Ven. Nicholas Garlick

Ven. Nicholas Garlick

Priest and martyr, born at Dinting, Derbyshire, c. 1555; died at Derby, 24 July, 1588. He studied at Gloucester Hall, now Worcester College, Oxford, matriculating in 1575, but did not take a degree, perhaps because of the Oath of Supremacy thereto annexed. He next became master of the high school at Tideswell in the Peak, where he exercised such a holy influence over his pupil that three of them eventually went with him to Reims and one at least, Christopher Buxton (q.v.), became a martyr. He went to Reims in June, 1581, was ordained, and returned to England in January, 1583. After a year of labour, probably in the Midlands, he was arrested, and in 1585 sent into exile, with the knowledge that he would find no mercy if he returned. Nevertheless he was soon back at work in the same neighbourhood. He was arrested by the infanmous Topecliffe at Padley, the home of John Fitzherbert, a member of a family still surviving and still Catholic, the arrest being made through the treacher of a son of the house. Topcliffe obtained the house and lived there till he died in 1604. With Garlick was arrested another priest, Robert Ludlam, or Ludham, who had, like Garlick, been at Oxford and had engaged in teaching before his ordination in May, 1581. In Derby Gaol, a small and pestiferous prison, they found a third priest, Robert Sympson, who was of Garlick's college at Oxford. There he had taken Protestant orders, but was soon after reconciled to the Church, for which he suffered long inprisonment in York Castle. In this trial his faith had grown stronger, but having been ordained and passed through many labours, including exile, he was again in durance and in danger of his life, and this time he was wavering. Garlick and Ludlam cheered, reconciled, and comforted their fellow-captive, and all three were tried and suffered together.

KING, Life of N. Garlick (1904); CHALLONER, Missionary Priests (London, 1741), I, 203; BOASE, Oxford Register, II, ii, 59; FOLEY, Records S. J. (London, 1877-83), III, 224-29.

J.H. POLLEN