Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

An indictment by Robert Bolron against William Battley of Leeds, yeoman, for charging Lawrence Mowbray and Bolron with giving false evidence in the following note: “After that Sir Thomas Gascoigne was impeached by Bolron, I was in company with Bolron at one widow Latham’s house in Leeds, and being in discourse with him about our cocks, and telling of our former acquaintance, we fell into discourse about Sir Thomas Gascoigne. He desired me for to go to borrow him an almanac, either new or old, to which I did borrow him four, but none of them would serve him. ‘What is the matter,’ said I, ‘Mr Bolron, that you are so scrupulous for almanacs?’ To which he replied that Lawrence Mowbray and he was contriving to bring Sir Miles Stapleton and the Lady Tempest to be guilty of the plot with Sir Thomas Gascoigne: ‘And if we can but hit our time we shall do their jobs, for now I am resolved to be revenged on Sir Thomas and his relations for the abuse he puts upon me, for he sues me and seeks my destruction, or else I would never have troubled him nor none that belongs to him.’”

Comment

Comment

Bolron, a Protestant Newcastle upon Tyne, seems to have been employed as manager at the Catholic Gascoigne’s lucrative colliery at Barnbow Hall. WP:

During the Popish Plot, (known locally as the Barnbow Plot, from the Gascoigne family estate of that name), he was accused of conspiracy to kill King Charles II by two disgruntled former employees, Bolron and Mowbray, but was acquitted, and retired to spend his last years in Germany.[7]

As J.P. Kenyon remarks, even in the general atmosphere of anti-Catholic hysteria created by the Popish Plot, it is difficult to see how the authorities could have taken seriously such accusations against a man who was nearly 85, deaf and almost blind, who rarely visited London and indeed had scarcely left his own estate for the past 30 years.[7] Gascoigne, ordered to stand his trial in London, sensibly demanded to be tried by a Yorkshire jury. The delay in bringing the jury down allowed him time to prepare his defence; and the judges admitted that the jurors were better equipped to decide on the credibility of witnesses, most of whom the jurors knew personally, than were the judges themselves.

By the spring of 1680, the hysteria caused by the Popish Plot was waning. The judges who tried Gascoigne, Sir William Dolben and Sir Edward Atkyns, showed more impartiality than in earlier Plot trials, admitted that the jury might find the accusers, Bolron and Mowbray, to be unreliable witnesses. Gascoigne was held in high regard by his Protestant neighbours, several of whom travelled to London to testify on his behalf. As Kenyon notes, it is interesting that the Court heard evidence about the Franciscan house at Mount Grace, Thirsk, of which Gascoigne was patron, and a great deal was said about the convent at Dolebank, near Ripon, founded by his daughter Anne Tempest, but it seems that the judges did not regard this promotion of the Catholic faith as treasonable (as the related trial of Mary Pressicks also suggests). In theory, it was a serious offence to give money for the support of a Catholic house of religion, but in practice, the Crown would generally turn a blind eye to it: the monastery at Mount Grace even survived the Plot.[6] In notable contrast to earlier trials, the judges made it clear that they would not press for a guilty verdict, and in the circumstances, the jury had little difficulty in acquitting Gascoigne.[8] They came in for severe criticism as a result, but public opinion gradually swung back in favour of the Catholic community. Most of Gascoigne’s alleged co-conspirators, who were supposed to have signed a mythical document called “the Bloody Oath of Secrecy”, were acquitted, except for Gascoigne’s nephew, the priest Thomas Thwing, who was executed for conspiracy, despite the logical difficulty of a conspiracy without any other conspirators.[6] and the Yorkshire part of the Popish Plot fizzled out. In the case of Gascoigne’s neighbour and co-accused Mary Pressicks, the Court gave an interesting ruling that she was legally entitled to publicly advocate the conversion of England to the Roman Catholic faith.[9]

I haven’t yet read Bolron’s story (Bolron 1680).

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Original

CCXXV WILLIAM BATTLY FOR PERJURY
July 9, 1680. An indictment against William Battley, of Leeds, yeoman, for charging Lawrence Mowbray and Robert Bolron with giving false evidence, in the following note: ‘After that Sir Thomas Gascon was impeached by Bouldrun, I was in company with Bouldrun at one widow Latham’s house in Leeds, and being in discourse with him about our cocks, and telling of our former acquaintance, we fell into discourse about Sir Thomas Gascon. He desired me for to go to borrow him an almanac, either new or old; to which I did borrow him four, but none of them would serve him. “What is the matter,” said I, “Mr. Bouldrun, that you are so scrupulous for almanacs?” to which he replied that Lawrance Moubury and he was contriving to bring Sir Miles Staplton and the Lady Tempest to be guilty of the plot with Sir Thomas Gascon. “And if we can but hit our time we shall do their jobs, for now I am resolved to be revenged on Sir Thomas and his relations for the abuse he puts upon me, for he sues me and seeks my destruction, or else I would never have troubled him nor none that belongs to him.”‘

208 words.

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• Almanac (3) ·
• 📌Barnbow Hall (1) ·
• 📌Barnbow (2) ·
• Barwick-in-Elmet (2) ·
• Catholic Church (57) ·
• Charles II (1630-85) (25), King of Scotland 1649-51, King of England, Scotland and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration until his death ·
• Cockfight (4) ·
• 📌Leeds (235) ·
• Perjury (4) ·
• Popish Plot (4) ·
• Sir Thomas Gascoigne, 2nd Baronet (2) ·
• 📌York Castle (36) ·
• 📌York (164) ·

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