Robert Drury

Saint name=Robert Drury image=Blessed-robert-drury.png|titles=Priest and Martyr birth_date=c. 1567 birth_place=Buckinghamshire, England death_date=26 February 1607 (aged 39 - 40) death_place=Tyburn, London, England feast_day=26 February (individual)22 November (one of the Eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales)29 October (one of the Douai Martyrs) honored_in=Roman Catholic Church beatified_date=22 November 1987 by Pope John Paul II

Life He was born of a Buckinghamshire family, presumably the younger son of Robert Drury of Hedgerley and Chalfont St. Peter.

He was received into the English College at Reims, 1 April 1588. On 17 September 1590, he was sent to the new college at Valladolid; here he finished his studies, was ordained priest and returned to England in 1593. He worked on his mission chiefly in London, and often stayed at a safe house where Anne Line sheltered priests.

He was one of the appellants against the archpriest George Blackwell, and his name is affixed to the appeal of 17 November 1600, dated from Wisbech Castle. An invitation from the English Government to these priests to acknowledge their allegiance and duty to the queen (dated 5 November 1602) led to the loyal address of 31 January 1603, drawn up by Dr. William Bishop, and signed by thirteen of the leading priests, including Drury and Roger Cadwallader.

A contemporary account of his martyrdom, entitled "A true Report of the Arraignment . . . of a Popish Priest named Robert Drewrie" (London, 1607), which has been reprinted in the "Harleian Miscellany", calls him a Benedictine, and says he wore his monastic habit at the execution. But this "habit" as described proves to be the cassock and cap work by the secular clergy. The writer adds, "There were certain papers shown at Tyburn which had been found about him, of a very dangerous and traitorous nature, and among them also was his Benedictine faculty under seal, expressing what power and authority he had from the pope to make men, women, and children here of his order; what indulgence and pardons he could grant them", etc. He may have been a confrater or oblate of the order.