William Knight (martyr)

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For other persons named William Knight, see William Knight (disambiguation).

Blessed William Knight (1572–29 November 1596) was put to death for his Roman Catholic faith at York, England. With him also suffered Venerables George Errington of Herst, Northumberland; William Gibson of Ripon; and William Abbot of Howden, Yorkshire.

William Knight was the son of a Leonard Knight and lived at South Duffield, Hemington. On coming of age, he claimed some property left to him by his father, from his uncle, a Protestant, who denounced him to the authorities for being a Catholic; he was at once seized and committed to the custody of Colyer, a pursuivant, who treated him with indignity and severity.

He was sent in October, 1593, to York Castle, where William Gibson and George Errington were already confined, the latter having been arrested some years previously for participation in a rising in the North.

A certain Protestant clergyman chanced to be among their fellow prisoners. To gain his freedom he had recourse to an act of treachery: feigning a desire to become a Catholic, he won the confidence of Knight and his two companions, who explained the Faith to him.

With the connivance of the authorities, he was directed to one Henry Abbot, then at liberty, who endeavoured to procure a priest to reconcile him to the Church.

Thereupon Abbot was arrested and, together with Knight and his two comrades, accused of persuading the Protestant clergyman to embrace Catholicism — an act of treason under the penal laws. They were found guilty, and were hanged, drawn, and quartered at York, on 29 November 1596.

William Knight was one of the eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales beatified by Pope John Paul II on 22 November 1987.

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.