1647-1650

From the year 1646 till the year 1651, I find not any priests put to death for their character; though otherwise the persecution against Catholics did not cease, and the sequestrators were everywhere busy in sequestering and plundering their estates, as well real as personal. That the reader may have a better idea of the sufferings of Catholics in this kind, I shall here transcribe some pages out of Mr. KnaresborougK s manuscript collections, concerning these sequestrations.

The Sequestration of two parts of the Catholic estates, real and personal, pursuant to several ordinances of the Lords and Commons, a.d. 1643, 1644, dec.

‘ The first of these ordinances bears date April the first, 1643, ^P" pointing certain persons there named to be Commissioners or Sequestrators for the several counties of England and Wales; and empowering them forthwith to seize as well all the monies and other personal estate, as also all the manors, lands, and other real estate of notorious delinquents, that is to say, of all persons who had then raised, or should afterwards raise arms against the Parliament; or who had voluntarily contributed, or should contribute any monies, horse, plate, arms, ammunition, or other aid or assistance towards the maintenance of any forces raised against the Parliament.

‘ And also two parts of all the estates of every Papist, or which any person had in trust, or for the use of any Papist; this to be let, set, sold, and converted and applied to the uses of the Parliament, towards supporting the charges of the war.

‘ A second ordinance passed the 19th of August the same year, containing an explanation and further enlargement of the fore-mentioned ordinance for sequestering the estates of delinquents and Papists. In this is explained who are to be deemed Papists, and who are liable to the penalty mentioned above; that is, of having two parts of their estates seized for the use of the Parliament. These are — I St, All such as have willingly harboured any Popish priests since the 29th of November, 1642, or that should hereafter harbour any. 2dly, All that had been already convicted of Popish recusancy. 3dly, or that have been at Mass any time within one whole year before the 26th of March, 1643, or should hereafter be at Mass; or whose children, or grand-children, or any of them living in the house with them, or under their tuition, shall be brought up in the Popish religion. Finally, all such persons as being of the age of twenty-one years should refuse to take the oath of abjuration,'* by which they abjure and renounce transubstantiation, &c., ‘which oath any two of the committee men, or any two justices of the peace; or for want of these, the mayor, bailiffs, or head officer of any city or town corporate, had power to tender to any suspected Papist. All these are here declared liable to the penalty above-mentioned; that is, two parts of three of their whole estates, real and personal, were to be forthwith seized, sold, and disposed of for the uses of the Parliament.

‘ And to the end that a full discovery might be had of the Catholic estates, so that it should be morally impossible for them to convey away any part of their effects, or conceal or screen them from the commissioners’ knowledge, by the assistance of their Protestant friends, or otherwise, the said sequestrators were further empowered by this second ordinance, to examine upon oath, any person suspected to be aiding in concealing these men or their effects, or intrusted for them, or who should owe anything, or be indebted to any Papist; and if the said persons should refuse to be examined, or to declare the whole truth, they were to be committed to safe custody till they should conform, and make the discovery insisted upon by the commissioners.

‘ And for the more speedy and effectual seizure of the personal estates of the said delinquents and Papists, the commissioners had power to authorise their several collectors and agents employed under them, to break open all locks, bolts, bars, doors, or other strength, where monies were upon probable grounds suspected to be concealed, and seize the same into their possession; with this further engagement to such as were assisting to the sequestrators, that for their reward they were to have one shilling in the pound of all monies, lands, or goods as they should discover; and for their indemnity the protection of both houses of Parliament; and to be esteemed as persons who did acceptable service to the Commonwealth.

‘ Finally, amongst the remarkable instructions given to the sequestrators, consisting of thirteen articles, that of number six ought to be carefully remembered, viz., You are to seize two parts of the estates, both real and personal, of all Papists {as they are Papists), and the whole estates of all other sorts of delinquents mentioned in the said ordinance, whether they be Papists or others; and you are to understand by two parts of Papists' estates, two of their whole lands, and two of their goods into three to be divided.

‘ Armed with these powers, the sequestrators set out towards their respective divisions, and fell to seize, sell, or let the estates of Papists wherever they could come at them. And in the south and midland counties they made quick despatch; bringing under sequestration, either as delinquents or convict recusants, the whole body of the Catholics without exception. But as the progress of the Parliament’s victories was not so quick in the north and west, so neither could their committees execute their powers with that undisturbed freedom, nor make their seizures and commit their plunders with the same unlimited and uncontrolled tyranny, as they did in those counties which had been more early reduced, &c.

‘ But after His Majesty’s affairs declined, and his forces were so weakened as not to be able to make head against the rebels, then the sequestrators poured in upon those other provinces, and fell upon all the estates of the loyalists and Catholics, not hitherto sequestered, with rage and fury.

‘ After the Independents came in play, they made great changes in their commissions, and put in sequestrators of their own party, but the harvest then was in a great measure over. The Catholic estates had already been under sequestration seven or eight years, and the Presbyterians had plundered them to the bare walls, so that there was nothing left to these new sequestrators. However, as they were a hungry crew, they were resolved to have something from the Papists, though less; and thus they made new inquests, and forced many of these oppressed people to undergo new compositions, upon pretence that they had not been sequestered according to the full extent and meaning of the late ordinances.

‘ Of the sufferings of the Catholics in general, and of the miserable state to which they were reduced by these sequestrations, take this short but faithful account from a cotemporary writer, an eyewitness of their oppressions, viz., Mr. Austin, under the name of William Birchley, in his Christian Moderator, part i. p. 9, &c: —

“ Of the Papists, says he, some are sequestered for delinquency, and those of all cavaliers {cceteris paribus) the most severely, though of all the most excusable, because wholly depending upon the pleasure of the late King, and infinitely obliged to his royal lenity; noting it as an unanswerable argument of their fidelity and gratitude towards such as deal with them in mercy; as also that their declining to receive the oaths of supremacy and allegiance^ for which they have heretofore been so violently persecuted, proceeded not from any aversion to civil obedience, but because there were mingled in those oaths certain expressions of a pure spiritual nature, repugnant to their consciences, and altogether unnecessary to the common security.

“ Others are equally punished, that is, their whole estate sequestered, allowing only a fifth part for their wives and children, though in true reason they are altogether justifiable, having never been in any engagement, but found only in some garrisons of the King, whither they were driven for refuge, being put out of the protection of the Parliament by public proclamation, their houses everywhere rifled, their goods plundered, and lives endangered by the soldiers, whose condition seems clearly to be within the equity of that article of the army’s proposals, August^ 1647.* That the King's menial servants who never took up arms^ hut only attended on his person^ according to their offices, he freed from composition; much more those who had both the civil reason of duty and the unanswerable argument of necessity to plead for their discharge: and, which is yet more hard, some recusants of this class who never bare arms, but were only found in garrisons for their own personal security as aforesaid, are now ranked among the highest delinquents, and their estates to be sold, such as Sir Henry Bedingfield, Mr. Bodenham, Mr. Gifford, &c.

“ As for the single recusants, two-thirds of their estates are seized upon, only for the cause of religion, under which notion are included all such as were heretofore convicted of not resorting to common prayers, or do now refuse the oath of abjuration, a new oath made by the two Houses, when the former kind of service was abolished, wherein the practice is strangely severe. For upon bare information the estate of the suspected is secured, that is, his rents, &c., suspended, before any trial or legal proof, even in these times of peace: and being once thus half condemned, he has no other remedy to help himself but by forswearing his religion, and so by an oath a thousand times harsher than that ex officio, they draw out of his own mouth his condemnation.

“ When the sequestrators have thus seized into 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 as to have committed the most heinous treason that can be imagined, and they are far more cruelly punished than those that murder their own parents.

“ Besides these extreme and fatal penalties that lie upon the recusants merely for their conscience, there are many other afflictions whereof f,w 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 there what 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.

“ Another of their afflictions is, that they, I mean these single recusants, have no power to sell or mortgage the least part of their estates, either to pay their just debts, or defray their necessary expenses, whereby they are disabled of all commerce, and their credit being utterly lost (upon which many of them now provide even their daily bread), they must needs in a short time be brought to a desperate necessity if not absolute ruin. And if any, the most quiet and moderate amongst them, should desire to transplant himself into a milder climate, and endeavour to avoid the offence that is taken against him in his own country, he cannot so dispose of his estate here, as by bill of exchange or any other way, to provide the least subsistence for himself and his family; a severity far beyond the most rigid practice of the Scotch Kirk. For there, as I am informed, the persons of recusants are only banished out of the kingdom and prohibited to reside at their own homes above forty days in a year, which time is allowed them for the managing of their estate, and their estates allowed them for their maintenance abroad — a proceeding which their principles would clearly justify if they could justify their principles. But in England, where compulsion on the conscience is decried as the worst of slaveries, to punish men so sharply for matters of religion contrary to the principles publicly received, is a course that must needs beget over all the world a strong suspicion and prejudice against the honour and reputation of that State which at the same time can practise such manifest contradictions.

“To this deplorable condition are the English Catholics now reduced, yet they bear all not only with patience but even silence; for amongst the printed complaints so frequent in these times, never any thing hath been seen to proceed from them, though always the chief, and now the sole sufferers for their conscience, except (not to be altogether wanting to themselves) some modest petitions humbly addressed to the Parliament, though such hath been their unhappiness, that more weighty affairs have still disappointed their being taken into consideration; else were they admitted to clear themselves of the mistakes and scandals unjustly imputed to them, they would not doubt fully to satisfy all ingenuous, and dispassionate men, nay even whomsoever, that were but moderately prejudiced against them.” So far Mr. Austin.

‘ Who in his second part sets down the following passages, observed by himself, upon cases depending before the commissioners at Haberdashers' Hall^ which will further demonstrate the grievances the Catholics endured in those evil days: —

“ The case of Mr. Robert Knightley, a recusant only, a great part of whose mansion-house in Essex was pulled down to repair the fort at Tilbury‘s for which he petitioned at Haberdashers' Hall in December^ 1651, to have satisfaction out of the two sequestered parts of his own lands there: but in regard it appeared to be done before January^ 1649, the present commissioners’ answer was, they had no power to relieve him.

“ On the nth of February^ 1651, was heard the case of Mr. Parker y the Lord Mor ley's only son, about fourteen years of age. He petitioned for maintenance out of his father’s sequestered estate; but because it was suspected the child might incline to his father’s religion, who is a Papist, it was denied him, unless he might be taken both from father and mother, and committed to the government of a mere stranger; which was ordered accordingly, and the poor pittance of £100 per annum only allowed him out of his own and father’s estate.

“ In February y 1651, Mr. James Hanham, of the West^ petitions the commissioners at Haberdashers' Hall to this effect: that he had never acted anything against the Parliament, yet two parts of his estate were sequestered with such rigour for his recusancy, that he could not possibly subsist with necessaries by the remaining thirds when taxes and other charges were deducted; that he was therefore constrained to borrow upon bond, and having disbursed of the money, it seems the sequestrators got notice that the petitioner had somewhat in his house worth a new sequestration, or review, as they call it; thereupon they search his trunks, find the remaining j(^35, pull out the guilty bag, and two parts of it they sequester into their own pockets to the use of the Commonwealth; and for relief therein Mr. Hanham appealed, but found no redress at present, more than an order for the sub-commissioners in the country to examine the business, and certify, &c. At the return of whose certificate I leave the petitioner to expect his doom.

“ On the 31st of March^ 1652, the petition of one Hamond or Ammoty was read, to this effect; that the petitioner never did bear arms or assist the enemies of the Parliament, yet his estate had lain under sequestration ever since the year 1645, and not one penny allowed him for his maintenance. That the petitioner, being a recusant, did in the time of the late war continue at his own house as long as he could without apparent danger of his life; but considering how obnoxious even the most peaceable of his religion were to be affronted and ruined by the daily mischiefs they received from some disorderly soldiers, and especially seeing one of his neighbours (a recusant) slain at his own door, the petitioner did then, and not before, fly for protection to a garrison of the late King’s, without acting anything in the least kind against the Parliament. And therefore humbly prayed he might have a fifth of his estate, and the arrears allowed him to buy bread. But it not appearing to the commissioners that he had wife or children, their answer was they had not power to grant him any relief.

“ On the i6th of Aprif 1652, the case of Mrs. Church of EsseXy a recusant, was heard, whose petition spake to this effect; that her late husband in his lifetime settled a lease of Muck Hall (or such like name) in Essex, of considerable value upon her, in lieu of jointure for divers years yet in being, and was held of the late dean and chapter of St. Paid's; that Alderman Andrews and Mr. Nathaniel his son had bought the reversion of those lands at Gurney House, and had since taken a lease for seven years of the commissioners for sequestration in Essex of the whole present possession, without the petitioner’s consent or knowledge, and without any regard to her thirds; and that the said Mr. Andrews having now possession of the whole estate, had demolished the petitioner’s mansion-house, and did refuse to pay the petitioner her thirds, whereby she was driven to a necessity of wanting bread, being a distressed and friendless widow of almost eighty years of age; she therefore prayed her thirds and the arrears, and that the said lease might be annulled, &c.

“ The first was charitably granted, but as to the lease, and what her thirds should be, she was left to the mercy of Mr. Andrews, who I fear does forget what the Father of mercies says in Jer. xxii.

3, Execute judgment and righteousness, and delwer the spoiled out of the hands of the oppressor, and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger and fatherless, and widow, &c. And in Matt, xxiii. 14, Woe unto you scribes, arid pharisees, hypocrites, for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer; therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.

“ That which in this case did most exact my observation was that Mr. Andrews (a person of quality) should make use of his power against a poor widow, and should be present, and openly avow the taking of her estate over her head, with so little regard to the thirds which is allowed her by the Act of Parliament, and so much to his own benefit, without which it is like he would not have taken it, and with which the petitioner must needs suffer.

“ From Haberdashers^ Hall give me leave to make a step into Moorfields, where on the 19th of May 1650, being the Lord’s day, Richard Ledsam and one Ledbeater, two pursuivants, apprehended Robert Segar, a poor old decrepid man, upon a suspicion (and it was but a suspicion) that he had been at the Spanish ambassador’s at Mass. Upon this bare surmise the poor man was searched, and in his pockets they found an old prayer book; whereupon he was carried before a justice of peace and committed to the Gatehouse at Westminster, where he lay in the common gaol till the quarter sessions in January, 1651, being full twenty months without any discharge, or proceedings against him, and at that sessions was acquitted by proclamation, through the mercy of Justice Scobell, but was detained prisoner (until April, 1652) by Mr. Weeks, the keeper of the prison, for the rent of his lodging, for which the said keeper demanded fourteen pence a week besides fees; and yet, as I am credibly informed, the old man lay on the boards in the common gaol, and had no other pillow for his head but a hard stone, for which he must now pay more than he is worth, or continue till he perish in prison, being above eighty-six years of age.”

‘ And now I am at the Gatehouse I shall give you the supplement of a like sad story, mentioned in the twenty-first page of the first part of this Moderator, concerning a great-bellied gentlewoman, committed to prison on the 24th of June, 1651; her name upon inquiry I find was Delavall, an English woman, but her husband a French man. She was committed to the Gatehouse, and with much importunity got leave by petition to go out upon bail till she was brought to bed, but was an actual prisoner full seven months of the twelve which is prescribed by the statute, and the fine of one hundred marks stood charged upon her till she was relieved by the late Act of i65i]

oblivion^ and all this poor woman’s sufferings merely grounded upon a bare supposition that she had been at the then French agent’s in Long Acre at Mass, without so much as one witness that there was any Mass said there at all, it being the truth of the case (if I may believe their most serious protestations) that they were only at their other private devotions.

See much more in this author of the unmerciful severities which the Catholics endured in those days, who also informs us that the sequestrators had so little regard to charity, or even common humanity, that they ‘ tripartited even the day-labourer’s goods and very household stuff, and have taken away two cows where the whole stock was but three.’