Editing Wisbech (section)

===Early Modern===

[[Edward IV of England|Edward IV]] visited Wisbech in 1469.<ref>{{cite web|last=Lysons|first=Samuel|date=18 August 2018|title=Magna Britannia;: Being a Concise Topographical Account of the Several Counties of Great Britain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-zwJAAAAIAAJ&q=Edward+I+and+Edward+IV+visits+to+wisbech&pg=PA289|access-date=18 August 2018|publisher=T. Cadell and W. Davies|via=Google Books}}</ref>

In 1549, Wisbech was incorporated as a [[ancient borough|borough]] under a [[municipal charter|charter]] from [[Edward VI]].<ref name=commissioners/> In the same year, William Bellman gave a plot of land for the [[Wisbech Grammar School]] schoolhouse.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Victoria History of the count is of England: Cambridge and the isle of Ely vol II | first= LF | last = Salzman| publisher = Dawson's of Pall Mall | year=1967 }}</ref>
In 1333–4 the kiln in the town was producing 120,000 bricks. There were several fisheries belonging to the manor of Wisbech and in the 1350s the reeves of Walton and Leverington each sent a porpoise to Wisbech Castle, and the reeve of Terrington a swordfish.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PVATDAAAQBAJ&q=plague+wisbech&pg=PA30|title=Decision making in Mediaeval Agriculture|via=google.co.uk|access-date=1 November 2019|isbn=9780199247769|last1=Stone|first1=David|date=29 September 2005|publisher=OUP Oxford }}</ref>

During the reigns of [[Elizabeth I]], [[James VI and I|James I]], and [[Charles I of England|Charles I]], there was a state ecclesiastical prison in Wisbech for Catholics, many of whom died there owing to the insanitary conditions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wisbech-society.co.uk/castle.html |title=The Wisbech Society & Preservation Trust, The Castle|website=Wisbech-society.co.uk|access-date=18 August 2018}}</ref>
A dispute arising amongst the Catholic prisoners was widely known as the [[Wisbech Stirs]].
In 1588 it is claimed that [[Robert Catesby]] and [[Francis Tresham]] were committed to Wisbeach Castle on the approach of the [[Spanish Armada]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Memoirs of the court of James I|url= https://archive.org/details/memoirscourtkin07aikigoog| author= Lucy Aikin|publisher= Longman|year=1822}}</ref> Among those held there was [[John Feckenham]], the last [[Abbot of Westminster]]. The palace was demolished and replaced with [[John Thurloe]]'s mansion in the mid-17th century, and Thurloe's mansion demolished in 1816 by [[Joseph Medworth]], who also developed The Circus comprising [[The Crescent, Wisbech|The Crescent]], Union Place and Ely Place with Museum Square and Castle Square familiar as the settings in numerous costume dramas.

In 1620 former Wisbech residents William White and Dorothea Bradford (née May) sailed on the [[Mayflower]] to the [[New World]] with her husband [[William Bradford (governor)|William Bradford]] later to be Governor Bradford.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mayflower400uk.org/education/mayflower-passengers-list-an-interactive-guide/|title=Mayflower passenger list|website=www.mayflower400uk.org|access-date= 25 August 2019}}</ref>