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 {{UK-Christian-clergy-stub