John Tewkesbury

John Tewkesbury (died 20 December 1531) was a Paternoster Row leather merchant in London and Protestant reformer, convicted of heresy and burned at the stake in West Smithfield, London, on 20 December 1531.

Protestant conversion In 1512, Tewkesbury came into the possession of a manuscript copy of the Bible. He later bought an English language translation of the New Testament (1526) by William Tyndale. "He was a clever and eloquent man and a man of influence in London. He was one of the most knowledgeable of the Scriptures of all the evangelicals. which were circulating in continental Protestant at the time:

Stories of a similar nature were current even in More's lifetime and he denied them forcefully. He admitted that he did imprison heretics in his house – 'theyr sure kepynge' – he called it – but he utterly rejected claims of torture and whipping... 'as help me God.'

Examination Tewkesbury was subsequently moved to the Tower of London and confessed to Stokesley that he had read The Obedience of a Christian Man and The Wicked Mammon since recanting his beliefs two years earlier. He also confessed to removing the embroidered twigs from his sleeves and other alleged heresies.

Execution The sentence against John Tewkesbury was read and pronounced by John Stokesley, Bishop of London on 16 December 1531 in the house of Sir Thomas More. After this sentence, without a king's writ for their warrant, the sheriffs of London, Richard Gresham and Edward Altam, took Tewkesbury into custody. On St. Thomas' eve, Sunday 20 December 1531, the sheriffs burned him at the stake opposite the Priory Church of St. Bartholomew's the Great, in West Smithfield, London. John Tewksbury's character in the play is a composite of Tewkesbury and fellow martyrs, including Richard Bayfield and Thomas Hitton.