Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

On this day in the morning, amongst other visitors, went to see him, Mrs Fairfax, wife to Mr Charles Fairfax of York, and Mrs Meynel of Kilvington. These ladies, having done their devotions, went together to his room, to take their last leave of him, and to crave his blessing. The confessor seeing them in great concern, whereas he was cheerful, came up to them, and laying his right hand upon the one, and his left upon the other, they being both at that time big with child, he spoke these words to them: “Be of good heart, children, you shall both be delivered of sons, and they will be both saved.” Immediately after he was laid upon a sledge, and drawn through the streets to the place of execution, where he suffered with great constancy. The two ladies were soon after brought to bed of sons, who were both baptised, and both died in their infancy. At the gallows he spoke little. The substance of his words was: “I die in the Catholic religion, out of which there is no salvation; Mr Sheriff, you know I die not for [Titus Oates’s fabricated Popish Plot], but for my religion. I pray God bless the king and the royal family. Be pleased, Mr Sheriff, to acquaint his majesty, that I never offended him in any manner of way. I pray God give him his grace, and the light of truth. I forgive all that have wronged me, and brought me to this death, and I desire forgiveness of all people.”

Comment

Comment

His contemporary, the Catholic convert-author Thomas Ward, notes:

His cell was upon a lingy [heather-covered] moor, about two miles from Mulgrave Castle, and five miles from Whitby. An exciseman in hopes of getting twenty pounds (which he never did) apprehended him at Whitby… I knew him well.

And rhymes:

Nor spared they Father Posket’s blood,
A reverend priest, devout and good,
Whose spotless life in length was spun
To eighty years and three times one.
Sweet his behaviour, grave his speech,
He did by good example teach;
His love right bent, his will resigned,
Serene his look, and calm his mind,
His sanctity to that degree,
As angels live, so lived he.

A thatched cottage was the cell
Where this contemplative did dwell,
Two miles from Mulgrave Castle stood,
Sheltered by snow-drifts, not by wood;
Though, there he lived to that great age,
It was a dismal hermitage.
But God placed there the saint’s abode
For Blackamoor’s greater good.
(Ward 1742)

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Original

The holy man was apprehended by one Reeves, an exciseman, an implacable enemy of Catholics, at the house of Matthew Lythis, at Little-Beck, near Whitby, and was with his harbourer committed to York gaol. When his trial came on, he was indicted for high treason, not as a plotter, but as a priest. The witnesses that appeared against him were Elizabeth Wood, Elizabeth Baxter, and Richard Morrice. These deposed, that they had seen him baptize, and exercise other priestly functions; and upon their evidence he was found guilty by his jury, and condemned to die, which sentence was no ways unwelcome to him, who had been learning to die all his lifetime.

The day allotted for his triumphant exit, was the 7th of August, 1679; on which day in the morning, amongst other visitors, went to see him, Mrs. Fairfax, wife to Mr. Charles Fairfax, of York, and Mrs. Meynel, of Kilvington. These ladies having done their devotions, went together to his room, to take their last leave of him, and to crave his blessing. The confessor seeing them in great concern, whereas he was cheerful, came up to them, and laying his right hand upon the one, and his left upon the other, they being both at that time big with child, he spoke these words to them: “Be of good heart, children, you shall both be delivered of sons, and they will be both saved.” Immediately after he was laid upon a sledge, and drawn through the streets to the place of execution, where he suffered with great constancy. The two ladies were soon after brought to bed of sons, who were both baptized, and both died in their infancy. This, says the reverend Mr. Knaresborough, in a paper which I have now before me, was told me by Mrs. Fairfax, one of the parties, the 5th of October, 1705.

At the gallows he spoke little; the substance of his words was. “I die in the catholic religion, out of which there is no salvation; Mr. Sheriff, you know I die not for the plot, but for my religion. I pray God bless the king and the royal family. Be pleased, Mr. Sheriff, to acquaint his majesty, that I never offended him in any manner of way. I pray God give him his grace, and the light of truth. I forgive all that have wronged me, and brought me to this death, and I desire forgiveness of all people.”

415 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Baptism (6) ·
• Catholic Church (57) ·
• Charles II (1630-85) (25), King of Scotland 1649-51, King of England, Scotland and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration until his death ·
• Church of England (93) ·
• Exclusion Crisis (1) ·
• Hanged, drawn and quartered (3) ·
• Hanging (24) ·
• Heather (1) ·
• 📌Knavesmire (15) ·
• 📌Littlebeck, North Yorkshire (1), a hamlet near Whitby on the Little Beck, a minor tributary of the Esk ·
• Miscarriage of justice (4) ·
• Mulgrave Castle (2) ·
• Nicholas Postgate (1) ·
• North York Moors (8) ·
• Popish Plot (4) ·
• Postgate family (1) ·
• Pregnancy (9) ·
• Prophecy (6) ·
• Religious intolerance (6) ·
• Richard Challoner (1) ·
• South Kilvington (6) ·
• Thomas Ward (author) (1) ·
• 📌Whitby (20), town, port and parish on the east coast of North Yorkshire/the North Riding at the mouth of the River Esk ·
• 📌York Castle (36) ·

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