Now we know that Marmaduke Warde was of Mulwaith (or Mulwith) in the year
1585. For the “_Life_” of his daughter Mary expressly states that she was
born at Mulwith in that year. And if _a_ Thomas Warde was of Mulwaith (or
Mulwith) only six years prior to 1585, and again of Mulwith in 1590, when
he lost his wife, the inevitable inference is that the said Marmaduke
Warde and the said Thomas Warde belonged to one and the same family, and
that, in all probability, they were akin to each other as brothers.[68]
Again, the Register of Ripon Minster records on the 6th day of October,
1589, the baptism of Edward,[A] the son of a certain Christopher Wright,
of Bondgate, Ripon.
[Footnote A: If this Edward Wright is the same as a certain Prebendary
Edward Wright, of Ripon Minster, who received his nomination from King
James I. on the 26th of March, 1613, then at least one cousin of Mary Ward
must have conformed to the Established Church.——See “_Memorials of
Ripon_,” in 3 vols. (Surtees Society.)
He would be about 23 years of age when the royal favour was thus
vouchsafed to him.
An Edward Wright was Mayor of Ripon in the year 1635.——Gent’s
“_Ripon_.”——Probably the son of Prebendary Edward Wright.
Another cousin of Mary Warde, I find, had likewise conformed——a Dr. Warde,
the Master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He belonged, I think, to
the Wardes, of Durham, descended from a brother of Sir Christopher Ward.]
On the 23rd day of July, 1594, of Eliza, daughter of Christopher Wright,
of Newbie.[69]
The baptism on the 12th day of July, 1596, of Francis, son of Christopher
Wright, of Newbie.
And furthermore, on the 3rd day of February, 1601, the baptism of
Marmaduke, the son of Christopher Wright, of Skelton.
Now, when we recollect that _a_ Marmaduke Warde was certainly
brother-in-law to _a_ Christopher Wright; and when we recollect that we
have proof that _a_ Thomas Warde and _a_ Marmaduke Warde were,
respectively, of Mulwaith (or Mulwith) in the Parish of Ripon, and that
_a_ Christopher Wright was of Bondgate, Newbie, and Skelton, all likewise
in the Parish of Ripon; and when we further recollect that these three
gentlemen were of these several places in the closing decades of the years
of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, only one conclusion is forced upon the
mind of even the most sceptical, namely, that the said three gentlemen
must have known, and been known to, one another personally, without the
shadow of any reasonable doubt.
And again; that between those years, 1589 and 1590 inclusive, the said
_Thomas Warde_ and the said _Christopher Wright_ had known each other
intimately, by meeting within the bounds of the Parish of Ripon,——nay even
within the chapelry of Skelton——is surely one of the likeliest things in
the world.
Furthermore, it is possible that the Thomas Warde, of Mulwaith (or
Mulwith), was in the diplomatic service of Queen Elizabeth in the
Netherlands, along with Queen Elizabeth’s well-known diplomatist and
Treasurer of the Chamber, Sir Thomas Heneage, the step-father of Lord
Southampton, Lord Mounteagle’s friend, as well as Shakespeare’s patron.
For I find that the great Sir Francis Walsingham, in a letter dated from
“the Court,” the 24th of March, 1585——six years _after_ the marriage of
Thomas Warde, of Mulwaith, to Marjory Slater, and five years _before_ her
lamented death——that the great Sir Francis Walsingham, in a letter to the
Earl of Leicester, “Lord Lieutenant-General of Her Majesty’s Forces in the
Low Countries,” speaks of _a_ “Mr. Warde.”[A]
[Footnote A: See the “_Leicester Correspondence_” (Camden Soc.), p. 187.]
Now we know for certain from Winwood’s Memorials[B] that a Mr. Walter
Hawkesworth, of the Hawkesworths of Hawkesworth Hall, in the Parish of
Otley, in the County of York, was in the diplomatic service of King James
I., and that, according to Foster’s “_Pedigrees of Yorkshire Families_” he
was poisoned at Madrid when on an embassy there.
[Footnote B: See also Sir Ralph Sadler’s Papers. Edited by Sir Walter
Scott.]
Hence, is it quite within the bounds of possibility that his remote
kinsman, Thomas Warde, of Mulwith, may have been in the diplomatic service
of Queen Elizabeth. The Hawkesworths and the Wardes had, in days long gone
by, twice formed alliances by marriage, so that the families were
distantly akin. Indeed it was from Sir Simon Warde, of Esholt, in the
Parish of Otley, and of Givendale, in the Parish of Ripon, that the
Hawkesworths of Hawkesworth had by marriage alliance gained the
Hawkesworth Estate.——See Foster’s “_Pedigrees of Yorkshire Families_.”
But is there any evidence that links Thomas Ward (or Warde), of Mulwaith
(or Mulwith), and the Ward (or Warde) family in general, of Givendale,
Newby and Mulwith, with the Lord Mounteagle?[C]
[Footnote C: It will be seen as this narrative further unfolds itself that
it is almost certain that Thomas Warde (or Ward) was in the service of the
Government as a Catholic diplomat under Walsingham. And, moreover, it will
appear probable that the servant Warde (or Ward) “had as much, off” as the
master Walsingham.]
And, first of all, is there any evidence to show that Marmaduke Ward ever
had a brother in London, who lived at Court?
There is.