Thomas Southwell

“ When his brother accused Surrey and the Howards fell into disgrace, Southwell secured of their property Badlesmere in Kent, which he soon sold. He had another house in the county, Jotes Place, Mereworth. He resigned his mastership of the rolls in 1550. He took a very active part in putting down Wyatt's rebellion, and was rewarded with some of Wyatt's lands at Aylesford and elsewhere. He died about the beginning of November 1559, and was buried on 8 Nov. He married Margaret, daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Neville, fourth son of George, lord Abergavenny ”

“ Southwell was well acquainted with the poetic efforts of his contemporaries, and traces of the influence of Thomas Watson and Nicholas Breton are apparent in his verse. But his chief aim as a poet was, as he avows in the addresses to the reader both before his ‘St. Peter's Complaint’ and ‘Mary Magdalen's Tears,’ to prove that ‘vertue’ or ‘piety’ was as fit a subject for a poet's pen as the vain, worldly, or sensual topics of which poets conventionally treated. ”

“ He then related how, having entered the prison cell of Thomas More with Palmer and Sir Richard Southwell, he had heard Sir Thomas express himself strongly against the statute and declare that no Parliament in the world would be able to submit to the question of the supremacy.
“You hear, Sir Thomas!” cried all the lords. “There is nothing to reply to this.”
Sir Thomas arose immediately, and an expression of deep emotion showed itself on his weary features. “My lords,” he replied, “if I was a man who had no regard for my oath, I would not be here before you as a criminal. ”

“ John's Gospel in Gaelic script said to have been found in the tomb of St. Cuthbert, relics of "Blessed Thomas More," original portraits of the Stuarts,—including the winsome picture of Bonny Prince Charlie as a child,—but the object of our quest was a little manuscript volume of Robert Southwell's poems. Of course the porter knew nothing about it, though he strove to impart the impression that this was the only matter in the universe on which he was uninformed, and "the teaching fathers" were still absent for their summer holiday ”

“ While at Rome he was admitted a member of the Oratory. After residing for two or three years in Rome he obtained leave to return to his native country upon the mission. He died at the house of Mr. Biddle of Biddle or Biddulph, Staffordshire, in 1622 (Allen, Defence of Sir W. Stanley's Surrender of Deventer, ed. Heywood, p. xlv n.) Dodd states, however, that he died about 1626. Father Southwell asserts that he was a novice of the Society of Jesus at the time of his death. ”

“ The heaps of glittering Herring or beautifully iridescent Mackerel look like bright gems in the sun, and the bustle, great as it is, is in a manner orderly and perfectly good-natured, jokes and rough witticisms flying about in plenty; a stranger, however, soon finds himself in the way, and feels that he has no business there, if he is not present on business. ”

“ In Feb. ’33 he was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for selling The Poor Man’s Guardian. Hibbert left him £450, which he used in printing d’Holbach’s System of Nature, Volney’s Ruins, F. Wright’s Lectures, R. D. Owen’s pamphlets, Paine’s works, and other volumes. Died at Norwood, 29 Nov. 1874.
Watson (Thomas) , author of The Mystagogue, Leeds, 1847.
Watts (Charles) , Secularist orator, b. Bristol, 28 Feb. 1835. Converted to Freethought by hearing Charles Southwell, he became a lecturer and assistant editor on the National Reformer. Mr. ”

“ The church of Southwell was despoiled of all its monuments and early records during the troubles of the 16th and 17th centuries, and the only MS. of any importance that has come down to us besides the Statutes of Queen Elizabeth is the “Registrum Album,” or “White Book of Southwell.” The former are printed both in Dugdale’s “Monasticon,” and in the appendix to Dickenson’s “History of the Antiquities of Southwell.” Mr. Dimock, the Editor of the “Magna Vita St. Hugonis,” in the Rolls Series, published some years ago a history of the fabric of Southwell Minster ”

“ In the thirty-fourth year of his reign, Henry VIII., by act of parliament, declared Southwell the head and mother church of the town and county of Nottingham, and soon afterwards re-founded and re-endowed it, probably at the instance of Cranmer, at that time in the height of favour, who was a native of Nottinghamshire, not far from Southwell. Soon after the accession of Edward VI. the chapter was again dissolved, and its prebendal, and other estates granted to John, Earl of Warwick, afterwards made Duke of Northumberland ”

“ Thus denied access to the rest of the world, the people of Southwell lived a separate and distinct society, retaining their own manners untainted by the world; and among them traditions were handed down pure and unadulterated by the speculations of the learned, or the discoveries of antiquarians.
NEMO. THE SKETCH-BOOK. SIGHMON DUMPS.
Anthony Dumps, the father of my hero (the subject matter of a story being always called the hero, however little heroic he may personally have been) married Dora Coffin on St. Swithin's day in the first year of the last reign. ”

“ His sister hath a dash of the same.' [14]
'Your Godson Charles,' he tells Southwell, 'grows like a weede without much culture or help of the gardiners. Perhaps it may be never the worse, for the race will not be to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. Nor will favour go to the men of skill, or bread to the men of understanding.' [15] 'Henry,' he says, 'is more for the bar than the stage. His talent is in stating arguments impromptu, pro and contra, for every thing he meets with. ”

“ He much excelled, according to Gerard, in the art ‘of helping and gaining souls, being at once prudent, pious, meek, and exceedingly winning.’ With much assiduity he applied himself to the conversion of his father and brother, and he was apparently rewarded by success (Foley, i. 339–47) . A fervent exhortation to his father, of which manuscript copies are often met with, bears the date 22 Oct. 1589 (cf. Stonyhurst MSS. and Addit. MS. Brit. Mus. 34395, f. 36) .
In the same year Southwell seems to have become domestic chaplain and confessor to Anne, wife of Philip Howard, first earl of Arundel. ”

“ Ultimately, after several reprieves, upon the intercession of the Earl of Seaforth, Southwell was released on 2 Jan. 1690, and at once proceeded to England. His influence and that of his friends helped to secure reprieves for his comrades, who were not finally released until William's victory at the Boyne on 1 July 1690. In April 1693 Southwell received a commission to inspect and receive arrears due on crown lands in Ireland, and on 16 June 1697 he was made one of the four commissioners of revenue in Ireland, a post to which he was reappointed in 1702, and which he retained until 1712. ”

“ Topcliffe's servant Jones tracked him to the tiles of Bellamy's house, and Topcliffe himself led him triumphantly back to London. ‘I never did take so weighty a man,’ Topcliffe wrote to the queen, ‘if he be rightly used’ (Strype, Annals, iv. 185) . Imprisoned at first in his captor's house in Westminster churchyard, Southwell was brutally tortured. Four days were spent by Topcliffe in seeking to extort from him information that might be of service in prosecuting other catholics. ”

“ It weighs nothing, says the Atheist, in the eye of reason, to say the universe appears to man as though it were organised by an Almighty Designer; for the maker of a thing must be superior to the thing made; and if there be a maker of the universe there can be no doubt, but that if such maker were minutely examined by man, man would discover such indications of wisdom and design that it would be more difficult for him to admit that such maker was not caused or constructed by a pre-existing Designer, than to admit that the universe was not caused or constructed by a Designer. ”

“ Since that account, too, the old hall of Annesley has undergone a renovation, and that scene of melancholy, desertion, and decay there described, exists now only in the volume which recorded it. In the present paper Southwell and Harrow will chiefly demand our attention.
Southwell, during the period of his Harrow school-life, became a most favorite resort of his. His mother had settled down there. Body and mind were now in progress of expansion toward manhood. His relish for society, his [Pg 550] love of fame, and his love of poetry, were every day more and more developing themselves. ”

“ He who applauded the bringing of Servetus to the stake must have deemed the utter extermination of Atheists a religious duty.
That our street and field preaching Christians, with very few exceptions, heartily sympathise with the fire and faggot sentiments of Robert Hall, is well known; but happily, their absurd ravings are attended to by none save eminently pious people, whose brains are unclogged by any conceivable quantity of useful knowledge. In point of intellect they are utterly contemptible. Their ignorance, however, is fully matched by their impudence, which never forsakes them. ”

“ We must not impute all the evils of a system to every individual who holds by it. It may be found that a man has, for the sole sake of self-abnegation, yielded homage, where, if his object had been personal aggrandizement, he might have wielded authority. Southwell, if that which comes from within a man may be taken as the test of his character, was a devout and humble Christian. In the choir of our singers we only ask: "Dost thou lift up thine heart?" Southwell's song answers for him: "I lift it up unto the Lord."
His chief poem is called St. ”

“ Returning to England in 1661, he shortly afterwards became acquainted with Sir William Petty [q. v.] The acquaintance ripened into a lifelong friendship, which was further cemented by Petty's marriage, in 1667, with Southwell's cousin, Lady Fenton. He appears as clerk to the commission of prizes in 1664, and in September of that year was appointed one of the clerks to the privy council. He was knighted on 21 Dec. 1665, and the same year appointed deputy vice-admiral of the provinces of Munster, succeeding to the vice-admiralty itself on the death of his father twelve years later. ”

“ Until it be shown by reference to the general course of things, that things had an author, Himself uncreated or unauthorised, religious philosophers have no right to expect Atheists to abandon their Atheism. The duty of priests is to reconcile religion with reason, if they can, and admit their inability to do so, if they cannot.
Romanists will have nothing to do with reason whenever it appears at issue with their faith. All sects, as sects, play fast and loose with reason. Many members of all sects are forward enough to boast about being able to give a reason for the faith that is in them ”

“ Hunted like wild beasts, in hourly danger of the most cruel and ignominious death; sleeping, when they slept, in hayricks or the open fields; studying, when they caught a breathing-spell for study, in caves and thickets—many of these noble youths have left behind them proofs of a genius which, under happier auspices, would have borne abundant fruit. Southwell’s poems, composed in the intervals of thirteen rackings, reveal a spirit of uncommon force and beauty. ”

“ The following is one of the worst, as it libels the memory of a statesman who deserved better treatment: Sir R. Southwell is represented as saying in a letter to Pepys (vol. i. p. 282) that he has lost his health 'by sitting many years at the sack-bottle,' whereas the poor man had lost it by sitting many years 'at the inck-bottle.' A line or two farther on, Southwell's occupation with 'some care and much sorrow,' is changed into 'love, care and much sorrow.' Certain 'Novelles,' or newspapers, which Mr. ”

“ I tell your grace these particulars in his very words, as near as I can recollect, because I think them of moment, and I believe your grace may think them so too. I told Southwell all that had passed, and we agreed in our comments, of which I desired him now to inform you. He set out for Ireland this morning: I am resolved to see my lord Sunderland in a day or two, and relate what my lord treasurer said, as he has commanded me to do; and perhaps I may prevail on him to let me know his lordship's meaning, to which I am prepared to answer, as Mr. Southwell will let you know. ”

“ If even it could be demonstrated that there is a super-human Being, it cannot be proper to clothe him in the noblest human attributes—still less can it be justifiable in pigmies, such as we are, to invest Him with odious attributes belonging only to despots ruling over slaves. Besides, how can we imagine a God who is 'totally destitute of body and of corporeal figure,' to have any kind of attributes? Earthly emperors we know to be substantial and common-place sort of beings enough, but is it not sheer abuse of reason to argue as though the character of God were at all analogous to theirs ”

“ An officer essayed to cut the rope while Southwell still breathed, but Lord Mountjoy and other bystanders ordered him to let the dying man alone. When his head was cut off and held up to the crowd, no one was heard to cry ‘Traitor!’
Southwell was described as of middle stature and auburn hair. A contemporary life-sized portrait (in oils) is in the Jesuits' house at Fribourg. A crayon drawing of it by Charles Weld, esq., of Chideock was made in 1845, and is now at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire. An engraving of this drawing by W. J. Alais was prefixed to Dr. Grosart's edition of the poems. ”