Background

Richard Topcliffe was a landowner and Member of Parliament during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I., and a representative of the ancient family of Topclifle, of Somerby in Lincolnshire.

A visitation of that County, made in 1592, informs us that he was the eldest son of Robert Topcliffe of Somerby, by Margaret, one of the daughters of Thomas Lord Borough, 1 that he married Jane, daughter of Sir Edward Willoughby, of Wollaton in Nottinghamshire; and had issue Charles, his son and heir; three sons, successively named John, who probably died infants, and a daughter, Susannah.

He was probably the Richard Topcliffe who was admitted student of Gray’s Inn in 1548. 2 It has been assumed that he was the Richard Topcliffe who, after being matriculated as a pensioner of Magdalene College, Cambridge, in November 1565, proceeded B.A. in 1568-9, and commenced M.A. in 1575. 3

He was a cousin to Sir Edmund Brudenell’s wife. In 1572, he was described as “the Queen’s servant.” He represented Beverley in the Parliament, which met on 8 May 1572, and was returned for Old Sarum to the parliament of 20 October 1586. After the collapse of the northern rebellion he was a suitor for the lands of Richard Norton (1488?-1588) [q.v.] of Norton Conyers, Yorkshire.

In 1584 a dispute began between him and the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Christopher Wray [q. v.], about his claim to the lay impropriation of the prebend of Corringham and Stowe in Lincoln Cathedral.

Subsequently he was regularly employed by Lord Burghley, but in what capacity does not appear. In 1586 he was described as one of her Majesty’s servants, and in the same year was commissioned to try an admiralty case.

He held some office about the court, and for twenty-five years or more he was most actively engaged in hunting out popish recusants, Jesuits, and seminary priests. This employment procured for him so much notoriety that “a Topcliffian custom” became an euphuism for putting to the rack, and, in the quaint language of the Court, “topcliffizare” signified to hunt a recusant.


  3 Reg. col. 20

2 Cooper: Athenæ Cantabr. ii. p. 386

1 Harl MS. 6998, art. 19

Topclyffe's Profession

The examination of Father Gerard, 14th day of April, 1597, is preserved in the Public Record Office, Domestic, Eliz., vol. 262, n. 123. The Commissioners were:

Father Gerard: On the third day, immediately after dinner, came my gaoler to me, and with sorrowful mien told me the Lords Commissioners had come, and with them the Queen’s Attorney General, [Coke] and that I must go down to them. I found five men, none of whom had before examined me except Wade, who was there for the purpose of accusing me on all points. The Queen’s Attorney General [Coke] then took a sheet of paper, and began to write a solemn form of juridical examination.

The Commissioners [extract] : Being demanded whether he received any letters from the parts beyond the seas or no, confesseth that within these four or five days he received from Antwerp (as he supposeth) letters inclosed and sealed up.

He confesseth that he received within this year past other letters from the parts beyond the seas, and two or three of them he confesseth he did read, and saith that those letters contained matter concerning maintenance of scholars beyond sea, but refuseth to declare who sent those letters or by whom the same were brought, and saith that some of those letters were sent from St. Omer.

And being demanded what was the cause that moved him to have escaped out of prison of late, saith that the cause was that he might have more opportunity to have won souls. And being demanded who procured the counterfeit keys for him, by means whereof he should have escaped, refuseth to tell who it was, for that, as he saith, he will not discover anything against any other that may bring them to trouble.

Examined by us,
Ry. Barkeley.
Edw. Coke.
Tho. Felemynge.
Fr. Bacon.
W. Waad.

On the back of a playing card (the seven of spades), which is attached to the original document, is written in Sir Edward Coke’s handwriting: Polewhele I; Walpole I; PatCullen I; Annias 31; Willms I; Squier; Jarrard I.

Polewhele, Patrick Cullen or O’Collun, Williams, and Squire were all executed for high treason, the latter on the accusation of having, at Father Walpole’s instigation, poisoned the pommel of Elizabeth’s saddle. Annias apostatized after two years’ imprisonment.

Father Gerard: They then produced the warrant, which they had for putting me to the torture, and gave it me to read; for it is not allowed in this prison to put any one to the torture without express warrant I saw the document was duly signed.

Then they began to entreat me not to force them to do what they were loath to do; and told me they were bound not to desist from putting me to the torture day after day, as long as my life lasted, until I gave the information they sought from me.

Then we proceeded to the place appointed for the torture. We went in a sort of solemn procession; the attendants preceding us with lighted candles, because the place was underground and very dark, especially about the entrance. It was a place of immense extent, and in it were ranged divers sorts of racks, and other instruments of torture. Some of these they displayed before me, and told me I should have to taste them every one.
Then again they asked me if I was willing to satisfy them on the points on which they had questioned me. “It is out of my power to satisfy you,” I answered; and throwing myself on my knees, I said a prayer or two.

Then they led me to a great upright beam, or pillar of wood, which was one of the supports of this vast crypt. At the summit of this column were fixed certain iron staples for supporting weights. Here they placed on my wrists manacles of iron, and ordered me to mount upon two or three wicker steps; I then raising my arms, they inserted an iron bar through the rings of the manacles, and then through the staples in the pillar, putting a pin through the bar so that it could not slip.

My arms being thus fixed above my head, they withdrew those wicker steps I spoke of, one by one, from beneath my feet, so that I hung by my hands and arms. The tips of my toes, however, still touched the ground; so they dug away the ground beneath, as they could not raise me higher, for they had suspended me from the topmost staples in the pillar.

Thus hanging by my wrists, I began to pray, while those gentlemen standing round asked me again if I was willing to confess. I replied, “I neither can nor will.” But so terrible a pain began to oppress me, that I was scarce able to speak the words. The worst pain was in my breast and belly, my arms and hands. It seemed to me that all the blood in my body rushed up my arms into my hands; and I was under the impression at the time that the blood actually burst forth from my fingers and at the back of my hands. This was, however, a mistake; the sensation was caused by the swelling of the flesh over the iron that bound it.

I felt now such intense pain (and the effect was probably heightened by an interior temptation), that it seemed to me impossible to continue enduring it. It did not, however, go so far as to make me feel any inclination or real disposition to give the information they wanted. For as the eyes of our merciful Lord had seen my imperfection, He did not suffer me to be tempted above what I was able, but with the temptation made also a way of escape.

Hereupon those gentlemen, seeing that I gave them no further answer, departed to the Lieutenant’s house; and there they waited, sending now and then to know how things were going on in the crypt. There were left with me three or four strong men, to superintend my torture.

My gaoler also remained, I fully believe out of kindness to me, and kept wiping away with a handkerchief the sweat that ran down from my face the whole time, as, indeed, it did from my whole body.

So far, indeed, he did me a service; but by his words, he rather added to my distress, for he never stopped beseeching and entreating me to have pity on myself, and tell these gentlemen what they wanted to know; and so many human reasons did he allege, that I verily believe he was either instigated directly by the devil under pretence of affection for me, or had been left there purposely by the persecutors to influence me by his show of sympathy.

Yet I could not prevail with him to be silent. The others also who stood by said: “He will be a cripple all his life, if he lives through it; but he will have to be tortured daily till he confesses.” But I kept praying in a low voice, and continually uttered the holy names of Jesus and Mary.

I had hung in this way till after one of the clock, as I think, when I fainted. How long I was in the faint I know not; perhaps not long; for the men who stood by lifted me up, or replaced those wicker steps under my feet, until I came to myself; and immediately they heard me praying, they let me down again. This they did over and over again when the faint came on, eight or nine times before five of the clock.

Somewhat before five came Wade again, and drawing near said, “Will you yet obey the commands of the Queen and the Council?” “No,” said I, “what you ask is unlawful, therefore I will never do it.” “At least then,” said Wade, “say that you would like to speak to Secretary Cecil.” “I have nothing to say to him,” I replied, “more than I have said already; and if I were to ask to speak to him, scandal would be caused, for people would imagine that I was yielding at length, and wished to give information.” Upon this Wade suddenly turned his back in a rage, and departed, saying in a loud and angry tone, “Hang there, then, till you rot!”

So he went away, and I think all the Commissioners then left the Tower; for at five of the clock the great bell of the Tower sounds, as a signal for all to leave who do not wish to be locked in all night. Soon after this they took me down from my cross, and though neither foot nor leg was injured, yet I could hardly stand. I scarcely tasted anything, but laid myself on my bed, and remained quiet there till the next morning.

Early next morning, however, soon after the Tower gates were opened, my gaoler came up to the cell and told me that Master Wade had arrived, and that I must go down to him. I went down, therefore, that time in a sort of cloak with wide sleeves, for my hands were so swollen that they would not have passed through ordinary sleeves.

After further questioning, Wade insisted “It would be better for you if you did confess,” and thereupon he summoned from the next room a gentleman who had been there waiting, a tall and commanding figure, whom he called the Superintendent of Torture.

Wade said, “In the name of the Queen, and of the Lords of her Council, I deliver this man into your hands. You are to rack him twice today and twice daily until such time as he chooses to confess.” The officer then took charge of me, and Wade departed.

Thereupon we descended with the same solemnity as before into the place appointed for torture, and again they put the manacles on the same part of my arms as before; indeed, they could not be put on in any other part, for the flesh had so risen on both sides that there were two hills of flesh with a valley between, and the manacles would not meet anywhere but in the valley. Here then were they put on, not without causing me much pain.

Our good Lord, however, helped me, and I cheerfully offered Him my hands and my heart. So I was hung up again as I before described; and in my hands I felt a great deal more pain than on the previous day, but not so much in my breast and belly, perhaps because this day I had eaten nothing.

While thus hanging I prayed, sometimes silently, sometimes aloud, recommending myself to our Lord Jesus and His Blessed Mother. I hung much longer this time without fainting, but at length I fainted so thoroughly that they could not bring me to, and they thought that I either was dead or soon would be.

So they called the Lieutenant, but how long he was there I know not, nor how long I remained in the faint. When I came round, however, I found myself no longer hanging by my hands, but supported sitting on a bench, with many people round me, who had opened my teeth with some iron instrument, and were pouring warm water down my throat.
Now when the Lieutenant saw I could speak, he said: “Do you not see how much better it is for you to yield to the wishes of the Queen than to lose your life this way?” Upon refusing, I was suspended, therefore, a third time, and hung there in very great pain of body, but not without great consolation of soul, which seemed to me to arise from the prospect of dying.

After awhile the Lieutenant, seeing that he made no way with me by continuing the torture, or because the dinner-hour was near at hand, or perhaps through a natural feeling of compassion, ordered me to be taken down. I think I hung not quite an hour this third time. I am rather inclined to think that the Lieutenant released me from compassion; for, some time after my escape, a gentleman of quality told me he had it from Sir Richard Barkley himself (who was this very Lieutenant of whom I speak), that he had of his own accord resigned the office he held, because he would no longer be an instrument in torturing innocent men so cruelly. And, in fact, he gave up the post after holding it but three or four months, and another Knight was appointed in his stead, in whose time it was that I made my escape.

Apart from Francis Bacon’s participation in Father Gerard’s examination, he is also found to have been present at the examination of two servants of Mrs. Vaux.

Among the papers of Sir Edward Phelips, preserved at Montacute House, Somersetshire, of which a copy has been deposited in the Public Record Office by the Historical MSS. Commission, we have the examinations of two of Mrs. Vaux’ servants, one of whom is the “Ric. the butler” of whom “the examination of Francis Swetnam, servant to Mrs. Elizabeth Vaux, and served her in the bake house, taken the third of December, 1605.” The mark of the examiners are: Francis Q. Swetnam, Jul. Caesar, Rogr. Wilbraham, E. Phelipps, Jo. Croke, George More, Walter Cope, Fr. Bacon, John Doddridge. (folio 25).


John Morris: The Condition of Catholics Under James I., 1871

 

The writer of an account of the apprehension of the Jesuit Robert Southwell [q. v.], preserved among the bishop of Southwark’s manuscripts, asserts that “because the often exercise of the rack in the Tower was so odious, and so much spoken of by the people, Topcliffe had authority to torment priests in his own house in such sort as he shall think good.” In fact, he himself boasted that he had a machine at home, of his own invention, compared with which the common racks in use were mere child’s play. 4

The account of his cruel treatment of Southwell would be incredible if it were not confirmed by admissions in his own handwriting. 5 Great indignation was excited, even among the protestants, and so loud and severe were the complaints to the Privy Council that Cecil, in order to mitigate the popular feeling, caused Topcliffe to be arrested and imprisoned upon pretence of having exceeded the powers given to him by the warrant; but the imprisonment was of short duration. At a later period Nicholas Owen [q. v.] and Henry Garnett [q. v.] were put to the test of the Topcliffe rack.

5 (a) Lansdowne MS. 73, art. 47 (b) Tanner: Societas Jesu usque ad sanguinis et vitæ profusionem militans, p. 35


  4 (a) Rambler: February 1857, pp. 108-118 (b) Dodd: Church Hist. ed. Tierney, vol. iii. Append, p. 197

 

Topcliffe’s name appears in the special commission against Jesuits which was issued on 26 March 1593. In November 1594 he sued one of his accomplices, Thomas Fitzherbert, who had promised, under bond, to give £5,000 to Topcliffe if he would persecute Fitzherbert’s father and uncle to death, together with Mr. Bassett. Fitzherbert pleaded that the conditions had not been fulfilled, as his relatives died naturally, and Bassett was in prosperity. This being rather too disgraceful a business to be discussed in open court, “the matter was put over for secret hearing,” when Topcliffe used some expressions which reflected upon the Lord Keeper and some members of the Privy Council.

Thereupon he was committed to the Marshalsea for contempt of court, and detained there for some months. Daring his incarceration he addressed two letters to the Queen, and, in Dr. Jessopp’s opinion, “two more detestable compositions it would be difficult to find.”

Topcliffe was out of prison again in October 1595. In 1596 he was engaged in racking certain gipsies or Egyptians who had been captured in Northamptonshire, and in 1597 he applied the torture of the manacles to Thomas Travers, who was in Bridewell for stealing the Queen’s Standish. 6

In 1598 he was present at the execution of John Jones, the Franciscan, whom he had hunted to death. He got possession of the old family house of the Fitzherberts at Padley, Derbyshire, and was living there in February 1603/4. He died before 3 December 1604, when a grant of administration was made in the prerogative court of Canterbury to his daughter Margaret.

He married Jane, daughter of Sir Edward Willoughby of Wollaton, Nottinghamshire, and by her had issue Charles, his heir; three other sons named John who probably died in infancy; and two daughters, Susannah and Margaret.

Dr. Jessopp describes Topcliffe as “a monster of iniquity,” and Father Gerard in his narrative of the gunpowder plot speaks of the “cruellest Tyrant of all England, Topcliffe, a man most infamous and hateful to all the realm for his bloody and butcherly mind.” 7

A facsimile of a curious pedigree of the Fitzherbert family compiled by him for the information of the Privy Council is given in Foley’s Records, ii. p. 198.

He was reputed to have a vehement temper and became notorious as a priest-hunter and torturer of the time.


He entered the service of the Queen’s secretary, Lord Burghley in the 1570’s, though worked mostly for Sir Francis Walsingham and the Privy Council in general; he regarded his authority as deriving directly from Queen Elizabeth I.

Sir Francis Walsingham was, perhaps, one of the very worst of the bad men connected with the Council of Elizabeth. For art in corrupting others, and skill in elevating treachery to the dignity of a science; for ability in planning and carrying out forgery, as well as in arranging for the assassination of inconvenient allies or open enemies, Francis Walsingham was vastly superior to his friend William Cecil.

7 Morris: Condition of Catholics, p. 18

6 Jardine: Reading on the Use of Torture in England, pp. 41, 99, 101

 

Gilbert Stuart, painter:

I know it, that is 1; you know it, that makes 11; tell your friend, and there are 111; but that is one hundred and eleven.

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