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VI DOCUMENTS AT EVERINGHAM THE PROPERTY OF LORD HERRIES THE following five documents have, by permission of Lord Herries , been copied by me from a large volume of manuscripts in the library at Everingham Park in Yorkshire . No. I relates to the increase in 1663 of persecution at Pocklington , which is a few miles from Everingham . No. 2 is a contemporary copy (1664) of the will of Sir Philip Constable, who died at Steeple Barton , Oxfordshire , the residence of his son - in- law Edward Sheldon, and was buried there . The inscription on his tomb runs :
Here lies the body of Sir Philip Constable of Everingham whose whole estate was confiscated by the usurper for his loyalty to King Charles I. He died Feb. 25. 1664. The will mentions Mr Poskett , who is presumably the future martyr, also the Sheldons, who were among the most active and zealous Catholics in London , and others . No. 3 is a proclamation against Recusants, probably due to the agitation that followed the fire of London . No. 4 is a News Letter about the conversion of King Charles II , and is perhaps the oldest English letter on this subject extant . No. 5 is a notice sent in 1770 to the priest at Middelton, near Ilkley, to quit the country . This notice is signed by Ellis Cunliffe , who was a prominent townsman of Ilkley, and who married Elizabeth Lister, daughter of the then Vicar . C. J. S. S.
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ORDER AS TO THE PRESENTMENT OF RECUSANTS , 1663. EAST RIDING. COM. YORK.
By virtue of an order of his Majesty's justices you are required to give notice to all the Church wardens and constables within your Division that they be personally present at the quarter sessions to be held at Pocklington the sixth day of October next to present to the Justices the monthly absence from Church of all manner of Popish Recusants within their towns and parishes, as likewise the names of the children of the said Recusants being nine years out or about abiding with their said parents, and as near as they can the age of the said children and the names of the servants of such recusants that they may according to law be entered on record. Dated the 19th. Day of Augustin the reign of King Charles the second 1663. To the Chief Constable Rich : Blanshard. Of Holme Beacon * . these . By virtue of the aforesaid warrant four hundred Roman Catholics were that very sessions at Pocklington aforesaid presented. And such Petty Constables as were unwilling to make presentments of One of the four divisions of the Wapentake of Harthill, in which Pocklington is situated.
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