Katherine Ferrers (4 May 1634 – c. 13 June 1660) was an English gentlewoman and heiress. According to popular
legend
A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...
, she was also the "Wicked Lady", a
highwaywoman who terrorised the English
county
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
of
Hertfordshire before dying from gunshot wounds sustained during a
robbery.
History
Katherine Ferrers was born on 4 May 1634 at
Bayford in Hertfordshire to Knighton Ferrers and his wife, the former Katherine (or Catherine) Walters, and heiress to a considerable fortune. The Ferrers family were fervent
Protestants and great favourites of both
Henry VIII and
Edward VI
Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first E ...
; the latter granted them extensive properties in Hertfordshire, including Bayford, Ponsbourne, Agnells, the family mansion at
Flamstead
Flamstead is a village and civil parish in north-west Hertfordshire, England, close to the junction of the A5 and the M1 motorway at junction 9. The name is thought by some historians to be a corruption of the original ''Verulamstead''.
Fla ...
, and the manor house of
Markyate Cell at
Markyate
Markyate is a village and civil parish in north-west Hertfordshire, close to the border with Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
Geography
The name of the village has had several former variants, including ''Markyate Street'', ''Market Street'' and ...
. 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 committed
Royalists
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...
, and when the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
broke out in 1642, Simon, his new wife and stepdaughter joined
King Charles I in
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, 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 the
Battle of Marston Moor
The Battle of Marston Moor was fought on 2 July 1644, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms of 1639 – 1653. The combined forces of the English Parliamentarians under Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester and the Scottish Covenanters und ...
in 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
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stro ...
, and his wife
Ann. She was then sent to live with Simon's sister, Alice, at
Hamerton in
Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire and a historic county of England. The district council is based in Huntingdon. Other towns include St Ives, Godmanchester, St Neots and Ramsey. The popu ...
.
In 1643 the
Sequestration Committee
In 1643, near the start of the English Civil War, Parliament set up two committees the Sequestration Committee which confiscated the estates of the Royalists who fought against Parliament, and the Committee for Compounding with Delinquents which a ...
placed estates of known Royalists in the hands of local commissioners, and their rents and other income were kept by
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
. 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 marry
Thomas Fanshawe
Sir Thomas Fanshawe KB (1580 – 17 December 1631) was an English government official and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1601 and 1629.
Fanshawe was the second son of Thomas Fanshawe and first son by his second wife Jo ...
, 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.
After
Cromwell's death in 1658,
The Protectorate
The Protectorate, officially the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, refers to the period from 16 December 1653 to 25 May 1659 during which England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and associated territories were joined together in the Co ...
did not endure and the monarchy was eventually restored to power. Thomas Fanshawe had become involved in
Booth's uprising
Booth's Uprising, also known as Booth's Rebellion or the Cheshire Rising of 1659, was an unsuccessful attempt in August 1659 to restore Charles II of England. Centred on North West England and led by George Booth, it took place during the politi ...
, a
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
rebellion in the north of England, and was imprisoned in the
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is sep ...
in September 1659, although he was released in February 1660.
Charles II entered London in May; Katherine is known to have lodged in the
Strand
Strand may refer to:
Topography
*The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a:
** Beach
** Shoreline
* Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida
Places Africa
* Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa
* Strand Street ...
during 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 in
Ware
Ware may refer to:
People
* Ware (surname)
* William of Ware (), English Franciscan theologian
Places Canada
* Fort Ware, British Columbia
United Kingdom
* Ware, Devon
*Ware, Hertfordshire
* Ware, Kent
United States
* Ware, Elmore County ...
, 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 many
parish registries were 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 a
Knight of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as on ...
by 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 diarist
Samuel Pepys as "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 of
Sir John Evelyn and widow of
Sir John Wray; the eldest of whom, Evelyn, would become the 3rd Viscount Fanshawe.
Legend
![The Wicked Lady Pub - Nomansland Common - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/The_Wicked_Lady_Pub_-_Nomansland_Common_-_geograph.org.uk_-_384234.jpg)
According to the popular legend, often told with an emphasis on hauntings by her
ghost, Katherine came into
highway robbery
A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to fo ...
in 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 aristocrat
Claude Duval
Claude Du Vall (or Duval) (164321 January 1670) was a French highwayman in Restoration England. He came from a family of decayed nobility, and worked in the service of exiled royalists who returned to England under King Charles II. Little els ...
or
James MacLaine
"Captain" James Maclaine (occasionally "Maclean", "MacLean", or "Maclane") (1724 – 3 October 1750) was an Irish man of a respectable presbyterian family who had a brief but notorious career as a mounted highwayman in London with his accompl ...
, who was the second son of a minister, but this romanticised portrayal extended to such working-class robbers as MacLaine's partner
William Plunkett, as well as
Richard Ferguson,
George Lyons,
Tom King,
John Nevison, and
John 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 on
Finchley Common either 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 on
Nomansland Common
Nomansland Common (sometimes simply called No Man's Land) is an area of common land in Hertfordshire, England to the south of Harpenden and the south-west of Wheathampstead
Geologically, the common is part of the Harpenden Dry Valley. In th ...
on the edge of
Wheathampstead
Wheathampstead is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, north of St Albans. The population of the ward at the 2001 census was 6,058. Included within the parish is the small hamlet of Amwell.
History
Settlements in this area were ...
, 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-century
Benedictine
, image = Medalla San Benito.PNG
, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, foun ...
Priory
A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of ...
and takes its name from a
cell
Cell most often refers to:
* Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life
Cell may also refer to:
Locations
* Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery ...
, 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 a
constable or 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 his ''History 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 at
Tyburn
Tyburn was a manor (estate) in the county of Middlesex, one of two which were served by the parish of Marylebone.
The parish, probably therefore also the manor, was bounded by Roman roads to the west (modern Edgware Road) and south (modern O ...
for the murder of his manservant in 1760, one hundred years after Katherine's death.
Cussans notes 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's ''Complete History of the Lives of the most Notorious Highwaymen'' (1714), or even some 60 years after it, such as ''
The Newgate Calendar
''The Newgate Calendar'', subtitled ''The Malefactors' Bloody Register'', was a popular work of improving literature in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Originally a monthly bulletin of executions, produced by the Keeper of Newgate Prison in Lo ...
'' and Richard Clutterbuck's ''The 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 by
Magdalen King-Hall, ''The Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton'' (1944), was loosely based on Katherine's life. A 1945 film version called ''
The Wicked Lady
''The Wicked Lady'' is a 1945 British costume drama film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring Margaret Lockwood in the title role as a nobleman's wife who becomes a highwayman for the excitement. The film had one of the top audiences for a f ...
'', with
Margaret Lockwood
Margaret Mary Day Lockwood, Order of the British Empire, CBE (15 September 1916 – 15 July 1990), was an English actress. One of Britain's most popular film stars of the 1930s and 1940s, her film appearances included ''The Lady Vanishes (1938 ...
in the lead role and
James Mason as Ralph Chaplin's alter ego Jerry Jackson, broke all British box office records for the time. The film was
remade in 1983 with
Faye Dunaway
Dorothy Faye Dunaway (born January 14, 1941) is an American actress. She is the recipient of many accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a BAFTA Award. In 2011, the government of France mad ...
and
Alan Bates in the respective roles.
Deborah Swift
Deborah Swift (born 1955), who has also written as Davina Blake, is an English writer of historical fiction, based in north west Lancashire.
Her first published novel was ''The Lady's Slipper'' (2010), which alludes to the lady's slipper orchid ...
's
young adult novel
Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults.
The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...
''Shadow on the Highway'' (2014, ) is a retelling of Katherine's story. Katherine Clements wrote ''The Silvered Heart'' (2015, ) 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
Citations
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrers, Katherine
History of Hertfordshire
English highwaymen
1634 births
1660 deaths
Burials in Hertfordshire
Deaths by firearm in England
17th-century English people
17th-century English women
People from East Hertfordshire District
People from Hamerton