St Margaret Clitherow 1556-1558

The patron saint of the catholic church in Keyworth is an English lady, Margaret Clitherow, the wife of a prosperous butcher who lived on the Shambles in York, where their house can still be seen. Margaret was greatly loved by everyone who knew her, and she showed great heroism in practising her faith at a time when it was illegal to be a Catholic.

Margaret was born in 1556 during the reign of Queen Mary, the daughter of Thomas Middleton, a candle trader. Thomas conformed to the state religion of Queen Elizabeth in 1559, when fines were imposed for non-attendance at Anglican parish services, and Margaret was brought up as a protestant. She was married to John Clitherow, a widower with two young children, when she was only fifteen, and had two children herself, Henry in 1572 and Ann in 1574

The execution of Thomas Percy, the Catholic Duke of Northumberland, at York in 1752, greatly moved Margaret, and she sought instruction in his, faith. By November 1576 she had been officially declared a recusant (someone who refuses the state religion) and was then a marked person like the others in the York Catholic community, many of whom also came from trading families. John Clitherow continued as a protestant, but loyally supported his wife and paid her fines.

The York authorities were zealous in hunting out catholics, especially their priests, because York was a centre of government, where the Council of the North met. Between 1577 and 1584 Margaret was sent to prison several times. The prisoners comforted each other, some taught her to read and gave her spiritual books and she became increasingly a woman of great prayer.

During the 1580's much harsher laws were passed against catholics. Fines were increased, it became high treason to be a priest in 1581 and a capital offence to shelter one in 1585. A hiding place for priests had been constructed in the Clitherow attic and when Margaret was arrested again in 1586 a young boy staying in the house revealed where it was. She was tried under the 1585 Act at York Guildhall, but would not plead, She believed she had done no wrong, so could not plead guilty It she said 'not guilty' her children and servants would have been forced to witness against her. The penalty for not pleading was to be pressed to death under a heavy door with stones laid on top. This was carried out on March 25th, 1586, when she was just thirty years old. Margaret was officially declared a saint in 1970.