The Popish Plot: A study in the history of the reign of Charles II

by John Pollock

Longleat.

MSS. belonging to the Marquis of Bath. Coventry Papers xi. xx. lx. By the generous permission of the Marquis of Bath and the courtesy of the authorities at the British Museum I have been enabled to use these important papers (of which an unsatisfactory account will be found in the appendix to the 4th report of the Hist. MSS. Com.) in the Manuscript department of the Museum. I am greatly indebted to Mr. S. Arthur Strong, librarian of the House of Lords, for his kind offices in obtaining access to the papers for me.

I have also to express my thanks to Mr. Warner and Mr. Bickley of the British Museum, and to Mr. Hubert Hall and Mr. Salisbury of the Record Office for much kind help and courtesy shewn to me during my work in their departments. The manuscripts in the Vatican archives of which I have made use were copied for me by Mr. Bliss, who most generously interrupted his other work to make the transcripts.

Cambridge University Library: “Persecutionis Anglicanae et Conjurationis Presbiterianae Historia.” Autore P. Warner, S.J., Regi Jacobo II^do a sacris. 181 pp. fol. Letter-book of John Warner, S.J.

These manuscripts, of which the former is the more important, have, I believe, never been used before. They were seen by Henry Foley, compiler of the Records of the English Province, S.J., but do not appear to have been used by him. A notice of them is so deeply buried in his laborious and unordered work (v. 289) that it has escaped the notice of the author of Warner’s life in the Dictionary of National Biography. Foley left inside the cover of Warner’s History a note, which I quote below. Few are likely to agree with him that it is “probably the best, the fullest, and the most truthful ever recorded.” The account of the Jesuit father is naturally prejudiced in favour of his society and partakes of the nature of a martyrology. There are nevertheless points of considerable interest contained in it. The euphuistic style of Warner’s writing marks him as a man of learning and culture.

Note by Henry Foley. 13 Nov. 1876.

“The original draft of this valuable MS. in the hand of the Rev. Father John Warner, S.J., is in the British Museum, Harlean MSS. 880.

“It is closely written, divided into 8 chapters—f.c. 4^to [sic]. The writing is so bad that it is difficult to make it out.

“Father Warner succeeded Father Thomas Whitbread, who suffered at Tyburn 30 June 1679, as Provincial of the English Province, S.J., and remained in that office for three years.

“In 1686 he was appointed confessor to King James II. He died at the court of St. Germains the 2nd of Nov. 1692, aet. 64. He was a very learned man and wrote several controversial works.