The First Folio of St. Omer and "Neville"
by
Carol Curt Enos
The discovery of a
Shakespeare First Folio from a 17th
c library in the Jesuit seminary at St Omer, France, in Nov 2014 has implications
beyond reinforcing the theory that Shakespeare was a secret Catholic and that his
religion is reflected in his work. The
history of this First Folio also supports
the most recent thrust of Shakespeare scholarship: that teenage Shakespeare was a tutor or
developing actor in the homes of Alexander Hoghton at Hoghton Tower, Sir Thomas
Hesketh at Rufford, and finally, the Stanley family at Knowsley and Lea, which
led to his position in the acting company of Lord Strange (Ferdinando Stanley) and
onward to the London stage. This theory
grew out of the discovery of a 1581 will of Alexander Hoghton at Hoghton Tower,
Lancashire, naming William Shakeshafte, an actor/musician who was ‘now
dwelling’ in his home who was to go to Sir Thomas Hesketh on Hoghton’s death
(Honigmann 85). Chambers (1944) and
Honigmann (1985) have identified this Shakeshafte with William Shakespeare.
A fair assumption is that sometime in the mid 1600s the
Folio was taken to the Jesuit college founded in St. Omer in 1593 to be used as
a teaching textbook in the Catholic education of boys, which was banned in England. The
Jesuits were known for using theater as a teaching tool.
The owner of the Folio has
been tentatively identified from the name ‘Neville’ inscribed on the first
surviving page as Edward Scarisbrick (Neville), a Jesuit priest who spent some
years in St. Omer (Schuessler). My research supports Edward Scarisbrick as
the probable owner; however, three other men named Edmund Neville should be
considered. The erratic, unstable Elizabethan
and Jacobean spelling often interchanged the names Edward and Edmund. All four candidates have implications for the
Shakespeare in Lancashire theory or ties with Shakespeare’s family.
One Edmund Neville 1555-1630 was not a Jesuit priest, but
definitely a Catholic. He was a second
cousin once removed from Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Arden (Rootsweb. ‘Neville/Westmoreland
Family’). He was nine years older than
William Shakespeare 1564-1616 and quite likely was acquainted with his distant
cousin in Stratford, for Neville’s mother was the sister of Edward Arden of Park
Hall in Warwickshire, about 35 miles north of Stratford. He was a Catholic conspirator involved with
his relative, William Parry, in the Parry Plot (1585) to assassinate Queen
Elizabeth. As a relative of William
Shakespeare, he quite possibly had an interest in the posthumous 1623
publication of Shakespeare’s plays and recognized their usefulness to the
Jesuits at St Omer.
Edmund was the great grandson of John Neville, third
baron Latimer, and in 1584 he returned to England from Spain claiming to be the
last Lord Latimer. Thomas Cecil had
married Dorothy, daughter of the late Lord Latimer, and he was determined to
thwart Neville’s claim by casting suspicion on his loyalty. Already in trouble, in 1585, Neville joined
Parry in the plot to kill the Queen.
Even though he turned on Parry and saved his own life, he was sent to
the Tower and remained there until 1595 when he again went abroad. In 1601, on the death of Charles Neville, 6th
earl of Westmorland, he returned to England claiming the earldom in vain even
though he had a solid claim. He was
later accused of participating in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 where he would
have been in the company of several of Mary Arden Shakespeare’s relatives who
were ringleaders of the plot (Milward 116). He died February 3, 1629/30, in Bruxelles,
Belgium.
Another
Edmund Neville (alias Elijah Nelson) 1563-1648
simultaneously claimed to be the rightful heir to Westmorland. This Neville was the nephew of Sir Thomas
Hesketh of Rufford and lived with Sir Thomas from about the age of 6 until the
age of 43 when, as ‘Edward Neville,’ he went to Rome to become a Jesuit priest
(Foley 220). The Hesketh home was
frequented by Catholic priests who had studied in English seminaries
principally in the Low Countries and who were ministering secretly in Catholic
homes throughout England.
Alexander Hoghton’s 1581 will specified that his
budding actor, William Shakeshafte, should go to Sir Thomas Hesketh. If this William was really William
Shakespeare, the two young men, nearly the same age, would have been in the
Hesketh home at the same time. Neville
proposed marriage to Mary Ward but was rejected. Mary Ward first joined the Poor Clare nuns in
St. Omer and later founded the so-called ‘Jesuitesses’ in various locations in
the Low Countries. Mary Ward’s family
was closely connected with the Wright, Winter, and the Ingleby families, all
related to Mary Arden Shakespeare via her relationship with the Throckmortons
of Coughton Court. All of these families
were committed and active Catholics in the Counter Reformation. Mary Ward was born in 1585, so Shakespeare
would not have met her at the Hesketh home, but there were multiple family ties
to Shakespeare. Because of Mary’s
association with St. Omer, it is not improbable that Edmund Neville contributed
the First Folio of his youthful
friend to the library at St Omer.
Thomas
Hesketh’s mother, Grace Towneley, was Edmund’s great aunt. The Townleys may be a link between William
Shakespeare and associates on the London stage.
Edward Alleyn, the famous actor in London who surely knew Shakespeare,
was the son of Margaret Towneley, a sister of Sir Thomas’s mother and of Edmund
Neville’s grandmother (Chetham Society V I, 26, 27). All three men, Edmund Neville, William
Shakespeare, and Edward Alleyn may have been acquainted in Lancashire in the
1580s.
The
two Nevilles who claimed the Earldom of Westmorland traced their ancestry to
Geoffrey FitzRobert de Nevill, Baron of Raby 1197-1242. The Arden Neville descended from Geoffrey’s
son, Robert, and the Hesketh Edmund Neville descended from a son, also named
Geoffrey. The Arden Edmund Neville is
directly descended from Ralph, 1st earl of Westmorland whereas the
Hesketh claim does not go directly through Ralph’s line but can be traced to
Geoffrey FitzRobert de Nevill of the 12th c. Their avowed purpose was to use the
Westmorland inheritance to aid the Catholic religion in its struggle to
survive. Both men had connections with
St. Omer and probably with William Shakespeare that could have motivated them
to contribute the First Folio to the
seminary’s library.
Another Edmund Neville (alias
Sales) 1605-47 was the nephew of Edmund Neville who lived with Sir
Thomas Hesketh. He did
his humanities studies at St. Omer and then entered the English College at Rome
at age 17 and took his oath in 1622 (Foley. Vol
V, 350). His ‘Palm of Christian
Fortitude’ was published in St. Omer in 1630.
His family ties with Shakespeare’s family were essentially parallel with
his uncle’s family. Identifying
this Jesuit priest has also been difficult for others as Henry Foley noted in
his Records of the English . . . .
Society of Jesus:
Edmund Neville.—Some, says Dr.
Oliver, affirm he was a Scarisbrick. The
Diary of the English College, Rome, however, states that Edmund Neville, vere Sales, of Lancashire, at the age of
seventeen, entered as an alumnus on the 29th of September, 1621, and
took the College oath on the 16th of May, 1622.
.
. . .
On
entering the English College he states:
“1621. My name is Edmund Neville,
alias Sales. I was born at my father’s house at Hopcut,
Lancashire, and am seventeen years of age. . .
I made my humanity studies at St. Omer’s. I was always brought up a Catholic, although
I was never present at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, or at confession in England
on account of my age.” In 1624 he was
serving the mission in St. Mary’s Residence, or the Oxford District, but we do
not trace him further.
We are left in uncertainty as to his real name; the Diary calls it Sales, and his autobiographical account says Neville, alias Sales, but we think it is clear
that he was not a Scarisbrick. (Foley 296).
Foley’s pronouncement indicates this Edmund Neville was
probably was not the Edward Scarisbrick Neville who, to date, has been
identified as the ‘Neville’ inscribed on the first existing page of the First Folio found in the St. Omer
library collection. I concur with the
Scarisbrick identification, principally based on the fact that the frontispiece
and several of the beginning pages are missing from this copy of the
Folio. The removal of the first pages suggests
that the book was originally part of the library in the school at Scarisbrick
Hall, for someone had torn the fly leaves out of the books in the library as
recorded by Henry Foley:
An Addenda, p
1398 entitled Scarisbrick Hall and
Family, County of Lancaster provided
by the Rev. W. A. Bulbeck, O.S. B., lists
books in St. Mary’s Library in Scarisbrick Hall:
During
the course of two centuries and a half the clergy who
have resided at Scarisbrick have gradually formed a considerable
library. On arranging these books in
order under the names of signature, it was found that they formed a regular and
almost unbroken series, like the geological strata in the crust of the
earth. The series begins with a name
that is highly distinguished in the literary annals of the Society of
Jesus. Some over-cautious person has
unfortunately torn out most of the fly leaves that had any writing on them.
At the end of the list of books, a list of names of students or owners is given:
List of Names extracted from the
fly-leaves of school-books at Scarisbrick,
County Lancaster, a school formerly taught by the fathers of the society.
The names
coupled together are in the same books, but it does not necessarily follow that
they were written at the same date. The
dates of the books are frequently of the greatest importance. From the names and dates I conclude that the
school may have been in existence in
1618, probably from 1628 to 1639, certainly from 1648 to 1652, continuing probably in 1679, and certainly in 1698—1700, probably in 1703, and perhaps twenty years later (Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus ... in the
sixteenth ...p
687).
The probable identity of ‘Neville’ in the St. Omer First Folio is Edward Scarisbrick
1639-1708, the son of Edward Scarisbrick and Frances Bradshagh. There is no surname of ‘Neville’ in
the genealogy of the family, so why did Edward Scarisbrick use
the alias of Neville? That question
seems to have no answer. Suffice it to
say: “Many members of the Scarisbrick
family of Scarisbrick Hall, near Ormskirk, became Jesuits during the penal
times and assumed the alias "Neville" (Catholic Online).
It
is generally acknowledged that Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of
Derby, was Shakespeare’s first patron in the early 1590s, and as a retainer in
the Derby household, Shakespeare may have been acquainted with the Stanleys’
Scarisbrick relatives. Even earlier,
Shakespeare/Shakeshafte and members of the Scaribricks would have met, for
Scarisbricks were also related to Hoghtons and Halsalls. By 1400 the Halsall, Stanley, and Scarisbrick
families were intermarried. Robert
Halsall married Ellen Scarisbrick c 1400.
Thomas Stanley 2nd Earl of Derby 1477-1521 had an illegitimate
daughter, Elizabeth born 1502 (rarely appears in the genealogy tables) who
married Thomas Scarisbrick 1502-1530, ward of the earl. Other Stanley/Scarisbrick marriages followed:
Edward Stanley 3rd Earl of
Derby 1509-1572 married Margaret Baralow sister of Alexander Barlow, father of
Margaret Barlow daughter of Alexander Barlow, Sr. His sister was Margaret Baralow, Countess of
Derby (wife of Edward Stanley 3rd Earl of Derby as his second wife). This Margaret also married Richard Halsal
[sic]. A later Richard Halsall d 1573
married Janet Scarisbrick.
The
Halsalls are included here because the Stanley, Scarisbrick, and Halsall
families had been closely connected since the 1400s. Robert Halsall and Ellen Scarisbrick c 1400
were the great, great grandparents of Jane Halsall, Countess of Derby,
wife/mistress? of Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby. Jane Halsall was the mother of Ursula Halsall
wife of John Salusbury, probably the couple in Shakespeare’s Phoenix and the Turtle. Moreover, Jane’s grandparents were Sir
Henry Halsall 1482-1522 and Douce Scarisbrick.
Douce was the daughter of Gilbert Scarisbrick of Scarisrick Esq (Chetham
Society Vol 1, 115).
The
Stanley family, the first patrons of William Shakespeare likely acquired a copy
of the First Folio when it was published
in 1623. The Scarisbricks who probably
were acquainted William Shakespeare in his teen years also would have followed
his London theater career. Both
families, like other committed Catholic families, were attuned to his subtle Catholic
messages in the plays, reason enough to add the Folio to the library at
Scarisbrick Hall. Even before the Folio
was available there is evidence that Shakespeare’s plays were performed
secretly in Catholic homes. Richard
Cholmeley, in 1609, was charged with ‘bearing inward love and affection to such
as are obstinate popish recusants and having many obstinate popish recusants
that depend on him’, protesting that Cholmley had licensed a company of actors
whose plays contained ‘much popery and abuse of the law and justice.’ . . . (Cholmley). This did not stop him, however, for in 1610
he had a recusant group of players perform King
Lear at Gowthwayte Hall in Yorkshire.
Sell and Johnson, the editors, suggest that it, like other plays, ‘had
especial Catholic resonance’ and that the ‘recusant group of players exemplify
the organization of contemporary theatre for religio-political purposes’ (Sell
and Johnson122).
The
Scarisbrick and Stanley families were tightly connected geographically as well
as by kinship. The area which became
known as Scarisbrick originally belonged to the lord of Lathom, who held it as
early as 1086. The name ‘Scarisbrick’
first appeared in the reign of Richard I (1189-99) when Gilbert de Scarisbrick
was named as the owner of some of the Lathom property. So the Scarisbrick family was already settled
in the Lathom territory, much of which was taken over by Sir John Stanley who
married Isabel Latham in 1385. The earls
of Derby descended from this marriage and the manor of Lathom has been the
family seat since that time. Scarisbrick
Hall is about eight miles west of Rufford (Hesketh), about twelve miles north
of Knowsley (Stanley), and about two miles from Halsall, short distances that
enabled the families to interact and to marry.
The
priest, Edward Scarisbrick 1639-1708, entered the Jesuit novitiate at Watten in Holland in 1657,
resigning his estates to his brother Robert.
His grandfather Edward Scarisbrick 1540-1599 was
receiver-general for Henry, Earl of Derby, and was one of the gentlemen-ushers
who attended the burial of his father Edward, Earl of Derby in 1572. The senior Edward Scarisbrick appears many
times as a dinner guest of Henry Stanley in the Derby Household Books and is named as a loving servant in the will
of Ferdinando Stanley, which he witnessed 12 April 1594 (National Archives 5)
Edward
Scarisbrick, the priest, is the most likely candidate as the Neville named in
the First Folio. However, the other three Edward/Edmund
Nevilles should be considered as possibilities.
One of them was a direct relative of Mary Arden Shakespeare and
therefore probably was acquainted with William Shakespeare. The Hesketh Edmund Neville perhaps even lived
with William Shakespeare at Hesketh’s home at Rufford. Both he and his nephew, Edmund Neville
(Sales) knew Mary Ward who was distantly related to Shakespeare’s mother. Any one of these men had adequate ties with
St. Omer to motivate their contribution of the First Folio to the seminary library at St. Omer.
