John Speed (martyr)

John Speed (alias Spence) (executed at Durham, 4 February1594) was an English Roman Catholic layman, condemned for assisting the priest John Boste, whom he used to escort from one Catholic house to another. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1929.

He turned down the inducements offered to bring him to conformity with the Church of England. With him was condemned Grace Claxton, wife of William Claxton, of the Waterhouse, in the parish of Brancepeth, Durham, at whose house Boste was taken and probably Speed also. She was, however, reprieved on being found to be pregnant.

References

*Richard Challoner, "Missionary Priests", I, no. 100, ad finem;
*John Hungerford Pollen, "English Martyrs 1584-1603" (London, 1908), 239.