In 1600 Rigby was working as a steward for Sir Edmund Huddleston. Sir Edmund sent him to the sessions house of the Old Bailey to plead illness for the absence of his daughter, the widow Mrs. Fortescue, who had been summoned on a charge of recusancy. A commissioner then questioned Rigby about his own religious beliefs. Rigby acknowledged that he was Catholic, and was sent to Newgate. The next day, the feast day of St Valentine, he signed a confession saying that since he had been reconciled to the Roman Catholic faith by Saint John Jones, a Franciscan priest, in the Clink some two or three years previously, he had not attended Anglican services. He was sent back to Newgate and later transferred to the White Lion. Twice he was given the chance to recant, but twice refused. He told the judge that his sentence for treason "is the thing which I desire".