Walter Calverley
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Walter Calverley (1579–1605) was an English squire from
Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...
. In some of her letters, his mother-in-law spelled the name "Coverley", which suggests that it was then pronounced with the "al" as in "calf" ("Calverley" means "pasture for calves"). Perhaps the most infamous member of the Calverley family, he is known for murdering two of his young children, leading to his own death by pressing in 1605. His story has long been associated with two plays which were performed shortly after the events of 1605 and which were published in 1607 and 1608:
The Miseries of Enforced Marriage ''The Miseries of Enforced Marriage'' is a play written by George Wilkins which was published in London in 1607. The play is a fictionalised treatment of the real life case of murderer Walter Calverley whose marriage was forced on him through C ...
and
A Yorkshire Tragedy ''A Yorkshire Tragedy'' is an early Jacobean era stage play, a domestic tragedy printed in 1608. The play was originally assigned to William Shakespeare, though the modern critical consensus rejects this attribution, favouring Thomas Middleto ...
. These plays have strongly influenced the historic record, including his entry by
Sidney Lee Sir Sidney Lee (5 December 1859 – 3 March 1926) was an English biographer, writer, and critic. Biography Lee was born Solomon Lazarus Lee in 1859 at 12 Keppel Street, Bloomsbury, London. He was educated at the City of London School and ...
in the
Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
. Modern scholarship, based on historic legal documents and contemporary letters, provides a different picture.


The Legend of Walter Calverley

The conventional biography of Walter Calverley (as in the 1st edition of the Dictionary of National Biography) draws on events from the two plays and from history. Much confusion has been caused by the Calverleys' practice of alternating between Walter and William as the name of the eldest son in each generation, with the other name used for the second son. In accordance with common practice under
primogeniture Primogeniture () is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn Legitimacy (family law), legitimate child to inheritance, inherit all or most of their parent's estate (law), estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some childre ...
, the eldest son married young (often while a minor) while later sons married late. The conventional biography does not say when Walter was born, perhaps because there is a clear problem for those, such as the DNB, which give the date − 1579 − of Walter's matriculation at Cambridge. It then goes on to record that Walter lost his father as a young child. This is consistent with Walter the matriculator having been the son of Sir William Calverley, who died c. 1572. We shall see that Walter the matriculator was probably the murderer's uncle, while Sir William was the murderer's great-grandfather. In Scene 1 of ''A Yorkshire Tragedy'', Sam says of the young master "he's married to another long ago". This theme is developed further in ''The Miseries of Enforced Marriage.'' The Calverley figure, Scarborrow, has plight his troth with Clare, the daughter of Sir John Harcop. Both parties consider the marriage binding: Scarborrow regards his subsequent marriage to Katherine as bigamous and their children as bastards; Clare commits suicide as she cannot remarry. Under ecclesiastical law, marriage in sixteenth-century England could be contracted "''per verba de præsenti''" privately, with no public ceremony. Such marriages were valid in the eyes of the church, but were not recognised by the civil law. The conventional biography records that, in his teens, Walter fell in love with a local young woman and proposed marriage. She accepted, and the young couple planned to marry. We cannot know whether there is any truth to this. In ''The Miseries of Enforced Marriage'', Scarborrow is called to London by his uncle, Sir William, and his guardian, Lord Faulconbridge. His guardian tells Scarborrow that he is to marry the guardian's niece. In his 1816 history of Leeds and its district, ''Loidis and Elmete,''
Thomas Dunham Whitaker Thomas Dunham Whitaker (8 June 1759 – 18 December 1821) was an English clergyman and topographer who was Vicar of Whalley, Lancashire, Whalley, from 1809 and Blackburn (ancient parish), Blackburn, from 1818. He undertook landscape improvements ...
records that Walter travelled to London to meet his guardian, Sir William, who told him that he was to marry the guardian's niece. As Walter did marry Philippa Brooke, niece of Sir William Brooke, it is easy to see how this led to the identification of Sir
William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham Sir William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham, Knight of the Garter, KG (1 November 1527 – 6 March 1597), lord of the manor, lord of the Manor of Cobham, Kent, was Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and a member of parliament for Hythe (UK Parliament c ...
as Walter's guardian. In the conventional biography, Walter and Phillipa disliked each other. However, dutifully, the couple wed in London. Walter forgot his previous engagement. On their return to Calverley, Walter sought distraction in drinking and gambling, soon dissipating his fortune, mortgaging his lands and squandering his wife's dowry. In ''A Yorkshire Tragedy'', the Master of Walter's old college visits him in Yorkshire, bringing news that his brother has been arrested for a debt which is Walter's, This precipitates the murderous string of events. In the conventional biography, on 23 April 1605, news was brought to Walter that a relative, a student at Cambridge, had been arrested for a debt which was actually Walter's. In a drunken frenzy, he stabbed his sons, William and Walter, and his wife, killing both children. However, Phillipa survived the attack as Calverley's knife did not pierce his wife's corset, inlaid with bone. Calverley continued murderously through the house, throwing a nursemaid down stairs and ordering another servant to retrieve his youngest son, who was with a
wet-nurse A wet nurse is a woman who breastfeeds and cares for another's child. Wet nurses are employed if the mother dies, if she is unable to nurse the child herself sufficiently or chooses not to do so. Wet-nursed children may be known as "milk-siblin ...
miles from home. When the servant failed to obey, Calverley saddled his horse and went off to kill his youngest child, but was apprehended and brought before the magistrate.


Early life

Walter Calverley was born in April 1579 to William Calverley and his wife Katherine, daughter of John Thorneholme, Esq of Haysthorpe.
The Memoirs of Sir Walter Blackett
' (1819) trace the history of the Calverley family from the twelfth century, when John Scot became
lord of the manor Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English Feudalism, feudal (specifically English feudal barony, baronial) system. The ...
s of
Calverley Calverley is a village in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England, on the A657 road, about from Leeds city centre and from Bradford, and lying north of the town of Pudsey. The population of Calverley in 2011 was 4, ...
and
Pudsey Pudsey is a market town in the City of Leeds borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is located midway between Bradford city centre and Leeds city centre. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it has a population of 25,393. History T ...
. Walter's great-grandfather was Sir William Calverley, High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1539/40 and alive in 1568 (he was dead by 1575). As well as the ancestral manors of Calverley and Pudsey, Walter's father, William, held the manor of
Burley in Wharfedale Burley in Wharfedale is a village and civil parish within the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England, in the Wharfedale valley. In 2011, it had a population of 7,041. The village is on the A65 road, north-west from Leeds, north from B ...
and lands in Bagley,
Farsley Farsley is a village in the City of Leeds, Leeds district, in West Yorkshire, England, west of Leeds city centre and east of Bradford near Pudsey. Before 1974, Farsley was part of the Municipal Borough of Pudsey, Borough of Pudsey. Before 193 ...
, Eccleshill, Bolton in Bradfordale (now a suburb of
Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...
) and
Seacroft Seacroft is an outer-city suburb/township consisting mainly of council estate housing covering an extensive area of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It lies in the LS14 LS postcode area, Leeds postcode area, around east of Leeds city cen ...
, all in
Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...
. ''The Memoirs'' further record that
Under the influence of his wife, who was a zealous catholic, he he murderer's fathersuffered greatly in his estates on account of his recusancy
Cambridge University records show that brothers William and Walter Calverley matriculated at
Clare Hall, Cambridge Clare Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1966 by Clare College, Clare Hall is a college for advanced study, admitting only postgraduate students alongside postdoctoral researchers and fellows. It was est ...
in 1579. William progressed to his BA in 1581-2 and received his MA in 1585. As the generations of Calverleys alternated between Walter and William for the eldest son (with the other name for the second son), the William who graduated was probably the murderer's father.


Wardship

After his father's death on 1 October 1596, Walter Calverley became a ward on 25 March 1597 of his mother Katherine and his great-uncle William. That he became a ward tells us that no marriage had been contracted in writing before his father's death, as Walter would then not have been subject to wardship proceedings. As the manors of Calverley and Pudsey were held on
knight-service Knight-service was a form of feudal land tenure under which a knight held a fief or estate of land termed a knight's fee (''fee'' being synonymous with ''fief'') from an overlord conditional on him as a tenant performing military service for his ...
, Walter was a royal ward and the wardship was for sale. This was lucrative for the crown: in effect it was a form of taxation on the gentry and upper classes. The purchaser took the income from the ward's portion (one-third) of the estate during the wardship and owned the right of marriage. If a ward failed to marry the bride nominated by his guardian, the ward had to pay the king the value of the marriage. If the ward married without consent, he remained in wardship until the king had received twice the value of the marriage. Although the guardian was supposed only to take the income from the ward's portion of the estate while the ward was under age, unscrupulous guardians could extract value by, for instance, felling trees and selling the timber. In principle, once he reached his majority, the ward could sue his guardian for "waste", the legal term for the lessening of value of an estate; in practice they very rarely did. On 23 June 1598 Walter's wardship passed t
Lady Anne Gargrave
of
Nostell Priory Nostell Priory is a Palladian house in Nostell, West Yorkshire, in England, near Crofton and on the road to Doncaster from Wakefield. It dates from 1733 and was built for the Winn family on the site of a medieval priory. The Priory and its co ...
and her son Richard Gargrave Lady Gargrave was extremely rich and had six daughters to marry off.


Marriage

In the ordinary course of events, Walter would have married one of Lady Gargrave's daughters. But Lady Gargrave faced a formidable opponent.
Lady Anne Cobham
was another widow with daughters to marry off. Her husband had been Sir Henry Brooke, known as "Cobham", the uncle of Elizabeth Brooke, who had married
Sir Robert Cecil Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, (1 June 156324 May 1612) was an English statesman noted for his direction of the government during the Union of the Crowns, as Tudor England gave way to Stuart period, Stuart rule (1603). Lord Salisbury ser ...
. Along with his other roles, on 21 May 1599 Cecil succeeded his father,
Lord Burghley William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (13 September 15204 August 1598), was an English statesman, the chief adviser of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State (1550–1553 and 1558–1572) and Lord High Treasurer from ...
, as Master of the
Court of Wards and Liveries The Court of Wards and Liveries was a court established during the reign of Henry VIII in England. Its purpose was to administer a system of feudalism, feudal dues; but as well as the revenue collection, the court was also responsible for wa ...
. This gave him an effective veto on the marriages of wards. Lady Gargrave's riches were no match for Lady Anne's wiles and the favours she could call in. Observing that Walter had shown some interest in her daughter Philippa, Lady Anne wrote to Cecil on 30 May 1599 seeking his help in securing Walter Calverley's marriage to her daughter Philippa with a
dowry A dowry is a payment such as land, property, money, livestock, or a commercial asset that is paid by the bride's (woman's) family to the groom (man) or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price ...
less than the £1500 offered by Lady Gargrave for him to marry Lady Gargrave's daughter. This letter says that Walter would remain a ward until April 1600, implying that he was born in April 1579. On 20 April 1600 Lady Anne wrote to Cecil again, enclosing a petition (which has now been lost) on behalf of Walter, whom she describes as "an unstayed younge man". "Unstayed" is the opposite of "staid" and could refer to his faith or (more likely) his behaviour. Calverley has married her daughter Philippa and remains a ward, so he was born between 20 April 1579 and 30 April 1579. Lady Anne's two letters imply that the marriage took place between June 1599 and April 1600. How Lady Gargrave responded is not recorded. Until his 21st birthday, she remained in control of one-third of the Calverley estates.


Adult life

At the end of April 1600, Walter Calverley reached his 21st birthday and became the head of the family. His lands were worth £800 a year but before he could receive this income, he had to sue out his livery and endure primer seisin, by which the Crown took the profits of the first year of his ownership. He had seven brothers and seven sisters to provide for, including dowries for his sisters when they married. The family were staunch catholics and so at risk for recusancy. On 20 June 1600 his mother-in-law, Lady Anne, wrote to Cecil reporting that she had paid the dowry of £1000 but that she now owed £500. As Walter had been a minor at his marriage, he had been unable to make a
jointure Jointure was a legal concept used largely in late mediaeval and early modern Britain, denoting the estate given to a married couple by the husband's family. One of its most important functions was providing a livelihood for the wife if she became ...
. Having now come of age, he was about to do so but was arrested for debt and is in the Fleet prison with a burning ague and in danger of his life. She asks Cecil for help to arrange for Philippa to take wardship of Walter's younger brother should Walter die. In 1601-2 the records of
feet of fines A foot of fine (plural, feet of fines; Latin: ''pes finis''; plural, ''pedes finium'') is the archival copy of the agreement between two parties in an English lawsuit over land, most commonly the fictitious suit (in reality a conveyance) known a ...
show that Walter made several small disposals of Calverley lands, followed by the disposal of the manor of Burley in Wharfedale, 40 messuages, a mill and other lands. On 22 March 1602 Walter made an indenture conveying the remainder of his lands to three trustees for Philippa: Sir John Brooke (Philippa's brother); Edward Heron (husband of Philippa's sister Anne); and Robert Lacy, and three for Walter: William Middleton; Thomas Wentworth; and Richard Middleton. Before the
Statute of Uses The Statute of Uses ( 27 Hen. 8. c. 10) was an act of the Parliament of England enacted in 1536 that restricted the application of uses in English property law. The statute ended the practice of creating uses in real property by changing the ...
(1536), the forerunners of trusts had been made by conveying land to people to the use of the beneficiaries. Lawyers responded to the Statue by conveying land to what became known as trustees to the use of the trustees with a " use upon a use" to the beneficiaries. For some time there was doubt as to whether "uses upon a use" were enforceable, but these doubts were resolved by the ''
Duchess of Suffolk Earl of Suffolk is a title which has been created four times in the Peerage of England. The first creation, in tandem with the creation of the title of Earl of Norfolk, came before 1069 in favour of Ralph the Staller; but the title was forfei ...
's case'' (1560). In this case the "use upon a use" was secret; and as that had been found to be enforceable, trusts were created with secret "uses upon a use". Walter's 1602 indenture gives every appearance of being a trust whose beneficiaries were Walter and Philippa while they both lived, and the survivor after the first death. It provided better terms for Philippa, especially during her widowhood, than would have applied without the trust. After Walter and Philippa had both died, the use reverted to Walter and Philippa's son William (and other
heirs male A male heir (sometimes heirs male)—usually describing the first-born son (primogeniture) or oldest surviving son of a family—has traditionally been the recipient of the residue of the estate, titles, wealth and responsibilities of his father in ...
). In their edition of ''A Yorkshire Tragedy'', Cawley and Gaines observe that this indenture guaranteed that the Calverley lands could not be seized because of Walter's recusancy. They suggest that it may also have been to bring order to his tangled affairs. Calverley and Phillipa had three sons together: William Calverley (1601-1605), Walter Calverley (1603-1605) and Henry Calverley (1604-1661).


Murders

On 23 April 1605, Calverley stabbed his sons William and Walter to death and also stabbed his wife. His infant son Henry was out at a wet-nurse, the wife of a servant who was ordered to fetch him but who refused. Calverley then went off on horseback but was apprehended and taken to Sir John Savile, a local magistrate. He was examined formally by Savile and Sir Thomas Bland, another local magistrate. No papers of the examination survive, but Whitaker's ''Loidis and Elmete'' (1816) records it thus:
Being examined whether he did kill two of his own children, esaith, that he did kill them both at his own house at Calverley yesterday, being the 23d day of April aforesaid. Being further examined what moved him to wound his wife yesterday, to that he said, that one Carver coming into the chamber where he was with his said wife, he commanded her to will the said Carver to goe and fetch another son of his, whose name is Henry Calverley, who was nursed by the said Carver’s wife, which she accordingly did; whereupon the said Carver went downe into the court, and stayed there about a quarter of an houre, and returned again, but brought not the said child with him; and being commanded to go downe again, he refused so to doe, and that therefore he did wound his wife, if she be wounded. And being further examined, what he wold have done to the said childe if Carver had brought him, to that he said he wold have killed him also. And being likewise examined whether at any time he had any intention to kill his said children, to that he said, that he hath had an intention to kill them for the whole space of two years past, and the reasons that moved him thereunto was, for that his said wife had many times theretofore uttered speeches and given signes and tokens unto him, whereby he mighte easily perceive and conjecture, that the said children were not by him begotten, and that he hath found himself to be in danger of his life sundry times by his wife.
Calverley was detained at Wakefield prison and later transferred to
York Castle York Castle is a fortified complex in the city of York, England. It consists of a sequence of castles, prisons, court, law courts and other buildings, which were built over the last nine centuries on the north-west side of the River Foss.Coop ...
for trial. He refused to plead, and so was subjected to
peine forte et dure ' ( Law French for "hard and forceful punishment") was a method of torture formerly used in the common law legal system, in which a defendant who refused to plead ("stood mute") would be subjected to having heavier and heavier stones placed upon ...
; this resulted in his death on 5 August 1605. As the Calverley estates were owned by trustees, they were not at risk of being
escheated Escheat () is a common law doctrine that transfers the real property of a person who has died without heirs to the crown or state. It serves to ensure that property is not left in "limbo" without recognized ownership. It originally applied to ...
if Walter had died a convicted felon (he would have known that they were protected from escheat for recusancy). His refusal to plead did ensure that the stock were not forfeit.


Aftermath

Henry Calverley became a ward of his mother Philippa. She remarried Thomas Burton (1580-1655) of Stockerston,
Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...
. Together, they had two daughters, Anne and Elizabeth. In 1613, Phillipa died. Burton later remarried, producing a third child and his heir, Thomas in 1618. In 1622 Burton bought a
baronetcy A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...
. After reaching his majority in 1625, Henry recovered the Calverley lands and grew up to be a
royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gove ...
, incurring fines under the Commonwealth. In the wake of pressure about the abuses of wardship and the consequences of forced marriages, the sale of wardships effectively ended in 1640. At the Restoration in 1660, the Court of Wards and Liveries was not restored. At the ceremony, they declared that the "feudal incidents" had been found by experience
more burdensome, grievous and prejudicial to the kingdom than they had been beneficial to the king
On 1 January 1661, Henry Calverley died and his son, Walter, succeeded him. Walter was later knighted by King Charles II in consideration of his father's loyalty to the crown. Henry was the last of the family to reside regularly at Calverley Hall, his son marrying the heiress of the neighbouring Esholt estate and moving there.


In literature

Calverley's position gave his crime wide notoriety. On 12 June Nathaniel Butter published a popular tract on the subject, which was followed on 24 August by an account of Calverley's death. A ballad was also issued by another publisher,
Thomas Pavier Thomas Pavier (died 1625) was a London publisher and bookseller of the early seventeenth century. His complex involvement in the publication of early editions of some of Shakespeare's plays, as well as plays of the Shakespeare Apocrypha, has l ...
, at the same time. Two plays survive telling Calverley's story: ''A Yorkshire Tragedy'', almost certainly written in 1605 but not published until 1608 by Pavier; and ''Miseries of Enforced Marriage'' by
George Wilkins George Wilkins (died 1618) was an English dramatist and pamphleteer best known for his possible collaboration with William Shakespeare on the play ''Pericles, Prince of Tyre''. By profession he was an inn-keeper, but he was also apparently invol ...
published in 1607. The full title of ''A Yorkshire Tragedy'' continued ''- not so new as lamentable and true: written by W. Shakspeare,'' but this appears to have been a bit of
puffery Puffery is undue or exaggerated praise. Puffery serves to "puff up" what is being described. In law, puffery is usually invoked as a defense argument: it identifies general praising speech, typically produced by a seller, which is not expected ...
. The play was included in the third and fourth folios of
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's works (1664 and 1685), but is no longer considered to be his work (modern scholarship generally favouring
Thomas Middleton Thomas Middleton (baptised 18 April 1580 – July 1627; also spelt ''Midleton'') was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. He, with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson, was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jac ...
).
Aphra Behn Aphra Behn (; baptism, bapt. 14 December 1640 – 16 April 1689) was an English playwright, poet, prose writer and translator from the Restoration (England), Restoration era. As one of the first English women to earn her living by her writ ...
reworked ''The Miseries of Enforced Marriage'' into her 1676 play, '' The Town Fop or, Sir Timothy Tawdry.''


References


Sources

*;Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Calverley, Walter 1605 deaths 16th-century births 16th-century English people 17th-century English people Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge English murderers of children Filicides in England People executed for murder Year of birth missing