 Sprott was ordained priest at Douai College in northern France, in 1596, was sent on the English mission that same year, and signed the letter to the pope, dated 8 November 1598, in favour of the institution in England of the archpriest.Hunt, a native of Norfolk, was a priest of the English College of Seville, and had been imprisoned at Wisbech, where he had escaped with five others, some months previously.They were arrested at the Saracen's Head, Lincoln, upon the discovery of the holy oils and two Breviaries in their mails.