,~:, ... , • ~ .. ., • ......:. ""l'-- " 261 ,;,~"~ I,, \!",',,: " GUESTS AT gVERI.NGII.\lI1 PARK ~ -.-!.~-,r...j,.- " • r.~ ..- • . - .~~.~,_ Langdales, Stapletons, and Dolemans were among the most conspicuous. _ .. o_ " {. The Langdales, although near neighbours, did not attend tile Evering- .. _._'.'"' . -..-, . ham cel~~ration, Marma~uke Langdale, the famous Royalist general • .No, V• o~ the .C~VlIWar, had previously bought Holmc-on-Spalding-Moor from . '_,--, SIr Wlllial~ Co~stable, ,the Regicide before mcntioned, who had suc- A LIST OF GUESTS AT EVERINGHAM PARK, ceeded durmg hIS nefanous career in dissipating his whole patrimony, General Langdale had ther~fore been created, by Charles II, Lord CHRISTMAS, r662. Lang.dale of Holme-o.n-Spaldmg-Moor. He died just before this great Everingham celebration, !lnd the event may have been too recent to CONTRIBUTElJ BY RICHARlJ CECl'L WILTON, B.A"4 allo\~ of the presence of hIS son, the second Lord, at a festive occasion, ARCHIVIST AT EVERINGHAM l'ARI{. B~~It appears, from documents at Everingham that the families were friendly, and one of Sir Philip's uncles was a' Langdale. The senior Among the documents preserved at Everingham Park, ncar Market br~nch of the Langdale lamily had also lived for generations in the Welghton, Yorkshire, is a narrow roll of parchment, measuring 35! ,x 8 ; nelghbo~rho?d, at Houghtor: Hall, where Langdales still reside. They , incites, bearing alist of the names of persons present at a family gathering ~ere t~~emal.nstay .o~ Cathohcism, at WeightoD, one of the places men- , there at Christmas, r662, Thelist is of much interest, and is printed tioned, Their absence from ;Evenngham on this occasion is difficult to here with the permission of Her Grace the Duchess of Norfolk. The understand. But :we do Dot know the circumstances of the time, and entertainment was held, it may be supposed, to celebrate not only the , the house. at Eve~l!1gham was probably full to overflowing. Evering- restoration of Charles II but also the recovery of their estates by the I ham Park at that tlme was a partially Elizabethan mansion, of which a Constable family. All Cavalier families suffered during the Common- I rough sketch by Warburton has been preserved. wealth, but especially the Catholic families. The Constables of Evering- , I, . It had b~en the home of thi~ youn,ger branch of the Constable family ham were well known both for their religion and for their loyalty, hut since the r~Ign of Henry VI!. wh~n .It had come to them by marriage. one remarkable circumstance had probably been a protection to them , An account of the house exists, givmg the dimensions of the hall and during the worst times, The head of the senior branch of the Constable , ch~pel, which were al~ost equal in size. Two of the bedrooms are de- family was Sir William Constable, of 'Hclme-cn-Spaldfng-Mcor, great- scr~bed 111 I545 res~e?tlvely as the" Norfolk" and" Suffolk" chambers. ,_ great-grandson of that Sir Robert Constable who had been so famous ThIS may be a t~ad~tlOn from.the times of Henry VIII, as after the over- as a leader of the" Pilgrimage of Grace." Sir William, having married , throw of the P~gIlmag~ of Grace the king stayed on his visit to the a Fairfax, took the side of the Parliament, and was, indeed, one of ,I North at the neighbouring hall-of Holme, the seat of Sir Robert Con- the Regicides; but though his politics were so opposite to those of his • stabl~, w:ho had recently ~een executed for the part he had taken in kinsmen at the neighbouring village of Everingham, he appears to have the ~llgnmag:. , The ~verl1lgham Constable of the time had sided with exerted himself to protect them from utter ruin. Unpublished docu- I, the king, and It IS possl}>lethat the Duke of Suffolk, if in attendance on ments at Everingham Park show that i~ ~as arrange~ th:at a M~. Rush- _ Henry, stayed at Everingham when the king was at Holme and that 111 • worth should purchase the estates, act1l1g all the wh11e the mterests the Duke of Nodol~ had also sta~ed there either then, or on hi;campaign " of the family, so that perhaps the <?onstables eame off better after the when he 'Yas ~o ruthlesslY' putt11lg down the Yodtshire rising . Civil War than some other CatholIcs. , I .Th~re IS still at Evenngham a badge of the Pilgrimage of Grace. At Christmas, r662, they seem to have endeavoured to gather. I , , wluch ~s supposed to be that ~sed by Sir Robert himself, and which at round them all their Catholic friends and relatives for a great feast of ,f some ?me has been converted mto a burse for use at Mass. For though rejoicing, the celebration lasting twelve days-that is, from Christmas ,;j th~ SIr Marmaduke of those days was Officially opposed to the Pil- to Epiphany, or Twelfthnight. • g~lln~ge, the Lady ~I],~table of the time was in sympathy with the We notice in this document that the Consw.bles en~erta11led a Pilgrlm~.* . Perhaps It IS to her we Owe the preservation of this relic. considerable house party. There were altogether twelve Constables Her matden name ,":as Ba.l'b~~a SothiU-and as ~e heiress of Evering- present-some of whom were guests-al1r;l ten othe~~sitors. In addition ham and of the anCIent faluilles of Poucher, Evermgha1u and Pagnell . to these we are told of the neighbours invited. from the lit~le towns she brought, by her marriage with Sir Mannaduke Con~table all he; , and villages near Everingham, or from Constable es~tes in qther par~ estates to tl~e Constables of the younger branch. ' of Yorkshire. They would; no doubt, be Cat~olics, .~na~ts or ~e- T~e famIly always remained Catholic, though probably in the reign pendents of the Constables, and of other Catholic fanulies 111 the dIS- of Eh~beth t~~ <_::onstablescompromised, and like so many English trict. These would form a large assemblage of people, which explains CatholIcs at thIS t~me would ~;kn?wn as "Schismatics"" which term , the liberal expenditure upon provisions. A sum of more than a hundt'ed was used to descnbe ~eople ,m thiS coun~ who, were certainly not pounds was accounted for in this way-representing, according to the Protestal1:s, but rather u~fal,thful Ca~holics. Tins subject has been present value of money, a co~s~derable outla)', . , abl~ tre~t<:d bY't~e late Wl~Ild W~l'd 111 the chapter headed " English The part of the East Rldmg known ~s Howdenshlre, wa.s, 11l the PapIsts 111 Ius hfe of Cal'dlllal WIseman. seventeenth century, very larg~ly. Cathohc. Even to ~hlS day ~ost But !1t la~~,in the.l·eign of James I, the graudfather and uamesake of the places mentioned in thIS hst have some Cathohc populat.l~n. of the Sir PhIlIp of thIS documelJt openly declared himself a Catholic. If This is to be explained by th.e fact that so many of the County Famlhes of the district had retained their faith. Of these the Constables, ,* See P.R.O., Letlcrs and Papers of Jicliry VII I, xii (1); 730; also Tile PiE- Cfllllage of GYaCl, by M. If, and R, .DOdds,ii. ZIG. • 'F See Foley, Records, S.J., iii, lOS • • , GUESTS AT EVERINGHAM PARI( 263 His SOl1, Robert Constable, S.J., uncle of our Sir Philip, has left us in his" Responsa .. an account of the family as it was ill 16r6, where he says" I am nineteen years of age, and was born at Everingham, York- shire .... " By the goodness of God the faith has been widely defused • among my family. Very few or none of my nearest friends but what are Catholics."* From the time of James I we find that the Constables paid their fines regularly for non-attendance at the parish church, several lists of fines. occurring amongst the family papers. Our Sit' Philip's father, Sir Marmaduke Constable, married a Frances Metham, and his sister was the wife of Sir Thomas Metilam, of MethalU, near Howden, Yorks. The Everingham family suffered much in life as well as in property during the Civil War. Two of Sir Philip's brothers were killed-Marma- duke at Edgehill, and Michael at Hopton Heath, while his brother-in-law, Sir Thomas M~tha1U,fell at Marston Moor. In the first year of the war King Charles I created Sir Philip a Baronet. ' Sir Philip married Anne, daughter of Sir Edmund Roper, of Eltham; according to the tradition in the family she was a. fervently devout lady. f I \ Two of her SOl1S became Benedictine monks, and her daughter, Barbara, ; was a Nun, O.S.B., a.t Cambrai, The other daughter, Katherine, mar- • ried Edward Sheldon, of Steeple Barton, Oxon., and Sir Philip, when a widower, went to reside with the Sheldons, leaving Everingham to be r the residence of his eldest SOl1, Marmaduke, who had married during the • war Anne, daughter of Richard Sherborne, of Stonyhurst. These are • the Squire Ma.rmaduke and his Lady of our MS. Sir Philip evidently came to Everingham for this entertainment,' but eventually died at Steeple Barton, his daughter's home in Oxfordshire, ill 1664. There is a.n excellent portrait of him a.t Everingham on wood, by John Jonson or Jansoll. • ----, " • I • , • • • • • • • , • , " ' "\ ,. , DOCUMENTSAT EVERINGHAM t i , 270 DOCUMENTSAT EVERINGHAM • II • whatsoeuer to my servant Thorn.