Born in 1545, in Burton-upon-Trent, Robert Sutton was educated at Oxford University and began a teaching career there, and seemed set for ministry in the established church, serving as Rector of Lutterworth in Leicester.

However in 1573 his brother William went to study in Douai. Robert – together with another brother, Abraham - followed him there in 1578. William was ordained and sent to England in1577. Robert and Abraham were ordained and sent to the mission in 1578.

It is believed that Robert exercised his priestly ministry chiefly in Staffordshire. In 1585 he was arrested and deported, but he returned to England shortly after. In 1588 he was arrested again, in Stafford where he had been celebrating Mass. Also arrested was Erasmus Wolsey at whose house Sutton had been celebrating Mass.

Both men were tried at the Stafford assizes. Sutton was sentenced to death and executed on 27 July 1588. Wolsey too was found guilty but granted a special pardon.

Wolsey’s wife, Cassandra, bribed the authorities and was able to take possession of the quartered body of Blessed Robert and kept them first hidden in the roof of a tenant’s cottage of the family estate near Stafford. One of the quarters passed eventually to a Spanish Ambassador, a thigh bone from which is kept in a church in Brittany. Abraham Sutton gave the Jesuit John Gerard one of his brother’s thumbs, which is now in the Catholic church in Lutterworth.

The memorial of Blessed Robert is kept on 27th July.

All-powerful and ever-living God,
the flame of faith you gave to Blessed Robert Sutton
could not be extinguished;
it gave him the courage to serve your people
and to witness to you by a martyr’s death.
May his prayers continue to aid your Church on earth.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Photographs. (c) 2025, 2026, Allen Morris

Memorial plaque to Blessed Robert in church of Saint Mary and Saint Modwen, Burton.

Chapel commemorating the Martyrs of England, Westminster Cathedral.