According to this tremendous account of his life and death, the layman Blessed John Bretton was executed
on April 1, 1598 after years of recuscancy "For words spoken out of Catholic
Zeal" "because he was reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church," he "urged others
to embrace the same religion" and he "denied the spiritual primacy of the
Queen." His wife, Frances, survived him and continued their recusancy. Just some
highlights:
John Bretton was executed at York on 1st April 1598
because of his faith, the culmination of many, many years of courage and
steadfastness in the face of persecution, by both John Bretton and Frances, his
wife. . . .
The earliest reference to the Recusancy of John and Frances
Bretton occurs in Archbishop Sandys’ List of Yorkshire Recusants returned to the
Privy Council in 1577, wherein they are stated to have “no Habilities (Wealth)”
“and yet are the most obstinate and perverse”. This list was sent five years
after the Earl of Huntingdon had begun his intense investigation and persecution
of Catholics in Yorkshire, four years before the passing of the Act 23 Eliz. c1
which made “reconciliation” to the Catholic Church a capital crime. For many
years, because of the persecution he was suffering through his Recusancy, John
Bretton was forced to flee and hide. Altogether he seems to have been a fugitive
from 1577 to 1593, when the Act 35 Eliz. c2 forced all recusants to return home
and stay within five miles thereof on pain of the loss of all property. . .
.
That the Brettons were regarded as amongst the more notorious recusants
is shown by the fact that on 12th February, 1589, within a year of their first
conviction, the Exchequer issued a Commission for the assessment and seizure to
the use of the Queen of two thirds of their lands and all their goods and
chattels in accordance with the Statute of 1586. The Memoranda Roll recording
this Commission and the subsequent enquiries gives the text of the patent,
signed for the Queen by Burghley, and the names of the Yorkshire Gentry thereby
empowered. They included “John, Lord Darcye: Sir Thomas Fairfax: Sir Richard
Malliverer: Sir George Savell, and eleven others” In fact only six people,
Richard Wortley, William Wentworth, Thomas Wentworth, Robert Bradford, Henry
Farrer and Michael Kaie did the work and had produced before them on 8th April
1589, not only details of John Bretton’s property, but also that of forty five
other recusants whose names were included in the schedule, including Maud
(Matilda) Wentworth, widow, who was Frances’ aunt by marriage and lived over the
way at Bretton Hall, and Dorothy Wentworth, the wife of Maud’s son, Matthew,
also living there. . . .
Read more here about how Frances
struggled without his constancy and loyalty to the Faith:
One might
be forgiven for hoping that, having had so much suffering in her life,
culminating in her husband’s execution Frances Bretton would now be left in
peace - but this was not to be. Within a month the Escheator was on her track.
His very presence was proof that the family fortunes were in great jeopardy. In
the midst of her grief, therefore she had to remind herself that it now devolved
on her alone, as legal owner, to safeguard the livelihood of her children. To
whom could she turn for advice ?
Her own kinsfolk, the Wentworths, one
of the most powerful families in Yorkshire, doubtless watched events with
interest, if not with sympathy. But, with one exception, (Michael of Woolley),
all her male relatives appear to have been, at best, "Church Papists". One or
two were strong and active supporters of the new religion. Tenacious of this
world’s goods they must, as a whole, have been highly impatient with her rigid
adherence to Catholic principle. Even her aunt, Maud Wentworth of Bretton Hall,
after maintaining her recusancy for many years had, in her old age, publically
conformed three years previously and thus preserved her property intact for her
son, Matthew.
Although Frances herself finally submitted to the
Archbishop of York and was pardoned of her previous recusancy for the sake of
her own son, Luke, and his inheritance, she was was soon numberered among the
recusants again, and died in the Catholic faith. Blessed John Bretton and
Frances also had two other sons, Richard and Matthew, who became Catholic
priests!
You can see, on a slide-show, a shrine to Blessed John Bretton on the website of Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Wakefield.
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