How did political refugees protect their property during the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth?
The core of the answer to this question is the case of Bartie v Herenden, found at pages 121-123 of Baker and Milsom. However, instead of conclusively resolving the issue of how refugees managed their property, the case presents a number of questions for which it is difficult to find a satisfactory answer. The facts of Bartie v Herenden Factually, Bartie v Herenden is relatively straightforward. Katherine Willoughby, the Duchess of Suffolk, was a Protestant reformer. After the Catholic Queen Mary became queen in 1553, the Duchess’s position was suddenly very precarious. In 1555 she escaped to Poland with her husband, Richard Bertie, and their children. A sensational account of the Duchess’s escape, written in 1576, can be found in Foxe’s Book of Matyrs, and is reprinted in John King’s Voices of the English Reformation. In order to protect her land, the Duchess conveyed some of it to Walter Herenden, her lawyer, with the words of the instrument being “to the only use and behove of the s
