Sir John RADCLIFFE of Ordsall
Born: 1581, Ordsall Hall, Lancashire, EnglandChristened: 24 Feb 1581, Manchester Church, Lancashire, England
Died: 29 Oct 1627
Father: John RADCLIFFE of Ordsall (Sir)
Mother: Anne ASSHAWE
Married: Alice BYRON (dau. of Sir John Byron of Newstead and Anne Molyneux)Children:
1. Alexander RADCLIFFE of Ordsall (Sir Knight)
3. Alicia RADCLIFFE
4. Anne RADCLIFFE
John Radcliffe,
the heir of his brother Alexander, was the third son of
Sir John. He accompanied his brother in
the Irish expedition, and was knighted by
Robert Devereux, Earl of
Essex in Ireland on 24 Sep 1599,
being thereby freed from wardship, in his nineteenth year. Returning to London
he quickly established himself as a favourite in Court circles. The tragedy of
the passing of two young people so popular as his sister and brother had touched
a ringing chord of sympathy in a wide circle of hearts, and John was made
welcome not only for the fame of his name but also on account of his attractive
personality, his proved valour in arms, and his private virtues. His cousin,
Robert, Earl of Sussex, held him in great regard and affection, the older man
finding in the younger a stability of character of which his own generous but
irresolute nature could lean with confident security. Despite Sir John's
attachment to the
Earl of Essex, his loyalty to
Queen Elizabeth and a strict sense of
honourable duty did not permit him to join in the incredible folly of
Essex's
rebellion, though doubtless he grieved that so gallant a nobleman should have
cast away his great fame and reputation in a mad moment of passionate despair,
too recklessly impulsive to wait with patience for the legitimate achievement of
his overbounding ambitions.
Essex paid the last penalty on his rashness in the
courtyard of the Tower of London. Two years later, when the great Queen herself
died, John Radcliffe took no part in the plottings, the conspiracies that
marked the beginning of the reign of James I. His natural dignity and sound common sense holding him aloof from the
rivalries and discontents in which so many of his associates became involved.
Popular tradition in the neighbourhood of Ordsall, and the imagination of a
famous novelist, have so generally ascribed to the Radcliffes a prominent part
in the Gunpowder Plot that it would be appropriate, at this point, to discover
what fragment of fact, if any, there is in this legend.
Sir John Radcliffe was a Catholic, but a
convinced loyalist. He belonged to that section of his co-religionists,
comprising many of the old families and the majority of the secular priests, he
desired only toleration for the exercise of their faith. They had little or no
sympathy with the more fanatical elements, who with the aid of indigent
adventurers sought the revengeful overthrow of the whole fabric of the state and
its unconditional surrender to the Papacy. Like all revolutionaries, what the
members of this second party lacked in numbers, they made up for in the violence
of their expressions. Anxious to divest himself of the charge of papistry
levelled against him by the discontented Puritans, King James made a
proclamation, banishing all Catholic missionaries and reaffirming the penal laws
against recusants, who were subjected to heavy fines, mercilessly extorted, and
ruinous to men of moderate means. When the Bye Plot or 'treason of the priests'
failed in 1603, the more fiery spirits among the Catholics frantically sought
means to deliver themselves from this oppression. Injustice and hatred together
are relentless masters, which drive their victims to extraordinary devices. One
of the sufferers was Robert Catesby, a member of an old Northamptonshire family,
and by nature a dabbler in treason. In turn he had been a bitter denouncer of
the Papists, and their zealous supporter. In 1596 he was arrested on suspicion
of being concerned in an attempt to poison the
In his romantic novel of
Guy Fawkes, which many people have accepted as
authentic history,
He married
Alice Byron, daughter of
Sir John was unhappy in his domestic life. He suspected
How like a column, Radcliffe left alone For more information, see: Ordsall Hall, a Tudor Manor House
For the great mark of virtue, those being gone,
Who did, alike with thee, thy house bear,
Standest thou to show the times what you all were.
Two bravely in the battle fought and died,
Upbraiding rebel's arms and barbarous pride:
And two that would have fall'n great as they
The Belgic fener ravished away.
Thou that art all their valour, all thy spirit,
And thyne own greatness to increase thy merit,
Than thou, I do not know a shiter soul,
Nor could I, had I all nature's roll.
Thou yet remain'st, unhurt in peace and war,
Though not unproved: which shows thy fortunes are
Willing to expiate the fault in thee,
Wherewith against thy blood they offenders be.
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