John Rochester (martyr)

Blessed John Rochester (c. 1498–1537) was an English Catholic priest, Carthusian monk and martyr.

The government was at first anxious to secure the public acquiescence of the monks of the London Charterhouse regarding royal supremacy in ecclesiastical matters, since for the austerity and sincerity of their mode of life they enjoyed great prestige. Having failed in this, the only alternative was to annihilate the resistance since a refusal engaged the prestige of the monks in the opposite sense. On 4 May 1535 the authorities sent to their death at Tyburn Tree three leading English Carthusians, John Houghton, prior of the London house, Robert Lawrence and Augustine Webster, respectively priors of Beauvale and Axholme. Little more than a month later, it was the turn of three leading monks of the London house: Humphrey Middlemore, William Exmew and Sebastian Newdigate, who were to die at Tyburn Tree on 19 June. This process of attrition was to claim as its victims no less than fifteen of the London Carthusians.

John was the third son of John Rochester, of Terling, Essex, and Grisold Writtle, daughter of Walter Writtle, of Bobbingworth. He was the brother of Sir Robert Rochester, Comptroller of the Household and a member of the Privy Council under Queen Mary.

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