Sir Thomas Dingley (executed 9 or 10 July 1539) was an English

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of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. He is venerated as a Roman Catholic martyr.

Biography

Sir Thomas was the son of John Dingley of

Boston, Lincolnshire Boston is a market town and inland port in the borough of the same name in the county of Lincolnshire, England. It lies to the south-east of Lincoln, east of Nottingham and north-east of Peterborough. The town had a population of 45,339 at ...

and his wife, Mabel, daughter of Edmund Weston. He was included in a

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passed under

Henry VIII of England Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

; another person on the same bill was

Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury (14 August 1473 – 27 May 1541), was the only surviving daughter of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence (a brother of Kings Edward IV and Richard III) and his wife Isabel Neville. As a result of M ...

. He was accused, together with Robert Granceter, merchant, of "going to several foreign princes and persuading them to make war with the King". He had no trial, and no proof of treasonable practices was ever brought against him. He was found guilty of

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its d ...

28 April 1539, and beheaded on

Tower Hill Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher gro ...

, together with Sir Adrian Fortescue. There is a discrepancy among the chroniclers as to the date of the execution. Stow gives 10 July, the Gray Friars' "Chronicle" and Wriothesley, 9 July. The village of

Dingli Dingli () is a village in the Western Region of Malta, with a population of 3,865 as of 2021. It is from the capital Valletta and two kilometers () from the nearest town, Rabat. The village lies on a plateau some 230 metres above sea level, ...

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

is probably named after the knight Dingley, who had owned lands in the surrounding area.

Notes

References

* Attribution: * endnote: **For the story of the suppression of the Knights of St. John in England, see Stow, "Chronicle", pp. 579, 580.

External links

1539 deaths Knights Hospitaller People from Boston, Lincolnshire 16th-century Roman Catholic martyrs Executed people from Lincolnshire Year of birth unknown People executed under Henry VIII 16th-century English people 16th-century English Roman Catholic priests Priors English knights People executed by Tudor England by decapitation Christian martyrs executed by decapitation Venerable martyrs of England and Wales {{UK-Christian-clergy-stub