INGRAM, JOHN, BL.

Priest, martyr; b. Stoke Edith, Herefordshire, England, 1565; d. hanged, drawn, and quartered at Gatehead, Newcastle-on-Tyne, July 26, 1594. John, probably the son of Anthony Ingram of Wolford (Warwickshire) and Lady Dorothy Hungerford, was educated first in Worcestershire, then at the New College (Oxford), English College (Rheims), Jesuit College (Pont-a-Mousson), and English College (Rome). He was ordained in Rome (1589) before entering the mission field in Scotland (1592) where he was frequently in the company of Lords Huntly, Angus, and Erroll, the abbot of Dumbries, and Sir Walter Lindsay of Balgavies. Following his arrest on the Tyne, Nov. 25, 1593, Fr. Ingram was imprisoned successively at Berwick, Durgam, York, and in the Tower of London, where he was tortured. During his imprisonment he wrote twenty Latin epigrams which have survived. Later he was again sent north to prisons at York, Newcastle, and Durham. He was tried at Durham with St. John boste and Bl. George Swallowell, a converted minister. Ingram was found guilty of having been ordained abroad under 27 Eliz. c. 2, although there was no evidence that he had ever exercised his priestly faculties in England. It appears that an unnamed Scotsman vainly offered the English Government a thousand crowns for his life. Ingram was beatified by Pius XI on Dec. 15, 1929.

Feast of the English Martyrs: May 4 (England).

See Also: england, scotland, and wales, martyrs of.

Bibliography: r. challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, ed. j. h. pollen (rev. ed. London 1924; repr. Farnborough 1969). j. h. pollen, Acts of English Martyrs (London 1891).

[k. i. rabenstein]