Robert Dymoke

Confessor of the Faith, date of birth uncertain; d. at Lincoln, England, 11 Sept., 1580. He was the son of Sir Edward Dymoke (d. 1566) of Scrivelsby, Lincolnshire, hereditary King's Champion. In 1579 Dymoke received the martyr-priest, blessed Richard Kirkman, at Scrivelsby, and maintained him as schoolmaster to his sons. He was himself, at the time, an occasional conformist to the State-religion but was reconciled in 1580 either by Kirkman or by blessed Edmund Campion. In July, 1580, Dymoke and his wife, the Lady Bridget, eldest daughter and coheiress of Edward Clinton, Earl of Lincoln, were indicted for hearing Mass and for recusancy. Though he was quite helpless owing to paralysis, Dymoke was ordered by Bishop Cooper of Lincoln to be carried off to gaol, where he died, faithful to the end. He was much tormented in his last hours by the Protestant ministers who endeavoured to pervert him, and who, even when the dying man was half-unconscious, refused to leave him in peace. He left several children, his eldest son, Edward, being more than twenty-one years of age at the time of his father's death.

Bede Camm