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.
The first mention of Ingram is in a letter from William Allen, 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.
[1]However, the four young men, John Ingram, Richard Haward, Thomas Heath and Christopher Haywood, were resilient and resourceful enough to escape their captors and, individually made their way to Rheims, arriving, in states of the utmost destitution, during October and November 1582.
(There is a record that he received ‘dispensation from any irregularity contracted through schism or heresy’ which suggests that his family may have conformed at least to some degree to the protestant religion.)
This circuitous route seems to have taken some months, possibly to obscure his intentions, and identity, from the network of spies maintained by the English Government to the channel ports, always on the lookout for priests and other persons of interest, so that upon arrival in England they could be arrested, or put under surveillance to lead the authorities to other Catholic sympathizers.
John Ingram lived for 18 months as resident chaplain to the household of Sir Walter Lindsay, in the guise of a steward, ministering to the local faithful.
He again failed to appear, so the next time the King set off on a Royal Progress he did Sir Walter the courtesy of stopping by with his troops and demolishing his castle.
He then traveled downriver seeking a means to cross back into Scotland but, arousing suspicion, he was apprehended by the English border guards near Norham Castle.
Discovered to be in possession of reliquaries, his identity as a priest was suspected and he was taken into custody at Berwick under the authority of the town’s governor, John Carew.
[4]With dark humour, Ingram indicates that he is well aware of the fate that awaits him, and that the bodies of those so condemned were usually quartered and publicly exposed rather than given a decent burial.
When they arrived in York, Ingram was in solitary confinement in a stinking vault of a locked jakehouse for four days, without either a bed to lie on or a stool to sit on.
[3] Matthew Hutton (1529-1606), the Bishop of Durham, acting for the Crown, preached a sermon before the judges, adjuring them to prosecute with all vigour the law against seminary priests, their aiders and abettors.
As the authorities in Newcastle were responsible for executions on Tyneside, Ingram was transferred to Newgate Prison in Newcastle and on the day of execution, Friday 26 July, he was taken from the prison across the bridge (now where the Swing Bridge is located) to the scaffold in Gateshead High Street which was directly opposite what was known at the time as the Papist Chapel, the Chapel of St Edmund Bishop and Confessor.
Holtby gives an account of Ingram's preparations, the prayers he said, his words to the bystanders, and of the execution itself: "I take God and his holy angels to the record, that I die only for the holy Catholic faith and religion, and do rejoice and thank God with all my heart that hath made me worthy to testify my faith therein, by the spending of my blood in this manner.
With rope around his neck he said more prayers, ending with the psalm Miserere mei Deus (Have mercy on me, O God), after which, making the sign of the Cross and saying, "In manus tuas" (Into Thy hands I commend my spirit), the ladder was turned; and being dead, he was cut down, bowelled, and quartered.
In the 1920s, Father Joseph Starr, who had had a particular devotion to the Gateshead martyr, would retrace Ingrams's route from the location of the prison where he was held to the site of his execution.
[5] Each year, in cooperation with the Anglican Community of Gateshead a commemorative walk in honour of Blessed John Ingram takes place on the Sunday nearest 26 July.
Paul J. Zielinski, of St. Augustine's, Felling, Tyne and Wear has written a book, John Ingram Priest and Martyr 1565-1594, which discusses the effect of the Protestant Reformation on Tyneside.