Tamworth straddles the border between Staffordshire and Warwickshire, but since the parish church of St Editha, where William Chadbourne's family was recorded, is in the Staffordshire part of the city, references to Tamworth here will use Staffordshire for consistency. It is noted, however, that Robert Chadbourne, in his will, states his residence as Tamworth in Warwickshire, and it may be that the family resided in that portion of the parish.
Despite being married in the Anglican church and allowing his children to be baptized there, it is clear from the deposition in John Fisher's book ( The Book of John Fisher, Town Clerk and Deputy Recorder of Warwick 1580-1588, transcribed and edited by Thomas Kemp, Deputy-Mayor of Warwick, 1900) that Robert Chadbourne was a Roman Catholic. He clearly states that he was raised in the time of Henry VIII when there was a "different order" (officially-sanctioned Roman Catholicism). Henry reigned from 1509 to 1547 and declared the new order in 1537. There was considerable religious confusion at this time, and the subsequent reigns of Edward VI and his sister Mary did little to settle the matter. It was not until Elizabeth I succeeded to the throne in 1558 that things began to stabilize and the "new order" was identifiable. Robert Chadbourne may well have been referring to the "time of Henry VIII" in a very broad sense since, if he was truly brought up in that reign, he was unusually old at the time of his marriage.15