ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



of 1581. A respite was obtained, and they were sent up to London to 

 the council and examined. After some weeks in a London prison, the 

 council on i o April sent a letter to Sir George Carey, Governor of the 

 Isle of Wight. In this letter it is stated that the council had decided, 

 notwithstanding the respite, to proceed with the execution of Anderton 

 and Marsden in the Isle, either at the place of their landing or some 

 other fit place. The under-sheriff of the county was .to confer with him 

 as to the best site for the execution, and declarations giving the reasons 

 why the queen was now moved to suffer the judgment of the law to take 

 place were to be fixed in public places, in view of the people. On the 

 1 7th of the same month the council furnished Thomas Tailour, a 

 servant of the knight marshall, with a ' placard ' for aid and assistance in 

 conveying the bodies of the two priests to Winchester. The execution 

 took place at the sea coast on 25 April. 1 



In May, 1586, Bishop Cooper, as though anxious for more victims, 

 forwarded to the council a petition ' for certaine Orders to represse the 

 bouldness and waiewardnes of the recusants in the Countie of Southamp- 

 ton.' His petition or suggestions resolved themselves into four heads. 

 In the first place he asked that there should be diligent supervision of 

 the seaside and creeks ' for the coming in or passing foorth of ill-disposed 

 persons.' The next suggestion was that the sheriff should once in a 

 month or three weeks suddenly make a privy search in sundry places 

 where it is suspected that Jesuits or seminary priests lurk. The third 

 and most notorious of these requests was that ' an hundred or two of 

 obstinate recusants lustie men well hable to labour, maie by some con- 

 venient Commission be taken up and sent into Flaunders as Pioners and 

 labourers, whereby the Country shall be disburdened of a compaine of 

 dangerous persons, and the residue y' remaine be put in some feare 

 y* theie maie not so safe revoke as now they doe.' The fourth request 

 was to the effect that those gentlemen who might gain their liberty by 

 compounding, in accordance with recent orders, might not be suffered 

 to remain in Hampshire, but in some other place, for they had ' stollen 

 awaie the peoples hartes mightilie and dailie doe continue so to doe, for 

 even this late Easter, upon some secret fact purposelie wrought 500 

 persons have refused to communicate more than before did, which 

 bouldnes assuredlie will fall out to great inconvenience if it be not pre- 

 sentlie mett withal.' 2 



The council listened to these suggestions, and actually wrote to the 

 Earl of Leicester in the Netherlands, citing the bishop's letter and asking 

 if he would find employment in his army for that number of Hampshire 

 recusants as labourers. At the same time they also wrote to the sheriff 

 and certain of the justices of the shire authorizing the suggested sudden 



1 Acts of Privy Council, 1586-7, pp. 26, 57, 58 ; Challoner's Martyrs, i. 121, 275. Two other 

 priests, Thomas Hemerford and John Adams, were both arrested in Hampshire about this date, but they 

 were sent up to London, and were there condemned and disembowelled at Tyburn, solely for the sin 

 of being Roman priests. 



2 British Museum, Egerton MSS. 1693, p. 117. 



II 8l II 



