The origin and early life of Henry Jaye, an Englishman and an exile, it would appear, for his faith, who died holding the post of official printer to the metropolitan city of Malines in Belgium, are unknown, except that he was born in London and that his father's name was Thomas. This much we learn from a register of burghers (1). It is likely that Nicholas and John Jaye,, who lived at Jdalines at the same time as Henry, were his brothers. The first recorded incident in Jaye's life occurs in 1606, at which date he is found at Antwerp, working for the notable Anglo–Flemish Catholic refugee Richard Verstegan. (2). On 26th July of that year, two English sergeants, Roger Marshall and Richard Pope, belonging to the regiment of Sir William Windsor, were at Antwerp in company with four or five other Englishmen. In their report of the incident (State Papers Foreign, Flanders, 1589–1659, bundle 8, no 151) they state “there came into our company one whose name was Henry a booke bynder as he sayde by his trad(e) and profession wch Henry belongeth as is publickly knowen unto on(e) Mr. Vestegen an Inglishe gente townedweller in the affore said Citty”. To them he used “scandalous” speeches against the King of England, saying amongst other things “I hope to see him hanged”, A few days later, on 6th. August, the English ambassador to the Archduke in Brussels, Sir Thomas Edmondes, wrote to the Secretary of State, Cecil, in England as follows “…having received information of certain very lewd and infamous words against His Majesty by one Henry Gay, an Englishman, a printer servant to Verstegan of Antwerp, he (Edmondes) complained to President Ricardott and desired the party might be sent for to answer his misdemeanour. The Archduke gave order to have him sent for, when he could not deny the words, but he has been merely dismissed with an admonition for his better carriage hereafter and to be forthcoming to answer anything that may be further objected against him. Edmondes has protested…” (Hist. MSS. Com.., Salisbury, pt. XVIII p.227). Prom a further note a little later in Edmondes’ correspondence it appears he got small satisfaction for his protest.

Fr. Newdigate's pamphlet is such a valuable reference book that it is worth making it as accurate as possible. It is particularly important that the date of martyrdom should be correct. According to the official list, seven of the martyrs died on Sunday. This is extremely improbable. For six of these there is evidence for a different date. The following notes are concerned only with the sort of information that the pamphlet seeks to give.

William Seymour (1588–1660), the husband of the unfortunate Lady Arabella Stuart, first Marquis and second Earl of Hertford and second Duke of Somerset, was received into the Church at St Omer in the late months of 1611. He was the second son of Lord Beauchamp, (1561–1612), who inherited the Suffolk claim to the throne through his mother, Catherine Grey, (1538–1568), the sister of Lady Jane Grey, who according to the will of their grandfather, Henry VIII stood next in the succession to Elizabeth.

The family of Vaux of Harrowden, which has kept the Faith to this day, has received less than its due in Catholic reference books. G-illow devotes six lines to Thomas, 2nd Lord Vaux, but makes no allusion to the rest. William, the 3rd Lord, was a friend of Edmund Campion, S.J., and suffered imprisonment on his behalf. His daughters, Eleanor and Anne, were the devoted friends of Henry Garnet, S.J.: his eldest son, Henry, resigned the title to become a Jesuit, but died early. His daughter-in-law, Elizabeth, was the host of John Gerard, S.J., at Harrowden. Seven members of the family suffered imprisonment for the Faith at various times. Nothing more is here attempted than a list of the members of the family with the dates (where known) of their births, marriages and deaths.

Fr. John Rogers S.J., on entering as a young man of twenty the English College, Rome, stated that whilst in the service of Lady Stourton he had chanced to meet “a very aged priest named Father Richard Bray, who had lived for ten years at Douay”, by whose means he had become a Catholic (Foley. IV, 419). This would have occurred at some date not far distant from 1604, the date of John Rogers’ statement. Beyond the fact that a certain Richard Bray, of Herefordshire, entered the English College, Douay, on 28 April, 1583, and received the first tonsure in the following September (Knox. 1st & 2nd Douai Diaries, 195, 198) – he may or may not have been the same man – one knows no more of Fr.Richard Bray.

Thomas Bourchier, the Franciscan martyrologist, writing of the Venerable Thomas Belchiam (d. 3 August 1537) gives the following curious fragment of information: after Belchiam’s death, he says, a congenital idiot named William Sommer went running about the court shouting “The simplicity of one mendicant breaks the pride of the King” (1). In view of Bourchier’s general unsatisfactoriness as a historian one is disposed fo regard with suspicion any of his statements which cannot be corroborated, buk in this instance there i s good reason to believe that his information i s correct, or at least founded on fact.

The original home of the family was at Englefield House (1) in the parish of Englefield, five and a half miles South-West of Reading. It had been in the family’s possession from at least as early as the middle of the twelfth century. When Elizabeth came to the throne it was the property of Sir Francis Englefield (2) who left the country, never to return, in April 1559, having settled Englefield on his brother John. John died in 1567 and was succeeded by his son Sir Francis Englefield, 1st Baronet, who survived to 1631, though his ownership of Englefield ceased in 1586 on its forfeiture to the Crown. This was the culminating act in a long dispute with the Crown which had begun with its sequestration in 1563.

During the second half of the eighteenth century there were a number of Catholic Musicians, both amateur and professional, who formed a friendly group of composers and performers. They met in each other's houses for concerts, and they joined together to raise the standard of music in the Embassy Chapels. They took an active part in such musical associations as the Madrigal Society, the Catch Club, and the Academy of Ancient Music. In this way they mixed with non-Catholics of like tastes.