Blessed William Lacy was an English Catholic priest and martyr. He and fellow priest Richard Kirkman were executed at York on 22 August 1582.
Biography
William was born at Houghton or Tosside, West Riding). He married a widow, named Cresswell, whose sons, Arthur and Joseph, became Jesuits. Little is related of his family by his biographers. He had a brother Ralph of Preston in Amounderness, a sister Barbara, and nephews Robert and William. He held a position of emolument under the Crown, possibly as coroner, till about 1565. One of this name, probably a relative, was a coroner for the West Riding in 1581-2. He was one of those gentlemen whose house was open to priests that came from the colleges abroad. Having been advised by them that he could not in good conscience attend Protestant churches, his absence was noted and he was forced to give up his position. He was subject to repeated fines, until he had to leave his home and stay with friends, but never long in one place. For fourteen years he suffered persecution for his faith, which included imprisonment at Hull. After the death of his wife, he went abroad and arrived at Reims, 22 June 1580. On 25 September following he went on to Pont-à-Mousson, and thence to Rome, where, after obtaining a dispensation, he became a priest. The dispensation was necessary before ordination, as Lacy had been married to a widow. On 10 May 1581, he was at Loreto on his way to England. He was arrested after a Mass said by Thomas Bell, afterwards an apostate, in York Castle, 22 July 1582. He suffered great hardships, being loaded with heavy irons, confined in an underground dungeon, and subjected to numerous examinations. He was arraigned on 11 August, probably under 13 Eliz. cc. 2 and 3. He was executed at York, 22 August 1582.
Richard Kirkman
Richard Kirkman was born at Addingham in the West Riding of Yorkshire. He arrived at Douai in 1577 and, after the transference of the English College to Reims, he was ordained subdeacon there, along with Richard Thirkeld, on 14 March 1579. Kirkman was ordained priest on the following Holy Saturday. He said his first Mass in the Abbey Church of the Benedictine nuns of St. Peter's. He left for the English mission on 3 August 1579, with Alexander Briant and three others. On his return to England in August he seems to have found a refuge with Robert Dymoke, hereditary Champion of England, at Scrivelsby, Lincolnshire. Kirkman was represented as a schoolmaster for Dymoke's sons. He laboured for four years on the English Mission. When Dymoke was arrested on the charge of recusancy, Kirkman fled north. Being questioned as a stranger in those parts, he was eventually arrested near Wakefield on 8 August 1582 by Francis Wortley of Wortley, J.P., and seems to have been arraigned a day or two after under 23 Eliz. c. 1. After condemnation the two priests shared one cell in a turret till 10 August, when Kirkman was removed to an underground dungeon. He was executed on 22 August 1582.
