John Ingram (martyr)

The Blessed John Ingram (1565 – 26 July, 1594) was an English Jesuit and martyr from Stoke Edith, Herefordshire, who was executed in Newcastle-on-Tyne on 26 July 1594, during the reign of Elizabeth I.^[1]

Life

Ingram was probably the son of Anthony Ingram of Wolford, Warwickshire, by Dorothy, daughter of Sir John Hungerford.

He began his education in Worcestershire and attended New College, Oxford. He then converted to Catholicism and studied at the English College, Rheims, at the Jesuit College, Pont-a-Mousson, and at the English College, Rome. He was ordained at Rome in 1589; and then, early in 1592, he went to Scotland. There he befriended many powerful people. He acted as chaplain to Walter Lindsay of Balgavie for 18 months.^[2]

Captured on the Tyne on 25 November 1593, he was first imprisoned at Berwick; then at Durham, York, and in the Tower of London, where he was severely tortured and wrote twenty Latin epigrams, which survive.

After his ordeal at the Tower, he was sent North again and imprisoned at York, Newcastle, and Durham. There he was tried with John Boste and George Swallowell, a converted minister. He was convicted under a law, which made the mere presence in England of a priest ordained abroad high treason, even though there was no evidence that he had ever acted as a priest while in England.^[3] There is evidence that someone in Scotland offered the English Government a thousand crowns to spare Ingram's life, all in vain.

Death and beatification

Ingram was executed at Gateshead (or Newcastle-on-Tyne) on 26 July 1594.

He was beatified in 1929 by Pope Pius XI and his anniversary is 24 July.

References

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Ven. John Ingram". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.