THE WISEMANS OF BRADDOCKS.
"The elder of the above-mentioned brothers 1 [Thomas Wiseman], before he left England, succeeded in persuading his eldest brother [William], over whom he had great influence, to make a trial of the Spiritual Exercises. This gentleman was indeed a Catholic, but without the least care for Christian perfection. He had lately come to his estate, on the death of his father, and had made himself a large deer-park in it. There he lived like a king, in ease and independence, surrounded by his children, to whom, as well as to his wife, he was tenderly attached. As he kept clear of priests from the seminaries he lived unmolested, feeling nothing of the burden and heat of the day, for the persecutors troubled chiefly those who harboured the Seminarists, not caring to inquire after those who kept the old priests, that is, those who had taken orders before the reign of Elizabeth. So nowadays a great difference is made between seculars and the priests of the Society, the persecution being much fiercer against ours and our friends, as may be seen from what occurs when those who afford us comfort and shelter are discovered. The cause of this I take to be that seeing our numbers increase, and seeing that some of the other priests have opposed themselves to us, the authorities try to crush first the most uncompromising party, and to deter our friends by terrible examples from sheltering and supporting us. But the Israelites increased, despite the rage of Pharaoh who sought their lives."This good gentleman, then, who lived in calm and safety in his house and possessions, and evaded so cautiously the wiles of the persecutor, perceived not and dreaded not enough the wiles of Satan; yet he did not escape the toils of God's grace, but came to them willingly, and once taken wished not to be free. On the third day of the Exercises, after having well pondered the purpose of God in creating him and all other things, feeling the stirring of the waters, he went down into the pool and was healed. He succeeded admirably in each meditation, as the resolutions he made and the lights vouchsafed to him proved. He left nothing within or without which he did not strive to rectify and order unto God's greater glory; he resolved no longer to enjoy, but only to use all created things, and that sparingly; to govern his household as a charge committed unto him by God, and to get two other priests, one of whom he insisted should be a Jesuit, to whom he would commit the direction of himself and of all belonging to him. He further purposed to spend his leisure hours in pious reading, or in the translation of spiritual books. For he was learned and able, and did afterwards publish many such translations, among others the Life of our Blessed Father, The Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great, Father Jerome Platus' work on the Advantages of the Religious State, and others of the same kind He set himself very useful rules of conversation, not only for his personal direction, but in order to brotherly correction and the encouragement of virtue in his neighbours.
"Such were his resolutions; such too was his subsequent practice. From the first he expected an obstacle, which he could not but foresee. His servants were heretics for the most part, and he could not hope that his wife would second his plans. Again, he had as chaplain one of the old priests, and these were not often wont to agree with younger men, especially with those of the Society, whom they looked upon as troublesome reformers. He could not then but be anxious. But having, through God's goodness, conceived a firm and practical resolution, he determined to dismiss his servants in a kindly and open-handed way, and to take good Catholics in their stead; to prevail over the opposition of his lady and the chaplain if possible by reason and affection, but should these fail, to show that he was master of the family, and to make use of the authority given him by God.
"This being settled, he began to urge me with all earnestness to come and take up my abode with him, alleging reasons that I could not fairly meet. Moreover, at that time my host [Henry Drury], for whose sake especially I had come to my present abode, was preparing to depart, for Father Garnet had settled that he should come and live with him in London until he could be sent abroad, and the good priest I found there was well able to administer to the spiritual wants of this gentleman's mother. Another advantage of this proposed change was that it brought me nearer to London, and placed me in a family where I could do much more good than in my present abode after the departure of my host. I submitted all these considerations to the judgment of my Superior, with whom I was going to leave my hospitable friend [Henry Drury] after I had introduced him. As Father Garnet approved my availing myself of this new opportunity which God's providence had offered me, I accepted the invitation, and after a couple of months I went to my new dwelling [early in the year 159^], having taken care, in order to escape odium and jealousy, to get my host to inaugurate his improvements, so far as could be done, before my arrival, so that he, and not I might appear to be the prime mover.
"We procured then a staff of good and faithful domestics, whom I had formerly known in other places, and whose characters I had proved. Nor did I find it so difficult as we had feared, to bring the lady of the house [Jane, daughter of Sir Edmund Huddlestone], and the old priest to consent to the changes. Far from opposing, they furthered my views; the wife especially outshone all the household in her zeal for the decoration of the altar, and the charity she showed to my wants. This lady was of a rather quick temper, and had great difficulty in observing the rules of patience with her servants and others, yet I never let any such fault pass without either private or (if the nature of the case required it) public notice and reproof. This I never omitted during the whole of my stay with this family, but this notwithstanding, she not only bore with me cheerfully, and tried to subdue her temper, but ever showed me fresh marks of attachment and respect, as will appear in the sequel.
"As to the chaplain, when he saw that after my arrival he and all that belonged to him were placed on a better footing, he not only became friendly, but both by word and deed repeatedly showed his satisfaction at my coming. For the increase of piety and devotion in the household had wrought a corresponding increase of reverence for him, and he gained many other advantages which he had not had before; and though all things were arranged in the house in accordance with my advice, yet he found that his own influence had increased rather than otherwise.
"In this house there was living my host's mother [Jane Wiseman] a most excellent widow lady, happy in her children, but still happier in her private virtues. She had four sons and daughters. These latter without exception devoted their virginity to God. Two [Anne and Barbara Wiseman] had already joined the holy order of St. Bridget before my arrival, and one of these [Barbara] is even at this day Abbess in Lisbon. I sent the two others [Jane or Mary and Bridget] to Flanders, where they still serve God in the order of St. Augustine [at Louvain]. Her sons were all pious young men; two [Thomas and John] died in the Society, as was related above; a third [Robert] chose the army, and was lately slain in a battle with the heretics in Belgium,—he fell fighting when many around him had surrendered; the fourth [William] was the master of that house, who, to his mother's great joy, had given himself up to every good work. Such was this good widow's fervour, that she deemed herself to have attained the summit of her desires in this world.
" At my first entrance into this house, she desired her son to bring me up to her chamber; as I came in she fell at my feet, and besought me to allow her to kiss them, saying I was the first of the Society she had seen ; as I refused, she kissed the ground on which I stood, and arose filled with a holy joy, which still abides in her: and now, living apart from her son, she maintains with her two priests of our Society, having in the meantime endured a great many tribulations, which shall be related hereafter."
The chaplain at Braddocks was probably Richard Jackson, of whom, some years earlier, Anthony Tyrrell 2 gave information. "Jackson, priest in Queen Mary's time, [resorts to] Michael Hare of Brusiard at Acton." This was in 1586! In a paper endorsed " Massmongers" in the Public Record Office 3 are given two forms of indictment, dated Jan. 12, 159(2/3), by which time Father Gerard had made Braddocks his head-quarters for a twelvemonth. The first is against Richard Jackson of Wimbish in the county of Essex, clerk, for having said mass at Wimbish on the 25th of August, 34 0 Eliz. [1592 l and against William Wiseman of Wimbish, esquire, Jane Wiseman his wife, John Rufifoote of Wimbish, yeoman, Jane Wiseman, widow, Bridget and Jane Wiseman, spinster, daughters of Widow Wiseman, and Edward Harrington of Wimbish, yeoman, for hearing the mass. The other is against Richard Jackson for saying mass there on the 8th of September, and against Jane Wiseman, widow, Bridget and Jane her daughters, Thomas Hytchecock of Wimbish, yeoman, and Edward Harrington for hearing it. The seizure of the old chaplain, and many other particulars respecting the Wisemans, are reported to Lord Keeper Puckering by Justice Young in the following letter, 4 the date of which we learn from the foregoing indictments. The search it relates was probably made during one of Father Gerard's missionary journies, or he would have made some mention of it.
" It may please your Honour to be advertised that I have here signified unto your Honour such matters and occurrents as are lately come to my knowledge meet for your lordship to be acquainted withal, and because your Honour required to be informed of Mr. William Wiseman's house in Essex I first begin therewith.
" First, there was found in the said house three horsemen's armour and seven other armours, two muskets and two cullivers, bow and arrows, a jack and a shirt of mail, with all things complete to the said armours, which were in a vault behind a door very well and finely kept Mr. Nicholls a Justice of Peace was there with the pursuivants and took notice of the said armour.
" Also they found in a secret place between two walls in the said house an old priest named Thomas Jackson [the indictments call him Richard] who hath been beyond sea, and there was also found all the furniture belonging to mass, and the said priest useth ordinarily to say mass there, as is confessed.
"Item, most of the servants in the house are recusants, although at their coming thither they were otherwise ; and Mr. Wiseman's two daughters Mrs. Jane and Mrs. Bridget, and two gentlewomen who would not declare their names.
" There were found also in the said house divers letters written from Wisbech, the contents whereof are here briefly set down as followeth.
(1) Imprimis, a letter written by Mr. Thomas Metham, 5 priest, to Mrs. Wiseman, dated 25 Jun., giving her thanks for her great benevolence bestowed upon the company at Wisbech. The sum of money he could not set down for that it came into the hands of Blewett the priest.
(2) She sent to Metham a handkerchief and a book.
(3) Father Edmonds' 2 letter of thanks to Mrs.Wiseman for her gift.
(4) Another letter to her from him with thanks for a jewel. These letters without date.
(5) A letter from Thomas Metham, priest, to Mrs. Wiseman, giving her thanks for her great benevolence, and having no date.
(6) A like letter from him, dated 13 Martii, 1591
(7) A letter sent by Dollman the priest to Mrs. Wiseman, dated 28 die Junii, advertising her of her son Thomas and her son John their healths, and of his going to Wisbech, and that he was sorry her daughter Jane had no warning whereby she might have wrote an epistle in Latin to the priests at Wisbech, that they might have understood her zeal.
(8) A letter sent by Father Edmonds to Mrs. Wiseman without date, mentioning a great jewel which she had given him, touching her sepulchre.
(9) A letter from John Wharton to Mrs. Wiseman, giving her thanks for her charitable entertaining of priests.
(10) A letter sent by Mrs. Wiseman to the priests at Wisbech, thanking them for her great cheer, and being sorry that she came not to them on pilgrimage on her bare foot.
(11) A letter from Mr. Metham sent to Mrs. Bridget and Mrs. Jane, daughters to Mrs. Wiseman.
(12) Another letter from Mr. Metham to Mrs. Wiseman, giving her thanks for her liberality.
(13) A letter from Father Edmonds to Mrs. Wiseman with like thanks for her great liberality and benevolence towards him.
(14) Another letter to her from the said Edmonds, giving thanks for her token, desiring to give Mr. Thomas thanks for his tokens.
(15) Another letter to her from the said Father Edmonds, giving her thanks for the great gifts which he had seen, reviewed, and reviewed, and esteemeth to be of an inestimable value.
(16) A letter from Dollman, the priest, to Mrs. Wiseman, willing her to be careful of her health for the comfort of God's Church in these dismal days, and for the encouraging of her said daughters to papistry.
(17) Another letter from Dollman to the same effect, wherein he signifieth that he will carry her letters to the Reverend Fathers that they might joy and pray together for her and hers, with thanks for her benevolence.
(18) Another letter from Dollman to Mrs. Wiseman, giving her thanks for her great liberality.
(19) A letter from one unknown, for that his name is cut out, to Mrs. Wiseman that he is ready to entertain her daughters Bridget and Jane, although he live not in that security he was wont to do; neither is the company together as it was but scattered into divers places and some not to return before St. Andrew's day, yet he is not alone (as he saith). Dated 24 Octobris, 1591.
(20) A letter written to Mrs. Wiseman of the great and joyful accepture of her token, being her own invention and workmanship, by the Reverend Fathers at Wisbech, and that they were held in admiration of the workmanship : that Mr. Metham and Father Edmonds would buy as much satin as would make a vestment for the accomplishment of a suit for principal feasts.
(21) A letter from Mr. Thomas Wiseman to his mother, wherewith he sendeth two bonds of 50/. a piece to be received of Mr. Moore of the Temple, which (if he die) he giveth to those to whom she shall pay it: which bonds are made in his Uncle Richard's name, and the letter is without date.
" Edward Harrington, servant to Mr. William Wiseman, confesseth that he hath dwelt with him seven years, and since that time hath not been at church. He saith that on Friday the 9th day of September, 1592, Mr. Jackson said mass in Mr. Wiseman's house, and that John Ruffote, Mr. Wiseman's man, helped him to mass; whereat was present old Mrs. Wiseman and her two daughters Bridget and Jane, Elizabeth and Margaret maidservants, the butler and this examinate.
"Also he saith that on Sunday was three weeks the said Jackson said mass, whereat was present Mr. William Wiseman and his wife and two of his men that are now ridden with him, and all the company before named ; and Ruffote helped the priest to mass.
"May it please your Honour to be advertised that whereas we have a commission to enquire of recusants and to make certificate of them quarterly, that the Commissioners cannot be had or brought together to set down and agree upon their certificate and to signify their proceedings, unless there may be severe strait letters from your Honours to require them very earnestly to execute the commission.
" Ryc. Young."
Of some of the members of the Wiseman family just mentioned by Father Gerard, whose names occur in Young's letter, there is not a little to be said. To the two sons Thomas and John, who became Jesuits, we need not return ; and of Robert, who died in the army in Belgium, we have only this further mention that he was caught at a mass in his mother's house on New Year's day or thereabouts, 159(3/4), and on the 14th of April following Justice Young wrote 7 of him, " Robert Wiseman, her other son, is also an obstinate recusant and will by no means take the oath. He is prisoner in the Clink." To the eldest son we soon return.
The names of the two eldest daughters, Anne and Barbara, appear in 1580 among the signatures of the thirty Nuns of Sion, then at Rouen, in a petition to the Catholics of England, 8 praying them not to allow " the only Religious Convent remaining of our country" to perish for want of support. The Convent reached Lisbon in 1594 and in 1863 returned to England and settled at Spetisbury near Blandford. It is the only Religious house in England that can trace an unbroken descent from a foundation made before the Reformation. Sion House was founded by Henry V. in 1413.
The remaining sisters Jane and Bridget became Canonesses of St. Augustine in the Flemish Convent of St. Ursula in the " Half-street" at Louvain, which Convent is the mother house of the existing English Convents of the Order at Newton Abbot and at Bruges. The Convent now at Newton Abbot in Devonshire was originally founded at Louvain, under the title of St. Monica's, and from the interesting Chronicles of that house we learn much of the history of the families to which the Nuns belonged. Jane, or as they there called her, Mary Wiseman 9 was Subprioress of St. Ursula's, and Bridget her sister Infirmarian, when on the 9th of November, 1609, they left their first Religious home, to help to found a colony of the Order that should be entirely English. Mary Wiseman was professed at St Ursula's on the 8th of May, and Bridget on the 5th of June, 1595. Mary Wiseman, whom the Flemish Nuns would have elected their Prioress, if at the time of their election she had had the canonical age of forty years, was elected the first Prioress of St. Monica's, and she governed that house for twenty-four years. The Chronicles of her Convent give the following charming account of her father and mother.
" Our Reverend Mother Mary Wiseman was of very holy parentage. Her father lived and died a constant confessor of Catholic religion, 10 named Thomas Wiseman, of Braddocks in Essex, an Esquire of ancient family, who suffered much for his conscience, his house being a receptacle for priests and religious men.
" He brought up his children, not only very virtuously, but also to learning of the Latin tongue, as well the daughters as the sons, himself being their master. Besides that, in his house was order kept resembling a monastery. At the meals for half an hour was something read, unless strangers were there of higher degree than himself; otherwise this worthy custom was not omitted. Himself lived for the most part a reclused life, by reason that being troubled with the gout, he resided above in his chamber, giving himself to prayer and holy lecture: as also every Friday he would make an exhortation to his children in Latin, thereby to exercise them in that language, as also to give good instruction.
" By which worthy education they profited so much that, having four daughters, the two eldest came over seas, and became Nuns of St. Bridget's Order, and have both governed the Monastery at Lisbon in Portugal, being chosen at several times by mutual interchange Abbesses (for their order is to change at some years); and at this present 1631 the one is Abbess and the other Prioress. The two younger daughters came to St. Ursula's, to St Augustine's Order, leaving the kind cherishings of most loving parents, to embrace the strictness of poverty and want, whereof we have spoken. 11 Such was their fervour to God's service even in tender age, following the example of their most virtuous parents.
" For to speak now of their worthy mother, whose life hath partly been set down by some that knew her well. Her name before her marriage was Jane Vacham [Vaughan], her father being of ancient house in Wales, but her mother was a Tewder [Tudor] of the blood royal. She, being left a ward by her parents' death, passed many troubles and molestations to avoid marriage by those who had her in keeping. For having no mind to marry by reason that she was drawn through God's instinct to delight in spiritual things, her uncle by the mother's side, Mr. Guinneth,12 w ho was a priest and had been curate of a parish church in London in Catholic time, took especial care of her, although he could not assist her in all so well as he desired, being long time kept in prison when heresy came in, but at length getting freedom, he was desirous to match this his niece worthily and as should be best for her soul's good. Wherefore, one day he met with Mr. Wiseman, a young gentleman of the Inns of Court, and liked him so well that, upon the proposition of one in the company, he became content to marry his niece with him and brought him unto her, persuading her, if she could like him, to take him for her husband.
" But she was ever very backward in that matter, in so much that having no less than thirty suitors, some whereof had seven years sought her good will, yet she could not settle her love upon any. But now it was God's will that she should yield herein unto her uncle, and so was married to Mr. Wiseman, who brought her home to his house in Essex, where she found both father and mother-in-law and a house full of brothers and sisters, among whom she passed some difficulties, not having things always according to her mind. But all happened to make her virtue more refined, for she ever carried herself both loving and dutiful to her husband, who loved her dearly, as also to his kindred, and assisted them all she could, living in the state of marriage irreprehensible, and bringing up her children in all virtue.
" After her husband's decease, exercising the works of a holy widow, it pleased our Lord to rank her among the troops [not only] of constant Confessors, but also as we may say of valiant Martyrs, and of the most famous women that England afforded in these our miserable times of heresy; for she was ever most fervent and zealous, and so devout in prayer, that she was once heard to say by her daughter, our Reverend Mother, ' It seems' said she, ' that if I were tied to a stake and burnt alive for God I should not feel it, so great is the love to Him which I feel in my soul at this time.'
"Wherefore Almighty God, to make her love for Him indeed apparent, permitted that Topcliffe, the cruel persecutor, did vehemently set against her. And at length, only for proving that she had relieved a Catholic priest, 13 giving him a French crown, [Topcliffe] brought her before the bar to be condemned to death for felony. But she constantly refused to be condemned by the Jury, saying that she would not have twelve men accessory to her innocent death; for she knew [that] although they could not by right find her guilty, yet they could be made to do it when her enemies pleased. Hereupon they told her that she was by the law to be pressed to death if she would not be tried by the Jury; but she stood firm in her resolution, being well content to undergo so grievous a martyrdom for the love of Christ. Yea, when they declared unto her the manner of that death in the hardest terms, as the custom is at their condemnation, the worthy woman, hearing that she must be laid with her arms across when the weights were to be put upon her, exulted with joy and said, 'Now blessed be God that I shall die with my arms across, as my Lord Jesus;' and after this, when her sons lamented with sorrow, she rejoiced and cheered them up. There was at the same time a Catholic gentleman, named Mr, Barnes, 14 brought also before the Bench to be arraigned with her, who being a man, yet had not such courage as she to be pressed to death, but was content to be tried by the Jury, who were made to find him guilty as she knew well enough, although by right they could not do it, and so he was condemned to hanging for felony.
" But neither he nor she died at that time, for Almighty God, accepting of this courageous matron's fervour to martyrdom, would not let her depart so soon out of this life, that she might have a longer time of suffering for Him, as also do more good for His honour. [He] therefore ordained that Queen Elizabeth, who then bore the sceptre in England, hearing of her condemnation, 15 stayed the execution, for by bribes her son got one to speak a good word unto the Queen in his mother's behalf; who, when she understood how for so small a matter she should have been put to death, rebuked the Justices of cruelty, and said she should not die.
" Notwithstanding both she and Mr. Barnes remained in prison so long as the Queen lived; in which time Topcliffe ceased not often to molest her with divers vexations, in so much that she was made for a good space to lie with a witch in the same room, who was put in prison for her wicked deeds. And it was a strange thing to see that many resorting to the same witch there in prison, to know things of her by art magic, she never had the power to exercise her necromancy in the room where Mrs. Wiseman was, but was forced to go away into another place.
"One thing also we will not omit, which was a miraculous thing. Upon a time her friend Topcliffe passed under her window, being mounted on a goodly horse, going to the Queen; and Mrs. Wiseman espying him, thought it would not be amiss to wash him a little with holy water. Therefore [she] took some which she had by her and flung it upon him and his horse as he came under her window. It was a wonderful thing to see : no sooner had the holy water touched the horse but presently it seems he could not endure his rider, for the horse began so to kick and fling that he never ceased till his master Topcliffe was flung to the ground who looked up to the window and raged against Mrs. Wiseman, calling her an old witch who with her charms had made his horse to lay him on the ground; but she with good reason laughed to see that holy water had given him so fine a fall.
"After Queen Elizabeth's death this valiant woman lived some years out of prison, but wanted not good occasions to exercise patience by one that was allied to her, a most perverse fantastical woman who used her very ill;' so that both in prison and out of prison she wanted not crosses to make her the more renowned by a long martyrdom in all, as I find written of her. She exulted in mind and abounded with spiritual comfort, out of the loyal and fervent love which she bore to God ; until in the year 1610, when her merits were accumulated unto a greater measure for eternal glory, she fell into a most painful and grievous sickness ; where amidst her great pains she would rejoice and give Almighty God thanks that He pleased to accept of those her sufferings in place of greater which she had desired to pass for His sake. And coming to her happy death, the last words which she said to the priest were Pater,gaudeo in Deo ['Father, I rejoice in God'], and so rested in our Lord.
" These were the parents of our first Prioress, who had also four sons. Two died priests 16 of the Society of Jesus, the other died a good Catholic, and the eldest, Sir William Wiseman, is yet living, a man more of heaven than of this world."
This was written in 1631, in the lifetime of Mary Wiseman, the Prioress of St. Monica's, and her death two years later is thus recorded in the Chronicles of her Convent. " In the year 1633, upon the 8th day of July, died most blessedly our worthy Mother Prioress, after many years of continual weakness and sometimes great pain, especially the last year of her life, being scarce able to go out of her chamber. She was a woman of a great spirit and a great courage, resembling her mother Mrs. Wiseman, of whom we have made large mention. She had her Latin tongue perfect, and hath left us many homilies and sermons of the holy Fathers translated into English, which she did with great facility whilst some small respite of health permitted her : for she was sickly almost all the time of her government, which was a great cross to us all. Nevertheless such was her wisdom and prudence that she guided us with great peace and tranquillity, which peace she left established in the Cloister after her death."
In the reign of James I.William Wiseman of Braddocks was knighted. This however was no great sign of royal favour in days when the heads of families of wealth and position were obliged to " take out their knighthood," that they might be obliged to pay the fees. Sir William and his wife Jane had one son, John, and two daughters, Dorothea and Winifred. The records of St. Mary's Abbey, East Bergholt, say that Winifred Wiseman entered the Novitiate of the Benedictinesses at Brussels on the 22nd of March, 1602, and was professed August 6, 1603, and died in 1647, ӕt 63, being called in Religion "Dame Agatha." And as to Dorothea, the Chronicle of St. Monica's, now at St. Augustine's Priory, Newton Abbot, from which we have largely drawn, relates that " Mrs. Brooksby, a young widow, our Reverend Mother's niece, daughter to Sir William Wiseman, her brother, came here to Louvain to see her friends in 1610." John the son, who married Mary, daughter of Sir Rowland Rydgeley, had two daughters, Lucy and Elizabeth, and an only son, Aurelius Piercy Wiseman, who was killed in a duel in London in 1680. The following inscription on his grave in Wimbish Church is given by Wright 17 " Here rest the sad remains of Aurelius Piercy Wiseman, of Broad Oak, in this parish, Esq., the last of the name of that place, and head and chief of that right worshipful and ancient family, who was unfortunately killed in the flower of his age, December 11, 1680."
Three baronetcies were conferred on various branches of the family, Sir William Wiseman of Canfield (1628), Sir Richard Wiseman of Thundersley (1628), and Sir William Wiseman, Knight, of Riverhall (1660). The two last mentioned are extinct. The Wisemans of Braddocks were the eldest branch of the descendants of John Wiseman, Esq., who purchased the estate in Northend about 1430, and was the first of the family who lived in Essex. The late Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman, Archbishop of Westminster, was of the same stock, being descended from a younger son of one of the junior branches of the family, who was made Protestant Bishop of Meath. The children of the bishop settled in Ireland, and his descendants were Catholics.
1 Dr. Oliver, in his Collectanea (under the name Walpole Edward), mistakenly understands this to refer to the Walpole brothers, and speaks of the gentleman here mentioned as the eldest brother of the Walpoles. This is proved to be an error by the context.
2 P.R.O., Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. cxciii. n. 13.
3 Ibid,, vol. ccxliv. n. 7.
4 P.R.O., Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. ccxliii. n. 95.
5 This is Father Thomas Metham, of the Society of Jesus, who is reckoned among the martyrs as he died in prison. Troubles, Second Series, p. 246.
6 Father William Weston took the name of Edmonds out of affection for Father Edmund Campion. Ibid. p.6.
7 P.R.O., Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. ccxlviii. n. 68.
8 Ibid. vol. cxlvi. n. 114
9 Troubles, First Series, p. 48.
10 It would appear that the father Thomas Wiseman temporarily yielded to the storm, for in 1570 he is named in "A note of such as have been dealt withal by my lords this progress for refusing to come to Church." Brit. Mus. Cotton. MSS, Titus B iii. n. 61. Essex. Mr. West of Depeden , Mr. Henry of Bradbury, Mr. Thomas Wiseman - All these come to the Church.
11 Troubles, First Series, p. 35.
12 "Gwyneth" in Welsh means "North Wales," which name he must have taken instead of Tudor. John Gwyneth was Rector of St. Peter Cheap London, from Sept. 19, 1543. when he was presented by Thomas Lord Audeley, to Nov. 19, 1556. when he resigned. Newcourts Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense, London, 1708, vol. 1. p. 522. He had been previously presented by Henry VIII. to St. Beuno's Church at Clynnog Vaur in Caernarvonshire, in 1538, but he seems to have been dispossessed in 1542 on the ground that the presentation belonged to the see of Bangor. Browne Willis' Survey of Bangor (London, 1721), p. 260. Anthony a Wood says that he took the degree of Doctor of Music at Oxford m 1531, and published several Catholic books in London in 1554 and 1557. Athen. Oxon.
13 Father John Jones alias Buckley, O.S.F., who was martyred at St. Thomas Waterings in Southwark, July 12, 1598.
14 See his narrative in Tierney's Dodd, vol. iii. App. n. xxxvii., printed from Stonyhurst MSS., Angl. A. vol. ii. n. 41. Challoner miscalls him Barnet.
15 This was in July 1598. The circumstances of this condemnation are related by Father Gerard a few chapters further on.
16 They were not priests.
17 History of Essex, vol. ii. p. 134.
12 "Gwyneth" in Welsh means "North Wales," which name he must have taken instead of Tudor. John Gwyneth was Rector of St. Peter Cheap London, from Sept. 19, 1543. when he was presented by Thomas Lord Audeley, to Nov. 19, 1556. when he resigned. Newcourts Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense, London, 1708, vol. 1. p. 522. He had been previously presented by Henry VIII. to St. Beuno's Church at Clynnog Vaur in Caernarvonshire, in 1538, but he seems to have been dispossessed in 1542 on the ground that the presentation belonged to the see of Bangor. Browne Willis' Survey of Bangor (London, 1721), p. 260. Anthony a Wood says that he took the degree of Doctor of Music at Oxford m 1531, and published several Catholic books in London in 1554 and 1557. Athen. Oxon.
13 Father John Jones alias Buckley, O.S.F., who was martyred at St. Thomas Waterings in Southwark, July 12, 1598.
14 See his narrative in Tierney's Dodd, vol. iii. App. n. xxxvii., printed from Stonyhurst MSS., Angl. A. vol. ii. n. 41. Challoner miscalls him Barnet.
15 This was in July 1598. The circumstances of this condemnation are related by Father Gerard a few chapters further on.
16 They were not priests.
17 History of Essex, vol. ii. p. 134.
