Edmund Arrowsmith (1585-1628) was one of the 15 Catholics martyred in Lancashire between 1584 and 1646, although there were several other Lancastrians who died for the old faith outside the county.
Extraordinarily, although recusancy in Lancashire was a matter for government concern as early as the 1560s, the number of active Lancashire Catholics – particularly in the south and west parts of the county – seems actually to have increased after 1581, when the Elizabethan regime intensified the persecution.
