In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Thomas Jenison, late Auditor to her Majesty in Ireland, purchased estates in the parishes of Heighington and Coniscliffe in the County Palatine of Durham, and built himself a magnificent new mansion at Walworth just to the north of the Tees. Here, in 1603, his widow entertained King James I as he was journeying southward. This lady, Elizabeth Jenison, was daughter to Edward Birch, Groom Porter to Henry VIII. From her will, made in 1605, we learn that three of her sons, William “the elder,” John and Michael, were, to her grief, Catholics, while William “the younger,” Thomas and Elizabeth, wife of Sir George Freville, adhered to the religion of their mother. Possibly the father had heen Catholic: certainly he was in sympathy with Catholics abroad, for when Lady Stanley was arrested in Ireland after the surrender of Daventer hy her husband in 1586, she was advised to get in touch with Mr Jenison the Auditor.