Ven. Henry Walpole

Ven. Henry Walpole

English Jesuit martyr, born at Docking, Norfolk, 1558; martyred at York, 7 April, 1595. He was the eldest son of Christopher Walpole, by Margery, heiress of Richard Beckham of Narford, and was educated at Norwich School, Peterhouse, Cambridge, and Gray's Inn. Converted by the death of Blessed Edward Campion, he went by way of Rouen and Paris, to Reims, where he arrived, 7 July, 1582. On 28 April, 1583, he was admitted into the English College, Rome, and in October received minor orders. On 2 February, 1584, he became a probationer of the Society, and soon after went to France, where he continued his studies, chiefly at Pont-à-Mousson. He was ordained subdeacon and deacon at Metz, and priest at Paris, 17 Dec., 1588. After acting as chaplain to the Spanish forces in the Netherlands, suffering imprisonment by the English at Flushing in 1589, and being moved about to Brussels, Tournai, Bruges, and Spain, he was at last sent on the mission in 1590. He was arrested landing at Flamborough, and imprisoned at York. The following February he was sent to the Tower, where he was frequently and severely racked. He remained there until, in the spring of 1595, he was sent back to York for trial. With him suffered Alexander Rawlins, of the Diocese of Gloucester. After being twice imprisoned at Newgate for religion in 1586, Rawlins arrived at Reims, 23 Dec., 1589; he was ordained subdeacon at Laon, 23 September, 1589, deacon and priest at Soissons, 17 and 18 March, 1590, was sent on the mission the following 9 April, and landed at Whitby.

See, for Walpole: JESSOPP, One Generation of a Norfolk House (Norwich, 1878); IDEM, Dict. Nat. Biog., s.v.; POLLEN, English Martyrs 1584-1603 in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ. (London, 1908). For Rawlins: CHALLONER, Missionary Priests, I, nn. 90 and 108; KNOX, Doway Diaries (London, 1878); Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ., II, 261, 264, 267.

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT