Catherine Constable

CATHERINE CONSTABLE (c.1579-1626)

• from A Who’s Who of Tudor Women

Catherine Constable was the eldest daughter of Sir Henry Constable (c.1551-December 15, 1607) and Margaret Dormer (1553-April 26, 1637). In 1594, she married Thomas Fairfax (1574-December 23, 1636), who was created Viscount Fairfax in 1629. Their houses at Walton and at Gilling Castle were used to harbor priests and Lady Fairfax’s name occurs at least ten times in the records of recusants from 1600-1623. She does not ever seem to have been held for long, however. Her children were: Thomas (c.1599-September 24, 1641), Henry, William, Mary, Catherine, and six others, three sons and three daughters.

• from Members of Parliament online

Thomas Fairfax was born and brought up at Gilling. In the year he left Cambridge he married a childhood friend (for the Constables were frequent visitors at Gilling), an open Catholic, whose first conviction for recusancy was in 1599. Thereafter she was convicted at regular intervals until her death, though she appears never to have been fined, possibly, because of her husband’s friendship with Sir Arthur Ingram, secretary to the council in the north, and for a while farmer of recusancy fines. She also escaped penalty for employing Catholic maids. At least two of their sons attended Catholic colleges abroad, which was also an offence.

1. Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and ..., Volume 3  edited by George Edward Cokayne. Page 308.