, never reached the State coffers. There were
rewards to the numberless pursuivants, spies,
informers, and hangers-on. There was the hush-
money taken from affrighted Recusants, and also
the generous fees given to Court favourites and
officials, altogether a vast sum of which there is
no trace. The Recusant fines were sometimes
farmed out for a lump sum. Sir John Saville
offered an amount equal to £462 per week
(present value) for permission to collect the fines
inflicted upon Yorkshire Catholics.
Not only were Recusants imprisoned for not
* Gasquet.

64 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
paying the fines imposed, but in many cases
torture was added to their sufferings — indeed,
some prisoners were suffocated by stench. One
Recusant was " put into a filthy dungeon destitute
of all things, and in eight days he died by the
stench and filth of the place."
Nine Carthusians were killed by slow starvation
and stench in the space of fifteen days. Some
prisoners were loaded with iron shackles and
fetters. One martyr was allowed to hire a boy
to help him to bear his irons up, as they were
more than he could carry.
Torture was of several kinds. There was Limbo,
a dark hole, filthy and full of rats and vermin.
There was Little Ease, a cell so small that a man
could neither sit, stand, nor lie down in it. There
was a thing called the " Scavenger's Daughter,"
a hoop or circle of iron, into which the whole
body was, as it were, folded up, and the hands,
feet, and head bound fast together. In some
cases needles were thrust under the nails. A
Catholic of Oxford had his ears nailed to the
pillory, and was obliged to deliver himself by
cutting them off with his own hands. The worst
form of torture was that of the Rack, Of this
punishment there were two kinds. One was to
be hung up by the wrists. The other was to have
cords fastened to the wrists and feet, and then

A Priest being tortured in an instrument known as the
"Scavenger's Daughter."

{Fiviit an old print at al the Ear Convent, YcrX).

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 65
passed over windlasses by which they could be
stretched as tight as the presiding Magistrate
desired. Norton the rackmaster boasted that by
this instrument he had made prisoners a foot
longer.* It was but a short step from the rack
to the gallows, and the Catholics who suffered
the extreme penalty were not a mere handful, nor
was the period a short one. The first martyr died
in J 535 and the last in 1681, a century and a half
of agony and affliction.
It will be remembered that the law of 1570
forbids, under a penalty of death, " the recon
ciling of any person to the Catholic Faith," Under
this Act a native of Hull was executed on the
21st February, 1592,
The fact is thus recorded in a Catalogue of
Martyrs preserved at Stonyhurst : —
" Thomas Pormort, borne in Hull, first
of Cambridge, preest of the Roman Semin
ary, quartered in Paules Churchyarde for
havinge reconsiled a townsman dwellinge
there,"
Notwithstanding all the efforts of Queen and
Parliament, th^ people did not willingly come
to church, A letter dated 17th November, 1580,
mentions the fact that the Government had
* Fr. Morris.

66 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
obtained during the previous month the names
of fifty thousand persons who refused to conform.
According to a State Paper of the 15th February,
1604, there were about one thousand Yorkshire
Recusants indicted before Baron Saville at York.
Among the Rawlinson Manuscripts is a list of
Recusants in Yorkshire in 1 604, nearly fifty years
after the passing of the first Penal Act. It gives
the names of over three thousand three hundred
persons who were still unwilling to abandon the
Faith of their fathers. Every town and village
gives its faithful few. The names of those at
Hull were, —
" Ffrauncis Bullocke, laborer, and his wife.
recusants new,
" William Spetch, butcher, and his wife,
" Widdow Clarke, Michaell Thompson,
butcher, and his wife, William Toppinge,
glover. Non-communicants,
" George Wolfe, John Newit, merchant,
Robert Burton, and William Maxwell, mer-
chantes, recusants,
"Robert Bennington, non-communicant
since March last.
" Raiphe ffoster, yeoman, and Widdow
ffree, non-communicants since 1603.
" John Thompson, Ann Craven, laitelie

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL, 67
kept in the house of Robert Dalton, Esquire,
and departed from thence upon Easter even
last, new recusants.
" Anne Dalton, mother to the said Robert
Dalton, Elizabeth his wife, Thomas Dalton
his Sonne, Robert Bacon ye younger, Anne
his wife, and Margaret Crathorne, recusants
since March, 1603.
" Certified by the Maior and Aldermen
of Kingeston-upon-Hull, under the hands of
the mynisters, churchwardens, constables,
and swome men."
The Robert Dalton mentioned in this list was
the son of Thomas Dalton, merchant, and three
times Mayor of Hull, who died in 1590, at the age
of 74. There is an incised brass in the floor of
Holy Trinity Church to the Mayor's memory.
At length, after a rigorous administration of the
most cruel laws, Catholicity was thought to have
been completely stamped out at Hull, John
Taylor, who will be remembered as the Water
Poet, visited Hull in August, 1662, and in his
rhyming description of the town says : —
"  and one thing more I there was told,
Not one Recusant all the town doth hold."
Taylor appears to have been misinformed. There
was a list of Yorkshire Recusants published in

68 BLOCKHOUSES OF KINGSTON-UPON-HULL.
March, 1665-6, and this list gives the following
Catholics as living in Hull at that time : — Mary
Bentley, Mary Greenwood, William Walker,
Richard Scott, and Thomas Loncaster.
The Hull Quarter Sessions Book for the 3rd
July, 1778, gives a further list of " His Majesty's
subjects professing the Popish religion." This
list includes seventy-three Catholics then residing
in the town and district.
A later return made in the year 1780 gives the
number of Catholics in Yorkshire at 6687, and of
this number fifty-nine lived in Hull. Father
Foucher, a French refugee, tells us that when
visiting Hull in 1798 he found a small congre
gation of about forty Catholics, for whom he
afterwards built, at his own cost, a Chapel in
North Street.
One hundred and fourteen years afterwards
(1912) there are five public churches, one chapel-
of-ease, and six private chapels, fourteen priests,
seven public elementary schools with over three
thousand children on the rolls, a training college,
a girls' secondary school, an orphanage, two
homes, four convents, and a Catholic population
of sixteen thousand.

CHAPTER V.
WHO went to the blockhouses.
The Blockhouses and Castle at Hull have been
made notorious by the cruelties inflicted upon
Catholic prisoners there, and it is evident that
the keepers appointed by Huntingdon heaped
torments upon their charges with a view to
speedy death. This was doubtless the object in
selecting such inhuman characters as Bisbie,
Alcoke, Hawick, and Hubert, for the Lord Presi
dent, when visiting Hull in 1583, intimated that
if they had done their duty none of the Catholics
in the Blockhouses and Castle would have sur
vived. Huntingdon — whose authority in the north
was supreme — was himself a cruel oppressor. In
the library of Oscott College is a letter written in
1586 by a Yorkshire Recusant, who describes him
as little less than a monster. He says : —
" The chiefest deviser and contriver of
our troubles here is Henry Hastings, Earl of
Huntingdon, and President of the North.
This man, though he be descended of most
noble parentage, and himself the top of the
69

70 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
emulous house, yet is he basely accounted of
and had in no worthy estimation, as you
know, in your parts. He is degenerated
from all true nobility of his ancestors into a
most bloody and heretical tyrant, insatiably
thirsting for the lives and destruction of all
good men, a fit instrument for the devil to
work his will by, of no towardness in natura;!
wit or wisdom to do well, a pestiferous and
most irreligious dessembler for his own gain
and credit. Only this ungracious insuffici
ency is in him, that, placed in authority, he
can trouble, molest, and oppress whole
countries, torment good men, and do good
to none. In these parts this monster is god,
king, bishop, president, catchpole, and what
soever else to annoy the Catholics."
With regard to the character of the keepers of
the Blockhouses and Castle, the actual letters
written by prisoners give a vivid description of
the condition of the prisons and the infamous
treatment meted out to Catholics condemned
purely on religious grounds. A year after Hunt
ingdon came to York one prisoner writes : —
" If I were to declare all the cruelties we
sustain in prison, I should extend my labour
to overlong a work, for assure yourself that

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 71
the tyrant's brutish malice hath neither end
nor measure in afflicting those whom he hath
caught within his reach. The jailers be
either his own men which after long service
he promoteth to this prowling office, or else
some hot familiar of this Puritan congre
gation being fallen into miserable beggery,
he thus maintaineth by pilling and robbing.
And he is very provident and wary that
these fellows want no prisoners, but especially
Catholics, whose just complaints against
most unjust extortioners cannot be heard.
For more certainly of this pillage, he hath
ordained new fees. At the first committing
and entry every Catholic yeoman payeth ten
shillings for fetters, every gentleman twenty
shillings, every esquire forty shillings. Then
for fees a yeoman payeth twenty-six shillings
and eightpence, a gentleman four marks.
Then for v/eekly diet a yeoman payeth six
and eightpence or eight and fourpence, a
gentleman at his table ten and fourpence or
thirteen and fourpence. Very few Catholics
are of ability to bear the charges of their
tables for weekly diet, wherefore to com
pound with the jailers both at York and Hull
they pay them some unreasonable chamber
rents, that they may make and provide their

72 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
own commons. The weekly chamber rents
m the poorest twelve pence, in others sixteen
pence, in others twenty pence, in others two
shillings, three and fourpence, or four shil
lings, we ourselves providing all necessaries,
and as many pestered into every chamber as
it will receive, by reason of which throng
and straitness oftentimes infectious sickness
do reign amongst us. These jailers being
purposely placed over us to enrich them
selves by as many prowling shifts as they
can devise to impoverish and rob us, have
liberty without restraint to work their own
gain. And therefore they invent an hundred
shifts of extortion, as the two keepers in Hull
take a portion of every Catholic because they
will not be at their diet, then another sum
for buying their victuals, and yet a third
which is to pay six and eightpence for that
which cost in the market fourpence, yea, and
yet another for cooking it, besides that the
cooks for dressing each dish must of courtesy
lick their fingers. It were over long to
write what treacheries and malicious strata
gems have been devised against the Catholic
prisoners in that town, as by extreme and
long famine, by debarring them of all neces
saries at the keepers' furious will, and twice

?>H«5W«

One of the Dungeons in which Recusants were
"Imprisoned for not coming to Church."
{From an old print al the Bar Convent, Yorh).

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 73
or thrice by poisoning their water. But who
think you was the broker of these villanies ?
Who more likely than the tyrant himself, who
one day sitting on the bench in Hull, when
he gave sentence of death against a distracted
Catholic, said openly to the keeper : ' It
were more worthy to hang thee than this
Papist, for if thou hadst been an honest man
or a true subject, all the Papists in thy custody
had been dispatched ere this day.' Since
the tyrant's coming down into these countries
in September last he hath filled the prisons
with Catholics, and hath wonderfully raged
to shew his unseemly authority of lieuten-
antship. In prisons we are shut up close,
and by his commandm.ent so charily looked
to, that none can have any access to us, or
speak with us, but in the audience of the
jailers. Thieves, murderers, pirates, and all
other sorts of malefactors enjoy all liberties
which the tyrant deny eth us, "
So terrible were the cruelties that imprison
ment was almost as effective as a sentence of
death. Out of fifty-eight prisoners in the
time of Archbishop Matthews forty died in
prison. Father Edward Rishton, writing in 1580, refers

74 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
to the scanty allowances of food given to the
prisoners in the Castle at Hull, He says : —
" The Catholics incarcerated in the Port
or Castle of Hull are detained in close custody,
not allowed on any pretext to be visited, nor
any help to be administered to them. For
seven weeks they have received no more
than seven Roman asses (the value of a
Roman ass is about three farthings), besides
which they have received nothing for food
and the common sustenance of life, save
bread and beer and a moderate supply of
salt fish, which was doled out to them in the
time of Lent. From the Feast of Easter
they have not to this time tasted meat. For
one quart of beer they are compelled to pay
seven asses (or in English money about
sevenpence), and then, which is a refinement
of cruelty, water for supplying their neces
sities is denied them, unless they are content
to receive such as is putrid."
Father Covert, writing to Father Agazzari on
the 25th April, 1582, says :—
" I was lately told by a good and trust
worthy man, who five days before had come
over from England, that he knew for certain

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 75
that in the prisons of Hull and York fourteen
good men had been starved to death."
In another letter to Father Agazzari on the 28th
September, 1584, Father Robert Parsons says :—
" Hcirsh in the extreme has been these
months passed, the lot of all Catholics who
have been kept in prison. Especially have
the prisoners of York and Hull undergone
great want, for whom alms are now sought
from Ciatholics through nearly all the counties
of EnglcUid."
The concluding part of Father Grene's manu
scripts (which are still kept in the archives of the
English College at Rome) gives a most interesting
account of the conditions under which prisoners
lived in the Blockhouses and Castle at Hull.
" Many and great (he says) have been the
cruel punishments which Catholic prisoners
have sustained at Hull. Some have been
kept three or four years in low houses without
fire, where the houses have been overflowed
with water at high tide, so that as they
walked, the earth was so raw and moist that
their shoes would cleave to the ground.
Neither had any place of ease but by their
bedsides, and when the keeper came, morn

76 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
and even, to carry it in their hands and to
throw it into the haven or water, he standing
afar off to look that none spake to them.
After this they were put in high chambers,
a great company of reverend old fathers,
priests, aged and impotent, and locked up
many years together, and none permitted to
speak with them but such as the keeper
liked. No place of ease but one for them
all, and that was in one of the chambers
where they lay, which annoyed them all.
The old Fathers, some of them falling sick
and standing in great need of good looking
to and help, were denied, and so pitifully
died. Some of them had pegs in their legs,
and other infirmities through sickness, so
that the chambers were corrupt and noisome,
and the gaoler himself confessed he could
scarce come in or through the chamber, yet
for all this showed he no releasement upon
their extremities.
" I remember about fifteen or sixteen
years ago there was one Mr. Horsley, a
gentleman of the north, as I have heard.
He went to go over at Hull, or else was
carried over, and being in company in Hull,
some began to commend the Prince of
Orange, and he spake the contrary, and said

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 77
he was a wicked man. Upon these words
or the like he was taken, brought to York
before the Council, who sent him about nine
o'clock in the night to the Castle, where he
had double irons laid on him, and took them
merrily. The next morning the Council
sent for him and committed him to the
Bishop's Prison, or Peter Prison, and laid
irons on him, and there straitly and cruelly
he was used, for that almost none could
learn where he was committed till he was
sent back again to Hull, and there mon
strously abused, for he was there arraigned
and condemned to have his ears cut off,
which shamefully and cruelly they did. Then
the tyrants put him in a filthy place and
prison called the Hall, and kept him straitly,
for he was thought to be a Catholic, and
therefore they fined him, for he was glad to
eat the crusts that some threw in at the
window. Thus starving him he died, and
lay dead so long (how long none knoweth)
that the rats had eaten his face and other
places. At that time the Catholic prisoners
in the Castle and Blockhouses, some of them
hearing of this detestable usage (yet not all)
could by no means possible get any help or
comfort by the man, which greatly grieved

78 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
them, so straitly they were kept and looked
unto, and he was dead or (ever) the most of
them knew,"
Biographies, or even names of the Catholic
prisoners in the Blockhouses and Castle are rare.
They are mostly to be found among the manu
scripts of the different Catholic colleges, the
Public records, and the City's records. They are
also occasionally discovered among family papers
in private libraries. Very many of the documents
relating to this unfortunate time were, for obvious
reasons, destroyed long ago.
The search for the names and biographies
which constitute this brief testimony to the
endurance of our Catholic forefathers has occu
pied the leisure moments of many years. Judging,
however, from the numbers who actually went to
prison this record is but a fragment.
In the year 1622, when James I., at the
intercession of Count Gondomar, released the
Recusants, no less than four thousand persons,
of whom four hundred were priests, obtained
liberty from jail. The liberty thus granted,
however, did not exempt them from subsequent
fines and seizures.
Coming at last to the actual prisoners of the
Blockhouses and Castle at Hull, their names have

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 79
sometimes been found among long lists of Recu
sants, and at other times in brief references to
individual sufferers. The lists which have come
to the writer's notice are given first, and the
biographies are arranged according to dates.
There was compiled in 1597 a list of " Catholics
imprisoned in various places," and the following
Recusants are shewn as being at that time incar
cerated : —
" In the prison at Hull : —
John Cumberford, priest, D,D., 80,
D, Wright, priest, B,D., 40.
D, Thomas Bedell, priest, 60.
D. John Almond, priest, 70.
D. Robert Williamson, priest, 60.
John Terry, schoolmaster, 40,
Francis Parkinson, layman, 40.
John Fletcher, layman.
William Tesmond.
Seven others."
At Oscott College there is a further list of
Catholic prisoners in the north, of whom the
following were in the Castle and Blockhouses at
Hull, about the year 1581 :—
" Stephanus Hemsworth.
Thomas Mud.
Joannes Akerick,

80 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
Joannes Alman, sacerdotes,
Thomas Bedell,
Thomas Akrick,
Henricus Comberforde,
Thomas Vavasor, Doctor medicinae,
Oliverius Walker.
Franciscus Parckinson, laici.
Jeffray Stevenson.
Alicia Dauson."
The York City House books contain a receipt
from the keeper of the Castle of Hull for prisoners
sent to him. This receipt gives the names of ten
priests and one sub-deacon. : —
" Mem. That I, John Beysbeye, keeper of
the recognizances in the Castle of Kinsgton-
upon-Hull, have received, the 23rd August,
1585, of Robert Peacock, merchant, William
Shillyto, Thomas Benson, and Thomas
Waddye, by order from Her Majesty's most
honourable Council established in the north
parts, these persons following, viz, : —
William Bickbecke,
William Hudson,
Thomas Smarthwalte,
Thomas Shillito,
Edward Hartborne, alias Bennett
Lyncolne,

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL, 81
Michael Bolton,
William Robinson,
Anthony Wilkinson,
Edward Sykes, and
John Marche,
being Popish Priests, and
John Hewitt,
a Popish Sub-Deacon,
In witness whereof I, the said John
Beysbeye, have set to my hand the day and
year above written, John Beysbeye,"
A long list of Catholic prisoners* in the various
counties, dated 1592, shews that the following
Recusants were committed to the prison at Hull : —
" William Lacie, of Sherborne in Hartforthe-
lith, gent.
Henry Oglethorp, of Bishopsfield, near York.
Edward Teshe, of Ball, near Alberford, gent.
Roger Tocketes, of Tocketes in Cleveland,
esquire.
Thomas Leeds, of Leeds Hall in Saxon,
esquire,
Christopher Muncton of Longsborow,
esquire,
John Mallet, late of Normanton, gent,"
* Hatfield MSS. L

82 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
Among the records of the Corporation of Hull
is a letter from Huntingdon to the Mayor, wherein
the Roger Tockets mentioned in the foregoing
list is to be granted temporary liberty in a guar
antee of £200, but he is not to leave Hull without
a licence. The letter is as follows : —
" Mr. Maior, — ^You shall undstand that
there is upon some consideracon libertie
graunted to Roger Tocketts for a tyme, and
a warrant sent unto him that hath the charge
of him for his delyvery accordingely. But
before he shall be delyvered I would require
you to take bond of him in the some of 200£
to appeare presently before the Comissyoners
Ecclesiasticale heare that further bond may
be taken of him, and yt he shall not depte
wthout licence. Thus do I comytt you to
God, " At York the xxijth of October, 1585,
" Yor. lovinge frend, H. Huntyndon."
Roger Tocketts never got a licence. Queen
Elizabeth seized all his possessions in 1599, and
he remained a prisoner at Hull until his death.
" Recusant Roll No. 13, 1604," shews Richard
Heaton to be paying to the Crown a yearly rent

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 83
for " the Manor of Tocketts, and all those other
houses in Uppledon and Skelton, together with
divers houses, lands, and tenements," being " part
of the lands cind possessions of Roger Tocketts,
Eisquire, late of Drypool (meaning the Castle),
in the county of Kingston-upon-Hull, recusant,
deceased." Richard Heaton had occupied these
lands and buildings since the 12th of February,
1599. On the 3rd of September, 1599, there were
also seized into the hands of the " Lady Queen
Elizabeth " two dwelling-houses with a hundred
acres of arable land, a hundred acres of meadow,
and two hundred acres of pasture, in Moulton,
eJl of which had also been part of the possessions
of Roger Tocketts.
William Lacy (Lacie), whose name also appears
in the list of Recusants in prison at Hull in 1592
(page 81), shared the same fate as many other
Recusants who would not " come to church."
He died a prisoner at Hull. Recusant Roll No.
1 3 shews that his estates were seized on behalf of
the Queen. In 1604 William Found held a
twenty-one years' lease of " part of the lands and
possessions of John Smithson, gentleman recu
sant," part of the lands and possessions of Thomas
Hopton, yeoman, recusant, deceased, and also
" the Rectory of Sherborne and the tenths arising
from the corn and hay there growing and

84 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
renewing, being part of the lands and possessions
of William Lacy, late of Drypool (the Blockhouse),
in the County of Kingston-upon-Hull, gentleman,
recusant, deceased,"*
The law of 27 Eliz, made it high treason for
priests ordained abroad to enter England, and
this legislation just about marks the highest pitch
of cruelty reached by the persecution. So grim
and thorough was the method that priests in
prison were to be banished, in order that if they
returned they might be hanged,
Bridgewater refers to twenty-one priests and
one deacon being sent into banishment from the
prisons of Hull and York in 1584, of whom he
says that they were for the most part advanced
in years, some being sixty, others seventy, or
upwards, and one of them eighty years old, and
that many of them had been a great number of
years in prison, some ever since the beginning
of the reign of Elizabeth, that is, for twenty-six
years. In the Public Record Office there is preserved
a letter from Topcliffe, the priest-hunter, to
Queen Elizabeth (vol. ccxxxv.) referring to the
banishment of priests, in which the writer says
that " Jhezeuits (Jesuits) and Seameneriates
(Seminary) Preests, Hauve been Banished owt
* Public Record Office.

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 85
of Englande at once. Eighty were from Yorke,
Hulle, and London."
With regard to the priests banished from Hull
and York at this time, there is at Oscott College
an original manuscript list (cod, 534, p, 46) from
which it appears that there were eleven prisoners
sent from each town. The names of these exiles
are : — " From the Castle and Blockhouses at
Hull, Thomas Shillito,
Willielmus Hudson,
Willielmus Birkbeck,
Michael Boulton,
Wiflielmus Robinson, sacerdotes,
Joannes Marsh,
Antonius Wilkinson,
Thomas Smirthwath,
Edmundus Hartburne,
Edmundus Sykes,
Joannem Hugh (Hewitt), diaconum,
" From the prisons of York : —
 Wright,
 Peacoe,
Joannes Bolton,
Phillipus Sherewood,
Thomas Field, sacerdotes,

86 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
Willielmus Feildesend,
Jacobus Clarkson,
Robertus Williamson,
 Kent,
Willielmus Ustison,
Guillielmus Wilkinson,"
That these priests were actually banished is
evident from an account of the expenses Incurred
by the two officials who conveyed them over the
sea and left them in France, This document is
to be found amongst the Public Records (Eliz.
clxxv.), and gives some interesting particulars of
the proceedings : —
" To Robert Ashburnam and Edward
Bell, upon the Council's Warrant, dated at
Richmond 22 Novem., 1585, for conveying
into the parts of Normandy (by direction
given by the Lords of the Privy Council to
the Lord President and Council at York),
22 seminary priests which were imprisoned
at Hull and York, and by Her Majesty's
commandment banished the realm, which
priests they received and landed at New-
haven in Normandy, in performing whereof
they employed their travail by the space of
five weeks for the transporting of the said
22 seminary priests and for their own ex-

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL, 87
penses and diets with other charges disbursed
in the said service as by certificate appeareth,
-£3,"
Two of the priests who returned to England
after their banishment were captured and exe
cuted at York, Edmund Sykes on the 23rd March,
1587 and John Hewitt on the 5th October, 1588,
Both had previously been prisoners at Hull,
Amongst the first Catholics to suffer at Hull
in consequence of their religion were John
Rochester and James Wannert, two Carthusians
who had been forcibly removed from the Charter
house, London, by Henry VIII, and sent by him
to Hull on the 4th May, 1536, In the following
year they were conducted to York, and condemned
to death on the 1 1 th May purely on religious
grounds. Their bodies were hung in chains upon
a gallows, when, after the lapse of many years,
their bones fell to the ground.
The biographies which follow commence with
John Bowlton and end with Robert Grosvenor,
and are given as nearly as possible in the words of
the authorities quoted on page 131. They cover
a period of seventy-four years, dating from the
first year of Elizabeth. Long as this period may
appear, it must not be supposed that the imprison
ment of Recusants occurred only during this time.

88 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
The Penal Laws were in existence altogether two
hundred and seventy years, during the whole of
which time Catholics suffered under one Act or
another. These records, therefore, begin with
the year
1570. John Bowlton, priest, committed- the
first year of Her Majesty's reign, first to York
Castle, from thence to Ouse bridge, where he
remained ten or twelve years a close prisoner,
and from thence removed to Hull Blockhouse.
There he remained about eight years, and was
then banished beyond the seas,
1570, William Tesimond, saddler, committed
about twenty-four years since to Ousebridge,
where he lay all one cold winter (as hath been
seen of continuance of frost and snow), in the
stocks, divers preachers coming the same time to
confer with him, afterwards removed to the
Castle, and from thence to Hull Castle.
William Tesimond suffered also for his wife's
recusancy. In a list dated 6th June, 1 576, under
the parish of St. Michael le Belfry, York, occurs
the " wife of William Tesimond and his family,"
who are shown as " not coming to the church."
" On behalf of our sovereign lady the Queen's
Majesty " the churchwardens of St. Michael were
commanded to levy of the lands, goods, and tene
ments of William Tesimond the fines incurred

The Execution of Two Priests for saying Mass.
{From a scries of old prints in possession of the writer).

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 89
by his wife by not " coming to church." By the
20th November, 1576, all persons residing in
York had been examined as to their reason for
not attending the church services, and in St,
Michael's Parish " Margaret Tesimond, wife of
William Tesimond, sayeth she cometh not to the
church, for if she should she thinketh she should
offend God, and therefore her conscience will
not suffer her to come there, " " The said
William is in the Castle for the like offence, and
he hath lands of the yearly value of 26s, 8d., and
he is worth in goods little or nothing,"
1573. Oliver Walker, Jeffrey Stephenson,
Stephen Branton, and William Brinsley com
mitted in the year 1570 to Ousebridge, where they
remained close prisoners about three years ; then
removed to the Castle, and from thence to Hull
Castle. Stephen Branton, removed from Hull
to York Castle again, and there died, after twenty
years' imprisonment. The said Jeffrey Stephenson
being thrust down into a low vault at Hull, by
reason of cold and noisome vapours and damps,
lost the use of all his senses, and so shortly after
died, 1574. John Fletcher, a native of York, and a
schoolmaster by profession, was brought before
Bishop Grindall, about the 26th April, 1574,
" for not coming to church." He was sent by
M

90 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
warrant to Mr. Brooke, one of the Sheriffs in
York, for eight days, and then brought before
the Lord President and the Bishop. There Mr.
Meers intreated that he (Fletcher) should be sent
to Hull Castle, and to be put in some close
chamber by himself, separated from Dr. Vavasour,
who was then a prisoner in Hull Castle. He was,
however, sent to Peter's Prison, York, and after
wards removed to Ripon, there to be a close
prisoner under one Edmund Kersay, in a strait
place but seven feet long or thereabouts. While
in prison his wife refused to go to the Established
Church, and was also made a prisoner. Fletcher
suffefed an extreme sickness for several weeks,
and upon his recovery was removed to the
Bishop's Prison at York, where he was kept
close in darkness for one quarter of a year. He
was then taken to York Castle. At the end of a
quarter of a year he was removed to Hull Castle,
and shortly after to the North Blockhouse, where
he remained close prisoner for three years in so
moist a house that the grass did grow green in
some parts. He was then transferred to the
Castle, and shortly afterwards to the North Block
house, where he and his chamber-fellow, Mr.
Tyrye, were kept in a moist and dampish house
four years. His wife being also a prisoner in the
Castle. Fletcher was still a prisoner on the 26th

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 91
April, 1574, and had then been in prison twenty
years. In a list of Recusants in the City of York,
dated January, 1 598, occurs the following entry :
" AllheJlows Parish : John Fletcher, sometime a
schoolmaster, a recusant."
1577, Willicim Lacy, a native of Great Hough
ton, was a man of considerable means. His
house was open to priests who came over from
the colleges abroad. His absence from the
services of the Established Church was soon
taken notice of, and heavy fines were imposed
upon him month by month, for his own and his
family's recusancy. He was in consequence
obliged to leave his house, and move about from
friend to friend, always in danger of being appre
hended. He failed to evade the pursuivants, for
his name appears in Archbishop Sandys' list of
Recusants then (1577) in prison at Hull Castle
for refusing to come to church. He managed
to escape to Douay, and was afterward a student
at the English College at Rheims, He returned
to England after having been ordained at the
English College, Rome, On the 22nd July,
1582, he was again apprehended at York for
being present at Mass, He was loaded with
irons, and cast into a dungeon by himself, where
he remained until he was condemned. He was
hanged, drawn, and quartered at York on the
22nd August,! 1582.

92 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
The method of carrying out this sentence was
settled by statute, which endured for centuries : —
1. That the aforesaid be drawn to the
gallows. 2, He is there to be hanged by the neck,
and let down alive,
3, His bowels are to be taken out,
4. And, he being alive, to be burnt,
5. His head is to be cut off,
6, His body is to be divided into four
parts, 7. And his head and quarters are to be
placed where our Lord the King shall direct.
1577. Michael Tyrye was bom in Aisgarth in
Wensleydale. Having passed through Trinity
College and Balliol College, Oxford, he returned
to Yorkshire. In 1573 he was sent for unto Mr.
Bell, then prisoner in the Castle of York, the
6th July, where, at his request and entreaty,
he did remain with him until the next morning.
The jailers of the Castle, having intelligence of
his being there, did shut the gates and make
search for the said Michael Tyrye, and, finding
him in William Tesimond's chamber, did appre
hend him, when he was committed to the Porter's
Lodge. He was afterwards summoned to appear
before the Judge of the Court, Dr. Gileson, Mr.

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 93
John Walton, the Protestant Bishop, and Mr.
Coultons, Hereupon questions were made why
he had abstained and foreborne to come unto
the Protestant church for so long a time, and
whether he would come unto the church or not.
Whereunto he answered negatively. After this
and other talk he was sent into the Porter's Lodge,
until the warrant was made to set him in the
stocks in the worst place of the Low Kidcote,
He did remain in the said Low Kidcote in the
stocks for the space of ten weeks. He was
removed from thence into the High Kidcote.
On the 9th November, 1576, he was moved
from the Kidcote unto York Castle. On the
29th January, 1577, he and nine others were
sent into Hull by the Under-Sheriff, Mr. Bethell,
who, being requested in respect of certain old
men to grant them two days to make their journey
thither, did answer that he would have them
there in one day, either dead or alive. They
were delivered at the North Blockhouse, and
certain orders made by the Lord President were
read to them, by the virtue whereof the Mayor
did think to move them to give every one of them
five shillings and eightpence to their keeper at
their entrance, and further, what weekly rent
they were able. The keeper was bidden by the
Mayor to keep them without fire, light, beds, or

94 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
meat. In a moist low house in the North Block
house, where there was no place of convenience,
John Fletcher and Michael Tyrye were separated
from all other company for the space of four
years, in the which time they had no other help
for the needs of nature but to carry it forth in
basins themselves into the water of the river.
At the Castle afterwards the said Michael did
for the space of two or three years live without
buying of any other food excepting bread, penny
ale, and milk. He had already been a prisoner
twenty years in 1594, and had not one day's
liberty all the time.
1579. A commission issued by the Lord
President of the North, commanded the Aldermen
of York to secretly and suddenly invade and
enter houses suspected of Papistry, and appre
hend any Catholic, either within or without the
City. By virtue of this commission many ladies
were apprehended and committed to prison. One
of those taken prisoner was Mrs, Anne Lander,
a descendant of the Constables, who was brought
before a Session presided over by the Lord
President. Master Lander, who was an attorney,
stood up in defence of his wife, and called Master
Babthorpe, a barrister, to aid him in pleading
her cause. The Lord President was so astonished
at their conduct that he committed them both

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 95
to prison, Mrs. Lander was imprisoned six
weeks and released, but was taken a second time
and sent to York Castle about 1579. From
thence she was removed to Hull Castle, where
she was kept for five or six years, when she was
called by warrant to be prisoner at London,
where her husband had already been sent. They
both died at London " in the Counter."
1579. John Lander, an attorney practising at
York, was committed to the custody of a pur-
suivcint for the manly part he took in demanding
justice for his wife Ann Lander. He was sub
sequently sent to London and committed to the
Tower, Shortly afterwards he was brought to
the Star Chamber and severely rebuked for
daring to take action in defence of his wife. He
was then sent back again to York and set in the
pillory. His name appears in a list of Recusants
dated 1588. After suffering for the space of
twelve years in the prisons of York, Hull, and
London, he died in the Clink on the 26th
January, 1590-1.
1581. Thomas Acricke, or Acrige, priest, was
committed to York Castle, He was removed
from York Castle on the 3rd August, 1581, to
the North Blockhouse of Hull, where, continuing
for a certain time, he fell into a sore sickness and
died.

96 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
1583. Thomas Madde, or Mudd, priest, was
a monk of the Abbey of Jervaulx, three miles
distant from Mydcham in Richmondshire. He
barely escaped death in King Henry's days and
fled to Scotland. He returned in the reign of
Queen Mary, and spent his time about Knares-
bro', and subsequently in the house of Thomas
Percy, Earl of Northumberland. He was at last,
in 1579, apprehended at the house of Mr. Thomas
Tanckard, of Borough Bridge. He and John
Dobson, priest, Mrs. Tanckard, Mr. Richard
Norton, her son-in-law, and his wife and others,
were apprehended, having been betrayed by Mr.
Tanckard's eldest son and heir. The said Thomas
Madde was brought to York in derision in such
vestments as they did take him in at the altar.
He was, with John Dobson, committed to the
Counter, the latter being shortly afterwards sent
unto Hull. Father Madde remained in the
Counter until the 3rd August, 1581, when
warrant was made to carry him and other five
priests from York to Hull, and there to deliver
them unto the strait custody of John Beisby, then
the keeper of all the Catholics in the North
Blockhouse and Castle of Hull. There, four of
them, Stephen Hemsworth, Thomas Acrige,
Thomas Madde, and John Akrige, did end their
days. The other two, to wit, Mr. Feildzend and

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 97
Thomas Firthfeild, were banished on the 26th
August, 1515, to Newhaven, in France. Father
Thomas Madde was sick the space of one month
before he died on the 7th September, 1583,
about midnight. His body was buried in the
Churchyard of Drypole. Father Madde was a
monk turned adrift from the Cistercian Abbey of
Jervaulx at its suppression. His name figures in
a list of Catholic prisoners at Northampton in
1579. He was at that time fifty years of age.
1584. Margaret Blackburn, a Recusant, died in
" Ye Kid cot att Hull " on the 8th January,
1584. In the Stonyhurst MSS. her name is
included in a list of Catholics who died in prison
between the years 1582 to 1592.
1585. John Hewitt, was ordained deacon at
Rheims. He subsequently returned to England,
probably on account of ill health, and was at
once arrested. In the year 1584, along with ten
others, he was put into the low prison at York,
and remained there for the space of one year and
thirty weeks. During all this time they were
locked down from the grate, so that they could
receive nothing from their friends. The low
door was opened only at six in the morning and
six at night to take in water and other nesessaries
and to search for letters. No one could come to
speak to them but should be carried to a Justice
N

98 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
to be examined, and they were not allowed
either pens, ink, or paper.
On the 23rd August, 1585, the keeper of the
Castle of Kingston-upon-Hull certified that he
had received John Hewitt from York. He was
banished after a short imprisonment, and was
put ashore in France, with twenty-one priests
from the jails of Hull and York, and on the follow
ing 7th November arrived again at Rheims. After
being ordained he returned to England, and was
apprehended in London in the early part of 1587,
and again banished. He landed in the Low
Countries, and was arrested and sent over to
England on the 4th September, 1588. He
was hanged, drawn, and quartered at York on
the 5th October, 1588. While on the Con
tinent he had evidently been missed from his
home, for on the 31st January, 1593, the Lord
Mayor, Recorder, and Aldermen of the City of
York certified to the Lord President that " John
Hewitt, son of William Hewitt, sometime of this
City, draper, deceased, went over the seas about
eight years since, to what place we know not,
neither where he is remaining nor how or by
whom he is relieved."
1585. Dr. Thomas Vavasour was of the ancient
Yorkshire family of the Vavasours of Heslewood.
He was a doctor of physic, a great scholar, and

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 99
a man of much eloquence of speech. He was a
prominent Catholic, and his " excommunication "
was publicly read from the pulpit of York Minster,
After this the Sheriff of York, Mr. Askwithe,
bursting into his house and not finding him there,
spoiled the house so unmercifully that he left
neither chair, stool, pillow, nor so much as the
worst cushion in the house. About three years
after this my Lord President his men did in
vade his house, and beset it round about with naked
swords and other weapons, night and day. After
three days he came forth of his secret place, and
so was cruelly taken and committed to prison
under Mr. Brooke, Chief Sheriff of York. Here
he began to be so famous that it was reported
that he would turn the whole city if he were
suffered to talk, and therefore he was sent to
Hull, with a most strict warrant to be kept alone,
excluded from all company (except his own boy)
in Hull Castle one whole year, under a cruel and
unmerciful keeper called Hawich, who locked
him up continually, except when his meals were
brought to him.
At the suit of his brother and other friends,
by reason of his infirmity and sickness, he was
removed from Hull to be prisoner at his brother's
house, under sureties, and to appear when his
day was expired before the Lord President. He,

100 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
however, refused to take any additional days
under sureties, and was therefore sent back to
Hull, and was for certain years kept prisoner in
the North Blockhouse. He and the whole company
of that house remaining alive were removed to
the Castle, where they were so close and pestered
with so many bodies in one chamber that it was
impossible for old and deceased men to continue
any time. Here he, being most diligent about
some good aged priests who were grievously
diseased, took a sore sickness, wherein he, lying
long with lingering pain, died on the 12th
May, 1585, and was buried in the churchyard of
a little town called Drypool, standing within the
garrison walls of Hull.
Dr. Vavasour, like many others, suffered also
on account of his wife's recusancy. She is
returned on the 6th June, 1576, as amongst
those who " come not to church," Upon her
examination she said " she came not to church
because her conscience will not serve her so to
do, and that she will remain in the faith that she
was baptized in," Her husband at this time was
shown to be worth little or nothing, and had no
lands. On the 4th June, 1578, the Churchwardens
of Christ's Parish, York, were commanded to
levy of the goods of Thomas Vavasour for his
wife's absence from church " from the 25th of

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 101
January last." She was eventually apprehended,
along with her two daughters, in 1581, and
remained a prisoner until her death on the 26th
October, 1587.
1585. Michael Bowlton, priest, about thirteen
years since (1581) being apprehended and com
mitted to prison at Ousebridge, was called before
the Judges the next Assizes after, and because
he would not tell them his place of abode, they
burned him through the ear for a rogue, after
wards (23rd August, 1585) being sent to Hull
Blockhouse. He was banished with twenty-one
other priests, on the 22nd November, 1585;
1585, John Almond, priest of the Order of
Cistercians, was a native of Cheshire, He was
first tried in York Castle, tossed from thence, in
1579, to the Castle of Hull, and from that Castle
removed to the Blockhouse, and last of all brought
back again to the Castle of Hull, where, though
blind and crooked with old age, he was kept more
strait than ever he was before. No entreaty or
interference of friends could move the hard and
stony heart of the keeper, Beesby, to allow him
a convenient place where he might have a fire
and one or two to keep him. And yet John
Fletcher and Michael Tyrye offered themselves
to keep him and watch with him day and night.
You may judge what compassion was had on the

102 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
rest in Hull Castle, where a very old Father,
blind and lame, a child again, whose memory was
gone, could find no more favour at his cruel
keeper's hands, who, notwithstanding, was able
to abide the strong odour when he came through
the chamber where the old man lay, which
chamber was filled and pestered with no less
than five and sometimes six beds, in some of
which lay old men, and so weak and diseased,
they were hardly able to put off and on their own
clothes. The which close, strait, hard, noisome,
and cruel keeping, was supposed to shorten the
life of both this good old Father and others. He
died on the 18th April, 1585, when he was near
or above fourscore years old, and was buried
in the Churchyard of Drypool. Father Almond
was a monk of Jervaulx, and had been turned
adrift at the suppression of his Abbey.
1585. John Acrige, priest, was born and
brought up in Richmond, Yorkshire, and was a
musician as well as a Latin scholar of repute.
After spending some time abroad he was appre
hended at his sister's house in Richmond and
carried to York, where he was committed to the
Castle to be put in irons. He was afterwards
sent to the North Blockhouse at Hull, and sub
sequently to the Castle. He remained here until
his death, which occurred at six o'clock after
dinner on March 2nd, 1585.

1^ A, Itr*' ~

Old St. Peter's Church, Drypool. (Demolished in 1822).
Here the Recusants who died in the Blockhouses and Castle were " put into their graven without the
minister and without the order of burial according to law."
{From a scarce old pnnt in possession of the liiilcr).

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL, 103
1585, Stephen Hunsworth, priest, was a pris
oner at the North Blockhouse, and eventually died
there about April, 1585, after having suffered
many years' imprisonment. His name appears
in a list of Catholic prisoners at Northampton in
1579, at which time he was sixty years old.
1585. Edmund Sykes was born at Leeds in
Yorkshire, and educated in the English College
at Rheims, where he was ordained on the 21st
February, 1581, and sent upon the English
Mission the 5th June of the same year. After
having laboured with success for several years in
the vineyard, he was apprehended some time in
or before the year 1585, and was one of those
priests who were banished that year. He quickly
returned into England, and after some time was
taken again. Of his second imprisonment it is
recorded by Dr. Champney in the manuscript
annals of Queen Elizabeth preserved in the college
at Douay, that after some years fruitfully em
ployed in the vineyards of the Lord, being appre
hended, was thrust into a most strait and very
troublesome prison, in which, by the experience
of sufferings, he acquired the virtue of patience,
and learned to die. Afterwards, being brought
to the bar, and arraigned for high treason for
being made a priest, and returning into England,
and there remaining contrary to the statute, he

104 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
acknowledged the matter of fact of his being a
priest, but absolutely denied that there was any
guilt or treason in the case. He was sentenced
to die, according to which he was hanged,
bowelled, and quartered at York on the 23rd
March, 1587. Edmund Sykes was sent prisoner
from York to Hull Castle on the 23rd August, 1585.
1586. In this year the Mayor of Hull caused
one Milburn and his wife to be arrested. They
would, of course, be lodged in the Blockhouse
prior to being sent to York. The following
letter from the Lord President acknowledges the
Mayor's action : —
" These shall be to lett you undstand that
the bearers hereof have safely brought hether
Milburne and his weife, whom you caused
to be apprehended and sent hether, and for
yor good care and diligence used therein I
have thought good in these fewe lynes to
give you thanckes, requinnge you to have
good consyderacon and circuspection to such
as shall from tyme to tyme repalre to yor
towne. Thus I do comytt you to God's
tuicon. " At York the 4th of Septemb., 1586.
" Yor lovinge frend,
" H. Huntyngdon."
" Maior of Hull."

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 105
1586. Another letter from Huntingdon men
tions Daniel Morton as a prisoner in the Block
house. In this letter the Mayor is instructed,
unless he knows more than the President, to
release the prisoner : —
" After my hartie comendacons. I have
recejrved yor tres, &c., sent unto me by the
bearers hereof for yor good care used about
the prison sent lykewise by the sayd bearers,
I do give you harty thanckes, not doubtinge
but you will continewe yor care and circum
spection in that behaulfe. I undstand there
is one Danyell Morton stayd and forth-
comynge in yor towne. Now for that I do
not pceyve that there is any cause to make
any further stay of him, I would require
you to enlarge him, unlesse you knowe some
further matter against him then I yet do.
Thus I do comytt you to God.
" From York the viijth of Septemb., 1586.
" Yor lovinge frend,
" H. Huntyngdon."
" Maior of Hull and
his brethren."
1 587. Thomas Oldcorne was a prisoner at Hull
Castle. In 1576, being then in York Castle, his

106 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
name figures in a list of persons who utterly
refused to come to church, and who were examined
as to their qualities, wealth, and degrees. It is
recorded that " his substance we think it little or
nothing." On the 6th June, 1576, he was levied
to the amount of twelve pence of his goods and
chattels for every occasion his wife was absent
from church. In her examination she " sayeth
she cometh not to church because she is otherwise
persuaded in her conscience," She died in
Ousebridge prison on the 26th October, 1587,
after seven years' imprisonment. Her husband
was again returned as a Recusant in January,
1598. In 1599 "Thomas Oldcorne, labourer,
twice convicted, not having either lands or
goods, and for his obstinacy is to abjure the
realm," To abjure the realm was to leave the
kingdom from a port assigned, and not to return
without the Queen's leave. Persons abjured were
attainted in blood, and forfeited all their land,
money, and goods,
1588, Henry Comberford, priest, was im
prisoned in Ousebridge, York, in 1 588, where he
was kept six years, from thence removed to Hull
Blockhouse, remaining there close prisoner about
ten years, and there died,
1588, Thomas Bedall, priest, committed to
Ousebridge the same time, and in like manner

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p OI)OA'<-OVS 01-f-0'-,.Nv'i AM<,l.Vi ViOORl/C ^ ct'
Ven. Edward Oldcorne, S.J. (alias Hall).
JIartyred at Worcester, 7th April, 1606. Xephew of Thomas
Oldcorne, a prisoner at Hull, who appears to have suffered
eighteen years, and then to have forfeited all his goods. In
1599 he was " banished be)'ond the seas."
{From the original portrait at the Gcsii, Rome).
KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 107
removed, and died in Hull Blockhouse. He had
been in prison since 1568.
1588. Hercules Welbourne, served his appren
ticeship in the city of York with Alderman Maltby.
He was a draper and a Freeman of the city. For
being a Catholic he was apprehended and im
prisoned at York, but was afterwards sent to the
South Blockhouse, and there lived many years,
being hardly used under Alcoke, " the bad keeper."
He procured friends to be removed to York
Castle, where he fell into a great infirmity, so
that he was lamed of both hands and feet. At
the going of Francis Hemesworth and the rest,
the jciilor put him in the Low House, with double
irons. He died on the 22nd October, 1588, and
was buried under the Castle wall amongst the
rest. 1588. William Renould, a webster, dwelling
at North Staynley, near Ripon, being a Catholic,
for not bringing his child to the Protestant church,
was apprehended by one William Stavelley, or
his brother, brought to York before the Dean
and Commissioners, who, for not coming to the
church, and not bringing his child to be christened,
was committed to York Castle, and from thence to
Hull Castle, and after to the South Blockhouse,
under one Alcoke, who used all the Catholic
prisoners most extremely, keeping meat and

108 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
drink from them, and other necessaries, defrauding
them of such things as they sent to buy or had
sent. He was eventually removed to York Castle,
where he died on the 4th February, 1588, and
was buried under the wall.
1590, About the 16th June, Thomas Newitt,
who had got liberty, was brought in and
committed to Hull Castle. Also Richard Almon,
who, by commandment at the Sheriff's of
York, was then sent to Hull Castle. Thomas
Newitt was one of the prisoners who, with
William Stillington, were dragged to hear sermons
at York in 1599, and for stopping his ears was
put down into the low house among thieves. He
had been delivered from Hull Castle for money
upon bond on the 27th December, 1594, He
was one of several who were convicted in 1581
and " several times since, " and who, not having
either lands or goods wherewith to satisfy the
continuous fines inflicted for recusancy, was to
be abjured, i,e,, to forfeit all his possessions and
leave the country,
1590. Janet Adam, a Recusant imprisoned in
the South Blockhouse at Hull, died in the year
1590 as appears from the following entry in the
Parish Registers of St. Peter's Church, Drypool,
the churchyard of which adjoined the Castle and
Blockhouses : —

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 109
" Anno domini 1590 Anno Regino Eliza
beth xxxij. Janet Adam, of the South
Blockhouse, buried ixth of Aprill."
Janet Adam shared with a few of her com
panions the privilege of burial in the churchyard.
Of the others who died prisoners it is said that
they were buried " under the Castle wall amongst
the rest."
1590. Richard Hamond, of Babthorp, gent,,
was proceeded eigainst at York on the 15th June,
1 590, and convicted as a Resucant for not coming
to church. He was committed to Hull Castle.
1591, On the 20th March, Francis Jack
son was delivered from York Castle upon bond
to appear at the Assizes, having had divers
times all his goods strained and taken from him
upon the statute for not coming to church,
bought it back at the Queen's price again, and
after the same manner they also took his land.
Yet still as he agreed with one came another, and
v/ith the assistance of the Sheriff's officers, entered
his house and put forth his wife, he being in
prison. Thus they spoiled him several times,
being prisoner both at Hull Castle and York
Castle divers years,
1591. The 11th of December, John Wright,
apothecary, having had a few weeks of liberty
at his own house upon bond, returned to Hull

no THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
Castle again, from whence he came ; for the
keeper of the Castle of Hull, fearing that he
should either stay at home, or else get to some
other person about York, went to the Superin
tendent at Laywood, and bringing a present unto
him, which he liked well, Mr. Beisbie desiring
his Grace that he would grant him Mr. Wright
to be his prisoner ctgain, for that he was the best
and most commodious prisoner he had. " With
a good will you shall ; when his day comes he
shall return to you again." And so all the friends
he could make could not stay him at that time,
or remove him to any other prison till long after,
the President, at suit of friends, enlarged him to
his own house.
1591. The 19th July, Stephen Branton died
in the Castle, who had suffered about eighteen
years in prison ; at the Kidcott first, then re
moved to Hull Castle, from thence the keeper,
John Bisbeie, carried him to the North Block
house, for that he could not give him so much
rent as he asked, and there kept him a longer
space in a low house by himself. After he was
removed from Bisbeie to the South Blockhouse
under Ancoke, the tyrant, divers years ; then
removed (and others with him) from thence to
York Castle, where dying, was buried under the
Castle wall, as others were.

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 1 1 1
1591. About the 1st October, Mrs. Vyse,
of Crake, committed to the Blockhouse at
Hull by the Commissioners for not coming to
church. 1591. The 6th October, Thomas Bapthorp,
gentleman, committed to the Palace by the Com
missioners, who had been prisoner at Hull Castle
before, for not coming to church.
1592, Laurence Lister, esquire, personally
appeared cind brought in his wife before the
Lords Commissioners, and his said wife, being
asked when she was last at the Protestant Church,
answered " seven or eight years ago " ; and then,
interrogated what the cause was she hath absented
herself since from the church, she answered " that
her conscience would not suffer her," and refused
to join with the congregation in prayer within
the Protestant church, and also refused con
ference with learned preachers, whereupon she
v/as committed to prison, and sent to Hull Castle
by warrant.
1592. At the Will Office attached to York
Minster are deposited in seventeen volumes the
original Acts of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners
of the North, wherein it is recorded that on
"Tuesday, 30th May, 1592, the Arch
bishop presiding, the Commissioners ' did
set down and decree that Mrs. Katherine

112 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
Radcliffe and Mrs. Margaret Cholomley
should be sent to the keeper of Rotherham
Castle to be kept prisoners there for their
recusancy, in case the keeper come within
seven days now next coming to enter bond for
their safe keeping, &c, ; but if he do not
come, that the said Mrs, Radcliffe shall be
presently after the expiration of these seven
days sent to Hull, and the said Mrs,
Cholomley to Knaresburg Castle, to be kept
prisoners there according to orders delivered
for that purpose,
Tuesday after Trinity Sunday, May 23rd,
1592,"
1593, The President had been informed that
there was at York a seminary priest kept among
the Catholic prisoners secretly. Wherefore the
President ordained a search, which begun upon
Tuesday morning about seven or eight o'clock,
being the 18th day December, 1593, and con
tinued until eight o'clock at night upon Thursday
following. The search proved fruitless. The
President, therefore, having missed his purpose,
was much disquieted in mind, and all melancholy,
and not finding which way better to satisfy his
fury (although he offered money to those who
could betray the man he sought for) determined

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 113
with himself to disperse the prisoners of the
Clastle into other places, where they should be
kept under a more strait custody, lest they
should at any time, through the negligence of
their keepers, obtain or devise the means to
receive comfort by access of their pastors, as he
suspected they had done before. Wherefore,
not long after, he sent seventeen of the principal
into Hull, whereof nine were committed unto
Henry Hubbart, the keeper of the North Block
house, and the rest to Beeseby, keeper of the Castle,
which two prisons were wont to be the worst
places for extremity shewed in all this North
country. 1593. The 23rd August, Christopher Stay-
anus and Francis Young, committed for being
Catholics, and amongst the rest in the Castle,
stole away, to the great trouble and discredit
of all the rest, who the next day were called
down and kept in the grate till within night.
The keeper said he had rather have given £20,
and ever after these runnings away he did so
storm against the whole company, for that he
said they sought his destruction, that he never
left off his malice till he spoiled the house, using
means to get some removed thence to Hull
Castle. 1593. About the 18th November, Thomas

114 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
Blenkinsop of Holbeck, a prisoner at Hull
Castle, was removed to York Castle. He be
came grievously diseased through the infectious
air, and he obtained the favour to be prisoner in
the house of Thomas Musgrave, but he shortly
afterwards died,
1593, About the 13th December, Mr, Ann,
of Frickley, was taken and brought to York, He
was committed to Colyer, a noted pursuivant,
and his wife to Outlaw, also a noted pursuivant,
but a few days after he was sent to Hull Castle.
1593. About the second week of Advent,
Mr. Raynes was taken in Nottinghamshire,
through the forwardness and rashness of one
Harrison, who had told of him to a cunning
fellow, who made Harrison and him be taken.
Being carried to York before the President, he
sent him and Mr. Ann to the South Blockhouse
at Hull, under the keeping of one Henry Hubert.
Harrison was afterwards removed to the Castle.
1594. The keepers at Hull were at this time
anxious to have more prisoners in order that
they might more easily enrich themselves out
of the fines and dues which they inflicted, there
fore on
The 28th of January, 1594, through the suit
of Henry Hubert, counsel, procurement and
furtherance of William Wharton and Mr, Good-

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 1 1 5
man for to injure the prisoners and to hinder
Mr. Fletcher " debite," who was to enter, then
made suit to the President that he might have
some of the prisoners that were in the Castle to
his and Bisbie's keeping at Hull, and thereupon
came and called out so many as he and they
thought good, taking their names, brought a
warrant the 16th of January, and willed them
to get ready out of hand, and so they prepared
them and got all their stuff into a kile. The
next morning he, coming to my lord to know if
he would command him with any more service
to Htdl, Mr, Rokeby being there, told my lord
that they were all a sort of poor men, and there
fore not able to be carried, desiring my lord that
they might stay till the jail were past which that
day they were to sit on, "If the matter be so,
then," said my lord, " I am abused, for they
told me that they all were able men to live of '
themselves," It was not so, which was true indeed.
Then was Goodman and Wharton sent for to
my lord, and came from him discontented. They
could not get their bedding and stuff forth of
the kile till they were constrained to give him
sixteen shillings for that one night that their
stuff lay in the kile. Yet Hubert prosecuting his
suit got it granted again, and then they were
constrained to go hire a new kilman, who had

116 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
twenty shillings and more money, many of them
not being able to ride for infirmity and age,
being sickly, feeble, weak, and impotent persons,
were constrained to go by water, both men and
women, one having a child on her breast. The
day was tempestuous, stormy, and boisterous,
with continual snow all the day long. Thus
being brought, they used them hardly for to
get fees, and by advice were constrained to com
pound with them. Then after this extortion
they claimed another never heard of before, that
was twelve pence apiece for the warrant by
which we were committed, which they said they
had paid to Mr, Proctor ; but they in no case
would pay it, and therefore the keeper took it
off the first money that was brought to them.
There were in all eighteen men and women
taken to the Castle and Blockhouses at Hull.
1594, John Thackary was also a prisoner at
Hull Castle. His name appears in a list of Catholic
prisoners at Northampton in 1579, He was a
fellow prisoner at York with William Stillington,
and was put into the low house among thieves
for stopping his ears when compelled to be
present at sermons in York Castle in 1599. He
had previously on the 27th December, 1594,
been delivered from Hull Castle for money upon
bond.

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 1 1 7
1594. On the 10th November, William
Challiner and Robert Fowkingebrige were de
livered for money from the South Blockhouse
upon bond.
t 1594. On the 3rd December, Thomas Tocketes
was delivered for money upon bond from the
South Blockhouse at Hull.
1594. On the 28th December, Mrs. Ursula
Taylor was delivered for money from the South
Blockhouse upon bond.
1594. Barnard Bickerdike and his wife were
delivered from the South Blockhouse at Hull for
money upon bond.
1594. On the 21st May, Richard Durham
was removed from Hull Castle to York Castle
for money,
1 594. On the 20th September, John Freeman
was removed from the South Blockhouse at Hull
to his brother's house at Berley,
1594, A Royal Warrant, issued on the 6th
June, 1576, to the churchwardens of the several
parishes of York, commanded them to levy on
the goods of those Recusants who had not paid
the fines for " not coming to church," This
warrant gave, among others, the names of Mr,
Teshe, gent,, and his wife. In the same year
there was a further demand from Elizabeth as
to the persons utterly refusing " to come to

118 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
church," with their reasons and also the value of
their lands and goods. Every Recusant was
brought before the Lord Mayor in November,
1576, and examined. Among those interviewed
was Mrs, Anne Teshe, wife of Edward Teshe,
gentleman, who said that " she cometh not to
church because her conscience will not serve her,
for there is neither priest, altar, nor sacrament."
Edward Teshe is stated to have been presented
before for not coming to church, but was then
in London, " so we cannot learn the cause of his
absence from the church, and as for his substance,
we think him worth in clear goods £5."
By the year 1585 all their money seems to
have gone, for at the Lammas Assizes Mrs, Anne
Teshe (who had been apprehended at the same
time as Margaret Clithero) was arraigned. Her
house had often been searched, and her servants
imprisoned. The judges were anxious to have
her convicted of harbouring priests, which would
have meant death. This time, however, they
were only able to convict her (and that on the
evidence of a little boy) of hearing Mass, for
which she was condemned in a hundred marks.
The President in giving judgment said : " If we
live to the next Assizes we will have thee found
guilty of harbouring priests."
Ann Teshe was therefore doomed, and a little

The South Blockhouse.
Many women Recusants were imprisoned here.
{From Hollar's Engraving, 1640).

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL 119
later we find her at Hull. She was removed from
the South Blockhouse to York Castle on the 25th
June, 1594, and was one of the twenty women
among fifty-three prisoners who were dragged
to hear sermons in York Castle for fifty-two
Sundays in the year 1600.
She was subsequently (1596) condemned to
be burnt alive for persuading a minister to
become a Catholic, but afterwards reprieved, and
continued in prison until the death of Queen
Elizabeth in 1603, and then, by means of friends,
was pardoned by King James.
1595, About the 9th January, Hum
phrey Metceilf was delivered from the South
Blockhouse at Hull for money upon bond.
1595. About the 22nd January, Thomas
Taylor and his wife, Richard Taylor his brother,
William Walker, and Nell Clarke, were all de
livered for money from the South Blockhouse at
Hull upon bond. In a list of Recusants within
the City of York, dated January, 1598, Parish of
Bishophill, is the following entry : —
" Thomas Taylor, goldsmith, a recusant,
" Margaret Taylor, wife to the said
" Thomas, a recusant,"
On the 19th March, 1599, Thomas Taylor
refused to enter into a bond " to educate and
bring up his children in the profession of the

120 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
Established, and not in the Popish religion, or
to put his children into service with any recusant,
or to be taught by any schoolmaster other than
the one allowed by the Lord President, nor to
send or permit his children to be sent abroad,"
For not agreeing he was sent to the Council for
trial, 1595, About this period the Castle and Block
houses appear to have been without prisoners.
There were reports that a second invasion was
contemplated by Spain, and great precautions
were taken, fortifications erected, ships com
missioned, troops levied, and Recusants were
compelled to give up their arms and to remove
into close custody. It was evidently thought
undesirable to have any Recusants in Hull on
account of its being a seaport, and there is a
letter among the Hatfield MSS. from Henry,
Earl of Huntingdon, President of the Council of
the North, to Sir Robert Cecil, with reference to
the removal of prisoners from Hull : —
" This morning at eight hours I did receive
a letter from my Lords, dated at Greenwich,
5th April, 1595, instead of May, 1595. In
this letter I am wiUed to take care of Hull,
for such causes as is mentioned. For Hull
I have taken the best order I could, long
since, yea, even the very same which my

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 121
Lords in these letters have now directed.
But I have presently sent an address thither,
and also taken order for the remove of the
recusants, which I think be but few if there
be any at all. But in the blockhouses I am
sure there is not one,*
" At York, 9th May, 1595,"
It was not long, however, before the Castle
and Blockhouses were again put to their old use,
1597, William Andleby was born at Etton, in
Yorkshire, and was ordained by the Bishop of
Cambray on the 23rd March, 1 577, and was sent
upon the English Mission the 14th April, 1578,
His missionary labours where m his own county
of Yorkshire, where he always travelled on foot,
meanly attired, and carrying with him, usually
in a bag, all his belongings, for his labours lay
chiefly amongst the poor. Dr. Champney says,
as an instance of his zeal and industry, that
whereas many Catholics were kept prisoners in
Hull Castle, and no one was allowed to have
access to them, or speak to them, otherwise than
in the presence of the keeper, who was their bitter
enemy, he and Father Thomas Atkinson, with
incredible labour and danger, in spite of moats
and walls, gates and bars, found means, several
* Hatfield MSS. Q

122 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
times to come to them and to comfort and
assist them. He was subsequently captured and
condemned, and hanged, drawn, and quartered
at York on the 4th July, 1597. Father Atkinson
was also hanged at York on the 1 1th March, 1615,
being then over seventy years old.
1600. Thomas Maynell, of Kilvington, near
Thirsk, was a noted Recusant of the Blockhouse.
He suffered practically all his life for " not coming
to church." Notwithstanding the continuous
fines inflicted upon him, he was imprisoned no
less than fifteen times. The Recusant Rolls of
1592 show that Thomas Maynell was fined £260
for his own recusancy for one year, and for his
wife, Winifrid, £180 for nine months' recusancy.
In Peacock's list of Recusants in 1604, Thomas
Maynell is recorded amongst the " old recusants."
The North Riding records show that he was
presented for recusancy in January, 1606, July
1614, July 1616, and May 1641. In 1600 he was
committed and was imprisoned at the Blockhouse
at Hull, and was removed to York Castle on the
1st June, 1601. The name of Thomas Maynell
is included in a list of ten Recusants who in 1 605
were assigned to Henry Stewart, a favourite of
the King, to make profit out of his estate, two-
thirds of which were seized by Stewart for his
own use. On the 5th March, 1604, Maynell

\ EN. Thomas Atkinson (who under extreme difficulties ministered to
THE Prisoners in the Blockhouses) hidinc, in a Stable while being
PURSUED BY Priest Hunters.

{From an old print at the liar Convent, Yotli).

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 123
obtained from James I. a general pardon under
the Great Seal, and on the 10th February, 1626,
he was given a similar pardon by Charles I. In
1627 he received some mitigation of his fines by
compounding for his estates at £40 per year,
which amount was increased in 1629 to £100.
He became blind in his old age, and died on the
13th July, 1653, at the age of 89.
1601 . Thomas Cletherow,* a prisoner of York
Castle, and was one of those who, with William
Stillington and the rest were dragged to hear
Protestant sermons. For objecting to listen he
was double-fettered and put down into the Low
House with thieves. He was afterwards sent to
the North Blockhouse at Hull, and died there three
yeeirs later. In the Drypool Parish Registers
there is an entry which gives an insight into the
usages in respect of the burial of Recusants : —
"Anno Domini 1603.
" Thomas Cletheray, a recusant of the
North Blockhouse, was put into his grave
in Drypoll Churchyard, the vijth day of
March, by meanes of Henry Garrat, without
the minister and without the order of buriall
according to Lawe."
* Brother-in-law to Margaret Clithero, the York Martyr.

124 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
1601. Thomas Kilvington was committed to
jail as a Recusant in the year 1600. His place of
confinement was the Blockhouse at Hull, from
whence in the following year he was removed to
York Castle. In 1604 he received a general
pardon from King James.
1601. John Towneley, of Towneley Hall,
Lancashire, was also imprisoned in the Block
houses at Hull. Under his portrait, which hung
in the Picture Gallery of Towneley Hall, is the
following inscription ; " This John, about the
6th or 7th year of Her Majesty's reign that now
is, for professing the Apostolick, Roman, Catho-
lick ffaith was imprisoned first at Chester Castle,
then sent to the Marshalsea, then to York Castle,
then to the Blockhouses in Hull, then to the
Gatehouse at Westminster, then to Manchester,
then to Broughton in Oxfordshire, then twice
to Ely in Cambridgeshire, and so now, seventy-
three years old, and blind, is bound to appear
and keep within five miles of Towneley, his
house. Who hath since the statute of the twenty-
third, paid into the Exchequer twenty pounds a
month, and doth still, so that there is paid
already above ffive thousand pounds. An, Dm,
One thousand six hundred and one. John
Towneley of Towneley in Lancashire,"
1605, William Stillington was a noted prisoner

¦• ¦ f ¦''¦ ' yt

Wto/o tj'] Fac-Simile of an entry of the ISurial of Thomas Cleiherow, [l^aimh & fjciry.
,\ Recusant of the North Blockhouse.
Copiid liom SI. Pilci's Parish Registirs by permission of the Vicar ol Diypool).

126 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
as one comitted by me in execution for
His Mats said debt, in th exchequer, and
not to be inlarged in anie sort untill he have
duely satisfied the same debte and be law
fully discharged. And soe hoping you will
have such respect hereof as apptaineth that
he may be soe restrained of his libertie as
ys fitt for such a greater debter of his Ma-ties.
And soe I bidd you hartelye farwell. At
Yorke this xxiind of Septem., 1605.
" Your verye loveing friend, Ja. Savile."
This letter was written six years after Father
Richmond's account of the proceedings at York,
during which period William Stillington had
evidently been a prisoner. He appears to have
brought upon himself much suffering because of
his repeated objections to the sermons at York.
Along with others he refused to go to the Hall,
and was consequently escorted by jailers, who
" forcibly striving gave them many shrewd blows."
On every occasion he opposed the sermons and
appealed to the President and Council, who also
attended the services, but his objections were of
no avail. During one of the meetings the Presi
dent was very wroth, and answered : " I know,
Stillington, that you are the ringleader, but hold

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 127
your peace, I command you. You are a prisoner,
and therefore I say again hold your peace."
During the sermons the prisoners always stopped
their ears. Not to be outdone, the President
ordered two of the attendants to " hold down
Stillington's hands, so, sitting on either side,
they took his hands and held them forth, that
he lay all sermon time as if he had been on a cross.'
As they left the Hall instructions were given to
put William Stillington into the dungeon, and
others, including John Thackray and Thomas
Newet " into the low house among thieves."
On another occasion, for stopping their ears,
William Stillington and another prisoner were
put into the dungeon, " a place little more than
three feet wide." Fifteen of the other prisoners
were set in irons. On leaving the Hall after the
sermons " the keepers and Council's men hauled
them back in angry mood, and threw some of
them down, and beat them unreasonably."
In 1 605 the Recusant fines were given to Court
favourites, who were " granted liberty to make
profit of " the estates of Catholics. The list
showed that several Recusants were assigned to
each particular friend of the King. The fines
of nine persons were assigned " For Sir Thomas
Mounson," and included William Stillington and
John Vavasour. The usual payment for non-

128 THE BLOCKHOUSES OF
attendance at church, viz., £20 per month,
counting thirteen months to the year, was to be
refused, and in lieu thereof two-thirds of the
estates were to be seized,
1642. Robert Grosvenor, was born at Carlton,
in the Parish of Rothwell, near Wakefield, in 1 582.
He studied law in London, and was apprehended
as a Catholic at the age of twenty-two, and im
prisoned at Wakefield, and afterwards liberated,
but six months subsequently was thrown into
prison at York, and at the end of six weeks was
transferred to Hull Castle about 1642, where he
was a prisoner two years. During his imprison
ment two-thirds of the estates left him by his
father were confiscated to the use of the King. He
died on the 14th February, 1668, aged eighty-six.
With Robert Grosvenor these few biographies
end. They are only a remnant of the records of
the terrible effects of the Penal Laws. But they
are sufficient to show that the change of religion
was accomplished by absolute compulsion, and
that the people of England did not willingly
accept the new form of worship. It is well to
emphasize this, as the people of to-day have been
led to believe something far different. The
original documents preserved by the State are
difficult of denial, and should carry conviction
to the minds ol all unprejudiced men.

KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 129
Who, then, went to the Blockhouses ? English
men and Englishwomen innocent of all crime,
who were punished simply on account of their
adherence to their most cherished belief ; and it
is due to these brave forefathers of ours that
their names and place of suffering should be
permanently recorded, lest we forget.

AUTHORITIES QUOTED.
Acts of the Ecclesiastical Comniissioners.
Acts of Parliament, 1558-1716.
Burton's " Hemingborough."
Catholic Record Society's Vols.
Challoner's " Memoirs."
Dodds' " Church History."
Drypool Parish Registers.
Foley's " Records of the English Province."
Gasquet 's " Henry VIII."
Gent's " History of Hull."
Gillow's " English Catholics,"
Hadley's " History of Hull,"
Knox's " Douay Diaries."
Lilley and Wallis' " Law specially affecting
Catholics."
Mark's "Tyburn."
Morris' " Troubles."
MSS. at Hatfield House.
MSS. at St. Mary's College, Oscott.
MSS. at Stonyhurst College.
Peacock's " List of Recusants, 1604."
Records of the Corporation of Hull.
Sheahan's " History of Hull."
Tickell's " History of Hull."
Todd's " Incidents."
" York City Housebooks." 131

DATES FOR REFERENCE,

Henry VIII. reigned from ....
Henry declared Head of the Church by Act of
Parliament .......
Bishop Fisher and Lord Chancellor More executed
for not accepting the King as Head of the
Church ......
Suppression of the Lesser Monasteries.
Pilgrimage of Grace 
Fall of the Greater Monasteries .
Edward VI. reigned from ....
Suppression of Chantries Colleges, Free Schools
and Guilds ......
Mary reigned from .....
High Mass again sung in Holy Trinity, Hull
Restoration of Church Property .
Elizabeth reigned from ....
Penal Statutes against Catholics
First Priest executed under Penal Laws
Excommunication of Elizabeth .
Last Bishop of the old Hierachy died
Execution of Mary Queen of Scots
James I. reigned from
Charles I. reigned from
Commonwealth .
Charles II. reigned from
James II. reigned from
Penal Laws repealed by Catholic Emancipation Bill
133

1509 to 1547

1534

• 1535

¦ 1536

¦ 1536

• 1538

¦ 1547 to 1553

¦ 1547

¦1553 to 1558

¦ 1554

• 1555

. 1558 to 1603

. 1562

• 1570

• I57I

• 1585

¦ 1587

. 1603 to 1625

. 1625 to 1649

. 1649 to 1660

. 1660 to 1685

.1685 to 1689

. 1829

INDEX TO PERSONS.

AcKRicK, Fr. Thomas, 80, 95,
96.'
Adam, Janet, 108, 109.
Agazzari, Fr., 74.
Alcoke, — , 69, 107, no.
Almond, Fr. John, 79, 101, 102.
Aknon, Richard, 108.
Alman, Fr. John, 80.
Andleby, Fr. William 121.
Andrew, William, 54.
Ann Mr., 114.
Akerick, Fr. John, 79, 96, 102.
Ashburnham, Edward, 86.
Aske, Robert, 10, 13.
Askwithe, Jlr., 99.
Appleyard, Francis, 50.
Atkinson, Anthony, 33, 42, 43,
44. 45. 46. 47-
Atkinson, Fr. Thomas, 121, 122.
Bacon, Robert, 67.
Bacon, Anne, 67.
Babbington, — , 46.
Bapthorp, Sir Ralph, 59.
Bapthorp, Thomas, 94, in.
Barnard, Richard, 50.
Barker, John, 60.
Barthram, Mr., 58.
Bedell, Fr. Thomas, 79, 80, 106.
Bedam, — , 32.
Belasyse, Lord, 51.
BeU, Edward, 86.
Bell, Mr., 93.
Benson, Thomas, 80.
Bennington, Robert, 66.
Bentley, Mary, 68.
Bethel, Hugh, 50.
Bethel, Mrs., 93.
Beverley, — > 38.
Bickerdyke, Bernard, 117.

Bickerdyke, Mrs., 117.
Birkbeck, Fr. William, 80, 85.
Bisbie, John, 69, 80, 81, 96, loi,
no, 113, 115.
Blackburn, Margaret, 97.
Blenkinsop, Thomas, 114.
Boulton, Fr. Michael, 81, 85, loi.
Boulton, Fr. John, 85, 87, 88.
Boost, Fr. John, 41, 42, 43, 44,
46.
Branton, Stephen, 89, no.
Bradford, — , 40.
Bristol, Bishop of, 61.
Brinsley, WiUiam, 89.
Bridgwater, Fr., 84.
Brooke, Mr., 90, 99.
Brown, Timothy, 36.
BuU, — , 55.
Bullocke, Ffrancis, 66.
Burton, Robert, 66.
Camera V, Bishop of, 121.
Cartwright, — , 56.
Cawdwell, — , 33.
Cecil, Sir Robert, 42, 43, 44, 45,
47. 120.
Challiner, William, 117.
Chapman, John, 47.
Champney, Dr., 103, 121.
Cholmley, Richard, 58.
Cholomley, Mrs. M., 112.
Charles I., 16, 51, 54, 122.
Charles IL, 52.
Clarke, Widdow, 66.
Clarke, Nell, 119.
Clarkson, Fr. James, 86.
Clitherow, Thomas, 123, 125,
Clithero, Margaret, 118, 123.
Collier, — , 33, n4.
Comberford, Fr. John, 79.

133

R2

134

INDEX TO PERSONS.

Comberford, Fr. Henry, So,
io6.
Cooke, George, 36.
Coher, John, 36.
Constable, Sir Robert, 10, 13.
Constable, Joseph, 44.
Constable, Lady, 44.
Constable, Marmaduke, 50.
Constables, The, 94.
Crathorne, Margaret, 67.
Cross, Humphrey, 32.
Craven, Ann, 66.
Coultons, Mr., 93.
Covert, Fr, 74.
Dales, — , 32, 38.
Dalton, Robert, 67.
Dalton, Anne, 67.
Dalton, Elizabeth, 67.
Dalton, Thomas, 67.
Darcey, Lord, 10, 13.
Danyell, Christopher, 58.
Dawson, Alice, 80.
Dingley, — , 32.
Dobson, John, 96.
Dover, Lord, 52.
Durham, Richard, 117.
Earl of Northumberland, 96.
Edward VI., 15.
Egglesfield, Francis, 33, 44.
Ellerker, John, 56, 57.
Ellerker, Beniamin, 57.
Ellerker, Elizabeth, 57.
Ellerker, Thomas, 57.
Elizabeth, Queen, 9, 15, 16, 32,
39, 62, 82, 83, 84, 87, 103, 109,
117, 119.
Essex, Earl of, 44.
Ewbank, — , 33.
Eyre, Marmaduke, 45.
Falkingham, Mr., 43.
Fawether, John, 48.
Field, Fr. Thomas, 85.
Feildesend, Fr. William, 86, 96.

Firthfeild, Fr. Thomas, 97.
Fitzherbert, Richard, 36. i '
Fletcher, John, 79, 89, 90,-91,
94, roi.
Fletcher, Mr., 115.
Ffoster, Raiphe, 66.
Ffree, Widdow, 66.
Foucher, Fr., 68.
Found, William, 83.
Fowkingbridge, Robert, 117.
Freeman, John, 117.
Gasquet, Abbott, 63.
Ganatt, Henry, 123.
Gaytes, John, 45.
Gee, James, 50.
George, Bartholomew, 58.
Gileson, Dr., 92.
Gondomar, Count, 78.
Goodman, Mr., 115.
Grene, Fr., 75.
Grenewood, Mary, 67.
Grey, John, 32.
Grey, Richard, 53.
Grindall, Bishop, 89.
Grosvenor, Rotert, 87, 127, 128.
Hadley, 7.
Hammond, Richard, 109.
Hallam, John, la.
Harrison, — , 37, 38, 114.
Hartboume, Fr. Edmund, 8o,'.85.
Hatton, — ^,32.
Hawick, — , 69, 99.
Hayes, Aid., 53.
Hajrwood, Fr., 33.
Hayton, — , 39.
Heaton, Richard, 8a, 83.
Hemsworth, Francis, 96, 107.
Hemsworth, Fr. Stephen, 79.
Hewitt, Fr. John, 81, 85, 87,
97. 98.
Henry VIII., i, 2, 7, 8, 9, 11,
14. 15. 87, 96.
Hewitt, William, 98.
Hollis, Richard, 53.
Horsley, Mr., 76.

INDEX TO PERSONS.

135

Hoar, Aid., 53.
Hope, Hugh, 58.
Hopton, Thomas, 83.
Hugh. John, 85.
Hungate, Mary, 58.
Hubert, Henry, 69, 113, 114, 115.
Hudson, Fr. William, 80, 85.
Hunsworth, Fr. Stephen, 103.
Huntingdon, Earl of, 40, 42, 45,
69, 70. 82, 90, 93, 94, 98, 99,
104, 105, 120.
Ingleby, Fr. David, 41, 42, 43,
44. 45. 46.
Iveson, Anthony, 53.
Jackson, Francis, 109.
James I., 15, 16. 63. 78, 119,
122, 133.
Johnson, WiUiam, 39.
Kent, Fr., 86.
Kersay, Edmund, 90.
Kilvington, Thomas, 123.
Kingston, Earl of, 52.
Knowles, — , 36.
Lacy, Fr. William, 81. 83, 84, 91.
Lainutn, — , 39.
Lander, John, 94, 95.
Lander, Mrs. Anne, 94, 95.
Langdale, Lord, 53.
Latimer, Lord, 10.
Leeds, Thomas, 81.
Lister, Lawrence, in.
Lonccister, Thqmas, 68.
Lord President, 104, no, 112,
114, 115, 118, 120, 125, 126.
Lumley, Lord, 10.
Luke, Robert, 32.
Lyncoln, Eennitt, 80.
Maltby, Aid., 107.
Mallet, John, 81.
Marche, Fr. John, 81, 85.
Marklaiid, — , 46.

Marks, 14.
Martin, William, 58.
Mary, Queen, 14, 15, 96.
Matthews, Archbishop, 73.
Maynell, Thomas, 122.
Maynell, Winifred, 122.
Mayo, T., 32.
Mayor of HuU, 40, 46, 47, 53,
67. 81, 93, 104. 105. 125.
Maxwell, William, 66.
Meers, Mr., 90.
Metcalfe, Humphrey, 119.
Milburn, 104.
Milbum, Mrs., 104.
Morse, Fr., 32.
Morton, Daniel, 105.
Mounson, Sir Thomas, 127.
Mudd, Fr. Thomas, 79, 96, 97.
Muncton, Christopher, 81.
Musgrave, Thomas, 114.
Newitt, Thomas, 108, 125, 127.
Newit, John, 66.
Newheim, — , 32.
Newton, Francis, 32.
Norton, — , 65.
Norton, Richard, 96.
Gates, Titus, 52.
Oglethorp, Henry, 81.
Oldcorne, Thomas, 105.
Oldcorne, Mrs., 106.
Orange, Prince of, 76.
Outlaw, — , 114.
Owst, Thomas, 49, 50.
Parkinson, Francis, 79, 80.
Parsons, Fr. Robert, 75.
Peacock, Robert, 80.
Peacocks' List, 122.
Peocoe, Fr., 85.
Percy, Thomas, 96.
Pollard, — , 33.
Poker, William, 36.
Pormort, Thomas, 65.
Postgate, Fr., 33.
Proctor, Mrs., 116.

136

INDEX TO PERSONS.

President of the North, 104, no,
112, 114, 115, 118, 120, 125,
126.
Proude, John, 12.
Radcliffe, Mrs. K., 112.
Raikes, Aid., 51.
Rawlings, Fr., 47.
Raynes, Mr., 114.
Reeves, — , 33.
Renould, WilUam, 107.
Reynold, — , 33.
Richmond, Fr., 124, 126.
Rishton, Fr. Edward, 73.
Robinson, Fr. WilUam, 81, 85.
Rochester, Fr. John, 87.
Rokeby, Mr., 115.
Rollinson, — , 33.
Sadler, John, 47.
Sandys, Archbishop, 91.
Sankay, John, 54.
Savile, Sir John, 63, 66, 125,
126.
Scott, Richard, 68.
Shillito, Fr. Thomas, 80, 85.
ShUlyto, WiUiam, 80.
Sherewood. Fr. PhiUip, 85.
Skinner, Aid., 53.
Smarthwaite, Fr. Thomas, 80,
85.
Smith, Francis, 32.
Smith, Fr. Francis, 58.
Smithson, John, 83.
Spetch, WilUam, 66.
Stephenson, Jeffray, 80, 89.
Stewart, Henry, 122.
Stayanus, Christopher, 113.
Stillington, WilUam, 108, 116,
123, 125, 126, 127.
Stavelley, WiUiam, 107.
Sykes, Fr. Edmund, 81, 85, 87,
103, 104.
Tankard, Thomas, 96.
Tankard, Mrs., 96.
Taylor, John, 67.

Taylor, Richard, 119.
Taylor, Thomas, 119.
Taylor, Mrs. Margaret, 119.
Taylor, Mrs. Ursula, 117.
Teshe, Edward, 81, 117, 118.
Teshe, Mrs., 117, 118.
Tesimond, William, 79, 88, 89,
92.
Terry, John, 79.
Thackary, John, n6, 125, 127.
Thomes, Nicholas, 36.
Thorpe, Mrs., 59.
Thompson, John, 66.
Thompson, Michael, 66.
Tickell, Rev. J., 15.
Tockets, Roger, 81, 82, 83.
Tockets, Thomas, 117,
TopcUff, — , 33, 84.
Toppinge, WilUam, 66.
Towneley, John, 124.
Tyrye, Michael, go, 92, g4, loi.
UsTisoN, Fr., 86.
Vavasour, Dr. Thomas, 80, go,
98, 100.
Vavasour, Mrs., 100.
Vavasour, John, 127.
Vavasour's boy, gg.
Vevors, Aid., 51.
Vyse, Mrs., in.
Wadsworth, James, 32.
Wade, Widow, 36.
Waddye, Thomas, 80.
Walters, Thomas, 12.
WaUier, OUver, 80, 89.
Walker, WiUiam, 68, 119.
Walton, John, 93.
Wannert, Fr. James, 87.
Warcop, — , 46, 47.
Watkinson, Fr., 48, 49.
Weld, Charles, 36.
Welburn, Hercules, 107.
Westmorland, Earl of, 10. 44.
Wharton, Christopher, 125.
Wharton, WilUam, 114, 115.

INDEX TO PERSONS.

137

Williamson, Fr. Robert, 79, 86.
Wilkinson, Fr. Anthony, 81, 85.
WiUtinson, Fr. William, 86.
Windsor, Edward, 41.
Wilmar, Sir W., 54.
Wilson, John, 58.
Wolfe, George, 66.
Worthington, John, 54, 56.
Worthington, Richard, 54, 56.
Worthington, Robert, 54, 56.

Worthington, Thomas, 54, 56.
Wright, Fr., 79, 85.
Wright, John, 109, no.
York, Archbishop of, ni.
York, Governor of, 38, 39.
York, Mayor of, 98, 118.
York, Sheriff of, 90, 99, 108, 109.
York, Duke of, 51.
Young, Francis, 113.

INDEX TO PLACES.

AlSGARTH, 92.
Anlaby, 57.
Ball, 81.
BalUol College, 92.
Bapthorpe, 109.
Berwick-on-Tweed, 10.
Berley, 117.
Beverley, 10.
Beverley Gate, 13.
Bishopsfield, 81.
Bishop's Prison, 77, 90.
Blackfriary, 2, 7.
Blockhouse, r, 2, 4, 5, 6, 6g, 70,
75. 77. 78. 79. 84, 85, 88, 90.
93. 94. 95. 96, loi, 104, 105,
106, 107, 108, in, 116, I20,
121, 122, 123, 124.
Blockhouse, North, 4, 6, 90, 93,
94. 95. 96, 100, 102, 103, no,
113. 123-
Blockhouse, South, 4, 6, 107,
108, 109, no, 114, 117, 119.
Borough Bridge, 96.
Bristol, 51.
Broughton, 124.
Carlton, 127.
CarUsle, n.
Carthusian Priory, 2, 7.
Cambridge, 65.
Cambridgeshire, 124.
Charterhouse, 87.
Chester, Castle, 56, 124.
Cheshire, loi.
Christ's Church, York, 100.
Cistercian Priory, 2.
CUnk, The, 95.
Cockermouth, n.

Counter, The, 95, 96.
Crake, in.
Derby, 51.
Douay CoUege, 48, 91, 103.
Doncaster, 10.
Drax, 50.
Drypool, 83, 84, 100.
Drjrpool Churchyard, 97, 102,
Durham, 10.
East Riding, 10, 49, 52.
EdgehiU, 51.
Ely, 124.
Etton, 121.
Ferriby, North, 57.
France, 86, 97, 98.
Frickley, 114.
Gatehouse, Westminster, 124.
Great Houghton, 91.
Greenwich, 120.
Halsham, 49.
Haltemprice, 57.
Heslewood, 98.
Holbeck, 114.
Holy Trinity Church, 67.
Hull, I, 2, 3, 7, 9, 12, 13, 40,
41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 51, 52,
53. 56, 57, 65, 66, 67, 68, 6g,
71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78,
79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 83, 86.
87. 89, 93. 96, 97, 98, 99, 100,
102, 108, 1X2, 113, 114, 115,
116, 117, 119, 120, 122, 123,
124, 125.

133

INDEX TO PLACES.

139

HuU Castle, i, 2, 4, 5, 6, 69, 70,
74. 75. 77. 78. 79. 80, 83, 85,
88, 90, 91, 94. 95. 96. 98, 99,
100, loi, 102. 104. 105, 107,
108. 109, no, in, 113, 114,
116, 117, 120, 121, 128.
Islington, 56.
Jervaulx Abbey, 96, 97, 102.
Kendal, n.
Kidcote, 93, 97, no.
Kilvington, 122.
Knaresboro', 96.
Knaresboro' Castle, 112.
Lancaster, 124.
Laywood, no.
Leeds, 103.
Leeds HaU, 81.
Lincoln. 51.
Lincolnshire. 9. 45.
Longsborow. 81.
London. 13. 48, 61, 62, 63, 85,
87. 95. 98. 118.
Low Countries. 98.
Manchester, 124.
Marshalsea, 124.
Moulton, 83.
Naseby, 51.
Newcastle, 34.
Newhaven. 86. 97.
Newark. 51, 52.
Newbury. 51.
Normanton. Si.
Normandy. 86.
North Blockhouse, 4, 6, go, 93,
94. 95. 96, 100, 102, 103, no,
"3. 123-
Northampton. 97, 103, 116.
North Riding, 122.
North Staynley, 107.
Nottingham, 51.
Nottinghamshire. 114.

Osgodby, 59.
Oscott CoUege, 69, 79, 85.
Oxford, 64, 92.
Oxfordshire, 124.
Ousebridge, 88, 89, loi, 106.
Peter Prison, 77, 90.
Penrith, 11.
Pontefract, 10.
PubUc Record Ofi&ce, 84.
Reading, 51.
Rheims, 56, 91, 97, 98, 103.
Richmond, 86, 102.
Richmondshire, 96.
Ripon, 90, 107.
Rome, 48. 75, 91.
Rotherham Castle, 112.
Rothwell, 127.
St. Mary's Church, 2.
St. Peter's Church, 108.
St. Michael's Church, 88.
Saxton, 58.
Scarcroft. 33.
Scarborough, 10.
Scotland, 96.
Selby, 52.
Sherborne, 81, 83.
Skelton, 83.
South Blockhouse, 4, 6; 107,
108, 109. no. 114, 117, 119.
Spain, 120.
Spalding Moor, 10.
Spurn. 10.
Staffordshire, 36.
Stonyhurst, 65, 97.
Swine, 2.
Thirsk, 122.
Tocketts, 8r, 83.
Tower of London, 52. 95.
Towneley Hall, 124.
Trinity CoUege, 92.
Twigmore, 45.
Tyburn, 14, 49.
Uppledon, 83,

140

INDEX TO PLACES.

Wakefield, 127.
Wensleydale, 92.
Westminster, 56, 124.
West Riding, 50.
Whitefriary, 2, 7.
WiUerby, 57.
Winsley Wood, 47.
York. 13. 41, 46, 51, 58, 60,
71. 75, 77. 84, 85, 86, 87, 89,

90, 91, 95. 96, 97. 98, 104,
I06, 107, 108, 109, no, 112,
114, 116, 117, 119, 121, 122,
124, 126, 128.
York Castle. 77, 88, 90, g2, g3,
95, loi, to2. 105, 107, 108,
109, no, 113, 114, 115, n6,
117, 119, 122, 123, 124.
York Minster, 99, in.
Yorkshire, 121.

THE END.

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