George Napier

George Napier

A secret priest

Under the auspices of the Oxford Preservation Society, the Latin Mass Society arranged for this plaque to be erected on a wall in Oxford Castle in 2010 to commemorate the execution of George Napier four hundred years earlier. Born in Oxford in 1548, Napier lived as a recusant (a non-conforming Catholic) until he joined the English College at Douai during the 1580s and was ordained a priest around 1596. On Elizabeth’s death he returned to Oxford as a missionary priest, living at Holywell Manor and Temple Cowley. Arrested in 1610 he was held in the Bocardo Prison, where Archbishop Cranmer had been imprisoned half a century earlier. Napier was condemned to death and executed after he refused to take an oath denying the right of the Pope to depose secular rulers.

On Saturday 28 October 2020, the 400^th anniversary of Napier’s execution, the Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham led a religious procession from the Tower of St Martin’s, Carfax, to Oxford Castle, where he blessed the plaque.

Return to exhibition

Museum of Oxford

Photo credit: Stephanie Jenkins, www.oxfordhistory.org.uk

A plaque with the inscription 'Close to this spot lies the site of the mediaeval gallows. In 1610 Blessed George Napier, Catholic Priest and Martyr, was executed here.'