Nicholas Williamson was an English lawyer and Catholic recusant in the 1590s. He was arrested in 1595 after planning a visit to the court of James VI of Scotland. The Jesuit William Crichton had hoped that Williamson would encourage the ambition of James VI for the throne of England.
Oxfordshire background
He was a younger son of Thomas Williamson of Tusmore, Oxfordshire. His mother, Bridget, was a daughter of Nicholas Williamson of Mears Ashby in Northamptonshire.William Henry Turner, Visitations of Oxford (London, 1871), p. 238. Nicholas Williamson could write in Latin, a younger brother William Williamson attended St Edmund Hall, Oxford,Godfrey Anstruther, The Seminary Priests: A Dictionary of the Secular Clergy of England and Wales, 1558-1850, vol. 2 (Durham, 1969), p. 358. while his cousins Francis and Edmund Williamson were at St John's College, Oxford together.Andrew Hegarty, A Biographical Register of St. John's College, Oxford, 1555-1660 (Woodbridge, 2011), pp. 487-8: See Blomfield, History of the Deanery of Bicester (Oxford, 1882), p. 63.
In 1573 Nicholas Williamson married Anne Mordaunt, a daughter of William Mordaunt of Oakley and granddaughter of Lord Mordaunt.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 8 (London, 1899), p. 430: Frederic Augustus Blades, Visitations of Bedfordshire (London, 1884), p. 181. They had a daughter.William Henry Turner, 'Williamson of Tusmore', Visitations of the County of Oxford (London, 1871), p. 238. In 1574 his father sold some of his land holding at Tusmore, but not the house, to Sir John Spencer of Althorp.James Charles Blomfield, History of the Deanery of Bicester (Oxford, 1882), p. 63.
Working for the Shrewsburys Nicholas Williamson worked as a legal agent for the Earl of Shrewsbury. He made contracts for mine workers and for the purchase of glass for the Earl's buildings. Williamson advised the Countess of Shrewsbury on the purchase of lands and houses.Lambeth Palace Library, Shrewsbury Talbot papers, MS 3199 f.615 He was also the administrator or part-owner of the remainder of the estates of Anthony Babington, executed in 1586 for his conspiracy with Mary, Queen of Scots.Michael Questier, Catholicism and Community in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 2006), p. 201 fn. 102: HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 5 (London, 1894), p. 227.
The land transactions and ownership of a fish weir on the Trent at Shelford became connected with the family feud of the Shrewsburys and Charles Cavendish with Thomas Stanhope and John Stanhope of Elvaston.Lucy Worsley, Cavalier: The Story of a Seventeenth-century Playboy (London, 2007), pp. 33-4: Diarmaid MacCulloch, 'The Consolidation of England', John Morrill, Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor and Stuart Britain (Oxford, 1996), p. 38: Roy Hattersley, The Devonshires: The Story of a Family and a Nation (Random House, 2013), p. 87: Michael Questier, Catholicism and Community in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 2006), p. 21.
In July 1594 the German mining entrepreneur Emanuel Hochstetter sent a German miner from Keswick, Stephen Murr, to Williamson at Sheffield. Hochstetter wrote that bearer who brought the letter to Williamson would be able to draw a pattern for making a special iron saw to be made locally. Murr would bring his son to speak for him, as his English was not good.HMC 6th Report, Frank (London, 1877), p. 449 now Sheffield Archives, BFM/2/125: TNA SP 46/49 f.95, glass (possibly for Wingfield Manor). Steffan Murr worked processing copper ore at the Newlands and Caldbeck stamp mills, and his English family is documented.W. G. Collingwood, Elizabethan Keswick: Extracts from the Accounts of the German Miners at Augsburg (Kendal, 1912), pp. 60, 185, 195
Antwerp and Douai On Easter Day 1593 the supporters of the Earl of Shrewsbury fought the Stanhopes at the Shelford fish weir.Wallace T. MacCaffrey, 'Talbot and Stanhope: an Episode in Elizabethan Politics', Historical Research, 33:87 (May 1960), pp. 73–85 In July 1593, Anne Williamson was questioned by Francis Willoughby of Wollaton about her treatment of a royal messenger who had been sent to the Williamson's house at Wilne in the soke of Sawley to arrest the ringleaders of the fish weir riot.HMC Report on the Manuscripts of the Duke of Rutland, vol. 1 (London, 1894), p. 316: Cornelius Brown, History of Nottinghamshire (London, 1891), p. 25. On 10 May 1594 Nicholas Williamson was convicted in the Star Chamber for his part in the "notorious riot" connected with the fish weir.Allen D. Boyer, Sir Edward Coke and the Elizabethan Age (Stanford, 2003), p. 260: George W. Bernard, The Power of the Early Tudor Nobility: A Study of the Fourth and Fifth Earls of Shrewsbury (Harvester Press, 1985), p. 202: Norman Jones, Governing by Virtue: Lord Burghley and the Management of Elizabethan England (Oxford, 2015), p. 125: HMC Calendar of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House, 1594-1595, vol. 5 (London, 1894), p. 526. Nicholas Williamson subsequently went to Antwerp, perhaps to avoid a fine. Before making the trip he sold a house to provide for his wife.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 5 (London, 1894), pp. 140, 229.
Another recusant at the fish weir riot, George More of More Hall near Sheffield, fearing arrest by the Archbishop of York, made his way to Flanders. He was not content to come under the influence of the Jesuit Robert Persons and went to Liège. George More came to Scotland in September 1598 with an introduction or "commendation" to the architect and chamberlain of Anne of Denmark, William Schaw.Calendar State Papers Scotland, 13:1 (Edinburgh, 1969), pp. 285. 291: John Strype, The Life & Acts of John Whitgift (Oxford, 1822), pp. 367-372: HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 7 (London, 1899), p. 364 unsigned.
Williamson stayed for a time in Antwerp at the house of George Mace, who had been a supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 5 (London, 1894), p. 527, perhaps "Mascy". While he was there, it was rumoured a miraculous sign of a bloody cross had appeared on his linen. A Jesuit, William Crichton, introduced him to a Scottish student at Douai, David Law, who was intended to accompany him to Scotland.Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1595-1597 (London, 1869), pp. 46, 64-5 (SP 12/252 f.138, 192). Williamson and Law sailed from Calais intending to go to Leith in Scotland. Williamson became sea-sick and instead they landed at Yarmouth in Norfolk and made their way north through England towards the Scottish Border.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 5 (London, 1894), p. 244.
Arrested near Keswick
Williamson was arrested in Cumberland in March 1595. He had been at Millbeck Hall near Keswick, the home of a namesake cousin,Nicholas Williamson of Milbeck, son of Thomas Williamson, see Whitehaven YDX 174/50 where a family motto "Whither? to live and die, or to die and live" in Latin can still be seen.Michael Waistell Taylor, The Old Manorial Halls of Westmorland & Cumberland (Kendal, 1892), pp. 320-4.Picture of the Williamson motto at Millbeck, Andrew Locking He was taken to Henry Lee's house in Carlisle. Lee's official positions included steward of the barony of Rockliffe. At or around the same time, David Law, a Scottish seminary priest from Kirkcaldy, was captured and brought to Lee's house. Law was prepared to guide Williamson into Scotland, disguised as his servant. Law was chosen for the mission because he was an acquaintance of Alexander Seton, Lord Urquhart, a significant Scottish courtier and a Catholic. Williamson had been to Scotland before.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 5 (London, 1894), pp. 145-6, 244: Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1595-1597 (London, 1869), pp. 26, 46 (TNA SP 12/252 f.77 for Lord Urquhart): Annie I. Cameron, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 1593-1595, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 547 no. 483, 582 no. 525, 611 no. 565, 614 no. 566: Joseph Bain, Calendar of Border Papers, vol. 2 (London, 1896), p. 24 no. 46.
Crichton probably obtained an introduction for Williamson to Seton because of his proximity to Anne of Denmark, as an administrator of her estates.See Maurice Lee jr., 'King James's Popish Chancellor', Ian B. Cowan & Duncan Shaw, Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1983), pp. 173-4. Modern scholars (who now refer to her as "Anna of Denmark") consider that the queen had either converted from her native Lutheranism to the Catholic faith, or was regarded as sympathetic to the Catholic cause and possible conversion.Jemma Field, 'Anna of Denmark and the Politics of Religious Identity in Jacobean Scotland and England, c. 1592-1619', Northern Studies, 50 (2019), pp. 87-113Maureen M. Meikle & Helen M. Payne, 'From Lutheranism to Catholicism: The Faith of Anna of Denmark', The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 64:1 (January 2013), pp. 45-69
David Law was described as the son of a burgess of Kirkcaldy.Calendar State Papers Scotland, 1593-1595, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 257 no. 201. His parents were probably Agnes Strang of Balcaskie and James Law, who was also a landowner as a "portioner of Lathrisk" close to Falkland Palace.Robert Keith, An Historical Catalogue of Scottish Bishops Down to the Year 1688 (Edinburgh, 1824), p. 264: Pearce, A., 'Law, James (d. 1632), archbishop of Glasgow', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. His brother James Law became Archbishop of Glasgow.John Durkan, 'The early history of Glasgow University Library, 1475-1710', The Bibliotheck, 8 (1977), p. 114, describes a Catechism (Sp Coll Bk4-i.15) given by David Law to his brother James Law, minister of Kirkliston. James Law's future father-in-law, John Boswell of Balmuto advanced money towards the costs of the royal marriage in 1589.'Pecuniary Distress of James VI', Blackwood's Magazine, vol. 2 (December, 1817), p. 312. Another Law family home nearby at Kirkcaldy still stands, built by the merchant and shipowner David Law.Michael Bath, Renaissance decoration in Scotland (Edinburgh, 2003), p. 246. A mural of a ship is thought to represent the voyage of Anne of Denmark to Scotland. The Angel of Kirkcaldy was certainly among the royal fleet,Marguerite Wood, Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Edinburgh, 1589-1603 (Edinburgh, 1927), pp. 16-7, 330. and perhaps the James of Kirkcaldy, skippered by John Law, and owned by shareholders including Katherine Balcanquell, wife of Alexander Law.Scottish Historic Buildings Trust, SHBTMoses Jenkins, Building Scotland: Celebrating Scotland's Traditional Building Materials (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2010): NRS, Will of Katherine Balcanquell, CC8/8/21 p. 4: William Kay, 'Restoring the Magic to Law's Close, Kirkcaldy', Building Conservation Directory 2006 Painted ceilings in the house with fruit and flower motifs, like those in some other Scottish interiors including Gladstone's Land, may relate to religious iconography.Michael Bath, Anne Crone, Michael Pearce, The Dendrochronology and Art History of 16th and 17th century Painted Ceilings (Edinburgh: Historic Environment Scotland, 2017), p. 24