Robert Nutter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Nutter (b. at Burnley, Lancashire, c. 1550; executed at Lancaster, 26 July 1600) was an English Catholic martyr. He was beatified in 1987.

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. Having been ordained priest, 21 December, 1581, he returned to England.

On 2 February, 1583-4 he was committed to the Tower of London, where he remained in the pit forty-seven days, wearing irons for forty-three days, and twice subjected to the tortures of "the scavenger's daughter". On 10 November, 1584, he was again consigned to the pit, where he remained until, on 21 January, 1584-5, he, with twenty other priests and one layman, was shipped aboard the Mary Martin of Colchester, at Tower Wharf.

Landing at Boulogne, 2 February, he revisited Rome in July, but, on 30 November, was again committed to prison in London, this time to Newgate Prison, under the alias of Rowley. In 1587 he was removed to the Marshalsea Prison, and thence, in 1589-90, was sent to Wisbech Castle, Cambridgeshire. While in prison he joined the Dominican Order.

There, in 1597, he signed a petition to Father Henry Garnet in favour of having a Jesuit superior, but, on 8 November, 1598, he and his fellow martyr, Edward Thwing, with others, besought the Pope to institute an archpriest. He escaped, but was recaptured and hanged.