The Darell family history provides a good illustration of the confused and conflicting religious loyalties in sixteenth and seventeenth century England. There were four branches of the family in southern England, all originally descended from William Darrell of Sesay, Yorkshire, in the early fifteenth century. The Pagham and Fulmere branches descended from William of Littlecote; the Calehill branch from John of Calehill by his first wife; and the Scotney branch from John of Calehill by his second wife, niece and heiress of Archbishop Chichele, who owned Scotney Castle. In this paper I am mainly concerned with the Calehill branch. Burton, in his life of Bishop Challoner, stated ‘they were always Catholics’ and he was followed by McGurk, but the head of the Calehill branch was not in fact a recusant until after 1694. From that time they were consistently Catholic.