Henry Morse

Henry Morse (1595 – 1 February 1645) was one of the Catholic Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

Biography Henry Morse was born a Protestant in 1595 at his grandmother's house at Brome in the English county of Suffolk, the son of Robert Morse, a minor landowner of Tivetshall St Mary, Norfolk.

At the age of 16, Henry went to study law at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and continued at Gray's Inn, London. Upon his father's death in 1614, he went to France to join his brother William, who was at Douai studying to be a priest. Morse converted to Roman Catholicism at the English College, Douay. He returned to England to settle some financial arrangements and was arrested at Dover for refusing to take the Oath of allegiance and confined to Southwark gaol.

Morse remained incarcerated with a number of priests for four years, until King James I of England ordered amnesty and banishment for about 100 priests, in furtherance of negotiations to arrange a Spanish marriage for his son Prince Charles. He arrived back at Douai in August 1618 and was sent to the English College in Rome to commence his studies. While there, he used the alias "Henry Claxon" to shield his identity from the Crown's spies.

In 2012, a Catholic church dedicated to Henry Morse was built on Shelfanger Road in Diss, replacing the church of the Most Holy Trinity.