John Ury

John Ury (died 29 August 1741) was a white itinerant teacher who was suspected of being a Roman Catholic priest, a Spanish spy, and mastermind of the New York Slave Insurrection of 1741. His ability to read Latin was cited as proof of this. Under legislation passed in 1700, merely being a Catholic priest was, in New York, a crime punishable by death.

Background and career

He was the son of a former secretary of the South Sea Company. 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." Albert J. Menendez identifies Ury as a High Church Anglican Vicar who supported the House of Stuart's claim to the British throne and opposed the Glorious Revolution of 1689.

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 13 June 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 22 April, Mary Burton, the prosecution's main witness, testified that the Hughsons and Margaret Kerry were the only whites involved. All three were hanged on 12 June. Burton then amended her statement and identified Ury as "the real power behind the slave conspiracy", he was taken into custody on 24 June 1741. He was arraigned on 15 and 22 July. 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 Vicar, but not a papist. 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. 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 29 July 1741 and hanged in New York City on 29 August 1741.

Further reading

• Martin Ignatius Joseph Griffin, The trial of John Ury (1899)
• "The Dying Speech of John Ury", Franklin, 1741
• Bryant, William Cullan and Gay, Sydney Howard. A Popular History of the United States, Vol. III, New York (1879), pp. 239-40
• Horsmanden, Daniel. "A List of White Persons taken into Custody on Account of the 1741 Conspiracy"
• Williams, George Washington. History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880, Vol 1.
• Legacy: A Panicked Response To the 'Great Negro Plot'
• Terror in New York—1741 - Edwin Hoey, American Heritage Magazine, June 1974
• William Cooper Nell - The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution, With Sketches of Several Distinguished Colored Persons: To Which Is Added a Brief Survey of the Condition And Prospects of Colored Americans: Electronic Edition. (1855)