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Two Newcastle Martyrs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Extract

During Penal times there took place three executions of seminary priests in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and one in Gateshead. Three of these were in successive years, 1592, 1593 and 1594, and Tyneside is fortunate in the wealth of documentation it possesses for these Elizabethan martyrs. The jewel of this collection is still among the City Archives in Newcastle, in the 1590- 1596 (Payments) volume of Chamberlains’ Accounts, which contains two complete execution-bills, unique for Elizabethan England, as well as part of a third, and the imprisonment expenses of the Northumbrian layman George Errington, martyred at York in 1596.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1970

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References

1. Welford, R., History of Newcastle and Gateshead 3 (1889), pp. 7071, 86-87.Google Scholar

2. Richardson, G. B., Extracts from the Municipal Accounts of Newcastle-on-Tyne 1561-1568 (1848), pp. 959.Google Scholar

3. J. Morris, S.J., Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers 3 (1877), pp. 222230.Google Scholar

4. Forster, A. M. C.. “The Venerable George Errington” in Biographical Studies, 3, No. 5.Google Scholar

5. Aveling, H., “Catholic Recusants of the West Riding of Yorkshire”, Proceedings Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, 10, part 6, p. 218.Google Scholar

6. Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Archives, Chamberlains' Accounts, Payments 15901596, p. 387. Hereafter referred to as C/A.

7. C/A, p. 389.

8. C/A, p. 438.

9. Acts Privy Council (Printed Summary) 21, p. 420.

10. Welford, op. cit., p. 71, where the other four are printed.

11. C/A, p. 468.

12. 1st and 2nd Douai Diaries, ed. Knox, p. 187.

13. See note 9.

14. Morris, op. cit., pp. 222, 223.

15. C/A, p. 503.

16. Demonstrated by his pious comment on “a precher, one Mr. Hardeside, a seminarie was, and now god be thanked is converted'\ (C/A, p. 27.) This was probably the spy, William Hardesty.

17. William Jackson, at that time “clarke to the commission for recusantes and semynarie preistes” (C/A, p. 317).

18. C/A, p. 501.

19. Aveling, H.. Northern Catholics (1966), p. 189.Google Scholar

20. His genealogical table is printed in Surtees Society, Vol. 112, pp. 57, 58. I have used the form “Lambton” rather than “Lampton” as Holtby has it, because the former is better known, and the “p” in “Lamptonus” (C.R.S. 37 Liber Ruber, p. 70) had been replaced by a “b”.

21. Challoner, R., Memoirs of the Missionary Priests, ed. Pollen (1924), p. 189.Google Scholar

22. Anstruther, G., The Seminary Priests (1968), pp. 204, 205.Google Scholar

23. Morris, op. cit., pp. 222-230.

24. C/A, p. 508.

25. C/A, p. 505.

26. Also printed in Morris, Troubles ... 3, and containing an account of the executions of John Boste at Durham and John Ingram at Gateshead.

27. Challoner, op. cit., p. 190.

28. Morris, op. cit., p. 226.

29. C.R.S. 5. Unpublished Documents relating to the English Martvrs, 1584-1603 (ed. Pollen), p. 231.

30. Ladder.

31. A coarse fabric like calico—presumably to wrap the remains of the martyr temporarily.

32. C/A, p. 521.

33. There are no comparable expenses entered for any other executions in the volume; one recorded in September 1595 cost only 4s. 2d. (C/A, p. 91.)

34. 31st July, 1592 (Morris, op. cit., p. 224, ed. note, and C.R.S. 52, Letters of Richard Verstegan, ed. Petti, p. 70). Challoner, followed by Pollen in C.R.S. 5, gives the date incorrectly as 27th July, 1593.

35. Anstruther, G., Vaux of Harrowden (1954), p. 474.Google Scholar

36. Rowse, A. L., Expansion of Elizabethan England (1955), p. 22.Google Scholar

37. C.R.S. 37. Liber Ruber, ed. W. Kelly, p. 70.

38. C.R.S. 5, No. 67.

39. C/A, p. 508.

40. He probably meant Holdsworth, Vicar of Newcastle.

41. C/A, p. 251.

42. Morris, op. cit., p. 224.

43. The double capture was also reported by Verstegan to Fr. Persons: “There were two seminary priests taken of late at Newcastell and I think newly come over: and they were there executed.” (C.R.S. 52, p. 79.)

44. C/A, p. 520.

45. C/A, p. 522. Tobie Mathew referred to “the gaoler Musgrave” and nis over-lenient treatment of Waterson in a letter written to Huntingdon on 23rd November, 1592 (H. M. C, Hastings, II, 41, cited in G. Anstruther, The Seminary Priests, p. 371).

46. C/A, pp. 231, 233, 234.

47. C/A, p. 238.

48. Morris, op. cit., p. 228.

49. C/A, p. 231.

50. C/A, p. 301.

51. C/A, p. 317.

52. Morris, op. cit., p. 228. He notes that this was 8th January, 1592/3, not the 7th as Challoner has it.

53. Challoner, op. cit., p. 187.

54. C.R.S. 5, p. 231.

55. Ibid.

56. Richardson, op. cit., p. 24.

57. Ibid., p. 21.

58. The details are on the same page as the execution-bill, C/A, p. 249.

59. C/A, p. 253.