John Ury (died 29 August 1741) was a Non-juring

Anglican priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

who was falsely accused of being a

Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in common English usage ''priest'' refe ...

, a Spanish spy, and the mastermind of the

New York Slave Insurrection of 1741 The Conspiracy of 1741, also known as the Slave Insurrection of 1741, was a purported plot by slaves and poor whites in the British colony of New York in 1741 to revolt and level New York City with a series of fires. Historians disagree as ...

. His ability to read

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

was cited as proof of this. Under legislation passed in 1700, merely being a Catholic priest was, in the

Colony of New York The Province of New York was a British proprietary colony and later a royal colony on the northeast coast of North America from 1664 to 1783. It extended from Long Island on the Atlantic, up the Hudson River and Mohawk River valleys to the G ...

, a crime punishable by death.Lindor, Douglas O., "The 'Negro Plot Trials': An Account", ''Famous Trials'', University of Missouri - Kansas City, School of Law, 2009
/ref>

Background and career

He was the son of a former secretary of the

South Sea Company The South Sea Company (officially: The Governor and Company of the merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of America and for the encouragement of the Fishery) was a British joint-stock company founded in Ja ...

. William Kearns, quoting Flynn's ''The Catholic Church in N.J.'' (1904), mentions him as "a Catholic priest, who had exercised unostentatiously his sacred ministry in New Jersey, and had been engaged for about twelve months in teaching at

Burlington, New Jersey Burlington is a City (New Jersey), city situated on the banks of the Delaware River in Burlington County, New Jersey, Burlington County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a suburb of Philadelphia. As of the 2020 United States census, the c ...

."Kearns, William. "New Jersey." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 28 Jun. 2014
/ref> Albert J. Menendez identifies Ury as a Non-juring High Church Anglican Vicar who supported the

House of Stuart The House of Stuart, originally spelled Stewart, also known as the Stuart dynasty, was a dynasty, royal house of Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland and later Kingdom of Great Britain, Great ...

's claim to the British throne and opposed the

Glorious Revolution of 1689 The Glorious Revolution, also known as the Revolution of 1688, was the deposition of James II and VII in November 1688. He was replaced by his daughter Mary II and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange (William III and II), a ...

. Martin I.J. Griffin says "Ury was not a Roman Catholic priest, but a non-juror of the Church of England and a graduate of Cambridge University".Griffin, Martin I. J. "John Ury". ''Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia'', vol. 39, no. 3, 1928, pp. 225–238. JSTOR
/ref> In the spring of 1740, a number of Spanish sailors arrived in New York as captured crew of prize ships taken by British captains. Those who were dark-skinned were assumed to be slaves and sold at auction with the ship and its cargo. On June 13, 1741, five of these sailors were arraigned and charged with being involved in the plot. As Britain was at war with Spain, this increased the appearance of guilt. A search was then made for any Catholic sympathizers that might be in the city. For at least ten days before his arrest Ury had been under suspicion of being a Catholic priest. In her initial statement of April 22, Mary Burton, the prosecution's main witness, testified that the Hughsons and Margaret Kerry were the only whites involved. All three were hanged on June 12. Burton then amended her statement and identified Ury as "the real power behind the slave conspiracy", he was taken into custody on June 24, 1741. He was arraigned on July 15 and 22. Having no lawyer willing to defend him, he defended himself at the trial. Throughout, Ury expressed his innocence. He produced witnesses who testified he was just what he claimed to be, a teacher of ancient languages. He tried to show that he was a Non-juring

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

priest, and denied being a Catholic. The chief prosecutor was Attorney General Richard Bradley. At this time James Ogelthorpe, founder and governor of Georgia, sent word to Prosecutor Joseph Murray that he had information that the Spanish were planning a secret attack on the British colonies:

Some intelligence I had of a villainous design of a very extraordinary nature and, if true, very important, viz. that the Spaniards had employed emissaries to burn all the magazines and considerable towns in the English North America, thereby to prevent the subsisting of the great expedition and fleet in the
West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
. And for this purpose many priests were employed who pretended to be physicians, dancing masters, and other kinds of occupations, and under that pretence to get admittance and confidence in families."

Oglethorpe's letter left little doubt that the colony was part of an international conspiracy, one which not only planned to infiltrate and destroy the city of New York, but also to engage its Protestant citizens in religious warfare. Ury was found guilty of conspiracy on July 29, 1741, and hanged in New York City on August 29, 1741.

Background and career

References

Further reading