Anthony Babington (bef. 1561 - 1586)

Born before 24 Oct 1561 in Dethick, Derbyshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Margery (Draycott) Eyre — married about 1579 in Dethick, Derbyshire, England [uncertain]

Died 20 Sep 1586 after age 24 in St Giles in the Fields, Middlesex, England

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Biography

Anthony Babington is Notable.

Anthony Babington was born in Derbyshire, England.

Anthony Babington was the leader of a group of English Catholics who planned the unsuccessful Babington Plot of 1586. The group proposed to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I, a Protestant, and replace her with her imprisoned Roman Catholic cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots. Babington, his co-conspirators and Mary were executed for treason after the plot was discovered and infiltrated by agents of Elizabeth's principal secretary, Sir Francis Walsingham.

Early life

Anthony was the eldest son of Henry Babington and his second wife, Mary, the daughter of George Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy of Aston.^[1][2] He was born on or before 24 October 1561 at Dethick Manor, the ancestral home of the Babington family in Derbyshire.^[3][4]

In the decades before his birth, the Protestant reformation had brought major religious and political change to England. With popular religion in a state of flux, his family had remained sympathetic to Catholicism. His great-grandfather, Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy of Darcy, had been beheaded in 1537 for his part in the Pilgrimage of Grace, a northern rebellion against Henry VIII's break with the Roman Catholic Church.^[5] And during the brief Catholic restoration in the reign of Mary I, his father was said to be “inclined to papistrie as the times then required.”^[3]

His father died in May 1571, leaving a widow, three sons and seven daughters. Nine-year-old Anthony, as the eldest son, became heir to the family estates in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and nearby counties.^[6][7][8] Part of his inheritance passed to him under a fee tail, created by a deed dated 20 February 1565/6, which “intayled [the manors and lands] on the heirs males of him the said Henry Babington begotten, and to be begotten on the body of Mary, his then wife.”^[9][10]

A gentleman, said to be Babington

Anthony was still a minor and a ward of the Queen.^[11] His mother remarried and her second husband, Henry Foljambe, is often described as one of Anthony’s guardians.^[4][12][13] In 1574, the executors of his father’s will brought a lawsuit against Foljambe in the Court of Wards, which among other things dealt with wards of the state.^[14] Some years later, he granted “his loving father-in-law and friend Henry Foljambe, of Kingston, in acknowledgement of trouble and expense during his minority, 100 marcs per annum.”^[4]

Sometime in his youth Anthony served as page to George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, who for 17 years supervised the imprisonment of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, at Sheffield Castle and other locations.^[15] Mary had fled Scotland in 1568 and many English Catholics considered her to be the rightful queen of England.

Marriage

Anthony married Margery Draycott in about 1579. She was probably the daughter of John Draycott of Painsley, near the village of Draycott in the Moors, Staffordshire.^[16] Some sources describe her father as Philip Draycot, one of his guardians and a known Catholic recusant.^[12][13]

He and Margery had one child, a daughter Mary. She was alive in 1586 but died at age 8.^[12]

Mary, Queen of Scots

Mary, Queen of Scots

In 1580 he travelled to France for six months, meeting with Thomas Morgan, an exiled Catholic and agent of Mary, Queen of Scots, who introduced him to her ambassador, the Bishop of Glasgow. The two men recommended their mistress as “a most wise, virtuous and catholique Princess” and “induced [Babington] to respect her.”^[17]

"He had spent some time at Paris and elsewhere," Jesuit priest William Weston later recalled, "and on his return gathered round him ... other young men of his own rank, zealous and adventurous catholics, bold in danger, earnest for the protection of the catholic faith, or for any enterprise intended to promote the catholic cause." He was "well off for money ... young … attractive in face and form, quick of intelligence, agreeable and facetious."^[15]

Babington's religious views did not go unnoticed by the authorities and, in 1582, he and his wife were recorded as Catholic recusants.^[18] It was a period of growing religious tension and persecution of Catholics who failed to conform to the Protestant faith. The Act of Persuasions, passed in 1581, levied increased fines for recusancy and authorised the imprisonment of repeat offenders.

Sometime after his return to England, he received a letter of gratulation from Mary, Queen of Scots. Not long after, he was asked to deliver a packet of letters to her at Sheffield, where she remained imprisoned by the Earl of Shrewsbury. Over the next two years he arranged for five packets of letters to be smuggled to her, but refused to continue after growing uneasy about the dangers. A few months later, Queen Mary was moved from Sheffield to the custody of Sir Ralph Sadleir.^[17]

Babington Plot

In May 1586, Jesuit priest John Ballard came to Babington's lodgings in London. He brought news from Paris of a proposed foreign Catholic-led invasion of England and was rallying for support from English Catholics. Babington was reluctant to get involved, and at first proposed to leave the country.^[17]

Babington and his accomplices

Ballard, however, persisted and eventually persuaded him to take the lead role in a plan to overthrow the English throne. After lengthy discussions with like-minded Catholics and various delays he formulated a plan to send six gentlemen to assassinate Queen Elizabeth while he, ten gentlemen and 100 followers would free Mary, Queen of Scots from her imprisonment at Chartley Hall.^[17]

In July 1586 he smuggled a coded letter to Mary, explaining his plans. He was unaware that spies of Elizabeth’s principal secretary, Francis Walsingham, had infiltrated the group of conspirators. His letter and Mary’s reply were both secretly intercepted and deciphered before being sent on their way. Evidence suggests that Walsingham allowed the conspiracy to continue, and perhaps even encouraged it, to entrap Mary, who had been a perennial threat to the English throne.

A few days after Mary’s reply sanctioning his plans, he heard of Ballard’s arrest. He at once instructed John Savage, his principal assassin, to kill Queen Elizabeth. Then, realising that Walsingham’s spies were onto him, he fled London disguised as a labourer and was eventually arrested at a house in Harrow.^[19]

Trial and execution

In September 1586 he and 13 co-conspirators were tried for high treason and all of them were condemned to death.^[20] He had made a full confession. He blamed Ballard for abusing his religious zeal, declaring “from so bad a tree never proceeds any better fruit.”^[21][17] On the eve of his execution, he petitioned Queen Elizabeth for clemency, writing:

Showe sweet Queene some mirakle on a wretch that lyethe prostrate in yr prison, most grivously bewaylinge his offence and imploringe such comforte at your anoynted hande as my poore wives misfortunes doth begge, my childe innocence doth crave, my gyltless family doth wishe, and my heynous trecherye dothe leaste deserve.^[22]

Extract from Babington's petition

Seven of the condemned men, including Babington and Ballard, were hung and quartered on 20 September 1586 at St Giles in the Fields, near Holborn, where they used to meet. The other seven men were executed the next day.^[23]

Mary, Queen of Scots was convicted of treason in October 1586 for her complicity in the plan to assassinate Queen Elizabeth. When Parliament assembled to consider the implications of the Babington plot, a joint petition from both Houses called for her execution.^[24] After much prevarication, she was executed in February 1587.

Attainder

The Parliament of 1586 passed laws to confirm the attainder of Babington and others for their treason. He forfeited his real and personal property to the crown and his family could inherit nothing from him.^[25]

The attainder did not affect estates that his father had settled on his male heirs in 1566, including the manors of Dethick in Derbyshire and Kingston in Nottinghamshre, which were retained by his family. The manor of Kingston passed to his brothers Francis and George as the surviving male heirs of their father Henry.^[26] His wife probably retained a life interest in the manor of Dethick under a jointure dated 1585.^[16][27] She remarried sometime before 1589, to Edward Stafford, a military officer who served under Sir Walter Raleigh.^[28][29][27]

He forfeited his other estates and belongings, including the manor of Lee and lands at Crich, Litchurch and Dethick Heyes in Derbyshire. land at Bredon and Tong in Leicestershire, and the manors of Winterton and Houghton-upon-Humber in Lincolnshire.^[26]

Queen Elizabeth granted the forfeited estates to Sir Walter Raleigh on 17 March 1587.^[26][27] Raleigh kept or sold the real estate, but transferred the debts owed to Babington and the personal belongings to Edward Stafford, his widow's second husband.^[30]

Research notes

Knighthood

Some unsourced family trees and Wikipedia style him as "Sir Anthony" and his father as "Sir Henry." No evidence has been found that either of them were knighted. His father, for example, describes himself in his will as "Henrie Babington ... esquire"^[6][7] and, in the visitations of Oxford for 1566, 1574 and 1634, he is recorded in Latin as "armiger" not "militis."^[1] Speed-878 09:33, 4 January 2020 (UTC)

Mother

Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry (1838) states that he was the son of Henry Babington's first wife, Frances Markham, not Mary Darcy, his second wife.^[31] This is not the generally accepted view.^[13][19][12] The visitations of Oxford for 1566, 1574 and 1634 records him as the son of Mary Darcy^[1] and the deed under which he inherited his father's estates had settled those estates on "the heirs males of him the said Henry Babington begotten, and to be begotten on the body of Mary, his then wife, sister of the said Lord Darcy."^[9] Speed-878 11:04, 5 January 2020 (UTC)

Date of birth

Some unsourced family trees and Wikipedia give his date of birth as 24 October 1561. The origin of this date appears to be his grant of an annuity to his step-father on 24 October 1582, at which time he is described as being "of age."^[4] No evidence has been found that he executed this document on this 21st birthday. "Of age" merely indicates he had turned 21 by this date. Speed-878 09:33, 4 January 2020 (UTC)

Date and place of marriage

The article Captain Edward Srafford of the Roanoke Colonies (2017) states that Babington married Margery Draycott "on July 27, 1578, at his home in Dethick, Derbyshire."^[27] The article does not give the source of this information and its accuracy has not been verified. Other sources either do not give a date or place of marriage,^[12] or say it was "in about 1579."^[13] Speed-878 11:04, 5 January 2020 (UTC)

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} William Henry Turner (ed), The Visitations of the County of Oxford Taken in the Years 1566, 1574 and in 1634, London, 1871, volume 5, pages 145-9. Google Books (accessed 27 Dec 2019).
2. ↑ Collectanea topographica et genealogica, London, 1843, volume 8, pages 350-1. Google Books (accessed 30 Dec 2019).
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Richard Williams, "Complainte of Anthonie Babington" in The Ballads & Songs of Derbyshire, 1867, pages 165-6. Google Books (accessed 27 Dec 2019).
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} Collectanea topographica et genealogica, London, 1843, volume 8, pages 351-2. Google Books (accessed 27 Dec 2019).
5. ↑ "Darcy, Thomas, Lord" in Dictionary of National Biography, 1888, volume 14, pages 49-53. Internet Archive (accessed 30 Dec 2019].
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} The National Archives (UK). Reference: PROB 11/55/90. Description: Will of Henrie Babington of Dethicke, Derbyshire. Date: 19 February 1573. A transcript is here.
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858 (database and images). Henry Babington, 19 Feb 1572 (accessed 30 Dec 2019). Ancestry Record 5111 #896180.
8. ↑ Derbyshire Record Office. Ref No: D7676/BagC/2791. Date: Oct 1582. Description: The extent of the lands of Henry Babington, esquire, deceased, at his death on 7th May, 1571, his son and heir Anthony then being a minor.
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1} Robert Thoroton, The Antiquities of Nottinghamshire, London, 1790, volume 1, pages 21-2. Google Books (accessed 27 Dec 2019),
10. ↑ Derbyshire Record Office. Reference: D1088/MT/1. Title: Copy deed to lead the uses of a fine to be acknowledged by Henry Babington of Dethick, Esq., to John, Lord Darcy of Thorne (Yorks) and Sir Thomas Metham of the Manors of Dethick and Litchurch and all his lands etc. Date: 1566.
11. ↑ Derbyshire Record Office. Ref No: D258/39/16/5. Title: Letter - William, Lord Burghley to Anthony Gell instructs Gell to survey woods in Norton, the inheritance of Anthony Babington, ward of the Queen. Date: 1575.
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4} "Notices of Anthony Babington, of Dethick, and of the Conspiracy of 1586" in The Reliquary, Apr 1862, page 187. Google Books (accessed 27 Dec 2019).
13. ↑ ^{13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3} "Babington, Anthony" in Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, volume 2, pages 308-311. Google Books (accessed 23 Dec 2019].
14. ↑ The National Archives (UK). Reference: SP 46/15/fo181. Description: Order of the Court of Wards for hearing the suit Francis Molyneux and other executors of Henry Babington v. Henry Foljambe; June 1574.
15. ↑ ^{15.0 15.1} John Hungerford Pollen, Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington plot, Edinburgh, 1922, pages cv-cvi. Internet Archive (accessed 27 Dec 2019).
16. ↑ ^{16.0 16.1} Derbyshire Record Office. Ref No: D3242/SC/1/1. Title: Typescript of indenture between Anthony Babington of Dethick, esq and John Draycott of Daynsley, Staffs, esq concerning jointure from Babington's manor of Dethick and lands in Wigwall, pa Wirksworth, for Margery, wife of Babington and daughter of Draycott, with provision of succession to male heirs of George Babington, younger brother of Anthony, then Francis Babington, another brother. Dated 1 or 5 Jul 1585.
17. ↑ ^{17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4} John Hungerford Pollen, Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington plot, Edinburgh, 1922, page 49 et seq. Internet Archive (accessed 30 Dec 2019).
18. ↑ Calendar of State Papers, Domestic series, of the reign of Elizabeth, 1581-1590, London, 1865, page 88. Internet Archive (accessed 30 Dec 2019).
19. ↑ ^{19.0 19.1} Penry Williams, "Babington, Anthony (1561-1586)" in 'Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (accessed 5 Jan 2020).
20. ↑ Tryals for high-treason, and other crimes: with proceedings on bills of attainder and impeachments, London, 1720, volume1, pages 64-71. Google Books (accessed 30 Dec 2019).
21. ↑ Collectanea topographica et genealogica, London, 1843, volume 8, page 354. Google Books (accessed 30 Dec 2019).
22. ↑ "The Complainte of Anthonie Babington" in The Ballads & Songs of Derbyshire, 1867, pages 164-5. Google Books (accessed 16 Jan 2020).
23. ↑ George Carleton, A thankfull remembrance of Gods mercy, London, 1627, page 119. Internet Archive (accessed 30 Dec 2019).
24. ↑ "On this day, 24 November 1586: Parliament’s intervention against Mary, Queen of Scots," History of Parliament (accessed 30 Dec 2019).
25. ↑ The Statutes of the Realm, 1819, volume 4, part 2, pages 766-7. 29 Eliz c 1. Google Books (accessed 30 Dec 2019).
26. ↑ ^{26.0 26.1 26.2} "Notices of Anthony Babington, of Dethick, and of the Conspiracy of 1586" in The Reliquary, Apr 1862, page 199. Google Books (accessed 2 Jan 2020).
27. ↑ ^{27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3} Eric Klingelhofer, "Captain Edward Stafford of the Roanoke Colonies", North Carolina Historical Review. volume 94, number 3 (July 2017), pages 283-98.
28. ↑ Lambeth Palace Library. MS 3198. Talbot Papers. 1550-1590. Folio 519. Sir John Fortescue to the Earl of Shrewsbury, Privy Councillor, from the Court at Richmond, 1 November 1589, asking that his kinsman, Edward Stafford, who is serving under Sir Walter Raleigh in Plymouth, may be excused from furnishing soldiers in respect of the lands of his wife, the widow of Anthony Babington, in Derbyshire.
29. ↑ Lambeth Palace Library. MS 705. Shrewsbury Papers. c.1547-1609. Folio 67. Thomas Heron to the Earl of Shrewsbury, from Charing Cross, [London], 12 July 1590, reporting that Edward Stafford, now married to Mrs. Babington, [Formerly wife of Anthony Babington.] would allow the Earl to see any evidences or deeds in their custody at Dethick House, co. Derby, but that John Manners had taken away many of them after the apprehension of Anthony Babington.
30. ↑ The National Archives (UK). Reference: E 133/7/967. Description: Bernard Wakefield v. Henry Wigley, Henry Butler and others. Debts which had been due to Anthony Babington, late attainted of high treason and executed. Date: 33 Eliz. Hil.
31. ↑ John Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, volume 4, page 514. Google Books (accessed 5 Jan 2020).

See also:

• Wikipedia: Anthony Babington
• Mathew Lyons, The Babington Plot (accessed 30 Dec 2019).