A Tale of Martyrs, Museums and Monasteries

Intriguingly there is, what appears to be, a very unassuming pedlar’s trunk at the heart of a new exhibition that opened last week at Samlesbury Hall near Preston. But appearances can be deceptive and the story behind this battered suitcase reveals it to be a fascinating time capsule.

The pedlar’s trunk had been walled up in Samlesbury Hall at some point during the C16th, until it was discovered in the mid-19^th Century (some 200 years later.)  The trunk was then bought at auction by a private individual and later sold to Stonyhurst College, who still own it to this day. But why all the fuss over a trunk?

Many families in Elizabethan Lancashire were still practising Catholics and refused to attend Anglican Services. Following the banning of Catholic priests in the 1500’s they had to disguise themselves to carry on with the ceremony of their religion. The Pedlar’s Trunk was central to this subterfuge. Catholic priests dressed as pedlars could move between important catholic houses with little notice taken of them.

As with the Samlesbury Hall trunk, essential items such as: vestments; chalices; an altar stone; altar cloths;  rosary beads; corporals; maniple; asperges brush and chasubles were hidden under more everyday items. There are some thirty items hidden in the Samlesbury Pedlar’s Trunk under women’s’ clothing including a silk pink bonnet.

Letters accompanying the Trunk between a FR Chadwick and a Mr John A Myerscough Esq in 1943 recount the box being sold at auction at Samlesbury hall in 1890’s by the owner, Mr Harrison.

’The auctioneer had no idea about the purpose of the box and it was a surprise to the inevitable purchaser that such a revered and important artefact was there at all. The auctioneer declared that the box had been taken from its hiding place a priest hole at the Hall and he the auctioneer was ignorant to the purpose and nature of the articles inside.’

John Myerscough’s father realised that the box should at least be in Catholic hands felt it was his ‘bounded duty’ to secure it. The box was kept as a private precious relic for many years and was transferred to Stonyhurst College at the end of 1918.

Lancashire is famous for being the last county to officially convert from Catholicism and had a large and busy network of Catholic priests and safe house in halls such as Samlesbury and Stonyhurst. The trunk has a particular importance to the Catholic community of Lancashire as it was believed to have belonged to Saint Edmund Arrowsmith and later Saint John Southworth, both Lancastrian Catholic martyrs.

The exhibition also displays some of Samlesbury hall’s hidden treasures including five 15^th century Dutch religious carvings and a Victorian reliquary. 

The exhibition at Samlesbury Hall runs for the whole year.
For more information on opening times and admission prices.