John Newman Martyr

I happened to be in Saffron Walden on Saturday where I saw this blue plaque. Newman was one of hundreds killed in Mary's reign. A pewterer worked with pewter, commonly used for drinking vessels and other objects right to the end of the 18th Century. The entry in Foxe doesn't tell us much more than the plaque. it is a reminder of great faith in difficult times.

John Denley, John Newman, and Patrick Packingham

Mr. Denley and Newman were returning one day to Maidstone, the place of their abode, when they were met by E. Tyrrel, Esq., a bigoted justice of the peace in Essex, and a cruel persecutor of the Protestants. He apprehended them merely on suspicion.

On the fifth of July, 1555, they were condemned, and consigned to the sheriffs, who sent Mr. Denley to Uxbridge, where he perished, August eighth, 1555. While suffering in agony, and singing a Psalm, Dr. Story inhumanly ordered one of the tormentors to throw a fagot at him, which cut his face severely, caused him to cease singing, and to raise his hands to his face. Just as Dr. Story was remarking in jest that he had spoiled a good song, the pious martyr again changed, spread his hands abroad in the flames, and through Christ Jesus resigned his soul into the hands of his Maker.

Mr. Packingham suffered at the same town on the twenty-eigth of the same month.

Mr. Newman, pewterer, was burnt at Saffron Waldon (sic), in Essex, August 31, for the same cause, and Richard Hook about the same time perished at Chichester.