On the 4th of October, Father Garnet wrote a long letter to Father Parsons
in Rome, who was then virtually the ruler of the Catholics of England,
though that sturdy Yorkshireman, Father John Mush,[A] among secular
priests, together with many others, resented being dictated to by Father
Parsons, certainly a man of great genius, but indulging too much the mere
“wire-puller” instinct and propensity to be reckoned a prince among
ecclesiastical statesmen.
[Footnote A: Mush may have been of the Mushes, of Knaresbrough, stanch
Catholics, but in humble circumstances.——See Peacock’s “_List_.”]
This letter of Father Garnet’s, to which reference has been just made, is
a remarkable production. It begins as follows:——
“My very loving Sir,
“This I write from the elder Nicholas[A] his residence where I
find my hostess with all her posterity very well; and we are to
go within few days nearer London.”
[Footnote A: Father Nicholas Hart, S.J., as distinguished from
Brother Nicholas Owen, S.J.]
The letter then says:——
“The judges now openly protest that the King will have blood and
hath taken blood in Yorkshire.”[B]
[Footnote B: The “Venerable” Thomas Welbourn and John Fulthering
suffered at York on the 1st August, 1605; and William Brown at
Ripon on the 5th September.——See Challoner’s “_Missionary
Priests_.” Ed. by T. G. Law (Jack, Edinburgh).]
There were four paragraphs at the end of the letter.
Now, a short but separate paragraph of three lines is carefully
obliterated between the first and the third of these paragraphs.
The third paragraph ends thus:——
“_I cease 4th Octobris._”
The fourth paragraph then continues:——
“My hostesses both and their children salute you. Sir Thomas
Tresham is dead.”[C]
[Footnote C: The hostesses would be those valiant women, Elizabeth Dowager
Lady Vaux of Harrowden (_née_ Roper), the Honourable Eleanor Brookesby,
and the Honourable Anne Vaux. William Lord Vaux of Harrowden, who
harboured Father Parsons in 1580-81, had married for his second wife a
sister of Sir Thomas Tresham. This Lord Vaux’s eldest son Ambrose, a
priest, resigned his title in favour of his half-brother the Honourable
George Vaux, afterwards Lord Vaux of Harrowden. The first wife of William
Lord Vaux was Elizabeth Beaumont, of Gracedieu, Leicestershire. She was
the mother of Ambrose, Elizabeth, and Anne Vaux. Father Garnet for many
years lived at Harrowden, from 1586 as the guest of William Lord Vaux,
whose son, George Lord Vaux of Harrowden, married Elizabeth Roper,
daughter of the first Lord Teynham. This lady was the above-named Dowager
Lady Vaux of Harrowden, mother of Edward Lord Vaux of Harrowden, who
became as “noble a confessor for the Faith” as were his numerous other
relatives. (The present Lord Vaux of Harrowden, whose family name is
Mostyn, is descended from the above-mentioned Lords Vaux, through the
female line.)]
_Here ends the body of the letter._