John Speed (executed at Durham

Durham

Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...

, 4 February 1594) was an English Roman Catholic layman,
condemned for assisting the priest John Boste

John Boste

Saint John Boste is a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, and one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.-Life:John Boste was born in Westmorland around 1544. He studied at Queen's College, Oxford where he became a Fellow. He converted to Catholicism in 1576...

, whom he used to escort from one Catholic house to another. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1929.

He turned down the inducements offered to bring him to conformity with the Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

. With him was condemned Grace Claxton, wife of William Claxton, of the Waterhouse, in the parish of Brancepeth

Brancepeth

Brancepeth is a village and civil parish in County Durham, in England. It is situated about from Durham on the A690 road between Durham and Weardale. Brancepeth Castle was until 1570 the fortress of the Neville Earls of Westmorland. The castle was extensively modified and rebuilt in the 19th century...

, Durham, at whose house Boste was taken and probably Speed also. She was, however, reprieved on being found to be pregnant.