THE house where the plot to free Mary, Queen of Scots, and kill Queen Elizabeth of England was most likely concocted has gone on sale with an asking price of more than £1 million.
The link to the tragic Scottish queen comes from its connection to Anthony Babington who once owned Dethick Manor Farm house near Matlock in Derbyshire.
It was Babington who originated the eponymous plot which was uncovered by double agents working for Queen Elizabeth’s spymaster Francis Walsingham.
He in turn used a letter from Mary to the plotters to have her arrested and put on trial which in turn led to her being beheaded on February 8, 1587.
Babington was himself found guilty of treason and was hanged, drawn and quartered along with other plotters who had met at his house.
READ MORE: Why the murder of the 1st Earl of Moray made history
The link to Babington and Mary is being used by the estate agents to sell the Tudor farmhouse, as the name of its current owner – Simon Groom, the former BBC Blue Peter presenter.
Housebeautiful.com reported: “If you have a passion for British history, you are certainly going to love this home. With outbuildings, paddocks, spacious rooms, wooden beams, an acre of walled gardens and marvellous views, it’s the perfect hideaway for those who want a slice of life in the country. It’s also worth knowing that this house has never been on the open market before.”
The website adds that Dethick Manor is a cluster of three farms and a church tucked away down a winding lane.
Estate agents Bagshaws say: “Never before has Manor Farm been on the open market, the Dethicks being the original occupants until 1403 when the last Dethick died.
“Shortly afterwards, Thomas Babington married Isabella Dethick and the Babingtons remained there for the next 200 years. In 1586, Anthony Babington’s failed plot to rescue Mary Queen of Scots and murder Elizabeth resulted in both of them being executed for treason.
“The Blackwell and Hallows family followed until 1896 when the property was bought by the Smedley family, local industrialists, mill owners, who founded nearby Lea Mills and built the local Riber Castle.
“The Groom family went to live in Dethick in 1956 as tenant farmers where they kept a Guernsey dairy herd, sheep and pigs and grew corn and root crops. Some year later the Smedley family were forced to sell Dethick to pay death duties and the Grooms bought Manor Farm. When they stopped milking the farmhouse was set up as a bed and breakfast and it is still run successfully as such by the current generation of Grooms, Simon and Gilly to this day.”
The Grade II listed building has the remains of the original Kitchen dating back to pre-1403 are now incorporated into the farmhouse. This truly delightful feature of the property and very much the hub of the house.
“The house as it stands now was constructed by the Hallows family in 1670 and has been sympathetically restored and retained.”
Elizabeth never apologised for the judicial murder of Mary, Queen of Scots. The tragic queen got a sort of revenge when her son, James VI, King of Scots took the throne of England in 1603.
The house that Queen Mary’s plotter built
BY HAMISH MACPHERSON
IT is important to note that the Manor Farm house never actually saw Mary, Queen of Scots, under its roof, but its link to our tragic queen is undeniable because it was here that the plot which unravelled and led to her execution was most probably conceived.
The story of Anthony Babington, who was born in the house in 1561, is well known to those who are fascinated by Mary’s story.
As a teenager he was serving in the Earl of Shrewsbury’s household, most probably as some sort of page boy, when the Earl was in charge of Queen Mary’s captivity.
It is all too easy to imagine the effect of the beautiful Mary on an impressionable young lad, and he became an ardent supporter of her.
Another convert to Mary’s cause was Thomas Morgan who was secretary to the Earl and who involved Babington in another earlier plot to spring the queen from her jail – for that is what it was – and assassinate Queen Elizabeth.
The Parry Plot involved William Parry, an agent in the service of both Mary and Elizabeth, but he was finally convinced by Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth’s spymaster, to become a double agent – it was Parry who then provided the details of the Babington Plot.
A secret Roman Catholic like all his family, Babington devised a plot to free Mary and kill Elizabeth with the Catholic Mary taking the Protestant Elizabeth’s throne.
Given the spy in the fold, the Babington Plot was doomed to failure, and with coded letters seized from the plotters, including one by Mary, Walsingham was able to “prove” Mary and Babington’s guilt.
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