Martyrs of Southwark

BLESSED DAVID GONSON Layman
A Knight of Malta who joined the Order on Malta in 1553. He returned to England in 1540
and was soon arrested on a charge of treason. The writ against him claimed that in Malta "He
denied that King Henry was supreme head of the Church of England and that he called the
King a heretic." The accusation was laid by a fellow knight, Sir Philip Babington, and
Gonson was condemned by Bill of Attainder and was executed by being hanged, drawn and
quartered at St. Thomas Waterings on 12'h July 1541.

BLESSED JOHN PIBUSH Priest
Born at Thirsk, he was ordained at Rheims in 1587, arrived in England in 1589 and was
arrested at Moreton in the Marsh in 1593. He was tried both in Gloucester and London was
sentenced to death but his execution was deferred. He spent five years in the Kings Bench
Prison, which stood on the eastside of Borough High Street, but eventually, on 18th February
1600, he was taken to St. Thomas Waterings and was executed

BLESSED JOHN FELTON - Layman
He lived at Bermondsey Abbey and is best known as the person who fixed a copy of the
Papal Bull excommunicating Queen Elizabeth to the gate of the Bishop of London's
residence in the City in 1570. However there is doubt about this and he was condemned to
die for maintaining the Pope to be head of the Church and not the Queen. He was executed in
St. Paul's Churchyard on 4th August 1570.

BLESSED THOMAS FELTON - Layman
He was four years old when his father was executed. He tried his vocation but was forced to
return to England because of ill health. On trying to return to France he was arrested and
tortured including spending three days in the notorious 'Little Ease'. He was condemned to
death and was executed on 28th August 1588 at Brentford in Middlesex.