248 NORBURY MANOR HOUSE AND THE FITZHERBERTS. 
Richard Topcliffe. Topcliffe persuaded young Thomas that if he 
would turn informer, his influence would be sufficient to procure 
for him the Padley and other forfeited estates. Shortly before his 
death in the Tower, Sir Thomas Fitzherbert made a will by which 
he disinherited his grandson Thomas; but Topcliffe was on the 
look-out, obtained access to his cell, found the will, carried it off to 
Archbishop Whitgift, and with his sanction it was destroyed.* 
Thomas thus by fraud inherited that which remained of the Nor- 
bury and other unforfeited lands: but it is satisfactory to find 
that, after prolonged litigation, he did not succeed to the valuable 
manor of Padley, which actually for a time fell into the hands of 
Topcliffe, and the brief remainder of his life was brimful of misery 
and crime. It is even most satisfactory to learn that Topcliffe 
also reaped no advantage from Padley, which was taken from him 
just when he was meditating there ending the last days of his active 
but ever evil pilgrimage. 
Dr. Jessop, in pointing to the connection of Topcliffe with the 
persecution of the Norfolk recusants, has justly said—‘“ I cannot 
bring myself to dwell very much upon him, and I am reserving 
myself for an article upon him and his misdeeds when some 
learned doctor of philosophy shall undertake to edit a Biographical 
Dictionary of Rogues and Murderers ; then I shall be ready for 
the task of writing the masterpiece of the volume.” His awful 
cruelty to Father Southwell, and other victims who were handed 
over to him to torture as he pleased, the seduction (if not worse) 
of the daughter of one of his important prisoners by a hideous 
bribe, and the subsequent forcing her to turn informer against her 
own kindred, these and other sickening crimes have been already 
placed on record against him; but we doubt if the infamous 
nature of his transactions against the Fitzherberts is not the crown- 
ing point of Topcliffe’s iniquity. There was no depth of degrada- 
tion to which the man could not stoop, as is shown by the 
wholesale accusation of unnatural crimes that he preferred against 
* Tn the the oldest Act Book of the Probate Court of Lichfield is an entry 
for administering the goods of Sir Thomas Fitzherbert (treated as an intestate), 
taken out by his nephew Thomas as nearest of kin, under date October roth, 
1591. ; 
x 
