TALBOT, George (1566-1630)

Shrewsbury was descended from Sir Gilbert Talbot^‡, the third son of John Talbot^†, 2nd earl of Shrewsbury. Sir Gilbert was an early adherent of Henry VII, commanding the right wing at the battle of Bosworth. In reward he was made a knight of the Garter, appointed governor of Calais, and granted the manor of Grafton and other properties in Worcestershire. He sat for Shrewsbury in 1485 and Shropshire in 1491. Gilbert’s son and namesake inherited substantial estates in Worcestershire, which county he represented in Parliament at least twice. He also inherited significant properties in Shropshire, where the Talbots subsequently acquired a house, at Pepperhill, in the parish of Albrighton.5 HP (Wedgwood) Biographies, 838-9; VCH Worcs. iii. 126; Vis. Yorks. (Harl. Soc. xvi), 310; P. Cavill, English Parls. of Henry VII, 132; HP Commons, 1509-58, iii. 420-1; J.B. Blakeway, ‘Hist. of Albrighton near Shifnal’, Trans. Salop Arch Soc. ser. 2, xi. 39.

Shrewsbury’s father, John Talbot, the great-grandson of the founder of the Grafton branch of the family, married Catherine, daughter of Sir William Petre^‡, secretary of state between 1544 and 1557. John was returned for Worcestershire in 1572 but, being a staunch Catholic, refused to conform to the Church of England, for which offence he was placed in the custody of the dean of Westminster in 1580. John remained in confinement until 1597 or 1598.6 HP Commons, 1558-1603, iii. 473. He again came under suspicion after the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, as one of the plotters, Robert Wintour, was his son-in-law. However, Talbot refused to have anything to do with the conspirators who, after the discovery of the Plot, sent Robert’s brother to Pepperhill to persuade him to join them.7 SP14/216/143, 145-6, 176.

George Talbot was John’s eldest son. Born in London in 1566, he was presumably named after the head of the senior branch of the Talbot family, George Talbot^†, 6th earl of Shrewsbury, who was appointment one of his godparents, a connection indicative of the continuing relationship between the two branches of the family.8 Genealogical Colls. Illustrating the Hist. of Roman Catholic Fams. of Eng. i. 50. The details of George’s upbringing are obscure. Claims that he was educated at Amiens and Rouen have not been confirmed, but it is likely that he was sent abroad to receive a Catholic education. He was certainly listed as overseas in an undated report on Catholics families in the Elizabethan state papers.9 SP12/219/77; CP, xi. 717. Wherever it was received, Talbot’s education must have been extensive as he was famous for his scholarship.10 Condition of Catholics under Jas. I ed. J. Morris, p. cc. n.1.

One possibility is that Talbot was educated in Bavaria, perhaps at the university of Ingolstadt. Talbot certainly befriended Maximillian I, duke of Bavaria, who, like him, was a rigid Catholic, and it was from Bavaria in 1602 that he sent to the English seminary at Douai a potential student, whom he promised to fund with money from England.11 Douay Coll. Diaries ed. E.H. Burton and T.L. Williams (Catholic Rec. Soc. x), 38. By the time his younger brother, John, died in 1607, Talbot was at Pont-à-Mousson in Lorraine, where a Jesuit University had been founded. He did not return to England, but instead sent a servant, who was assisted in sorting out his brother’s affairs by his cousin, Gilbert Talbot^*, 7th earl of Shrewsbury.12 HMC Hatfield, xvii. 639; xix. 130. Talbot also seems to have remained abroad after his father died in January 1611; he was certainly in Bavaria by November.13 H. Foley, Recs. of the English Province of the Soc. of Jesus, iv. 329. He did not return home until 1614 when, ‘at the request of some foreign prince in amity with us’, possibly Maximilian, James I granted him leave to sue for livery of his estates without taking the oath of supremacy and promised that he would not be required to take the oath of allegiance.14 Add. Ch. 73982. In August of that year it was reported that Talbot, described as ‘our German friend’, had been treated very kindly by George Abbot^*, archbishop of Canterbury, who had given him free run of his library.15 Condition of Catholics under James I, p. cc. n.1. In July 1616 Talbot received a passport, which included the usual instruction to avoid the company of Jesuits and seminary priests. This did not prevent Talbot channelling money from Maximillian to the college of the English province of Jesuits at Liège.16 HMC Var. ii. 312; Condition of Catholics under Jas. I, pp. cxcix-cc.

The 7th earl of Shrewsbury died in May 1616 leaving three daughters, whereupon his earldom passed to his brother Edward^*. As Edward had no surviving sons, Talbot, his fourth cousin, was the next male heir. In 1617 Edward proposed settling lands from the estates of the senior branch of the family worth £1,200 a year on Talbot. However, being in dispute with his nieces over the ownership of these properties, nothing was done by the time he died in February 1618, when Talbot succeeded as 8th earl of Shrewsbury.17 Wentworth Pprs. ed. J.P. Cooper (Cam. Soc. ser. 4. xii), 99, n.1. Reporting the news that Talbot had inherited to Sir Dudley Carleton^* (subsequently Viscount Dorchester), Nathaniel Brent observed that the king was pleased to allow the new earl of Shrewsbury to return to England, even though ‘he hath taken orders beyond the seas’.18 SP14/96/9. However, there is no evidence that Shrewsbury ever became a Catholic priest, despite it having previously been rumoured that he was a candidate for appointment as bishop of England’s Catholics. On the contrary, his chaplain later wrote that, three years before his death, Shrewsbury took a vow of chastity. Had he been a priest he would have taken such a vow on being ordained as a matter of course.19 FitzGibbon, 97-8, 106.

Before returning to England, in June 1618, Shrewsbury obtained a letter of recommendation from Maximilian requesting that he be allowed the freedom to exercise his religion.20 HMC Var. ii. 312. The Scottish courtier John Murray^‡ (later 1st earl of Annandale [S]) subsequently obtained for Shrewsbury immunity from the recusancy laws, in return for which Shrewsbury granted Murray an annuity of £100.21 SP16/13/21. Shrewsbury therefore returned the following August and, despite receiving a further passport in May 1620, settled at Grafton. (In 1626 it was reported that his house at Pepperhill was practically empty.)22 HMC Downshire, vi. 467; SO3/7, unfol. (31 May 1620); CSP Dom. 1625-6, p. 223. However, his overt Catholicism necessarily precluded his appointment to office.

In late 1620 the English nobility were required to contribute to a benevolence to defend the Palatinate against Bavarian and imperial forces. In view of his friendship with Maximilian of Bavaria it is perhaps not surprising that Shrewsbury was reported to be out of town.23 SP14/118/59. Equally unsurprising is the fact that Shrewsbury had no desire to sit in Parliament, where he would be required to take the oath of allegiance. He was accordingly licensed to be absent when Parliament met in 1621, at which time he gave his proxy to Thomas Howard^*, 21st (or 14th) earl of Arundel, who secretly shared his Catholic sympathies and who had married a daughter of the 7th earl of Shrewsbury.24 SO3/7, unfol. (29 Dec. 1620); LJ, iii. 4a. In November 1622 Tobie Matthew^‡ recommended Shrewsbury to George Villiers^*, marquess (later 1st duke) of Buckingham as ambassador to the diet of Ratisbon. Matthew described Shrewsbury as ‘a very saint-like man ... honest and sincere … of great learning’, who had ‘perfect and immediate credit with the duke of Bavaria, as also with the emperor’. However, he admitted that the earl was ‘soft’. Not surprisingly, the suggestion was ignored.25 A.H. Mathew and A. Calthrop, Life of Sir Tobie Matthew, 201.

When a further Parliament was summoned in 1624, Shrewsbury again gave his proxy to Arundel, having been licensed to be absent once more.26 SO3/7, unfol. (11 Feb. 1624); LJ, iii. 214b. On 28 Feb. it was reported in Catholic circles that a Jesuit had been arrested ‘whom my Lord Shrewsbury challengeth for his servant’. However, the earl made no formal application for parliamentary privilege during the Parliament.27 Stuart Dynastic Policy and Religious Pols. 1621–5 ed. M. Questier (Cam. Soc. ser. 5. xxxiv), 251. When the first Caroline Parliament was summoned in 1625 Shrewsbury did not wait to be granted leave of absence, but sent his proxy to Arundel on 9 May. He was confident that Arundel would use it ‘according to my intention as heretofore’, particularly ‘in matters concerning religion and conscience’. He also asked Arundel to obtain for him formal permission to be absent, issued 12 days later citing Shrewsbury’s ‘indisposition of body’.28 Arundel Castle, Autograph Letters, no. 272; Add. 46457, f. 118. Shrewsbury again gave his proxy to Arundel for the 1626 Parliament.29 Procs. 1626, iv. 12. He paid £100 towards the Forced Loan on 28 Nov. 1626.30 E401/1386, rot. 34.

After the third Caroline Parliament was summoned in 1628, Shrewsbury transferred his proxy to another fellow Catholic, Buckingham’s father-in-law Francis Manners^*, 6th earl of Rutland, presumably because Arundel had fallen out of favour.31 Lords Procs. 1628, p. 26. Shortly before the session began in March, a house belonging to Shrewsbury in Clerkenwell was raided by the authorities and found to contain a small group of Jesuits.32 S.R. Gardiner, Hist. of Eng. vi. 238. Shrewsbury protested his innocence, apparently blaming the ‘lewdness’ of his housekeeper for allowing Jesuits to take up residence there. Nevertheless, he seems to have fallen into disfavour, as the following month Charles I ordered him to resume payments of the annuity granted to Annandale that had ceased on the death of James. He was also ordered to pay all arrears.33 SP16/111/67; SO1/1, f. 111.

Shrewsbury protested against the creation, in July 1628, of Richard Lumley (the heir of John Lumley^*, Lord Lumley), as Viscount Lumley of Waterford [I]. Shrewsbury claimed that Lumley’s title was invalid because his ancestor, John Talbot^†, 1st earl of Shrewsbury, had been made earl of Waterford in 1446. However, Shrewsbury failed to overturn Lumley’s title as it was held that the Waterford earldom had been forfeited to the crown a century earlier.34 LIL, Hale ms 12, ff. 13-14; CP, xii. pt. 2, p. 419.

Shrewsbury gave his proxy to Rutland again in 1629.35 LJ, iv. 3b. In November of that year it was reported that he had taken part in a Catholic pilgrimage to St Winifred’s well in Holywell.36 CSP Dom. 1629-31, p. 87. By 20 Mar. 1630 Shrewsbury’s declining health was causing his chaplain alarm. The earl subsequently ‘grew weaker and weaker’ and died on the morning of 2 April.37 FitzGibbon, 101. In his will, made out on 22 Mar., Shrewsbury gave no indication of his Catholic faith. However, he bequeathed a ‘square cross of gold, which although it be of no great value, yet I make thereof precious estimation’, to the wife of his nephew and heir John Talbot^†. He also gave to his ‘especial and dear friend’, Tobie Matthew, a ‘round jewel of gold with the picture of Ernest Prince Elector [and archbishop] of Cologne thereupon which jewel the said prince gave unto me’. Having no children, he bequeathed the residue of his personal estate to John Talbot, whom he appointed one of his executors. The latter also included Thomas Windsor^*, 6th Lord Windsor, and Shrewsbury’s cousin, William Petre^*, 2nd Lord Petre, both fellow Catholics. The earl, who left his funeral to the discretion of his executors, was buried on 6 Apr. in Albrighton Church, where his parents had been interred. John Talbot, the eldest son of the younger brother who had died in 1607, succeeded as 10th earl of Shrewsbury.38 PROB 11/157, ff. 370v-2; ‘Albrighton Par. Reg.’ 44.