Biography

Drury, born in Middlesex in 1587, was son of William Drury

William Drury

Sir William Drury, Knt., was an English statesman and soldier,He was a son of Sir Robert Drury of Hedgerley in Buckinghamshire, and grandson of another Sir Robert Drury , who was speaker of the House of Commons in 1495. He was a brother of Dru Drury.He was born at Hawstead in Suffolk, and was...

, D.C.L., judge of the prerogative court (who was converted to the Catholic faith in articulo mortis), and his wife, Mary, daughter of Sir Richard Southwell of Woodrising, Norfolk, a relative of Father Robert Southwell the poet. He was educated in London, and at the age of fourteen was sent to the English College at Douay, where he began his course of humanities, which he completed at St. Omer.

On 9 October 1605 he entered the English College, Rome, for his higher course. After receiving minor orders he joined the Society of Jesus

Society of Jesus

The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

 in October 1608, and subsequently he repaired to Posna

Pošná

Pošná is a village and municipality in Pelhřimov District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic.The municipality covers an area of , and has a population of 240 ....

 to finish his theology, arriving there 28 February 1611–12. In 1620 he was rector of the college at St. Omer, and afterwards was sent on the mission to his native country, where he became a distinguished preacher. He was professed of the four vows 8 September 1622. Occasionally he went under the names of Bedford and Stanley.

He lost his life on Sunday, 5 November (N.S.) 1623, at the Fatal Vespers

Fatal Vespers

The Fatal Vespers is the name given to a disaster in Hunsdon House, Blackfriars, London, at the time the French ambassador's house.-Event:On the afternoon Sunday, 5 November 1623 about three hundred persons assembled in an upper room at the French ambassador's residence, Hunsdon House,...

in Blackfriars.

Works

There is a eulogium of Drury in the preface to a book called F. Robert Drury's Reliquary (1624), containing his prayers and devotions. Stow says that he was reputed by his fellow-churchmen to be a man of great learning, and generally admitted to be of good moral life.