Montford Scott

Brian Lacey

Brian Lacey, cousin and companion of Montford Scott, was apprehended with Scott in 1591. Lacey was committed to Bridewell where he was cruelly tortured by Topcliffe in the vain endeavour to elicit at whose houses he had been with Scott. He was arraigned before the lord mayor at the Old Bailey and condemned to be hanged for aiding and abetting priests. Five years previously Lacey had suffered imprisonment in Newgate for religion, and he was then three times examined by Justice Young. Information against him as a distributor and dispenser of letters to Catholics and against Montford Scott had been given by his own brother, Richard Lacey, gentleman, of Brockdish, Norfolk. Lacey was later declared "Venerable".