Feastday: June 21
Death: 1600
Martyr of England, a layman executed at Southwark. He was born near Wigan, England, and was reconciled to the Church. Admitting that he was a Catholic, he was arrested and placed in Newgate Prison. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Southwark on June 21. John is one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales and was canonized in 1970 by Pope Paul VI.
English Roman Catholic martyr This article is about the saint. For the artist, see John Rigby (artist). For the attorney general, see Sir John Rigby.
John Rigby (ca. 1570 – 21 June 1600) was an English Roman Catholic layman who was executed during the reign of Elizabeth I. He is one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. (He is called "Thomas" Rigby in The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest, a story about the Jesuit priest John Gerard.)
Life
Rigby was born circa 1570 at Harrock Hall, Wrightington, Lancashire (near Chorley, Lancashire), the fifth or sixth son of Nicholas Rigby, by his wife Mary (née Breres).
In 1600 Rigby was working as a steward for Sir Edmund Huddleston. Sir Edmund sent him to the sessions house of the Old Bailey to plead illness for the absence of his daughter, the widow Mrs. Fortescue, who had been summoned on a charge of recusancy. A commissioner then questioned Rigby about his own religious beliefs. Rigby acknowledged that he was Catholic, and was sent to Newgate. The next day, the feast day of St Valentine, he signed a confession saying that since he had been reconciled to the Roman Catholic faith by Saint John Jones, a Franciscan priest, in the Clink some two or three years previously, he had not attended Anglican services. He was sent back to Newgate and later transferred to the White Lion. Twice he was given the chance to recant, but twice refused. He told the judge that his sentence for treason "is the thing which I desire".
His sentence was carried out. He gave the executioner who helped him up to the cart a piece of gold, saying, "Take this in token that I freely forgive thee and others that have been accessory to my death." Rigby was hanged, drawn and quartered at St Thomas Waterings on 21 June 1600. Cut down too soon, he landed on his feet, but was thrown down and held while he was disembowelled. According to Challoner, "The people, going away, complained very much of the barbarity of the execution."
Canonization
He was canonized in 1970; his feast day is 25 October. John Jones, the priest who had reconciled Rigby, had died at the same place Rigby had died, St Thomas Waterings, two years earlier, on 12 July 1598.
Legacy
St John Rigby Roman Catholic Sixth Form College in Orrell, Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester is named after John Rigby. One of its buildings, Harrock House, is named after Rigby's birthplace.
