Edward Jones (martyr)

Blessed Edward Jones (died 6 May 1590) was a Welsh Catholic martyr in the 16th century.

Statue of Edward Jones in the church of St Etheldreda, Ely Place, London

Early life

He was born in Llanelidan in Dyffryn Clwyd.[1] He was baptised an Anglican in the Diocese of St Asaph. He travelled around Europe, and during his travels he became a Catholic.

Priesthood

In 1587, in Reims, he was received into the Catholic Church. He studied to be a priest at Douai College. On 11 June 1588, he was ordained a priest in Loon. In December 1588, he returned to England and stayed for some time in a grocer's shop in Fleet Street.[1]

Death and legacy

In 1590, he was arrested in that shop by Richard Topcliffe, "who pretended to be a Catholic." [1][2] He was taken to the Tower of London and tortured there. At the Old Bailey "he made a skillful and learned defense, pleading that a confession elicited under torture was not legally sufficient to ensure a conviction. The court complimented him on his courageous bearing".[2] Nevertheless, he was convicted of high treason. Together with Blessed Anthony Middleton, he was hanged, drawn and quartered on 6 May 1590, opposite the grocer’s shop where he had been captured; "over the gallows there was placed an inscription: 'For treason and favouring of foreign invasion'. When he [Jones] protested he was thrown off the scaffold...and the butchery began".[3] He was beatified on 15 December 1929 and his feast day is 6 May.[4]

See also

References
  1. School information Archived 2018-11-01 at the Wayback Machine from BlessedEdwardJones.eschools.co.uk, retrieved 31 October 2018
  2. "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Ven. Edward Jones".
  3. Wittich, John (1988). Catholic London. Herefordshire: Fowler Wright Books. p. 122.
  4. Catholic.org, retrieved 31 October 1590

Further reading
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