Swithun Wells (c. 1536 – 10 December 1591) was an English Roman Catholic martyr who was executed during the reign of Elizabeth I. Wells was a country gentleman and one time schoolmaster whose family sheltered hunted priests. He himself often arranged passage from one safehouse to another. His home in Gray's Inn Lane (where he was hanged) was known to welcome recusants.

Wells was born at Brambridge House, Hampshire in 1536, of a wealthy country family,^[1] and was christened with the name of the local saint and bishop Swithun. He was the youngest of the five or six sons of Thomas Wells of Brambridge, by Mary, daughter of John Mompesson. During the Reformation, his family contributed to the secret funerals of Catholics at the local cemetery, and their house was a place of refuge for priests. Wells was well-educated, a poet, musician, and sportsman. Among his travels, he had been to Rome, and had a working knowledge of Italian.^{[citation needed]}

At one time he was tutor to the household of the Earl of Southampton, and was for many years a schoolmaster at Monkton Farleigh in Wiltshire. In 1582 he came under suspicion for his popish sympathies and on 25 May 1582, the Privy Council ordered a search to be made for him. It was at that time that he gave up the school. During this period, he attended Protestant services, but in 1583, was reconciled to the Catholic Church. He actively supported priests, organizing their often dangerous journeys from one safehouse to another. In 1585 he went to London, where he purchased a house in Gray's Inn Lane.^[2] Their home was a centre of hospitality for recusants.^[3]

Swithun Wells was beatified by Pope Pius XI on 15 December 1929, and canonized by Pope Paul VI on 25 October 1970, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.^[4] His feast day, along with that of the other thirty-nine martyrs, was 25 October, but since the new calendar for England and Wales was approved by the Vatican in 2000, the Saints and Blessed Martyrs from the Reformation Period have been celebrated on 4 May as "The English Martyrs". This date coincides with the Anglican Church of England celebration of the English Saints and Martyrs of the Reformation Era.^{[citation needed]}

St Swithun Wells Catholic Primary School is located in Chandler's Ford, near Eastleigh, Hampshire.^[7] St Swithun Wells Church opened in nearby Fair Oak in 1978,^[8] and gives its name to the wider Catholic Parish of St Swithun Wells, which covers six Catholic churches in south and west Hampshire.^[9]