The Fall of the House of Paslew

Abstract

The Paslew family held the manor of Riddlesden and land around it in Bingley and Keighley for 200 years until towards the end of Elizabeth I’s reign, when the estate was divided up, with much of it passing to the Rishworth family. This has generally been attributed to the Catholicism of the Paslews, best shown by the involvement of Walter Paslew in the Rising of the Northern Earls (1569). This article uses the evidence of a pardon for burglary granted to Walter in 1573, and also of a number of Star Chamber and Chancery cases, to show that Walter and his son Francis were to some extent authors of their own downfall, irrespective of their religion. Their weakness was also exploited by their tenants, and especially by Robert Rishworth, a relative by marriage determined to secure possession of Riddlesden Hall.

Keywords:

• Paslew
• Rishworth
• Riddlesden
• Catholicism
• gentry
• rebellion
• Chancery
• Star Chamber

Acknowledgements

My thanks are due to Ms Eloise Maxwell, Press Officer at Historic Royal Palaces, for helping me in connection with the Beauchamp Tower inscription; and to Miss Christine Reynolds, Assistant Keeper of Muniments at Westminster Abbey, for supplying the photograph of the parish register of St Margaret’s Church, Westminster. My thanks also to the anonymous referee for helpful comments on an earlier draft, and to Dr Gill Cookson for help preparing the text for publication.

Notes

1 D. and G. Morris-Barker, S. Pettit, G. Sheeran and A. Stancliffe, East Riddlesden Hall (National Trust, 1989), p. 33. The size of the estate is computed from The National Archives (Public Record Office), C 142/554/70, inquisition post mortem, Francis Paslew, 13 Charles I.

2 J. T. Cliffe, The Yorkshire Gentry from the Reformation to the Civil War (London, 1969), pp. 16, 145, 161–2. Cliffe notes (pp. 228–30) a slightly increased tendency for financial failure among Catholic gentry families compared to Protestant ones in the years 1600–42.

3 C. Haigh, The Last Days of the Lancashire Monasteries and the Pilgrimage of Grace (Chetham Society, 1969), pp. 9–11, 58–9, 67, 84–5, 89–90, 92–3, 96.

4 T. D. Whitaker, A History of Whalley (London, 1876), II, pp. 31–2; Victoria County History of Lancashire, ed. W. Farrer and J. Brownbill, VI (1966), pp. 398–9.

5 Testamenta Eboracensia, V, ed. J. Raine, Surtees Society, 79 (1902), pp. 43–4.

6 TNA, SP 1/108, fol. 102.

7 Michael Bush, The Pilgrimage of Grace (Manchester, 1996), pp. 236–44; R. B. Smith, Land and Politics in the reign of Henry VIII (Oxford, 1970), pp. 190, 201–2.

8 Letter and Papers Henry VIII, III (2), n. 3410.

9 R. W. Hoyle, The Pilgrimage of Grace (Oxford, 2001), pp. 223–4.

10 L&P Hen. VIII, XV, p. 282, n. 71; Smith, Land and Politics, pp. 240–2.

11 S. Haynes (ed.), A Collection of State Papers (London, 1740), pp. 563–4; Miscellanea, ed. J. H. Pollen, Catholic Record Society, I (1905), p. 57; C. Haigh, Reformation and Resistance in Tudor Lancashire (Cambridge, 1975), pp. 252–4.

12 See Fig. 2.

13 Clifford Whone, ‘The Paslew estates in Harden and Exley’, Bradford Antiquary, 10 (1962), 39–43, 50; Miscellanea, ed. Pollen, pp. 57–9.

14 K. J. Kesselring, ‘Mercy and Liberality: the Aftermath of the 1569 Northern Rebellion’, History, 90 (2005), 213–35; John Bellamy, The Tudor Law of Treason (London, 1979), pp. 218–22.

15 TNA, C66/1083, mem. 2; The History of Parliament: the House of Commons, 1558–1603, ed. P. W. Hasler (London, 1981), II, pp. 378–9.

16 State Papers of Sir Ralph Sadler, ed. Arthur Clifford (Edinburgh, 1809), II, pp. 313, 325; The Rising in the North, ed. Sir Cuthbert Sharp (Durham, 1975), p. 92; Kesselring, The Northern Rebellion, pp. 66–74.

17 H. Aveling, ‘The Catholic Recusants of the West Riding of Yorkshire’, Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, 10 (1962–3), 207–8. Cf. K. J. Kesselring, The Northern Rebellion of 1569 (London, 2007), p. 62.

18 TNA, C142/554/70, IPM Francis Paslew; Anthony Fletcher and Diarmaid MacCulloch, Tudor Rebellions (London, 2004), p. 109.

19 Cliffe, Yorkshire Gentry, p. 170.

20 13 Elizabeth c. XVI; J. Horsfall Turner, Ancient Bingley (Bingley, 1897), pp. 246–7; The Visitation of Yorkshire, ed. J. Foster (London, 1875), p. 9; J. J. Cartwright, Chapters in the History of Yorkshire (Wakefield, 1872), pp. 51–6.

21 Michael Questier, ‘Conformity, Catholicism & the Law’, in Orthodoxy in the English Church, ed. P. Lake and M. Questier (Woodbridge, 2000), p. 260.

22 Aveling, PLPLS, 10, pp. 224–7, 281; Calverley Charters, ed. W. Paley Baildon and Samuel Margerison (Leeds, 1904), intro., pp. lv-lix; Baildon, Baildon and the Baildons (Bradford, 1924) II, pp. 242–3; Edward Peacock, A List of Roman Catholics in the County of York 1604 (London, 1872), p. 19; Visitation of Yorkshire, ed. Foster, p. 330; Cartwright, Chapters, pp. 68–9, 71–2; C. T. Clay, ‘The Family of Lacy of Cromwellbottom and Leventhorpe’, Thoresby Society, 28 (1928), 486–8.

23 Recusant Records, ed. Clare Talbot, Catholic Record Society, 53 (1960), pp. 179–80; Archbishop Grindal’s Visitation 1575 Comperta et Detecta Book, ed. W. J. Sheils, Borthwick Institute of Historical Research Texts and Calendars, 4 (1977), p. 17.

24 The Visitation of Yorkshire, ed. C. B. Norcliffe, Harleian Society 16 (1881), p. 159; Cliffe, Yorkshire Gentry, pp. 371–2; Some Correspondence of Cardinal Allen, ed. Patrick Ryan, CRS 7 (1911), p. 27.

25 J. S. Purvis, ‘The Elizabethan High Commission of York: the Act Books 1561/2–1580’ (typescript in the Cambridge University Library, 1979), fols 89, 95 (1580/1).

26 BIHR, will of Stephen Paslewe, Rawdon, November 1567, PCY 17/732.

27 Purvis, Act Books. fols 250, 255, 259 (1583/4); Aveling, PLPLS, 10, p. 300.

28 Cf. Kesselring, Northern Rebellion, pp. 129–35.

29 Sadler State Papers, II, pp. 340, 366, 374.

30 CSPD Additional, 1566–79, p. 183.

31 Cartwright, Chapters, pp. 58–9.

32 Whone, BA, 10, p.65; TNA, C142/554/70, IPM, Francis Paslew.

33 Joan Thirsk, The Agrarian History of England and Wales, IV (Cambridge, 1967), pp. 846–50; Whone, BA, 10, 39–67.

34 Yorkshire Feet of Fines of the Tudor Period, 2, ed. Francis Collins, Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series, 5 (1888), index.

35 Claire Cross, The Puritan Earl (London, 1966), pp. 59–60.

36 Cartwright, Chapters, pp. 44, 156–7.

37 The Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers, ed. John Morris, 3 (London, 1877), pp. 83, 91–2; Peter Lake and Michael Questier, The trials of Margaret Clitherow (London, 2011), pp. 115, 118, 219.

38 Whone, BA, 10, pp. 42–3, 66; YFF 2, ed. Collins (1888), p. 49.

39 Clifford Whone, ‘The Manor of Harden’, Bradford Antiquary, n.s. 6 (1940), 267–70.

40 History of Parliament, ed. Hasler, I (1981), pp. 438–9.

41 Yorkshire Deeds 2, ed. William Brown, Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series 50 (1914), p. 23.

42 Clay, TS, 28, p. 487.

43 Robert C. Palmer, ‘Attorneys in Early Modern England and Wales’, Anglo-American Legal Tradition: http://aalt.law.uh.edu/Attorneys/attpages/Attorneys1607.

44 YFF 2, ed. Collins (1888), p. 18; Whone, BA 10, p. 66.

45 Wilfrid Robertshaw, ‘The Manor and Manor House of Exley’, Bradford Antiquary, 9 (1944), 116–23.

46 Brigg, BA, n. s. 3 (1912), pp. 98, 105.

47 Yorkshire Deeds, ed. Brown, YASRS 39 (1907), pp. 226–9; M. Pearson, ‘Northowram Old Halls’, Halifax Antiquarian Society Papers (1902).

48 Baildon, Baildon, p. 273.

49 Brigg, BA, n.s. 3 (1912), pp. 105, 108–10; TNA, C2/Eliz/R8/18, Robert Rishworth re. Riddlesden.

50 Cf. Whone, BA, n. s. 6 (1940), pp. 267–70.

51 YFF 2 & 3 (1889), indices.

52 TNA, C 142/554/70, IPM, Francis Paslew; Baildon, Baildon, II, p. 242.

53 TNA, C66/1113/ m. 27.

54 TNA, C66/1118/m. 27.

55 TNA, C66/981/mm.11–12, pardon, 5 January 1562.

56 This process was actually gone through. See TNA, STAC 5/P13/34, deposition of William Rogers of Elam; STAC 5/P14/34, deposition of William Savile of Wakefield.

57 W. S. Holdsworth, A History of English Law, III (London, 1923), pp. 69–70, 604–6.

58 TNA, C142/332/155, IPM Walter Paslew (d. 1573), 10 James I; TNA, WARD 7/55/128, IPM, Francis Paslew (d. 1582), 14 James I; TNA, C142/554/70, IPM, Francis Paslew (d. 1631), 13 Charles I.

59 The papers relating to this case are found in four batches: TNA, STAC 5/P1/11; STAC 5/P14/34; STAC 5/P13/34; STAC 5/P23/6.

60 TNA, STAC, 5/P14/34, depositions of Agnes Griffin and Robert Rishworth; STAC 5/P1/11, deposition of Robert Waterhouse.

61 TNA, STAC 5/P14/34; cf. deposition of Rishworth.

62 Memorials of St Margaret’s Church, Westminster, ed. A. M. Burke (London, 1914), p. 426.

63 TNA, STAC 5/P1/11; STAC 5/P14/34, depositions of Waterhouse.

64 Visitation of Yorkshire, ed. Foster, p. 353; Yorkshire Deeds, ed. Brown, YASRS 39, p. 229.

65 TNA, STAC 5/P14/34, deposition of Rishworth.

66 TNA, STAC 5/P1/11, deposition of Waterhouse.

67 TNA, STAC 5/P14/34, deposition of Waterhouse.

68 TNA, STAC 5/P1/11, deposition of Savile.

69 TNA, STAC 5/P14/34, deposition of Griffin. Cf. STAC 5/P1/11; STAC 5/P14/34, depositions of Waterhouse.

70 TNA, STAC 5/P13/34, deposition of Robert Boland.

71 TNA, STAC 5/P1/11; STAC 5/P14/34, depositions of Waterhouse.

72 TNA, STAC 5/P14/34, deposition of Rishworth.

73 TNA, STAC 5/P1/11, depositions of Waterhouse & Savile; STAC 5/P13/34, deposition of Boland.

74 Percival Boyd, Roll of the Drapers’ Company of London (Croydon, 1934), p. 140; Boyd’s MS notes at Drapers’ Company Archives, London, kindly provided by the Archivist, Miss Penelope Fussell; BIHR, will of George Paslewe, Bingley, May 1555, PCY 14/73; Horsfall Turner, Ancient Bingley, p. 247.

75 TNA, STAC 5/P13/34, Paslew’s bill; STAC 5/P14/34, Paslew’s interrogatories for Rishworth. Cf. STAC 5/P14/34, STAC 5/P1/11, depositions of Savile; STAC 5/P14/34, deposition of Griffin; STAC 5/P1/11, STAC 5/P14/34, depositions of John Fell of Hampstead.

76 TNA, STAC 5/P13/34, Paslew’s bill.

77 TNA, STAC 5/P14/34, Rishworth’s deposition.

78 Memorials of St Margaret’s, Westminster, p. 426; see Fig. 3.

79 TNA, STAC 5/P13/34, deposition of William Rogers of Elam.

80 TNA, STAC 5/P14/34, deposition of Griffin; cf. interrogatories on behalf of Rishworth.

81 Visitation of Yorkshire, ed. Foster, p. 330; Baildon, Baildon, II, pp. 245–6.

82 TNA, STAC 5/P23/6 & STAC 5/P14/34, interrogatories on behalf of Paslew; STAC 5/P13/34, Paslew’s bill.

83 TNA, STAC 5/P14/34, deposition of Wilkinson.

84 TNA, STAC 5/P23/6, interrogatories on behalf of Paslew; STAC 5/P13/34, Paslew’s bill.

85 TNA, STAC 5/P13/34, Paslew’s bill; STAC 5/P14/34, interrogatories on behalf of Paslew.

86 TNA, STAC 5/P14/34, deposition of Wilkinson; The Registers of the Parish Church of Methley 1560–1812, ed. George Denison Lumb, Thoresby Society, 12 (1903), p. 42.

87 TNA, STAC 5/P14/34, deposition of Wilkinson.

88 TNA, STAC 5/P13/34, Paslew’s bill.

89 TNA, STAC 5/P13/34, Paslew’s bill; STAC 5/P14/34, interrogatories on behalf of Paslew.

90 TNA, STAC 5 P13/34, Paslew’s bill.

91 TNA, STAC 5 P13/34, deposition of George Paslew; cf. deposition of John Berry of Morton Banks.

92 TNA, C2/ELIZ/P6/63, Thomas Paslew, Mary Paslew and others.

93 TNA, C2/ELIZ/P6/63, Paslew’s bill.

94 TNA, C2/ELIZ/P6/63, Paslew’s bill.

95 TNA, C2/ELIZ/P6/63, replication of Robert Rishworth and others. On these property transactions, cf. YFF, 3 (1889), pp. 160, 167, 183; Baildon, Baildon, II, pp. 245–6; West Yorkshire Deeds, ed. Wilfrid Robertshaw, Bradford Historical and Antiquarian Society, II (1936), pp. 41, 109–10, 137–8; Brown, Yorkshire Deeds, II (1914), pp. 137–8.

96 TNA, C2/Eliz/P2/62, John Pasley v. Robert Rishworth; Brigg, BA, n. s. 3 (1912), pp. 107–110.

97 Robert C. Palmer, ‘Attorneys’. Cf. Whalley Parish Register, 1538–1601, ed. Thomas Backhouse Ecroyd, Lancashire Parish Register Society (1900), p. 26; Whalley Parish Register 1605–1653 (1936), p. 91.

98 TNA, C2/Eliz/P2/62, Paslew’s bill.

99 TNA, C2/Eliz/P2/62, Rishworth’s answer.

100 PR Methley, ed. Lumb, pp. 63, 66, 87.

101 TNA, C142/344/18, IPM, 12 James I; WARD 7/46/135, IPM, 10 James I.

102 Bingley Parish Register 1577–1686, ed. W. J. Stavert, Yorkshire Parish Register Society (1901), p. 116.

103 TNA, C3/287/10, Rishworth v. Woodd.

104 TNA, C3/287/10, Rishworth v. Woodd.

105 Horsfall Turner, Ancient Bingley, pp. 71–4; Brigg, BA, n.s. 3 (1912), pp. 110–11.

106 W. A. Brigg, ‘East Riddlesden Hall and its owners’, Bradford Antiquary, 2 (1895), pp. 92–3.