Again; I think that probably Thomas Ward had either at Hindlip, Evesham or
elsewhere at least one interview with the great Jesuit himself——“the
gradely Jesuit,” as the good, simple-hearted Lancashire Catholics would
style him——in order that Father Oldcorne might receive from Ward in person
satisfactory assurance that, with certainty, when the Letter had been
prepared it would be delivered directly by Ward himself, or indirectly by
him, through Mounteagle, to the Government authorities.
Nay, to make assurance doubly sure, it is even possible that Father
Oldcorne may have insisted on a _second Letter_ being penned and sent to
_another nobleman at the Court_, the Earl of Northumberland, a man of
ancient lineage and great name, with whom Ward, through the Gascoignes,
would be distantly connected.[106]
It appears to me that the moral certitude is so strong that Thomas Ward
was brother to Marmaduke Ward, of Mulwith, Newby, and Givendale, that it
seems practically almost the mere extravagance of caution to express a
doubt of it.[A]
[Footnote A: It will be remembered that we have evidence that William
Ward, a son of Marmaduke Ward, _had an uncle who lived at Court_.
This evidence is of the greatest value and importance in identifying
Thomas Ward, the secretary and friend of Lord Mounteagle, and should be
continually borne in mind by all my readers.
It should be also remembered that Edmund Neville, the claimant of the
Earldom of Westmoreland, was the man who accused Dr. William Parry of a
plan to assassinate Queen Elizabeth. Now this Neville became a suitor for
the hand of Mary Ward, though about double her age. Neville would be
related to the Wards, and perhaps knew Thomas Ward when in 1584 Parry was
tried and executed. Parry had invited Neville to join in assassinating the
Queen. I believe Parry to have been a great liar; but all the same it is
not absolutely certain that the wretch was not the victim of a state
intrigue. If we could ascertain at Hatfield more about Thomas Ward there
might be a clue to the Parry mystery.]
Now, the suggestion that Thomas Ward was probably in the Midland counties
of Warwickshire and Worcestershire sometime about the 11th of October,
1605,[107] is, I maintain, to some very slight extent supported by the
fact that we know for certain that Marmaduke Ward came up from Yorkshire
to Lapworth about thirteen days afterwards, and that he was bracketed with
those who were said to have been at the houses of John Wright, Ambrose
Rookwood, and John Grant at that time.[A]
[Footnote A: See the List of the names of conspirators, insurgents, and
others arrested in the Midlands given in the Appendix.]
Now, if about the 11th of October Thomas Ward found at Lapworth, Clopton,
and Norbrook every inchoate evidential sign of a heady, hopeless, armed
rebellion, what was there more natural than that he should have despatched
some trusty horseman, fleet of foot, “from the heart of England” down into
Yorkshire, bearing an urgent missive adjuring Marmaduke Ward, by the love
that he bore to his kith and kin, to come up to Lapworth with all speed
possible? To the end that he might use his counsels and entreaties to
induce his late wife’s combative brother, John Wright,[108] the
close-natured Christopher Wright, the gallant Ambrose Rookwood, and the
strong-willed John Grant, to abandon all designment of insurrectionary
stirs.
For Thomas Ward, from the experience of a man at Court aged forty-six, who
knew from the daily observation of his own senses, how firmly James’s
Executive was certainly established, must have clearly perceived that, at
that time Catholic stirs against the Government could be fated to have
only one unhappy issue and disgraceful termination, namely, the utter,
bloody, irretrievable ruin of all that were so thrice wretchedly bewitched
as to have become entangled in them.[A]
[Footnote A: It is to be borne in mind that hereafter proof may be
forthcoming that Christopher Wright married Margaret Ward, the sister of
Marmaduke and Thomas Ward. I _think_ that they had another sister named
Ann Ward, who married a Marmaduke Swales.——(See Ripon Registers). There
was an old county family called Swales at Staveley Hall, near Farnham and
Scotton. They were Roman Catholics. They are the same, I opine, as the
Swales (or Swale) family, of South Stainley, between Ripley and Ripon,
whose descendants are of the ancient faith in Yorkshire to this day.
The late Sir James Swale, Bart., of Rudfarlington, near Knaresbrough, I
conclude, likewise belonged to the same race. I was introduced in the year
1898 to this fine specimen of an old Yorkshire Catholic by my friend,
Charles Allanson, Esq., of Harrogate——himself of an old West Riding family
that “had never lost the Faith.”]
And this the rather, when it is remembered that, the names of John and
Christopher Wright were already unfavourably known to the Government;
since during Elizabeth’s reign, in the year 1596, they, together with
Catesby, Tresham, and others, had been put under arrest by the Crown
authorities, who feared that on the death of Elizabeth these “young
bloods” would, at what they deemed to be “the psychological moment” for
the execution of their revolutionary designs, lead, sword in hand, the
oppressed recusants in some wild, fierce dash for liberty.[109]