Richard Leigh (martyr)

Blessed Richard Leigh (c. 1557 – 1588) was an English Roman Catholic martyr born in Cambridge, the scion of Cheshire gentry, squires of the West Hall, High Legh since the 11th century.

Blessed Richard Leigh
BornCambridgeshire, England
Died30 August 1588
Tyburn, London, England
Venerated inRoman Catholic Church
Beatified15 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI
Feast30 August

Life
Leigh coat of arms

Richard Leigh was the son of Richard Leigh, who attended Cambridge University, and Clemence Holcroft, daughter of Sir John Holcroft.[1] He was the subject of a childhood arranged marriage at Middleton, 22 September 1562 with Anne Belfield (married in 1574 William Assheton, steward of the manor of Rochdale), daughter of Ralph Belfield, of Clegg Hall, who had died without a male heir in 1552. Her sister, Elizabeth, was married on the same day to Alexander Barlow (later Sir Alexander Barlow) and both marriages were subsequently annulled on the grounds of being so young that "doth not remember that he ever was marryed."[2]

Leigh attended Shrewsbury School before studying divinity at Reims and at Rome, where he was ordained in 1586.[3] He returned to England but before reaching Cheshire, was arrested in London and banished. He returned to England again and was arrested on 4 July 1588, about two weeks before the arrival of the Spanish Armada. In the aftermath of the failed invasion, there was an immediate reaction against Catholics.

Imprisoned in the Tower of London, he was condemned at the Old Bailey for being a priest and hanged at Tyburn on 30 August 1588, with five others who have been declared Venerable: Richard Martin, John Roche, Edward Shelley, Richard Lloyd (alias Flower) and Margaret Ward.[4][5] Leigh was beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929.

Blessed Richard Flowers (Lloyd)
Bornc.1566
Anglesey, Wales
Died30 August 1588
Tyburn, London, England
Venerated inRoman Catholic Church
Beatified15 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI
Feast30 August

Richard Flower

The individual commonly known as Richard Flower was born Richard Lloyd, probably around 1566, to a notable family of Anglesey. He also went under the names Fludd and Graye.[4] By 1584, he is mentioned in government interrogation reports as "the chiefest reliever of priests". The law at that time declared that anyone who knowingly "shall receive, relieve, aid, or comfort a Seminary priest, are felons..."[6] Lloyd was accused of providing aid to a priest named William Horner, in the parish of St. Dunstan's, Farringdon Without. According to Christopher Grene, Lloyd gave Horner, alias Forest, a quart of wine. Grene says that since at the time of Lloyd's trial, Horner was only a supposed priest, being neither under arrest, condemned, nor outlawed, the court was unsure if he even was a priest. Lloyd was executed at Tyburn 30 August 1588, at about twenty-two years of age.[6]

See also

References
  1. Burke's Landed Gentry (1952 edn), LEIGH formerly of West Hall, High Legh.
  2. The History of the Parish of Rochdale in the County of Lancaster (1889) p. 340, Lt-Col. Henry Fishwick FSA, later Pres. Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society
  3. Walsh, Michael. "Richard Leigh", A New Dictionary of Saints, Liturgical Press, 2007 ISBN 9780814631867
  4. Wainewright, John. "Ven. Richard Leigh." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 3 Feb. 2014
  5. Stanton, Richard. A Menology of England and Wales, Burns & Oates, 1887, p. 427 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  6. "Venerable Richard Flower (Lloyd)", Lives of the English Martyrs, vol.1, (Edwin Burton and J.H. Pollen, eds.), Longmans, Green and Co., 1914, p. 425 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
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