Editing Charles Waterton (section)

==Family and religion==
Waterton was of a Roman Catholic [[landed gentry]] family descended from Reiner de [[Waterton, Lincolnshire|Waterton]]. The Watertons had remained Catholic after the English Reformation and consequently the vast majority of their estates were confiscated.<ref name="Walker">{{cite journal |first=J. W. |last=Walker |title=The Burghs of Cambridgeshire and Yorkshire and the Watertons of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire |date=1931 |journal=The Yorkshire Archæological Journal |volume=XXX |pages=314–419}}</ref> Charles Waterton himself was a devout and ascetic Catholic, and maintained strong links with the Vatican.

"Squire" Waterton was born at [[Walton Hall, West Yorkshire|Walton Hall]], Wakefield, Yorkshire, to Thomas Waterton and Anne Bedingfield.

He was educated at [[Stonyhurst College]] in [[Lancashire]] where his interest in exploration and wildlife were already evident. On one occasion Waterton was caught by the school's Jesuit Superior scaling the towers at the front of the building; almost at the top, the Superior ordered him to come down the way he had gone up.<ref>{{cite book |first=Anthony |last=Hewitson |title=Stonyhurst College, Present and Past |publisher=Legare Street Press |date=2023 |isbn=978-1021199874}}</ref> Waterton records in his autobiography that while he was at the school: <blockquote>By a mutual understanding, I was considered rat-catcher to the establishment, and also fox-taker, [[foumart]]-killer, and cross-bow charger at the time when the young [[rook (bird)|rook]]s were fledged. ... I followed up my calling with great success. The vermin disappeared by the dozen; the books were moderately well-thumbed; and according to my notion of things, all went on perfectly right.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15567a.htm |last=Keating |first=J. |date=1912 |chapter=Charles Waterton |title=The Catholic Encyclopedia |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |location=New York}}</ref></blockquote>