ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



It is not a little remarkable to note that the then head of the Tich- 

 borne family, Benjamin Tichborne, himself like the rest a recusant, was 

 knighted by Queen Elizabeth on 14 September, 1601, the very year in 

 which two of his immediate kinsmen of Hampshire were executed. 

 This knighting took place when the queen was at Basing, and in a par- 

 ticularly good humour, during one of her last progresses. 1 Now and 

 again Elizabeth singled out specially distinguished and high placed recu- 

 sants for favourable distinction after an illogical and a capricious fashion, 

 but on this occasion no fewer than ten knights were made at once. 

 Probably the queen was scarcely aware of his recusancy, and Sir 

 Benjamin Tichborne of Tichborne was very possibly as astonished as 

 any one at the dignity conferred upon him. 



Elizabeth died on 24 March, 1603. The news reached Winchester 

 in a few hours, and Sir Benjamin Tichborne of Tichborne, who was 

 then sheriff of the county, instantly hurried to Winchester and pro- 

 claimed James I. King of England without waiting for any direction 

 from the council in London, who were then debating the question of the 

 succession. There is no doubt that the Roman Catholics expected great 

 things from his rule, and these expectations would have been realized 

 had it not been for parliament. James was delighted with the conduct 

 of the Hampshire sheriff, and when the stress of the plague speedily 

 drove the court to Winchester he heaped favours on Sir Benjamin 

 Tichborne, made him a baronet in 1621, and knighted all his four 

 sons. 2 



Bishop Bilson took a prominent part in the Hampton Court Confer- 

 ence of 1604, but Hampshire seems to have been exceptionally free from 

 any overt display of puritanism. The bishop died in 1616 and was 

 followed by James Montagu, who was translated from Bath and Wells 

 and only held the see for two years. 



As the number of recusants in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. 

 was far larger (in proportion to its area) and the value of their estates 

 far higher in Hampshire than in any other shire, it will be well to here 

 furnish some further particulars as to their treatment. 3 



The public executions and imprisonments were after all only a 

 small part of the continuous persecution experienced by the recusants, 

 as is made manifest in the impartial pages of Hallam. The legislation 

 immediately after the accession of Elizabeth imposed a fine of 1 2d. on 

 all absentees from the parish church on Sundays and holy days. In 1581 

 this punishment was much intensified ; it was actually laid down that a 



1 Nichols' Progresses of ERzabeth, iii. 567. 



2 The king stayed at Tichborne in 1603, 1615, 1618 and 1623 (Milner's Winchester and Nichols' 

 Processes of "James I. i. 1 16). 



3 In 1584 the clerk of the peace for Hampshire complained to the Privy Council that the number 

 of recusants indicted at every session was so great (' seven score at the least ') that not only had he and 

 his deputy to employ much extra assistance to draw up and engross indictments, judgments and pro- 

 cesses for days before and after the sessions, but that this work so occupied the justices that all other 

 causes and grievances throughout the shire were being neglected (Dm. State Papers, Eliz. clxxxiii. 

 83). 



85 



