Nicholas Postgate
| Nicholas Postgate | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1596 Egton, North Yorkshire |
| Died | 7 August 1679 York, England |
| Cause of death | Hanged, disembowelled and quartered |
| Resting place | various: Egton Bridge, Ampleforth Abbey, Pickering |
| Residence | Ugthorpe |
| Nationality | English |
| Other names | Martyr of the Moors The Good Samaritan of the Moors |
| Education | English College, Douai, France |
| Occupation | Catholic priest |
| Known for | 17th century Catholic martyr |
Blessed Nicholas Postgate (1596 or 1597 – 7 August 1679) was an English Catholic priest who was executed on the Knavesmire in York on the 6 August 1679 as part of anti-Catholic feeling that was sweeping England at that time. He is one of the 85 English Catholic Martyrs of England and Wales, beatified by Pope John Paul II, in November 1987.
He was born at Kirkdale House, Egton, Yorkshire, England. He entered Douay College, in France, 11 July 1621. Further to that, he took the college oath, 12 March 1623, received minor orders, 23 December 1624, the subdiaconate, 18 December 1627, the diaconate, 18 March 1628, and the priesthood two days later. He was sent to the mission, 29 June 1630, and laboured in England for the Catholic religion, finally settling back to Ugthorpe, not far from his birthplace, in the 1660s. His parish, which was known by the extinct name of Blackamoor, extended between Guisborough, Pickering and Scarborough.Thomas Ward, who later wrote about him, knew him well.
Although anti-Catholic feeling in England had subsided a good deal at that time, it flared up again due to the fake Popish Plot of 1678; this followed a false testimony from Titus Oates in which he claimed there was a conspiracy to install a Catholic king, and he managed to ferment a renewed and fierce persecution of English Catholics. It was to be the last time that Catholics were put to death in England for their faith; one of the last victims - but not the very last - was Nicholas Postgate.
During the panic engineered by Oates, a prominent Protestant magistrate in London, Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, was murdered and Oates loudly blamed the Catholics; Sir Edmund's manservant, John Reeves, set out to get his revenge. For reasons which are not clear, he decided to base his actions in the Whitby area, possibly because he knew that priests arrived there from France.
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