English martyr, suffered at Tyburn, March 29, 1544

view page scan

Ashby, THOMAS, suffered at Tyburn, March 29, 1544. His name was originally contained in the process of the English Martyrs, as the fact of his execution for denying the King's Supremacy was mentioned by the chroniclers of the time and from them was recorded by Sander, though not by other Catholic writers. The "Promotor Fidei" rejected this as insufficient, and a somewhat ambiguous statement has since been found in the Grey Friars' Chronicle; to wit, that Ashby was "sometime a priest and forsook it." Possibly, therefore, while rejecting the Royal Supremacy, he did not accept the Pope's.

J. H. POLLEN