On the 9th August, 1600, after trial at the Summer Assizes at Durham, three men were hanged there: a priest named Thomas Palaser and two laymen, John Talbot, of Thornton-le-Street in Yorkshire, and John Norton, of Ravensworth, Co. Durham, in whose house the priest had been apprehended. The career of John Talbot has been ably reconstructed by Dom Hugh Bowler, O.S.B., in Biographical Studies. Of John Norton little is generally known beyond the bare facts of his capture and death, and the circumstance that Margaret Norton, his wife, who was also condemned to death, was reprieved and afterwards pardoned. I have taken up the study of Norton and abandoned it several times for lack of evidence, during the last few years. Now it seems best to put on record the facts that have emerged, incomplete though they be, in the hope that further information may be forthcoming.

In a list of influential persons of about the year 1574, in a section devoted to Catholics, occur the names of Sir Nicholas Poyntz and his wife. The name of Sir Nicholas Poyntz also occurs in a list, dated 1580, of Catholics who had been arrested or confined to their houses or to the houses of Protestants. Challoner, writing of James Fen, gives incidental information about Sir Nicholas: “James Fenn … having … lost his wife, betook himself to the service of Sir Nicholas Poyntz, an eminent Catholic gentleman, whom he served in quality of steward … A learned and pious priest, who used to frequent Sir Nicholas's house, taking notice of the excellent qualifications … of Mr. Fenn … advised him to quit that worldly employ and go over to Rheims to the English College … Mr. Fenn took the counsel … and went over to Rheims, where he was made priest … in 1580.” The College diary does not record the year of his arrival at Rheims, but his studies for the priesthood probably lasted some four years. Sir Nicholas was therefore entertaining, if not harbouring, a priest in about 1575.

The Rambler, one of the leading English Catholic magazines of the nineteenth century, is best known as the literary organ of the Liberal Catholic movement. Founded in 1848 by a group of lay converts, it became the stormy petrel of Catholic periodical literature, coming into frequent conflict with the hierarchy, until its career was terminated by its last editor, Sir John (later Lord) Acton, in 1862. Despite the troubles with which it was beset, the Rambler contained many notable contributions to Catholic literature. Among these are a number of articles dealing with the history of English Catholicism since the Reformation, which may still be of interest to students of recusant history.

In our Catalogue of Catholic Books in English printed abroad or secretly in England, 1558-1640, we made many factual statements about the authorship, printing and dating of anonymous Recusant books, without giving the evidence. This was unavoidable if the catalogue was to be kept to a manageable size. The evidence for some of these statements has already appeared in miscellaneous articles and notes in Recusant History, and we propose to publish the rest gradually in two parallel series, Series A dealing with authors and translators, Series B with printers and presses, contributions to each series being numbered consecutively. Not all these contributions will necessarily be complete or exhaustive; in some instances we shall simply set out the evidence we have so far found. Occasionally we shall correct statements made in the catalogue in the light of more recent research. Our object is to make public the evidence on which the attributions were based, but not to imply that there is no further work to be done.

The Fairfaxes were a definitely Catholic family from 1636 and it is difficult to think that they had no chaplain in the 1630's and 1640's. The considerable donation by Abigail, wife of the 5th Viscount to the funds of the Northern District may indicate that the first chaplains were secular priests. It may also be significant that the first Fairfaxes to go abroad to school went to St. Omer (apparently) and Douai and none to St. Gregory's Douai, before the 1670's. The 2nd Viscount and his wife made no gifts to Benedictines. In 1690 Charles Fairfax of York was trustee of many secular clergy funds. (Leeds Dioc. MSS Hogarth MS.) The extant Yorkshire secular clergy records seem to contain, however, no evidence of a regular secular Gilling or Walton mission or fund.