William Wiggers of Barsinghorn, in the Year 1534

About the year 1534, a God-fearing, devout brother named William Wiggers, who lived at Barsinghorn, a village in North Holland near Schagen, was brought from there to the castle at Schagen, for the true faith and the practice of it. [n626-1] In that place he was imprisoned for about eight days, and was then beheaded with the sword, at early dawn, in the gate of that castle, for the testimony of Jesus Christ, enduring it with great steadfastness. And since he was a God-fearing and agreeable man, he was often employed by the lord of Schagen to transact his worldly business. So it came about that when the servants of Schagen came to his house to arrest him, he supposed they had come for the sake of former friendship and acquaintance; so he sent his wife to get some food with which to treat these servants; but before she returned, the dean with his servants, sent by the Roman antichrist, came and took this defenseless sheep of Christ with them to Schagen, even though the bailiff of Barsinghorn offered himself as security for the prisoner. Wigger Hendericks, father of the William Wiggers mentioned above, who was also a secular magistrate, having seen that his God-fearing son had, without right and reason, been thus secretly murdered with the sword, at once gave up his office, and would no longer administer the secular power.