Walter Calverley
In some of her letters, his mother-in-law spelled the name "Coverley", which suggests that it was then pronounced with the "al" as in "calf" ("Calverley" means "pasture for calves"[2]).
Perhaps the most infamous member of the Calverley family, he is known for murdering two of his young children, leading to his own death by pressing in 1605.
[3] His story has long been associated with two plays which were performed shortly after the events of 1605 and which were published in 1607 and 1608: The Miseries of Enforced Marriage and A Yorkshire Tragedy.
These plays have strongly influenced the historic record, including his entry by Sidney Lee in the Dictionary of National Biography.
[5] Under ecclesiastical law, marriage in sixteenth-century England could be contracted "per verba de præsenti" privately, with no public ceremony.
The conventional biography records that, in his teens, Walter fell in love with a local young woman and proposed marriage.
In The Miseries of Enforced Marriage, Scarborrow, is called to London by his uncle, Sir William, and his guardian, Lord Faulconbridge.
On their return to Calverley, Walter sought distraction in drinking and gambling, soon dissipating his fortune, mortgaging his lands and squandering his wife's dowry.
However, Phillipa survived the attack as Calverley's knife did not pierce his wife's corset, inlaid with bone.
Calverley continued murderously through the house, throwing a nursemaid down stairs and ordering another servant to retrieve his youngest son, who was with a wet-nurse miles from home.
When the servant failed to obey, Calverley saddled his horse and went off to kill his youngest child, but was apprehended and brought before the magistrate.
Walter's great-grandfather was Sir William Calverley, High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1539/40 and alive in 1568 (he was dead by 1575[7]).
[8] The Memoirs further record that Under the influence of his wife, who was a zealous catholic, he [the murderer's father] suffered greatly in his estates on account of his recusancy[8] Cambridge University records show that brothers William and Walter Calverley matriculated at Clare Hall, Cambridge in 1579.
After his father's death on 1 October 1596,[6] Walter Calverley became a ward on 25 March 1597 of his mother Katherine and his great-uncle William.
[10] That he became a ward tells us that no marriage had been contracted in writing before his father's death, as Walter would then not have been subject to wardship proceedings.
[11] As the manors of Calverley and Pudsey were held on knight-service, Walter was a royal ward and the wardship was for sale.
In principle, once he reached his majority, the ward could sue his guardian for "waste", the legal term for the lessening of value of an estate; in practice they very rarely did.
[13] On 20 April 1600 Lady Anne wrote to Cecil again, enclosing a petition (which has now been lost) on behalf of Walter, whom she describes as "an unstayed younge man".
In their edition of A Yorkshire Tragedy, Cawley and Gaines observe that this indenture guaranteed that the Calverley lands could not be seized because of Walter's recusancy.
[21] After reaching his majority in 1625, Henry recovered the Calverley lands and grew up to be a royalist, incurring fines under the Commonwealth.
At the ceremony, they declared that the "feudal incidents" had been found by experiencemore burdensome, grievous and prejudicial to the kingdom than they had been beneficial to the king[22]On 1 January 1661, Henry Calverley died and his son, Walter, succeeded him.
Henry was the last of the family to reside regularly at Calverley Hall, his son marrying the heiress of the neighbouring Esholt estate and moving there.
On 12 June Nathaniel Butter published a popular tract on the subject, which was followed on 24 August by an account of Calverley's death.
The full title of A Yorkshire Tragedy continued - not so new as lamentable and true: written by W. Shakspeare, but this appears to have been a bit of puffery.
[19] Aphra Behn reworked The Miseries of Enforced Marriage into her 1676 play, The Town Fop or, Sir Timothy Tawdry.
