John Penry

In 1562 an act of Parliament had made provision for translating the Bible into Welsh, and the New Testament was issued in 1567; but the number printed would barely supply a copy for each parish church.

Indignant at this failure, Penry published early in 1587 The Æquity of an Humble Supplication "in the behalf of the country of Wales, that some order may be taken for the preaching of the Gospel among those people".

[3] Returning to England in September 1592, he joined the separatist, or Brownist, congregation in London, in which he declined to take office, though after the arrest of ministers Francis Johnson and John Greenwood, he seems to have been the regular preacher.

Failing this a charge of sedition was based on the rough draft of a petition to Queen Elizabeth I that had been found among his private papers; the language was harsh and offensive, but had been neither presented nor published.

He was convicted by the Queen's Bench on 21 May 1593, and hanged at St Thomas-a-Watering on 29 May at the unusual hour of 4 p.m.,[3] without being granted permission to see his wife, Eleanor, or their four young daughters, Deliverance, Comfort, Safety and Sure-Hope before his death.