John Habington

Last updated

John Habington or Abington (1515-1581) was an English courtier and administrator.

Contents

Career

A son of Richard Habington and his wife Eleanor Hanley of Hanley William, John Habington's parental home was at Brockhampton near Bromyard in Herefordshire. [1] He was born at Hanley William in Worcestershire, where his parents took refuge from the plague in Bromyard. [2]

Berwick-upon-Tweed

Habington served the royal court in various administrative and financial roles. In October 1557 he was stationed at Berwick-upon-Tweed, involved in the supply of rations for the garrison and army. [3] He was made Surveyor-General of the Victuals at Berwick. [4] The Earl of Northumberland was pleased by the provisions for his house, but Habington discussed his resignation with the Privy Council in April 1559. At this time, Habington bought herring, wheat, cheese, butter, hops, barrells of meal, stockfish, bay salt and bacon from markets in London, Suffolk, and Norfolk. [5]

This role of victualler at Berwick officially ended in November 1560, and Habington was instructed to give his accounts and the custody of storehouses at Berwick and Lindisfarne to Valentine Browne the new Surveyor General of Berwick. Browne had not arrived by 23 February 1561, when Habington wrote to William Cecil from Berwick about the supplies. [6]

Queen's kitchen

Habington was then clerk of the queen's kitchen to Elizabeth I, and in September 1580 cofferer to Elizabeth I. [7] As a member of the Board of Green Cloth, he advocated for an in-house brewery for the court located at Syon Park. [8] According to Raphael Holinshed, Habington was "an officer of good credit in her highness's house" grateful for his "many advancements". [9]

Elizabethan Hindlip Hall Hindlip hall.jpg
Elizabethan Hindlip Hall

Hindlip Hall

Habington bought and rebuilt Hindlip Hall near Worcester, where a fireplace was dated 1572. His portrait wearing a fur-edged robe survives. [10] Elizabeth I came to Worcestershire in 1575. She stayed at the Bishop's Palace in Worcester and visited Hindlip on 16 August. [11] Habington attended the queen when she hunted at Hallow Park near Worcester on 18 August. He was keeper of the park (the manor of Hallow belonged to his sister, Dorothy Habington), [12] and Elizabeth discussed with him making a gift of the two buck deer she had killed to the town's bailiffs. [13] Elizabeth lost a gold button that day. She gave his wife Dorothy Habington a French kirtle of russet during her visit in 1575. [14]

In October 1576, Elizabeth I gave John and Dorothy Habington a lease of the royal manors of Hallow and Blockley in return for flour to make the queen's manchet bread when she was in Worcestershire. Dorothy signed a sealed a document connected with the gift using a seal ring stone engraved with a portrait of Henry VIII. The ring is now held by the Victoria and Albert Museum. [15]

John Habington died in 1581 and was buried at Hindlip. His eldest son Thomas and daughter-in-law Mary Habington placed a memorial tablet in the church. [16] The brewery at Syon was not a success, as it was claimed London water made better beer, and it closed soon after his death. [17]

Marriages and children

John Habington's first wife was Catharine Wykes, daughter of John Wykes, whose family was from Moreton Jeffries in Herefordshire. [18] Catharine Wykes was John Habington's cousin. [19]

His second wife was Dorothy Bradbelt, a chamberer to Elizabeth I. They married in 1567. As a wedding gift, Elizabeth gave Dorothy a Flanders gown of black velvet with satin made by her tailor Walter Fyshe. [20] Elizabeth gave them property, including a lease of the rectory of Utterby in Lincolnshire, confirmed in June 1570. [21]

There is some doubt over details of the family tree. [22] John Habington's children included:

Edward and Thomas Abington were involved in the Babington Plot to replace Elizabeth with Mary, Queen of Scots. [39] In 1590, Thomas and Richard Abington were allowed to keep lands pledged for debts incurred by their father John Habington as cofferer. [40] Hindlip Hall was entirely rebuilt and later passed to the brewer Henry Allsopp, 1st Baron Hindlip and is now a headquarters building used by West Mercia Police.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gunpowder Plot</span> Failed 1605 attempt to assassinate King James I

The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was an unsuccessful attempted regicide against King James VI of Scotland and I of England by a group of English Roman Catholics, led by Robert Catesby, who considered their actions attempted tyrannicide and who sought regime change in England after decades of religious persecution.

William Habington was an English poet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle</span> English baron

William Parker, 13th Baron Morley, 4th Baron Monteagle, was an English peer, best known for his role in the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot. In 1605 Parker was due to attend the opening of Parliament. He was a member of the House of Lords as Lord Monteagle, the title on his mother's side. He received a letter; it appears that someone, presumably a fellow Catholic, was afraid he would be blown up. The so-called Monteagle letter survives in the National Archives, but its origin remains mysterious.

A priest hole is a hiding place for a priest built in England or Wales during the period when Catholics were persecuted by law. Following the accession of Queen Elizabeth I to the throne in 1558, there were several Catholic plots designed to remove her, and severe measures, including torture and execution, were taken against Catholic priests. From the mid-1570s, hides were built into houses to conceal priests from priest hunters. Most of the hides that survive today are in country manor houses, but there is much documentary evidence, for example in the Autobiography and Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot of John Gerard, of hides in towns and cities, especially in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Habington</span> English antiquarian

Sir Thomas Habington or Abington (1560–1647) was a Catholic English antiquary. He is particularly remembered as an early county historian of Worcestershire, although little of his work was published in his lifetime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph Ashley</span> English Jesuit lay-brother and martyr

Ralph Ashley, SJ was an English Jesuit lay brother who became involved with the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1929.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Oldcorne</span> English Jesuit priest

Edward Oldcorne alias Hall was an English Jesuit priest. He was known to people who knew of the Gunpowder Plot to destroy the Parliament of England and kill King James I; and although his involvement is unclear, he was caught up in the subsequent investigation. He is a Roman Catholic martyr and was beatified in 1929.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hindlip Hall</span> Stately home in Hindlip

Hindlip Hall is a stately home in Hindlip, Worcestershire, England. The first major hall was built before 1575, and it played a significant role in both the Babington and the Gunpowder plots, where it hid four people in priest holes. It was Humphrey Littleton who told the authorities that Edward Oldcorne was hiding here after he had been heard saying Mass at Hindlip Hall. Four people were executed and the owner at that time barely escaped execution himself due to the intercession of Lord Monteagle.

Humphrey Littleton, or Humphrey Lyttelton, was a member of the Lyttelton family, who was executed for his involvement in the Gunpowder plot. Robert Wintour and Stephen Lyttelton who had escaped from the fight at Holbeche House were captured at Hagley Park on 9 January 1606 despite Littleton's protests that he was not harbouring anyone. It was Littleton who told the authorities that Edward Oldcorne was hiding at Hindlip Hall after he had given him mass. Wintour, Oldcorne, and both Littletons were all executed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hallow, Worcestershire</span> Human settlement in England

Hallow is a village and civil parish beside the River Severn, about 2 miles (3.2 km) north-west of Worcester in Worcestershire. The village is on the A443 road that links Worcester with Holt Heath. Hallow has a public house, a post office and a Church of England primary school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Worcester Castle</span> Norman fortification built between 1068 and 1069 in Worcester, England

Worcester Castle was a Norman fortification built between 1068 and 1069 in Worcester, England by Urse d'Abetot on behalf of William the Conqueror. The castle had a motte-and-bailey design and was located on the south side of the old Anglo-Saxon city, cutting into the grounds of Worcester Cathedral. Royal castles were owned by the king and maintained on his behalf by an appointed constable. At Worcester that role was passed down through the local Beauchamp family on a hereditary basis, giving them permanent control of the castle and considerable power within the city. The castle played an important part in the wars of the 12th and early 13th century, including the Anarchy and the First Barons' War.

Anne Vaux was a wealthy Catholic recusant.

Edward Habington, Abington, or Abingdon (1553?–1586), was one of the conspirators in the Babington Plot.

Edward Parker, 12th Baron Morley was an English peer, Lord of Morley, Hingham, Hockering, &c., in Norfolk, the son of Henry Parker, 11th Baron Morley and Lady Elizabeth Stanley. His second daughter was Frances Danby.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Bromley (died 1615)</span> English landowner and politician

Sir Henry Bromley was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1584 and 1604. He was twice imprisoned for his political activities, the second and most serious occasion in the aftermath of the Essex Rebellion. Restored to favour in the Jacobean period, he was vigorous in suppressing the Gunpowder Plot.

Dorothy Kitson, later Dorothy, Lady Pakington, was the daughter of Sir Thomas Kitson, a wealthy London merchant and the builder of Hengrave Hall in Suffolk. Her first husband was Sir Thomas Pakington, by whom she was the mother of Queen Elizabeth I's favourite, Sir John "Lusty" Pakington. After Sir Thomas Pakington's death, she married Thomas Tasburgh. She was one of the few women in Tudor England to nominate burgesses to Parliament and to make her last will while her husband, Thomas Tasburgh, was still living. Her three nieces are referred to in the poems of Edmund Spenser.

Robert Pakington was a London merchant and Member of Parliament. He was murdered with a handgun in London in 1536, likely the first such killing in the city. His murder was later interpreted as martyrdom, and recounted in John Foxe's Acts and Monuments. He was the grandfather of Queen Elizabeth I's favourite, Sir John "Lusty" Pakington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meriel Lyttelton</span> English aristocrat

Meriel Lyttelton or Littelton was an English aristocrat with extensive family and court connections. She was a daughter of Sir Thomas Bromley and Elizabeth Fortescue. The MP for Worcestershire Thomas Bromley was her nephew.

Dorothy Bradbelt or Broadbelte was an English courtier, a woman of the bedchamber to Elizabeth I, described as the "Queen's bedfellow".

Mary Habington or Abington, néeParker was an English recusant. Antiquarian writers thought that she was the author of the anonymous letter to her brother William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle which warned of the Gunpowder Plot. This theory is dismissed by modern historians. She sheltered a number of Catholic priests and recusants at her Worcestershire home Hindlip Hall.

References

  1. ↑ A. T. Butler, Visitation of Worcestershire, 1634, p. 44: George Stanton, Rambles and researches among Worcestershire churches (London, 1886), p. 87.
  2. ↑ John Amphlett, A Survey of Worcestershire, 2:2 (Oxford, 1897), p. 66.
  3. ↑ Edmund Lodge, Illustrations of British History, vol. 1 (London, 1791), p. 281
  4. ↑ J. R. Dasent, Acts of the Privy Council, 7 (London, 1893), p. x.
  5. ↑ Joseph Stevenson, Calendar State Papers, Foreign, Elizabeth I, 1558–1559, (London, 1863), pp. 263 no. 709, 317 no. 850, 264–265 nos. 711, 712.
  6. ↑ Joseph Stevenson, Calendar State Papers Foreign Elizabeth, 1560–1561 (London, 1865), pp. 391 no. 715, 403 no. 730, 563 no. 1025
  7. ↑ William Tighe, 'Familia reginae: the Privy Court', Susan Doran & Norman Jones, The Elizabethan World (Routledge, 2011), p. 80.
  8. ↑ Allegra Woodworth, "Purveyance for the Royal Household of Queen Elizabeth", Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 35:1 (Philadelphia, 1945), pp. 10–11, 57
  9. ↑ Holinshed quoted by D. A. Casserly, "A Catholic Poet", American Catholic Quarterly Review, 2 (Philadelphia, 1877), p. 624: Raphael Holinshed, The Chronicles of England (London, 1587), pp. 1573–1574
  10. ↑ John Amphlett, A Survey of Worcestershire by Thomas Habington, 1 (Oxford: James Parker, 1895), p. 20 and frontispiece, the portrait passed to the More O'Ferrall family.
  11. ↑ Elizabeth Goldring, John Nichols's The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth, 2 (Oxford, 2014), pp. 346–8.
  12. ↑ Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, 38, p. 597.
  13. ↑ John Amphlett, A Survey of Worcestershire by Thomas Habington, 1 (Oxford: James Parker, 1895), pp. 2–3: John Nichols, Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 1 (London, 1823), pp. 541-42.
  14. ↑ Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd (Maney, 1988), p. 102: Janet Arnold, Lost from her Majestie's Back (Wisbech: Daedalus, 1980), pp. 46 no. 149, 52 nos. 194, 198.
  15. ↑ Brett Usher, William Cecil and Episcopacy, 1559–1577 (Ashgate, 2003): Ann Morton, Calendar Patent Rolls, 1580–1582 (London: HMSO, 1982), p. 33 no. 151: Anna Somers Cocks, Princely Magnificence: Court Jewels of the Renaissance (London, 1980), p. 52.
  16. ↑ George Stanton, Rambles and researches among Worcestershire churches (London, 1886), p. 87.
  17. ↑ Allegra Woodworth, "Purveyance for the Royal Household of Queen Elizabeth", Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 35:1 (Philadelphia, 1945), p. 58
  18. ↑ William Phillimore Watts Phillimore, Visitation of the County of Worcester Made in the Year 1569 (London, 1888) p. 63: A. T. Butler, Visitation of Worcestershire, 1634 (London, 1938), p. 45.
  19. ↑ Frederic William Weaver, Visitation of Herefordshire Made by Robert Cooke, Clarencieux, in 1569 (Exeter, 1869), p. 79.
  20. ↑ Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd (Maney, 1988), p. 102.
  21. ↑ Calendar Patent Rolls, Elizabeth, 5 (London: HMSO, 1966), pp. 52, 373.
  22. ↑ Kenneth Allott, Poems of William Habington (London, 1948), pp. xii–xiii.
  23. ↑ Jan Broadway, "Thomas Habington: Recusancy and the Gentry of Early Stuart Worcestershire", Midland History, 29:1 (2004), p. 3. doi : 10.1179/mdh.2004.29.1.1
  24. ↑ Aileen M. Hodgson & Michael Hodgetts, Little Malvern Letters, 1 (Boydell, 2013), p. 124 no. 103.
  25. ↑ T. R. Nash, Collections for the history of Worcestershire, 1 (1781), facing p. 590: A Survey of Worcestershire, 1 (Oxford, 1895), facing p. 292, More O'Farrell collection.
  26. ↑ J. W. Willis Bund, Victoria County History: Worcestershire, 3 (London: Constable, 1913), p. 399.
  27. ↑ William Phillimore Watts Phillimore, Visitation of the County of Worcester Made in the Year 1569 (London, 1888) p. 63
  28. ↑ T. R. Nash, Collections for the history of Worcestershire, 1 (1781), p. 587
  29. ↑ Kenneth Allott, Poems of William Habington (London, 1948), p. xiii: HMC 7th Report: Molyneux (London, 1879), p. 637.
  30. ↑ A. T. Butler, Visitation of Worcestershire, 1634 (London, 1938), p. 45.
  31. ↑ Alice Hogge, God's secret agents : Queen Elizabeth's forbidden priests and the hatching of the Gunpowder plot (Harper perennial, 2005), p. 140: M. S. Giuseppi, HMC Salisbury Hatfield, 18 (London, 1940), p. 35.
  32. ↑ John Morris, Condition of Catholics under James I (London, 1871), p. 283.
  33. ↑ Jessie Childs, God's Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England (Oxford, 2014), p. 326.
  34. ↑ "Historical Particulars Regarding the Gunpowder Plot", The Gentleman's Magazine, (March 1835), p. 253.
  35. ↑ John Amphlett, A Survey of Worcestershire by Thomas Habington, 1 (Oxford: James Parker, 1895), p. 11.
  36. ↑ Jan Broadway, "Thomas Habington: Recusancy and the Gentry of Early Stuart Worcestershire", Midland History, 29:1 (2004), p. 6.
  37. ↑ Glyn Redworth, David McGrath, Christopher J. Henstock, The Letters of Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza, 1 (Routledge, 2016), pp. xlii, 121.
  38. ↑ Nadine Akkerman & Pete Langman, Spycraft: Tricks and Tools of the Dangerous Trade (Yale, 2024), pp. 175, 182.
  39. ↑ Jan Broadway, "Thomas Habington: Recusancy and the Gentry of Early Stuart Worcestershire", Midland History, 29:1 (2004), p. 4.
  40. ↑ Robert Lemon, Calendar State Papers Domestic Elizabeth, 1581–1590 (London, 1865), p. 668.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.