Katharine Brettargh (1579–1601) was an English

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

woman from a well-known evangelical

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

family, whose early death was made the subject of "godly" biographical commentary.

Life

Brettargh was daughter of a Cheshire squire, John and Dorothy Bruen of Bruen Stapleford, and the sister of John Bruen. She was baptised on 13 February 1579, and from an early age she was distinguished by earnest religious feeling. When she was about twenty she was married to William Brettargh or Brettergh, of 'Brellerghoult' -

Brettargh Holt Katharine Brettargh (1579–1601) was an English Puritan woman from a well-known evangelical Cheshire family, whose early death was made the subject of "godly" biographical commentary. Life Brettargh was daughter of a Cheshire squire, John and D ...

- near

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, who shared her puritan sentiments. The couple were said to have had some

persecution Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. The most common forms are religious persecution, racism, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these term ...

at the hands of their Roman Catholic neighbours. 'It is not unknowne to

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

what horses and cattell of her husband's were killed upon his grounds in the night most barbarously at two seuerall times by seminary priests (no question) and recusants that lurked thereabouts.' Her piety, however, was such as to impress them in spite of her dislike of their creed. 'Once a tenant of her husband's being behinde with his rent, she desired him to beare yet with him a quarter of a yeare, which he did ; and when the man brought his money, with teares she said to her husband, "I feare you doe not well to take it of him, though it be your right, for I doubt he is not well able to pay it, and then you oppresse the poore."' It is perhaps characteristic of the times that her biographer insists upon the circumstance that 'she never used to swear an oath great or small.' After a little more than two years of married life she was attacked by 'a hot burning ague,' of which she died on

Whit Sunday Whitsun (also Whitsunday or Whit Sunday) is the name used in Britain, and other countries among Anglicans and Methodists, for the Christian holy day of Pentecost. It falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter and commemorates the descent of the Ho ...

, 31 May 1601. She was encouraged by a visit from her brother, John Bruen, and by the consolations of William Harrison and other puritans. She was buried at Childwall Church on Wednesday, 3 June.

Biographical coverage

The short book that forms the chief authority as to her life is ''Death's Advantage little Regarded'',''Death's Advantage little Regarded, or the Soule's Solace against Sorrow, preached in two funerall sermons at Childwall, in Lancashire, at the buriall of Mistris Katherine Brettergh, 3 June 1601. The one by William Harrison, the other by William Leygh, B.D., whereunto is annexed the christian life and godly death of the said gentlewoman'', London, 1601. by William Harrison of

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and William Leigh. Her biographers are indignant at the imputation that she died despairing. There is a portrait of her in

Samuel Clarke Samuel Clarke (11 October 1675 – 17 May 1729) was an English philosopher and Anglican cleric. He is considered the major British figure in philosophy between John Locke and George Berkeley. Clarke's altered, Nontrinitarian revision of the 1 ...

's second part of the 'Marrow of Ecclesiastical History,' book ii., London, 1675, p. 52, in an elaborate

ruff Ruff may refer to: Places *Ruff, Virginia, United States, an unincorporated community *Ruff, Washington, United States, an unincorporated community Other uses *Ruff (bird) (''Calidris pugnax'' or ''Philomachus pugnax''), a bird in the wader famil ...

, the hair closely confined by a sort of skull-cap, over which towers a sugarloaf hat.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brettargh, Katharine 1579 births 1601 deaths 16th-century English women People from Cheshire 16th-century Protestants People from Childwall