Catholicism, community and identity in late Tudor and early Stuart Herefordshire by Wendy Elizabeth Brogden A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of History School of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham May 2018 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am very grateful for all the help and support that I have received whilst working on this study. Thanks are due in particular to Richard Cust, both for his extensive knowledge of the early modern period and for his skill, patience and kindness in supervising me, and I am grateful also to Andy Hopper, my second supervisor, for all his help and encouragement. Thanks too to the various individuals who have provided references and transcripts of material: Howard Barlow, Simon Healy, Michael Hodgetts, Sue Hubbard, Michael Questier, Lynne Surtees and Brenda Ward, and to the staff of the various archives that I have used. I would especially like to thank Rhys Griffith and his team at Hereford Archives and Rosalind Caird, who was archivist of the Hereford Cathedral collection when I was working on the material there. I am particularly grateful to Howard Barlow for the many hours he spent meticulously proof- reading draft chapters of the thesis, and to Geoff Gwatkin, who has transformed my draft maps with his computing skills, as well as making some helpful suggestions from his wide knowledge of the early modern geography of Herefordshire. Finally, I am beholden to Midlands3Cities, for their financial support over a three-year period, and especially for making it possible for me to visit the Huntington Archives in Los Angeles. CONTENTS List of abbreviations Conventions Maps Tables Figures Introduction 1 Chapter One The Herefordshire Whitsun Riots of 1605 25 Chapter Two Ecclesiastical Administration in Herefordshire and the Detection of Catholics, c.1560-1638 48 1560-1582: from religious conservatism to the emergence of recusancy 1586 - 1605: the drive against recusants 1606 – 1638: the courts to the eve of the Civil War Conclusions Chapter Three The Character of Catholicism in Herefordshire c.1580-1640 99 The distribution of Catholics in the rural parishes Plebeian Catholicism in rural parishes north and east of the Wye, character and analysis The character of plebeian Catholicism in rural parishes south and west of the Wye Accounting for the character of plebeian Catholicism south and west of the Wye: the influence of gentry and priests Accounting for the character of plebeian Catholicism south and west of the Wye: the influence of the Somerset family Accounting for the character of plebeian Catholicism south and west of the Wye: the Welsh legacy of Archenfield Catholicism in Herefordshire’s towns Conclusions Chapter Four ‘Getting Along’?: Tolerance and Intolerance in Herefordshire c. 1580-1640 197 Inter-confessional tension ‘Getting Along’ Getting along in Madley parish Conclusions Chapter Five Catholic Ritual Practice and Evidence of Proselytising in Herefordshire c.1580-1640 272 Catholic and Protestant ceremony Other Catholic practice and mission Conclusions Conclusions 303 Bibliography 311 Appendix I Hereford Diocese Ecclesiastical Court Book References Appendix II Examples of parishes with the same number of clusters Appendix III Presentments to the ecclesiastical courts 1605, 1614 and 1625 MAPS MAP I: The deaneries of the Hereford diocese 14 MAP II: The geography of Herefordshire 16 MAP III: The area of the Whitsun riots, 1605 26 MAP IV: Parishes of residence of Whitsun rioters 33 MAP V: The route of the archdeacon’s court round the diocese in 1562 55 MAP VI: Parishes with priests harboured by gentry in 1564 and with recusant gentry in 1577, and parishes where plebeians were presented for Catholic offences in the 1560s and 1570s 59 MAP VII: Rural parishes of Herefordshire presenting persistent plebeian Catholics between 1580 and 1640 102 MAP VIII: Rural parishes of Herefordshire which made no, or very few, presentments between 1580 and 1640 104 MAP IX: Rural parishes of Herefordshire which made most presentments of plebeian Catholics between 1580 to 1640, with significant gentry presence indicated 107 MAP X: Catholic marriages, baptisms and burials, with plebeians present, between 1580 and 1640 129 MAP XI: The boundaries of Ergyng and Archenfield 158 MAP XII: Hereford city churches and parish boundaries within the city 169 MAP XIII: Pembridge 181 MAP XIV: Bromyard 185 MAP XV: Ledbury 190 MAP XVI: Grumblings related to Catholicism in Herefordshire 1582-1638 214 MAP XVII: Madley 255 TABLES Table 2(i) Number of cases of not frequenting church or not receiving the communion presented to the ecclesiastical courts 1560 -1573 51 Table 2(ii) Number of cases of not frequenting church or not receiving the communion presented to the ecclesiastical courts 1560-1573/4 and their outcomes 57 Table 2(iii) Number of cases of not frequenting church or not receiving the communion presented to the ecclesiastical courts 1570-1580 and at the Bishop’s courts 1570-1580 62 Table 2(iv) Number of cases of not frequenting church or not receiving communion presented to the ecclesiastical courts 1581-3 and at Scory’s 1582 visitation 64 Table 2(v) Number of cases of not frequenting church, not receiving communion or of recusancy presented to the ecclesiastical courts 1587/8 and at Scory’s 1582 visitation 70 Table 2(vi) Outcomes of cases of not frequenting church, not receiving communion or of recusancy presented in the deaneries of Leominster and Archenfield, 1587/8 71 Table 2(vii) Number of cases of not frequenting church, not receiving communion or of recusancy presented from selected deaneries from 1587 to 1590 72 Table 2(viii) Number of non-gentry cases of not frequenting church, not receiving communion or recusancy 1595-1603 76 Table 2(ix) Number of non-gentry cases for not frequenting church, not receiving communion or recusancy in selected parishes in the Archenfield deanery in 1595/6 and in 1598/1600 76 Table 2(x) Presentments at Kentchurch, 1595 and 1598 77 Table 2(xi) Number of non-gentry cases of not frequenting church, not receiving communion or recusancy 1595-1605 79 Table 3(i) Examples of parishes on map IX, showing numbers presented 106 Table 3(ii) Rural parishes north and east of the Wye with long-term gentry Catholics and persistent plebeian Catholics 113 Table 3(iii) Rural parishes north and east of the Wye with persistent plebeian Catholics but no long-term gentry Catholics 121 Table 3(iv) Rural parishes north and east of the Wye with persistent plebeian Catholics but no long-term gentry Catholics, highlighting family groups 126 Table 3(v) Plebeians presented from Kilpeck in 1605 and persistence 140 Table 3(vi) Non-gentry recusants and their Catholic gentry landlords south and west of the Wye, named by the Bishop of Hereford in 1616 142 Table 3(vii) Clusters of non-gentry Catholics in parishes close to Oldfield, the Darren or the Cwm 145 Table 3(viii) Clusters of non-gentry Catholics in parishes close to Treville 146 Table 3(ix) Numbers of non-gentry Catholics in 1605 and 1625 presented in the Whitsun riots areas 151 Table 3(x) Numbers of non-gentry Catholics in 1642, from a Puritan survey 152 Table 3(xi) The occurrence of Welsh surnames among persistent non-gentry recusants in parishes south and west of the Wye 163 Table 3(xii) Catholic presentments in the eastern parishes of Archenfield 165 Table 3(xiii) Numbers of plebeian Catholics presented from the parishes of Hereford city, in all reporting years between 1591- 1629 173 Table 3(xiv) Years of reported recusancy of persistent non-gentry Catholics in Hereford’s parishes 175 Table 3(xv) Catholics at the mass in John Ireland’s house in Hereford, February 1604 177 Table 3(xvi) Numbers of gentry and non-gentry Catholics presented from Herefordshire’s market towns 179 Table 3(xvii) The social status of the fifteen people presented in the 1580s to the church courts for not frequenting church or not receiving the communion in Bromyard 184 Table 3(xviii) People from Ledbury parish presented at the metropolitan visitation of 1605 and their places of residence 189 Table 4(i) Use of the church for rites of passage by persistent recusants (including gentry) 233 Table 4(ii) Secret burials, baptisms and marriages involving both gentry and plebeian Catholics 1591-1638 240 Table 4(iii) Number of individual women presented to the church courts compared to overall presentments of individuals from parishes with high presentments of Catholics 252 Table 4(iv): Status of church-rate-payers in Madley village 1605 259 Table 4(v) Churchwarden families at Madley 265 Table 5(i) Use of the church for rites of passage by persistent recusants (including gentry)1 273 Table 5(ii) People newly presented to the church courts from Madley in 1625/6 for Catholic offences 297 1 Repeat of table 4(i) FIGURES Figure 2(i) The contrast in records before and after the arrival of Francis Bevans as principal official: May 1586 and May 1587