Hugh Taylor (priest)

For other people of the same name, see Hugh Taylor (disambiguation).

Hugh Taylor (died 25 November 1585) was an English Roman Catholic priest. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1987.

Life

Born at Durham, Taylor arrived at Reims on 2 May 1582 and was ordained a priest. He was sent on the English mission on 27 March 1585.

He was the first to be executed under the Statute 27 Eliz. c. 2., recently passed. On 26 November, Marmaduke Bowes, a married gentleman, was hanged for having harboured him.

Bowes is described by Richard Challoner as of Angram Grange near Appleton in Cleveland, but is not mentioned in the will of Christopher Bowes of Angram Grange, proved on 30 September 1568, nor in the 1612 pedigree. The sole evidence against him was that of a former tutor to his children, an apostate Catholic. Having been previously imprisoned at York with his wife, he was under bond to appear at the Assizes which, began on 23 November at York, and on his arrival found that Taylor was about to be arraigned. Bowes was a Catholic who had outwardly conformed to the Church of England; he was openly a Catholic before his death.

He was hanged, drawn, and quartered at York on 25 November 1585.

References

Attribution

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