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Ven. William Southerne: Another Tyneside Martyr.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2016

Ann M.C. Forster
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Extract

William Southerne, the last martyr to suffer under James I, lived and died during a period of disunion among the English Catholics. They were divided upon several issues: one of these was die lawfulness of taking the Oath of Allegiance. This Oath, introduced by Cecil in 1606, and condemned as unlawful by Pope Paul V the following year, was still favoured by a certain (small) section of the clergy in England. Ven. William Southerne was not of their number: his refusal to take the Oath was the determining factor which brought about his condemnation.

Type
Articles
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 4 , Issue 5 , December 1958 , pp. 199 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1957

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References

Notes

1. The Oath repudiated the deposing power of the Pope, terming it “heretical and damnable.

2. Challoner, and others following him: the “Cause of the Ven. English Martyrs, 1929;” Fr. Newdigate, “Our Martyrs” (C.T.S.)

3. P.R.O. 31. 9/122 A. fol. 115. 116. (Transcripts from the Borghese MSS in the Vatican.) In Italian.

4. A. Newburne (Blacknell) to the Jesuit General. Stonyhurst Anglia, iv, 52.

5. P.R.O. 37. 12/17. (Simancas transcript, 2598, fol. 81) In Spanish.

6. Arch. Rom. S.J. 52, I, 36. In Italian. Cf. Foley, Records, III, pp. 120-122.

7. S.P. 14. 97/36.

8. Sheffield's letter, 8 May, reporting that he has held the Gaol Delivery, S.P. 14. 97/65: date of opening mentioned in a letter of the Commissioners, S.P. 14. 97/72.

9. Chalcedon (Catalogue) gives 26th, Raissius 30th April, as the date of martyrdom. The 26th was a Sunday, therefore the 30th is more probably correct.

10. Knaresborough MSS., consisting of his fair copy of “The Sufferings of Catholics” and his “Foul Draughtes” for same. I am indebted to Fr. Hugh Aveling O.S.B. for these extracts relating to Ven. William Southerne.

11. The text of Raissius is as folloes: “Trigesimo Aprilis. Ex certa relatione / etc. / Juxta Novum-Castrum passio Guilielmi Sowtherne Sacerdotis. Is in Anglia postquam in convertendis vel juvandis hominibus maxime pauperibus navasset opera, a judicis Eboracensis satellibus comprehensus est. Cum neque sub juramento asserere vellet Regem legitime ad regni fastigium erectum esse, ac seipsum Sacerdotem esse; reum mortis judices condemnaverunt. Mortis audita sententia Martyr submissis in terram genibus Deo gratias ingentes egit; et exinde per sex dies integros tetro carceris specu detentus est, quod ad manum nullus reperiretur carnifax. Ubi e scala deturbatus est, ejus praecisum caput in militis hastam ad portam civitatis, perduellionis more, suspensum est, quod spectantibus multis, iisdem fide dignissimis, per aliquot dies arridere visum est.” Challoner's account is an almost literal rendering of this: cf. Memoirs, 1924 ed. pp.358-9.

12. Note that in two of the accounts quoted above, William Southerne was arrested on the highway. Raissius is silent on this point.

13. C.R.S. 30, p. 133, and Foley, VIII, p. 721. His alias, Smith, suggests that he was arelative of the martyr.

14. The correct name appears to be Sotheron, but there are many variants, Sutheran, Southren, Southerne, Sutherne, Sudren, Sutheridge. Throughout the present account the form Southerne has been retained in connection with the martyr himself (as being that under which he is best known), except in quotations.

15. Christopher Sotheron had interests in Holland: his son Nicholas was born there. Cf. S.P. 63. 158/26.

16. Surtees Society, vol. 112, p. 76, and Surtees, Durham, vol. II, p. 339.

17. Named in Chalcedon's Catalogue as the martyr's birth-place.

18. Surtees, Durham, vol. IV, i, p.5.

19. Will of William Hodgson, Welford, Newcastle, vol. III, p. 130. The fourth child may have been the Cuthbert Sotherne alias Sutton of Hebburn, convicted of recusancy 1606/7, (Recusant Roll, E. 377/ 16).

20. E. 377/9.

21. This and other dates are calculated from the statement made by William Southerne on entering Valladolid.

22. S.P. 14. 81/54 iv. quoted below.

23. Pastor, vols. XX, p. 398, XXIV, p. 123.

24. The details regarding this incident are to be found in S.P. 15, 32/15, 15 i, ii, iii: S.P. 12. 238/143, 147, L48: S.P. 63, 158/26.

25. Mabel, daughter of Sir Anthony Browne of Cowdrey, and widow of the 11th Earl of Kildare.

26. Robert Smythe vere Sotheron, and John his brother, were already at Maynooth. The relationship to Sir William Holies (son of a Lord Mayor of London) has not been traced.

27. C.R.S. 30, p. 51.

28. C.R.S. 10, p. 9.

29. He is not among those sent out in 1602, 1603 or 1605. The list for 1604 is lacking.

30. S.P. 14. 20/45, and Foley, III, p. 8. Lancelot Carnaby had been recusant for the two years previous to 1606, at which time he was under suspicion of Complicity in the Gunpowder Plot. He probably took the Oath before 1611.

31. Mr. Sicklemore was in custody at the time. Cf. S.P. 14, 19/2.

32. Foley, III, p. 114, and VI, p. 268.

33. Sir Francis Radcliffe best answers the description of “a noble Catholic lord” who was Reyne's protector.

34. S.P. 14. 81/54, 54 i, ii, iii, iv. S.P. 14. 81/58, 58 i.

35. Possibly the person referred to in the Municipal Accounts of Newcastle upon Tyne, July 1593, “paid and geven in rewarde to a Pollonyan fisission lyinge in Newgate suspecte for relygion, 40s.” (Richardson, Reprints, Hist, vol. Ill)

36. Convicted, with Jane his wife, as of Morpeth, in 1606. (E. 377/14).

37. This place has not been identified, but from the context was probably in the north of England.

38. The Ogles were related to William Southerne through the Hodgsons, (see Table of Relationships). Wm. Ogle had been ordained in 1598. (C.R.S. 10, p. 318). Mr. Carter was presumably the Thomas Carter ordained at Douay in 1608 and sent to England in 1610, (Knox, Douay Diaries, I, pp. 19, 34).

39. S.P. 14. 54 iv. spelling modernised.

40. In his covering letter (S.P. 14. 81/54) the bishop describes the altar as being “in a fair table, as it were …. at the top whereof Christ is painted, at the bottom Christ sitteth preaching and distributing.… On either side …. such parcels of Scripture and prayers as it seemeth they use now at their Masses ….” The books were (I) “a manual of godly prayers and litanies …. a brief form of confession, and order to help at Mass, printed at Douay for John Heigham this 1615 …. a new printing,” and (2) a “short treatise of the sacrament of penance.”

41. This was a Sunday congregation!

42. S.P. 14. 81/58 i.

43. Possibly one of the Rookwoods of Euston, Suffolk, of whom there were at this time two priests, Christopher, ordained at Valladolid 1602 (cf. C.R.S. 30, p. 46 f.n.), and Robert S.J. ordained in Rome 1604. (Foley, III, p. 788). Their brother Henry, living in 1602, was also a priest. But the Rockwood in question was said to be a Worcestershire priest.

44. Newkirk makes the same curious statement with regard to Mr. Carter and Sir Thomas Blakiston. Possibly both priests were referring to a faculty granted to absolve from schism, and the spy, either through ignorance or intent, misquoted them.

45. A wealthy and influential family on Tyneside, with numerous Catholic connections. Wm. Southerne and Wm. Ogle were equally related, through their Hodgson grandmothers.

46. Presentment of the Curate and Churchwardens of Jarrow, 1609, MSS. Prior's Kitchen, Durham (by courtesy of Dr. Conway Davies). The entry might refer to either the priest or his father, who was living as late as 1607, when again convicted, with his wife. (E. 377/16).

47. S.P. 14. 81/58.

48. C.R.S. 30, pp. 46 f.n., 63.

49. Ursula, daughter of Sir Wm. Tyrwhitt of Kettleby, Lines. They were married with Catholic rites. Cf. S.P. 12. 165/28, and R.P. Tyrwhitt, Family of Tyrwhitt, p. 28.

50. R.R. Reid, The King's Council in the North, pp. 372 et seq. 387 et seq.

51. S.P. 14. 97/37.

52. Assuming April 30th to be the correct date of martyrdom: see note 9.

53. The County and City gaols respectively.

54. Details given by Raissius; cf. note 11.

55. S.P. 14. 97/95.

56. I Dec. 1618: S.P. 94, 23, fol. 80.