{{Short description|English Roman Catholic martyrs}} thumb|349x349px|Oaten Hill Martyrs (Blessed Robert Wilcox, Blessed Gerard Edwardes a.k.a. "Edward Campion", Blessed Christopher Buxton and Blessed Robert Widmerpool) {{For|the Protestant martyrs of 1555 to 1558|Canterbury Martyrs}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
The '''Oaten Hill Martyrs''' were Catholic Martyrs who were executed by hanging, drawing and quartering at Oaten Hill, Canterbury, on 1 October 1588. The gallows had been put up in 1576. These four were beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929.<ref name="oaten">[http://www.rc.net/southwark/canterbury/oaten.htm Oaten Hill Martyrs] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120223063500/http://www.rc.net/southwark/canterbury/oaten.htm |date=February 23, 2012 }}</ref>
==Robert Wilcox== {{Saint|name=Robert Wilcox|image=|caption=Detail from a stained glass window by Margaret Rope the Elder at the Church of the Holy Name, Oxton, Birkenhead, Cheshire.|titles=Martyr|birth_date=c. 1558|birth_place=Chester, England|death_date=1 October 1588 (aged 29 - 30)|death_place=Oaten Hill, Canterbury|feast_day=1 October|honored_in=Roman Catholicism|beatified_date=15 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI|honorific-prefix=Blessed}} Robert Wilcox was born in Chester, England in 1558 and entered the seminary at Rheims when he was twenty-five years old and was ordained on 20 April 1585.<ref name="Wainewright">[https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15621a.htm Wainewright, John. "Ven. Robert Wilcon." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 26 March 2020{{PD-notice}}</ref> He was sent to England with other priests seeking to expand the Catholic faith and deal with the country's expanding Protestantism under Queen Elizabeth I. Wilcox arrived in England on 7 June 1586 but was arrested almost immediately at Lydd in Kent, near to where he entered the country. As a captive, he was sent to the Marshalsea prison where he was examined on 15 August 1588. Here he admitted he was a Catholic priest and was sent for trial with the others to Canterbury, England. Wilcox was the first of the four to be executed. It is recorded that he told his companions to be of good heart. He was going to heaven before them, where he would carry the tidings of their coming after him.<ref name="RW">{{Cite web |url=http://www.dioceseofshrewsbury.org/about-us/saints-and-martyrs/blessed-robert-wilcox |title="Blessed Robert Wilcox", Byrne, Kevin. ''Nine Martyrs of the Shrewsbury Diocese'' |access-date=4 February 2014 |archive-date=22 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140322082210/http://www.dioceseofshrewsbury.org/about-us/saints-and-martyrs/blessed-robert-wilcox |url-status=dead }}</ref> Wilcox was thirty years of age.
==Gerard Edwards ("Edward Campion")== {{Saint|name=Edward Campion|image=|caption=Detail from a stained glass window by Margaret Rope the Elder at the Church of the Holy Name, Oxton, Birkenhead, Cheshire.|titles=Martyr|birth_date=Gerard Edwards c. 1552|birth_place=Ludlow, Shropshire, England|death_date=1 October 1588 (aged 35 - 36)|death_place=Oaten Hill, Canterbury|feast_day=October 1|honored_in=Roman Catholicism|beatified_date=15 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI|honorific-prefix=Blessed}}Gerard Edwards, a Catholic priest, was born at Ludlow, Shropshire, and studied at Jesus College, Oxford, but left without obtaining a degree, as he was unable to take the Oath of Supremacy.<ref name="oaten" /> He was for some time in the service of Gregory Fiennes, 10th Baron Dacre.<ref name="Wainewright" /> On 22 February 1586 he left England to study for the priesthood in Rheims. In accordance with the custom of many Douai priests of taking an alias for their greater safety on the English mission, he changed his name to "Edward Campion" in honour of St Edmund Campion.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/livesofenglishma01burtuoft/page/450/mode/2up McClement, F. Kerr. "Venerable Edward Campion", ''Lives of the English Martyrs'', vol.1, (Edwin Burton and J.H. Pollen, eds.), Longmans, Green and Co., 1914, p. 451]{{PD-notice}}</ref> Because of his education he was ordained after just a year and returned to England at Easter 1587. He was captured in Sittingbourne, Kent, just a few weeks later, however, and was imprisoned at the Newgate and the Marshalsea prisons in London following questioning by order of the Privy Council on 22 April 1587. Upon a second examination on 14 August 1588, he admitted to being a priest.<ref name="EC">{{Cite web |url=http://www.dioceseofshrewsbury.org/about-us/saints-and-martyrs/blessed-edward-campion |title="Blessed Edward Campion", Diocese of Shrewsbury |access-date=17 March 2019 |archive-date=20 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190320071456/http://www.dioceseofshrewsbury.org/about-us/saints-and-martyrs/blessed-edward-campion |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was thirty-six years of age at the time of his execution.
==Christopher Buxton== {{Saint|name=Christopher Buxton|image=|caption=Stained glass window in St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Bridge Gate, Derby.|titles=Martyr|birth_date=c. 1562|birth_place=Derbyshire, England|death_date=1 October 1588 (aged 25 - 26)|death_place=Oaten Hill, Canterbury|feast_day=October 1|honored_in=Roman Catholicism|beatified_date=15 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI|honorific-prefix=Blessed}}Christopher Buxton (1562 – 1588) was born in Derbyshire in 1562. He was a student of Nicholas Garlick at the Grammar School, Tideswell, Peak District. Garlick entered the English College at Rheims on 22 June 1581.<ref>Connelly, Roland. ''The Eighty-five Martyrs''. Essex. McCrimmons Publishing Company, 1987, p. 36.</ref> Buxton arrived about a month later.<ref>[http://www.rc.net/southwark/canterbury/oaten.htm Wagner, Peter; Davis, Pat; Sauter, John; McKeone, John, "Oaken Hill Martyrs"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120223063500/http://www.rc.net/southwark/canterbury/oaten.htm |date=2012-02-23 }}, RC.Net, 1 January 1, 2007.</ref>
In 1584 he was sent to the English College in Rome where he was ordained on 26 October 1586.<ref name="camm">[https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03092b.htm Camm, Bede. "Ven. Christopher Buxton"], ''The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3.'' New York: Robert Appleton Company (1908); retrieved 12 January 2013.</ref> He had a lengthy and difficult journey across Europe, calling in at Rheims on his way to Dieppe. Word had already reached the continent concerning the government's plans to exile or execute the priests then held in prison. A Dr. Darbishire in Paris directed Buxton to delay his departure for the time being, and in obedience complied. But having learned that Darbishire's counsel was not a directive of Father Persons in England, Buxton crossed to Kent in early September 1587.
He was arrested in Kent about two months later, and taken to the Marshalsea prison. On 15 August 1588, he was examined at which time he admitted he was a priest. As he was so young, it was thought that his constancy might be shaken by the sight of the deaths of his companions, and his life was offered to him if he would conform to the new religion; but he answered that he would not purchase a corruptible life at such a price, and that if he had a hundred lives he would willingly surrender them all in defence of his faith.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://stthomasofcanterbury.com/stthomas/?page_id=696 |title="The Oaten Hill Martyrs", St. Thomas of Canterbury Roman Catholic Church, Kent, UK |access-date=2020-03-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160215201220/http://stthomasofcanterbury.com/stthomas/?page_id=696 |archive-date=2016-02-15 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
While in the Marshalsea Prison he wrote a ''Rituale'', the manuscript of which is now preserved as a relic at Olney, Buckinghamshire. He sent this manuscript to a priest, as the last token of his friendship, the day before he was taken from prison. He was taken to Canterbury for trial and execution. Buxton died at the age of twenty-six. Christopher Buxton was beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929.<ref name="camm" />
==Robert Widmerpool== {{Saint|name=Robert Widmerpool|image=Blessed-robert-widmerpool.png|caption=Blessed Robert Widmerpool painting by Paul Little, which hangs in St. Margaret's Church in Keyworth|titles=Martyr|birth_date=c. 1560|birth_place=Nottinghamshire, England|death_date=1 October 1588 (aged 27 - 28)|death_place=Oaten Hill, Canterbury|feast_day=October 1, May 11 as one of the Nottinghamshire Martyrs|honored_in=Roman Catholicism|beatified_date=15 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI|honorific-prefix=Blessed}}Robert Widmerpool, a layman, was born in Nottinghamshire. He attended Gloucester Hall, Oxford, but did not graduate. He obtained a post as tutor at the home of the Countess of Northumberland, and was arrested there for giving aid to a Catholic priest. He was imprisoned with the others at the Marshalsea.<ref name="oaten" /> When he had the rope round his neck, he thanked God for the glory of dying in Canterbury for the cause for which St. Thomas died.<ref name="Wainewright" /> He was twenty-eight years old.
==See also== * Canterbury Martyrs - Protestant martyrs * Catholic Church in the United Kingdom * Douai Martyrs * Ralph Crockett * List of Catholic martyrs of the English Reformation
==References== {{Reflist|30em}} * {{Catholic Encyclopedia|wstitle=Ven. Christopher Buxton}} * {{Catholic Encyclopedia|wstitle=Ven. Robert Wilcox}}
<!-- Navboxes go here --> {{Subject bar |portal1= Biography |portal2= Catholicism |portal3= England}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Martyred Roman Catholic priests Category:People executed by the Kingdom of England by hanging, drawing and quartering Category:People executed under Elizabeth I Category:English beatified people Category:Executed English people Category:16th-century venerated Christians Category:16th-century Roman Catholic martyrs Category:People executed under the Tudors for treason against England Category:1588 deaths Category:Groups of Christian martyrs of the Early Modern era Category:Executed people from Derbyshire Category:One Hundred and Seven Martyrs of England and Wales