John Penry (1563 – 29 May 1593) was executed for high treason during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He is Wales' most famous Protestant Separatist martyr. [1]
Penry was born in Brecknockshire, Wales; Cefn Brith, a farm near Llangammarch, is traditionally recognised as his birthplace. His parents were Meredydd (Meredith) Penry and Eleanor (nee Godley). He matriculated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, in December 1580, [2] being then probably a Roman Catholic, but soon became a Protestant, with strong Puritan tendencies. Having graduated B.A., he moved to St Alban Hall, Oxford, and gained his M.A. in July 1586. He did not seek ordination, but was licensed as university preacher. [3]
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 Northampton and lived there for some years. With the assistance of Sir Richard Knightley, he set up a printing press, which for nearly a year from Michaelmas 1588 was in active operation. It was successively located at East Moulsey (Surrey), Fawsley (Northamptonshire), Coventry and other places in Warwickshire, and finally at Manchester, where it was seized in August 1589. On it were printed Penry's Exhortation to the governours and people of Wales, and View of... such publike wants and disorders as are in the service of God... in Wales; as well as the celebrated Martin Marprelate tracts. [3] [4]
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]
Returning to England in September 1592, he joined the separatist, or Brownist, congregation in London, in which he declined to take office, though after the arrest of ministers Francis Johnson and John Greenwood, he seems to have been the regular preacher. He was arrested in March 1593 following his recognition by the local vicar at Ratcliff and imprisoned in Poultry Compter while efforts were made to find some pretext for a capital charge.
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. [5] The signature of his old enemy Whitgift was the first of those affixed to the death warrant. [3]
Richard Bancroft was an English churchman, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1604 to 1610 and "chief overseer" of the King James Bible.
John Whitgift was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to his death. Noted for his hospitality, he was somewhat ostentatious in his habits, sometimes visiting Canterbury and other towns attended by a retinue of 800 horses. Whitgift's theological views were often controversial.
Edmund Grindal was Bishop of London, Archbishop of York, and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of Elizabeth I. Though born far from the centres of political and religious power, he had risen rapidly in the church during the reign of Edward VI, culminating in his nomination as Bishop of London. However, the death of the King prevented his taking up the post, and along with other Marian exiles, he was a supporter of Calvinist Puritanism. Grindal sought refuge in continental Europe during the reign of Mary I. Upon Elizabeth's accession, Grindal returned and resumed his rise in the church, culminating in his appointment to the highest office.
Henry Barrow was an English Separatist Puritan, or Brownist, who was executed for his views. He led the London underground church from 1587 to 1593; spent most of that time in prison; and wrote numerous works of Brownist apologetics, most notably A Brief Discoverie of the False Church.
John Greenwood was an English Separatist Puritan, or Brownist, minister who was executed for his faith. He led the London underground church from 1587 to 1593 and wrote several works of Brownist apologetics, working closely with Henry Barrow.
Martin Marprelate was the name used by the anonymous author or authors of the seven Marprelate tracts that circulated illegally in England in the years 1588 and 1589. Their principal focus was an attack on the episcopacy of the Anglican Church.
Llangammarch Wells or simply Llangammarch is a village in the community of Llangamarch in Powys, Wales, lying on the Afon Irfon, and in the historic county of Brecknockshire (Breconshire).

The Marprelate Controversy was a war of pamphlets waged in England and Wales in 1588 and 1589, between a puritan writer who employed the pseudonym Martin Marprelate, and defenders of the Church of England which remained an established church.
Andrew Perne, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University and Dean of Ely, was the son of John Perne of East Bilney, Norfolk.
Events from the 1580s in England.
Sir Richard Knightley of Fawsley Hall in Northamptonshire was an English Member of Parliament (MP) and leading patron of the Puritans during the reign of Elizabeth I. The Knightleys were one of the leading families of Northamptonshire.
Job Throckmorton (Throkmorton) (1545–1601) was a Puritan English religious pamphleteer and Member of Parliament during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Possibly with John Penry and John Udall, he authored the Martin Marprelate anonymous anti-clerical satires; scholarly consensus now makes him the main author.
Robert Some (Soame) (1542–1609) was an English churchman and academic. Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge from 1589, Some played a prominent part in the ecclesiastical controversies of his time, taking a middle course, hostile alike to extreme Puritans and Anglicans.
The reign of Elizabeth I of England, from 1558 to 1603, saw the start of the Puritan movement in England, its clash with the authorities of the Church of England, and its temporarily effective suppression as a political movement in the 1590s by judicial means. This led to the further alienation of Anglicans and Puritans from one another in the 17th century during the reigns of King James and King Charles I, that eventually brought about the English Civil War, the brief rule of the Puritan Lord Protector of England Oliver Cromwell, the English Commonwealth, and as a result the political, religious, and civil liberty that is celebrated today in all English speaking countries.
The reign of King James I of England (1603–1625) saw the continued rise of the Puritan movement in England, that began during reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558–1603), and the continued clash with the authorities of the Church of England. This eventually led to the further alienation of Anglicans and Puritans from one another in the 17th century during the reign of King Charles I (1625–1649), that eventually brought about the English Civil War (1642–1651), the brief rule of the Puritan Lord Protector of England Oliver Cromwell (1653–1658), the English Commonwealth (1649–1660), and as a result the political, religious, and civil liberty that is celebrated today in all English speaking countries.
John Udall was an English clergyman of Puritan views, closely associated with the publication of the Martin Marprelate tracts, and prosecuted for controversial works of a similar polemical nature. He has been called "one of the most fluent and learned of puritan controversialists".
Giles Wigginton was an English clergyman who became a fringe religious activist towards the end of the sixteenth century.
Elizabeth Hussey, later Elizabeth Crane and Elizabeth Carleton, was a religious activist with strong Puritan sympathies. She and her second husband, George Carleton, were prosecuted for involvement in the Marprelate controversy. The first of the anonymous Marprelate tracts, Martin's Epistle, was printed at her home in East Molesey, Surrey, in October 1588.
The London underground church was an illegal Puritan group in the time of Elizabeth I and James I. It began as a radical fringe of the Church of England, but split from the Church and later became part of the Brownist or puritan Separatist movement. William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Plantation, cited the underground church as the first that 'professed and practised the cause' of the Pilgrim Fathers.