The Wicked Lady Multi-Cache

So runs the rhyme, popular around Markyate since 1660. The treasure being the ill-gotten gains of 'The Wicked Lady', a notorious highway robber who preyed on lonely travellers crossing Nomansland Common. No treasure has ever been found.

It's the middle of the 17th century, King Charles I has lost his head and the country is in the iron grip of Oliver Cromwell. The families loyal to the crown have, at best, had their land sequestered; at worst they're on the run. Times are hard for the Royalists.

It's a dark, moonless night. A wagon, loaded with supplies for an Inn in Gustard Wood, trundles slowly across Nomansland Common. A masked rider appears on the track ahead and a single shot rings out. The waggoner slumps forward on the seat, dead and the Highwayman approaches the wagon. Suddenly, another shot cracks across the night and this time it's the Highwayman who slumps in the saddle. The waggoner had picked up another traveller a few miles back and this traveller was armed.
The rider's black stallion knows well the way home and carries its master away at full gallop. A short while later the rider collapses on the steps of her, yes... her, home. Lady Katherine Ferrers dies in the arms of her faithful servant on the front steps of Markyate Cell. He spirits her body away and buries her in the churchyard at Ware. The Wicked Lady's reign of terror has ended.
A beautiful, rich, young and aristocratic Lady by day; Katherine Ferrers was secretly a notorious Highwayman at night. Bored with her much older husband, she embarks on a clandestine affair with a Markyate farmer, one Ralph Chaplin and together they seek excitement and adventure as Highwaymen.
(Don't be confused by the two films entitled 'The Wicked Lady'. They were based on a novel by Magdalen King-Hall. The heroine is Lady Barbara Skelton and the hero, one Captain Jerry Jackson. The 1945 version starred Margaret Lockwood and the later 1983 version, Faye Dunaway.)
Justice is swift and final in these times and Ralph, caught 'red handed', meets his maker at the end of a rope on Finchley Common. A grieving and vengeful Katherine starts a reign of terror that includes robbery, murder and arson until she too, meets her own sticky end that night just outside the hamlet of Wheathampstead. Her ghost is said to haunt the Common around 'The Wicked Lady', a lonely pub on the road to St Albans. She has also been seen riding at full gallop along the A5 close to her home at Markyate Cell.
Well... that's the story, anyway. As with most folk stories, however, the facts don't quite match up with the fiction.

Location 1 - N51° 46.172' W000° 05.327' - Bayfordbury Hall.
The Bayfordbury Hall that stands today and is the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Hertfordshire is not the building that Katherine was born into. It was built in 1759 for Sir William Baker, a wealthy merchant of the time. As no other Bayfordbury Hall exists, one can only assume that sometime prior to it's building, Katherine's home had been demolished. There is no public access to Bayfordbury Park so I've hidden a cache along the Hertfordshire Way which runs along it's eastern boundary. Here you are searching for a small, clear 'Tab-Lock' container about 2.1/2 inches square. It contains two of the digits you need to complete the co-ordinates of the final cache. There is parking available, north of the cache at N51° 46.813'  W000° 05.110'.

The story really starts with Katherine's grandfather, Sir George Ferrers. The Ferrers family, great favourites of King Henry VIII and his son Edward VI, had been granted extensive lands, including estates at Bayfordbury, Ponsbourne, Flamstead, Agnells and Markyate Cell. Sir George's only surviving son, Knighton, marries Catherine Walter, a rich heiress from Hertingfordbury and they set up home at Bayfordbury. On the 4th May 1634 their daughter, Katherine, is born and Bayfordbury Hall is where she spends her early childhood. In 1640 her father dies and just a month later, her grandfather, Sir George, also passes away. At just 6 years old, Katherine is declared the sole heir to the Ferrers family fortune.
Rich young widows didn't stay unmarried for long and later that year her mother, Catherine, re-marries. This time to local landowner Simon Fanshawe. The Fanshawes, also Royalists, have extensive estates in Derbyshire and since 1570 had also owned Ware Park in Hertfordshire. Two years later, Catherine dies and in an effort to protect her fortune from the Fanshawes, the orphaned Katherine is made a 'Ward of Court' and sent to live with a relation, Lady Bedell (Bethell?), in Huntingdonshire.

Location 2 - N51° 50.432' W000° 27.859' - Markyate Cell.
Situated in the beautiful Ver Valley, Markyate Cell is so called because it stands on the site of a 13th century Augustinian (or possibly Benedictine) Priory. It was granted to the Ferrers family in 1536 when Henry VIII declared himself 'Head of the Church in England' and 're-distributed' a great deal of church property. The mansion they built in 1539-40 was badly damaged by fire in the 19th century but the current neo-Jacobean house still incorporates parts of the earlier building. At this location, you are about as close as you can get to the 'Big House' as there are no public 'Rights of Way' across the estate. You should find yourself standing in front of a foundation stone that has a date engraved on it.

It's April 1648, the Fanshawe fortune has been whittled away in support of Charles II, currently exiled in France. In an effort to get their hands on the Ferrers estates, Katherine is married, against her will, to her stepfather's nephew, Thomas Fanshawe (later to become 2nd Viscount Dromore). She is a month short of her 14th birthday and Thomas is just 16 years old. The young couple set up home at Markyate Cell and live there for the next 7 years. (At this juncture, I should mention that an extensive search of local records failed to turn up any information about Katherine's alleged lover and accomplice, Ralph Chaplin. In fact, there is no evidence what-so-ever that a family named Chaplin ever existed in the area at that time.)

Location 3 - N51° 48.981' W000° 03.374' - Ware Park.
Here you are searching for a small, clear 'Tab-Lock' container about 2.1/2 inches square. It contains two of the digits you need to complete the co-ordinates of the final cache. It's hidden just a couple of metres off a non-too-clearly defined footpath across the Ware Park Estate. There is limited off-road parking at N51° 48.527' W000° 04.110'. The footpath starts a short distance up the hill at the entrance to the Estate. If you want a look at the Hall, take a short detour halfway along the path to N51° 48.662' W000° 03.912'. If you 'loose' the footpath around here, it can be picked up again by the old iron 'kissing gate' at N51° 48.677' W000° 03.774'. In the early part of the year, one of the fields you must go through may be home to cows and their new calves. Please note.... Cows with calves can be aggressive.

Soon after the marriage was finalised, property vested in the Ferrers family was slowly turned into cash. Ponsbourne was sold in 1653 and in 1655, Katherine and Thomas moved to the Fanshawe family home at Ware Park. In 1657 Markyate Cell was sold to Thomas Coppin Esq of Kent. (This being the case, Katherine could not have been living there at the time she was supposed to have been rampaging around the surrounding countryside.) In 1658, Thomas was implicated in Sir George Booth's Presbyterian uprising and imprisoned. He was released in February 1660. In May of that year Charles II rode triumphantly into London for the Restoration of the Monarchy and in June, Katherine died at the age of just 26. According to the memoirs of Ann Fanshawe (the mother of Katherine's stepfather), she was not interred in the Fanshawe family vault in Derbyshire but was instead buried at St Mary's Church, Ware on 13th June 1660.

Location 4 - N51° 48.713' W000° 02.002' - St Mary's Church, Ware.
Curiously, there is no mention in any of the church's written records of Katherine being buried here, nor does she have a gravestone in the churchyard. In fact, there is no mention of a Katherine Ferrers (or Fanshawe) at all. There are numerous monuments to various other members of the Fanshawe Family but not a thing about Katherine. There is evidence that a church has been on this site since 1078 (probably much earlier) but the current building dates from 1380. It's been added to and renovated at various times, most significantly (and drastically) in 1849 when a great many monuments were cleared away. Could this be when Katherine's grave marker was 'lost'? Parking is a bit difficult here. I was fortunate enough to find a space outside 'The Albion', a cosy little pub that serves an excellent pint.

There is more than a little mystery and possibly scandal surrounding Katherine's death. Anne Fanshawe's memoirs, written after Katherine's death, refer to her as "a very great fortune and most excellent woman". A family history, written by Herbert Fanshawe many years later, states that "she died at her lodging in The Strand after being attended by Lady Fanshawe, possibly in childbirth." Weight is added to that by the fact that a "Marie Fanshawe, Daughter of Thomas Fanshawe" was buried at Ayott St Lawrence (not far from Ware) in November of the same year. For a child to survive for 5 months in those days, the pregnancy must have been very close to full term but husband Thomas had been in prison until 4 months before Katherine's death. So, if Katherine did die in childbirth, who was the father? ..... A highwayman, perhaps?

There is ample parking, within reasonable walking distance, in the aptly named "Ferrers Lane". If you feel a shiver run down your spine and the hairs on the back of your neck stand up as you open my treasure chest... DON'T TURN AROUND. You might just find yourself looking down the ghostly barrel of The Wicked Lady's flintlock pistol !!!!!

My thanks to John Barber for taking the time to answer my e-mails and to the ladies of St Mary's church for their endless patience.