Blessed Thomas Holford

Thomas Holford (sometimes called Thomas Acton) (1541–1588) was an English Protestant schoolteacher who became a Catholic priest during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He was martyred at Clerkenwell in London, and is recognised by the Catholic Church as having the status of Blessed.

Early life Thomas Holford, the son of a minister, was born in 1541 near Nantwich, Cheshire, at Aston in the parish of Acton. He was raised as a Protestant and became a schoolteacher. He moved to Herefordshire to become resident tutor to the children of Sir James Scudamore of Holme Lacy. There, through the ministry of a Catholic priest, Richard Davis, around 1579 he became a Catholic himself. On 18 August 1582, Holford entered the English College at Rheims, where he trained to become a Catholic priest. He was ordained at Laon 9 April 1583 and was sent to England on 4 May the same year. The executions which took place on this day and shortly thereafter were not all at the usual sites for executions in London, but were spread across the city to make an example of those condemned for their treasonous acts. This has been interpreted as a gesture of reprisal following the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

In the 2004 edition of the Roman Martyrology, Holford is listed as one of a group of eight martyrs who died in London on 28 August 1588. Following the Roman custom of naming a principal martyr 'and companions', the principal martyr is one William Dean, a priest. Three other priests are named besides Holford: William Gunter, Robert Morton and James Claxton. The group is completed by Thomas Felton, a Franciscan cleric, and the laymen Henry Webley and Hugh More.

Blessed Thomas is the eponymous patron of Blessed Thomas Holford Catholic College in Altrincham. There is a panel picture of him in St Joseph’s Church, Sale.