Nicholas Postgate

Updated on Jan 14, 2024

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Nationality English Education English College, Douai Name Nicholas Postgate		Religion Roman Catholic Occupation Catholic priest


Born 1596 Egton, North Yorkshire Cause of death Hanged, disembowelled and quartered Resting place various: Egton Bridge, Ampleforth Abbey, Pickering Known for 17th century Catholic martyr Died August 7, 1679, York, United Kingdom
Residence Ugthorpe, United Kingdom

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.

Early life and priesthood

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.

Background to arrest

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.

The arrest and execution of Nicholas Postgate

Nicholas Postgate was apprehended by the exciseman Reeves, while carrying out a baptism at the house of Matthew Lyth, Little Beck, near Whitby. Reeves, with a colleague called William Cockerill, raided the house during the ceremony and caught the priest, then aged 82. Father Postgate was condemned under 27 Elizabeth, c. 2, for being a priest. He was hanged, disembowelled and quartered at York, His quarters were given to his friends and interred. One of the hands was sent to Douay College.

Reeves was listed in a treasury book as having been paid 22 Shillings for his apprehension of Postgate but some believe he never received the money before he committed suicide by drowning.