Recusant community and Jesuit mission in parliament days: Bodleian MS Eng. poet. b. 5.

ABSTRACT

Recusant Community and Jesuit Mission in Parliament Days: Bodleian MS Eng. poet. b. 5 by Cedric C. Brown

This article re-examines Bodleian MS Eng. poet. b. 5, a book mainly of religious songs for communal use assembled in the 1650s and known to have been amongst the recusants of Wootton Wawen in Warwickshire. A contents list is provided. The book has already been linked with one yeoman family, but this study shows that its materials depend upon the networks of the Jesuit mission, and that the chief scribe was part of, or close to, that mission. Although it displays common features of anthologies for provincial social use, the book furnishes rare textual evidence of missionary indoctrination.

This essay is about an anonymous mid-seventeenth-century manuscript book of poems assembled in the 1650s and originally associated with the houses of Catholic yeoman families in the parish of Wootton Wawen in Warwickshire. It is unusual for manuscript collections from rural houses below gentry status to survive, and there is a great deal still to be learned about how texts were transmitted to and used in these provincial societies. In this connection, and thinking especially about the social role of the scribe, I shall make some very brief comparisons with another seventeenth-century yeoman collection, a Protestant one of different character from Ashover in Derbyshire.

An issue that arises with a collection serving a society not fully literate is how much its uses were communal rather than to do with private reading. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Eng. poet. b. 5 contains almost exclusively Catholic texts. (1) This suggests a special community, defined by its recusancy, with its own covert systems of distribution and particular needs for support. The great majority of the texts, such as hymns, carols, songs, and ballads to popular tunes, have obvious didactic uses to be shared within the Catholic group. But the brief article in The Bodleian Library Record that first fixed the geographical location of the book nicely illustrates the familiar biographical and literary-historical assumptions of a scholar writing in 1970. F. M. McKay concluded for reasons that will become clear that Thomas Fairfax, a yeoman farmer, was the scribe and summarized thus at the end of his article: The religious character of the manuscript reflects the moral earnestness of its compiler, an earnestness deepened by the sadness of his life. Eng. poet. b. 5 reflects the taste of a middle-class Recusant, and perhaps of his friends, in a small Warwickshire village during the period of the Commonwealth. (2)

In fact, there must be some real doubts that Fairfax compiled the book, though it is connected with his house. And 'taste', implying choice in consumption in a situation of leisure (if not the occupation of a critic) hardly seems the point. This scribe was transmitting texts into his community in order to strengthen socio-religious bonds. In the main, the book encourages solidarity in difficult times and is compiled with the spirit of an educator.

MS Eng. poet. b. 5 is a vellum-covered volume of unusual format with pages numbered i-viii130. Its format will be discussed below. There are quite a lot of damaged and torn pages, and about twenty pages have been cut away from the first three gatherings. (A technical description is given in McKay, based on the observations of Margaret Crum.) As in many manuscript books, there are interventions by other hands, including the insertion of two poems near the end (pp. 119-21) and small marginal additions some of which will be mentioned later. Nevertheless, nearly all the book has been written in the same hand. The main part of the collection, that is, what is transcribed between pages 1 and 119, was put together in a few years in the early 1650s. The last page of the 'original' collection (p. 119) is on the second leaf of a new gathering, but the copying ends with a date, '1654'. The index or 'table' of contents was put on the last leaf of this gathering (pp. 127-28). Subsequently the pages between 119 and 127 were filled in with extra texts, two in a different hand at a somewhat later time, but the third, 'St Wynifrid's Song' (pp. 122-23), is in the main hand and also dated at the end: '1657'. But there was further available space after that poem, and at a still later time three more poems were added. All these insertions were subsequently listed in the index, including the two poems in a second hand. (The second hand made the two index entries.) So, broadly speaking, the bulk of the collection had been copied by 1654, then there were some small additions up to 1657, then a few further additions thereafter, undated, except that on the bottom right-hand corner of page 119, by one of the two poems inserted by a different hand and probably in that same hand, is written '1663'. The collection is, then, still in use in the early years of the Restoration, though since the date is not properly attached to any text, it is not possible to tell whether it was inserted later than the texts.

Like the end, the beginning of the book also includes a set of later insertions. The 'original' collection had a leaf of preliminaries, including on the recto a poem 'To the Reader' copied from Southwell's St Peter's Complaint. This leaf, now numbered vii-viii and much torn, once had another poem on the lower part of the recto, and another poem on the verso. As at the end of the book, there was further space available, and on the pages now numbered iii-vi other poems were added at a later time, written in the same manner as some of the additional material at the end (pp. 124-26). These three poems are of similar religious character to the main contents, and the third of them ('the third part of godly meditation') was also copied from Southwell and repeats material copied some years before in the main body of the collection (see below and Appendix). The additions at the beginning, like those at the end, seem to have been made after 1654, after the copying of the main collection and the page of preliminaries.

In the main collection the texts were neatly and tightly copied on to pages ruled with dry point, with few spaces between items. Occasionally, a text is completed in the right margin or squeezed into the foot, so as not to spill on to the next page. Catchwords are supplied. (3) It is likely that in this collection, as in others, poems were often copied in blocks, rather than singly, presumably reflecting the way in which the materials became available. This may explain why there are several groupings of poems of particular kinds, or from particular sources, and also why four cases of repetition of individual poems occur, two of them involving the group of poems later added at the beginning. One of the two cases of repetition within the main collection must have been noticed by the scribe, because he suppressed mention of the second transcription (on p. 49) in the index (see Appendix).

The economical transcription of materials into the main collection nevertheless left a few blank spaces, and as with other printed and manuscript collections a few occasional notes of interest to the scribe were entered into gaps that offered themselves. With the miscellaneous entries, however, a distinction must be made between those which could be regarded as part of the collection per se, and were therefore entered into the index, and those which do not seem to be so regarded. There are two topical news items, which are incorporated into the index: a fantastic news story about blasphemy and a monstrous birth in Essex, copied on to the empty lower half of page 71, and on the blank verso of page 100 another incredible story about the conversion to Rome of the Queen of China. These two instructive entries were evidently thought of as integral with the communal materials of the book. But there are other personal entries not treated in that way. So, for example, a note of a birth, baptism, and death is entered on page 89 in 1654, and on page 99, on the bottom third, 'A prayer for the morning' in prose has been added. These and other items entered into the latter parts of the book, which I shall mention below, are not included in the index.

Several entries in the main body of the text between pages 1 and 119 give more precise indications of dates. On page 51 is noted 'thus ends [y.sup.e].1.of Anna Alcoxs songs sent from Alveston at Christmas last 1651 written by herselfe'. (Alveston is a village near Stratford, about nine miles from Wootton.) This section of the collection was, then, being transcribed in 1652. At the bottom of page 69 and written at the same time as the surrounding text, after a simple carol, are further notes about the miraculous gifts of this little girl of the Old Faith: 'thus ends the.2.song of Anna Alcoxs sent from Alveston [y.sup.e].2.of March, 1651 [i.e. 1651/2]. This Anna above exprest, as [yo.sup.w] whall understand is a little mayd of six years old, who writ it with her hand'. (4)

This was also probably copied in 1652. In four formulaic lines of verse presumably of his own composition the compiler sees Providence at work and offers a blessing on Anna:

   Gods mighty workes, in her appeare
   he water with his Grace
   his gracious gifts in her begunne
   And let her see his face, Amen.

There is also the dating evidence of the two news items to which I have already referred. On page 71 an actual date of transcription is given of an entry listed in the index as 'of mary Adams her blasphemy': 'July the 5th 1652 I copied forth of a printed booke these sad thinges that follow / viz. / the horred blasphemies,& the Judgments of god upon the blasphemer, verbatem, as followeth'. The scribe copies the story of one Mary Adams of Tillingham in Essex who said she had conceived by the holy ghost a child who was to be the true Messiah, went into labour for eight days, and gave birth to a stillborn monster with claws like a toad. She then rotted, full of 'bocks, blains and boils', refused to repent, borrowed a knife, and disembowelled herself. The faithful are evidently surrounded by monstrous darkness, and enemies of the true faith come to no good in the end.

The second news item, copied into a space on page 100, is not included in the index but is also dated: '1652 out of a weekly newes booke I coppied forth this good newes as it is here under written'. The entry tells a story purporting to come out of Venice about the conversion of the Queen of China to Rome. The scribe adds tartly: 'surely the best parliament newes that they yet caused to be printed to be made publick to the world, for which god be blessed'. This is near the end of the collection. It would seem that the materials up to this point had already been compiled before this addition in 1652.

The evidence of all these dated items suggests that the bulk of the main collection was copied in 1652, though not rounded out until 1654: as has already been mentioned, the last item in the original collection on page 119 is finished with 'Amen, 1654'. Moreover, the recording of the birth and death of a child on page 89 in a space after the copying of the main part, confirms that the original collection had in fact been completed by the first half of that year: 'Anno Dom 1654. August the 18th, betweene nine & tenne of the clock att night, was John Fairfax the sonne of Thomas and Issabell Fairefax borne, & the 20th day of the same moneth was the sayd John Baptized, & [y.sup.e] 26 day of [y.sup.e] same moneth, he changed this life'.

As to function, the contents of the collection show us that the compiler fulfilled the role of gathering in texts for communal use and instruction. Many of the materials, like the Southwell texts and various ballads, are markedly old-fashioned. Some date from the sixteenth century, for example all the poems of Southwell and 'O Blessed God, O saviour sweet' (p. 11) and 'Whilest Adam soundly sleepe did take' (p. 24). (5) Others resemble late medieval forms. In a brief article in 1963 Douglas Gray noted that the poem 'A Song of Death' (pp. 22-24), though printed in 1631, was essentially a survival from the medieval tradition of the Dance of Death. (6) All chosen texts are expressed in simple language and many of them are didactic.

Whatever exactly the transmission route of all these materials, some of them rely upon earlier collections in which Jesuits had a hand. Jesuit authors are often represented, and the transmission of at least thirty-two texts of Southwell, a dominant presence throughout the collection, seems to rely on Catholic manuscripts or lost printed sources, not upon the versions of his two collections altered in the printed editions for a general readership in England. (7) As one might expect in recusant circles, we have evidence of a complex transmission chain through secret Catholic networks, using materials printed in the Jesuit presses and/or involving acts of copying at various stages. In so far as the organization of materials had a local base, it should be noted that in the seventeenth century the missionary work of the Society of Jesus in Warwickshire and Worcestershire was assigned to the Residence of St George, about which more will be said below.

The communal use of many of the texts is evident from the very opening of the main part of the collection. It begins with a set of hymns, on pages vertically ruled into double columns. The first is 'A graduall hymn', the next a simple versified paternoster, then there is a Christmas Day hymn. The winter festive season is important to the whole collection, and blocks of carols and similar texts tied to church festivals appear, as in, for example, a run of twenty-four consecutive texts (pp. 50-69). The vigorous celebration of ecclesiastical festivity was a main concern, as it had been for generations seeking to establish Catholic identity. There are also many simple verse meditations. Another feature of the collection is provided by longer narrative poems with teasing little allegories. A good example comes in 'A Song of Conscience' (pp. 32-33). This tells the story of a humble character, whose identity as Conscience is revealed at the end. Once esteemed by kings and courts, he is increasingly despised as all the institutions of the land --court, city, gentry, trade, the law, even the clergy--are infected with pride. The poem is about fall and the bad times. It seems suitable for recitation as much as for private reading, and texts of some poems clearly show that performance at a religious gathering was intended, because they include an 'Amen' at the end or a more elaborate closure. For example, three consecutive didactic narrative poems, 'In old times past in bethany', 'When Jesus went to galilee', and 'O God of thy Great might', between pages 92 and 98, all end with the formula 'thanks be to god, amen'. Quite a few songs have their familiar tunes noted against them (see Appendix).

Another instructive ballad-allegory, leading to salvation, sets o. jauntily: 'A certaine king married A sonne | And he prepar'd a feast [...]' (p. 38). Other simple poems versify biblical stories, of Abraham and Isaac, and of Tobias and the angel (in a poem first licensed in 1624), and so forth. An elementary instructive manner is maintained in other entries, such as the versified alphabet (pp. 28-29) of which this is the opening:

   A. Acquaint thy selfe most narrowly
   thy minde, And hart, And life to watch
   left Idle thoughts, & noysome dreames
   so wicked lusts And dealings hatch [...]

These texts design to teach a simple community; the book is heavy with indoctrination.

Most of the poems that rehearse the need to keep the Old Faith are fairly general in expression and could have been used through several generations. They take the long historical view rather than issuing contemporary comment. This is seen, for example, in the comparison of the state of life under Protestantism and under the old religion in two poems late in the collection, 'At or house At home' and 'The second part' (pp. 102-06). This feature of the collection is markedly different from the other yeoman collection, from Derbyshire, which I have already mentioned. (8) In that book, the sense of the locality and times is very important indeed, engaging with many specific events, births, deaths, elections, and festive and sporting occasions. In the recusant volume, one can see a disparity in mode between the main body of materials, poems couched in general terms, and the small number of topical insertions, such as the hot news items about monstrous blasphemy in Essex or the miraculous conversion from China. Nevertheless, the whole volume is informed by a sense of the need for solidarity, and the studied generality of its manner may characterize what is thought of as the appropriate educational method for a rural audience.

For all that, one or two poems come close to contemporary comment, as 'In meditation where I sate' (p. 12), where the speaker contemplates a picture of Christ and hears his exhorting voice:

   Thinke what I have endured for thee
   All in this vaile of misery
   passing my time in toyle and paine
   to bring my lost sheepe home againe
   thinke how in bethlem borne I was
   and poorely layd betweene oxe and asse
   O how much do I lov[e] thee, why should I lose thee
   sith I have bought thee so Deare

   Thinke how my mother fled with me
   for feare of herods cruelty
   in Egypt seaven yeares we stay'd
   the text doth tell our foes were dead
   therefore for my sake do thou content
   to suffer flight or banishment
   O how much do I love thee [... etc.]

   Thinke how I fasted forty Dayes
   And tempted was three manner of wayes
   to fast therefore learne thou of mee
   for to resist thine Enemy
   Fast thou I say though Epicure
   Do scorne thee with new brethren pure
   O how much do I love thee [... etc.]

   Thinke what I left to be thy foode
   In sacrament my flesh and blood
   such was my love, such was my will
   old Jewish figures to fullfill
   therefore hold thou the Auncient fayth
   whatsover the bare figure sayth
   O how much do I love thee [... etc.]

The enemies seem to be hypocritical puritans, though they are not fixed at a particular historical moment.

In similar fashion, backsliding from the true faith towards social conformity is confronted in 'Schismaticall man':

   Schismaticall man, Remember well
   the Joyes of heaven & paines of hell
   consider thine owne estate, and tell
   whether thow hast not cause to feare [...]

   The Doctors have Declared plaine
   yf out of Gods church thou remaine
   thy end must be eternall paine
   hast thou not cause to feare.

The poem then covers some of the specific temptations of living in an apostate, persecuting society:

   But thou wilt say thy estate is soe
   that thou shalt lose thy lands and goods also
   And that thy selfe to prison shalt goe
   which is the cause thou fearest

   Christ doth answer thee In breefe
   he that foresaketh not children or wife
   his lands and his goods, and alsoe his life
   he cannot be my Deare.

   Thou sayest yf thou a friend could finde
   that would thy lands and goods defend
   that now thou mights lose before thy end
   thou wouldst serve god without feare

   Thou dost esteeme thy goods above
   God that made all things to move
   this is plaine Idolatry will I prove
   mocke not with God my Deare. (p. 44)

In the light of this priestly exhortation not to temporize, we might look more closely at the situation of the Wootton Wawen Catholic community in the 1650s.

It is important to realize what an elaborate network of Catholics there was in the area of Arden, in the part of Warwickshire south-west of Birmingham and down to Stratford and Alcester and across the border into Worcestershire (as indeed further south). Numerous Catholic estates spread across the area provided support systems. At Wootton itself the landowners were the Smith-Caringtons, a fiercely Catholic family with large lands in six other counties. (9) There had been a Catholic chapel in the hall from about 1607, which appears to have been used more widely than by the household. Sir Francis Smith (1570-1628) had attended the English College at Rome, as had his brother John. Generations of sons into the eighteenth century attended Catholic colleges abroad, and young men and women joined Catholic orders. In the 1650s, for example, a sister and a niece of Charles, first Viscount Carington were in religious houses in the Low Countries, and John, a son, attended St Omer and Rome. John became a Jesuit and was probably involved in the later organization of financial support from family funds of the mission in Warwickshire. (10) Wootton Hall seems to have supported a Jesuit missioner within the Residence of St George, though for which periods is not clear.

To the west, Coughton was in the hands of the huge, mainly Catholic family of the Throckmortons, who held lands across many parishes. Coughton had figured prominently in the arrests and trial of Fathers Garnet and Oldcorne in 1606 and at some periods seems to have harboured two Benedictine priests. (11) Beyond that, across the Worcester border, stood Beoley Hall, the seat of the Catholic Sheldon family, who also had lands at Weston. This intellectual group had Benedictine connections and at the Restoration helped in the setting up of the new Franciscan mission. Several members of the family became Jesuits in the second half of the seventeenth century, when the house at Weston was also at some time base for a Jesuit missionary priest. (12) To the north-east was the estate at Lapworth in the hands of the papist Sir Hercules Underhill, and Baddesley Clinton, the well-known priesting house of the Ferrars family, who were also instrumental in setting up the Franciscan mission from 1657.

Just as important was the presence of many inter-connected Catholic communities in villages. In the immediate area, they were especially strong in Rowington, just south of Baddesley Clinton, at Beoley, Tamworth, and Samborne, near Coughton. There were close connections between Wootton and some of these villages, especially with Rowington and Beoley. To narrow the field down again, the Fairfax farm was at Lower Wawensmore, about a mile and a half to the northwest of the main village, church, and hall. Lower and Upper Wawensmore had a group of Catholic farms in the tenancy of the recusant families of Fairfax, Ingram, Palin, Riley, and Bartlam. (13) A little further west there was another cluster of Catholic houses and farms at Spernall. Besides these, there were various other Catholic houses and farms in the parish, which then also included Ullenhall and Henley. O.cial returns of recusants are notoriously selective, but at a time of crisis for the established church in 1702 Catholicism in Wootton was estimated as about a quarter of the population. (14) The support systems seem to have worked.

To study the surviving legal documents from the Fairfax and other families is to realize how much this group provided systems of mutual help, serving as godparents, witnesses to inventories, executors of wills, and the like. The Fairfax family of Lower Wawensmore used their relatives the Cowpers of Rowington (Oldfield), the Reeves of Rowington Green and Samborne, the Ingrams of Upper Wawensmore, and the Gales of Beoley, for example. These were all yeoman families of some substance. What we can recover is probably only a fraction of the system of kinship, friendship, and mutual support operating at different levels in the local Catholic societies. (15)

In the light of this it is relevant to look at some of the user marks in MS Eng. poet. b. 5. The recording of the birth and death of John, probably the firstborn of Thomas Fairfax and Isabell, his first wife, in 1654 shows that the manuscript had an association with the Wawensmore family. Thomas Fairfax (b. 1620) was still a young married man at the time. Though the eldest son, he was not yet in the 1650s the head of the family: his father Henry did not die until 1677.16 McKay, finding the Warwickshire Fairfax connection and the names of Thomas, Isabell, and baby John in the text of MS Eng. poet. b. 5, assumed that the book must have belonged to Thomas and that he was the scribe. Indeed, some other entries would suit a young man, such as the versified 'Rules for a quiet life in marriage' (p. 70). However, of Thomas's hand I can find no examples, and it is discouraging to discover that he put a mark not a signature on his will in 1690, something McKay explains away as the effect of feeble old age. Perhaps that was the case, but a good many churchwardens from Wootton signing o. the bishop's returns and other documents, and yeomen acting as witnesses to wills, also put marks. The area does not seem to have had particularly high literacy. On Fairfax's own will, two of the three witnesses made marks, as well as Thomas himself, and two of the three appraisers of the inventory also made marks. I can find no sure evidence that Thomas could write.

There is further evidence of early use of the book. At the bottom of page 17 is written in childish hand the word 'John' and upside down 'John Ingram is my [name]'. John Ingram, from neighbouring Upper Wawensmore, was a godson of Thomas Fairfax. Like the Fairfaxes, the Ingrams were cited for recusancy well into the next century. The book was, then, being used in the recusant community around the Wawensmore farms, and its users included young people. (17) Supporting evidence for Lower Wawensmore's providing a religious environment for young people may come also from Thomas's will. He bequeathed sums to no fewer than six godchildren apparently in Catholic households: three Ingram children (Henry, John, and Mary), Mary Reeve, Mary Gale, and Mary Thompson (see note 15).

The date of the compilation of the main part of MS Eng. poet. b. 5 is significant in considering its context, because it fits a moment in the early Commonwealth years when the support systems of the rural Catholic communities had been disrupted, following two decades of growing Jesuit organization in the 1630s and 1640s.18 As I have said, a Jesuit missionary priest seems to have been supported during some periods at Wootton Hall. By the end of the century, if not before, manipulation of Smith-Carington estate income had ensured that the Catholic mission was better endowed than the local living, of which the patrons were King's College, Cambridge. There is a story to be pieced together about the fluctuating relationships between the Catholic community and the Protestant authorities. The balance seems to have changed according to the national situation, the attitudes of the lords of the manor, and the character of the different incumbents.

In the early years of the century there seems to have been much practical accommodation between Catholic and Protestant communities during the very long incumbency (1580-1642) of John Mascall. In the Jacobean period Sir Francis Smith kept up sufficient church attendance to avoid charges of recusancy, though his mother Anne Smith (nee Giffard) had made sure that all her children were brought up in the Roman faith. By the last part of the seventeenth century, there was a marked increase in the confidence of the Catholics. By then, Wootton Hall had been completely rebuilt in Palladian style with a new chapel, following the second marriage of Frances, second Viscount Carington, to the Lady Anne Herbert, daughter of the Marquis of Powis, the foremost Catholic peer of the time. Under James II, Lord Carington was appointed as Lord Lieutenant of the county, and his brother John, the Jesuit, became a court preacher. At a local level, John Ingram of Upper Wawensmore acted in 1694 as one of the churchwardens, although his wife and his children (including John, a godson of Thomas Fairfax) were recusants, again suggesting accommodations between the communities in the incumbency of Stanford Wolferstan (1676-98) and the briefer one of Edward Stokes (1698-1700). (19) In the 1698 bishop's transcript for 1697-98, we have the surprising situation of records of baptisms performed in the Catholic chapel of Wootton Hall being included by the churchwardens in their annual return. (20) The patrons of the living, King's College, Cambridge, sent in a zealous young Fellow, James Clifton, in 1700 to sort out the obstinacy of the flock. But so powerfully organized was the Catholic community by then, that in two years the reformer had himself converted to Rome and was forced to go abroad. (21) The widow of former vicar Wolferstan also converted.

In the period leading into the compilation of the manuscript book the vicar was George Dunscombe. He served between 1642 and 1652, when he died. He had taken his BA at Cambridge in 1633, MA in 1637, and was evidently 'a preaching pastor', (22) serious about his Protestant mission. The verses (now illegible) on his memorial stone began:

   His people's joy the clergy's glasse
   His life a living preacher was
   A life as spotlesse as the sun
   Oh that the sand had longer run. (23)

Dunscombe seems to have endowed the church with a library of nine volumes still surviving today. MS Eng. Poet. b. 5 and this clutch of books in the church can thus show a battle for hearts and minds being waged in Wootton in the middle of the century through the medium of texts. The parish collection includes some sixteenth-century works: Calvin's Institutes in the Norton translation in an edition of 1578, a commentary by the Dutch Calvinist Augustin Marlorat on Matthew of 1570, and Edward Topsell's sermons and meditations on Joel, 'Time's Lamentation', published in 1599. The last is bound with Byfield's commentary on 1 Peter 1 (1617) and Dod and Cleaver's exposition of the Ten Commandments in an edition of 1612. Another Jacobean book is a collection of works by John Jewel published in 1611, edited by the prominent anti-Arminian, Daniel Featley, including with a commentary on Thessalonians two explicitly anti-Catholic publications, Concerning the weake &unstable grounds of the Roman Religion and A view of the seditious Bull sent into England by Pius Quintus. Of Caroline divinity there is a collection of Fast Sermons of 1641-42 bound together in a volume (some of which are explicitly anti-Catholic), an edition of 1632 of the collected sermons of Lancelot Andrewes, and a collection of various practical and controversial works of Henry Hammond assembled in 1646. The last also includes such admonitory works as Of Resisting the Lawful Magistrates under colour of Religion (1644). Dunscombe also seems to have presented a 1633 Book of Common Prayer. This parish collection claims the authority of tradition, by including key documents of sixteenth-century Protestantism. In the same way, though with more socially adaptable materials, MS Eng. poet. b. 5 also claims the authority of tradition, as expressed in popular forms and old texts. The manuscript book indoctrinated more affably, but of course we cannot now hear how Dunscombe preached.

Dunscombe was vicar through the Civil War period, and Eng. poet. b. 5 was begun before his death in 1652. In his various items of news the scribe of the manuscript book registers the collapse of institutions, as he looks for signs of comfort during the rule of a blasphemous parliament. He meant the whole of England, but at local level a comparable disturbance would have been seen. There had been many troop movements across the area. There was heavy damage to Catholic properties, as at Beoley where the hall was burned down by Parliamentary soldiers, and Coughton, occupied for a year by troops who also burned this mansion down on departure. Other houses associated with Catholic missionary work were also destroyed, including Spetchley Park, a very important centre just outside Worcester belonging to the Berkeley family. As far as Wootton was concerned, the Smith family staunchly supported the royalist cause. Sir Charles Smith was given his baronetcy as Lord Carington in October 1643, and his brother Sir John Smith was a prominent royalist major-general and standard-bearer to the king, knighted at Edgehill and subsequently killed in action in 1644. After a period in which he sought to avoid charges, claiming religious conformity in London, Lord Carington was ordered to have his estates sold in 1646, but they were sequestered in 1648. He lived abroad until the Restoration, and his wife apparently spent that time at Ledwell Park near Oxford. The Warwickshire estates were reputedly run down by the time of the Civil War, and it is not clear what uses the house was put to at this time. In any case, the primary residence of the Smith-Caringtons for much of the seventeenth century seems to have been Aston Foliat in Leicestershire, though interestingly it is Wootton not Aston that comes up in the records of Catholic missions, suggesting that the Warwickshire house was particularly associated with missionary work. At parish level, too, there must have been severe disruption for the Catholic community in the 1640s and 1650s. The nearby village of Rowington, to which some of the Catholic families of Wootton were closely connected, was badly damaged by Parliamentary troops. (24)

On the eve of the Restoration, just after the transcription of poems and other materials into MS Eng. poet. b. 5 had ceased, there were, however, new developments for the recusant community. In 1657 a new Franciscan mission under Father Leo Randolph began to be established in the area with the help of Beoley and probably Baddesley Clinton, leading eventually to the provision of a 'massing house' in Birmingham, then to a centre in Edgbaston. Registers of membership survive for this new confraternity and they include Thomas and Isabell Fairfax in 1659. Records also survive of donations towards the building of the chapel in Birmingham, which was finally completed with unfortunate timing in 1688, only to be destroyed by an anti-Catholic mob in the same year. Thomas Fairfax contributed 3 [pounds sterling] 5s and his 'man' William Saunders (who had a separate house and some substance) 5s, and his kinsfolk the Cowpers and Reeves also contributed. Francis, Lord Carington gave 10 [pounds sterling], Mr Charles Carington 1 [pounds sterling] 1s 6d, Mrs Lucy Carington 10s, and Mrs Grace Carington donated a chalice valued at 7 [pounds sterling] 4s The desire to associate with a new mission is evidently strong in the group identified in these registers, (25) but this evidence also raises questions about how the recusant community found its support in the early 1650s.

What happened to the missioners in this and the other Residencies and Colleges during the Commonwealth? They did not all leave England. Seven missioners in the Residence of St George are known to have died in England during the 1650s, compared with only four dying abroad. A key year was 1649: after the crushing of the royalist forces in the 'second' Civil War and the execution of the king, the priests seem to have gone further underground. We can take some measure of the disruptions by comparing the size of the Residence in 1647-48 and in 1655.

The generally impressive records of the Jesuit mission in England show us that during the 1640s there were at any one time in the Residence of St George up to thirteen priests at work in Worcestershire and Warwickshire, the most flourishing period ever in its history. In the period before 1644 the Superior was John Price, based in Worcester, the usual centre for the Superior; from 1645 to 1647 the Superior was Adrian Talbot, probably based in Huddington; and Owen Shelley in 1648 and 1649, probably based in Cooksey. If we take the years 1647 and 1648, we find eleven priests in the Residence, spread through the two counties. (26) Of these, two were then in their thirties, three in their forties, four in their fifties, two in their sixties, and one in his eighties. If we then turn to 1655, we find that the Residence has declined to nine as a result of deaths, transfers, and difficulties with recruitment and the situation on the ground. The priests in that year were Edward Silisdon (Superior), Lawrence Fisher (Vice-Superior, usually at Grafton), William Smith (Vice-Superior), Owen Shelley (usually at Cooksey), Francis Turner, John Turner, Ralph Emerson, Edward Beswick, and Henry Floyd. The last four were the more recent recruits. The age profile of this group in 1655 was that one was in his seventies (Shelley), two in their sixties (Silisdon and Smith), two in their fifties (Fisher and John Turner), three in their forties (Emerson, Francis Turner, and Beswick), and one (Floyd) in his thirties. (27)

As for Wootton, the Jesuit records do not explicitly tell which priest might have been assigned there in the pre-war period, and no annual returns exist from the Residence between 1649 and 1672. But it is known that the Society was at Wootton in 1655, because Edward Beswick, alias Sanders, took his 'three vows' before Edward Silisdon (or a Vice-Superior) in a mass there in that year. (28) So either Silisdon (or a Vice-Superior) was lodged at Wootton in 1655 and Beswick came to him, or both men were actually staying there at the time. In other words, in all the confusions of the time, Wootton seems to have been one of the places surviving as a centre for the mission.

It makes some sense to find a collection of texts showing that a Jesuit mission was connected with the recusant community embracing Upper and Lower Wawensmore from 1651/2, when the main compilation seems to have begun, to the early years of the Restoration. Missions sometimes used farms, (29) and all the more so when the times were difficult and some of the other centres were empty, dangerous or destroyed. Looking at the ritual solidarity and indoctrination of the contents of MS Eng. poet. b. 5, one assumes that the local families in the Catholic community had the instruction of a missionary priest. Jesuit policy identified different roles to be played in local communities and adapted materials and methods to local conditions. Some priests were known for teaching, others specialized in ministering in country areas, sometimes with much travelling. For example, Lawrence Fisher, working for many years in the Residence of St George, had a reputation for his service to the wider rural community: 'He hath a chamber at Lord Shrewsbury's, and helpeth the country people' (Foley, iv, 714). For all the zeal of Thomas and Isabell Fairfax at LowerWawensmore, and many of their relatives and allies cited in the recusancy list of 1655-56, the fact is that the compiler of MS Eng. poet. b. 5 is rather more likely to have been a missioner than someone in the Fairfax family. We should look carefully at its contents in the light of Jesuit agency.

There are places in the manuscript book where the scribe tends to adopt the habitual manner of a teacher. For example, he offers to direct the thoughts of his community, as in the four-line blessing on Anna Alcox. It would be appropriate for a priest to bless that little girl, who may have lived close enough, in Alveston, to come within the range of his wider ministry. The recording of the birth, baptism, and death of little John Fairfax may mean that the compiler ministered to the Fairfax family as priest in 1654, or indeed that he was at that moment staying in their house, which was substantial enough for the purpose, having an upper floor and garrets. (30) For all the social nature of many of the texts, an educator's hand is at work. The presence of a second hand copying two poems and then neatly completing the index in the organized manner of the main scribe suggests the work of an associate for a short period. The evidence becomes stronger when we consider some of the material included in the book at various times: the stories of monstrous blasphemies in Essex or the miraculous conversion in China are of the sort to put down in writing for instructive retelling. In all these things, the compiler is acting as a window on the wider world, and as a guide and interpreter.

Other material towards the end of the collection may also connect with specific devotional practice. There are two poems about St Winifred (pp. 98 and 122-23). The subject is not uncommon: the cult around Holywell in North Wales survived from medieval times, and there are indications that despite official opposition pilgrimages there continued through the century, probably making their way with Jesuit help through safe houses. The Society had established a Residence of St Winifred in North Wales and it was revived in 1665. The second poem asks the saint to intercede:

   Saint Wynifrid Give thy consent
   my mediatres for to bee
   and ere my dayes on earth bee spent
   make Intercession still for mee

   And when my fowle offences strong
   Come to the Imperial throne of god
   Remember him that sung this songe
   And will thy prayers my sinnes remove.

Then the scribe writes 'finis. 1657.'. The fact that there are two St Winifred poems, seemingly dated from two different years, prompts thoughts as to whether the scribe was associated with pilgrimages on two occasions.

However, although there may be no absolute line between choices made for communal use and those for more personal record, it may be that there is more personal witness and perhaps more advanced devotional practice in some items inserted towards the end of the book and not included in the index. Of interest in this regard is the compiler's selective reuse (pp. 105-08) of materials from Henry Hawkins's Partheneia Sacra of 1633.31 This meditational emblem book is a complex product for a special group of the Jesuit community itself, a Sodality of the Immaculate Conception. The author/ translator, Hawkins, was a Jesuit working in London. The whole multi-layered document exploits associations of Mary within her garden. Complex rhetorical structures are built around each symbol, consisting of device, character, morals, essay, discourse, emblem with poesie, theories, and apostrophe. It is an advanced work following continental models. In the selection in MS Eng. poet. b. 5 eight of the twelve-line 'poesies' have been copied and reordered into a simpler sequence suggesting closeness to or distance from the divine presence. They are prefixed with some introductory words and finished with two of the apostrophes and the same terminal verses that closed the printed collection. The result is a stripping away of the complexities of the Marian meditation and the substitution of something more Jesus-centred. This looks like the work of an experienced redactor, whether at some earlier stage of transmission or at the point of entering the materials into MS Eng. poet. b. 5.

It is also worth looking at the prose introduction to the sequence:

O Jesus, the Desire of eternal mountaines, / Draw to thee all my desires, since thou art the / adamant, Jesus, the love of all faithfull soules, / take all my affections, since thou art the centre / of all harts, Jesus, the Joy and Crowne of all / the elect, stay my floating hopes; since thou art / the haven of harts, stretch out an assisting hand / to so many errours, and set me in a place where I, / may desire nothing: But let it be such a place, / wherein I may love yt which is Infinitely amiable.

One cannot be sure that the scribe composed, rather than copied, this introduction to the selection, but the effect of the material is to introduce a devotional intensity to the last part of the book. Perhaps it is significant that this set of texts was not included in the index, that is, was not meant to be shared in some communal devotions.

Also excluded from the index is the remarkable 'A prayer for the morning' inserted into the blank lower half of page 99. Here again we have what we might regard as a more 'professional' rhetoric of petition:

I beleeve in thee, o everlasting veritie, I confide in thee, O / my onely love, I love thee with all my hart, & with all my soule, / thou who art my onely all, & my onely good, for besides thee / what can I desire, or feare, or in what can I Joy or sorrowe, / but conserning thee, since all things Are uncertaine out of thee, / Give me grace so to enioy & Imploy thy gifts, yt in nothing I may / be displeasing to thee, Behold I desire nothing, As not knowinge / what will be for my good, But I wholy confirme my will to thine, / & praise thy name in all things, who Art my good, & my all, I / give thee thankes wth my whole hart, & soule, for all thy gracious / benefits, I offer to thee my understanding, my will, my memory, / & all my sences, & parts of my body, & what soever I shall thinke, / speake or do this day, that it may bee all to thy honour & glory / to love all in thee, o my onely love, to adheare by love & praise / to thee, o yt all men did love thee, & yt I might burne with thy / love, O all ye seraphicall spirites obtaine for me the love of / my all, & thou my Angell gardain obtaine for me the presence of / my God, ye martires patience, ye confessors mortification of my / sences, ye virgins purity, & yu my holy patron, St. yt or Lord God / would enebroate me with his love, who for the love of me did / vouchsafe to die Amen.

That sounds more like the rhetoric of an academic cleric than of a yeoman farmer.

There is a fascinating mixture in this collection. The majority of the book, as first finished in the early 1650s, seems to represent a collection of materials by a Jesuit missioner to suit his rural flock, whom he indoctrinates by this means in their gatherings. If the scribe is not actually a missioner, it must have been someone in close contact with the information systems of the Society. Some of the later insertions seem to witness in more personal ways to a vocational or devotional practice. Nevertheless, the scribbling of young John Ingram shows that the book was handled by the Catholic youth of Wootton. It may eventually be possible to identify the scribe of MS Eng. poet. b. 5 and his associate, with further work in Jesuit and local records, seeking more information about lives and events at Wootton and elsewhere, and samples of handwriting. Numerous questions about context are also opened up. If the Fairfax connection is crucial, it would be good to know whether there was some further relationship between the Fairfax household and Wootton Hall beyond that of tenant farmer. It would be good to know also whether the zeal of Thomas and Isabelle Fairfax was shared by his father Henry, who was never cited as a recusant. And exactly what happened at Wootton Hall and elsewhere in the estate during the absence of the Smith-Caringtons, especially in connection with Catholic worship and education?

After reviewing the Jesuit context, it is worth returning to the matter of the unusual tall, thin shape of the manuscript book. It is a narrow folio measuring 395 mm in height and only 150 mm in width, the sheets having been folded longitudinally. McKay assumed that the volume 'had already been in use for some other purpose such as that of an account-book' (p. 185), the previous entries having been cut out in the twenty missing leaves near the beginning. We have no way of knowing what was on the missing leaves, so strictly speaking any theory based on a speculation of previous contents is not secure. About the format McKay remarked, 'The long narrow pages would make it easier and lessen the need for frequent turning. It would be ideal for a reader or singer to use on a social occasion'. In actuality, it would suit only a single reader or singer, not a group, who would be better served by a wide page. At a conference in 2000, quite another speculative explanation for the unusual shape was provided, that the book was like the so-called 'holster books' of the late medieval period, which some have associated with ease of carrying on horseback. Both suggestions have intriguing possibilities. The account book explanation creates an object looking like something different, which could serve to disguise its contents; the 'holster-book' explanation suggests that the materials travelled between houses as part of the system of transmission in the Catholic community.

Such speculations belong to the study of communications systems specific to the recusant community in the provinces in seventeenth-century England, a study to which MS Eng. poet. b. 5 adds a good deal, but other features of the manuscript and of the work of its compiler may serve as reminders of more general characteristics of collection and transmission in the provinces. For example, a feature this pious collection shares with the broader, more entertaining collection of the Derbyshire yeoman Leonard Wheatcroft is the emphasis on shared social activity. Wheatcroft records all sorts of knowledge about local sports and festivities, in which he liked to play a prominent part; the compiler of MS Eng. poet. b. 5 puts an extraordinary emphasis upon the shared rituals of the Christmas season and other festivals, and his songs, ballads, and didactic narratives are of the kind to function well in performance to an appropriate gathering, often using familiar tunes. Wheatcroft, too, provided new sets of words for familiar tunes, and both compilers deal with kinds of material intended for singing or recitation.

Both MS Eng. poet. b. 5 and the Wheatcroft miscellany also share a desire to capture materials and news from the wider world. Such scribes seem to have positioned themselves as informers of their local communities and as distributors of instructive and entertaining material. (32) A study of the present kind might go together with broader studies of the provincial circulation of texts, the roles of such as schoolmasters and church clerks, individual and communal reading practices, and the gradual growth of collections of books for purchase and lending in provincial communities, even of church libraries such as Dunscombe's. In terms of communities for scribal publication, of the kinds identified in Harold Love's book, (33) Catholic networking obviously presents a special complex case.

There is also an instructive difference between the Catholic collection and the more varied social miscellany of Wheatcroft, because it is noticeable that whereas Wheatcroft constantly writes to topical occasions and serves as recorder of events in his local community as well as of materials that may be distributed in his community, the interest of the Catholic scribe is actually little about the details of local life, despite the recording of the Fairfax baby and the gathering of little Anna Alcox's texts from Alveston. Such a difference may be interpreted as a further sign that this scribe's role is more that of the educator disseminating religiously useful materials, rather than a local recorder.

Further work remains to be done also on the manuscript book itself. It is not clear, for example, whether any of the poems in it beyond the four lines about Anna Alcox are newly composed. I believe most materials to have been transcribed, mainly in batches, but many poems do not occur in other documents in major libraries, so that an exhaustive search is needed, identifying as many other Catholic collections as possible. With the current lack of a comprehensive database of poetry in print and manuscript in the seventeenth century, this could take some time. Whatever the results of such a search, this manuscript has far greater significance than has been realized.

There is the point about all those poems taken from Robert Southwell, composed more than half a century before. In some sense the Wootton scribe in the 1650s is a follower of his Jesuit predecessor in the old tradition of priest/poets in the methods of accessible doctrinal writing. But beyond that, this is a very unusual survival of its kind, seeming to show directly or indirectly some of the methods of rural missioners on the ground.

There is also at the very end of the book one insertion I have not yet mentioned, the only one coming after the table of contents. Written in the main hand is a jovial drinking song in celebration of the traditional leather bottle, that is, in praise of beer and ale. The drink is appropriate to yeoman society, and beer was brewed at farms like Lower Wawensmore. But the poem may also have more to tell. Jesuit missioners aroused a very great deal of suspicion and fear, and opponents accused them in particular of using food and drink as devilish persuaders. In a letter of 1681, one writer reveals what he thinks is the secret of their success, imagining them ordering their method thus: 'If wee licker them thoroughly, with strong Beere, and good sparkling Canary [...] they will talke familiarly with our Priests.' (34) Something of the sort, I suppose, may have happened to the zealous young James Clifton, MA, as he came down to face the organization atWootton in 1700 and found himself carried away to Rome. As for our scribe, if one may entertain an uncharitable thought, was the jovial song of the leather bottle a part of a missionary method, too?

APPENDIX: CONTENTS OF MS ENG. POET. B. 5

p. ii [damaged page] '[...]e not into Judgment wth thy servant o lord ...' Prose; for three voices, of Jesus, Justice, and Sinner. Not in index.

p. iii '[My wretched soule] with sinne opprest ...' Not in index; repeated,

p. 42.

p. iv 'The time of yeare | doth aske good chere ...' Not in index.

p. vi 'O cruell Death And wounds most Deepe ...' [Southwell] Not in index; repeated, p. 10.

p. vii 'Deare eye yt dost peruse my muses stile ...' Title: To the Reader. [Southwell] Not in index.

p. 1 'Let the vast universe | & therin every thinge ...' Title: A gradual hymn of a double cadence, tending to the honour of the holy name of God. Index: A graduall hymn.

p. 2 First subtitle: to the first person. 'To thee Dread soveraign, And Deare Lord ...' Title: A hymn to the Blessed trinitie. Index: A hymn to the Blessed trinitie. 34 Alan Davidson, 'Strong Beere and Good Sparkling Canary',Worcester Recusant, 15 (1970), 16-19. 'Hail holy sacrament | The worlds great wonderment ...' Title and Index: Upon the Blessed sacrament.

p. 3 'As to the pole the lilly bends ...' Title: Another. Index: Another, or two other. 'He that is in distresse | And faine would gether ...' Title: The paternoster or our father. Index: The pater noster.

p. 4 'Hail holy tyde | wherin a bride ...' Title and Index: A hymn for Christmas Day. 'Weake crazy mortall why dost feare ...' Index: weake crasie mortall.

p. 5 'A word was sayd | & heaven & earth was made ...' Index: A word was sayd.

p. 6 First subtitle: The first prt of godly meditations. 'O. all Good meditations / that may be thought of man in minde ...' Index: The 1.2.3. prts of Godly meditations. [Southwell] Part repeated, p. vi.

p. 11 'O blessed God, O saviour sweet ...' Index: O Blessed God, O saviour sweet.

p. 12 'In meditation where I sate | thinking on my soules Estate ...' Index: In meditation where I sate.

p. 13 'O Christ that art the highest ...' Index: O Christ that Art the highest.

p. 14 'Sore up my soule unto thy rest ...' [Southwell] Title and Index: seeke flowers of heaven.

p. 15 'O plesant port, O place of rest ...' [Southwell] Title: Man to the wound in Christs side. Index: Man to the wound in Christ syde. Repeated, p. 85. 'My hovering thoughts would fly to heaven ...' [Southwell] Title and Index: Mans cruell warre.

p. 16 'Disankerd from a Blisfull shore ...' [Southwell] Title: The prodigall childs soule wrack. Index: The prodigal childs soule wrack.

p. 17 'Yf that the sick may Groane ...' [Southwell] Title: A song called St peters a.icted minde. Index: St, peters a.icted minde.

p. 18 'Amount my soule from earth a while ...' Index: Amount my soule from earth a while.

p. 21 'Who lives in love, loves best to live ...' [Southwell] Index: Who lives in love. 'Before my face the picture hangs /'. [Southwell] Title: verses upon the Image of Death. Index: Upon the Image of Death.

p. 22 'Yf Death would come and shew his face ...' Title and Index: A song of Death.

p. 24 'Whilst Adam soundly sleepe did take ...' Title: Tune is Chinerhas [?] Index: Whilest Adam soundly sleep did take.

p. 28 'A. Acquaint thy selfe most narrowly | Thy minde, And hart, And life to watch ...' Title: An A. B. C. as followeth. Index: An. A. B. C.

p. 30 'Like as the Damaske rose you see ...' Index: Like as the damask rose you see.

p. 31 'Methoughts musing as I was layd ...' Index: Mee thoughts musing as I was layd.

p. 32 'As I went Downe by one wood side ...' Title: A Song of Conscience making of mone. Index: A song of poore conscience.

p. 35 'When evill thoughts and motions breedeth sinne...' Index: When Evill thoughts. Repeated, p. 49. 'When Abraham was an old man ...' Index: When Abraham was an old man.

p. 38 'A certaine king married a sonne | And he prepar'd a feast ...' Index: A certaine king married a sonne.

p. 39 'In nenevie old toby Dwelt | an aged man, and blind was he ...' Index: In nenevie old toby Dwelt.

p. 42 'My wretched soule with sinne opprest ...' Index: My wretched soule wth sin opprest. Repeated, p. iii.

p. 43 'Shun Delayes that breed remorse ...' [Southwell] Index: shun delayes that breed remorse.

p. 44 'Schismaticall man, Remember well | the Joyes of heaven & paines of hell ...' Index: Schismaticall man.

p. 46 'the gift is small of a Dozen of points ...' Index: The gift is smale of a dozen of points.

p. 48 'O lord except an humble sinners teares ...' Index: O lord except an humble sinners teares.

p. 49 'when Evill thoughts & motions breedeth sinne ...' Not in index; repeated, p. 35.

p. 50 'All yow that are to mirth Inclin'd ...' Index: All yow that are to mirth Inclin'd.

p. 51 'Behold a little tender babe ...' [Southwell] Index: Behold a little tender babe.

p. 52 'As I in hoary winters night ...' [Southwell] Index: As I in hoary winters night.

p. 53 'Let fickle fortune runne | his blindest race ...' [Southwell] Index: let fickle fortune ronne.

p. 54 'Gracious God most omnipotent | Blessed be thou in heaven above ...' Index: Gracious God most omnipotent.

p. 55 'O blessed be the happie time ...' Index: Blessed be the happie time.

p. 56 'All you that Doe Desire | for christmas comming ...' Index: O yow yt do desire for Christmas coming.

p. 57 'Sit you merry Gentlemen | Let nothing you Dismay ...' Index: Sitt you merry Gentlemen.

p. 58 'Saint Steephan that most blessed man | we must remember still ...' Title: A caroll for St Steephan. Index: A caroll for St Stephens Day. 'Of Good Saint John I needs must sing ...' Title: A caroll for St John. Index: A caroll for St Johns Day.

p. 59 'Of herods cruell tyrannie | I will relate whereby you may ...' Title: a caroll on the holy Innocents. Index: one for the holy Innocents.

p. 60 'Now farewell good christmas | a due and a due ...' Title: A caroll for twelfe day. Index: A caroll for twelfe Day.

p. 61 'Christmas hath made an ende | weladay weladay ...' Title: a caroll for candlemas day. Index: a caroll for candlemas Day. 'When as great Augustus Ceasar / through the world had made a peace /'. Title: a caroll for Christmas day to ye tune of dulcina. Index: A caroll for Christmas Day.

p. 63 'Come tom, come will, come roger, come harry ...' Title: Another for Christmas Day to the tune of the A. B. C. Index: Another for Christmas Day. 'When holy stephan had | reprov'd the malignant Jewes ...' Title: A caroll for St Ste: day to ye tune of in sad and ashie weedes. Index: A caroll for St stephens Day. Index mistakenly enters this item twice.

p. 64 'Now for good saint stephens sake | come gi's a little Drinke ...' Title: Another for St Ste: Day to ye tune of derry, derry, downe. Index: Another for St stephens Day. 'Of John the babtist may we reade | In holy writt most right ...' Title: A caroll for St Jhons Day to ye tune of come, come my sweet etc. Index: A caroll for st Johns Day.

p. 65 'When the cruell tyrant herod | In Jury raign'd as king ...' Title: A caroll for Innocent Day ye tune ye fairest nymph that walkes. Index: A caroll for Innocents Day.

p. 66 'To all good houskeepers, that freely maintaine ...' Title: A caroll for new yeares Day to ye tune of ye wiving Age. Index: A caroll for newyeares Day. 'A leaven Dayes are already past ...' Title: A caroll for twelfe Day ye tune As I went toWalsingham. Index: A caroll for twelfe Day.

p. 67 'Alas what newes is this | that sadly soundeth ...' Title: Another for the same Day ye tune, to ride to rumford. Index: Another for twelfe Day. 'Joy, health, peace & wealth | with all things requisite ...' Title: A wassaile song, to be sung, at any time during Christmas to the tune of good yor worship. Index: A wassell song.

p. 68 'What faithlesse froward sinfull man | so farre from grace is fled ...' Index: what faithles froward Christian man. Second song of Anna Alcox, March 1651/2; note on her by scribe.

p. 70 First subtitle: The husbands requests. 'To please me wife yf thou desirous bee | Aye, first of god, and next to god of mee ...' Second subtitle: The Wives Anwers. 'Husband, yf care of thy good will me move | Even as thy selfe mee onely see thou love ...' Title and Index: Rules for a quiet life in marriage.

p. 71 Title: A short meditation, of mans misery. Prose. Index: Mans misery. Headed: July the 5th 1652. Prose. Index: of mary Adams her blasphemy.

p. 72 Blank except for heading (in di.erent hand): A Cristmass Carrall or a Song For Christmassday.

p. 73 'Now marke ye well, & I shall tell ...' Title: A carroll. Index: Now mark ye wel & I shall tell.

p. 74 'Haile mary, full of Grace | Haile virgin free from sinne ...' Title: Ave maria, gracia plena, was Gabrils salutation ...' Index: A-ve-Maria.

p. 76 'Our Second Eve puts on her mortall shroude ...' [Southwell] Title: A meditation, on ye Conception of or Blessed Lady, St mary the virgin. Index: A meditation of ye conception of or Blessed lady. 'Joye in the rising of or orient starre ...' [Southwell] Title: Another of or Blessed Ladies nativitie. Index: Another. 'Wife did she live, yet virgin did she die ...' [Southwell] Title: of or ladyes espousalls. Index: Another.

p. 77 'Spell Eva back, and Ave shall you finde ...' [Southwell] Title: Of or ladyes salutation. Index: of or ladyes salutation. 'Proclaimed Queene, and mother of a God ...' [Southwell] Title: Of or Blessed Ladyes Visitation. Index: of or ladyes visitation.

p. 78 'Behold the father is the daughters sonne ...' [Southwell] Title: of the nativitie of or sweet savior Jesus Christ. Index: of the nativitie of or saviour Christ. 'The head is lanced to work the bodies cure ...' [Southwell] Title: Of the Circumcision of or Lord Jesus. Index: of his circumsition.

p. 79 'To blaze the rising of this Glorious sunne ...' [Southwell] Title and Index: Of the Epiphany of or Lord. 'To be redeem'd, the worlds redeemer brought ...' [Southwell] Title and Index: Of his presentation in the temple.

p. 80 'Alas our day, is forc'd to fly by nyght ...' [Southwell] Title: Of or Blessed Saviours flight into Egypt. Index: of his flight into Egipt. 'When death & hell, their right in herod clayme ...' [Southwell] Title: Of or saviours returne out of Egypt. Index: of his returne.

p. 81 'Till twelve yeares Age, how Christ his childhood spent ...' [Southwell] Title: Of or Blessed Saviours Childe hood. Index: of his childhood. 'Fatt soyle, full spring, sweet olive, grape of blisse ...' [Southwell] Title: Of Christs bloody sweat. Index: of his bloudy sweat. 'When Christ with care, and pangs of death opprest ...' [Southwell] Title: Of Christs sleeping friends. Index: of his sleeping friends.

p. 82 'Weepe living thinges, of life the mother dies ...' [Southwell] Title and Index: Of the Death of or Lady.

p. 83 'If sinne be captive, grace must find release ...' [Southwell] Title: Of the Assumption of or Blessed Lady. Index: of her Assumption. 'Be still sweet babe refraine thy teares ...' Title and Index: our Blessed ladyes lullabie.

p. 84 'How may I live, since yt my life is gone ...' [Southwell] Title: Our Blessed Ladies complaint when she had lost her sonne. Index: her complaint when she had lost her son.

p. 85 'What mist hath dim'd that glorious face ...' [Southwell] Title: The Blessed virgin mary to Christ on the Crosse. Index: to her sonne on the crosse. 'O Pleasant ^port^, o place of rest ...' [Southwell] Index: Man to the wound in Christs syde. Repeated, p. 14.

p. 86 'Contemne the world, and be my love ...' Title: Our Blessed Saviours / love letter, / the superscription / To his exceeding much A.ected ...' Index: Our Blessed<ladyes>^saviours^ love letter.

p. 88 'For God & man, wth wavering tongue ...' Title and Index: The Answer.

p. 89 Lower half: recording of birth, baptism, and death of John Fairfax, 18, 20, 26 August 1654. Not in index.

p. 90 'The day of wrath, that Dreadfull day ...' Title: Of the Dreadfull day of Judgment. Index: of the dreadfull Day of Judgement.

p. 91 'Let folly praise, that fancy loves ...' Title and Index: A child my chayre.

p. 92 'In old times past in bethany | one Lazarus Did Dwell ...' Index: In old times past in beththany.

p. 94 'When Jesus went to galilee | his Journey chanced soe ...' Index: When Jesus went to galilee.

p. 96 'O God of thy Great might | strengthen our frailtie soe ...' Index: O God of thy great might.

p. 98 'As I through one church yard did passe ...' Index: As I through one church-yard did pass. 'As a sweet rose in pleasant spring ...' Title: Of St Wenefred. Index: of S.t wenefred.

p. 99 'To you O soveraigne queene All haile ...' Title: Jesu maria / Salve regina. Index: Jesu-maria, salve regina. Bottom third: 'A prayer for the morning' Prose. Not in index.

p. 100 Story of conversion of Queen of China, from newsbook, 1652. Index: Good weekly newes.

p. 101 'So now is come our Joyfull feast ...' Title: A Christmas Caroll. Index: So now is come or Joyfull feast.

p. 102 'Lets Dance and sing & make good cheere ...' Title: A Caroll for Christmas. 4-line carol; not in index. 'Att or house at home, at or house at home | I Am goodwife And beares no rule ...' Index: At or house at home.

p. 104 'Att or house at home, at or house at home | I am goodwife & shall beare rule ...' Index: The second part.

p. 105 Selection of verses and apostrophes from Hawkins's Partheneia Sacra. Not in index.

p. 108 'Think O man how Gabriell came ...' Title: A Godly new song of or Blessed Saviours life. Index: A godly new song of or Blessed saviours life. Includes some Latin.

p. 111 'Why do I use my paper Inke and pen ...' Title: A Song of 3 Blessed martyres, holy priests Campion, Sherwin, And Brian. Index: A song of three Blessed martyres.

p. 115 'Calvary mount is my Delight ...' Index: The three martyres song.

p. 116 'What Iron hart, that would not melt in griefe ...' Title: Yet more of Campion, etc. Index: yet more of campion.

p. 118 'Joseph, an aged man truly | did marry a mayd was called mary ...' Index: Joseph An Aged man truly. '1654' written at end, p.119.

p. 119 'The prince of peace, a man of warre | omnipotent I am ...' [In second hand; title in another hand.] Title: The tune is knowe no such liberty. Index: The prince of peace. '1663' written in bottom corner.

p. 120 'Awake all England waile & weepe ...' [In second hand.] Title: To the tune upon the king enjoys his owne againe. Index: Consci^e^nce cleer.

p. 122 'Saint Wynifrid as she lyes slayne | By Cruell Cradocks murdering hand ...' Title: St Wynifrids songe. Index: Saint wynifrids song. '1657' written at end, p. 123.

p. 124 'When I sometime begin to thinke upon | the frailty of this present life ...' Index: when I somtime, begin to think upon.

p. 125 'Mans life is like a shadow ...' Index: Mans life is like a shadow. 'Sweete Jesu, my lovinge spouse | Eternall veritie ...' Index: sweete Jesu, my loving spowse.

p. 127 A table to this book

p. 129 '[H]e that of nothing made all things | both hell & heaven and Every thing ...' [song in praise of the leather bottle] Not in index.

(1) A simple list of contents is supplied in the Appendix, which does not however set out to record all marginal notes or to give information about other occurrences in print or manuscript, except for texts known to be by Southwell.

(2) F. M. McKay, 'A Seventeenth-Century Collection of Religious Poetry: Bodleian Manuscript Eng. poet. b. 5', Bodleian Library Record, 8 (1970), 185-91.

(3) The pagination is, however, not absolutely straightforward, because pages 70-75 were first numbered 50-55, then overwritten. However, since page 76 is normally marked, it may be that this was a simple error in numbering put right after a few pages.

(4) It has been pointed out to me in a seminar that the second sentence scans and rhymes, in rather medieval fashion, and in almost the same measure as the verses that follow.

(5) The first is printed in the Catholic collection of poems Epitaphs, the first upon the death of [...] Marie, late Queene of Scots. The other [...] of three most blessed marters. Whereunto are annexed, devout Catholike sonnets, songs and carrols [...] (Roan, 1604 [false imprint]); see A. F. Allison and D. M. Rogers, The Contemporary Printed Literature of the English Counter-Reformation between 1558 and 1640: An Annotated Catalogue, 2 vols (Aldershot: Gower, 1989-94), 11, No. 914; the second in Holy Churches Complaint for her children's disobedience (c. 1598-1601), Allison and Rogers, 11, No. 915.

(6) 'Two Songs of Death', Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 64 (1963), 67-71.

(7) Peter Beal, Index of English Literary Manuscripts, 1: 1450-1625, 2 vols (London: Mansell, 1980), 11, 495-522.

(8) On the manuscript books of the Derbyshire yeoman, see Cedric C. Brown, 'The Two Pilgrimages of the Laureate of Ashover, Leonard Wheatcroft', in Betraying Our Selves: Forms of Self-Representation in Early Modern English Texts, ed. by Henk Dragstra, Sheila Ottway, and Helen Wilcox (Basingstoke and London: Macmillan, 2000), pp. 120-35, and 'The Black Poet of Ashover, Leonard Wheatcroft', English Manuscript Studies, 11 (2002), 181-202.

(9) On the family, see: W. A. Copinger, The History and Records of the Smith-Carington Family (London: Sotheran, 1907); William Cooper, Wootton Wawen: Its History and Records (Leeds: Whitehead, 1936).

(10) Henry Foley, Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, 7 vols in 8 (Roehampton and London, 1875-83), v, 860; Donald G. Graham, 'The Affair of James Clifton, Vicar of Wootton Wawen, 1700-1702: Apostasy and Recusancy in a Warwickshire Parish', Worcester Recusant, 24 (1974), 2-17.

(11) For an overview see David F. Mosler, 'Warwickshire Catholics in the Civil War', Recusant History, 15 (1980), 259-64. On Coughton as a Massing centre, see Michael Hodgett, 'Recusants in the Midlands', Worcester Recusant, 48 (1986), 1-25. On the Throckmortons, E. A. B. Bernard, A Seventeenth-Century Country Gentleman, Sir Frances Throckmorton, 1640-1660 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1948).

(12) Foley, VII, 848-50; T. Brendan Minney, OSB, 'The Sheldons of Beoley',Worcester Recusant, 5 (1965), 1-17; C. W. Clarke, 'Worcestershire and the Benedictine Succession', Worcester Recusant, 14 (1969), 2-14; there are many Beoley entries in the Franciscan Register, see J. Denis McEvilly, 'Worcestershire Entries in the Franciscan Register, 1657-1824', Worcester Recusant, 13 (1969), 10-18; 14 (1969), 2-14; 15 (1970), 22-22.

(13) In the list of recusants of 1665/6 the Rileys, Palins, and Fairfaxes of Wawensmore were cited, and the Hopkins wife of Spernall: see the transcript (Z48) inWarwickshire Record O.ce.

(14) On the unreliability of recusant lists, see V. T. J. Arkell, 'An Enquiry into the Frequency of the Parochial Registration of Catholics in a Seventeenth-Century Warwickshire Parish', Local Population Studies, 9 (1972), 23-32; the estimate of a quarter of the population of Wootton is that of Graham; on the high percentage in Wootton and elsewhere, see also 'The Catholics in 1676 as Recorded in the Compton Census', in Marie B. Rowlands and others, English Catholics of Parish and Town, 1558-1778, Catholic Record Society Publications, Monograph Series 5 ([London]: Catholic Record Society, 1999), pp. 78-114. I am grateful to Dr Rowlands for conversations about this research. For an illustration of the enormous difference in the figures following a change of policy in inclusiveness, for the Wootton Wawen parish, see Elizabeth Guise-Berry and Lillian Lascelles, 'Churchwardens Presentments, 1664-1768 (cont)', Worcester Recusant, 21 (1973), 28-41, where only two people were returned in 1674 and 1676, but very large numbers in 1705.

(15) Wills or probate inventories exist in Worcestershire Record Office for the following in the immediate group: Henry Fairfax (will 10 August 1668; inventory 20 June 1677); Thomas Fairfax (will 6 September 1689; inventory 24 April 1690); William Saunders, Thomas Fairfax's 'man', formerly of Rowington (inventory 22 October 1697); John Ingram (inventory 17 June 1712; will 9 May 1713); John Ingram (will 17 June 1726; inventory 29 June 1726); William Fairfax (will 2 March 1731/2; inventory 24 July 1732).

(16) Thomas's father Henry was never cited in recusant lists. It may be that the zeal came from his wife, or from Thomas's wife. All the children of Thomas's first marriage except one died in infancy or by the time his father made his will in 1668; the survivor, John, died in 1669; his wife Isabell had already died in 1665. Thomas's inheritor was William, a son of his second marriage in 1670 to Elizabeth Cowper of Rowington (from a prominent yeoman recusant family), and he was a cited as a recusant.

(17) More teasingly, at the bottom of page 43, upside down, is written in an illegible but seemingly quite early script 'For ... ... ... ... .', and this may represent a further use or ownership shift, which I have not managed to identify.

(18) A concise account of the history of the Jesuit mission in England is given in the introduction to Thomas M. McCoog, English andWelsh Jesuits, 1555-1650, 2 vols, Catholic Record Society Publications, Records Series, 74-75 ([London]: Catholic Record Society, 1994-95), 1, 5-34. I am grateful to Father McCoog, Archivist in the Jesuit Provincial Archive, Farm Street, for conversations about this research. On the new power of the recusant community, see J. A. Hilton, 'The Catholic Ascendency in the Worcester Region, 1685-88',Worcester Recusant, 26 (1975), 3-7.

(19) The apparently selective recusancy in the Ingram house is revealed in the 1705 churchwardens' presentments, as reproduced in Guise-Berry and Lascelles, pp. 38-41.

(20) Microfilms of bishop's returns inWorcester Record Office.

(21) The story is told in Graham, 'A.air'.

(22) Following the useful broad distinctions drawn in Kenneth Fincham, Prelate as Pastor: The Episcopate of James I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990).

(23) For transcript see Cooper, p. 117.

(24) See Mosley, pp. 262-63.

(25) The connection of Wootton Hall with the Franciscans was to continue for many generations--there is a burial in the Lady Chapel of one James Frost, OSF, dated 1785.

(26) They were Robert Cox, Lawrence Fisher, Nicolas Hart, John Lewis, Edward Silisdon, John Sta.ord, Adrian Talbot, Francis Turner, Peter Turner, Owen Shelley, and JohnWeston.

(27) There is an overview of the Residence of St George in T. G. Holt, S J, 'The Residency of St George: A Survey of English Jesuits in Warwickshire and Worcestershire in Penal Times', Worcester Recusant, 20 (1972), 45-78. Otherwise information is taken mainly from Foley, McCoog, and Holt, The English Jesuits, 1650-1829: A Biographical Dictionary ([London]: Catholic Record Society, 1984).

(28) McCoog, 1, 119-20.

(29) See Michael Hodgett, 'The Godly Garret, 1560-1660', in Rowlands, Parish and Town, pp. 36-60 (pp. 49-55). I am grateful to Dr Hodgett for sharing his knowledge of Catholic centres in the area in this period.

(30) The 1690 probate inventory shows that the house had a cellar; on the ground floor porch, hall, parlour, kitchen, and dairy; first floor rooms over porch, hall, kitchen and parlour, and at least two garrets. A barn is mentioned outside. The 1732 inventory also mentions pantry, brewhouse, millhouse, perrymill, and stable.

(31) Partheneia Sacra By H.A. [...], ed. by Iain Fletcher (Aldington: Hand and Flower Press, 1950).

(32) See Brown, 'Black Poet', pp. 189-94.

(33) Harold Love, Scribal Publication in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993).