Richard Thirkeld, BLESSED, martyr; b. at Coniscliffe, Durham, England; d. at York, May 29, 1583. From Queen’s College, Oxford, where he was in 1564-5, he went to Reims, where he was ordained priest, April 18, 1579, and left May 23 for the mission, where he ministered in or about York, and acted as confessor to Ven. Margaret Clitheroe. On the eve of the Annunciation, 1583, he was arrested while visiting one of the Catholic prisoners in the Ousebridge Kidcote, York, and at once confessed his priesthood, both to the pursuivants, who arrested him, and to the mayor before whom he was brought, and for the night was lodged in the house of the high sheriff. The next day he was sent to the Ousebridge Kidcote. On May 27 his trial took place, at which he managed to appear in cassock and biretta. The charge was one of having reconciled the queen’s subjects to the Church of Rome. He was found guilty on May 27 and condemned May 28. He spent the night in instructing his fellow-prisoners, and the morning of his condemnation in up-holding the faith and constancy of those who were brought to the bar. No details of his execution are extant: six of his letters still remain, and are summarized by Dom Bede Camm.
JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT