Clitherow, Margaret (1556–86), martyr. Born in York, the daughter of Thomas Middleton, a chandler who later became sheriff of York, Margaret was brought up as a Protestant and in 1571 married John Clitherow, a prosperous butcher of York. Three years later she became a Catholic, but her husband, a kindly and easygoing man, and now a chamberlain of York, remained a resolute Protestant both before and after her death. She became known as an active and outspoken Catholic: she was imprisoned for two years for not attending the parish church. During this time she learned to read; after her release she organized a small school for her own and her neighbours' children in her own house. Here, too, she used to harbour priests against the penal laws, hiding them in a specially built room with a narrow secret access. Her husband used to turn a blind eye to these activities, but in 1586 he was summoned before the court to explain his son's absence abroad, due in fact to his being at a Catholic college. At the same time his house was raided, but no trace was found of priest, vestments, or chalice. A searching interrogation followed, in which the Clitherow children gave nothing away, but a Flemish boy under threats revealed the hiding-place and the Mass vestments.

Margaret was arrested, imprisoned, and charged with harbouring priests and attending Mass. She steadfastly refused to plead, saying: ‘Having made no offence, I need no trial.’ Her purpose was to avoid the necessity of friends, servants, and her own children giving evidence against her. The penalty for refusing to plead was the peine forte et dure which resulted in the victim being crushed to death. The judge reluctantly sentenced Margaret and she was executed in the Tollboothe, York, on 25 March. She was dead after only fifteen minutes.

Margaret Clitherow was described by contemporaries as good-looking, witty, and merry; ‘everyone loved her and would run to her for help, comfort and counsel in distress’. Although her refusal to pray with those who did not share her beliefs hardly accords with present-day ecumenical ideals, Margaret Clitherow is one of the most notable and attractive of the Forty Martyrs. Her house was in the Little Shambles, York, but was not, it seems, the one claimed as such. The place of her trial (Guildhall) and imprisonment (Castle) can be seen at York; a relic of her hand is at the Bar Convent. She was canonized by Paul VI in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Feast: 25 October.

Bibliography
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• Anonymous contemporary Life (by her confessor John Mush) in J. Morris, The Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers, iii (1872–7), 333–440
• M. T. Monro, Blessed Margaret Clitherow (1947)
• B.L.S., iii. 56–9