ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



Accepted Frewen, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, reaped the reward 

 his royalist devotion by his translation to York in 1660/ He died in 

 34 ; and neither he nor his successor, Richard Sterne, translated from 

 rlisle (i664-i683),« left much mark on the church-life of the diocese. In 

 tober 1663 plans for a Puritan rising in the north were discovered. The 

 rkshire insurgents encamped in Farnley Wood, near Leeds ; but they 

 re unripe for rebellion. Some twenty ringleaders were executed.' This, 

 ivever, did not still discontent. In 1665 a body of Quakers attacked the 

 ar of Helmsley during a funeral, and tore his surplice and prayer-book." 

 iring the plague of 1665 a Londoner was heard to say at Rothwell, ' Now 

 :he time, if we will stir, for the Anabaptists and Quakers are not afraid of 

 ! plague.' " A preacher named Gill denounced the king and queen as 

 ilaters at Mirfield in September 1666;^'' and in 1667 the Independents 

 icocted another abortive plot at Sowerby, near Halifax.^'' In 1679 the 

 )ellion of the Scottish Covenanters encouraged a gentleman at Rotherham 

 wish ' the Church down and the priests buried in their surplices ; for I 

 ow noe good they do, but are a great charge to the parish in washing 

 :m.' ^* The discovery of the so-called ' popish plot ' in 1 678 re-awakened 

 ; zeal of the authorities against recusants. An attempt had been made to 

 ablish a nunnery in Yorkshire. A site was found at Dolebank, near Ripley, 

 i a Mrs. Lascelles was made abbess. The chief promoter of the 

 leme. Sir Thomas Gascoigne of Barnbow, was arrested on the information 

 his servant, Robert Bolron, the chief of a band of informers who emulated 

 tus Gates in the north.^^ The confessor-designate to the nuns, John 

 rnwallis, sought refuge at Broughton Hall, but was arrested on his way 

 ;re.^' In August 1679 a priest named Nicholas Postgate was executed at 

 irk." Gascoigne was acquitted in 1680 ; but Cornwallis remained in prison, 

 rly in 1679 four men and four women were presented to the North Riding 

 tices for hearing mass on two occasions near Grinton.^^ Occasional 

 nishments for hearing and saying mass are reported from Yorkshire before 

 :s date ; and very full lists of recusants occur between 1660 and 1680." 

 It the ' popish plot ' stimulated persecution ; and even the idle gossip of two 

 pist women at Scawton was reported to the justices, and punished by fine.^° 



The Laudian revival had never taken hold of Yorkshire. Sterne, who 

 d attended Laud on the scaffold, seems to have done nothing to improve 

 gligence of discipline in his cathedral church. The remarks made by 

 wles about the vicars-choral receive some confirmation from the complaints 

 John Dolben, who was translated from Rochester to York in 1683."^ The 



' Drake, op. cit. 463. ' Ibid. 464. 



' See Depositions from the Castle of York (Surt. So;.), 102 seq. Raine, ibid. Introd. pp. xviii seq., gives a 

 her account of the plot and its consequences. '" Ibid. 129, 130. 



" Ibid. 134. The plague and great fire were regarded as divine judgements on the royal family. 



" Ibid. 146, 147. 1= Ibid. 157, 158. '* Ibid. 239. 



" Ibid. 232, 233 n., 242 seq. '* Ibid. 232 seq. 



" Ibid. 230 seq. " Quarter Sess. Rec. (N. R. Rec. Soc), vli, 18. 



" See Depositions from the Castle of York (Surt. Soc), 1 19-123 (1664, 487 names) ; 136-40 (1665-6, 



names) ; 166-71 (1669, 760 names) ; 179-84 (1670, 775 names) ; Quarter Sess. Rec. (N. R. Rec Soc), 

 195-202, 204 seq. (both 1674) ; vii, 36-38, 41-44 (both 1680). 



" Quarter Sess. Rec. (N. R. Rec. Soc), vii, 12, 13. 



" Drake, op. cit. 465. See J. Walker, Sufferings of the Clergy, ii, 107. Dolben in earlier years had 

 d in the defence of York against the Roundheads, and had fought at Marston Moor. He was wounded in 

 Royalist cause. His mother was a sister of Archbishop Williams. 



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