than has been supposed. The records of this county bring out this point very clearly.
In 1577 it was reported by the justices of the peace in Bucking- hamshire that there were none here that refused to come to church.[1] But in 1583 in a list of persons noted as ' harbourers of Papists and seminaries,'[2] are found four names belonging to this county, namely, Gifford of Steeple Claydon, Mercer of Middle Claydon, Dormer of Wing, and Peckham (the first two re-appear in the recusant Roll of i 594) ; to these is added in another list [3] which follows the name of Browne [4] of Boarstall. It was said of all these that they habitually entertained certain priests named, and also offered a refuge to any that might come their way. There is however no record of any proceed- ings instituted against these persons. About 1584 Mistress Isabel Hampden of Stoke Poges and her family withdrew from their parish church, and fell under the suspicion of Paul Wentworth of Burnham. [5] In 1585 Sir Robert Dormer, as sheriff of Buckinghamshire, was ordered to draw up a list of recusants for his shire, that they might be com- pelled to pay their fines and provide horses for the queen's service [6] ; and now twenty-two names were sent in, representing fifteen well-known families, the only one of interest outside this county being that of Thomas Throgmorton. [7] It may be noticed that they do not include any of those suspected in 1583 except William Mercer of East Claydon. Ten of those reported at this time offered to pay certain sums varying from 10s. to £100, as composition for the enormous fines actually due by the law of the land. [8] In 1 587 John Gardiner of Grove Place, Bucks, was imprisoned in the Gatehouse for aiding and sheltering priests ; his
- ↑ S. P. Dom. Eliz. cxviii. 9.
- ↑ Ibid, clxviii. 33.
- ↑ Ibid. 34. The Dormer here mentioned is Sir Robert, afterwards Baron Dormer of Wing. Letters of Sir Francis Englefield to the Duchess of Feria in 1570 show plainly how Sir William Dormer in his old age was in danger of falling away from the Roman Catholic interest. He is said to be ' beset by heretics ' (such as the Earl of Bedford), so that he breathes their spirit : ' the use of ill company and the lack of all good occasions of reviving a man's slow devotion to good things in time corrupts the very mind, affection and soul.' It was hoped at the same time that his son's marriage with a daughter of Lord Montague would make him ' a pillar to the family that shall succeed in that realm.' Ibid, xviii. 44, 45. This marriage did not however make Sir Robert an open recusant ; but it kept him within the old circle, and he married all his children into Roman Catholic families.
- ↑ The Brownes of Boarstall were probably related to Anthony Browne, Lord Montague.
- ↑ S. P. Dom. Eliz. cbcvii. 47.
- ↑ Ibid, clxxxiii. 32.
- ↑ The Throgmortons of Weston Underwood seem to have been another branch of the same family which was mixed up with so many of the suspicious correspondences of this reign. It was probably on account of this connection that they had now and later to pay much larger fines than other people, though not personally concerned, so far as can be yet discovered, in any conspiracy. The same Thomas Throgmorton who now paid 100 a year, had to pay 20 in 1607 instead of two-thirds of his estate. The best known of the other names are Mansfield of Taplow, Penn of Penn, Lee of Pitstone, Hampden of Stoke Poges, Butler and Belson of Brill.
- ↑ Ibid, clxxxviii. 32. John Butler of Brill, offering .4 a year for his whole family, says that even this amount is almost beyond his power, since his Oxfordshire estates had been seized three years since by the sheriff on a writ of excommunication, and he had been forced to go and live in a cottage on an income of 40 marks a year at the uttermost. Austin Belson of Brill declared he had neither lands, goods nor cattle, and could not even provide a light horse. Avice Lee of Pitstone solved the difficulty by going to church and obtaining a certificate of conformity. Ibid, clxxxiii. 32. The real fine, 240, was beyond the total income of most of the ordinary county gentry ; hence the necessity of these compositions.
