The John Dowbiggin who died in Westminster in 1712 was a brother of Thomas Dowbiggin, yeoman, of High Winder, in the parish of Melling, whose father Lancelot farmed High Winder before him. Lancelot Dowbiggin's wife was Elizabeth Winder, daughter of Thomas Winder, of High Winder -- the Winder family being located there over three hundred years ago. There is still in existence a pocket-book of Thomas Dowbiggin's containing memoranda in his own handwriting, and from these entries I select the following: --

"Nov. ye 29, 1684 Joan Thornton of Harterbeck and I were married at Thurlaine [Thurland] Castle by Mr. Goodin." (Peter Goodin was a Roman Catholic priest. In chapter 3 of "Lancaster and the Jacobites" published in tthe Lancaster Observer, in May 1886, I mention him as being at Aldcliffe Hall, where he is said to have, "kept a sort of academy or little seminary for education of youth who were afterwards sent to Popish colleges abroad to be trained as priests." Father Goodin died at Aldcliffe in December 1694, and was interred in the burial ground of Lancaster Parish Church.)

"Dec. ye 15, 1684. Then I obtained a license from Leonard Townson for marrying Joan Thornton of Harterbeck." (Leonard Townson was of Hornby.)

"Dec. ye 17, 1684. Then Joan Thornton and I were married againe by Mr. Thomas Kay in Hornby Chappell he being the Rector of Melling." (Thomas Kay was vicar of Melling from December, 1677 to July, 1689 when he resigned.)

"April 15, 1684. Upon that day I was converted from the Protestant religion by Mr. Peter Goodin and did goe into confession the Sunday following being East Sunday."

It may be assumed that Joan Thornton was a Roman Catholic at the time of her marriage to Thomas Dowbiggin, and that she ably seconded Father Goodin in the conversion of her husband to Roman Catholicism. And, although I have nowhere met with the suggestion, I am disposed to think that a fair claim might be made on behalf of Thomas Dowbiggin's wife as deserving of some recognition in connection with that historical episode which eventuated in the passing of the first Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1778. She had been then dead nearly fifty years, but I have no doubt that, in furtherance of the Roman Catholic faith, her works followed her.

After the death of John Dowbiggin in Westminster, his daughter and heiress, Ann Winder Dowbiggin (who had now lost her Father and Mother) went to live at High Winder with her aunt, Mrs. Thomas Dowbiggin, whose husband died on August 9, 1695. To Mrs. Dowbiggin's influence I attribute the fact of her niece becoming a Roman Catholic. "Ann Winder Dowbiggin, of Winder, spinster," figures in the list of Catholic non-jurors in 1715. As already stated, she became the wife of Thomas Benison, junr., who predeceased her. There was issue of this marriage, an only daughter Ann, who was only in her teens at the time of her father's death. On January 11, 1753, this last named Ann Benison of Hornby, who is described in the newspaper announcement of the wedding as being woth £600 per year, was married to John Fenwick of Burrow Hall, whose father was at one time M.P. for the town of Lancaster.

About four years later, she lost her husband, who was accidentally killed in the hunting field. The widow, a staunch Roman Catholic, had made over her own proprty to her husband and his heirs, to enable him to raise money, and when he desired to re-convey the estates to her, he found that the laws, which then operated severely against Roman Catholicism, prevented him from doing so. There being no issue of the marriage, Thomas Fenwick, Barrister-at-law, of Gray's Inn, succeeded to the property. Litigation ensued, and at last a private Bill -- the precursor of the Relief Act of 1778 -- was introduced into Parliament, and passed in 1772, whereby the widow was enabled to enjoy the income from which she had so long been debarred.

The painful story was told in some detail by the Rev. T.E. Gibson, of Southport, in the Palatine Notebook, several years ago, and was reproduced in chapter 4 of "Lancaster and the Jacobites" (Observer, June 1886). Mrs. Fenwick lived out her widowhood at the Hall in Hornby which her father built, where she provided a Roman Catholic Chapel and chaplain, and where she died on the 28th of April, 1777, her remains being buried by the side of her parents at the foot of the chancel in Melling Church.

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