John Roberts was a Welsh Benedictine monk and priest born in 1577 in Trawsfynydd. After studying in Oxford and London, he embraced Catholicism while in Paris and subsequently joined a Benedictine monastery in Valladolid. He later served as the first prior of St. Gregory's in Douai before returning to Britain to work as a missionary priest. Following his arrest and periods of imprisonment in Gatehouse and Newgate, he was executed at Tyburn on 10 December 1610.