{{Short description|English Roman Catholic priest and martyr}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}} {{EngvarB|date=November 2019}} {{Infobox saint |honorific_prefix=Blessed |name=Robert Nutter |honorific_suffix=OP |birth_date=c. 1550 |death_date=26 July 1600 |feast_day=26 July |venerated_in=Catholic Church |image=Blessed Robert Nutter O.P.jpg |imagesize=200px |caption= |birth_place=Lancaster, Kingdom of England |death_place=Lancaster, Kingdom of England |titles=Martyr |beatified_date=22 November 1998 |beatified_place=Rome |beatified_by=Pope John Paul II |canonized_date= |canonized_place= |canonized_by= |attributes= |patronage= |major_shrine= |suppressed_date= |issues= }} '''Robert Nutter''' (c. 1550{{spaced ndash}}26 July 1600) was an English Catholic priest, Dominican friar and martyr. He was beatified in 1987.
==Life== Throughout the religious upheavals following the English Reformation, the vast majority of English Catholics, many of whom lived in Lancashire, remained staunchly loyal to the throne.<ref name=lancaster>[http://lancastercastle.fmdev02.fatoffice.co.uk/lancasters-catholic-martyrs "The Lancaster Martyrs", Lancaster Castle]{{Dead link|date=December 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref>
Nutter was born at Burnley, Lancashire. He entered Brasenose College, Oxford in 1564 or 1565, and, with his brother John Nutter, also a Catholic martyr, became a student of the English College, Reims. He was ordained at Soissons on 21 December 1581 along with Venerable William Dean and George Haydock.<ref name=wainewright>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11171c.htm Wainewright, John. "Vens. Robert Nutter and Edward Thwing."] ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. Retrieved: 10 Apr. 2013</ref>
Returning to England, he was committed to the Tower of London, along with his brother, also a priest, on 2 February 1584. He remained in the pit forty-seven days, wearing irons for forty-three days, and twice was subjected to the tortures of "the scavenger's daughter". On 10 November 1584, he was again consigned to the pit. Robert witnessed his older brother's execution before being released. The authorities believed he may unintentionally direct them to Catholic hiding places.<ref name=herald>[http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/4th-september-1987/5/nutters-daring-escapes "Nutter's daring escapes"], ''Catholic Herald'', 4 September 1987</ref> He was again arrested and transported to France on 21 January 1585, with twenty other priests and one layman, aboard the ''Mary Martin'' of Colchester, from Tower Wharf.<ref name=wainewright/>
Landing at Boulogne, 2 February, he revisited Rome in July, but, returned then to England as escort to newly ordained priests. When the party was brought ashore at Gravesend, Nutter gave his name as Rowley, but was recognised and on 30 November 1585 again committed to prison in London, this time to Newgate Prison. In 1587 he was removed to the Marshalsea Prison, and thence, in 1590, was sent to Wisbech Castle, Cambridgeshire.<ref name=wainewright/> While in prison he joined the Dominican Order.<ref name=herald/>
There, in 1597, he signed a petition to Henry Garnet in favour of having a Jesuit superior, but, on November 1598, he and his fellow martyr, Edward Thwing, with others, besought the Pope to institute an archpriest, a request that was later withdrawn. Nutter and Edward Thwing escaped in around 1597, but were eventually recaptured and drawn and quartered after being sent to Lancaster, where both were executed on 26 July 1600.<ref name=lancaster/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Dawbarn |first=Frances |url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60475ebb9b130129ec7765ca/t/60478b58ce6adc424319a982/1615301467068/StJosephs-TheMartyrs.pdf |title=Lancaster Martyrs |publisher=Squarespace |editor-last=Sheerin |editor-first=Rebecca |pages=4 |language=en |editor-last2=Hotchkiss |editor-first2=Rob}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Lancaster's Catholic Martyrs |url=https://www.lancastercastle.com/history-heritage/further-articles/lancasters-catholic-martyrs/ |access-date=2026-02-25 |website=Lancaster Castle |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Conner |first=Fr Philip |url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60475ebb9b130129ec7765ca/t/604793e2f1725a462976f8ad/1615303657480/StJos-A5-PilgrimWalkBK.pdf |title=Like a Deer Yearning for Running Streams |publisher=Heritage Fund |location=Slyne Rd, Skerton, Lancaster |pages=5 |language=en}}</ref>
==Veneration== Robert Nutter was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1987.<ref name=lancaster/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gorman |first=David |url=https://stmarysbrownedge.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/The-Canonisation-of-the-Forty-Martyrs-of-England-and-Wales.pdf |title=The Canonisation of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales |date=May 2020 |pages=9 |language=en}}</ref> It was said of Robert Nutter that, "[H]e was a man of a strong body but of a stronger soul, who rather despised and conquered death."<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/stpeterslancaste00billuoft#page/34/mode/2up Billington, Richard Newman and Brownbill, John.] ''St. Peter's, Lancaster, A History'', Sands & co., London 1910</ref>
==John Nutter== John Nutter attended St John's College, Cambridge. In 1578 the English College at Douai relocated temporarily to Rheims. John and his brother Robert arrived there in August the following year. John was ordained at Laon in September 1582 and left for Yorkshire in November. However, gale winds blew toward the Suffolk coast. John Nutter had contracted an illness before sailing and as it grew worse, he ferried ashore at Dunwich. The ship was subsequently driven on a sandbank and men of the town searched it for anything salvageable. A bundle of Catholic books were found. The ill Nutter was questioned at the inn where he had been taken and acknowledged that he was a priest. He was arrested and taken to the Marshalsea. He remained there a year before being tried and condemned, and shortly thereafter executed at Tyburn, along with James Fenn, George Haydock, Thomas Hemerford, and John Munden.<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/livesofenglishma01burtuoft#page/76/mode/2up Wainewright, John Bannerman. "Venerable John Nutter", ''Lives of the English Martyrs''], (Edwin H. Burton and J. H. Pollen eds.), London. Longmans, Green and Co., 1914</ref>
==See also== * Douai Martyrs
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nutter, Richard}} Category:1550 births Category:1600 deaths Category:People from Burnley Category:English Dominicans Category:Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford Category:English College, Reims alumni Category:16th-century Roman Catholic martyrs Category:Eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales Category:People executed under Elizabeth I Category:Executed people from Lancashire