John Nelson (martyr)
John Nelson (1535 – 3 February 1578) was an English Jesuit martyr who was executed during the reign of Elizabeth I.
Nelson was from Skelton, York. He was nearing 40 when he left for Douai in 1573 for training as a priest. Two of his four brothers would later follow him there to become priests. He was ordained at Binche in the County of Hainaut by Monsignor Louis de Berlaymont, Archbishop of Cambrai, on 11 June 1576. The date and place of his admission to the Society of Jesus are unknown. The following November, he left for his mission, which appears to have been in London.
He was arrested on 1 December 1577 at his residence, "late in the evening as he was saying the Nocturne of the Matins for the next day following", and was put into Newgate Prison as a suspected Papist. He had written to the French Jesuits during his imprisonment for permission to be admitted to the Society.
In the Martyrology
- February 3 Blessed John Nelson, Jesuit priest and martyr of England