Palasor was born at
Ellerton-on-Swale, parish of
Catterick, North Riding of Yorkshire. He arrived at
Reims on 24 July 1592, and set out for the
English College, Valladolid on 24 August 1592. There, he was ordained priest in 1596. He was arrested in the house of John Norton, of Ravensworth, nearly
Lamesley, County Durham. Norton seems to have been the second son of
Richard Norton, of
Norton Conyers,
attainted for his share in the
Rising of the North in 1569. Norton and his wife (if the identification is correct, she was his second wife, Margaret, daughter of Christopher Redshaw of Owston) were arrested at the same time, with a noble English gentleman, the
Blessed John Talbot, one of the Talbots of
Thornton-le-Street, North Riding of Yorkshire. All four were tried at
Durham and condemned to death, Palasor for being a priest, and the others for assisting him. Another gentleman was condemned at the same time but saved his life by conforming to the
Church of England, as the others might have done. Mrs. Norton, being supposed to be with child, was reprieved. The three others were executed together.
Richard Challoner tells how an attempt to poison Palasor and his companions made by the jailer's wife resulted in the conversion of her maid-servant Mary Day. Thomas Palasor, John Norton and John Talbot were beatified as members of the
Eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales by Pope John Paul II at the Vatican on 22 November, 1987. ==See also==