Series 3 > Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington plot

INTRODUCTION
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Master of Arts.1 He arrived at Rheims on 29 November
1579,2 and was eventually ordained priest at Chalons
4 March 1581, and returned to England on the 29th of the
same month. Savage, it may be noted, had arrived before
Ballard had left; but Gilbert Gifford was then studying
in Rome, so that they could not have met at this period.
Of Ballard’s work in England during this first nine
months, no details seem to be known. At the end of this
time he was a prisoner in the Gatehouse at Westminster,
and amongst other priests, who were his companions there,
he met for the first time Anthony Tyrrell, with whom he was
destined to be in closer connection during the next few
years than was at all usual, considering the circumstances
under which priests in England had to live at that time.
To begin with, they were fortunate enough to break prison
together and to get clear away, just before the end of the
year 1581. They separated, but met again not long
after in Norfolk, Ballard then going under the name of
Turner. After this for more than two years they saw
nothing of each other, Tyrrell probably keeping near
London, Ballard going farther west.
Early in the srftnmer of 1584 they met again in London.
They were both feeling in want of a holiday, and had
raised £100 and £60 respectively for that purpose. Bal¬
lard had the larger sum for a journey to Rome, and it was
provided by friends, on whose behalf he was to have obtained
certain dispensations and faculties. Tyrrell had originally
only meant to go beyond seas and live quietly ; in order to
1 B.M., Cole MSS., Add. 5885, p. 28. John Venn, Sc.D., and J. A.
Venn, M.A., Matriculations and Degrees in the University of Cambridge,
1544 to 1659,1913, p. 35, give his career as follows (contractions expanded) :
‘ St. Catharine’s, sizar, Michaelmas term, 1569 ; migrated to Cains College,
Lent term, 1569-70 ; A.B. King’s College, I574-5-’
2 290 Novembris 1579, Hue venerunt. . . duo Cantabrigienses, Englishus
et Ballardus : hie artium magister est, etc. T. F. Knox, Douay Diaries,
1878, p. 158, cf. 173-8.