John Penry - The Welsh Martyr
John Penry was born and bred in a farmhouse called Cefn Brith which stands on the north side of the Epynt and is signposted on the Cefn Gorwydd road leading out of Llangammarch. Penry was born in 1563, receiving his education at Christ College, Brecon, and at Cambridge and Oxford. Penry was concerned about the lack of preaching ministers in Wales and the need for a Welsh Bible; he acquired a press, and printed tracts and books about the religious state of Wales. This aroused the wrath of Whitgift, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and as a result Penry found himself in prison.
Penry escaped to Scotland and remained there for three years but eventually decided to return to London to continue the work to which he had dedicated his life, namely to ensure that the Gospel should be preached in Wales in the Welsh language. Back in London, Penry made the acquaintance of many Independents. These were people who tried to worship in their own way and not according to the Queen's command. One Sunday morning in March 1593 when Independents were assembling together in Islington Woods, officers appeared and arrested a large number of them, including Penry, who was imprisoned at Poultry Compter for two months. The end came unexpectedly: when Penry was at dinner, he was informed that he was to die at five o'clock that afternoon. His chains were removed and he was dragged on a hurdle through the streets to St Thomas a Watering. There he was hanged in the open air. Penry was not permitted to see his wife, Eleanor, or his daughters Deliverance, Comfort, Safety and Sure-Hope. No-one knows where he was buried. To his four daughters he gave four Bibles, his sole wealth in this world.
written by Annabelle Thomas