Ven. Richard White

(Vere GWYN).

Martyr, born at Llanilloes, Montgomeryshire, about 1537; executed at Wrexham, Denbighshire, 15 October, 1584. After a brief stay at Oxford he studied at St. John's College, Cambridge, till about 1562, when he became a schoolmaster, first at Overton in Flintshire, then at Wrexham and other places, acquiring considerable reputation as a Welsh scholar. He had six children by his wife Catherine, three of whom survived him. For a time he conformed in religion, but was reconciled to the Catholic Church at the first coming of the seminary priests to Wales. Owing to his recusancy he was arrested more than once, and in 1579 he was a prisoner in Ruthin gaol, where he was offered liberty if he would conform. In 1580 he was transferred to Wrexham, where he suffered much persecution, being forcibly carried to the Protestant service, and being frequently brought to the bar at different assizes to undergo opprobrious treatment, but never obtaining his liberty. In May, 1583, he was removed to the Council of the Marches, and later in the year suffered torture at Bewdley and Bridgenorth before being sent back to Wrexham. There he lay a prisoner till the Autumn Assizes, when he was brought to trial on 9 October, and found guilty of treason and sentenced on the following day. Again his life was offered him on condition that he acknowledge the queen as supreme head of the Church. His wife consoled and encouraged him to the last. Five carols and a funeral ode composed by the martyr in Welsh have recently been discovered and published.

An English contemporary biography printed in the Rambler, N.S., III (London, 1860): BRIDGWATER, Concertatio Ecclesiae (Treves, 1588), giving a contemporary Latin account; CHALLONER, Memoirs of Missionary Priests (London, 1741-42); THOMAS in Dict. Nat. Biog., following the Rambler account; COOPER, Athenae Cantabrigienses; POLLEN, Acts of English Martyrs in Cath. Record Society, V, 90-99); WAINEWRIGHT in Lives of the English Martyrs, III (London, 1912).

Edwin Burton.