John Penry

John Penry (1563 – 29 May 1593) was executed for

Career

There is not much evidence for his preaching tours in Wales; they could only have been made during a few months of 1586 or the autumn of 1587. In 1562 an act of Parliament had made provision for translating the Bible into Welsh, and the New Testament was issued in 1567; but the number printed would barely supply a copy for each parish church. Indignant at this failure, Penry published early in 1587 The Æquity of an Humble Supplication "in the behalf of the country of Wales, that some order may be taken for the preaching of the Gospel among those people". Archbishop John Whitgift, angry at the implied criticism, had him brought before the High Commission and imprisoned for about a month.

On his release Penry married a lady of

In January 1590, his house at Northampton was searched and his papers seized, but he succeeded in escaping to Scotland. There he published several tracts, as well as a translation of a learned theological work known as Theses Genevenses.^[3]

Return to England and death

Returning to England in September 1592, he joined the separatist, or

Failing this a charge of sedition was based on the rough draft of a petition to Queen Elizabeth I that had been found among his private papers; the language was harsh and offensive, but had been neither presented nor published. He was convicted by the Queen's Bench on 21 May 1593, and hanged at St Thomas-a-Watering on 29 May at the unusual hour of 4 p.m.,^[3] without being granted permission to see his wife, Eleanor, or their four young daughters, Deliverance, Comfort, Safety and Sure-Hope before his death.^[4] The signature of his old enemy Whitgift was the first of those affixed to the death warrant.^[3]

Notes