The Arts In Berwick -- Religion
The Preacher and the Captain's Wife

Norham was the setting of John Knox's wooing of his wife.

Born in Haddington, Knox (1513-72) had been a Catholic priest before becoming a fanatically zealous convert to the Reformation. Saved from life as a French galley slave, he came to Berwick in 1549 and stayed for just over a year before going to Newcastle.

While in Berwick he took up with a Mrs.Bowes, wife of a Captain at Norham Castle, as her "spiritual adviser", and married her daughter. He also worked on a tract called "A Declaration of what True Prayer is, how we should Pray and for what we should Pray". In 1552 he published "Letter to the Congregation of Berwick", saying that kneeling at the Lord's table, a piece of papist flummery, would have to be endured to avoid provoking the magistratesl.

When Mary came to the throne Knox, his wife and Mrs Bowes fled to Geneva, leaving Captain Bowes in Norham.

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