John Ingram

John Ingram (1565 – 26 July 1594) was an English Jesuit and martyr from Stoke Edith, Herefordshire, who was executed in Gateshead on 26 July 1594, during the reign of Elizabeth I. Life Ingram was probably the son of Anthony Ingram of Wolford, Warwickshire, by Dorothy, daughter of Sir John Hungerford. Fr Zielinski refers to the oft-recorded claim that he went to Oxford, where he converted to Catholicism, and left Oxford without completing his studies. Ingram is as a consequence sometimes referred to as one of the “Oxford Martyrs”. This is however an error. Zielinski quotes John Wainright, who noted that there was indeed a John Ingram, coming from Thame in Oxfordshire, at New College Oxford who appears not only obtained his degree but held a fellowship which he was obliged to resign due to conversion to Catholicism, but this person is recorded to have been admitted to Winchester College on Lady Day 1560-61 at the age of 13 years, which would make him 17 years or so older than our John Ingram. This conflation of the identities of the two men seems to have started in Carles Dodd's "Church History" of 1739, copied into Bishop Richard Challoner's "Memoirs of Missionary Priests" in 1741, and repeated without challenge in subsequent publications. As a result of this error, John Ingram is sometimes referred to as one of the ‘Oxford Martyrs’. There is no record of the Oxford man being martyred. John Ingram left England aged around 17 years and travelled to Douai. After introductory training he, with three other young men, was sent to the Rheims to study under William Allen. This venture was not without incident, however. Travelling with three other students, they were waylaid and held to ransom by a troop of Calvinist mercenaries in the pay of the Duc’d’Anjou (who had been a suitor to Elizabeth 1 at one point). The first mention of Ingram is in a letter from William Allen, later Cardinal Allen but then Principal at Rheims, to the rector of the English College in Rome: “Even at the very moment of my writing to you bad tidings come of four young students. On their way to this college from Douai, they were robbed, and are still held captive, by the soldiery of my lord, the brother of his Majesty, and a large sum of money is demanded of us for their ransom. Meanwhile the soldiers are dragging their unhappy victims from town to town, and from province to province, in the direction of their camp in Belgium.