Thomas Maxfield
English Roman Catholic priest and martyr
Thomas Maxfield (real name Macclesfield) (c.1590 – 1 July 1616) was an English Roman Catholic priest. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1929.
Life
He was born in Stafford gaol, one of the younger sons of William Macclesfield of Chesterton and Maer and Aston, Staffordshire; William Macclesfield was a Catholic recusant, condemned to death in 1587 for harbouring priests, one of whom was his brother Humphrey. His mother was Ursula, daughter of Francis Roos, of Laxton, Nottinghamshire. William Macclesfield is said to have died in prison and is one of the prætermissi as William Maxfield; but, as his death occurred in 1608, this is doubtful.
Thomas arrived at the English College at Douai on 16 March 1602–3, but had to return to England 17 May 1610, owing to ill health. In 1614 he went back to Douai, was ordained priest, and in the next year came to London.
Within three months of landing he was arrested, and sent to the Gatehouse, Westminster. After about eight months' imprisonment, he tried to escape by a rope let down from the window in his cell, but was captured on reaching the ground. This was at midnight 14–15 June 1616.
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This entry incorporates text from “Thomas Maxfield” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.