John Kemble (martyr)

John Kemble
Born	1599 St Weonards, Herefordshire
Died	22 August 1679 (aged 79–80) Widemarsh Common, Hereford, Herefordshire
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Canonized	25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI
Feast	22 August

Saint John Kemble (1599 – 22 August 1679) was an English Roman Catholic martyr. He was one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

John Kemble was born at Rhydicar Farm, St Weonards, Herefordshire, in 1599, the son of John and Anne Kemble. They were a prominent local recusant Catholic family, which included four other priests. John Kemble was ordained at Douai College, on 23 February 1625. He returned to England on 4 June 1625 as a missionary in Monmouthshire and Herefordshire.

In normal times, despite harsh anti-Catholic laws, the extent of persecution depended upon the sympathies of local landowners. Around Hereford and Monmouth, where the Catholic Earl of Worcester (from 1642 Marquess) held sway at Raglan Castle, the old religion was for long periods practised with impunity, even after his own conversion to the Church of England. From 1622 there was even a Jesuit College at Cwm, Llanrothal, near Welsh Newton, which survived until 1678, though its existence was widely known, and was twice debated in the House of Commons.

Upon Father Kemble's returned to Monmouthshire he served more than 50 years as an itinerant priest, winning admirers even among Protestants. Little is known of his work caring for his flock during these fifty three years. The condition of Catholics had eased but priests still needed to perform their ministry discreetly. Based at Pembridge Castle, the home of his nephew, Captain Richard Kemble, he had seemed immune from prosecution.

The uneasy tolerance within which Father Kemble had operated was shattered by the Popish Plot of 1678. Titus Oates was a perjurer who concocted a plot in which the Anglican Charles II would be assassinated and his Catholic brother (later, King James II) installed as king in his place.

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