Mary Habington

Mary Habington or Abington, née Parker was an English recusant. Antiquarian writers thought that she was the author of the anonymous letter to her brother William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle which warned of the Gunpowder Plot. This theory is dismissed by modern historians.

Family background
She was the eldest daughter of Edward Parker, 12th Baron Morley and Elizabeth Stanley, a daughter of William Stanley, 3rd Baron Monteagle. Around the year 1593, she married Thomas Habington (1560–1647) of Hindlip Hall, a son of Queen Elizabeth's cofferer John Habington and his wife, Catharine Wykes. She signed her letters "Mary Abington".

Monteagle letter
The suggestion that Mary Habington wrote the anonymous letter to her brother in October 1605, hinting at the Gunpowder plot, first appears at the end of the 17th-century, attributed to William Dugdale in Anthony à Wood's Athenae Oxonienses published in 1691. Elsewhere in the same work, Wood attributes the letter to Francis Tresham. Some writers, including Antonia Fraser, see the letter as a kind of fake, a political ruse engineered by the Earl of Salisbury.

Hindlip Hall
In January 1606, Mary Habington and Anne Vaux were at Hindlip Hall. The house was raided by Henry Bromley of Holt Castle, a magistrate searching for Catholic priests. She accepted the authority of his warrant. Four priests were staying in the house, after travelling from Coughton Court and Evesham before Christmas. They hid in carefully concealed priest holes in the long gallery behind panelling and built into the chimneys of the house. Bromley and his men stayed at Hindlip, hoping to to starve them out of their hiding places. Mary Habington and Anne Vaux were able to supply them with drinks and caudle using a quill or straw from a gentlewoman's bedchamber.

Thomas Habington had been away visiting Sir John Talbot at Pepperhill (at Albrighton). Talbot was the father-in-law of the conspirator Robert Winter. When he returned to Hindlip, he swore there were no priests in the house. Bromley arrested him. Nicholas Owen and Ralph Ashley tried to escape from their hiding place in the gallery but were captured, and six days later Henry Garnet and Edward Oldcorne were discovered and surrendered to Bromley.

Mary Habington remained at Hindlip during the searches. Bromley wrote that he "could by no means persuade the Gentlewoman of the house to depart the house, without I should have carried her". He noted that the captives asked for their linen which her maid had washed.

The prisoners were taken first to Holt Castle, and then to the Tower of London. Their number included Garnet, alias Edward Jarrett, described as a servant to Dorothy Habington (a sister-in-law of Mary Habington, said to have been converted by Oldcorne). During their examinations and interrogations, Nicholas Owen said that Garnet and Edward Hall (an alias of Oldcorne) usually dined at Hindlip with Thomas and Mary Habington. Owen acted as Garnet's servant, lighting his fire and other tasks.

Mary Habington went to London with Anne Vaux, and, according to John Gerard, met her captive husband. She thought her brother Lord Monteagle would be able to secure his early release. Habington is said to have replied that his family's support for the mother of James VI and I, Mary, Queen of Scots, would count in his favour.

Thomas Habington was put on trial, his property was forfeited, and given to Sir John Drummond, though Habington seems to have continued to live at Hindlip. When he made his will in 1642, Mary Habington was still alive.

Portraits
A portrait at Hindlip said to be hers was engraved for Treadway Russell Nash's Collections for the history of Worcestershire. Nash mentioned in an Archaeologia article a portrait at Hindlip of Elizabeth Stanley, Lady Morley, Mary Habington's mother. A picture of Robert Winter was displayed at Woollas Hall in Eckington. Nash and Edmond Malone mention that the Hindlip collection in the 18th-century included a portrait said to be of the conspirator Thomas Percy.

Children
Her children included:
 * William Habington, who married Lucy Herbert, a daughter of William Herbert, 1st Baron Powis
 * Anthony Habington
 * Frances Habington, who married John Braithwaite
 * Mary Habington, who married Walter Compton
 * Elizabeth Habington, who married Francis Fountain