James and John Duckett and Government vs. Religion

When the Constitution and the Bill of Rights for the United States of America were being written by the Founding Fathers, they undoubtedly had nightmares like the fate of James Duckett in mind. The leaders of the English Reformation made it a hanging offense simply to publish Catholic literature, and Duckett, a Catholic convert, wound up in their crosshairs.

James Duckett spent a lot a time in jail, on and off, after he aligned himself with Catholicism.

He was ultimately brought down by a bookbinder, Peter Bullock, who found himself facing the gallows for something else. Bullock thought he might save his own neck by handing the government someone the authorities might want more than himself, so he testified in court that he had bound some Catholic books at Duckett's request.

Duckett admitted to publishing and circulating Catholic literature. Still, the jury dragged its heels, not wanting to send someone to his death on the basis of what they had to go on. But the judge saw it as a grave offense, and insisted that they change their verdict to "guilty".

As it happened, Duckett and Bullock went to the gallows together: same day, same oxcart en route to Tyburn on April 19, 1602. Bullock didn't save his own skin, but merely added another victim to the pile of people destroyed by a government that brooked no dissent in matters of religion. Either you publicly supported the Church of England, or you were targeted for destruction.

The title link is to the St. James Duckett page in the Saints Alive series by Father Robert F. McNamara, on the website for St. Thomas the Apostle Roman Catholic Church of Rochester, New York.

John Duckett, probably a relative (accounts vary, with most concluding that he was a grandson of James), was killed September 7, 1644, by the English government on the charge of being a Catholic. A Celtic cross marks the alleged location of his arrest. See: http://www.go-britain.com/html/john_duckett_s_cross.htm.

As the brief write-up points out, it might not have been entirely a religious matter in the case of John Duckett, at least. Attempts on the life of Elizabeth I and the Gunpowder Plot had changed the political landscape.

For what it's worth, the BBC has a Gunpowder Plot game on its website, at http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/games/gunpowder/index.shtml, where "You must find those kegs before the fizzing fuse causes disaster!" Also: Find out more about the Gunpowder Plot, discover what might have happened if it had been successful, and assess its place in history.