The Dryburne Martyrs: Richard Hill, Richard Holiday, John Hogg and Edmund Duke (all died 27 May 1590) were English Roman Catholic priests and martyrs, executed at Dryburne, County Durham, in the reign of Elizabeth I.
[1] Hill, Holiday, Hogg and Duke were all sent on the English mission on 22 March 1590 but aroused suspicion by keeping together as a band and were arrested in County Durham soon after landing in the North of England.
Given the 1584 Act making it a capital offence to be a Catholic priest in England the sentence of hanging, drawing and quartering was inevitable.
The gallows in Durham were at Dryburn, opposite the present County Hall, probably within what is now the grounds of St. Leonard's Catholic School.
[3] According to legend, "After the execution, it was noticed that a small stream near the site had completely dried up, and so the area is known as 'Dryburn' to this day.
In the crowd were a good number of Catholics and reportedly when the priests' heads were as customary cut off and held up, only the officers and a Protestant minister or two would say "God save the Queen".