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Elizabethan Priest-Holes: IV — Harvington

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2016

Michael Hodgetts
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Extract

On the Great Staircase and in the Little Drawing Room at Coughton Court in Warwickshire hangs a family group of portraits which came from Harvington Hall in Worcestershire. The earliest, of Humphrey Pakington (1555-1631), is dated 1599 and shows him in an oval frame, with receding hair, goatee beard and dark, slightly protruding eyes. He is wearing a ruff and black doublet, and the long fingers of his left hand lightly grasp a pendent jewel. His lips are set in a straight line, and the general effect is one of woodensolemnity. Close by is the portrait by Cornelius Jansen of Humphrey’s second wife, Abigail Sacheverell, a much more vivid character. She is a podgy woman with a double chin, in a magnificently padded and slashed dress of blue and silver and an enormous lace collar set off by jewellery. Here, beyond doubt, was a capable and masterful woman, an impression which is confirmed by her surviving letters. The portrait is signed by Jansen above theleft sleeve, and is dated 1630, the year before Humphrey’s death. The series continues with two portraits of their elder daughter Mary Yate (one by the school of Jansen); with one of their younger daughter Anne Audley (also attributed to Jansen); with one of Sir John Yate, who married Mary; and with one by Adriaen van der Werff of Sir Charles Yate, son of Sir John and Mary. Finally, there is a portrait (school of Lely) of Sir Charles’s daughter, another Mary Yate, whose marriage to Sir Robert Throckmorton took the Harvington estates to the Throckmortons in 1696.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , April 1975 , pp. 18 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1975

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References

For abbreviations see Recusant History, October 1972, p. 296.

1 Squiers, 73.

2 Hodgkinson, H.R., ‘Recent Discoveries at Harvington Hall’, Birmingham Archaeological Society Trans. 62 (1938), pp. 17–18 Google Scholar.

3 Squiers, 74.

4 Hodgkinson, 14-15.

5 V.C.H. Worcs. 3, p. 40.

6 Hodgkinson, 4-8; Christopher Hussey, Country Life, 4-11-18 August 1944.

7 Hodgkinson, 17; though he gives the date as c. 1730. Fr Brownlow’s MS. History of Chaddesley Corbett and Harvington, written in 1855 and now at Coughton, gives the date as ‘about a hundredyears ago’ (History, p. 75); and this is confirmed by his Genealogy of the Throckmorton Family, also at Coughton, where he givesthe date as 1756 (Genealogy 2, p. 685)Google Scholar.In the History, p. 110, he says that Sir Robert Throckmorton (1702-91), the fourth baronet, ‘substituted the present roof for the ancientflat lead embattled roof on Harvington Hall tower. Old Josh Baylis’sfather took down the lead roof and battlements, so old Josh told me about thirty years ago; and he added, I believe, that the lead went to Buckland.’ Buckland House, a Palladian mansion by John Wood of Bath, was built about 1757: V.C.H. Berks, 3, p. 290.

8 ‘All the books in the Upper Library (except some fewItalian books, which belong to Sir Robert, and a parcel of old books of Mr Robert Heydon’s) and what are in a glass case in the P— Room,belong to the said Sec. Cler. and his successors’: Birmingham Archdiocesan Archives, C. 260.

9 The only comparable house is Townley Hall, Burnley, which originally had eight hides. These will be discussed in a later article.

10 SirSummerson, John, Architecture in Britain, 1530-1830 (1953), pp. 28–29 Google Scholar. Cf. Squiers, pp. 71-72.

11 Moore, Elsie Matley, ‘Wall-Paintings in Worcestershire’, Archaeologia 88 (1938)Google Scholar; Christopher Hussey, Country Life, 18 August 1944 (also obtainable in pamphlet form from the Hall).

12 Lionel, and Webster, Veronica Anderton, ‘The Pakingtons of Harvington’, Recusant History, April 1974, pp. 206-10Google Scholar.

13 Parkinson, John, Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris (1629: facsimile ed. Methuen, , 1904), p. 213 Google Scholar.

14 Pevsner, , Buildings of Worcestershire (1968), pp. 27, 117Google Scholar.

15 P.R.O., E. 179/260/5, reproduced in John West, Village Records (1962), Plate 12.

16 As at Burton Agnes, Chastleton, Hatfield, Long Melford andMontacute. Humphrey Pakington’s brother-in-law Henry Russell was steward to Sir William Cordell at Long Melford in 1580-81: Stevenson, and Salter, , The Early History of St John’s College (Oxford Hist Soc. N.S. 1, 1939), pp. 496-7Google Scholar. Earlier, in 1571-72, Sir William had the wardship of Humphrey’s cousin, John Pakington of Westwood, later ‘Lusty Sir John’ the starch monopolist: Birmingham Reference LibraryMS. 499827.

Hodgkinson (pp. 7-8) drew attention to the blocked doorways and concluded that there had been a third and possibly a fourth side to the courtyard. But he asserted that these buildings had been part of the medieval house, not of the Elizabethan one.

17 Stanton, G.K., Catholic Harvington (1884), pp. 7–8 Google Scholar. Cf. Recusant History, April 1965, pp. 128, 131-2.

18 Brownlow, John, A Memoir of Harvington Hall (1872), quoted by Hodgkinson, , p. 13 Google Scholar. This short guide to the Hall has never been printed, but there is a typed copy made by Sir Benjamin Stone in 1896 in Birmingham Reference Library (572391). At the end Stone noted that he had used the original ‘in the possession of Mrs Carter, Caretaker, Harvington Halľ. This original MS, which Hodgkinson (p. 2) could not trace, was shown to me on 19 June 1966 by Mrs Carter’s daughter, Mrs Catherine Newman, of 26a St Kenelm’s Avenue, Halesowen, Worcestershire. Stone’s transcription of the date 1576 is correct.

19 J. B. Black, The Reign of Elizabeth (1959), pp. 304-05.

20 Hodgkinson, 14.

21 Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of Shropshire (1958), pp. 30, 113, 149.

22 Recusant History, October 1973, pp. 107, 109, 111.

23 Coughton Court, Throckmorton MSS., Tribune Map Cupboard 13, reproduced as plate facing Hodgkinson, p. 20.

24 Hodgkinson, 16.

25 V.C.H. Worcs. 3, p. 40; Hodgetts, ‘Adam of Harvington’, Worcestershire Arch. Soc. Trans. N.S. 36 (1959) pp. 33-41.

26 V.C.H. Worcs. 3, p. 38.

27 British Museum,Add. MS. 31314, ff. 16, 20-21.

28 Hodgkinson, 4.

20 It is clear from the details given by Brownlow that this window is the one at the courtyard end of the Nine Worthies Passage on the second floor, just above the top landing of the Great Staircase and next to the stair hide.

30 Hodgkinson, 22; Hussey, Country Life, 18 August 1944.

31 St Helen’s Record Office, Worcester, Berington MS. 376/2.

32 Wychbold is a village about seven miles south-east of Harvington, on the road from Droitwich to Bromsgrove.

33 Webster, 208-09.

34 Pipe Roll E. 372/437 Item Salop.

35 St Helen’s Record Office, Worcester, 1578/35c.

36 Worcs. R.O. (St Helen’s) 899: 115, no. 7; photocopyin Birmingham Reference Library, 623584, no. 7; full text in Worcs. Recusant 7 (May 1967).

37 V.C.H. Worcs. 3, p. 39.

38 Habington, Thomas, Survey of Worcestershire (ed. Amphlett, John, Worcs. Hist. Soc, 1895), 1, p. 149 Google Scholar.

39 Mercer, Eric in Connoisseur Period Guide: Tudor (ed. Edwards, Ralph and Ramsey, L.G.G., 1956), pp. 18–19 Google Scholar.

40 Mercer, p. 20.

41 Ibid.

42 ‘This worke, 25 yards long, was wholly builded by Edward Norris, Esq., Anno 1598’: inscription on the north front of Speke Hall.

43 Recusant History, January 1974, p. 186.

44 Birmingham Archdiocesan Archives, C. 151.

45 Hodgkinson, 25; Hussey, Country Life, 18 August 1944.

46 Ibid.

47 Thomas Alfield, True Reporte (A & R 4): St Henry Walpole, Upon the death of M. Edmund Campion, stanza 14; and (Anon.) The complaynt of a Catholike, lines 37-40. Both of these poemsare printed in Pollen’s edition (1908) of Cardinal Allen’s Brief History of. . . Twelve Reverend Priests (pp. 28, 45).

48 Webster, p. 206.

49 For a photograph, see Squiers, opp. p. 96.

50 Recusant History, January 1974, p. 191.

51 Hodgkinson, p. 6; Hussey, Country Life, 4 August 1944.

52 Squiers, 74.

53 Recusant History, October 1973, p. 108 and Plates 1, 2.

54 Brownlow, Genealogy 3, pp. 59-60.

56 Weston, p. 46.

56 Hodgkinson, p. 13.

57 Birmingham Reference Library MS. 351981: printed in John West, Village Records (1962), p. 113.

58 Pepys’ Diary, 23 October 1660; Allan Fea, The Flight of the King (1908), pp. 76-78. There is a photograph of the authentic spit-jack on p. 78.

59 Squiers, pp. 77-79 and diagram and photo opposite p. 112; letters from Squiers to me, 6 September 1956 and 17 October 1956; picture postcard formerly on sale at the Hall (copy in my possession).

60 Chambers, F.Owen, Harvington Hall; An Historical Account of the Old Manor House at Harvington (Kidderminster, third ed., 1925), pp. 17–19 Google Scholar.

61 Squiers, p. 78; Squiers to me, 6 September 1956.

62 Ibid.

63 Squiers to me, 6 September 1956.

64 Squiers, p. 79.

65 Squiers to me, 17 October 1956.

66 Hodgkinson, pp. 10, 12 and diagram.

67 Hussey, Country Life, 11 August 1944.

68 Hodgkinson, p. 12.

69 A hole at the bottom of the hide through to the shaft was made and blocked again in recent years.

70 Squiers to me, 17 October 1956.

71 Squiers, Moseley Old Hall (Walsall, 1950); Hodgetts,‘The Royal Hiding Places at Boscobel and Moseley’, Staffordshire Catholic History 8 (1967).

72 Squiers, 75.

73 J. R. Burton, History of Kidderminster (1890), p. 199.

74 Recusant History, October 1973, pp. 100-13.

75 Recusant History, October 1972, pp. 284-92.

76 Camm, Forgotten Shrines (1910), p. 256.

77 Birmingham Reference Library, Stone Collection, 65/27-28.

78 Recusant History, October 1972, Plates 1, 2.

79 Recusant History, January 1974, pp. 172, 191.

80 J. H. Pollen, Acts of English Martyrs, 1578-1642 (1891), pp. 115-16.

81 Camm, Forgotten Shrines, plates facing pp. 253, 262.

82 Squiers, 25.

83 Recusant History, January 1974, p. 173.

84 Reid, P.R., Colditz (Hodder & Stoughton, 1962, 1972), p. 355 Google Scholar.

85 C.R.S. 21, p. 37.

86 Hodgkinson, p. 26.

87 Quoted by Camm, Shrines, pp. 260-1, and with minor verbal changes by Stanton, Catholic Harvington (1884), p. 10. See also Recusant History, April 1965, pp. 125-31.

88 Squiers, 133-5, with diagram, p. 134.

89 Squiers to me, 17 October 1956, recording information given to him by Hodgkinson.

90 Hodgkinson, , ‘Further Notes on Harvington Hall’, Birmingham Arch. Soc. Trans. 73 (1955), p. 99 Google Scholar.

91 Squiers, 75.

92 Squiers, 64-65 and photo facing p. 80.

93 P. R. Reid, Colditz, 524-7, 564-80. On p. 578 is a drawing of the interior of the secret workshop, which should be compared with Plates 12 and 13 of this article.

94 Colditz, 568-73.

95 Hodgkinson, ‘Recent Discoveries’, 15.

96 ‘This discovery was made by Mr Bernard Lloyd when staying with his grandfather, Mr Edward Hailes, tenant of the Hall Farm’: Hodgkinson, 15.

97 Squiers, 26-27.

98 Webster, ‘The Pakingtons of Harvington’, Recusant History, April 1974, p. 207.

99 Hodgetts, , ‘Elizabethan Recusancy in Worcestershire: I’, Worcestershire Arch. Soc. Trans. Third Series 1 (1965-67), pp. 72–74, 78Google Scholar.

100 Foley 4, pp. 213-16; Gerard, 44-45.

101 Gerard, 41.

102 Gerard, 44.

103 Squiers to me, 2 January 1957.

104 Devlin, Robert Southwell (Watergate ed., 1957), p. 256.

105 Garnet, 146.

106 Garnet, 152, 163-4.

107 Garnet, 154, 157, 159-62, 166, 169.

108 Garnet, 164-5, 171, 174.

109 Recusant History, October 1973, pp. 173-4.

110 S.P. 12/246/18.

111 Recusant History, January 1974, pp. 192-4.

112 Squiers to me, 14 September 1955, 17 October 1956, 2 January 1957, 19 June 1957.

113 Kirk, John, Biographies of English Catholics (ed. Pullen and Burton, 1909), p. 95 Google Scholar.

114 Pullen, G.F., ‘The Harvington Library at Oscott’, Worcestershire Recusant 1 (April 1963), pp. 18–20 Google Scholar; Pullen, Recusant Books at St Mary’s, Oscott (part 1, 1964; part 2, 1966); Catalogue of theBible Collections in the Old Library at St Mary’s, Oscott (1971). Mr Pullen is preparing a catalogue of the Harvington Library.

115 Recusant History, April 1965, pp. 123-4; Old Brotherhood Archives, 4/29.

116 British Museum, MS. Lansdowne 446, ff. 119-20.

117 Anstmther, Seminary Priests, 54-56.

118 Garnet, 247. But by agreement with Blackwell Garnet maintained his services to incoming priests: Garnet, 255.

119 Tierney-Dodd 3, clxxxi; cf. C.R.S. 22, p. 137.

120 Recusant History, January 1974, pp. 193-4.

121 C.R.S. 22, p. 136.

122 Webster, 207.

123 Webster, 208-09.

124 Gerard, 207-08, 268.

125 Vaux, 300-06.

126 See above, p. 28.

127 Worcester (St Helen’s) R.O. MS. Berington 376/2 (the same letter as above).

128 Webster, 208.

129 Webster, 209.

130 Gerard, 160-1.

131 Squiers, 261-4.

133 Squiers, 41 and photos facing p. 33.

133 Hodgetts, Worcs. Recusant 9 (June 1967), pp. 9-10.

134 Arthur Oswald, Country Life, 27 August 1953.

135 Squiers, 79-80.

136 Harvington Hall, Report of the Committee of Management, 1937, p. 4.

137 Morris, Troubles 3, p. 163. The account is in a report of Fr Richard Holtby’s.

138 For further details see Hodgetts, Worcs. Recusant 8 (December 1966), pp. 1-14.

139 Squiers, 80.