Calverley WWI

Walter Calverley (1579–1605) was an English squire from Yorkshire. Perhaps the most infamous member of the Calverley family, he is known for murdering two of his young children, leading to his own death by pressing in 1605. His story has long been associated with two plays which were performed shortly after the events of 1605 and which were published in 1607 and 1608: The Miseries of Enforced Marriage and A Yorkshire Tragedy. These plays have strongly influenced the historic record, including his entry by Sidney Lee in the Dictionary of National Biography. Modern scholarship, based on historic legal documents and contemporary letters, provides a different picture. In some of her letters, his mother-in-law spelled the name "Coverley", which suggests that it was then pronounced with the "al" as in "calf" (; "Calverley" means "pasture for calves").