Manuscripts of Anthony Tyrrell's ‘Lamentable Confession’

Anthony Tyrrell, born in 1552 of an Essex family, was ordained priest in Rome about 1580 and returned to England soon afterwards. In April 1581, he was imprisoned in the Gatehouse prison in London, but he soon escaped and went back to the Continent. He came to England again at the end of 1584, and was imprisoned again, in the Counter prison, Wood Street, London, in July 1586. He now made many disclosures regarding Catholics, and in September he was moved to the Clink prison in order that he might have more scope to act as an informer amongst the many Catholics confined there. Shortly afterwards he was released. He continued for a while to act outwardly as a Catholic, while in reality being a spy for the Government; then he openly announced his conversion to Protestantism. Soon, however, he repented of his behaviour, fled to the Continent once more, and wrote his ‘lamentable confession’, as he called it, exposing in detail the duplicity of his former life.