Katherine Ferrers

Katherine Ferrers
The only extant portrait of Katherine Ferrers, supposedly at the age of 14, which now sits at theValence House Museum.
Born	(1634-05-04)4 May 1634 Bayford,Hertfordshire,England
Died	13 June 1660(1660-06-13)(aged 26) England
Resting place	St Mary's Church, Ware
Other names	Mistress Catherine Fanshawe, "Wicked Lady" {alleged}
Occupation(s)	gentlewoman, highwayman {Alleged}
Spouse	Thomas Fanshawe
Parent(s)	Knighton Ferrers and Katherine (or Catherine) Walters

Katherine Ferrers(4 May 1634 – c. 13 June 1660) was an English gentlewoman and heiress. According to popularlegend,she was also the "Wicked Lady", ahighwaywomanwho terrorised the EnglishcountyofHertfordshirebefore dying from gunshot wounds sustained during arobbery.

History

Katherine Ferrers was born on 4 May 1634 atBayfordin Hertfordshire to Knighton Ferrers and his wife, the former Katherine (or Catherine) Walters, and heiress to a considerable fortune.The Ferrers family were ferventProtestantsand great favourites of bothHenry VIIIandEdward VI;the latter granted them extensive properties in Hertfordshire, including Bayford, Ponsbourne, Agnells, the family mansion atFlamstead,and the manor house ofMarkyate CellatMarkyate.Knighton Ferrers died in 1640, and Katherine's grandfather, Sir George Ferrers, died soon after.Katherine's brother, who was the heir to the family fortunes, had died young, so by court decree in October 1640, she was appointed sole heir to her grandfather's estates.

Her widowed mother married Sir Simon Fanshawe later that same year. The Fanshawe family were committedRoyalists,and when theCivil Warbroke out in 1642, Simon, his new wife and stepdaughter joinedKing Charles IinOxford,his wartime capital. Her mother died that winter, leaving eight-year-old Katherine in the care of her stepfather. As the fighting continued, Fanshawe was at theBattle of Marston Moorin 1644, and was taken prisoner two years later.During this time Katherine was made a ward of the court by Simon Fanshawe's brother,Richard,and his wifeAnn.She was then sent to live with Simon's sister, Alice, atHamertoninHuntingdonshire.

In 1643 theSequestration Committeeplaced estates of known Royalists in the hands of local commissioners, and their rents and other income were kept byParliament.Unlike Parliament, the Royalist party was dependent on voluntary contributions, involuntary fines and any other means of raising funds, such as looting. The Fanshawes had contributed heavily to the Royalist cause, and now found their assets cut. The family then arranged for orphaned Katherine, heir to the Ferrers estates, to marryThomas Fanshawe,her stepfather's nephew, when she reached a marriageable age. In April 1648, when she was just shy of 14, the ceremony took place at Hamerton, whereupon her 16-year-old husband took control of her considerable fortune.Many of her inherited assets were quickly disposed of: the manor at Flamstead was sold in 1654; and Markyate Cell, which had been leased to tenants in the years after her father's death, and the farms around it, were disposed of the following year.

AfterCromwell'sdeath in 1658,The Protectoratedid not endure and the monarchy was eventually restored to power. Thomas Fanshawe had become involved inBooth's uprising,aPresbyterianrebellion in the north of England, and was imprisoned in theTower of Londonin September 1659, although he was released in February 1660.Charles IIentered London in May; Katherine is known to have lodged in theStrandduring the celebration.She then died sometime in the first two weeks of June, at the age of 26. Described in the parish register as “Mistress Catherine Fanshawe", she was buried at St Mary's church inWare,on 13 June 1660.She died childless; this could have been due to infertility, or to her husband's continued absence due to war and imprisonment.

A family history written by Herbert Fanshawe in 1927, which draws heavily on the memoirs of Ann, Lady Fanshawe,suggested that: "Possibly her death occurred at the birth of a child for the Register of Ayott St. Lawrence (no great distance from Ware), gives the burial, on 22 November in the same year, of" Marie Fanshawe daughter of Sir Thomas Fanshaw "."If this was indeed Katherine's five-month-old child, its birth was not recorded, and its burial entry would have to have been inserted some time after its death, since Thomas was not knighted until well after 1660. A later entry of this type would not have been unusual for the time, as manyparish registrieswere irregularly kept. However, since Katherine's husband was imprisoned in 1659 following the Booth uprising in the north, and not released until February 1660, the issue then becomes one of paternity, since a pregnancy of four months duration, during those times, could not have produced a child that would have survived.While it is "no great distance from Ware" (some 13 miles), the child in question was not still buried in the same location as Katherine.

With Katherine's death the Ferrers line died out; in the following year Thomas Fanshawe, who had been created aKnight of the Bathby Charles II, disposed of the bulk of the Ferrers' family property that had originally been granted to Katherine's ancestors by Edward VI. Described by the diaristSamuel Pepysas "a witty but rascally fellow, without a penny in his purse",Thomas did not marry again until 1665. He had four children by his second wife, Sarah, who was the daughter ofSir John Evelynand widow ofSir John Wray;the eldest of whom, Evelyn, would become the 3rd Viscount Fanshawe.

Legend

The Wicked Lady pub

The road bisectingNomansland Common,presumably named after "Wicked" Katherine Ferrers

According to the popular legend, often told with an emphasis on hauntings by herghost,Katherine came intohighway robberyin her husband's absence in order to redress her fast-dwindling fortune. During this time many highwaymen were Royalist supporters bereft of home, estates or income, who were left to make a living as best they could, so any courteous highway robber was perceived to be one of these well-mannered gentlemen. Not all highwaymen were well-born like French aristocratClaude DuvalorJames MacLaine,who was the second son of a minister, but this romanticised portrayal extended to such working-class robbers as MacLaine's partnerWilliam Plunkett,as well asRichard Ferguson,George Lyons,Tom King,John Nevison,andJohn Rann.However, while it is possible that Katherine Ferrers could have turned to highway robbery, there seems to be no historical proof that her accomplice "Ralph Chaplin", ever existed.He was supposedly caught and executed onFinchley Commoneither on the night of her death, or soon after, which conveniently serves the legend.

The unknown circumstances of Katherine's early death have fuelled speculation. The persistent rumour is that she was shot as a highwayman onNomansland Commonon the edge ofWheathampstead,and died of her wounds while trying to ride back to a secret staircase entry at Markyate Cell. Her body was supposedly discovered wearing men's clothing before her servants recovered it and carried her home to be buried. Markyate Cell was built on the site of a 12th-centuryBenedictinePrioryand takes its name from acell,or smaller structure, that served the monastery. It was converted at great expense into a manor house in 1540, and then rebuilt in 1908 after a fire. When a secret chamber was discovered by workmen in the 1800s behind a false wall next to a chimney stack, it gave new life to the legend. However, there is a serious inconsistency in this story as there is no record of Katherine ever having lived in Markyate Cell, as it was leased to tenants after her father's death. The property, which is not especially close to Nomansland Common, had actually been sold five years earlier.

Apart from robbery, a catalogue of mayhem in the area was later attributed to Katherine that included burning houses, slaughtering livestock, even killing aconstableor other officer of the law. Much of the supposed activity might be blamed on bands of brigands and the unrest relating to the Civil War, and there is no confirmation as to whether the mayhem and robberies in the area ceased with Katherine's death.

J.E. Cussens suggested in hisHistory of Hertfordshire (1870–81)that the term "wicked" came to be linked with Katherine Ferrers long after her death not through any nefarious actions on her part, but through confusion with the"Wicked" Lord Ferrers,who was not related to her.The last member of the House of Lords hanged in England, the "wicked" Laurence Shirley, Earl Ferrers, was executed atTyburnfor the murder of his manservant in 1760, one hundred years after Katherine's death.Cussansnotes that there is no contemporary mention of her career and death as a highwayman in histories published before the 4th Earl Ferrers's execution, such as Alexander Smith'sComplete History of the Lives of the most Notorious Highwaymen(1714), or even some 60 years after it, such asThe Newgate Calendarand Richard Clutterbuck'sThe History and Antiquities of the County of Hertford(1815–27).

While it has also been proposed that the term "wicked" could have been applied to Katherine solely because she allowed the family estates to fall into ruin, this is unlikely since many Royalist families suffered many of the same reverses without this nomenclature being applied to them. In addition, it was Katherine's husband who controlled, and sold off, most of the Ferrers family assets; as his wife she would have been powerless to stop him.

Literature, film and stage

A popular novel byMagdalen King-Hall,The Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton(1944), was loosely based on Katherine's life. A 1945 film version calledThe Wicked Lady,withMargaret Lockwoodin the lead role andJames Masonas Ralph Chaplin's alter ego Jerry Jackson, broke all British box office records for the time.The film wasremadein 1983 withFaye DunawayandAlan Batesin the respective roles.Deborah Swift'syoung adult novelShadow on the Highway(2014,ISBN978-1500549831) is a retelling of Katherine's story.Katherine Clements wroteThe Silvered Heart(2015,ISBN9781472204240) about Katherine Ferrers.

The legend of Katherine Ferrers was the inspiration behind James Williams' new ghost play,The Wicked Lady,premièring in Birmingham in September 2021.

References

Sources

• Barber, John (2009)."Katherine Ferrers the Wicked Lady".Retrieved2 May2018.
• Buckledee, John (3 November 2004)."The REAL Wicked Lady of Markyate".The Luton News/Dunstable Gazette– via Dunstable & District Local History Society.
• Cussans, John Edwin(1881).History of Hertfordshire.E. P. Publishing.ISBN9780854098354.Retrieved2 May2018.
• Loftis, John, ed. (1979).The Memoirs of Anne, Lady Halkett and Ann, Lady Fanshawe.Oxford [England]: Clarendon Press.ISBN0198120877.OCLC5046027.
• Page, William, ed. (1930).The Victoria History of the County of Northampton.London: The University of London Institute of Historical Research.
• White, Barbara (2004). "Ferrers [married name Fanshawe], Catherine (1634–1660)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/73927.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)