ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY forming husbands contrived to hold their own and bring up their sons also in what they believed to be the only way of salvation. 169 The agitation caused by Babington's conspiracy is shown by an entry in the records of the borough of the arrest of a serving-man who had dared to say Babington was an honest gentleman. 180 A certain John Palmer of Keg- worth was arrested also on suspicion of being concerned in the plot, and bound over to remain for some months in London and report himself occa- sionally to the Privy Council. 161 His name appears henceforth on every list of recusants for Leicestershire. In 1588 the alarm of the Armada called for fresh lists ; and at this time ' an old priest ' was put in the county gaol, and John Palmer was again under custody. 163 The same families were in trouble once more in I59i. 163 The last list of the reign, made out in 1595, is of much interest ; it will be found quoted in full in an appended note. 164 It gives an impression more vivid than any description of the vigilance of the government, and the discomfort and anxiety under which the recusants of this reign must have lived. Country justices might be willing to shut their eyes to many of the doings of their friends and neighbours ; the government did not always act at once 159 Notably the wives of Francis and George Smith of Ashby Folville ; the grandson of the latter was the first Lord Carrington, head of a family of recusants. See also the lineage of the Turvilles of Aston Flamville. Camden, Visit, of Lcic. 55, 131. In connexion with this subject much interest will be found in the study of the pedigrees of this period ; they show very clearly how this cause was kept alive by continual intermarriage between the principal recusant families of England. So in the Brooksby pedigree we meet the names of Vaux, Beaumont, Wiseman, Englefield ; in the Beaumont line we find Vaux, Pierpoint, Faunt, Fortescue. 160 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, 431. 161 S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxciii, 50 ; Acts of P.Q. xiv, 232, 280. It was noticed in the same year that divers Jesuits and seminary priests were received and harboured in the houses of sundry gentlemen of this county and others of good account. Acts ofP.C. xiv, 140. 168 S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccviii, 66 ; ccxxxviii, 82. I63 Ibid, ccxxxviii, 126 ; P.R.O. Recusant Roll, 34 Eliz. I64 S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccli, 13. ' Launcelot Blackborne, a seminary priest, was at Mr. Palmer's house at Kegworth, co. Leicester, the 29 January ; and that house is never without a priest, whether he be at home or abroad. Near Sawley, two miles from Mr. Palmer's, dwells Mr. Williamson, who was wont to keep a priest called Mr. Tanfield, until a time that he being at mass, Mrs. Williamson having a little dog which barked and made a great noise, the said Tanfield spurned him down the stairs with his foot and killed him ; for which cause she fell out with that priest, but is seldom without one. At Mr. Merry's, at Barton Park, dwelleth Nicholas Icke alias Wood, a seminary priest, and he is often at Mr. Palmer's of Kegworth ; the said Mrs. Merry is sister to Mr. Palmer. At one Bakewell's house at Awkemorton, a mile from Mr. Merry's, there is a great resort of priests. At Mr. Whithall's house near Asborne, four miles from Awkemorton, lieth Robert Shewell, a seminary priest ; at the buttery door they go up a pair of stairs straight to the chamber where mass is said, and Tanfield useth thither often. At one Rawlins' house at Rawson's, three miles from there, let them go into the parlour, and directly before the door there is a spinet where you shall find either priest or church stuff; many recusants in that town resort thither to mass. At Mr. Foljambe's house at Throwley there is store of church stuff which was carried thither by A.B. John Bedford alias Tanfield, a handsome man with no hair on his face. Mr. Ruxby alias Pickering, a tall man with grey hair cut near and round. Robert Shewell hath a bald head and one leg bigger than another. William Morecock a very little man with a clubbed foot. Mr. Blackman, a big lean sad man yellow-haired. Launcelot Blackborne, a black man cut near with some white hair and snaffleth in his speech. Nicholas Icke alias Wade, yellow-haired.' Lancelot Blackburn was ordained 1575, sent to England 1576, imprisoned a short time, but released in the same year ; so he had been nearly twenty years on the mission. Douay Diary, i, 5, 25, 113, 1 16. Robert Shewell was ordained 1570, already of mature age, and sent to England in the same year. Ibid. 164. William Morcott, who may be here referred to, was sent to England 1581. Ibid. 28. The other names cannot be identified certainly. Father Gerard of the Gunpowder Plot was sometimes known as Tanfield, but it seems improbable that this is he. 375
