The History of Barnbow Part 3
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Part 1 of the article
The History of Barnbow
Part 3 THE BARNBOW PLOT
from The Barwicker No.61
Mar. 2001
During most of the 17th. century,
the Gascoigne family were persecuted for
their support of the Roman Catholic church.
The most dramatic event in this harassment of
the family took place in the 1670s and has
become known as the Barnbow Plot. An account
of this is told in 'The History of
Barwick-in-Elmet' by Rev. FS Colman. It is
so comprehensive and detailed that we can do
no better than reproduce it here, without
amendment or omission of any kind.
The story of the so-called 'Barnbow Plot'
is this: It was inspired by the success of the
informer Titus Oates who, in the year 1678,
professed to have discovered in London a plot to
put the king to death, to subvert the Church of
England and to establish Roman Catholicism. His
tale found a ready belief and numbers lost their
lives on his accusation, he was rewarded with a
large salary, had lodgings and a guard assigned
to him in Whitehall and was accorded an
extraordinary importance. It is not surprising
that he found imitators.
There was living at this time at Shippen,
adjoining Barnbow, one Robert Bolron. He was a
native of Newcastle on Tyne, had been apprenticed
in the City of London to a jeweller at Pye
Corner, and growing tired of his calling had
enlisted in the army and been sent on board the
Rainbow frigate to fight the Dutch. He deserted,
found his way home and managed to secure the good
will of Sir Thomas Gascoigne, who befriended him,
and, in 1674, made him 'steward of his coal
works'.
In June of the following year he became a
Roman and married Mary Baker, niece to a Mrs
Herrington, then living in Sir Thomas's house,
who provided him with a house at Shippen held on
lease from Sir Thomas. Before long he was found
to be appropriating his master's money and was
dismissed from his employment, though it appears
he was still allowed to be about the premises.
Excited by the story of Oates' success and
in revenge for his dismissal, Bolron conceived
the idea of 'discovering' a Popish Plot at
Barnbow. Having concocted what he thought might
be a credible story he communicated, in the first
place, with Mr Normanton, a clergyman of Water
Fryston, who sent him to Mr Tindall, a justice of
the peace, who referred him to Mr William
Lowther, another justice. Growing bolder as he
found himself taken seriously he determined to go
to London, armed with a letter from Tindall to
lay his story before the Privy Council. On the
road, at Ware, he lost the letter, but coming to the Green Dragon in Bishophate Street he told
his business to the landlord who took him to Sir
Robert Clayton who introduced him to Lord
Shaftesbury, President of the Council.
The story that Bolron told was this. Some
time in 1675 he had overheard a conversation
between Sir Thomas Gascoigne and Sir Miles
Stapylton in which they discussed a plan to kill
the king, the former repeating the steps he had
taken for securing his property against
forfeiture in case of failure and how he had sent
£3000 to the Jesuits in London to aid the
carrying out of the scheme. It was in this year
that he became a Papist. Sir Thomas first
persuaded him and then Father Rushton, who
assured him miracles were being wrought by their
Church.
One is related very circumstantially in
Bolron's narrative. Anthony Fulshurst, whom he
describes as a converted papist, told him he had
seen it done at Francis Johnson's house in
Barwick. Mary Smith, living at Garforth, was
reported to be possessed by the devil and one
Lawson, a Romish 'exorcist' was sent to Johnson's
house to dispossess her. The sufferer was
brought there and several Protestants came to see
the miracle done, amongst them being Fulshurst.
The possessed woman became very unruly and told
the exorcist he could do no good unless all the
Protestants and heretics were put out of the
room. Fulshurst was allowed to stay and the
exorcist subsequently told him that "Mary Smith
was possessed with four devils, three of whom he
quite expulst out of her, the fourth he brought
into her great toe, which did lie there and do
the said Mary Smith no harm which was afterwards
confirmed by Mary Smith unto him the informant".
Bolron also gives details of the methods,
necessarily secret, adopted by the Romanists to
gather their people together for worship. There
were private chapels in the Gascoigne houses at
Barnbow, Lasingcroft and Parlington, and also
another at the house of William Butcher in
Barnbow, this last being for the use of the
poorer people of the village who were not allowed
to worship at the Hall.
A priest named William Hardwick used to
come from New Hall near Pontefract once in three
weeks, riding over under the cover of darkness on
a Friday night and staying till Monday. When he
came he sent word to an old woman called Ellen
Ballas to give notice to the rest of the
Catholics that they must come to "scowre their
kettles, that is, to come to confession, at such
an hour".
Another priest there called Thomas Thweng,
who kept what he called a boarding house for
training up children in Romish principles, and
who when he came was disguised as a butcher.
About January, 1676, there came to
Bolron's house at Shippen this Mr Thweng, Father
Rushton and several others who questioned him as
to his devotion to their cause. He decared he
was ready to venture his life for it, and then
was taken to Barnbow Hall where a solemn and
binding oath of secrecy was administered to him.
About Michaelmas, 1677, the narrative
continued, a company gathered in the old dining
hall at Barnbow and for six or seven hours
discussed the plot. The design included killing
the king and perhaps the Duke of York, setting
fire to London and York, and establishing a
nunnery at Dolebank, near Ripley. At this
gathering were Sir Thomas Gascoigne and his son,
Sir Miles Stapylton, Charles Ingleby, Lady
Tempest (Sir Thomas's daughter), Thomas Thweng,
Sir Walter Vavasour, Sir Francis Hungate, Robert
Killingbeck, a Jesuit and William Rushton, the
priest. Sums of money were subscribed in the
room, Sir Thomas promised £300 towards killing
the king, and £90 a year for the nunnery, and Sir
Miles Stapylton said he would give £200.
It was further stated that a list was
circulated containing the names of 400 or 500
people pledged to assist the plot, and to which
those present put their hands. At a subsequent
consultation it was agreed that the port of Hull
should be captured that the French might land
troops there. The proposed nunnery is said to
have been established at Dolebank, near
Ripley,with Mrs Lascelles as Abbess, and Sir
Thomas settled on it his promised £90 a year
secured on land at Manston which he purchased for
the purpose from Mr Timothy Mauleverer.
The narrative proceeds to tell how that on
30 May, 1679, Sir Thomas made Bolron go into the
Gallery next to the priest's lodgings in Barnbow
Hall, and after a little time Father Rushton came
to him and shewed him how meritorious an act it
would be to kill the king, and later in the day
Sir Thomas called him into his room, took him by
the hand and staightway offered him £1000 to do
so.
Bolron said he indignantly refused, and
though he promised not to repeat what had been
said he decided on second thoughts that he ought
to make it known.
This was the story that subsequently came
out in the evidence, and was told in the
published 'Narrative'. The result was that Sir
Thomas was put upon his trial for high treason at
the King's bench, 11 February, 1679/80.
According to the law at that time a prisoner
charged with a capital offence, or indeed with
any felony, was not allowed to have counsel to
plead for him, and this old man of 85, very deaf,
unable to hear half that which was alleged
against him, had to conduct his own defence as
best he could.
The judges were Lord Chief Justice
Scroggs, Justices Pemberton, Dolben and Jones and
Sir George Jeffreys, the Recorder. Scroggs was
venal, unjust and brutal (and later in this year
was removed from office by the House of Commons),
he was a firm believer in the Popish Plot, and
tried most of the victims of Titus Oates.
Jeffreys, the Recorder, was the most notoriously
corrupt and evil judge that ever sat on the
English Bench, blasphemous and brutishly
intemperate, whose conduct, three years later,
when he was sent to the West of England to try
the prisoners captured in Monmouth's rebellion
has made his name a by-word for bloodthirsty
cruelty. These were the men that tried Sir
Thomas Gascoigne.
Bolron told his tale; Laurence Mowbray,
formerly body servant to Sir Thomas, suppported
him in certain particulars, but an array of
witnesses followed who, notwithstanding constant
interruption, testified to Bolron's shortcomings
and to the threats they had heard him use against
his master for dismissing him. The Counsel for
the Crown, Serjeant Maynard, and the Solicitor
General pleaded for a conviction, three of the
judges summed up and all dead against the
prisoner, yet the jury had the wisdom and
courage, after a half hour's deliberation, to
find a verdict of not guilty.
Lady Tempest, Sir Thomas Gascoigne's
daughter, was tried at York, 23 July 1680, for
her share in the plot and she too was acquitted.
Thomas Thweng, described as "late of Heworth in
the County of York, Clerk," and Mary Pressicks,
wife of Thomas Pressicks of Barwick, were tried
for their complicity at the same assize. It is
difficult to see how the Crown could have rested
a case on evidence which, in the first trial, was
treated as unworthy of belief. However, Bolron
and Mowbray repeated much the same story, they do
not appear to have 'remembered' anything fresh.
It was alleged that Thweng had tried to persuade
Bolron to share in the plot, but against Mrs
Pressicks nothing seems to have been charged
except that she had called the king names and
accused him of immorality.
The female prisoner was acquitted, but
Thweng was found guilty and sentenced to be
hanged and quartered. The sentence was carried
out, with all its horrible barbarity, on 23
October, 1680, at York when Thweng publicly
thanked God that for fifteen years he had been
able to discharge his priestly functions. Sir
Miles Stapylton was likewise tried on 16 June,
1681, and was acquitted.
Bolron has left us two pamphlets. One is
entitled
"The Narrative of Robert Bolron of
Shippon-Hall, Gent, concerning the late Horrid
Popish Plot and Conspiracy for the Destruction of
His Majesty and the Protestant Religion, etc.
London - Printed for Thomas Simmons at the
Princes Arms and Jacob Sampson next door to the
Wonder Tavern in Ludgate Street, 1680".
The other production is
"The Papist's bloody oath
of Secrecy and Litany of Intercession for England,
with the Manner of taking the oath upon their
entering into any grand conspiracy against
Protestants. As it was taken in the Chapel
belonging to Barnbow-hall, the residence of Sir
Thomas Gascoigne, from William Rushton, a Popish
Priest. 1680."
The former of these runs to 36 pages, it
is dedicated to the king in very fulsome and
grandiloquent style, and relates the information
laid at various times before the Privy Council.
It concludes with a list of those whom Bolron
accused, and this illustrates the amount of
mischief that could be wrought by one evil
disposed man in a time of such suspicion and
social unrest.
The list includes Sir Thomas Gascoigne, in the
Tower; Sir Miles Stapylton, in the Messenger's
custody; Charles Ingleby, Esquire, in the King's
Bench; Thomas Riddell, Esquire, in Morpeth
prison; Sir Thomas Haggerston, Bart.; Richard
Townely, Esquire; Robert Doleman, Esquire.; Dr
Peter Vavasour; Richard Iles, Gent.; Robert
Stanfield, Gent.; Lady Tempest; Thos. Pressicks
Gent; Richard Sherbourne, Esquire, in Lancaster
Prison; Mary Pressicks and Thomas Thweng, Priest,
both in Newgate; John Pracis alias Cornwallis,
Priest, prisoner in York Castle; Mrs Lascelles
and John Andrews, Priest, both prisoners in Ouse
Bridge in York; Mrs Beckwith, Mrs Benningfield,
Mrs Cornwallis, Ellen Thweng, Mary Root,
Elizabeth Butcher, all belonging to the Nunnery.
Others not yet apprehended were Thomas
Gascoigne, Esquire; Richard Sherbourne, the
younger; Sir Francis Hungate, Bart.; Lord
'Mollyneux'; Francis Calvert and his wife;
Stephen Tempest, Gent.; Richard York; Sir Walter
Vavasour; John York; Christopher Mitcalfe, these
three deceased; and twenty four priests.
Besides the trials named above there were
those of John Andrews, at York on 8 July, 1679,
Robert Doleman and others at York on 27 October,
and Thomas Riddell, of Fenham, all in the same
year and on Bolron's evidence. In no other case
but that of Thweng was a conviction obtained.
For some time this Bolron actually held a general
search warrant from the Privy Council, and he
followed his profession of informer with a
reckless audacity which earned him the title of
the 'Titus Oates of the North'. After this
portion of his career he disappears from view and
nothing more is known of his life. | FREDERICK SELINCOURT COLMAN |
After his acquittal, Sir Thomas
Gascoigne passed his later years at the Abbey
of Lamspringe in Lower Saxony, where his
brother John was Abbott. Let us hope he
found the peace denied to him in England. He
died on 3 May, 1686.
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