Sir Thomas Dingley (executed 9 or 10 July 1539) was an English
prior
Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...
of the
Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. He is a Catholic martyr.
Biography
Sir Thomas was the son of John Dingley of
Boston, Lincolnshire
Boston is a market town and inland port in the borough of the same name in the county of Lincolnshire, England. Boston is north of London, north-east of Peterborough, east of Nottingham, south-east of Lincoln, south-southeast of Hull ...
and his wife, Mabel, daughter of Edmund Weston. He was included in a
bill of attainder
A bill of attainder (also known as an act of attainder or writ of attainder or bill of penalties) is an act of a legislature declaring a person, or a group of people, guilty of some crime, and punishing them, often without a trial. As with attai ...
passed under
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
; another person on the same bill was
Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury
Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury (14 August 1473 – 27 May 1541), also called Margaret Pole, as a result of her marriage to Richard Pole (courtier), Sir Richard Pole, was the only surviving daughter of George Plantagenet, Duke ...
. He was accused, together with Robert Granceter, merchant, of "going to several foreign princes and persuading them to make war with the King". He had no trial, and no proof of treasonable practices was ever brought against him. He was found guilty of
high treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
28 April 1539, and beheaded on
Tower Hill
Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher grou ...
, together with
Sir Adrian Fortescue.
There is a discrepancy among the chroniclers as to the date of the execution. Stow gives 10 July, the Gray Friars' "Chronicle" and Wriothesley, 9 July.
The village of
Dingli
Dingli ( mt, Ħad-Dingli) is a village in the Northern Region, Malta, Northern Region of Malta, with a population of 3,865 as of 2021. It is from the capital Valletta and two kilometers () from the nearest town, Rabat, Malta, Rabat. The vill ...
,
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
is probably named after the knight Dingley, who had owned lands in the surrounding area.
Notes
References
*
Attribution:
* endnote:
**For the story of the suppression of the Knights of St. John in England, see Stow, "Chronicle", pp. 579, 580.
1539 deaths
Knights Hospitaller
People from Boston, Lincolnshire
16th-century Roman Catholic martyrs
Executed people from Lincolnshire
Year of birth unknown
People executed under Henry VIII
16th-century English people
English Roman Catholics
Priors
English knights
People executed by Tudor England by decapitation
Christian martyrs executed by decapitation
Venerable martyrs of England and Wales
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