Days of Shaking Rutland families in times of conflict, 1600-1660 by Sue Howlett About the material (and author) Preface Introduction The Haringtons of Exton: In the service of the Crown The Haringtons of Ridlington: Servants to the State Kings’ Favourites: the Dukes of Buckingham of Burley Captains and Committee-Men: The Horsmans of Stretton Please select a topic from the list above To see “End of Chapter” reference details please hover your cursor over the red (10) numbers -- 1 -- About the material (and author) Since completing an MA dissertation entitled ‘Conscience, Kinship and Community: Allegiance in Rutland 1630-1660’ (University of Leicester, 1991), I had always hoped to compile a book using and expanding this research. I even had a title: ‘Days of Shaking: Rutland families in times of conflict, 1600-1660’ - the quotation coming from a notorious, published sermon preached to the House of Commons in 1643 by Jeremiah Whitaker, formerly Rector of Stretton in Rutland. Although work on the ‘book’ began over ten years ago, other projects intervened, such as the Local Heritage Initiative research and publication, ‘The Heritage of Rutland Water’. For six years I was Secretary of the Rutland Local History and Record Society, and also wrote occasional articles for the Society’s journal, ‘Rutland Record’. The last of these, in Rutland Record 30, uses material taken directly from the first chapter of my proposed book, since having moved away from Rutland to Essex in 2006, I had finally given up hope that it would ever be completed! However, four chapters and an introduction to the aborted ‘Days of Shaking’ do exist in draft form, and paper copies of these exist somewhere in the archives of RLHRS. The wonders of the internet now tempt me to make this work more easily accessible via the ‘Digital Publications’ section of the excellent RLHRS website. The completed chapters deal with the Harington families of Exton and Ridlington, the Horsmans of Stretton and the Villiers (Dukes of Buckingham) of Burley. But there are other Rutland families who played an active role on opposing sides in the civil war, and whose correspondence and interconnections certainly repay research, and could yield some new and exciting insights into the conflicts of allegiance which divided families, friends and communities. It is not widely known that Rutland produced two regicides, Thomas Waite and Sir James Harington, the latter closely related to the daring and flamboyant Royalist commander, Baptist Noel, Viscount Campden. Families whose activities during the civil war would be well worth studying include: the Noels of Exton; Bodenhams of Ryhall; Heaths of Cottesmore; Browns of Tolethorpe; Barkers of Hambleton and Digbys of Stoke Dry and North Luffenham. It would be wonderful if anyone wanted to continue researching these families and add further chapters to this intriguing story. If so I would be delighted to hear from you! Sue Howlett [email protected] -- 2 -- Days of Shaking: Rutland families in times of conflict, 1600-1660 Preface ‘I will shake all nations, and the desired of all Nations shall come (Haggai 2:7)’ In January 1643, Jeremiah Whittaker thunderously announced his sermon to the assembled House of Commons with what he rightly called ‘a shaking text.’ As he preached of the ‘universal shaking’, which would bring political conflict across England and Europe, the prospect before him must have seemed a world away from his seven-year career as Master of Oakham School, and his thirteen- year ministry in the quiet Rutland backwater of Stretton. Yet the landed families and farming villages of Rutland were not immune to the rumbling tensions, national crises and disastrous civil war which troubled much of England during the turbulent first half of the 17th century. Two local landowners played key, opposing roles in the audacious Gunpowder Plot, while in the next two decades the owner of Burley on the Hill, royal favourite and focus of a nation’s hatred, lavishly entertained two kings before his own brutal assassination. When civil war erupted in 1642, families and friends were divided. Surviving letters carry desperate appeals for protection or redress in the face of terrifying raids from opposing strongholds in and around Rutland. Rutland gentlemen led cavalry troops, commanded garrisons, suffered capture, imprisonment or death. Ministers left their parishes, some moving in high circles, while villagers paid the heavy cost of war in billeting, confiscation and taxation. Wandering preachers and Anabaptists stirred up parishioners to question authority. Not without cause did local magistrates and pamphleteers speak despairingly of ‘a world turned upside down’. The Protectorate and Restoration brought the inevitable settling of accounts. Colonel Thomas Waite, grown rich from land confiscation and enclosure, paid the inevitable penalty for signing the death warrant of King Charles I. Leading Royalists like Viscount Campden, heavily fined in the aftermath of defeat, gained rich rewards in the golden reign of Charles II. The young Duke of Buckingham regained his great house by an astute marriage with his enemy’s daughter, yet gambled it away in a dissolute future. The eccentric Sir Kenelm Digby, Cromwellian spy and amateur chemist, was accused of poisoning the beautiful wife whom Van Dyck painted on her deathbed. The more modest gentry, who avoided notoriety, often gained from the social upheaval and economic possibilities of war. A sheep-farmer from Hambleton became a baronet and builder of Lyndon Hall. Parliamentarian majors and major-generals lived their last days quietly in Rutland. For the first time, the county had its own Lord Lieutenant, while the social hierarchy and structures of deference were re-established. But the world had moved on, and establishment complacency, even in Rutland, would always be tempered by fear of rebellious voices. The new facade of elegant mansions and tranquil villages, so vividly portrayed in Wright’s 1684 History and Antiquities of the County of Rutland, was built on memories of political upheaval. In its dedication ‘To the Nobility and Gentry’ of the county, Wright expressed the national and local mood: never again should the floodgates be allowed to open and the ‘days of shaking’ return. -- 3 -- Introduction On Easter Saturday 1603, in the first spring of the new Stuart dynasty, the rolling heathland of Rutland was the setting for a strange encounter. James I was enjoying a stately progress from the harsher climate of Scotland through the welcoming regions of his new kingdom. The previous night had been spent as guest of Sir John Harington at Burley on the Hill, where the new king was greeted by a lengthy, if tedious, congratulatory poem by Elizabeth I’s court poet, Samuel Daniel. Staying long enough to hunt in Exton Park, the king was able to indulge his passion for the sport even while continuing his journey. All was arranged for the royal convenience as the party progressed towards Stamford. Sir John Harington’s best hounds accompanied the king, following scent trails laid in advance, and pursuing live hares which had been carried to the heath in baskets. The king was reported to take ‘great leisure and pleasure in the same’. Suddenly the royal party was confronted by a bewildering sight: Upon this Heath, not far from Stamford, there appeared to the number of an hundred high men, that seemed like the Patgon[ian]s, huge long fellows, of twelve and fourteen foot high, that are reported to live on the Main of Brazil, near to the Straits of Magellan. The King at the first sight wondered what they were, for that they overlooked horse and man. But when all came to all, they proved a company of poor honest suitors, all going upon high stilts, preferring a petition against the Lady Hatton.1 The countrymen, probably petitioning against enclosures or high rents, were graciously advised to defer their demands until the king reached London. He entered Stamford in stately procession to accept yet another lavish civic gift, and spent Easter Day at the Cecils’ grand palace of Burghley. The next day, lured by the prospect of further hunting with Sir John Harington, the king returned into Rutland. The royal adventures in Rutland, however, were not ended. The king’s horse fell, ‘and very dangerously bruised his arm, to the great amazement and grief of all them that were about his Majesty at that time’. Although he mounted to return to Sir John’s for the night, the king’s pain the following morning was such that he abandoned all hope of hunting and continued his journey by coach.2 While London completed its obsequies for Queen Elizabeth, and eagerly awaited the dawn of a new age, James enjoyed the leisurely, month-long progress to his new capital. The ‘days of shaking’ seemed remote, if not impossible. Everywhere, the king was greeted with smiles, gifts and vows of allegiance. Hopeful gentry shared in the lavish bestowal of honours, conferred in every county through which the king passed. At Belvoir Castle, the day before the King arrived in Rutland, Sir Wingfield Bodenham of Ryhall was one of the new-made knights. When Coronation Day arrived on 11 July, Sir John Harington was rewarded for past and future service by the title of Baron Harington of Exton, the first of eight baronies created that day.3 His family’s fortunes were at their zenith. In the first decade of the 17th century the Harington estates encompassed a third of Rutland, and four members of the family were dearest friends of James’s queen, Anna of Denmark; her daughter, Princess Elizabeth; and Henry, Prince of Wales. The wealth and status of the first family of Rutland seemed secure. If the Haringtons and other landowners looked forward to years of peace and prosperity under a new dynasty with a secure succession, other sections of the population were less contented.