Feastday: October 1
Death: 1588
English martyr. Born at Barton on the Hill, in Cheshire, he was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, and Gloucester Hall, Oxford, and became a schoolmaster in Norfolk and Suffolk. Departing England, he went to Reims, France, and there studied for the priesthood, receiving ordination in 1586 . Returning home to undertake the hazardous work of reconverting the island, he was arrested with Blessed Edward James and was imprisoned for two and a half years in London before being taken to Chichester. Ralph was martyred at Chichester by being hanged, drawn, and quartered. He was beatified in 1929.
Ralph Crockett (b. at Barton, near Farndon, Cheshire 1522; executed at Chichester, 1 October 1588) was an English Roman Catholic priest. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1929.
Life
Educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, he became a schoolmaster in Norfolk for a year before going to Gloucester Hall, Oxford. After a year, he went to Ipswich, where he was a schoolmaster for five years. In 1581, persecutions increased after the death of Edmund Campion, so he withdrew to Cheshire for about two years.
In 1584, he left for France, and began studies at the English College then located at Rheims. He was ordained at Rheims in 1585, and continued his studies for a year, but his health being compromised, he asked to return to England. He and three other priests, Thomas Bramston, George Potter, and Edward James, left from Dieppe, but the ship ran ashore 19 April 1586 at Littlehampton, Sussex, a place as carefully watched as any in the kingdom. All were sent up to London and committed to the Marshalsea 27 April 1586.
After the failure of the Spanish Armada, the English Government took severe measures against some of the Catholic priests in its custody. Crockett and James with two others, John Oven and Francis Edwardes, were selected for trial, which took place at Chichester on 30 September 1588. All were condemned to death, under 27 Eliz. c. 2, for being priests and coming into the realm; but Oven on taking the Oath of Supremacy was respited. The other three were drawn on one hurdle to Broyle Heath, near Chichester, where Edwardes recanted. Crockett ascended the scaffold and blessed the crowd in Latin which brought shouts of anger upon him, however he changed into praying in English whereupon the crowd cheered. James and Crockett faced their deaths without fear and were executed after absolving each other.
Ralph Crockett's father Adam, in his later years entered the Catholic Church on the Continent and his descendants remained recusant continued to practise their Catholic faith in the face of continued persecution. In 1929 Ralph Crockett was beatified by Pope Pius XI. His feast day is 1 October.
