FATHER WESTON'S NARRATIVE
72
Crofer Cray comytted x ° octobris 1579 Died in pson xxix° nowembris px°. John Lichfeild comytted 20 Decembris & deliu'ed xxx° Aprilis tunc px°. Robert Smart comytted iijo ffebruarij & deliured v° ffebruary px°. Richard Atkyns comytted 18 Aprilis 1580 & deliured 21 Aprilis px°. Willm Mudge comytted 24 Maij & deliured the same daye. Addressed] To the Right honorable Sr ffrancis Walsingham Knight principall Secretary to the Quenes Mtie one of her Matie most honorable privie Councell . Endorsed] August 1580 from the Keeper of ye Compter in Wood streat Certificate what prisoners he hath for cawse of religion .
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III THE CONCLUSION OF THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FATHER WILLIAM WESTON , S.J. [THE late Father John Morris , S.J. , in the Second Series of his Troubles of our
Catholic Forefathers printed an English translation of the autobiography of Father Weston from the original autograph at Stonyhurst, as far as that manuscript went. A considerable numberof pages , however, were missing at the end, and it was my good fortune to make up the loss, from a complete copy preserved in a Jesuit archive abroad, Anglia Historica, vol . 1 , p . 550 , etc. The translation is from the pen of the Rev. Father Joseph Rickaby , S.J. In the published portion of his autobiography Father Weston omitting all mention of his birth at Maidstone in 1550 , and of his studies at Oxford , Paris, Rome , Cordova and Seville begins his story with his landing in England in September , 1584. He describes his adventures , exorcisms, experiences , missionary labours, and finally his capture in 1586 , examinations and imprisonment first in the Clink , then , 1588 , in Wisbeach Castle. Prison treatment was at first severe , but on November 16, 1592 ( Acts of Privy Council), the régime was rearranged on the model of the Fleet , where prisoners were better used. A good deal of liberty was now allowed, and in course of time the majority of the priests, withWeston attheir head , adopted a sort of college life in prison. But theminority strongly opposed this : sides were taken, and the division gradually deepened into the well-known WisbeachStirs. " It is from this point that the story is here taken up. We must regret that , as indicated in the third paragraph, the writer thought it better to leave the account of the troubles " to the narration of others. " -- J.H.P . ]
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I was kept in this prison [Wisbeach ] nearly eleven whole years, of which for six or so , if I remember right , I was close shut up ; the other five I spent in a little greater liberty in company with
others. When our former keeper had been removed by a hideous death, another was appointed in his place. This man wanted to make himself out to be of gentle stock because he had been for some time in the household of William Cecil the Treasurer , by whose favour and influence he had obtained a Government appointment as Justice of the Peace . This man I say got the care of looking after us , an office of no great labour, carrying with it many rich yearly perquisites and revenues. He took himselffor no mere keeper of the prison , but by virtue of the authority which he had over laymen he trusted that it was within his competence and part of his duty to