Richard Topcliffe

Richard Topcliffe (* November 14, 1531, † November or December 1604) was an English landowner, MP and member of the Bar Gray's Inn, which became known as interrogator of Queen Elizabeth I and a persecutor of members of the Catholic Church and as a " cruel torturer the Queen " was. Among his victims were, among others, the Jesuit Robert Southwell, John Gerard and Henry Garnet, but also the poet Ben Jonson.

Life and work

Topcliffe was the eldest son of a wealthy landowner Robert Topcliffe from the hamlet of Somerby in Lincolnshire and his wife Margaret, daughter of the third Baron Burgh of Gainsborough. The parents died when he was twelve years old, and his uncle Sir Anthony Neville was his guardian. He gave him in 1548 in the boarding of Gray 's Inn in the Borough of Holborn, near London, where he began to study law. Upon completion and acceptance into the Bar Association in 1557, he entered into the service of the then Princess Elizabeth, was, however, until the 1570s mainly concerned with managing its own lands.

He married Jane, daughter of Sir Edward Willoughby of Wollaton in Nottinghamshire. With her he had six children, his firstborn and principal heir Charles, three sons named John, all of whom died in infancy, and two daughters, Susannah and Margaret.

Topcliffe was 1572 elected member of Parliament, where he and later Old Sarum represented Beverley; however, he was preoccupied by Lord Burghley as an employee of internal security. Soon he had when Lord Burghley Chief Inquisitor and her Majesty's servant ( servant to Her Majesty The Queen ) the reputation of a relentless and resourceful interrogator and torturer in Elizabethan struggle against Catholicism, especially against the Jesuits and Catholic priests. Even in his own home in Westminister he had set up a torture chamber.

In return for his services he received from Elizabeth lands in Derbyshire, where he retired in 1604 and died at the age of 73 years.