The Catholic Prisoners at Wisbech Castle

My article ‘The Catholic Prisoners in Wisbech Castle, 1581-1616’ has just been published in volume 76 of the Wisbech Society Annual Review (2015), pp. 19-26. I gave a tour of the Bishop’s Palace at Ely to the Wisbech Society last summer, as a result of which they asked me to write an article on the Catholic prisoners, which surprisingly had never been covered in the seventy six years in which the Society had published a report on the history of the town! The article includes what I believe to be the first ever complete list of the prisoners, divided into their several religious orders, who amount to a total of 111. I compiled the list by combining information in the ODNB with information in the Calendars of State Papers, Acts of the Privy Council, manuscripts at Lambeth Palace Library, Godfrey Anstruther’s volumes on The Seminary Priests and Henry Foley’s Records of the English Jesuits. I consider it unlikely that any of the prisoners has escaped inclusion in the list.