A wily bunch but principled. In 1409, John Throckmorton married Eleanor de Spinney, heiress to part of the Coughton estate, and from then on the family continued their relentless rise to the top until blocked by the Reformation.
Katherine Throckmorton had 19 children, 112 grandchildren and died in 1571 aged 83.
Sir Frances Throckmorton
Sir Nicholas Throckmorton exemplified wiliness. Choosing the Protestant side, he became a favourite of Edward VI, talked himself out of the tower when Catholic Mary Tudor ascended the throne, became a key diplomat under Elizabeth 1st whilst maintaining a good relationship with her rival, Mary Queen of Scots.
His cousin, Sir Francis, was, unfortunately less wily though there is no doubting his principles. It was he that gave his name to the Throckmorton Plot, one of the many attempts to kill Elizabeth and replace her with her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots. The plot was discovered and he was hung drawn and quartered in 1584
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From then on, principle dominated the Throckmortons, who remained true to the Catholic faith and paid heavy fines for the privilege. Unsurprisingly, Coughton Court with its priest holes and catholic loyalties became a hotbed of plots and conspiracy, though Sir Thomas Throckmorton played a devious game. He kept his distance and rented Coughton out – to another catholic—Sir Everard Digby—one of the Gunpowder plotters.
Sir Everard Digby
Everard Digby, it’s a wonderful name and by all accounts he was a wonderful man, ultimately trapped by loyalty to friends and religion. Though a late recruit and on the fringe of the Gunpowder Plot, he played a key role in the conspiracy. Using the Coughton area as a base he was to await ‘the great explosion’ kidnap the king’s daughter and lead the midlands in revolt.
When the plot was discovered, the ‘villains’ rounded up and imprisoned, it was discovered that of the thirteen conspirators, seven were Throckmorton descendants or married to Throckmortons. Call me cynical, but I find it hard to believe that wily Sir Thomas, the absentee landlord, knew nothing of the plot. I also find it hard to believe that both Elizabeth and James 1st left the Throckmorton family relatively untouched. A comparable regime today would have imprisoned every last one of them and seized their estates. Then, English law prevailed.
While Sir Thomas quietly got on with life, the Gunpowder Plotters met their fate. Executions took place at St. Paul's Churchyard on 30 Jan 1606. Sir Everard Digby was the first to mount the scaffold, which he did unrepentant.
In his speech he had claimed that he 'could not condemn himself of any offense to God' in his motives of the 'ending of the persecution of the Catholics, the good of souls, and the cause of religion', although he freely admitted to offending the laws of the realm, for which he was willing to suffer death, and 'thought nothing too much to suffer for those respects which had moved him to that enterprise'.
He refused to pray with the preachers and called on the Catholics in the crowd to pray with him, whereby he "fell to his prayers with such devotion as much moved all the beholders".
He then saluted each nobleman and gentlemen upon the scaffold, in 'so friendly and cheerful manner' that they later said that he seemed 'so free from fear of death' that he could have been taking his leave of them as if he was just going from the Court or out of the city.
Digby was hung a very short time and was undoubtedly alive when he went to the quartering block to be disembowelled. Cecil's cousin, Sir Francis Bacon, told of how when the executioner plucked out Digby’s heart, and held it up saying, as was the custom "Here is the heart of a traitor", Digby summoned up the strength to respond "Thou liest".
It is hard not to sympathise with the smaller, more intimate details of the executions. Martha, the wife of one of the plotters, Thomas Bates, somehow managed to push through the crowd and guards to embrace her husband on his way to be quartered.
Another plotter, John Grant, passed his own house enroute to his execution and managed one final look at his wife, Elizabeth, who cried out to him, ". . . be of good courage. Offer thyself wholly to God. I, for my part, do as freely restore thee to God as He gave thee unto me".
In the years that followed, the Throckmortons held on to their faith, suffering the financial and political consequences.
Even so, they continued to prosper until the twentieth century were war, taxes and untimely deaths threatened the dynasty.
It's one of the ironies of history that staunch Throkmorton catholics are buried in St Peter's, a Protestant Church. It had of course been Catholic until the Reformation.
On the estate, St Peter's church formely catholic but changing hands following the Reformation. ,
In 1948, James Lees-Milne of the National Trust had ‘tea with that angelic Lady Throckmorton, who looked thinner and not too well. She is all alone in the house and has a struggle to keep it going and make both ends meet. She is a noble and splendid woman." Wily, too. Noble and wily, having recently negotiated a three hundred year-long lease for the family whilst the National Trust maintained house and estate.
They might of course die out as a family, but the Throckmortons have survived civil war and persecution, and have bred successfully for over 600 years. They are, you might say survivors—not always winners—though they might outlive the National Trust
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