246 NORBURY MANOR HOUSE AND THE FITZHERBERTS. 
“«'Thorne practising to apprehend Mr. Richard Fitzherbert used this policy. 
To Notbury, where he knew this gentleman lay, came three lame supposed 
beggars, one man, two women, among divers others that there had alms, and 
when all were served as accustomed, these three continued still crying and 
craving more alms, as seeming more needy. The good gentleman going down 
himself at their pitiful cry to give them some money, the man beggar arrested 
him, laying hands on him to carry him to an officer, and threw the gentleman 
down. With this noise his friends within came out to rescue him. The 
beggar seeing that, having a dagg (pistol) ready charged at his girdle, offered 
to discharge it at Mr. Fitzherbert’s breast, but it went not off. Thereupon the 
beggar, beaten, let fall his dagg and went a little way off, where Thorne 
expected his return with hope of prey. The dagg, then taken up by one of 
that house, went off itself without hurting anybody, albeit there were many 
present.””* 
Thorne sent his version of this affair to the Privy Council, and 
soon after Richard Fitzherbert was apprehended by a strong body 
of armed men, and placed in prison, where he remained for 
several years, and we believe died. ‘Two of Richard’s three sons 
were also imprisoned in Staffordshire for recusancy. William 
Fitzherbert, the remaining brother of Sir Thomas, married Eliza- 
beth, daughter and co-heiress of Humphrey Swinnerton, of Swin- 
nerton, from whom are descended the Fitzherberts, who now own 
that property. William happily died in the year of Elizabeth’s 
accession, and thus escaped persecution, but his daughter and two 
sons were all at different timesin prison. His eldest son, Thomas, 
who was in gaol in 1572, after his wife’s death became a Jesuit 
father ; he was a well-known controversial writer, and died at 
Rome in 1640, at the age of 88. 
The three sisters of Sir Thomas Fitzherbert were Elizabeth, 
Dorothy, and Catherine, who were respectively married to William 
Bassett, of Langley, Ralph Longford, of Longford, and John 
Sacheverell, of Morley, all of them gentlemen of distinguished 
ancestry and considerable property in the county of Derby. All 
these were repeatedly and heavily fined, Bassett and Sacheverell 
also enduring long terms of imprisonment, whilst two of the ladies 
were given into the private custody of staunch conformists in the 
* Morris’ ‘*Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers,” third series. This is 
a quotation from a contemporary MS. 
