Blessed Hugh Taylor
A panoramic view of York in the 15th century. Watercolour by E. Ridsdale Tate
English martyr, born at Durham; hanged, drawn, and quartered at York, 25 (not 26) November, 1585. He arrived at Reims on 2 May, 1582, and having been ordained a priest was sent thence on the mission on 27 March, 1585. He was the first to suffer under the Statute 27 Eliz. c. 2. lately passed. On 26 November, Marmaduke Bowes, a married gentleman, was hanged for having harboured him. Bowes is described by 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 Sept., 1568, nor in the 1612 pedigree.
Hung, Drawn and Quartered. This barbaric form of execution, popular during the reign of Elizabeth I, where they are hanged till they are almost dead, cut down, and quartered alive; after that, their members and bowels are cut from their bodies, and thrown into a fire.
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, though always a Catholic at heart, had outwardly conformed to the Established Church. “Before his death he was made a member of the Catholic Church the which he boldly confessed with great alacrity of mind”.
JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT (Catholic Encyclopedia)
Both were beatified 22 November 1987.
