| Henry Abbot
Layman, martyred at York, 4 July, 1597, pronounced Venerable in 1886.
His acts are thus related by Challoner:
A certain Protestant minister, for some misdemeanour put into
York Castle,
to reinstate himself in the favour of his superiors,
insinuated himself into the good opinion of the Catholic prisoners,
by pretending a deep sense of repentance, and a great desire
of embracing the Catholic truth . . . So they directed him, after
he was enlarged, to Mr. Henry Abbot, a zealous convert who lived in Holden in the same country,
to procure a priest to reconcile him . . . Mr. Abbot carried him to Carlton
to the house of Esquire Stapleton, but did not succeed in finding a priest.
Soon after, the traitor having got enough to put them all in danger of the
law, accused them to the magistrates . . . They confessed that they had
explained to him the Catholic Faith, and upon this they were all found guilty
and sentenced to die.
The others, Errington, Knight, and Gibson, were executed on 29 November,
1596; Abbot was reprieved till the next July.
PATRICK RYAN
The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
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