George Errington

Who was George Errington?

The Blessed George Errington of Hurst Castle - from the minor gentry branch of Bingfield, St John Lee, Northumberland - was an English Roman Catholic layman who is honored as a martyr by the Catholic Church.

Errington was convicted of attempted conversion to the Catholic Church, in a plot by an Anglican minister who claimed interest in this. Convicted of treason for this under the Penal law enacted under Queen Elizabeth I, he was condemned to death. For this he suffered hanging, drawing and quartering at York on 29 November 1596. Two years before his own death, Errington had ridden with Father John Boste on his last journey from York to Durham.

Martyred with Errington were the Blesseds Henry Abbot, William Knight and William Gibson, who had all been caught up in the plot by the minister. Except for Abbot who was executed and beatified separately, they were all beatified by Pope John Paul II as among the Eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales.