Robert Singleton (died 1544), also known as John, was an English Roman Catholic priest, executed on a

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...

charge. He is considered a Catholic martyr by Antonio Possevino, in his ''

Apparatus Sacer Antonio Possevino (; 10 July 1533 – 26 February 1611) was a Jesuit protagonist of Counter Reformation as a papal diplomat and a Jesuit controversialist, polemicist, encyclopedist, and bibliographer. He was the first Jesuit to visit Muscovy ...

''.

Life

He belonged to a

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

family and was educated at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, but does not appear to have graduated. He became a priest, and for some utterances which were accounted treasonable was brought before a court of bishops in 1543. He was executed at

Tyburn Tyburn was a Manorialism, manor (estate) in London, Middlesex, England, one of two which were served by the parish of Marylebone. Tyburn took its name from the Tyburn Brook, a tributary of the River Westbourne. The name Tyburn, from Teo Bourne ...

on 7 March 1544, along with Germain Gardiner and John Larke.

Works

He is said to have written: *''Treatise of the Seven Churches'' *''Of the Holy Ghost'' *''Comment on Certain Prophecies'' *''Theory of the Earth,'' dedicated to Henry VII. Thomas Tanner calls this ''Of the Seven Ages of the World.'' None seem to have been printed.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Singleton, Robert Year of birth missing 1544 deaths 16th-century English Roman Catholic priests English martyrs