Henry Walpole

Walpole, Henry, was born in 1558 at Docking, Norfolk. He studied at Peterhouse, Cambridge, but did not take his degree; then at Gray's Inn, finally in the English Colleges at Rheims and Rome. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1584 at Rome. He was sent to England in 1593, and landed Dec. 6, but was at once arrested, taken to York Castle, sent to the Tower of London, and finally to York, where, after being put through a form of trial, he was executed April 7/17, 1595 (De Backer, 1898, viii., 972; Dict. Nat. Biog., lix., 164, &c.). In 1581 Walpole contributed some verses to Stephen Vallenger's True Report of the death of Edmund Campion, S.J., the best-known being "Why do I use my paper, ink and pen" (see the Month, 1872, p. 118; Parker Society Select Poetry, 1845, p. 224). During his last imprisonment he wrote the well-known Prisoner's Song, beginning "My thirsty soul desires her draught" (p. 13, ii.), which is still sung in R. C. churches. See further Dublin Review, Oct. 1903, p. 354. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)