“That it was the unhappy custom, even late in the seventeenth century,
to erect heads over the South Gate on London Bridge, we have, Alas!
too many proofs; though, indeed, it seems to have been only the case
with such as were considered traitors, as were those unfortunate Romish
Priests executed under the Statutes of Elizabeth and James I. When
Bishop Challoner is speaking, in his work already cited, volume iii.,
page 112, of the death of Bartholomew Roe, a Priest of the Order of
St. Benedict, in January, 1642, he states that, on the morning of his
execution, he exhorted the Catholics who were present at his Mass in
the prison, and desired them ‘that as often as in passing through the
City, they should see that hand of his fixed on one of the Gates, or in
crossing the water, should see his head on London Bridge, they would
remember those lessons which he had preached to them, of the importance
of holding fast the Catholic faith, and of leading a Christian and
holy life.’ In October, 1642, the head of Thomas Bullaker, a Priest
of the Order of St. Francis, was also set up on London Bridge. See
Bishop Challoner, page 132, in the same volume: and another unhappy
instance of a similar execution is to be found in Dr. Challoner’s
life of Henry Heath, a Father of the Order of St. Francis, contained
on pages 141, 143, of the same volume of his work. Having left Douay
and landed in England, this Priest travelled to the metropolis in the
greatest poverty. ‘At London he arrives wearied, as well he might,
having travelled barefoot forty miles that day, and it being the Winter
season. It is now time to take up his quarters, and give some little
rest and refreshment to the body. But how shall this be done, for money
he has none, nor acquaintance? however, he ventures to call at the Star
Inn, near London Bridge, but the people of the house finding that he
had no money, turned him out of doors at eight o’clock in a cold winter
night.’ In this distress, he laid down to rest at a Citizen’s door,
where the owner of the house had him seized for a shoplifter, and, when
examined by the watch, some writings in defence of the Romish faith
being found in his cap, he owned himself to be a Priest. He was then
tried and convicted upon the Statute of Elizabeth, and was executed
on April the 17th, 1643, at Tyburn, and his head erected upon London
Bridge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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