Yorkshire Almanac John Wilks (Thompson, Smith…), of Knaresborough gives a York court a glimpse of the life of a Catholic hedge priest

31 August 1651: John Wilks (Thompson, Smith…), of Knaresborough gives a York court a glimpse of the life of a Catholic hedge priest

James Raine. 1861. Depositions from the Castle of York. London: Surtees Society. Get it:

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

Aug. 31, 1651. Before Luke Robinson, Esq., John Smith, otherwise calling himself John Thompson, sayeth he never went by other names than these two; sayeth, that he hath no certain abode, but where his friends do entertain him for the time. Being asked, amongst which friends he doth most reside, doth desire to be pardoned, because he is not willing to wrong his friends. He sayeth that he did come from Ruston in the night; last night from Mrs. Sayer’s house, there having been three days; and came from Mr. Trollop’s house in the bishopric of Durham about a fortnight ago, and came on foot. Being asked what places he did lodge at by the way, he is unwilling to wrong his friends, yet confesseth he lay at Yarm at an alehouse, and at an house beyond Black Hambleton, an alehouse; and that he lay at Stangrave at an ale house. Sayeth he hath been at the house beyond Hambleton before, but not at the other houses. He is by profession a schoolmaster; hath lived in diverse places, but will not name any; sayeth he is a Roman Catholic, and became one in the family of the Lady Anne Ingleby, and did live some time with old Mr. Vavasor of Heslewood five years, and from thence went to teaching scholars, and did teach Sir Francis Ireland his children. Being asked whether he did never teach in any other place, he will not answer. Being asked whether he be in orders from the Church of Rome or no, he sayeth he will not say he is or he is not, and will not answer positively to that question. He sayeth he was not beyond seas. Being asked whether a man may be qualified for an ecclesiastical person of that Church of Rome without he go beyond seas, he sayeth he must either go beyond the seas or be qualified by some person who comes from thence. Sayeth he was not in prison in his life but once, being carried before Sir Robert Barwicke about two years ago, who, upon examination, set him free. He sayeth he was then apprehended in Helmsley at one Daniel Emerson’s house, and was apprehended by Major Scarffe, and was then accused for being a priest, and he did not then deny that he was one. He hath been much at the Lord Ewres his house in the old lord’s time, but not since. He was borne in Nidderdale in Yorkshire, and his father’s name was William Smith. he did take the name of Thompson, because the times were troublesome for him. he came to Mrs. Sayers only to see her.

Order the book:

Subscribe to the free daily email:

To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Raine notes:

Another seminary priest. Bishop Chaloner, in his Memoirs of the Missionary Priests, gives the following account of him: “He was one of the secular clergy. His name was Wilks, tho’ he was commonly known by the name of Tomson. He was born at Knaresbrough in Yorkshire, was taken at Malton upon a market-day, and set in the stocks to be gazed at by the people almost the whole day, till a cutler of the town making oath that he knew him to be Lord Evers his priest, he was sent to York Castle, tried and convicted, but died before execution.”

Christopher Cooper, of Old Malton, deposes that before day he met Smith and one William Thompson, “going on the back-side of the town on the foot way. He said they came from Rushton. Travailed early, for they had beasts going before, but the beasts were not his. He then got the constable to apprehend them, and Smith confessed that he came out of the North, and confessed that he was Roman Catholic and a schoolmaster.”

William Skelton, constable of Malton, says that the nightwatch of Old Malton brought the two to him as suspicious persons. “He did find popish papers about Smith, and the watchmen did bring small pieces of paper which they said they did see Smith scatter.”

Luke Robinson, Esq., of Thornton Risebrough, near Pickering, was an active magistrate and a very zealous Parliamentarian. He was bailiff and M.P. of Scarborough, and one of the Council of State. At the Restoration he was driven out of the House of Commons. He is thus alluded to in one of the old political ballads of that period:

Luke Robinson that clownado,
Though his heart be a granado,
Yet a high-shoe with his hand in his poke
Is his most perfect shadow.

Something to say? Get in touch

Comment

Raine notes:

Another seminary priest. Bishop Chaloner, in his Memoirs of the Missionary Priests, gives the following account of him: “He was one of the secular clergy. His name was Wilks, tho’ he was commonly known by the name of Tomson. He was born at Knaresbrough in Yorkshire, was taken at Malton upon a market-day, and set in the stocks to be gazed at by the people almost the whole day, till a cutler of the town making oath that he knew him to be Lord Evers his priest, he was sent to York Castle, tried and convicted, but died before execution.”

Christopher Cooper, of Old Malton, deposes that before day he met Smith and one William Thompson, “going on the back-side of the town on the foot way. He said they came from Rushton. Travailed early, for they had beasts going before, but the beasts were not his. He then got the constable to apprehend them, and Smith confessed that he came out of the North, and confessed that he was Roman Catholic and a schoolmaster.”

William Skelton, constable of Malton, says that the nightwatch of Old Malton brought the two to him as suspicious persons. “He did find popish papers about Smith, and the watchmen did bring small pieces of paper which they said they did see Smith scatter.”

Luke Robinson, Esq., of Thornton Risebrough, near Pickering, was an active magistrate and a very zealous Parliamentarian. He was bailiff and M.P. of Scarborough, and one of the Council of State. At the Restoration he was driven out of the House of Commons. He is thus alluded to in one of the old political ballads of that period:

Luke Robinson that clownado,
Though his heart be a granado,
Yet a high-shoe with his hand in his poke
Is his most perfect shadow.

Something to say? Get in touch

21 September 1549: Egalitarian, republican and Catholic, the leaders of the Seamer Rebellion against the Edwardian Reformation are hanged at York

11 September 1666: Nine days after the start of the Great Fire, Margaret Hodgson of Richmond tells a York court that a beggar told her yesterday of a plot to burn London

9 July 1680: The Protestant Robert Bolron says that William Battley of Leeds lied in saying that Bolron had falsely accused the Catholic Sir Thomas Gascoigne of treason, and was fussy about almanacs

18 March 1650: Dorothy Rodes of Bowling (Bradford) blames witchcraft by Mary Sykes for the postpartum illness of her daughter

16 March 1676: Charles Chauncy of Bridlington tells a court what he found when he went to confiscate horses and firearms from John Constable, Catholic

3 July 1761: John Wesley visits an unjustly bankrupted Yarm liquor smuggler in York Castle

5 February 1649: The Puritan John Sharp of Bradford, on military service at Hull, writes passionately to his “cousin” at York

30 July 1820: Primitive Methodists try to disrupt the traditional Maudlin Fair football match between Hedon and Preston (Holderness)

2 August 1680: William Dolben, perhaps reluctantly, condemns Thomas Thwing to death at York for his part, without co-conspirators, in a fictitious conspiracy – the Popish Plot

Order the book:

Subscribe to the free daily email:

Comment

This is a Jesuit hagiography, and I don’t know to what extent the source reflects the substance of Dolben’s remarks. Wikipedia takes a more benevolent view of him:

In the aftermath of the Popish Plot, Dolben tried many of the accused, including Sir Thomas Gascoigne, 2nd Baronet and Sir Miles Stapleton; due to his impartial trait of pointing out inconsistencies in the prosecution’s evidence, both were acquitted.[4] At the trial of Mary Pressicks, who was accused of saying that “We shall never be at peace until we are all of the Roman Catholic religion”, Dolben saved her life by ruling that the words, even if she did speak them, could not amount to treason.[5] As a result of this and his opposition to Charles II’s removal of the City Corporation’s writs, he was “according to the vicious practise of the time” dismissed on 18 April 1683. Again working as a barrister, Dolben prosecuted Algernon Sidney in November 1683 before being reinstated as a Justice of the King’s Bench on 18 March 1689. Records from 29 April show him “inveighing mightily against the corruption of juries [during the Glorious Revolution]”,[1] and he continued sitting as a Justice until his death from an apoplectic fit on 25 January 1694,[6] and was buried in Temple Church.

Vulgar almanacs glory in death sentences and executions, but I suppose one (1) is called for.

Something to say? Get in touch