to recant but the agents informed him that they were too "desperate and obstinate". Bonner, fearing that sending too many to the stake would cause unrest and maybe riots, came up with a compromise of a confession of faith that pleased both Catholics and Protestants, which they all signed. The group were then set free to make their own way back to Essex. Alas, Richard George, and his wife, were rearrested for his attitude towards Roman Catholics and imprisoned in Colchester Castle. In a fortunate turn of events for the Georges, Queen Elizabeth was crowned during their imprisonment and ended the persecution of Protestants. They were set free. The King's Wrath In 1540, the son of John Abell, Lord of the Manor of Cooks Hall, Bergholt, was executed at Smithfield on the orders of King Henry VIII. Thomas Abell who was brought up at Cooks Hall in the village, was chaplain to Henry's first wife, Catherine of Aragon, whom the King wanted to divorce to marry Anne Boleyn. Henry claimed that when he married Catherine, he had broken God's law and the marriage was invalid. On a secret mission to Spain, the Queen's chaplain sought to destroy the King's case for divorce and back in England, he argued against the King both in print and from the pulpit – with the inevitable result. After seven years in the Tower of London he was sentenced to "be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, there to be hanged, cut down alive, your members to be cut off and cast in the fire, your bowels burnt before your eyes, your head smitten off, your body to be quartered at the King's will, and God have mercy on your soul." There is still to be seen on the wall of his prison in the Tower of London a rebus consisting of the symbol of a bell with an A upon it and the name Thomas above, which he carved during his confinement. He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII as one of a group of fifty-four English Martyrs on 29 December 1886. Development of modern Bergholt 1725 is the first year that records of the village's largest pub appear – The White Hart, which is still in use today, although frequent fines for unlicensed brewing, breaking the assize of ale, and permitting the playing of illegal games such as tennis, suggest