Margaret Ward

Margaret Ward (c. 1550–30 August 1588), called the "pearl of Tyburn", was an English saint and martyr who was executed during the reign of Elizabeth I for assisting a priest to escape from prison. She was canonised in 1970, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

Life Margaret Ward was born in Congleton, Cheshire, in Northwest England, around 1550. Not much is known about Ward's early life, except that, as the Catholic Encyclopedia states, "she was of a good family"

Veneration Ward and Roche were beatified in a large group in 1929 and Ward was canonised as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales by Pope Paul VI in 1970.

Ward is depicted in panels in St Joseph's Church in Sale and St Alban's Church in Wallasey, in the Diocese of Shrewsbury, in the North West and West Midlands of England. There was a wooden statue of her in St Lawrence's Church in Birkenhead, a school and church are named for her in Sale, and another church in Holmes Chapel also is named for her. St Margaret Ward Catholic Academy in Tunstall, Staffordshire, is named after her as well.