Thomas Tunstall (Tunstal) (executed at
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...
, 13 July 1616) was an
English Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
priest. He is a Catholic martyr,
beatified
Beatification (from Latin , "blessed" and , "to make") is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. ''Beati'' is the ...
in 1929.
Life
Tunstall was born in
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
.
[Morris, Keith. "400th anniversary of Norwich Catholic martyr marked", Diocese of East Anglia, July 28, 2016]
/ref> He was descended from the Tunstalls of Thurland Castle, a Lancashire family who afterwards settled in Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...
. In the Douay Diaries he is called by the alias of Helmes and is described as ''Carleolensis'', that is, born within the ancient Diocese of Carlisle.[Burton, Edwin. "Ven. Thomas Tunstall." The Catholic Encyclopedia]
Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 2 December 2021
He took the college oath at Douay on 24 May 1607; received minor orders at Arras, 13 June 1609, and the subdiaconate at Douay on 24 June following. The diary does not record his ordination to the diaconate
A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions.
Major Christian denominations, such as the Catholi ...
or priesthood, but he left the college as a priest on 17 August 1610.[
On reaching England he was almost immediately apprehended and spent four or five years in various prisons till he succeeded in escaping from Wisbech Castle. He made his way to a friend's house near ]King's Lynn
King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is north-east of Peterborough, north-north-east of Cambridg ...
. His hands were injured in the escape, and when he sought medical help he came to the attention of the authorities and he was recaptured and committed to Norwich Gaol. At the next assizes he was tried and condemned. He was hanged, drawn and quartered just outside of the city's Magdalen Gate.[
There is a contemporary portrait of the martyr at Stonyhurst, showing him as a man still young with abundant black hair and dark moustache.
]
See also
* Douai Martyrs
References
;Attribution
* The entry cites:
** Richard Challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, II (London, 1742);
**Third Douay Diary, X, XI (Catholic Record Society, London, 1911);
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tunstall, Thomas
1616 deaths
17th-century English Roman Catholic priests
English beatified people
17th-century venerated Christians
Year of birth unknown
One Hundred and Seven Martyrs of England and Wales