Continued
We have traced our family by documentary evidence back to John Oldcorne 1640-1722. He lived in Hesket-in-the-Forest, Cumberland. There the document trail goes cold. Hence the need to use DNA to link us back to the Oldcorne family who had lived in York until about 30 years before.
According to our family oral traditions, our family was relocated there from York with the assistance of a Catholic nobleman. There is some suspicion this was the Duke of Norfolk.
The story tells that we went into hiding for both our own protection from arrest and torture, but also to protect other Catholics. To put it simply, we knew too much.
The story of the Gunpowder plot as it is commonly known today is based upon two sources. These are the version of the English State and the version of the Jesuits. At the time these two were locked in a battle for control of England. The gunpowder plot was just one of a number of attempts to replace Protestant political control of England with Catholic. Both versions were political spin of their day. Neither were the full story, nor unbiased.
The Jesuit version was that they had nothing to do with the Gunpowder plot. It had been conceived and implemented by a few Catholic laymen without Jesuit approval or knowledge.
The English State version was that the Jesuits had been responsible for the actions of the laymen. They had inspired, approved and incited the plot.
In the end all the State could prove in Court was that the senior Jesuit in England had been complicit. His name was Henry Garnet and in January 1606 he was captured hiding in a Priest’s hole with Edward Oldcorne.
Knowing of impending treason and failing to reveal it was in itself treason. He was hanged, drawn and quartered for it.
At the time it was illegal to be ordained overseas and return to England. The Jesuits were here illegally. As such they had to live covertly under assumed names, hiding from searches and communicating with their superiors abroad in coded messages. These went either by courier who was a seaman visiting England, or they were sent using the diplomatic pouch of one of Catholic Ambassadors to the English Court.
However, at some point the realised their messages were being intercepted. Some of their captured messages still exist within the National Archives.
According to family tradition they turned this to their advantage. They continued sending messages via the compromised route, but these contained only innocuous reports or disinformation.
Meanwhile they established a new secure route using carrier pigeons and much stronger encryption. This had to be based somewhere secure. The most secure place was Hinlip, which was where Edward Oldcorne was based.
Edward should have handled the pigeons and encryption personally, but he didn’t. His nephew Robert was living with him under an assumed name. Only the owners of Hinlip and Edward knew of the connection. Edward entrusted Robert with the job.
Acting as cypher clerk, Robert read all the traffic and knew the true extent of Jesuit involvement. In the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot the Jesuits withdrew everyone in the know who had survived from danger of capture in England.
Robert had been arrested in April 1606 handing over the cypher equipment to a Jesuit lay brother called ‘Little Richard’ Fulwood. Robert maintained his alias and his significance wasn’t realised. They both survived the experience, Little Richard went into exile.
Robert returned to his life, and is listed as the father of some children in the baptism records at York. Until at some point it was realised how much he knew. At this point the family disappears from York, presumably because they had gone into hiding in Hesket.
We haven’t been able to trace the record of their capture. If anyone has any luck finding the records of this please let me know.
Garnet had hidden the encryption equipment where the sun doesn’t shine while in the Priest hole. He stashed it in the toilet when they came out. They called it the ‘little flute’. I’ve never even seen a picture of one and would be interested if anyone knows about them.
Garnet wrote several letters from the Tower of London where he was imprisoned. The early ones provide the hints of where he had hidden it. The last letter refers the arrest of Richard and Robert with a cipher.
The letters were supposed to be smuggled out by a bribed gaoler. In fact the gaoler was acting on official instructions hoping that Garnet would incriminate himself in the letters. The letters were intercepted before being passed on.
Garnet included a section in invisible ink. This didn’t incriminate him either. Significantly the clues to the location are not in invisible ink, but in subtle hints in plain sight; but only if you shared the knowledge how to read them.
The gaoler insisted he be allowed to read the letter. Had Garnet actually trusted the gaoler then they would have been explicit instructions written in invisible ink. That he didn’t demonstrates he was aware the authorities knew about his use of invisible ink and were going to see the letter.
