John Duckett

John Duckett (1613 – 7 September 1644) was an English Catholic priest and martyr. Life John Duckett was born at Underwinder, in the parish of Sedbergh, in Yorkshire, in 1613, the son of James and Francis Duckett. He was a relative, possibly grandson, of James Duckett who had been executed at Tyburn on 19 April 1601 for printing Catholic books. He was baptized on 24 February 1614 and educated at Sedbergh School. At the age of seventeen, he entered the English College, Douai; he was ordained a priest by the Archbishop of Cambrai in 1639 and was then sent to study for three years at the College of Arras in Paris. He is said to have had an extraordinary gift of prayer, and as a student would spend whole nights in contemplation. After Paris it came time to embark on the English mission, but on his way he spent two months in retreat under the direction of his uncle, John Duckett, prior of the Charterhouse at Nieupoort.