Records Volume 51: The Wishbech Stirs

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In order to bring together a collection of late 16th century material such as that here presented, it has been necessary to look to several sources , and in so doing many debts have been incurred . As will be seen, 23 documents are from the Westminster Cathedral Archives , 3 from the general Archives of the Society of Jesus in Rome, 1 from the English College, and 9 from the Archives of Stonyhurst College . For permission to publish these documents owe grateful thanks respectively to his Eminence, the late Cardinal Griffin , Archbishop of Westminster , the Very Revd . J. B. Janssens , General of the Society of Jesus , the Rt. Revd. Monsignor G. W. Tickle, Rector of the Venerable English College in Rome, and to the Very Revd . Fr. F. Vavasour, S.J. , Rector of Stonyhurst College . further gratefully acknowledge the kind permission of the Treasurer and Masters of the Hon . Society of the Inner Temple to publish 2 manuscripts in full, and to use excerpts from 3 others, from the Petyt Collection. Thanks are also due to the Revd. Fr. B. Fitzgibbon , S.J. , for very kindly providing translations for all the Latin documents included in the volume , and for much other help . Thanks must also be expressed to the following for granting facilities to study and copy manuscripts in their custody, either for inclusion in this book, or to obtain material for the notes and Introduction : the Revd. Fr. B. Fisher, Archivist of Westminster Cathedral, the Revd. Fr. H. Chadwick, S.J. , Librarian of Stonyhurst College , Mr. E. A. P. Hart , Librarian of the Inner Temple, and the Revd. W. M. Atkins, Librarian of St. Paul's Cathedral. Assistance has also been given by numerous other people in contributinginformationabout persons or events mentioned in these pages . Finally, I would acknowledge my great indebtedness to the Revd. Fr. L. Hicks , S.J. , for continual help and encouragement throughout the preparation of this volume and for generous permission to make use of highly documented work of his own, not yet published, concerning the troubles in the English College between 1595 and 1597 and the factions among the English Catholic exiles. This has been invaluable in dealing with the background to several documents, in particular Nos. XV, XXX, XXXII and

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Records Volume 51: The Wishbech Stirs

Published on Jan 1, 1958

The Catholic Record Society

Wisbech Castle, a much dilapidated property in the possession of the bishops of Ely, first served as a prison for notable Catholics in the summer of 1580.1 Such a use for it had, however, already been suggested in 1572, when Bishop Cox was ordered to report on its suitability for the accommodation of "religious prisoners who by crafty intelligences here and practises abroad cause trouble", and who were to be kept in one place at their own charge. 2 The first eight to be sent there included Thomas Watson, once Bishop of Lincoln, John Feckenham, once Abbot of Westminster, Thomas Metham, S. ]., Thomas Bluet, secular priest, and the lawyer Dr. Edmund Windham. 3 During ~he next few years the numbers gradually increased, and sometimes included several laymen. At the period covered by the documents in this present volume there were thirty-three prisoners, all of whom were priests, except for Thomas Pound, the Jesuit scholastic.