On 26th/27th March* 1555, nineteen-year-old William Hunter, a silk-weaver’s apprentice, was burned at the stake in Brentwood, Essex, for heresy.

His story is told in John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and you can read the chapter on Hunter online at http://www.exclassics.com/foxe/foxe275.htm, but here is brief overview…

William Hunter was an apprentice to silk-weaver Thomas Taylor in London when Mary I came to the throne. After refusing to attend mass and receive communion at Easter 1554, he was threatened with being hauled before the Bishop of London.