John Talbot of Grafton

A portrait of John Talbot of Grafton said to be by Cornelius JohnsonSir John Talbot of Grafton, Worcestershire (1545 – 28 January 1611 ) was a prominent recusant English Catholic layman of the reigns of Elizabeth I of England and James I of England. He was connected by marriage to one of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators, and by acquaintance or family ties to other important Catholic figures. He fell often under suspicion from the English government.

Life The descendant of an influential landowning family (his grandfather John Talbot (died 1549) was lord of the manor of Albrighton, Shropshire, residing at Pepperhill in Shropshire and Grafton), John Talbot became a member of Lincoln's Inn, 10 February 1555–6. He was member of Parliament for Droitwich in 1572.

It was when passing through Smithfield, London, in July 1580, with Talbot and his wife Katherine Petre, that Robert Johnson, the Catholic martyr, was recognized by Sledd, the informer. Robert Persons calls Robert Johnson "Mr. Talbot's priest", though, as it appears, he was, rather, Lady Petre's. Talbot was committed to the custody of the Dean of Westminster, 24 August 1580, and afterwards removed to the house of his brother-in-law, Sir John Petre, in Aldersgate Street. On 1 October 1581, the plague being then rife in the city, he was moved to some other house within ten or twelve miles of London.

In 1583 the priest, Hugh Hall, confessed that he had in past years been entertained by him. Later Talbot was restricted to the house of one Henry Whitney, at Mitcham, Surrey, and two miles round it. In 1588 he was imprisoned in Wisbech Castle for having heard Mass contrary to the provisions of the Religion Act 1580. From 9 December 1588 to about 13 May 1589, he was liberated on bail, owing to his own and his wife's bad health. He then seems to have been restricted to his house in Clerkenwell, London.

He was the father, by Katherine Petre, daughter of Sir William Petre and his second wife, Anne Browne, daughter of Sir William Browne, Lord Mayor of London, of three sons and three daughters, who included: Anne Talbot, married 18 November 1585 Thomas Hanmer (died 18 April 1619), and had issue, including Sir John Hanmer, 1st Baronet George Talbot, 9th Earl of Shrewsbury, a Catholic priest Gertrude Talbot, married Robert Wintour of Huddington, Worcestershire (executed 30 January 1606) John Talbot of Longford, Market Drayton, Shropshire (died London, in or around 1607), married Eleanor Baskerville, daughter of Sir Thomas Baskerville of Wolvershill, Herefordshire, and of Brinsop, Herefordshire, and had one son, John Talbot, 10th Earl of Shrewsbury