This New Year’s Eve marks the 370th anniversary of a curious burial near Oxfordshire’s Holton Church. – Vintage Photograph

On December 31st, 1630, Mrs Horsman of Wheatley, Oxfordshire, died. She was a Roman Catholic recusant, and her burial in the parish church was forbidden. Witnesses testified that she was kept in the parlor of her house until Monday, when she was taken out in her coffin and buried in the church that night. However, Edward Powell, the Squire of Forest Hill, denied knowing of the burial and confessed that he had sent a messenger to receive a certificate for penitence, but the messenger never returned. The mystery of who was responsible for the burial was never solved. Three and a half centuries later, the event still provides a sensation beyond the boundaries of the remote village.On December 31st, 1630, Mrs Horsman of Wheatley, Oxfordshire, died. She was a Roman Catholic recusant, and her burial in the parish church was forbidden. Witnesses testified that she was kept in the parlor of her house until Monday, when she was taken out in her coffin and buried in the church that night. However, Edward Powell, the Squire of Forest Hill, denied knowing of the burial and confessed that he had sent a messenger to receive a certificate for penitence, but the messenger never returned. The mystery of who was responsible for the burial was never solved. Three and a half centuries later, the event still provides a sensation beyond the boundaries of the remote village.

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A CURIOUS case” and what a masterpiece of understatement that was was the comment of one chronicler on an event which happened three and a half centuries ago, to provide a sensation far beyond the boundaries of the remote Oxfordshire vil- lage which provided its set- ting. The story begins on New Year’s Eve 1630, with the death of a Mrs Horsman. Mrs Horsman, of Wheatley, was a Roman Catholic and “recusant,” one who refused to attend the Church of Eng- land services in the parish church and was consequently “excommunicated. On the morning of “Twelve Day”. Charles Wise, the parish clerk of Holton, told a special village court – he went to St Bartholomew’s “to ring prayers.” to find both the door of the belfry and the chancel had been unbarred, and a grave digged and made under the Communion table. up Carried “He hath hearde” he added. “that Mrs Horsman was buried there, but who carried her to the Church and buried her there he cannot depose.” And so repeated a long suc- cession of witnesses – men come from Wheatley, together with the Squire of Forest Hill, Edward Powell, to whose fami- ly, it is thought, the dead woman, was related. He declared that he did not in any way knowe thereof, nor was consentynge thereto, or did give directions for hir buriall, nor in her lifetime un- dertake to see her buryed.” However, he went on to “confess” that he sent a messenger to Dr Barker, ap- parently an ecclesiastical of- ficial, for a faculty that the burial might take place in the church to be told that this would be granted only on re- ceipt of a certificate “that she died penitent. As a result he advised that the lady should be buried in the garden of her own house. testi- The most dramatic mony was that given by Mary Slyman, Mrs Horsman’s maid, who told how her mistress after her death on New Year’s Eve was kept in the parlour of her house at Wheatley, until the following Monday, “both day and night.” “But by Monday,” she ex- Holton church: burial was banned. “she that they could not endure her AUCponsible was never solved. unfortunate Mrs Horsman is not the only notable woman to be remem- bered in the annals of Holton: two others also have their niche in history. in the house: whereuppon at night they drue her corps in her coffin out into the garden. and the next morning drewe her into the parlor again, and continued this course until Wednesday, and left her in the garden from whence she was carried in the night and buried in Holton church, as she hath heard.” In the parish register is the entry “Henry Ireton. Com- missary-General to Sir Thomas Fairfax, and Bridget, daughter to Oliver Cromwell, Lieuten- ant General of the Horse to the said Sir Thomas Fairfax, were married by Mr Dell in the Lady Whorwood her House at Holton, June 15, 1646 – Alban Eales, Rector.” Ringers But who was responsible for this “she cannot tell,” and the conspiracy of silence was con- tinued by all the others who followed her to tell what (as they said) they knew of the affair – bell ringers, the Rec- tor, Bartholomew Price, his wife and son, Widow Ives, who watched over the deceased “in her sicknesse” and a neighbour who “dwelled by Mrs Horsman’s garden wall.” The mystery of who was The old mansion, long the home of the Whorwoods, had been for some time the head- quarters of the army besieging the Royalist headquarters at Oxford which was to surrender shortly afterwards. The bride was 21, and her husband fourteen years her senior, a graduate of Trinity college and, according to An- thony Wood.” he had a