Catholic martyr and daughter of a wax chandler Margaret Clitherow was the first female Catholic martyr of the reign of Elizabeth I. Born in York in 1556, she was the daughter of Thomas Middleton, a wax chandler and sheriff of the City (1564—1565). In 1571 Margaret married John Clitherow, a butcher, and bore him four children. Converted by Dr. and Mrs. Vasavour in 1573—1574, she was imprisoned several times for recusancy. In a 1585/1586 house raid, a child taking lessons in her house revealed “books and church stuff” to the authorities. On 14 March 1585/1586, Margaret was indicted on the charges both of having heard mass and of harboring Jesuit and seminary priests. As a way to protect her friends through not testifying, Margaret refused to plead to her indictment. This resulted in her being condemned to a “sharp death for want of trial” (Mush, 414). She refused to accept that Catholic priests were traitors to the queen’s majesty and her laws and felt slandered that it was claimed she harbored priests for harlotry rather than religion. She exculpated her conformist husband by expressing her disappointment that, while he did not share her religious views, she nonetheless “loved him next unto God” (Mush 1877, 426).
She was crushed to death under a weighted door on 25 March 1586, a sharp stone under her back and her hands bound. She begged that she might die in her smock, but the sentence
Stipulated that she be naked (except for a linen habit). Even some Puritan ministers argued that she should not be executed on a child’s evidence, and the sheriff wept as she died.
She had taught herself to read while in prison in order to peruse such works as the Rheims New Testament (1582) and William Peryn’s Spirituall Exercyses (1557).
Teresa Grant
See also Religious Reform and Women.
Bibliography
Primary Work
Mush, John.“Life of Margaret Clitherow” [1586].
In The Troubles of Our Catholic Forefathers.
Edited by John Morris, SJ, 331-440. London: Burns and Oates, 1877.
Secondary Works
Claridge, Mary (aka Katharine Longley). Margaret Clitherow. London: Burns and Oates, 1966.
Longley, Katharine. Saint Margaret Clitherow. Wheathampstead: Anthony Clarke, 1986.
World History
