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The Economic Consequences of Recusancy in Elizabethan Worcestershire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2016

Vincent Burke
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Extract

How far were recusants affected financially by the Elizabethan penal statutes? Given that only a small proportion of fines was collected or reached the Exchequer, it may be that the question is scarcely worth discussing. It is nearly always assumed that Elizabethan Catholics suffered economic hardships; it has been suggested that their chief disability was not the fines but continuous exclusion from public office (1), and also that their plight was so desperate that they had no alternative save rebellion (2). Such conjectures can only be tested by examining the fortunes of recusant gentry at the local level; and Worcestershire, with its record of Catholic conspiracies culminating in the Gunpowder Plot, provides the right circumstances for such an examination.

Type
Articles
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , October 1977 , pp. 71 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1977

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References

Notes

(1) Trevor-Ropef, H.R., The Gentry, 1540–1640 (Economic History Review Supplement no. 1, 1953), p. 21.Google Scholar

(2) Ibid., p. 20

(3) Elton, The Tudor Constitution (1962), pp. 422–3.

(4) Dietz, F.C., The Exchequer in Elizabeth's Reign (Smith College Studies in History, 1923), pp. 85–9.Google Scholar

(5) British Library, Caesar Papers 153, f. 195.

(6) C.R.S. 57, p. xliii.

(7) P.R.O. E.401/1842–1871 (Pells Receipt Books).

(8) Ibid., 1842–6.

(9) P.R.O. E.377/5/27.

(10) E.377/9/42.

(11) E.377/3/24.

(12) E.401/1854–5.

(13) E.377/9/42.

(14) Lambeth Place Library, Carte Antique et Miscellanee IV, no. 199, f.1.

(15) E.372/434/68.

(16) Lambeth Palace, Carte Antique et Miscellanee IV, no. 183, f.1.

(17) E.368/451/6, Recorda.

(18) Lambeth Palace, Carte Antique... no. 183, f.1.

(19) E.368/473/21, Recorda.

(20) Worcestershire R.O. 008.7: B.A. 3585, 64, no. 35c (Wills and Inventories).

(21) Michael Hodgetts, ‘Elizabethan Recusancy in Worcestershire: I’ Worcs. Arch. Soc. Third Series 1 (1965–7), p. 77.

(22) British Library, Shrewsbury (Talbot) Deeds, Add. Charters 73592.

(23) P.R.O. Star Chamber 5, A.42/4.

(24) E.401/1864.

(25) Few recusants were ruined by the fines. In the case of Sir Thomas Tresham, discussed below, there were other reasons: M.E. Finch, The Wealth of five Northamptonshire Families, 1540–1640 (Northants. Record Society, 1956), pp. 66–99.

(26) E.368/473–555.

(27) E.401/1852; E.368/477/196, Recorda.

(28) Worcestershire R.O. 008.7, B.A. 3585, 173, no. 225.

(29) E.377/10/41.

(30) E.368/473/21; E.368/477/196, Recorda.

(31) S.P. 12/183/51 (i), f. 156.

(32) Ibid.,/51 (iii), f. 159.

(33) Worcestershire R.O. 008.7, B.A. 3585, 125, no. 15.

(34) C.R.S. 22, p. 1; Dietz, F.C., English Public Finance, 1558–1641 (New York, 1932), pp. 46–7.Google Scholar

(35) S.P. 14/19/91, f. 216.

(36) Acts of the Privy Council 26, pp. 503–4.

(37) C.R.S. 22, p. 65.

(38) Lambeth Palace, Carte Antique… IV, no. 183, f. 3.

(39) John, Humphreys, ‘An Elizabethan Estate-Book of Grafton Manor’, Birmingham Arch. Soc. Trans. 44 (1918), pp. 5–6.Google Scholar

(40) Birmingham Reference Library 603797: Household and Farm Account Books of John Talbot of Grafton, 1565–1595, f. 32. There is a duplicate copy at the British Library, Add. MS 46461.

(42) Ibid., f. 33.

(43) Ibid., f. 53.

(44) Ibid., ff. 60–95.

(45) S.P. 14/23/37, f. 88.

(46) Finch (n. 25), p. 77.

(47) Finch, p. 92.

(48) Finch, pp. 80–83.

(49) E.401/1842–1846.

(50) Lambeth Palace, Carte Antique… IV, no. 183, f.3.

(51) C.142/334/58.

(52) P.R.O. Prob. 11/53, 8.

(53) S.P. 14/40/13.

(54) Prob. 11/121, 28.

(55) C.S.P.D. Elizabeth, 1581–90, p. 668.

(56) E.178, Worcs. 2479. Queen's Remembrancer: Special Commissions and Returns.

(57) C. S.P.D. Elizabeth, 1581–1590, p. 558.

(58) E. 178/2488.

(59) S.P. 46/17, f. 270; E. 154/3/41 (Queen's Remembrancer: Inventory of Goods and Chattels).

(60) S.P. 46/18, f. 77.

(61) E.368/504/72, Records; E.377/8/38. S.P. 12/164/77.

(62) D. N.B. 19, pp. 807–8.

(63) British Library, MS Lansdowne 45, no. 83, f. 205.

(65) Acts of the Privy Council 11, p. 320.

(66) Star Chamber 5: J.10/19, J.13/10, J.17/13. The year before, John Abingtonhad been engaged in a similar struggle with his tenants: A.42/2.

(67) Prob. 11/62, 52.

(68) MS Lansdowne 45, no. 83, f. 205.

(69) Trevor-Roper (n. 1), p. 38.

(70) S.P. 12/190/11, f. 31.

(71) Prob. 11/84, 89.

(72) S.P. 14/23/37, f. 88.