“In 1559, Elizabeth 1st outlawed the Catholic Mass. ‘Recusant’ was a term referring to people who remained loyal to the Roman Catholic Church and did not attend Church of England services. Recusants were served by priests ordained under Queen Mary until the 1570s, after which seminaries on the Continent began sending ordained Englishmen to England as priests. This in turn led to a state clampdown and between 1580-1616, 111 priests and laypeople were imprisoned at Wisbech Castle, Norfolk. In the Cambridgeshire Fens, a network of sympathisers facilitated the regular escape of priests from Wisbech Castle. Catholic families constructed hiding places and escape routes for fugitive priests, including the well-known local priest-hole at Oxburgh Hall, which, we can assure you is rather difficult to enter and exit! In 1767, twenty-seven Catholics were recorded as living in Oxborough.”
Recusants
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