ABSTRACT
William Byrd returned from Lincoln with a family. Harlington manor had been acquired in 1552 by William Roper, who bequeathed it to his son Anthony. Byrd may at first have leased the property from Roper, but apparently he owned it when Christopher married, for his daughter-in-law, Katherine, alleged that her father, Thomas More, had agreed with Byrd 'that the said Mannor of Harlington might be solde'. Thomas, Byrd's second son, may have been born in 1576. He said he was seventy-five in 1651, and a Thomas Byrd entered the English College at Valladolid on 20 December 1596, at the age of twenty, with a recommendation from Father John Gerard. While Byrd's elder son married into a family with both land and impeccable Catholic credentials, it is by no means sure that his daughters married men who more than modestly circumstanced or shared his religion. The letter is notable for its indication that the Chapel Royal was a friendly community.
