Further research among those of the Ward (or Warde) papers that are yet extant may clear the question as to whom Christopher Wright married. The mysterious silence which broods over the life and career of Marmaduke Ward, subsequent to the year 1605, suggests to my mind many far-reaching supposals. Marmaduke Ward seems to have died before the year 1614, but the “burials” of the Ripon Registers are lost for this period apparently.
[48] — Born 1563. Father Oswald Tesimond was for six years at Hindlip Hall, along with Father Oldcorne. Ralph Ashley, a Jesuit lay-brother, was Oldcorne’s servant.
[49] — John Wright was born about 1568. Christopher Wright was born about 1570. Had they a brother Francis, living at Newbie (or Newby), who had a son Robert? — See Ripon Registers, which records the baptism of a Robert Wright, 25th March, 1601, the son of Francis Wright, of Newbie; also of a Francis Wright, son of Francis Wright, of Newby, under date 2nd February, 1592.
The Welwick Church Registers for this period are lost apparently, though the burial is recorded, under date 13th October, 1654, of ffrauncis Wright, Esquire, and of another ffrauncis Wright, under date 2nd May, 1664, both at Welwick. (Communicated to me by the Rev. D. V. Stoddart, M.A., Vicar of Welwick.) Probably the Francis Wrights, of Newby (or Newbie), are those buried at Welwick, being father and son respectively. Certainly the coincidence is remarkable. — See ante.
[50] — Foley’s “Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus,” vol. iv., pp. 203-5 (Burns & Oates, 1878).
[51] — Quoted in Foley’s “Records,” vol. iv., p. 213.
[52] — It is noteworthy, as illustrative of Father Oldcorne’s character, that Robert Winter says in his letter to the Lords Commissioners, 21st January, 1605-6: “After our departure from Holbeach, about some ten days, we [i.e., himself and Stephen Littleton, the Master of Holbeach] met Humphrey Littleton, cousin to Stephen Littleton, and we then entreated him to seek out one Mr. Hall [an alias of Oldcorne] for us,
and desire him to help us to some resting place.” — See Jardine’s “Criminal Trials, Gunpowder Plot,” vol. ii., p. 146.
[53] — Schismatic Catholics were those Catholics that went to Mass in private houses, and then, more or less, frequented their parish church afterwards to escape the fines. They were further divided into Communicants and Non-communicants. Very often the men of a family were Catholics of this sort, and the womenkind strict Catholics. Indeed, it was mainly the women and the priests that have kept “the Pope’s religion” alive in England: although, of course, many men of great mental and physical powers were papists of the most rigid class. The practice of “going to the Protestant church,” as English Roman Catholics term the practice to this day, was deliberately condemned by the Council of Trent.
The cause of the historic controversy between the Jesuits and the Secular Priests in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. lies in a nut-shell. It was this: the Jesuits, and especially their extraordinarily able leader, Father Parsons, thought that the Secular Priests required watching. And so they did; and so do all other human creatures. But the mistake that Parsons made was this: his prejudices and prepossessions blinded him to the fact that the proper watchers of Secular Priests are Bishops and the Pope, and not a society of Presbyters, however grave, however gifted, or however pious.