THE LIBRARY OF THE OF LOS UNIVERSITY CALIFORNIA ANGELES ST. THOMAS'S PRIORY. ST. THOMAS'S PRIORY OR THE STORY OF ST. AUSTIN'S STAFFORD BY JOSEPH GILLOW And I too dream'd, until at last Across my fancy, brooding warm, The reflex of a legend past. And loosely settled into form. — Tevnvson. LONDON: BURNS & GATES, Limited TO FRANCIS WHITGREAVE, Esq., J.P., D.L., OF BURTON MANOR, AND MOSELEY COURT, STAFFORDSHIRE, TO WHOM, AND TO WHOSE FAMILY, THE MISSION AT STAFFORD IS MUCH INDEBTED. 14S0.1©S PREFACE. Magna est Veritas, ct prcEvalebit. The following pages are the outcome of a visit with a friend to the remains of St. Thomas's Priory, and originally were written at his re- quest to awaken in the Stafford congregation an interest in the story of how their forefathers handed down to them the Teaching of their Redeemer. What the Faith was in pre-Re- formation days is so evident to the Catholic of to-day that it would be a needless encroachment upon time to exemplify that period. It is sufficient to say with Verstegan : — Thus was the Faith, this is the Faith of old, Held by the whole, now by the parte control'd. The history of Stafford Mission \'~, facsimile in outline with hundreds of others that mi^ht have viii Preface. been culled from my collection towards a de- tailed account of all the Missions, Chaplaincies, and Missionary Stations that have existed in England and Wales since the so-called Re- formation or Overthrow of the Ancient Faith. The record is sadly incomplete, and yet too vast, may be, ever to be displayed in its entirety. Therefore, from time to time, I have ventured, almost haphazard, to draw a few illustrations, and have issued them in some similar form to this, in the belief that Light discovers Truth, and that, thereby, others may be led to exclaim with the eminent antiquary, poet, and exile, previously cited : — And live that Faith, whereof Christ gave the ground, As long as Faith may on the earth be found. J. G. Woodlands, Dunham Massev, Cheshire. I. Stafford's great name in old records did sleep, And lay regardless 'mongst the common heap. — Nathaniel Thompson. 1685. Hitherto, I believe, there has been no attempt to throw light upon the obscure history of Catholicity in Stafford. We are living in an age remarkable for its spirit of inquiry and its honest endeavour to brush aside the cobwebs of prejudice and ignorance, which so long have darkened the religious history of this country. In furtherance of this object the following jottings in my note-book are set down in chronological order, but without the formal pretension of a history, being presented rather as historical finger-posts to direct the future historian in his path. It is unnecessary for the present purpose to enter into the origin and ^rowth of the novel doctrines foisted upon a simple people by tyran- I 2 S^. Thomas's Priory. nical sovereigns and their attendant mercenaries. It is sufficient to note that all the property of the Church, with the people's real and in- alienable interest in it. was either confiscated, or transferred to a new religion, set up and established by the State, to which the people were forced to bow under penal laws framed and administered in a spirit rivalling that of the pagan persecutor. Every kind of abuse and calumny was heaped upon the ancient Faith ; its professors were proscribed and outlawed, and the rising generation assiduously inoculated with the heresies of the reformers. By Law we'll bring't within the reach Of Death for papist priests to preach, Say Mass or even to be found In any place on English ground. Nor will we Mercy have, or spare them, Who either harbour priests, or hear them. — Ward, Canto ii. 1710. Hence it is that our first glimpses into the history of the Stafford mission only reveal pictures of a crowded gaol, barbarous execu- tions of priests, and other cruelties devised to deter people from exercising the rights of conscience. These scenes are too numerous Sf. Thomas's Priory. 3 to be recorded in the space at our disposal. Sometimes it is an account of a sudden raid upon the houses of those who clung to the Faith, by pursuivants in search of evidence against the proscribed religion, or in the hope of catching a priest ; at others, a harrowing- description of poor recusants being despoiled of their goods, and even homes, on account of their inability to pay the penalties indicted upon them for non-attendance at the estab- lished service. A few such examples will suffice, for — To bring the number in accompt, Unable is my skil : Of all such glorious martirs names. And their endured il. — Rich. Vet'stegan, Odes, 1601. In or about 1586,^ Sir Robert Parton, a venerable old priest, presumably assisting the Catholics in the town, was apprehended and thrown into Stafford gaol. Some time previous to this he suffered four years' incarceration in Newgate, whence he was set at liberty, and, full of zeal and courage, he had come down to ' Strype, Annals, 2nd ed., iv. 184. 4 S^. Thomas's Priory. Stafford, where he had probably held some cure in Queen Mary's reign, to devote his remaining years to the preservation of the ancient Faith. For six long years he patiently endured the horrors of Stafford gaol, encouraging the numerous recusants, who suffered a living death rather than conform to the new religion, ministering to their spiritual wants, and com- forting them in their extremity. Probably it was on this account that the good shepherd was transferred by his relentless persecutors to the Marshalsea in London at Christmas, 1592. There the old man was immured, awaiting his martyr's crown, at the time of a report issued i" 1593' — his longings for the heavenly Hieru- salem being aptly pourtrayed in "A Prisoner's Songe," penned by a priest and fellow-confessor about 1615.^ My thirstie soule desyres her drought At heavenlic fountaines to refreshe, My prisoned niynd would faine be out Of chaines and fetters of the flesh. —F. B., Priest. An ancient manuscript,^ written in the last 1 Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., 15,225. - Foley, Records S.J., iii. 232, iv. 493; Morris, Troubles, iii. 8. St. Thomas's Priory. 5 decade of the sixteenth century, tells us how Erasmus Wolseley, of Wolseley Hall, about eight miles from Stafford, William Maxfield, or Macclesfield, of Chesterton Hall, esquires, Edward and Francis Thornbery, two brothers, and Edward Sprott, of Ashenbroke, gentlemen, and William Myners, yeoman, besides others, all prisoners for conscience sake, were met together in a closed chamber in Stafford gaol,^ attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, at which the venerable martyr, Robert Sutton, was officiating, when the pursuivants or gaolers rushed in and arrested them. They were all tried, at the Stafford summer assizes in July, 1587, and condemned to death, — the martyr, as we shall see, on account of his priesthood, and the others for aiding and relieving him. Father Sutton suffered at Stafford on the 27th of that month ; but though the other prisoners were likewise sentenced to death as felons, the judge, seeing that popular feeling was strongly in their favour, for most of them were highly esteemed in the town, thought fit to reprieve them. 'Stafford gaol at this time, and down to the year 1700, stood in the Broad Eye, near the site of the Wesleyan chapel. 6 SL Thomas's Prioiy. They were, nevertheless, detained in custody ; and it is said that Mr, Maxfield, whose property was forfeited, passed the remainder of his Hfe in Stafford gaol. His wife was condemned with him ; and their son Thomas, who is believed to have been born in prison, subsequently became a priest, and suffered martyrdom at Tyburn in 1616. Though the eldest son of Anthony Wolseley, Esq., Erasmus would seem either to have been disinherited or to have had his estate forfeited in consequence of his recusancy ; for Wolseley Hall passed to the Protestant descendants of a younger brother of his father, to whom a baronetcy was granted in 1628. This branch happily returned to the Faith upon the conver- sion of the late Sir Charles Wolseley in 1837. Both Erasmus and his wife ^ endured many years' imprisonment for the Faith in Stafford gaol. This lady was Cassandra, daughter of Sir Thomas (jiffard, of Chillington, Co. Stafford, by Ursula, daughter of Sir Robert Throckmorton, of Coughton Court, Co. Warwick, and by her Mr. Wolseley had two or three sons and two ' Bridgewater, Cuticerhitiu, 1594. St. Thomas's Priory. 7 daughters, one of whom, Grizle, became the wife of Ralph Fitzherbert, Esq. The children appear to have shared the sufferings of their parents. Two of the sons, John and Humphrey,^ escaped to the Continent, and entered the English College at Rheims. There the former was ordained priest, but the latter proceeded to the English College at Rome, where he died in deacon's orders in 1589, aged twenty-three. It is also stated^ that about the same period Nicholas Thornes, a pursuivant of infamous memory in Staffordshire, drove away at a time hundreds of cattle belonging to Catholics, even all that many possessed, and afterwards turned the unfortunate owners with their families out of their homes. Amonost those so wronged were " Knolles, Widow Wade, George Cooke, William Poker, John Coher, Timothy Browne, Mr. Richard Fitzherbert, and many others ". Elsewhere^ we find that William Knowles, of Kidware, yeoman, a married man, a native of the county, and a good Catholic, was committed ^ Douay Diaries ; Foley, Records S.J., vi. - Foley, ibid., iv. 492 ; Morris, Troubles, iii. 23. ^ Foley, ibid., iii. 226. 8 St Thomas's Priory. on account of his religion to Stafford gaol, where, In about a year's time, he died, and was buried in 1587 at the Friary. Miss Joan Vyze,^ a very virtuous lady, also died a prisoner in the same gaol, after more than four years' imprisonment, in 1589; and Mr. Edmund Vyze, of Stoke, gentleman, of an ancient family seated at Staundon, was apprehended at his residence, committed to prison in Stafford, and after three months died there in 1592. Alice Palin, a devout Catholic, probably of Dearnsdale, near Stafford, where the Palins maintained a chap- lain at a later period, after two years' imprison- ment died in this gaol, and was buried in the Friary.'^ This was the usual burial place for the Catholic prisoners, who were not permitted to be interred in any churchyard in the town. The document first cited speaks of many others dying in Stafford gaol at this time : "In Stafford imprisoned thirty, whereof six yet re- ^ Foley, Records S.J., iii. 226-7. -The Friary was that of the Franciscan, or Grey Friars, ex- tending along the present Greyfriars Street from Browning Street to beyond the houses built by the late Mr. John Sharp. Within recent years many human remains have been disinterred on its site. SL TJiomas's Priory. 9 main, the others for the most part dead ".^ But of this enough has been said : — - Some maried were, and some were maydes, Their suffrance sundry wayes : Their cause all one, their only King Did all to glorie raise, — Verstegan, Odes. II. Ingland, loke up, thie soyle ys steinde with bloode, Thow hast made martyrs manie of thine owne, Yf thow hadst grace, theire deathes wuld do thee good, The seede wyll take wich yn such blood ys sowne. — Blessed Campion's Epitaph. 1581.^ The venerable martyr, Robert Sutton.^ to whom we have already alluded, resided in Stafford with a relative of Fr. John Gerard for a considerable time, possibly from his first coming to the English mission in 1578. He probably acted as tutor in the family with which he lived, and at the same time attended to the spiritual wants of the town and neighbourhood, besides secretly administering the comforts of ^ Foley, Records S.J., iv. 493. -Bodleian Lib., Rot. F., i, 2. * Pollen, Acts of Eng. Martyrs, 323 ; Challoner, Memoirs, ed. 1741, i. 193 ; Foley, ibid., iii. 231 ; Dodd, CJi. Hist., ii. 94. lo SL Thomas's Priory. religion to the crowds of poor recusants who were wearing away their lives in Stafford gaol. His father is said to have been only a car- penter atBurton-on-Trent; but if so he was able to provide his sons with an excellent education. Robert, the eldest, after studying humanities in his native town, was sent in his fifteenth or sixteenth year to Oxford, where he was ad- mitted a scholar of Christ Church. In due course he proceeded in arts, and obtained re- pute as lecturer in logic, philosophy, Greek and Hebrew. After remaining at the university for eleven or twelve years he was rewarded with the important rectory of Lutterworth, Co. Leicester, formerly held by the heretical John Wycliffe. There he spent six years, till, through the mercy of God, he received grace to see the falsity of his position, and strength to abandon his benefice. His younger brother, Abraham,^ was also beneficed in the Anglican Establish- ment, and the two resolved to forsake their worldly prospects to follow Christ by devoting their lives to the reclamation of the scattered sheep of His fold. Their conversion was in- ' Bridgewater, Concertatio, ed. 1594. SL Thojiias's Priory. 1 1 strumentally brought about by the letters of their younger brother WilHam, formerly of Trinity College, Oxford, but then studying for the priesthood at Douay College/ The latter was ordained priest, and came to England in July, 1577, and some three years later became tutor to Sir Thomas Gerard's son John, the renowned Jesuit. About 158 1, he was exiled, and in the following year was admitted into the Society at Paris, and eventually was drowned on the coast of Spain in March, 1590. A. fourth brother, John,- subsequently became a lay-brother in the Society, and was first socitis to Fr. John Gerard in London, and then for many years lived with the venerable martyr Henry Garnett, SJ., up to the time of his arrest in 1606. Under Fr. William Sutton's advice, the rector of Lutterworth^ announced from the pulpit to his assembled parishioners his intention to leave them. Overcome with grief, he began by beg- ^ Douay Diaries; Foley, Records S.J., vii. 750; Uodd, Cli. Hist., ii. 137. 2 Morris, Condition of Catholics, Ixvi. ; Morris, Life of Fr. John Gerard. ^ Pollen, Acts, 323. 12 SL Thomas's Prio7y. ging pardon for having been so long not only a blind sfuide, but one who had led them into pitfalls and noxious errors. Then he declared that there was no hope of salvation outside the Church of Rome, and explained the reasons thereof Finally he offered up a prayer for his deluded people much to the following effect : — God grant you grace still in your hearts False doctrine to refrain, And hold the true Catholic Faith Which Christ did once ordain. — Ven. John Thules' Song. 1616.^ Upon the conclusion of his pathetic address he quickly descended the pulpit stairs, threw off his gown, and, being otherwise ready booted and girt for a journey, joined his brother Abra- ham, who by arrangement had come to him. Without delay the two brothers mounted their horses, which a trusty servant held in waiting outside the churchyard, and rode in hot haste to London, whence they set sail at once for Flanders. The two brothers arrived at Douay College 1 Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., 15,225. - Douay Diaries. 2 67. Thomas s Priory. i o 23rd March, 1577, and were admitted to the community on the following day. There they applied themselves to the study of divinity ; were ordained 23rd February, 1578 ; celebrated Mass for the first time on 7th March ; set out together for England on 19th March ; and proceeded to the mission in their native county. About seven years later both fell into the hands of the persecutors, and were banished the realm, with a number of other priests, in 1585. Fr. Abraham was betrayed by the notorious Bess of Hardwick, then wife of George, sixth Earl of Shrewsbury. ^ Not- withstanding, both returned to the scene of their apostolic labours, — the elder to Stafford, and . the younger perhaps to Padley Hall, Co. Derby, for he was certainly at one time tutor to two of the young Fitzherberts. Fr. Abraham lived till the time of James I., and was one of the forty-seven priests who, being confined in various prisons in the begin- ning of that reign, were sent into perpetual banishment.^ ^ Morris, Troubles, iii. 26. - Challoner, Memoirs, ed. 1742, ii. 14. 14 SL Thomas s Prior-y. Wee that are heere in banishment Continuallie doe moane, Wee sighe and sobbe, wee weepe and waile, Perpetually wee groane. —The, Exile's Song, by F. B., Priest. About 1615.1 This was in 1606; but Fr. Abraham's zeal for the salvation of souls daily increased in intensity, and would not permit him to stand idly groaning, so that the following year saw him once more braving the dangers of the English mission ; and from this time the apostolic man is lost to sight.^ Fr. Robert, whose zeal and piety were un- surpassed, was markedly successful in reclaiming his deluded countrymen from the snares of the new-fangled doctrines. In his care for the faithful he was undaunted by the terrors of the penal laws, and even ventured into the very prison itself to minister to the suffering recusants. At length, apprehended as we have seen in Stafford gaol, he was straightway dragged before Sir Walter Aston, a justice of the peace, and a virulent persecutor, who, in the words of the manuscript relation, ^ " writ his 1 Brit. Mas. Add. MSS., 15,225. 2 Dodd, Ch. Hist., ii. 386. a Foley, Records S.J., iii. 231. SL Thomas's P^'iory. 15 examination as pleased himself, and when he read it to the said Mr. Robert, he utterly- denied it to be his confession ". Thereupon the irate knight uplifted his staff, felled the helpless priest to the ground, and forthwith committed him to gaol. This happened in July ; and the summer assizes being at hand, the holy martyr's detention previous to his ap- pearance at the bar was of but short duration. Meanwhile, he was visited in his cell by William Overton, the Protestant Bishop of Lich- field, who " came hither, and disputed with him of many things, but of what matters I cannot learn," says the contemporary narrator, "but in the end, by every man's saying, he put the bishop to silence ". The valiant confessor was then arraigned at the bar, and with him the prisoners previously cited who were found in the chamber at the time of his apprehension. The verdict of the jury was " Guilty " in each case — the martyr of high treason, on account of his priesthood, and the others of felony, "for aiding and relieving him," that is for being present at his xMass. Sir Walter Aston was vehernent in denunciation of the priest, and 1 6 SL Thomas's Priory. protested that if his evidence was ineffective he would never more sit on the bench. Neither did he, tradition says ; the wretched perse- cutor was soon afterwards seized with sickness, and was buried on May-day, 1589. All the prisoners were condemned to death ; but the gentlemen, as we have already seen, escaped the extreme penalty ; for, in the words of the manuscript relation,^ " the judge, seeing the people flock about them much lamenting for them (for they were well-beloved in the town), was moved to some compassion, and so re- prieved them." Many, too, were the lamentations that so learned a man as Fr. Sutton should suffer ; but in his case no mercy could be shown unless he would renounce the authority by which he re- ceived his sacred orders, to which, like a fellow- martyr, he could only reply : — Yet that shall never fayle Which my faith bare in hande; * I gave my vow ; my vow gave me ; Both vow and gift shall stande. — Ven. Robert Southwell. 1595. ^ Foley, Records S.J., iii. 232. SL Thovias s Priory. 17 " In the night preceding his passion," writes Fr. Gerard, an intimate acquaintance of the martyr,^ " he was heard by some Catholic prisoners in conversation with others ; but they, knowing that he was in strict solitary confinement, and fearing lest some attempt might be made against him secretly, descended to the door of his cell and found it securely shut ; but looking through a window, they saw him enveloped in light and praying. Next morning the Catholics waited at the door of the prison to see the martyr go forth, and to commend themselves to his prayers ; on seeing them the ofood father commended himself to theirs, that God would be pleased to grant him constancy and perseverance to the end, ' from Whom,' he said, ' I have this night received greater consolation than I deserved.'" This account is corroborated by another contempor- ary writer," who says: "Truly the prisoners there do assure themselves he had some special comfort in prison the night before he suffered ; for in the morning, being ready to go towards execution, he turned him towards his fellow- ' Pollen, Acts^ 325. ^ Foley, Records S.J., iii. 231. 2 1 8 S^. Thomas's Priory. prisoners, giving them his blessing, then said these words : ' God comfort you all, for I am comforted ; ' and so went most cheerfully and boldly towards the end ". The same writer continues : "When he came to the place he desired he might speak, but they would not permit him. Then he took his hand- kerchief out of his pocket, lapped it together, made a fine discourse of the candle we receive in baptism and in the hour of death ; and in remembrance of what he said, he held up the handkerchief in token he lived and died in the light of the Catholic faith. He was put off the ladder and cut down very lively, for he stood upon his feet, was taken by great violence, dis- membered, spoke these words : ' O thou bloody butcher ! God forgive thee ! ' So, calling upon Jesus and Mary, he gave up his spirit." Such is the graphic account handed clown to us of the sufferings of this holy martyr. The horrible tragedy was performed at the ordinary place of execution just outside Stafford, to which he was drawn on a hurdle in the customary manner, on 27th July, the feast of the martyr- dom of the Seven Sleepers, 1587. After the S^. Thomas's Priory. 19 lapse of a year, the Catholics, longing to possess relics of the holy martyr's body, one night carried off from one of the oates of the town a shoulder and arm, the thumb from which is now preserved at Stonyhurst College. My skaffold was the bedd where ease I founde, The blocke a pillowe of eternall reste ; My hedman cast me in a blisfull swounde, His axe cutt off my cares from combred breste. — Vcn. Robt. Southwell. 1596. III. O God above, relent, And listen to our cry : O Christ, our woes prevent. Let not Thy children die. — Song of the Death of Ven.John Thules. i6i6.j A generation has passed before we again catch a glimpse of missionary work in Stafford. The darkness meanwhile has become more in- tense ; scenes of blood throughout the land are witnessed with ever-increasing rapidity during the long reign of the modern Jezebel ; and the respite which was looked for under her more humane successor has been delayed. It is now 1 Brit. Mas. Add. MSS., 15,225. 20 SL Thomas's Priory. that we meet with another martyr closely as- sociated with the local mission — the last to suffer on the scaffold in the reign of James I. — the Venerable William Southerne.^ This zealous missioner was born within the limits of the old diocese of Lindisfarne, and was probably a son of Thomas Southerne, whose daughter Isabel married George Killingworth, Esq., of Killingworth, near Newcastle-on- Tyne. It is also likely that he was a near relative to Mr, Southerne, the merchant of Newcastle, whose daughter and co-heiress, Eleanor, became the wife of Thomas Forster, of Durham, gent., in the first quarter of the seventeenth century. On 15th December, 1 569, Fr. Southerne was admitted into the English College at Valladolid,"^ whence after some time he was sent to the English College at Seville, where he was ordained priest. He then returned to St. Alban's, Valladolid, and thence came to the English mission. So to his native soil, upon command he came, Of only love to save the souls that fell from virtue's frame. — Bricj of the Life of Cmnpiun. 1581. ' Challoner, Memoirs, ed. 1742, ii. 118. - Valliuiulid Diary, MS. SL Thomas's Priory. 21 His first labours appear to have been in his native county of Northumberland, where he was reported in 1606 as saying Mass at Halton Tower, the seat of Lancelot Carnaby, Esq. Again, some half-dozen years later, his name occurs in connection with missionary work in the same county/ Most probably the perse- cutions ragino- in the north at this time necessi- tated his withdrawal to a county where he was unknown ; for we next hear of him as convert- ing and assisting the poor at Baswich, an estate belonging to the Fowlers, and adjoining their residence of St. Thomas's Priory. There he was seized at the altar, and hurried away in his vest- ments to a neighbouring justice of the peace, who committed him to Stafford oaol. A con- temporary document," entitled "An Account of the Present State of Persecution " dated London, 15th November, 161 8, gives the following char- acter of the roving pursuivant, a servant of the governor of York, Lord Sheffield, who was in- strumental to Fr. Southerne's martyrdom : — " This Dales is notorious, on account of two ' Foley, Records S.J., iii. S, 115, iig, 120. -Foley, ibid., iii. 120. 22 SL Thomas's Priory. or three murders he committed, and for his brutal and immodest conduct towards a lady, whom he both struck with his cudgel and loaded with abusive epithets, and then robbed her of her shoes, stockings, and under-dress, declaring- that they were the dress of some priest; he also carried off her towels, table-cloths, etc., pretend- ing that they belonged to the altar ; and he has already carried off property of this description to the value of thirty crowns. Gentlemen he commits to prison as priests ; of the priests he will sometimes take forty crowns for ransom money. He examines all the public streets in the towns, the roads in the country, and the inns ; carrying off everything he can lay hold upon, and committing to prison with all fury." Such is a fair sample of the miscreants de- signedly selected and employed to stamp out the Faith of our fathers. Nor did remorse to expiate sin prescribe, But slew their fellow-creatures for a bribe. — Dry den, Religio Laid. ¥r. Southerne's apprehension happened at the beginning of the Stafford assizes, so he was immediately placed at the bar, convicted, S^. Thomas's Priory. 23 and condemned to death for being a priest, having refused the proffered oath of allegiance, to take which would have been an act of apos- tasy. Upon the sentence of death being pro- nounced, the holy martyr fell upon his knees, and gave hearty thanks to God for the great privilege he was to have of dying for the Faith. He was then removed to a dark and loathsome dungeon, where he lay for six days, owing to the difficulty experienced by the authorities in finding any one to perform the odious office of executioner. Eventually he was conveyed to Newcastle-under-Lyme, and there on 30th April, 1 6 18, was strangled and butchered alive accord- ing to the barbarous custom of the times. His four quarters were distributed in various places, and his head was sent back to Stafford, where it was fixed upon a spear over one of the gates of the town in terroreni. The bloody axe his body fair Into four partis cut; And every part, and eke his head, Upon a pole was put. — Chatterton, Bristow Tragedy. 24 SL Thomas s Priory. IV. The Church shone brightly in her youthful days, Ere the world on her smiled ; So now, an outcast, she would pour her rays, Keen, free, and undefiled : Yet would I not that arm of force were mine, Which thrusts her from her awful ancient shrine. — Cardinal Newman The church at Baswich, or Berkswich, two- miles south-east of Stafford, belonged to the Austin Priory of St. Thomas, which, some little time after the dissolution of religious houses, on 13th October, 1539, was granted to Rowland Lee, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield,^ one of Henry VII I. 's most active agents in the sup- pression of monasteries and in the spoiler's pre- tended divorce, though Burnet " indeed asserts that "he did afterwards turn over to the popish party". Lee died 24th or 27th January, 1543, having divided the St. Thomas estates among his four surviving nephews, sons of his sister Isabel and her husband, Roger Fowler, of Broomhill, in Norfolk, descended from an ' Dugdale, Monasticon Avglicanum, ed. 1846, vi. 471. — Fowler pedigree. "Hist, of Reformation, ed. 1849, i. pt. i. 255, pt. ii. 430. SL T/iomas's Priory. 25 ancient Buckinghamshire family. This good couple having died early, the bishop had taken charge of their five sons and three daughters, the latter of whom he gave in marriage. The Priory fell to the share of the second son, Bryan, who married Jane, daughter and heiress of John Hanmer, of Bettsfield, Co. Flint, and like- wise became possessed of that estate. The Fowlers were staunch supporters of the ancient Faith, and maintained chaplaincies atSt.Thomas's and Bettsfield throughout the days of perse- cution. There can be little doubt that the venerable martyr, William Southerne, was sup- ported by them, if, indeed, he did not actually reside at St. Thomas's. With this chaplaincy the Stafford mission is inseparably associated, and derives its immediate descent. Soon after Father Southerne's martyrdom, we incidentally meet with the name of another priest, who would appear to be attending to the spiritual wants of the neighbourhood. In 1620 the Rev. Mr. Fisher is found reconciling to the Church a gentleman in Stafford.^ It is probable that he lived with the Fowlers, and is identical with ' Foley, Records S.J., 423. 2 6 S^. Thomas s Priory. the Rev. Thomas Fisher, alias Ashton, an elder brother of the eminent president of Douay College, the Rev. George Fisher, alias Mus- kett.^ They were younger sons of Thomas Fisher, of Barton-Segrave, Co. Northampton, and subsequently of Stilton, Co. Hunts, by Magdalene Ashton, a lady of high family, supposed to have been connected with one of the ancient Lancashire families of that name. After studying humanities for some years at Stilton, the two brothers, born respectively about 1580 and 1582, went to Wisbeach Castle, where the imprisoned priests secretly kept a sort of college, and instructed a number of youths, who, under the guise of servitors, were permitted to reside in the prison. Several of these eventually became priests. The two Fishers appear in a list" of boys in nominal attendance upon the priests, drawn up in Jan uary, 1 595- 1 596. The Rev. Christopher Thules, alias Ashton, and the Rev. Christopher South- worth were confined at Wisbeach at this time, and both were related to the Lancashire '^ Douay Diaries; Foley, Records S.J., iv. vi. ; Gillow, Bib. Diet., iv. - Morris, Troubles, ii. Si. Thomas s Priory. 27 Ashtons, the latter being also connected in- directly with a family named Fisher. It is therefore not improbable that the two boys were allied to them. Dr. Lee, the Anglican Vicar of All Saints', Lambeth, in his "Church under Queen Elizabeth," ^ gives an interesting account of the experiences of the two youths during their life at Wisbeach. It is slighdy misleading, however, as regards the social posi- tion of their parents, and also is difficult to reconcile with the statement of their elder brother Richard, which implies that it was the youngest brother George who first went to Douay. "They had been admitted to the Castle," writes Dr. Lee, " to attend upon the prisoners as servitors. Naturally clever and observant, by degrees they each became greatly in- fluenced by what they heard and saw. The old religion, as so many persons quietly and privately maintained, was a strong and remark- able contrast to the new ; and though these youths had been brought up under the latter, in no long time they became sincerely attached Mi. 77. 28 SL Thomas s Priory. to the former ; and, at their own request, were carefully instructed in its tenets and duties. This being reported to the governor [of Wis- beach], offended him greatly, who, on a certain day when a sermon was to be preached in the parish church ' by a painful and weighty minister,' commanded them both, as a test, to be present at its delivery. But, in respectful language, they asked to be excused. They would rather not go. They had recendy learned what the religion of their fathers was, and, if they might be allowed to make choice, they preferred it to that now set up. The governor now became furious. Was ever such insolence and heresy known : and from two boyish knaves ! As a punishment they were stripped to the waist, and publicly flogged in the market place in the presence of a large concourse of people, and then put in irons. Being subsequently set free, the eldest escaped abroad, and became a student at the college at Douay. But the younger, on a certain occa- sion, was found serving one of the old priests at Mass, and was imprisoned in company with some of the worst and most depraved criminals. kS/. Thomases Priory. 29 At length he was brought to trial, accused of being an ignorant recusant, and upbraided by the magistrates for being so foolish, and for bringing so much misery upon himself and his parents. " ' It is true that I am very ignorant about many things,' he replied ; ' but of this one thing I am quite certain, notwithstanding my ignorance, that the Catholic Faith is the only faith for salvation, and that it is a deal older, by many centuries, than your new religion.' '" How can you, an ignorant boy, know which is the oldest religion, or anything about it ^ ' asked the magistrate. " ' Why, in this way, sir,' the youth replied ; ' your own chroniclers, your own ministers, admit as much. Holinshead, who must have known, says so.' " The maoistrate denied that the writer in question had admitted anything of the sort. ' You lie, sirrah ! ' " Upon this the youth triumphantly drew out from his breast pocket a single leaf of the ' Chronicles ' of Holinshead, and presented it to the official. 30 S^. Thomas s Priory. " It contained a description of the coming hither of St. Augustine, with litanies, CathoHc prayers, silver cross, and pictured banner, and had been given to him by one of the prisoners at Wisbeach, as evidence of the antiquity of the old religion, — a leaf which might be judiciously produced when it was required. The youth himself, being poor and unable to pay fines, appears to have been dismissed with a warning." George Fisher would seem to have escaped to Douay early in I5g6. The elder brother, Richard, previously referred to, who was study- ing for the law in London, came down to Wisbeach to visit his brother Thomas in the Castle at Easter, 1596, and was converted to the Faith by one of the imprisoned priests, the Rev. John Greene. He was then persuaded to accompany his brother abroad ; and, eventu- ally, in 1 599, obtained admittance into the Knglish College at Rome, upon entering which he made the long statement, already mentioned, in reference to his brothers' and his own con- version. On account of ill-heallh, he was unable to persevere in his studies for the S^. Thomas's Priory. 31 Church in the Eternal City ; and on 30th May, 1600, he left the college for Belgium, from which period we lose sight of him. His brother Thomas joined George at Douay College, and thence proceeded to Rome, where he was ad- mitted into the English College, 21st October, 1598. There he received minor orders; but the climate disagrreeino- with him, as it had done with his brother, he departed on i6th October, 1602, for Flanders, and, returning to Douay, was ordained priest in 1603. In the following year he came to the English mission ; but when he first came to Stafford, if we are right in identifying him with the Mr. Fisher who was here in 1620, it is impossible to say. Parson Gee, who pretended to be a convert in 1623 in order to gain information about Catholics and their affairs, and then published it in his " Foot out of the Snare," in 1624, includes " Ashton, alias Fisher, M. Muskett's brother," in his list of priests residing in and about London in the former year. Hence it is probable that he removed from the Priory shortly after the death of Walter Fowler, Esq., in 1622. But as this is all we can gather of the chaplains at the 32 SL Thomas's Priory. Priory down to this date, we must turn for a moment to a glimpse which we catch about this time of another chaplaincy to which the Catholics of Stafford had been long indebted. Tempora inutantur, et nos mutainur in ilhs. Henry Stafford, son of the attainted Duke of Buckingham, was restored in blood, sum- moned to Parliament as a baron, and died in 1562. Both he and his son and successor, Edward, appear to have retained the Faith; but it is the grandson Edward, the third baron of the new creation, whom we meet with during this dark period as a protector of religion and provider of a pastor for the afflicted Catholics of Stafford. This nobleman, in 1595, married Isabel, daughter of Thomas Forster, of Tonge Castle, Co. Salop.^ Hitherto the Staffords had married into none but the noblest houses, and indeed were allied to royalty. Hence the marriage was regarded as a indsalliance, and a calumnious report was issued that the lady had been chambermaid to his lordship's mother. ' Gillow, Bib. Did., ii. 3^4 ; Burke, Extinct Peerage. SL Thomas s Priory. 2)Z Now in reality the marriage reflected honour on the Stafford family. The lady's parents were both of ancient lineage, but reduced to great straits by persecution, on account of their faith. The mother was the daughter of Humphrey Vyze, Esq., of Staunton, Co. Staf- ford, members of whose family we have seen dying confessors of the faith in Stafford gaol. She also was apprehended for recusancy, and committed to Shrewsbury gaol, where she was manacled and grossly treated by the inhuman keeper, till her glorious death as a confessor, July 15, 1590. During her mother's imprison- ment, Isabel Forster was compassionately taken into the household of Lady Stafford, Mary, daughter of Edward, Earl of Derby, and wife of the second Baron Stafford ; and it was thus that her marriage came about with the third Lord Stafford. The young baroness had a brother, then a secular priest, but afterwards a Benedictine, who came to reside at Stafford Castle, and attended to the wants of the Catholics in the town. His name is the only one pre- served of the successive chaplains at the Castle, from the change of religion upon the accession 3 34 •S^. TJiomas's Pj'ioiy. of Elizabeth till its capture and dismantlement during the civil wars, about 1643-4. Francis Forster/ Lady Stafford's brother, was admitted into the English College at Rheims, with Lawrence Stafford and others, October 7, 1590. Thence he was sent to the English College at Rome, where he arrived February 21, 1592, and took the gown on the following day, being then twenty years of age. In 1597, he returned to his former College, which mean- while had been transferred back to Douay. There he completed his theology, was ordained priest, and in 1598 came to the English mission. After some time he was apprehended and thrown into Newgate, and was one of the forty- seven priests banished the realm in 1606, Notwithstanding, he soon ventured again into England, joined the Benedictines, and was professed on the mission. It is recorded that he was imprisoned many times, and possibly he was banished more than once. Ultimately he settled at Stafford Castle, where he resided during the minority of his sister's grandson, Henry, fourth Baron Stafford, and died June 4, ^ Dolan, Weldon's Chron. Notes. Si. Thomas's Priory. 35 1 63 1 , aged fifty-eight. H is earthly resting-place is probably in the Castle churchyard, with — No name to bid us know Who rests below, No word of death or birth, — Only the grass's wave, Over a mound of earth, Over a nameless grave. — Adelaide A. Procter. He was an admirable missioner, says Dom Bennet Weldon, who adds that he was "par- ticularly addicted to deeds of charity, both spiritual and corporal, in which he gave away all that he had ". There is no record of any successor to Fr. Forster at the Castle. It is very improbable that the Stafford chaplaincy was maintained later than the demolition of the Castle by the Parliamentarians in 1644. Mr. Arthur Clifford states in the " History of Tixall " (p. 265) that Viscount Stafford, who fell a martyr to the Gates Plot, in 1680, resided at the Castle. No doubt he did so before its destruction ; but it was given in evidence at his trial that in 1678 he was only staying at Stafford in the house of Mr. Thomas Abnett, who was possibly his steward. 36 SL TJioinas's Priory. Having now exhausted the Httle information we possess about the mission at Stafford Castle, we must return to that at the Priory, of St, Thomas. And though I dy, succession wil supply, Undying truthe unto posteritie. — Verstegati, Odes. V. Never more, when the day is o'er, Will the lonely vespers sound ; No bells are ringing — no monks are singing, When the moonlight falls around. — L. E, Landon. We have already referred to the dissolution and grant of the ancient Priory of St. Thomas- the-Martyr, and briefly sketched its subsequent history. A portion was adapted to domestic use, and the remainder of the buildings were converted into stables, barns, and out-houses. It was situated in a sweet sequestered valley, watered by the river Sow, under a woody height which sheltered it from the north and east. Above this wood, say the historians of Tixall,' was formerly a tract of ground, sur- ' Clifford, Parish of Tixull, p. 40. SL Thomas's Priory. 37 rounded by a paling, called St. Thomas's Park, which was bounded on the north and east by Tixall parish. Though the Priory has been demolished, and a farm-house occupies its site, there are yet remains sufficient to interest and repay an antiquary's visit. Walter Fowler, Esq., son of Bryan, the inheritor of the Priory, married Mary, daughter of Ralph Sheldon, Esq., of Beoley, Co. Wor- cester, and resided alternately at Bettsfield, in Flint, which he inherited from his mother, and at his paternal estate of St. Thomas's, His son Edward, born at Bettsfield, went in 1603, at the age of nineteen, to the English College at Rome, where he adopted the alias of Blake, but returned home in the following year, on account of the death of an elder brother. ^ Another son, William, - also born at Bettsfield, was admitted into the English College at Valladolid 1 6th November, 1609, aged eighteen, and assumed the name of Stapleton. He took the College oath to serve the secular mission, but ' Fowler pedigree ; Foley, Records S. J., vi. - Valladolid Diary, MS. ; Palmer, Obit. Notices, O.P. 38 SL Thomas's Priory. after a time obtained leave to enter a Dominican convent, and was professed in that order, and . subsequently ^took^ the , degree of S. Th. Mag. When at length Cardinal Howard, nephew of Viscount Stafford, purchased Bornhem, in Flanders, and enabled the English Congrega- tion of Friar Preachers to establish a convent of their own in 1658, Fr. Fowler contributed largely towards its foundation. As far as can be ascertained, his missionary labours were confined to St. Thomas's, with occasional service, perhaps, at Bettsfield, so that possibly he suc- ceeded Mr. Fisher some time after 1620, and served the mission at the Priory till his death, 24th May, ,662. His father died in 1621; and his nephew, Walter, who married Con- stantia, youngest daughter of Walter, first Lord Aston, of Tixall, had his estates seques- trated by the Parliamentarians, but lived to see the Restoration, and died in 1 684. The brief record of F'r. Prowler's life is, that he lived, died, and was buried among his relations, the P"()wlers of St. Thomas's Priory. So earth to earth, and dust to dust — And though my bones decay, St. Thomas'' s Priory. 39 My soul shall sing among the just, Until the judgment day. — R. S. Hawker. There was another priest, however, of whom we catch a glimpse as serving the mission at the Priory during some portion of this period. The civil war brought great trouble to the Fowlers, in common with all Catholic families. On account of his recusancy Walter Fowler's estate was sequestrated ; and under the Rump Act of 15th July, 1 65 1, was purchased by Robert Ducy and Thomas Rogers, for .which Mr. Fowler compounded in a very large sum.^ The deplorable state to which the nation was reduced is thus aptly described in a humorous portraiture of the Puritans in a broadside circu- lated at this period : — There dwells a people on the earth That reckons true religion treason, That makes sad war an holy mirth. Count madness zeal and nonsense reason ; That think no freedom but in slavery. That makes lyes truth, religion knavery; That rob and cheat with " yea and nay " ; Riddle me, riddle me, who are they ? On 5th June, 1651, two priests travelling in 1 Dring, Catalogue of Compositions, 1655. 40 SL Thomas's Priory. Yorkshire were apprehended at Malton,^ and taken to York Castle. One of them answered to the name of Thomas Fowler, but ultimately acknowledged himself to be Fr. John Robinson, a Jesuit ; the other called himself John Man- nering, otherwise Gravenor. The Jesuit was convicted of being a seminary priest, and con- demned to death at the Yorkshire assizes in March, 165 1-2, but was reprieved at the last moment. Of the fate of his colleague, whom he had accidentally met on the road, we are left in the dark. If our identification be correct, he must have been a man well in years, over threescore and ten ; and, as we do not trace him further, it is not improbable that he was detained in prison, and there spent his few remaining days, like so many other priests at this period. The following is his deposition, taken upon his examination : — " John Mannering saith that he is sometimes called by the name of John Gravenor, his mother being of that name. Was born near Stafford town, at a place called Hampton. Was bred a Catholic. Served one Mr. Fowler, ^ Kaine, York Casth Depositions. SL Thomas's Priory. 41 in the county, of the same profession, and since hath Hved with Mrs. Meynell, of Kilvington, and did teach her children. He met with John Robinson at Wetherby, and stayed with him until he did eat meat, and did not know of his coming. They met on this day se'nnight, and did part with him at Ripon, and met again upon Monday at Osmotherley. He doth now belong to Mr. Thomas Watterton, of Walton, and doth teach his children. He was arraig^ned for the death of Robert Cooper, the last Lam- mas assizes, and was acquit. Denieth that he was in arms against the Parliament. He was going yesterday, when he was taken at Malton, to Farburne, hard by Brotherton, and saith that John Robinson was going to Beverley, as he told this examinant, and the said Robinson did undertake to know the way." It seems probable that this priest is identical with John Gravenor who was admitted as a student into St. Alban's College, Valladolid, 1 8th October, 1602, and shortly afterwards on account of ill-health was sent to Douay Col- lege.^ At the latter he was ordained priest in 1 Valladolid Diary, MS. ; Douay Diaries. 42 SL TJiomas's Priory. 1606, and thence in the same year came to the English mission. A branch of the Gravenors, or Grosvenors, ancestors of the Dukes of West- minster, resided at Bellaport, Co. Salop, and several times intermarried with the Mainwar- ings, of Ightfield, in the same county, and of Peover, Co. Chester. William Grosvenor, of Bellaport, married Cecilia, daughter of Richard Mainwaring, of Ightfield, and possibly was father of the priest. Another branch of the Grosvenors was settled at Bushbury, Co. Stafford, one of whom, Henry Grosvenor, married, in the reign of Elizabeth, Alice, daughter of Robert Whitgreave, of Burton Manor. It is difficult from John Grosvenor's deposition to assign the date of his residence at St. Thomas's Priory ; but judging from the ages of the children of Mrs. Meynell and Mr. Waterton we may conclude that his removal to Yorkshire was during the civil wars. Before proceeding with the history of the chaplaincy at the Priory we must not omit to say a word about the very eminent Catholic writer, John Austin, who is commemorated on one of the Fowler tablets in Baswich Church.^ ' Gillow, Bib. Diet., i. 87. S/. Tli07nas's Priory. 43 He was a student at St. John's College, Cam- bridge, and some time after his conversion, about 1640, became tutor in the family of Walter Fowler, with whom he resided for some time. It was probably at the Priory that some of Austin's works were written before his with- drawal to London, where he died in 1 669. Such was the esteem in which he was held by Mr. Fowler, that when that gentleman died at London, in 1681, he was buried by his own desire at St. Paul's, Covent Garden, "near his vertuous and devout friend Mr. John Austen ". Here lies a man by all good men esteemed. Because they proved him really what he seemed. Faith, hope, and resignation filled his breast, Good ground we therefore have to think he's blest. —Old Epitaph. The Rev. John Sergeant, in his Epistle Dedicatory to the 1672 edition of Austin's "Devotions", gives the author the following character: "He was a sfentleman so far from retirement that his chamber was generally open to multitudes, who either lov'd his friendly affability, or needed his useful advice or char- 44 S/. Thomas s Priory. itable assistance. His conversation and outward behaviour were exceeding cheerful and pleasant. He appear'd severe in nothing but sincere honesty, in nothing singular but perfect in- nocence consistent with so much freedom. The ereat business of his life that concern'd Heaven was transacted in the inmost recess of his soul, and never disclos'd itself without reluctancy and constraint. He was a traveller, and brought home from forreisfn countries all that could con- duce to a manly becomingness and wise carriage, leaving the extravagancies and follies where he found them. He was well skill'd in the best of our European languages, and an absolute master of our own. He comprehended also to a very great degree of excellency, law, mathe- maticks, philosophy, but he penetrated thoroughly all the solid and useful parts of divinity, which comfort faith and advance charity. . . . Thus, having fitted his soul by a well-spent life for a happy death, he sweeten'd a tedious sicknes with a perpetual exercise of Divine Love." He, indeed, was a living illustration of his own paraphrase of Martial's saying, non est vivere, sed valere vita — SL TJiomas's Priory. 45 Time is well bestow'd on those Who well their time bestow, Whose main concern still forward goes, Whose hopes still riper grow. — John Austin, Devotions. 1668. Some years before Fr. Fowler's death, the Rev. Daniel Fitter, son of William Fitter, of Wolverhampton, gent., came from the English College at Lisbon, and in or about 1654 was placed at the Priory, with the spiritual charge of the Catholics at Stafford.^ During the terrible persecution raised by the Gates Plot, and fom- ented by the unscrupulous Earl of Shaftesbury to prevent the succession of the Catholic Duke of York to the throne, a local informer, pre- pared for any perjury, was found in the person of Stephen Dugdale, a fraudulent steward, dis- charged by Lord Aston, of Tixall — Monstrum nulla virtute redeinptzun a vitiis. The nation, lashed into frenzy by the pretended disclosures of the miscreant informers, demanded the rigorous enforcement of the penal laws ; and the objectionable oath of spiritual supremacy was presented to every known Catholic. Mr. Fitter evaded imprisonment, and possibly death, ^ Gillow, Bib- Diet., ii. 270, 46 Si. Tho7nas's Priory. by submitting to the oath, and defended his action in writing by interpreting the word "spiritual" agreeably to the sense given to it in the injunctions of Queen Elizabeth, and by the generality of Protestants. His patrons and some friends followed his advice, but most Catholics declined to accept this compromise. About Michaelmas, 1678, William Howard, Viscount Stafford, was charged with the pre- tended plot, convicted on the perjured evidence of Oates and Dugdale, and suffered death for the Faith on the feast of St. Thomas of Canter- bury, December 29, 1680. And happy Stafford, unto whom God gave the crown of martyrdom. — Ward., Canto iv. Stafford gaol once more was crowded with priests and recusants. Amongst them may be noted Mr. Fitter's nephew, the Rev. Andrew Bromwich, who resided chiefly about Wolver- hampton, and was apprehended and committed to Stafford in 1679. A Jesuit, also serving in that locality, was taken about the same time, and likewise brought to Stafford. This was Fr. William Atkins, a paralysed, bed-ridden SL Thomas's Priory. 47 octogenarian, almost speechless, and perfectly deaf. In this pitiable condition he was dragged from his bed and carried to the gaol, a distance of eleven miles. These two inoffensive priests were brouoht to the bar at the next Stafford summer assizes, and actually condemned to death for being priests by Scroggs, the Lord Chief Justice, on August 13. 1679. Subsequently Fr, Bromwich was reprieved and obtained his release, but Fr. Atkins died a confessor of the Faith in Stafford gaol, March 17, 1 68 1, aged eighty. The carrying out of his sentence had been deferred on account of the difficulty in executing it upon such a wreck. During his trial he was unable to hear a word of what was going on ; but when it was signified to him that he was condemned to be executed, he turned to Scrooors and said : " Most noble lord judge, I return you my warmest thanks ". Sic itur ad astra. — Virgi/. Among many others imprisoned in Staf- ford at this time was Fr. Robert Petre, a/ias Williams, and Spencer, S.J., who obtained his 48 S^. TJiomas's Priory. liberation on bail in 1680. Fr. Richard Bab- thorpe, S.J., died at Stafford in 1681, aged sixty-three, but what had brought him to the town is not stated. The Society of Jesus certainly never had a mission in Stafford ; perhaps he, too, was in gaol. Another secular priest, condemned to death for exercising his priestly functions during this period of national fanaticism, was allowed to wear out his life in Stafford gaol in 1685, just before freedom came in view with the accession of the much-abused sovereign whose offence, which cost him his throne, was his struggle for liberty of conscience.^ In the record, the Old Chapter Obituary, which tells us of this con- fessor, he is merely called "Farmer". It has been thouoht that he is identical with one of the six younger sons of Henry Fermor (pro- nounced Farmer), Esq., of Tusmore, Co. Oxford, by Ursula, daughter of Sir Peter Middleton, of Stockeld, Co. York, great- grand-daughter of Charles Neville, last Earl of Westmoreland. ^Gillow, Bib. Diet., ii. 250. S^. TJiomas's Priory. 49 Besides the blood profusely spill'd, All prisons in the land were fill'd, Where cruel usage, stench, and whips, And hunger, slaughter'd them in heaps. — Ward, Canto iv. Mr. Fitter continued to reside at the Priory, and when hopes of better times were raised by the accession of the Catholic monarch, James II., he opened a school in Stafford for the benefit of the town and neighbourhood. At the general assembly of the Chapter, in 1687, he was elected vicar-general of the counties of Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Cheshire, and Salop, upon the condition that he should sign the declaration made by the English brethren in Paris against the oath of supremacy, which, as we have seen, he had previously approved. With this condition he complied, and probably held the office till he became a member of the Institute. For a brief period the prospects of religion in Stafford were most promising, and Mr, Fitter's school began to flourish ; but all this was brought to a sudden termination by the Revolution of 1688. The school was broken up, No-Popery mobs paraded the streets and threatened the personal safety of Catholics, 4 50 5"/. Thomas's Priory. and the houses in the vicinity of the town, wherein Mass was usually said, stood in immi- nent danger of being sacked. Priests through- out the country had to hurry into concealment, and for a time it appeared as if the worst forms of persecution were about to be revived. Religious ornaments they burn, And sacred things to ashes turn, Break chalices, and corporals rent. Blaspheme the Blessed Sacrament. — Ward, Canto ii. Once more Stafford gaol began to fill with prisoners for religion, and amongst them was Father Philip Philmot, S.J., a native of Staf- fordshire, who was seized at some neighbour- ing mission and closely confined for fourteen months before he was brought to the bar at the Stafford assizes.^ Upon his indictment being- read, the judge, detecting a flaw, deferred the trial, and remanded the father to Stafford gaol. There, strong efforts were made to induce him to apostatise ; but proving of no avail, he was transferred to London, where he obtained his liberation on bail, and finally his discharge. ' Foley, Records S.J., vii S/. Thomas ' s Priory. 5 1 The position of Catholics now became more tolerable, and Mr. Fitter was enabled to con- tinue his missionary duties in comparative quiet until his death, at the Priory, February 6, 1700, aged seventy-three. The old man's head is white with age, Weary has been his pilgrimage ; Yet 'few and evil ' were the years Spent amid our vale of tears. — L. U. Landon. He was laid in the Fowler vault at Baswich Church, where his name may still be seen on one of the family monuments. In or about the year 1695, at the recom- mendation of Cardinal Howard, the Institute, a society of secular priests, originally established in Germanv, was introduced into England, with certain modifications of its rules to render it suitable to the English mission. Mr. Fitter was one of the first to embrace it, and was appointed provincial-president and procurator of the Staffordshire District, which comprised the counties of Stafford, Derby, Salop, War- wick, and Worcester. In this office he con- tinued till his death, when his private estate passed under his will to his brother Francis for 52 S/. Thomas's Priory. life, with remainder to the Institute. But the latter was dissolved in 1702, and Francis, who had succeeded his brother as provincial-pre- sident, assigned the property bequeathed to the Institute by his brother to Bishop Giffard and others in trust for the benefit of the secular clergy of the Midland District. From a subse- quent administrator the trust obtained the name of Johnson's Fund, by which the Common Purse, or secular clergy fund of the old Midland Dis- trict, was commonly known until recent times.^ The Rev. William Pegge, a kinsman of the Fowlers, succeeded Mr. Fitter in the chaplaincy at the Priory.- He was a member of the ancient Catholic family of Pegge, of Yeldersley, Co. Derby, and presumably a brother of Father Dominic Pegge, O.P., who died in 1691, aged thirty-five. His aunt Katharine, daughter of Thomas Pegge, Esq., of Yeldersley, being in the suite of the royal exiles in France, was taken advantage of by Prince Charles, subsequently King, and in 1647 gave birth to a son, Charles Fitz-Charles, who was elevated to the peerage by > Kirk, Biog. Collns., MSS. - Kirk, ibid.; Burke, Extinct Peerage and Baronetage. SL Thomas's Priojy. 53 his Majesty on 29th July, 1675, as Baron Dart- mouth, Viscount Totness, and Earl of Plymouth. The lady subsequently became the wife of Sir Edward Greene, Bart., of Sampford, in Essex, who by extravagance and gambling entirely ruined and alienated his extensive estates. Mr. PeeSfe is said to have been educated and ordained priest at Douay College, though his name does not appear in the published diaries. For many years after he came to the mission he was house chaplain at Madeley Court, the seat of the Brooke family, in Shropshire. Thence he removed to the Priory on the death of Mr. Daniel Fitter in 1700. Like his pre- decessor, Mr. Pefjofe was a member of the Institute, which was dissolved in 1702. In that year he succeeded the Rev. Francis Fitter as administrator of the Common Purse, or clergy fund, and, on 14th Feb., 1703-4, he was elected an archdeacon of the Old Chapter. In 1703, the Fowlers invited the new vicar-apostolic of the Midland District, Bishop George Witham, to take uj) his residence at the Priory, which he made his head-quarters until his translation to the Northern Vicariate in 17 16. Meanwhile 54 S/. TJiomas's Priory. Mr. Pegge retained the chaplaincy till his death, which happened at the Priory, 7th Nov., 171 1. He was held in great respect by his brethren ; and the love and veneration with which he was regarded by the family is testified by the squire, Walter Fowler, commemorating him on one of the Fowler tablets in Baswich Church, where he was interred, as his " vertuous kinsman". He was perhaps too much reserved, for Bishop Witham complains of his unwillingness to tell him anything concerning the Common Purse ; nevertheless — Most orthodox he was and sound, And many errors did confound. —Old Epitaph. VI. O 3'et we trust that somehow good Will be the final goal of ill. — Tennyson. The dozen years which Bishop Witham passed at the Priory formed, no doubt, one of the most interesting periods of its ecclesiastical history after its suppression and the expulsion of the Black Canons. The ceremonies of the Church were once more performed widi a SL Thomases Priory. 55 degree of splendour scarce likened since Richard Peche, Bishop of Coventry and Lich- field, resigned his see to become a canon here in 1 182, and pass in the peace and solitude of the cloister the remainder of his days. His cope-clad priests, with cliant divine, The sacred Host upraise ; And girt with tapers holy shrine His gorgeous altars blaze. Bishop Peche had been present at the con- secration of St. Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, and founded this Priory in honour of that martyr. Besides the missioner, or family chaplain. Bishop Witham's private chaplains resided in the house, and occasionally his lordship kept for a term under his immediate supervision one or two newly ordained priests before launching them on the dangers of the mission. Of the necessity of this practice an illustration will shortly appear, in which one of these young priests, bending under the pressure of penal laws, or seduced by the emoluments offered to apostates, first turned informer, pursuivant, and priest-catcher, and ultimately settled down in a 56 SL TJiomas s Priory. Protestant vicarage in Yorkshire, presented to him as a reward for his infamous services. George Witham/ born in 1655, was a younger son of George Witham, Esq., of Cliffe Hall, Yorkshire, and his wife Grace, daughter of Sir Marmaduke Wyvill, of Constable- Burton, in the same county, knight, and baronet, by Isabel, daughter and sole heiress of Sir Wm. Gas- coigne, of Sedbury, knight. In due course he was sent to Douay College, where he was 3.dn\iite.d3.n a/2i?7imis, under his mother's maiden name of Wyvill, 26th May, 1674. Four years later he proceeded to St. Gregory's Seminary, at Paris, where he took the degree of D. D. at the Sorbonne, 14th August, 1688, and in the same month returned to Douay as professor of divinity. After teaching theology for four years he came on the mission, and was chaplain at Naburn, near York, the residence of his brother-in-law, George Palmes, Esq. After a year or so Bishop James Smith, vicar-apostolic of the Northern District, appointed him grand vicar ; but he had not held that office long when, in ' Kirk, Biog. Collns., MSS. ; Douay Diaries; Brady, Episcop. Succession, iii. Thi; Right Rkv. Gkokge VV'itham, D.l)., msimi' OF MAUcoi'OLis, and successively vicak apostolic OF THE MIDLAND AND NORTHERN DISTRICTS. From an original oil painting in the possession of the K. K. Mgr. Thomas Witham, of Lartington Hall. SL Thomas's Priory. 57 1 694, he was sent to Rome by the vicars-apostolic, and there for the next six years or more dis- charged with much credit the office of their agent at the Papal Court. He had hardly returned home when he was despatched a second time in 1701. Shortly before Bishop John Leyburne's death was known at Rome, Clement XI. had re- solved to give him a coadjutor in the person of Dr. Witham. So Propaganda, in general con- gregation, held 7th Aug., 1702, decreed that Dr. Witham should be appointed to succeed Dr. Leyburne in the London vicariate. He was described in the acts of Propaganda, in congre- gation of the previous i 7th July, as a man of much prudence, learning and zeal, with great practical experience in the affairs of the Catholic Church in England, and of the government of that king- dom, as well as in the affairs of the Roman Court. Subsequently, however, it was arranged that Bishop Giffard should be transferred to London, and that Dr. Witham should take the Midland District thus vacated. Meanwhile Dr. Witham retired to the seminary at Monte- fiascone, where he was consecrated to the See of y\.2SQ,o'^o\\'s, in partibus, 15th April, 1703. On 58 SL Thomas s Priory. the following 22nd June, he arrived in London, and at once proceeded to his vicariate. On the invitation of Mr. Fowler he took up his residence at St. Thomas's Priory, where he passed under the name of Markham, a precau- tion necessitated by the persecuting spirit of the times. Here he remained until his trans- lation to the Northern Vicariate in March, 1716. It is related of him in the " Douay Diary" that he never ceased to labour strenuously, and was eminently successful in confirming Catholics by his conversation and manner of life, and that many Protestants were converted to the Faith through his convincing arguments. He govern- ed the Northern Vicariate with the same zeal till his death at Cliffe, the seat of his brother John, 27th April, 1725 (n.s.), aged sixty-nine. Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time. — Longfellow. Bishop Witham wrote many works, but owing to the penal laws, and the peculiar circumstances of his time, it is doubtful if any of them were published. Amongst his English works are — Si. Thomas s Priory. 59 "A Catholic Thesis — He who denys allinfalli- bility in knowing ivJiat Christ taught, can have no Christian Faith;'' "An Answer to Dr. Tillotson's ' Discourse against Transubstantia- tion ' ; " "A Weekly Exercise for the Use of a Good Christian ; " and Prudential Directions ". During his residence at the Priory, his lord- ship had several young priests assisting in the mission, and preparing themselves for more onerous duties. It is to be regretted that all their names are not recorded. One was the Rev. Stephen Bowes/ brother of the Rev. Robert Bowes, alias Lane, author of the well- known " Practical Reflections for every Day throughout the Year". He was born at or near Arundel, in Sussex, of a good Catholic family, and in due course followed his brother to Douay College, where he made his profes- sion of faith, 1 6th April, 1694, and was admitted an alumnus, 24th April, 1696. After teaching classics for some time, he was ordained priest in March, 1703, and came immediately to reside at the Priory as assistant to Mr. Pegge in the mission. He remained until 171 2, when he 1 Gillow, B\h. Did., i. 281. 6o SL Thomas'' s Priory. was appointed chaplain to Anne, Countess of Sussex, natural daughter of Charles II. by Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland, and wife of Thomas Lennard, fifteenth Baron Dacre, who in consequence of his marriage was created Earl of Sussex. Mr. Bowes did not survive his change many months, for he died suddenly in the first half of the following year, 17 13. To each anointed priest God's summons came : Oh, soul, he speaks to-day And calls thy name. — Adelaide A. Procter. VII. Latet ano^uis in lierba. Thou hast done well, perhaps, To lift the bright disguise, And lay the bitter truth Beiore our shrinking eyes. — Adelaide A. Procter. It must have been shortly after the depar- ture of Mr. Bowes that the Priory had the misfortune to be polluted by an infamous apos tate who worked widespread trouble amongst SL Thomas s Priory. 6i Catholic families, and perhaps occasioned more loss and confiscation of Catholic charities and ecclesiastical property throughout the kingdom than any other informer. This unhappy man was Richard Hitchmough/ alias Barker, whose name will ever be held in execration. He was born in or about 1675, at Garston, near Warrinoton, in Lancashire, where his fore- fathers had lived for centuries on the estate of the N orris family of Speke Hall, and had always been honest men and staunch to their relisfion. For the latter we have the evidence of the fines for recusancy paid by them annually from the reign of Elizabeth. The parents of this apostate informer were Richard and Mary Hitchmough, of Garston, his mother being of the good family of Bar- ker, which gave many excellent priests to the Church. Through the influence of his mater- nal relatives he was sent to Douay College, where he assumed his maternal name, and in due course took the missionary oath, 12th April, 1697, but about two years later was 1 Gillow, Lane. Recusants, MS.; Foley, Records, S.J., vi. ; Kirk, Biog. Collns., MSS. 62 SL Tho7nas's PiHory. turned out of the College for misbehaviour. He then proceeded to Rome, where he was . admitted by the Jesuits into the English Col- lege, 1 2th September, 1699. Though probably he conducted himself better at Rome, for he was ordained priest on loth June, 1702, his superiors considered it prudent to detain him for some little time before permitting him to brave the dangers of the English mission. Thus it was not till 29th April, 1703, that he left the College for Paris en route for Eno-- land. On the mission his life was anything but that which a priest should lead, and no per- suasion or endeavour of his superiors could reclaim him. Obliged to leave Lancashire, where he certainly was till i 709 and probably later. Bishop Witham kindly took him under his immediate supervision at the Priory, but with no return other than o-ross infrratitude. He was then sent, at much expense, to reside for a time at St. Gregory's Seminary at Paris, in the hope that he might reform ; but there he lapsed into unruliness and drunkenness to such an extent that he was quickly expelled. He, indeed, was the unhappy illustration of the S/. T/wmas's Priory. 63 axiom — grave virus niimditias pepulit. In Wordsworth's paraphrase — His genius and his moral frame Were thus impaired, and he became The slave of low desires : A man who, without self-control. Would seek what the degraded soul Unworthily admires. Meanwhile the failure of the Jacobite rising of 1 7 1 5 was followed by a renewal of persecu- tion, and priest-hunting again became a profit- able calling. Moreover, the appointment of a commission for seizing upon the property of those who were implicated in the late rising and upon that devoted to Catholic purposes, or, as it was termed, "estate given to super- stitious usages," presented a tempting bait to informers. The wretched Hitchmouoh lost no time in offering his infamous services, and, armed with warrants, roamed about from place to place, seeking to prey upon his former brethren or the belongings of their missions. Many were the houses in which he had formerly found shelter and comfort that now were ruth- lessly broken into, ransacked, and plundered by 64 'S^. Thomas s Priory. this wretch in quahty of his new office, or at his instigation. Neither bishops nor priests escaped his attention ; and many of the latter, if not one of the former, fell into his hands and were hurried off to prison. In a letter to the commissioners, in 17 18, he informs them of valuable chalices and other altar plate formerly seen and used by him when officiating as a priest ; and in the long list he specially enumerates the following : " At St. Thomas, the seat of William Fowler, Esq., in the Co. of Stafford (where used to reside George Witham, who was titular Bishop of Calcedon, but departed for Canterbury, and to whom this deponent was chaplain), one large mas- sive silver chalice, one paten, one other silver chalice and paten double gilt with gold, two large silver crucibles, one large silver plate for the said crucibles to stand upon, two large silver thuribles, six large silver candle- sticks and a large silver crucifix, one other silver crucifix carried in procession on Maundy Thursday, and a large silver ciborium double gilt within with gold, in which was kept the consecrated Hoste — all which plate this de- 6"/. Thomas's Priory. 65 ponent has used when officiating at the altar ".^ Whether the commissioners succeeded in ob- taining possession of this plate does not appear. Meanwhile, after Hitchmough's departure, great changes had taken place at the Priory. Mr. Fowler had died in 17 16, and the property was in the possession of others. As to Hitch- mough himself, he seems to have received considerable payments from the commissioners for his services. He settled in Liverpool, and married some low woman, by whom he had several children. His new friends would doubtless be reminded of ^ jeu cV esprit of the Merry Monarch. Whenever Charles H. heard his prelates congratulating each other on the acquisition of a new brother in the person of a fallen priest, his Majesty used to twit their lord- ships with the near prospect they had of having a new sister also! About 17 17 Hitchmough removed to Preston, his sole support being that obtained by his infamous trade, which being highly resented, the good people of that town made his residence amongst them any- thing but agreeable. In November, 1720, as a ^ 21 P., Forfeited Estates Papers, P. K. O. S 66 SL Tho7nas s Priory. reward for his services and for his apostasy, he was presented to the living of Whenby, Co. York. But this he did not long enjoy, for the "Bishop's Certificates" for the archdiocese of York give the 20th April, 1724, as the date of the next presentation to the vicarage, then vacant per inorhun naturahun Richardi Hitch- mough, — the only record we have been able to trace of the end of this miserable man.^ There lies Dick Hitchmough, apostate, Traitor and fratricide, With n'er a stone to state his date, His name, or how he died. VIII. Make the charred logs burn brighter ; I will show you, by their blaze, A half-forgotten record Of bygone things and days. —Adelaide A. Procter. We must now return to the vacancy in the chaplaincy occasioned by the death of the Rev. William Pegge, towards the close of 171 1. To that virtuous pastor — antiqua homo virtute ac fide — a worthy successor was found 1 Payne, Eng. Cath. Nonjurors, 343 ; Records of Eng. Caths., 125. Si. Thomas's Priory. 67 in the person of the Rev. Thomas Bering- ton.^ This orentleman was the son of Thomas Berington, Esq., of Moat Hall, Co. Salop, by Anne, daughter of John Berington, Esq., of Winsley, Co. Hereford, both Catholic and ancient families, and, though bearing the same name, not, as one might expect, in any way related previous to this alliance. He was born iith or i2th December, 1673, and was edu- cated and ordained priest at Douay College. In what year he came to the English mission, or where he was stationed, is not precisely stated ; but in 1 702 he was serving somewhere in Shropshire, and therefore it is not improbable that he filled the family chap- laincy at Moat Hall. In 171 1 he became chaplain to Mr. William F"owler at the Priory, and upon that gentleman's death, in 17 16, con- tinued in the same capacity to his nephew-at- law, John Betham, who assumed the name of F"owler. 2 After serving this mission for at least nine years, and passing through the troubles consequent upon the rising of 171 5, 1 Kirk, Biog. Collns., MSS.; Berington pedigree; Gillow, Bib. Diet., i. -Kirk, Cath. Mag., v. 427. 68 SL T/iomas's Priory. Mr. Berington withdrew from the Priory, and in or about 1720 was appointed chaplain to Mrs. Mary Ann Howard, at Hoar Cross, in the parish of Yoxall, Co. Stafford. This lady was the widow of Robert Howard, Jun., Esq. The estate subsequently passed to the Talbot family, and was sold in 1793, when the mission was transferred to Woodlane, Needwood. It was possibly upon Mrs. Howard's death that Mr. Berington removed to London. In 1731 he succeeded the Rev. Charles Umfreville, alias Fell, D.D., as agent for the clergy of the Midland District. He was a member of the Old Chapter ; and in i 748, as senior capitular, presided at the general assembly held in London, and in the second session was elected dean in succession to the Rev. Thomas Day, who died on 8th July of that year. Upon that occasion he delivered a rather remarkable address to his assembled brethren. Though he had attained an advanced age, his death would appear to have been somewhat unex- pected. Shortly before, in the same year, he again presided at the general assembly of the Chapter. On 3 1 st October he made his will. S^. Thomas's Priory. 69 and died at his residence, in the parish of St. George the Martyr, Queen Square, London, 20th December, 1755, aged eighty-two, to the great regret of his brethren, by whom he had always been held in high esteem and respect. In his will he mentions his three nephews. Dr. William Berington, Dr. Joseph Berington, and Thomas Berington, Esq., of Stock Hall, in Essex, the latter being executor. Amongst other bequests he leaves to his niece, Lady Philippa Fleetwood, wife of Sir John Fleetwood, fifth Bart., and daughter of William Berington, Esq., M.D., of Shrewsbury, a "spring clock that strikes the quarters ". Whilst Mr. Berington was at the Priory he published a curious work, entitled, " News from the Dead ; or, the Monthly Packet of True Intelligence from the other World : written by Mercury". (London : Thomas Meig- han, 1 7 19, 8vo.) Upon the Rev. Thomas Berington's removal from the Priory, in 1720, his cousin, the Rev. Simon Berington,^ was appointed to the chaplaincy. He was the son of John Berington, Esq., of Winsley, Co. Hereford, by Elizabeth, 1 Gillovv, Bib. Did., \. ; Kirk, Biog. Collns., MSS. 70 SL Thomas s Priory. daughter of the loyal and gallant governor of Bridgnorth, Sir Thomas Wolryche, Knt. and Bart., of Budmaston, Co. Salop, and was born Jan. 1 1 -2 I, 1679-80. Like his cousin, he was educated at Douay College, where, under his maternal name of Wolryche, he took the missionary oath, and became an alumnus in 1700. In due course he was ordained priest, and remained at the College as professor of poetry and philosophy. Eventually he was sent to the English mission, and, as stated, succeeded his cousin at the Priory. Mr. Berineton was a man of studious habits, possessed of varied acquirements and of indubitable abilities, which are illustrated in the numerous writings he has left behind him. During the Rev. Simon Berington's chap- laincy great changes took place at the Priory. Mr. William Eowler, the last male representa- tive of his family, died, as already mentioned, in 1 7 16, leaving behind him the best of char- acters for piety, hospitality, and charity. Uni cc(]uus virtuti, atcjuc ejus am ids. — Horace. Byawill made in i 7 i 2 he bequeathed thewhole SL Thomas's Priory. 71 of his extensive estates in Staffordshire, Flint, and Lancashire (where he owned the manor of Pendleton), to his nephew-at-law, John Betham (son of Richard Betham, Esq., of Rowington, Co. Warwick), whose wife Katherine was the only child of the testator's sister Magdalen Cassey, sixth daughter of Walter Fowler, Esq., of St. Thomas, and his wife Constantia, youngest daughter of Walter, first Lord Aston, of Tixall. To his sister Dorothy, wife of John Grove, Esq., the testator merely devised ^300 a year, and after her death an annuity of ^200 to her son, Thomas Grove, of Worcester. This will was proved in March, 1716 ; and Mr. Betham, who assumed the name of Fowler according to injunctions, was given possession of the estates, and took up his residence at the Priory. On 5th August, 1726, Mr. John Betham Fowler's only daughter and heiress, Catherine, married Thomas Belasyse, fourth Viscount Fauconberg, who took possession of the Priory. Meanwhile, Mr. Fowler's later will of 171 5 remained in the custody of Christopher Ward, an attorney in Stafford, whom the testa- tor had employed to draw it up completely 72 Sf. Thomas's Priory. unknown to his friends. Whether through forgetfulness or design, the will lodged in Ward's hands was not divulged till after his death, which happened in 1724 ; and two years later Viscount Fauconberg upon his marriage with Catherine Betham Fowler, in compliance with the will of 171 2, assumed the name of Fowler- Fauconberg, and took possession of all the Fowler estates, which at that time yielded an annual income of more than ^2000, and were considered very improving. At this period, Thomas Grove, the son of Dorothy Fowler, was established in Worcester, where, having fallen into distress, he followed some business which hardly afforded him a livelihood. Lord Fauconberg then took upon himself the expense of the education of Grove's only sur- viving child, Rebecca, and sent her to a con- vent in France ; but whether this was a pure act of generosity or was done to get rid of the girl is rather questionable ; for it was about this very time, in 1727, that Edward Ward, son of the Stafford attorney, in looking over his father's papers, discovered the will of 1715, and communicated with Lord Aston, of Tixall, S^. Thomas's Priory. 73 principal trustee for the Fowler estates. The tradition is, that Lord Aston laid the will in question before Mr. Richard Fitzgerald, an Irish barrister, for his opinion. Fitzgerald at once perceived that Rebecca Grove, as repre- sentative of her grandmother Dorothy, sister and co-heiress of the testator, would be clearly- entitled upon the death of her father to a moiety of the Fowler property under the will of 17 1 5. In consequence he paid his addresses to her, and obtained her hand. ^ Letters of administration to the will of 171 5 were granted to Thomas Grove, ist December, 1729. Lord Fauconberg disputed the will, and a long suit in Chancery was followed by an appeal to the House of Lords, where it was determined, in 1733, that the estates of the late Mr. William Fowler rested in the representatives of his two sisters, Dorothy and Magdalen. It was supposed that the testator had scruples about the partiality he had shown to the daughter of his youngest sister, and had therefore executed the will of 1715, whereby that of 17 12 was revoked, and ^ Clifford, Parish of Tixall, p. 39 ; Kirk, Biog. CoUns., MSS. 74 -S^- Thoiims's Priory. the estates equally divided between the heirs of his two sisters, Dorothy Grove and Magdalen Cassey. In consequence of this final decision, Lord Fauconberg had to surrender a moiety of the property to the Irish barrister. Fitzgerald was a man of family, being the eldest son of Lieutenant-Colonel Nicholas Fitzgerald, M.P. for Waterford, who was slain in 1690 in the service of James II. at the battle of the Boyne. The Fitzgeralds of Little Island, of whom he was the representative, were derived from the ancient Earls of Kildare. Though Lord Fauconberg was not required to refund any part of the income he had hither- to enjoyed from the Fowler estates, he was very much piqued, and lost all relish for what re- mained to him. Indeed, in disgust he dropped the name of Fowler, and hastily sold the Priory of St. Thomas to the notorious Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. Hut this was not the only effect of his disappointment ; for it so greatly affected both his religious and moral principles that he first conformed to the Established Church, and then added robbery to apostasy by refusing any longer to pay the interest or to SL Thomas's Priory. 75 refund the principal of the money left for religious purposes in the hands of Mr. William Fowler by his former chaplain, the Rev. Daniel Fitter, on the plea of its having been left for "superstitious uses". His lordship was re- warded for his apostasy by being sworn of the Privy Council, and in 1756 was created Earl Fauconberg of Newborough, Co. York, However, he sent for a priest, and was re- conciled to the Church shortly before his death at his Newborough seat in 1774.^ By the last testament of its new owner, the Duchess of Marlborough, who died in 1744, St. Thomas's Priory passed to her grandson, the Hon. John Spencer, fourth son of Charles, Earl of Sunderland, by Lady Anne Churchill, daucfhter and co-heiress of the orreat Duke of Marlborough. His son, created Earl Spencer, in 1765, sold the estate of St. Thomas to Lord Talbot. Soon after the property had passed to the Spencers, the Priory was let to a firm of cotton printers, which in a few years' time found it expedient to abandon the under- ^K\vk,Diog. Collns., MSS. 76 SL Thomas's Priory. taking. A great part of the original Priory was then demoHshed, and the remainder was trans- formed into a farmhouse. On this occasion, write the brothers CHfford in 1817/ the ancient fixtures were sold by auction, and some aged persons still commemorate the massive marble chimney-pieces, from each of which the pur- chaser was enabled to make two or three in modern taste. A flower garden now occupies the site of the great hall ; and a balustrade, by a flight of steps leading from the house to the river-bank, is still decorated with two laree antique vases or flower-pots of very rude sculpture. Some of the buildings appear from their style of architecture to be part of the original structure of Henry II. ; but no traces can now be found of the church or cloisters, whose "fretted vaults" once resounded with the "pealing anthems of the religious," and in whose " long-drawn aisles " the trophied tombs of heroes, statesmen, and bishops still served to perpetuate the memory of their talents and virtues. But the monuments of man are frail and perishable as himself ^ Parish of Tixull, p. 41. St. Thomas's PiHory. 77 Miramur periisse homines ? monumenta fatiscunti Interitus saxis nominibusque venit. Not man alone — his works decay, His towers and temples pass away. Meanwhile, in or about the year 1733, when Lord Fauconberg lost his final appeal, Mr. Simon Berington had to leave the Priory, and a chapel was opened in a house in the town of Stafford, under the auspices of the Earl of Stafford, though it is questionable if a resident priest was appointed. Mr. Berington then, or some time later, settled in London, where he was given the custody of the Clergy Library at Gray's Inn. In 1748 he was elected secretary to the Old Chapter, of which he had long been a member. He died at his chambers in Gray's Inn, 1 6th April, 1755, aged seventy-five, leaving behind him, as already alluded to, a lasting memorial of his literary labours in the long list of his works both in print and manuscript. So we declyne even at our highest rate, Changing with tyme the change of our estate. — Verstega7i, Odes. 78 SL Thomases Priory. IX. Not so has the creed departed, Once the glory of yon shrine — Still it cheers the lowly-hearted, Still it maketh earth divine. —M. L. L. The twenty years succeeding the breaking up of the Priory and the opening of a chapel in a house at Stafford, in or about 1733, is a period of darkness in the history of the mission, the veil of which is too thick to afford more than a speculative view of its condition. It is im- probable that there was a resident priest, at any rate during the greater part of the time. And yet it is certain that the spiritual welfare of the Catholics in the town was not altoirether neglected. About three miles west of Stafford, at Dearnsdale, in the parish of Bradley, resided the ancient family of Palin. They had ever been staunch to the Faith, and were allied to some of the best Catholic families in the county. They may be traced at Dearnsdale, in the parish registers of Bradley, from early in the reign of Elizabeth. In 1564 was baptised Roger, son of Thomas Palin and Agnes his wife, and on 5th SL Thomas's Priory. 79 May, 1 569, was christened Margaret, daughter of Thomas Palin and AHce his wife. It has already been shown how this good lady, Alice Palin, died in Stafford gaol, a confessor of the Faith, in 1592. Ralph Palin, in 1591, married Mary Ann Cradock, and Richard Palin, of Dearnsdale, gent, probably their son, married, in 1634, Joyce, daughter of Thomas Whitgreave, Esq., of Moseley Old Hall. The issue of the latter marriage was a daughter, Alice, born 30th August, 1638, and a son, Thomas Palin, who was one of the pupils of his uncle's chaplain, Fr. John Huddleston, at the time when Charles II. found shelter under the hospitable roof of Moseley after the disastrous batde of Worcester in 1 65 1. Young Palin and his fellow-students, Sir John Preston, Bart., of the Manor, Furness, Lancashire, and Francis Reynolds, a nephew of Mr. Whitgreave, were employed during his Majesty's stay in keeping watch lest the parlia- mentarians should take the house by surprise. The story ^ of the king's adventure and escape is too well known to require repetition. It is only necessary to say that both Thomas Whit- ^ Huddleston, Summary oj Occurrences^ 1688. 8o SL TJioiiias s Priory. greave and Fr. Huddleston were not forgotten after the Restoration, and were rewarded by his Majesty with pensions and special exemption from the penahies imposed by law upon Catholics. Fr. Huddleston subsequently became a Benedic- tine, and was successively chaplain to the Queen Dowager, H enrietta Maria, and Queen Catherine. It was he who was the happy instrument of the king's reception into the Church upon his death- bed in 1685. After the accession of James II., Fr. Huddleston continued to reside with Queen Catherine, as her chaplain, till his death at Somerset House, 22nd September, 1698, aged ninety. The writer of these notes is the fortunate possessor of a most interesting memento of this venerable father. It is a finely illustrated " Missal," printed at the Plantinian press at Antwerp in 1577, of the small octavo size so necessary in times of persecution. It was used by Fr. Huddleston at Moseley Old Hall, and elsewhere during his missionary career ; and the calendar is annotated in his own handwriting with a long and valuable obituary of his relatives, patrons, and friends. But to return to the Palins. Fr. Huddleston's pupil, Thomas Palin, SL TJiomas's Priory. 8i subsequently married a member of the ancient family of Giffard, likewise associated with the preservation of the king. He had three chil- dren : Thomas, who married a Leveson, but left no son to succeed him ; Constance, who died a spinster ; and Richard, the last of the family, who is closely identified with the history of the Stafford mission/ Richard Palin,^ born in September, 1670, was educated at Douay College, where he took the oath, and became an alumtms, in June, 1694. ^"^ due course he was ordained priest, and came to the English mission. In 1702 he was stationed in his native country, and it is not improbable that he was chaplain at Moseley Old Hall, the seat of his great uncle, Mr. Thomas Whitgreave, who died in that year at the venerable age of eighty-four. How long this energetic pastor remained in Staffordshire is not known ; but as early as Jan., 1725, if not sooner, he opened a much-needed school for Catholic young gentle- men at Rowney-wood, in the parish of Alve- church, Co. Worcester. It was situated not very 1 Family papers, apud Fris. Whitgreave, Esq. ^ Kirk, Biog. Colbts., MSS. ; Douay Diaries. 6 82 Sf. TJiomass Priory. far from Beoley, the seat of the Sheldons, under whose patronage the school is thought to have flourished. It is supposed that Fr. Francis Romanus Chapman. O.S.F., a native of the neighbouring town of Henley-in-Arden, studied his classics there previous to his admission into the English College at Rome in 1721. If so, the school must have been established at an earlier date than that assigned by extant evi- dence.^ The bold step was at first successful ; but, like all such ventures, was short-lived and had to be withdrawn, owing to the bigotry and persecution of the times. It is probable that Rowney-wood school was closed about 1 740, and that Mr. Palin took up his residence on his pater- nal estate at Dearnsdale either then or a little earlier. Here, no doubt, had long been a chapel, but there is no record of a resident priest before Mr. Palin's arrival. Anyhow, from this time the Catholics of .Stafford appear to have been mainly dependent on the Dearnsdale mission ; and here Mr. Palin continued to exercise pas- toral duties till his death, 8th December, 1750, at the advanced age of eighty. He is entered ' Gillow, Cath. Schls. in Engl. Sf. Thomas's Priory. 83 in the burial resfister of Bradlev Church as a *' Popish Priest,' and Hes in the churchyard beside his brother and sister. Over them are slabs to their memories, placed there by their cousin and executor, Francis \¥hitgTeave, Esq., of Moseley Old Hall, the great-grandfather of the present Mr. Francis Whitgreave, of Burton Manor and Mose'ey Court. Then ".r: :-.; fv. :;-. a; I may go And i r /. hrrr :h ;e r right lillies grow, W ■- r r r : ^ r : - ; : ~ :-. ~ : i of glory rise An-i :::^>.; ^ i.-- : .-.-ise. — ' : AasttKf Dsv>oiitm5. 166S. After Mr. Palin's death, the Deamsdale estate passed to families of the name of AIerr\'e and Ryder. By deeddated 1 9th Februar)-, 1 754, E iiza- beth Rvder. of Grove Park. Co. Warwick, settled a small annual charo-e on a farm at Deamsdale for a priest to say Mass once a month in that neiofhbourhood. and once in two months on Sundays, at the family residence at Deamsdale. In case the trustee, Frd/.cis \\ h;:^ reave, was unable to find a priest in the neighbourhood to render this holy service. Thomas IMerrye, of Deamsdale. was to provide such help for the neighbourhood as best he could : and in con- 84 Sf. Thomas s Priory. sideration of so doing was to take the annuity, which was "to be paid forever to ye world's end, or Restoration of ye Catholic Religion in ye kingdom "/ Miss Ryder died about four years after the date of this deed. Her benefaction bore immediate fruit, for in the very year of her death, 1754, a resident priest was appointed, and the mission was re-established in the town of Stafford. Though the old chapel at Dearnsdale may still be traced in the garrets of the farm- stead into which the ancient seat of the Palins has descended, now — I see no little kirk— no bell On Sabbath tinkleth through this dell. — John Wilson. X. Faint not, and fret not, for threaten'd woe, Watchman, on Truth's grey height ! Few though the faithful, and fierce though the foe. Weakness is aye Heaven's might. — Cardinal Newman. It will be remembered that in or about 1733, when the mission at the Priory was discontinued, a chapel was opened in Stafford under the ' Original document, aptid Fris. Whitgreave, Esq. S/. Thomas's Priory. 85 ■ auspices of the Earl of Stafford. From that period till 1754 no name of a missioner has been handed down. Hence it seems doubtful that there was a resident priest, unless the Rev. Simon Berington, whose family was possessed of considerable property in and about the town, and whose eldest brother, John Berington, Esq., died there in 1721, continued to serve the mission for a much longer period than the scanty records at hand lead us to suppose. In 1754 the Rev. Thomas Wilson, alias Clarke,^ took charge of the mission. He was born at or near Stourbridge, Co. Worcester, lOth November, 1712. It is very probable that he studied his rudiments at the Rev. Richard Palin's school at Rowney-wood, previous to his being sent to Douay College. There, on 4th August, i 732. being at the time in his first year's course of philosophy, he was admitted an aliLimms, and in due course was ordained priest, in or about 1737. Upon coming to the mission he was appointed chap- lain to Walter, fourth Lord Aston of P'orfar, at Tixall, about three miles and three quarters 'Kirk, J3io^. Collm., MSS. 86 SL Thomas'' s Priory. from Stafford. When the mission at Stafford was vacant, or the missioner incapacitated, the duty of attending to the spiritual wants of the town generally devolved upon the chaplain at Tixall. In 1751 the fifth and last Lord Aston was carried off by the small-pox, which he caught whilst attending the funeral of a friend at Stafford ; and three years later Mr. Wilson withdrew from Tixall to take charge of the Stafford mission, as already stated. Here this good and zealous missionary, for such he was esteemed, continued his labours till his death, 9th March: 1766, aged fifty-three. After this there is again some uncertainty as to the succession of the pastoral charge. It is probable that the financial position of the mission had become somewhat embarrassed ; for the earldom of Stafford had fallen into abeyance upon the death of John Paul Stafford- Howard, the fourth earl, in 1762. It is therefore ques- tionable if a resident priest succeeded Mr. Wilson. It is not unlikely that the; mission was served for a time by the chaplain at Tixall, the Rev. George Beeston.^ This estimable man, ' Kirk, Biog. Cullns., MSS. SL Thomas's Priory. 87 born at Irnham, Co. Lincoln, in 1736, was edu- cated and ordained priest, like his elder brother Peter, at Douay College, where he was admitted 2S\. alumnus, 24th December, 1756. Soon after his ordination he was sent to teach at St. Omer's College, which had just been taken from the Jesuits by the French Government, and handed over to the English secular clergy, in 1762. There he would most gladly have re- mained, as he dreaded the great responsibility attached to the pastoral charge ; but Bishop Hornyold, being much in want of priests, called him over to the mission. Disregarding his own inclinations, Mr. Beeston readily obeyed, and was placed at Tixall, which had recently become the seat of the Hon. Thomas Clifford, younger son of Hugh, third Lord Clifford, through his marriage, in 1761, with Barbara, youngest daughter and co-heiress of James, fifth and last Lord Aston. Mr. Beeston remained chaplain at Tixall till hisdeath,deeplyregrettedbyhiscongre- gation and numerous friends, 15th August, 1797. Shortly after Mr. Wilson's death, Mary, Com- tesse de Rohan-Chabot,^ who died at London, ^ Diary of Blue Nuns, MS. ; Burke, Extinct Peerage. 88 SL Thomas's Priory. 1 6th May, 1769, aged forty-eight, established a fund for the benefit of the pastor of the Stafford mission, whereby it was placed in a more inde- pendent position. This benevolent lady was the eldest daughter of William Stafford- Howard, second Earl of Stafford, and his wife Anne, his first cousin, daughter of George Holman, Esq., of Warkworth Castle, Co. Northampton. She was the first pupil at the school established at the English Convent of the Immaculate Con- ceptionists, commonly called Blue Nuns, at Paris, where she arrived 29th May, 1733. On 21st May, 1737, she left the convent to finish her edu- cation at the Abbaye de Marquette, near Lille, and some few years later became the wife of the Comte de Rohan-Chabot. In the year 1745 she assisted her old friends the Blue Nuns with a loan of 10,000 livres ; and her memory should ever be held in veneration by the congregation at Stafford for the help she gave them in a time of ofreat need. The next pastor on record was the Rev. Thomas Barneby ; but it is not known when he took up his residence in Stafford. Dr. Kirk was under the impression that he lived on the Si. TJiomass Priory. 89 mission in Norfolk for more than thirty years. If that be correct he must have moved to Staf- ford only a short time before his death, which seems improbable. He was the son of Thomas Barneby and his wife Mary Thompson, and was born in London, 22nd October, 1727. The father was apparently the only son of James Barneby, third son of William Barneby, Esq., of St. John's in Bedwardine, Co. Worcester, by Elizabeth Acton, of Bourton, and was baptised at St. John's, 8th November, 1677. Their ancestor, Thomas Barneby, of the Hull, Co. Worcester, acquired Acton, in the parish of Ombersley, in that county, through his marriage with Joyce, dauo'hter and heiress of Walter Acton. The Hull estate came to the family through the marriage of Thomas Barneby, of Ludlow, with Isabel, daughter and sole heiress of Thomas Whitgreave, of the Hull, brother of Robert Whitgreave, of Burton Manor. This Thomas Barneby was a distinguished officer in the army of Edward IV., and was slain at the battle of Towton.^ James Barneby, already mentioned, married Elizabeth, daughter of ^ Nash's Worcestershire. 90 S^. Thomas's Priory. Thomas Metcalfe, of the family seated at Nut- hill, in Holderness, Co. York, and she was resid- ing a widow with herdaughter at Stafford in 1 750. This lady's grandson, the Rev. Thos. Barneby, was educated at Douay College, where he was admitted an alwnnus in his first year's theology, 1 5th April, 1 748 ; so that in the ordinary course he would be ordained priest in or about 1751. The fact of his grandmother and aunt residing at Stafford about this time shows a connection with the town, and lends force to the supposition that he came to the mission much earlier than Dr. Kirk implies. However, the only direct evi- dence bearing upon the date of his missionary labours in the town is that of his death at Staf- ford in July, 1783, aged fifty-five. There is a tradition that he used to say Mass in the garret of a house on the Green. Now, my soul, the day is gone Which in the morn was thine; Now its glass no more shall run, Its sun no longer shine. — John Austin, Devotions. For some months after the death of Mr. Barneby, the mission at Stafford appears to have been without a i)astor, and it is most SL Thomas's Priory. 91 probable that it was served from one of the neighbouring missions until the arrival of Mr. Corne in 1784. The Rev. John Corne ^ was a younger son of Mr. James Corne and his wife Elizabeth Birchall, and was born at Betley, North Staffordshire, i8th August, 1749. The Cornes were originally Protestants, and the circumstances connected with their conver- sion are interesting. Early in the eighteenth century, the family resided in West Chester, and was noted for its adherence to the cause of the exiled royal family. Charles Corne, son of Mr. James Corne and his wife Elizabeth Butler, supposed to have been descended from a younger son of the Butlers of Rawcliffe, who suffered so much for their Jacobite leanings, was born in 17 16 at West Chester, and became a distiller there. In 1745 he joined Prince Charles, and after the battle of Culloden, i6th April, 1746, hid himself till he was enabled to pass over in safety to Ireland. There he became a Catholic, and thence proceeded to Louvain. After a stay of nine months at the ^ Kirk, B'log. Colitis., MSS. ; Diary of Blue Nuns, MS. ; Douay Diaries. 92 SL Thomas's Priory. latter place, he was filled with a desire to em- brace the ecclesiastical state; but knowing very- little Latin, and not caring to go to Douay at the age of thirty to learn that language, Dr. Joseph Holden was induced by Prince Henry, subsequently Cardinal Duke of York, to admit him into St. Gregory's Seminary at Paris. John Towneley, Esq., generously proffered to pay his pension of six hundred livres. After remaining at St. Gregory's for four years and three months without any prospect of his taking degrees, for which that seminary was primarily intended, Mr. Corne went to Douay College in October, 1751, where he took the oath of the ahunni at the age of thirty-six, 4th November, 1752, and eventually was ad- mitted to holy orders. At Douay he filled the office of prefect-general until 1761, in which year, on i8th May, he succeeded the Rev. William Daniel as chaplain to the Blue Nuns at Paris. In that position he continued till his lamented death, 9th November. 1777, aged sixty-one. Meanwhile, Mr. Corne's brother James, who was married and settled at Betley, also became SL Tho7nass Priory. 93 a Catholic under quite distinct and very curious circumstances. One day he found Bishop Challoner's " Think well on't ; or, Reflections on the great Truths of the Christian Religion," accidentally dropped in a marl pit. Taking the book home, he perused it with such earnestness that both he and the whole of his family became converts to the true Faith. In January, 1762, the Rev. William Errino-ton established a school at Betley, and placed it under the charge of the Rev. John Hurst.^ It is possible that Mr. Corne's sons studied in this school previous to its removal, 25th March, 1763, to Sedgley Park, where the eldest, James Corne, became spiritual director. Four years older than John, the latter was born 20th August, 1745, and took the missionary oath at Douay in his third year's theology, 3rd November, 1770. Where his first missionary labours were spent is not stated ; but it would seem from a letter of Bishop Hornyold to Francis Whitgreave, Esq., dated Longbirch, 15th June, 1779, that he was for a short time chaplain at Moseley, and was replaced by the Rev. Thomas Stone. In 1781 1 Sedgley Park Annals, MS. 94 •5'^- Thomas's Priory. he became chaplain of Sedgley Park School/ and left in 1783 to take charge of the mission at Shrewsbury, where he died, 4th December, 18 1 7, aged seventy-two. Two of his sisters are said to have taken the veil in a convent in France. The diary of the Blue Nuns at Paris records that on 20th Nov., 1767, "Mistress" and Miss Corne, sister and niece of the chaplain, the Rev. Charles Corne, took up their residence in the convent. "Mrs." Hannah Corne, after spending an edifying life in the convent for eight years, died there, 26th June, 1 775, aged sixty-seven. Miss Corne returned to her parents in England in April, 1772, and is apparently identical with the Miss Anna Corne, sister to the two priests, James and John, who married James Orrell, Esq., of Blackbrook, Co. Lancaster, and was mother of Charles Orrell, Esq., the Rev. James Orrell, and the Rev. Philip Orrell, the last male representatives of that ancient family. The Rev. John Corne in due course was sent to Douay College, where he took the missionary oath in his second year's theology, ist Feb., 1775. In the following year ' Husenbeth, Hist, of Sedgley Park. SL Thomas's Priory. 95 he was ordained priest, and sent to the EngHsh mission, where he was given the charge of the CathoHcs about Burslem and Rushton Grange, in succession to the Rev. Thomas Flinn. In the spring of 1779 he settled finally at Rushton Grange,^ a very ancient missionary station, and soon resolved to erect an independent chapel. Having acquired an eligible site, spacious enough for all future needs of the mission, on the eastern boundary of the Grange estate, and adjoining the well-known " Cobridge Gate," he began to build ; but owing to the Gordon riots the foundations of the new chapel were allowed to stand for a considerable time, lest the pro- tectors of the Protestant cause in the neighbour- hood should demolish them. Indeed, Rushton Grange was actually sacked and plundered by a " No-Popery" mob from Burslem. After the fanaticism had abated, Mr. Corne proceeded with the erection of his chapel, and St. Peter's, Cobridge, was opened in 1781. He was not to enjoy the fruits of his labours long ; the ap- parent difficulty his bishop seems to have felt in filling the vacancy caused by the death of ' Leith, Hht. of Cobridge Mission, MS. 96 SL Thomas's Priory. Mr. Barneby was at length solved by Mr. Corne's removal to Stafford in 1784. Ring out a slowly dying cause, And ancient forms of party strife; Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws. — Tennyson. XI. 'Tis the Sunday's loved morn, and there breaketh the swell O'er the town's quiet streets of a single church bell. Simple bell of St. Austin's — long may'st thou impart, In the moil of the world, sacred thoughts to the heart ! —Edward Wilcock. At first Mr. Corne resided in a house which he rented in Tipping Street, now occupied by Mr. Jennings, and his chapel was in the garden. After some time the Beringtons of Winsley, Co. Hereford, who possessed considerable pro- perty in Stafford and the vicinity, gave Mr. Corne a ninety-nine years' lease of a piece of land in the Forebridge for the purpose of building upon it a house and chapel. The Beringtons had long been closely connected with the Stafford mission, as we have already seen, and, moreover, for a considerable period St Thomas's Priory. 97 the family resided at Rowley Hall, in the vicinity of the town.^ In 1717 John Berington, Sen., Esq., of Winsley, and his eldest son and namesake, both registered their estates as Catholic nonjurors. Amongst other property the father returned lands in the parish of Castle Church, Stafford, called the Friar's Kitchen and Sandles meadows, valued at that time at ^171 los. per annum, which would represent a large income nowadays.^ Here we see the reason of the dedication of the Stafford church to St. Austin. It is built on land formerly belonging to the convent of the Friars Hermites of the Order of St. Austin. The Friary owed its existence to one of the Lords Stafford, who, about 1344, gave to the Order a piece of ground upon the green in the south suburb called "Forbrugge," whereon to found a church, dormitory, rectory and other necessary buildings. After the suppression of monasteries the site was granted to Thomas Neve and Giles Isam, and subsequently passed 1 Fris. Whitgreave, Esq. Berington pedigree ; Payne, Nonjurors, and Records of Eng. Caths. 7 98 S^. Thomas's Priory. into various hands, the Beringtons eventually- becoming possessed of the portion referred to, upon which St. Austin's now stands. John Berington, Jun., left Winsley, and took up his residence in Stafford, where he died about the beginning of 1721. It was at this period that his younger brother, the Rev. Simon Berington, succeeded his cousin, the Rev. Thomas Berington, in the charge of the mission at St. Thomas's Priory. Squire Bering- ton died "considerably indebted," as he states in his will dated 26th Feb., 1720. It is therefore probable that the family did not return to their seat at Winsley for some time, and that after the sale of the Priory Mr. Simon Berington removed the mission to the Stafford residence of his own family in or about 1733. It was Mr. John Berington the younger's son and successor, Andrews John Berington, of Winsley, and his son and heir Thomas, who leased the ancient friary land in the Forebridge to Mr. Corne. The father died 2nd Feb. , 1 794, aged eighty-seven, and the son 14th March, 1824, aged eighty-two. On this site Mr. Corne erected a house and chapel, but how he defrayed the cost is not recorded. SL Thomas's Prio7y. 99 The following persons were undoubtedly bene- factors either then or a little later. Their memories are preserved by the Tabula Mis- sarum of the mission — Jean Barras, anniversary not stated; Sophie de I'Age, loth January; Vincent Newton, loth April, and Marie Sophie de 1 'Age, 23rd October. The De I'Ages were refuoees durinof the first French Revolu- tion, and so probably was Jean Barras. The Count de TA^e resided at a manor-house in the hamlet of Aston, near Seighford, close to Stafford. Vincent Newton, Esq., who be- longed to an ancient Catholic family seated at Irnham, Co. Lincoln, resided in Devonshire St., Queen Square, London, and died loth April, 1814, aged eighty- eight. There are also Masses to be said for Henry Maine (.'* Maire) and Joseph Leveson ; but from the usurious number of obligations attached to their benefactions they are evidently of a much earlier date. The Levesons were a well-known Stafford- shire Catholic family. It is improbable that Mr. Corne had anything of his own to spend upon his chapel ; for, as his fellow-priest and neighbour, the Rev. George Beeston, of Tixall, TOO SL TJwmas's Priory. facetiously remarked, he came to Stafford in 1784 "on his failing in business in the Pot- teries . The man who builds, and v/ants wherewith to pay, Provides a home from which to run away. — Young. In all likelihood Lady Chabot's fund was sunk in the new buildings. The chapel was dedicated to St. Austin, and opened, with as much solemnity as was possible in those days, on 31st July, 1791. On the occasion, the Rev. Joseph Berington, younger son of Andrews John Berington, delivered to an aristocratic and crowded audience an excellent and much admired sermon. Mr. Corne continued to serve the Stafford mission till 1804. In that year he removed to Harvington Hall, Co. Worcester, in succession to the Rev. Richard Cornethwaite, who died iith September, 1803, and there he remained till his death, 4th August, 1 8 1 6, aged sixty-seven. He was interred at Chaddesley church. Speak- ing of the two brothers. Bishop Milner said : "James Corne was all soul, John all body; ' Kirk, Diug. Collns., MSS. SL Thomases Priory. loi James was desirous of solid knowledge, John of gossip ". The next incumbent at St. Austin's was the Rev. James Appleton/ who arrived on 27th July, 1804, as appears from a statement of his in an old register. According to the " Douay Dairy " he was son of James Appleton and his wife Mary Smith, of the diocese of Norwich, and was admitted an aluinims of the College 1 2th March, 1762, being then nineteen years of age and in his second year's philosophy. Dr. Husenbeth, however, without giving any authority, says that his real name was Moore." A few years later he was ordained priest, and came to the English mission. Subsequently he travelled on the Continent as tutor to some of the Jerninghams, and after his return was made chaplain to Sir William Jerningham, Bart., at Cossey Hall, in Norfolk. There he remained till 1778, when he became chaplain to Michael Blount, Esq., at Maple-Durham, Berks. Next, after a few years, he went to Chillington, Staf- fordshire, the seat of the Giffards ; thence to ' Gillow, Bih. Diet., i. Mcmoira of Parkers, MS., i. 6. I02 SL Thomas's Priory. Mawley, Salop, as chaplain to Sir Walter Blount, Bart. ; and finally settled at Stafford, in 1804. Here he continued till his death, 22nd March, 18 1 3, aged seventy-one, and was buried at Castle church, where his gravestone may still be seen. Mr. Appleton was a sound theologian and an able writer, and his works obtained consider- able popularity in their clay. In 1792, whilst at Chillington, he translated Lhomond's " La Doctrine Chretienne," and published it under the title of " Theophilus : or the Pupil instructed in the Principles, the Obligations, and the Re- sources of the Roman Catholic Religion ". This was followed by another translation from the same author, "Pious Lectures" (London, 1794). Later he was induced to publish some of his sermons, entitled, '' Discourses for all Sundays and Festivals of the Year on the Various Duties of Religi(M"i, as taught by the Catholic Church " (London, 1800), which passed through several editions (one of them in three volumes), the last being issued in 1852. His fourth and last work was "An Analysis, or Detailed Explica- tion, of the Gospels read in the Mass on Sundays and Festivals throughout the Year," which SL TJwinas's Priory. 103 appeared immediately after his death (London, 1 8 14), was reprinted by Andrews in 181 5, and again at Dublin so late as 1853. Six months intervened between Mr. Apple- ton's decease and the appointment of a perma- nent pastor. During this interregnum the wants of the mission were attended to by a French emigre priest, 1 'Abbe Henri Le Sage, who resided at Tixall, and had charge of that mission. This zealous man was grand-nephew of the ingenious author of "Gil Bias," Alain Rene Le Sage, whose work has been so fre- quently translated into English. The abbe was chaplain to the Cliffords at Tixall, from 18 10 till his death, 4th May, 1821, and lies buried opposite the door of the parish church. Sous ce tombeau git Le Sage, abattu Par le ciseau de la Parque importune ; S'il ne fut pas ami de la fortune, II fut toujours ami de la vertu. — Lc Sage's Epitaph. Thus the mission was gradually established ; and, though the individual efforts of its first pastors were not distinguished by great achieve- ments, we may say with Miss Landon : — I04 S^. Thomas's Priory. But not in vain — their toil was blest; Life's dearest hope by them was won ; A blessing is upon their rest, And on the work which they begun. XII. Call those sheep back who go astray, And bring them to Thy fold ; That they and we united may One faith in God all hold. —Haydock's Hymns. On 24th September, 18 13, the Rev. Thomas Price' formally took charge of the mission. At the age of fourteen he was sent to Sedgley Park School, where he was admitted 12th May, 1776.'^ Thence, after a few years, he proceeded to the English College at Valladolid, where he was ordained priest, and for some years was professor of theology. At length he returned to England, and about the end of 1798 was appointed to the chaplaincy at Tixall, then the seat of Sir Thomas Clifford, Bart. In 18 10 he left Tixall to become chaplain to Sir George William Jerningham, Bart, subsequently Lord Kirk, Biog. Collns., MSS. -Sedgley Park Reg., MS. S^. TJiornas's Priory. 105 Stafford, at Cossey Hall, and there he re- mained till his appointment to Stafford in 1813. It was about this time that Sir George, representative of the Barons Stafford and claimant to the title, resolved upon the erection of a seat at Stafford, in accord with the early traditions of the family. Between 1 780 and 1790, nothing remained visible of Stafford Castle but a solitary fragment of a wall, which Sir William Jerningham underpinned to prevent from falling. About the same time, some workmen, engaged to search for an ancient well, discovered that all the basement of the Castle lay buried beneath the ruins of the upper stories. Sir William at once ordered the whole to be excavated and cleared from debris, and thus was displayed the plan and extent of a Castle of the time of the Conqueror.^ Sir William died in 1809 ! 3-'"^^ in the following year his son and successor, Sir George, recalling its former pride, commenced to erect on the foundations of the ancient Castle the present massive and imposing fortress, in apparent ^ Clifford, Hhi. of Tixall. io6 6"/. Thomases Priory. oblivion of the peaceful change which time had effected in our national life. Oh I vain delusion ! Cruel days Were then upon the land,— A ba.ttlement on every wall, A sword in every hand. — L. E. Landon. It was designed by his younger brother Edward/ a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, whose predilections were architectural and musical rather than legal. Only one front flanked by two round towers was completed when the great cost of this reproduction of a baronial Castle of feudal times, designed with a total disreo^ard of domestic comfort and modern re- quirements, brought about a suspension of building operations in 1815 ; and to this day Stafford Castle remains in its unfinished state — a most conspicuous and picturesque feature of the landscape, indeed, but of no other advan- tage save to illustrate the folly of an amateur antiquarian's enthusiasm. Mr. Jerningham then turned his attention to St. Austin's, which he transformed into a Gothic chapel of much 'Gillow, Dib. Diet., iii. 627. SL Thomas's Priory. 107 larger dimensions, utilising the old one as the transept. This was done under his own direc- tion, and at his expense and that of his brother Sir George, who purchased the oak stalls of Lichfield Cathedral and placed them round the sanctuary. These oak stalls had been erected by Bishop Hackett in the Cathedral at the time of its restoration after the Civil Wars. ^ The windows, also, which were of the lancet order, he enriched with fine old painted glass. '^ All this was accomplished by this amiable and charitable gentleman some years before his death, which occurred at London, 29th May, 1822, at the comparatively early age of forty- seven. And the congrreration will lono- remem- ber him — For woordes and deedes, at parting done or said, In memories conservance best are laid. — Verstegan. In 1 8 18 Mr. Price erected a small school, the want of which was sorely felt. This was done at the joint expense of Sir George Jerningham and Mrs. Frith. The latter, besides her contribution of ^200 towards the erection, ^ Fris. Whitgreave, Esq. ■•^ Kirk, Cath. Mcig., v. 429. io8 Si. Thomas's Priory. was in other ways a great benefactress to the mission, as also to those at Newcastle, Ashley, and other places. After serving the mission for almost eighteen years, Mr. Price died suddenly in London, whilst on a visit to Lady Stanley, 15th June, 1 83 1, aged sixty-nine. The day previous to his decease, he dined with Bishop Bramston in excellent health and spirits, and retired about nine o'clock in the evening, de- claring that he had never spent a more pleasant day. The next morning, at seven o'clock, the footman on entering his room found him a corpse, and on examination it was supposed that he had been dead at least four hours. He was one of the mildest of men, and universally regarded with affection and respect. On the following Saturday, the iSth June, a solemn requiem was performed in his chapel at Staf- ford, where his memory is still revered. Death came unheralded: — but it was well; For so thy Saviour bore Kind witness, thou wast meet at once to dwell On His eternal shore; All warning spared, For none He gives where hearts are for prompt change prepared. — Cardinal Newman. ' Cath. Mag., i. 384. SL Thomas'' s Priory. 109 XIII. Let Charity and Truth prevail, And all divisions cease ; That nothing in the world be seen But Love, and Joy, and Peace. — Hay dock's Hymns. Meanwhile the Act of Emancipation had passed in 1829 ; and, though gradual, the improvement in the position of Catholics was very marked. In less than a generation, during our second pastorate, prejudice and ignorance had so far succumbed that His Holiness Pope Pius IX. felt justified in restoring the hierarchy in 1850; and the Church in this country, after an interval of three centuries, assumed its ancient form of government. His people He affects He wil not have destrest. The thralled He wil free With ease of their unrest. — Verstegan. Within two months of the death of Mr. Price the bereaved conofresfation at Stafford had the satisfaction of seeing the pastorate refilled in the person of one whose whole life was in true accord with the motto so loyally borne by his forefathers from time immemorial — S0/2 Deo no S/. Thomas's P^dory. honor et gloria. The Rev. Edward Huddleston, a worthy scion of one of our most ancient Catholic families, took charge of the mission in August, 183 1. He was a younger son of Edward Huddleston, Esq., of Purse Caundle, in Dorsetshire, who eventually succeeded his brother to the Sawston estates, near Cambridge, At a very early age, in 1805, he was sent to that venerable academy of Catholic youth, Sedgley Park,^ whence he was transferred to Oscott College, 7th February, 18 15. There he con- tinued his studies till he was ordained priest in March, 1826, having some time previously filled the office of prefect of discipline. After his ordination, he went to his ancestral home at Sawston to supply the family chaplaincy, which had been filled by Dom Charles Ambrose Feraud, O.S.B., from 1824. It is probable that Sawston Hall was never without a priest throughout the days of persecution. For two centuries and more it was served by the Jesuits, from 1783 to 1785 by the Dominicans, and again by the Jesuits till Fr. Feraud took charge in 1824. At this time there was no Catholic chapel ^Sedgley Park Reg., MS. SL Thomas's Priory. 1 1 1 at Cambridge, which came under the charge of the chaplain at Sawston. The late Vicar- Apostolic of the Midland District, Bishop Milner, had long entertained the design of supplying this want, a measure strongly recommended by the celebrity of the place, the daily increasing number of resident Irish Catholics, and from the fact of there being no public chapel in the whole county. Influenced by the same weighty reasons, his successor, Bishop Walsh, deter- mined to act upon the favourable opportunity offered by Mr. Huddleston's ordination, and appointed him to undertake the arduous task. The zealous missioner issued an appeal, and began to collect funds ; but before he was in a position to establish an independent mission in Cambridge he was called away, owing to Mr. Price's sudden demise, to take charge of the more important mission of St. Austin's, though, indeed, the congregation at this time only numbered about one hundred and fifty com- municants. These are the chosen few, The remnant fruit of largely-scattered grace, God sows in waste, to reap whom He foreknew Of man's cold race. — Cardinal Newt)ian. 112 SL T/iomas's Priory. Some three years later, an incident occurred which illustrated the force of the young mis- sioner's character, and greatly endeared him to the hearts of his people/ During the Lent assizes of 1834, two poor Irishmen were capitally indicted for an assault upon some constable or constables. Penniless and friend- less, and intimidated by the array of judge, jury, counsel, witnesses, and all the pomp and circumstance of Justice, these poor fellows offered no defence. They were found guilty, and sentenced by Mr. Justice Parke to be hanged at an early date. Mr. Huddleston was present at the trial, and felt deeply dissatisfied with the evidence against the prisoners. He followed up his doubt, instituted inquiry, and convinced himself of the injustice of the sentence. He sought and obtained an interview with the judge, to whom he explained the grounds of his doubt. But he was ill received, and when he stated that a witness of the transaction was without, ready to swear to the truth of his representations, the judge dismissed him with 1 Kirk, Caih. Mag., v. 430. SL Thomas's Priory. 113 the exclamation : " Sir, I could not believe him upon his oath ". Notwithstanding this rebuff, Mr. Huddleston remained undaunted. In haste he took coach to London, called on Mr. Littleton, the member for the Northern Division of the County, who was elevated to the peerage as Baron Hatherton in the following year, and induced him to see Lord Melbourne, the Home Secretary, The latter at once saw the merits of the case, represented them to the sovereign, and having obtained a reprieve, sent for Mr. Huddleston and informed him of it. The men were, however, to be hanged the next day, and any accident might be fatal to them ; so to guard against the chances of failure, his lordship resolved to send three copies of the reprieve, one by post, one by express, and one by Mr. Huddleston, who had the inexpressible satisfaction of arriving in time to present the king's pardon, and thus save the lives of the two innocent men. Such was this worthy pastor's glorious triumph in the cause of humanity. The case was simple ; the poor men had resisted attacks upon themselves, and this resistance was construed into an attack upon others. 114 S^. TJiomas's PiHory. Justice for right, mercie for grace did crave, Justice had right, mercie her favour gave. — Verstegan. In 1852 Mr. Huddleston was elected canon penitentiary of the diocese of Birmingham. Four years later, in Sept., I856 he exchanged his charge at Stafford for the quieter mission of St. Michael, Aston, where he passed the re- mainder of his missionary career, till his death, 14th December, 1871.^ I make no doubt but he is gone Where soon I hope to go, Where we for ever shall be blest, From out the reach of woe. — Chatterton. Of Francis Kerril Amherst,- Fr. Huddle- ston's successor, the conorresfation of St. Austin's may well feel proud ; for though his pastorate was brief, it was most promising for the welfare of the mission, and was only severed by an ^ A monumental sculptor of a waggish turn inscribed the following lines on the tombstone of a namesake : — " Here lies Edward Huddlestone. Reader, don't smile ! Reflect, as this tombstone you view, • That death, who kill'd him, in a very short while Will huddle a stone upon you." ^Gillow, Bib. Diet, i. ; Oscotian, vi. 157, zoz, vii. ; Burke, Landed Gentry. 5/. Thomas'' s Priory. 115 unsought call to a higher state — his elevation to the episcopacy. Dr. Amherst, who'was born in the metropolis, 21st March, 18 19, was the eldest son and heir of William Kerril Amherst, Esq., of Parndon House, Essex, and of Fieldgate House, Kenil worth. Co. Warwick, who died at the latter seat in 1835. His mother was Mary Louise, daughter of Francis Fortescue Turvile, Esq., of Husband's Bosworth Hall, Co. Leicester, by Barbara, daughter of the Hon. Charles Talbot, and sister of Charles, sixteenth Earl of Shrewsbury. The first ten years of the future bishop's life were spent at Parndon. Thence he was sent to a small preparatory school kept by the Rev. William Foley, at Northampton, sin- gularly the very house in which subsequently he resided as bishop of that see. In June, 1830, Mr. Foley was called to Oscott to act as locum tcneiis to Dr. Weedall during his temporary retirement from the presidency of the College ; and thence he was followed by eight of his pupils, among whom were Francis Kerril Amherst and his younger brother, the present Fr. William Joseph Amherst, S.J., who both entered as lay student:^- ii6 SL Thomas'' s Priory. on loth August in that year. After continuing their studies for eight years, the two brothers left the College together to enter the world ; but in May, 1841, the elder returned to Oscott to study for the Church, and was ordained priest by the late Cardinal Wiseman, 6th June, 1846. His ecclesiastical call was followed eventually by his brother, who joined the Society of Jesus ; and was ordained priest at St. Austin's, Kenilworth. 15th Aug., 1859. From 1847 to 1852 the subject of this brief memoir was a professor at Oscott, and after an interval of three years resumed his professorial gown for eleven months, till his appointment to the Stafford mission in Sept., 1856. His missionary career, however, was soon closed. For on nth Feb., 1858, the Right Rev. William Wareing, first Bishop of North- ampton, resigned his see, and Dr. Amherst was selected by His Holiness Pius IX. to fill the vacancy, his episcopal consecration taking place on 4th July in that year. After twenty- one years' hard work in his new sphere of duty, his lordship was compelled by rapidly-failing health to resign his bishopric. Accordingly, in SL Thomas's Priory. 1 1 7 the following year, 1880, he was translated by the Holy Father to the See of Sozusa in parti- bus injideliuni. From this time his sufferings continually increased, culminating in the afflic- tion of total blindness, till his death at his residence, Fieldgate House, Kenilworth, 21st Aug., 1883, aged sixty-four.^ Farewell, fair saint ! Let not the seas, and wind, Swell like the eyes and hearts you leave behind ; But smooth, and gentle, as the looks you wear. Smile in your face, and whisper in your ear. — Tixall Poetry. His lordship's brother, Fr. Amherst, in a brief review of his life in his " History of Oscott," has expressed the opinion that that College lost a great deal, in more ways than one, when Dr. Amherst was raised to the episcopacy. A period of service on the mission might have been extremely useful to him, as it is indeed to every priest ; but, that period over, he should have returned to his a//na mater. He certainly had some qualities which eminently fitted him for the episcopal order ; but, considering the whole of his constitution and disposition, he was Tablet, Ixii. 339 ; Wkly. Reg., Ixviii. 241, 261. ii8 S^. Thomases Priory. much more fitted for the responsibilities of col- lege life and of parochial life than for those of an office in which weightier and more harassing cares bore so heavily on one who, with the sensitiveness of a woman, and a horror of eivine pain to any one, combined the strong good sense and the hiorh notions of honour of an EnoHsh gentleman. Fr. Amherst adds, he loved his diocese, and in his testamentary dispositions he gave unmistakable proof of the claims North- ampton had upon him. In the literary world he is best known by his " Lenten Thoughts, drawn from the Gospel for each Day of Lent " (London, 1873, i2mo), which has since passed through several editions. He was also the author of a story entitled "Nor- ton Broadhead," some sonnets printed for private circulation, and occasional articles in the Catholic press. In June, 1858, the Rev. John Wyse suc- ceeded to the charge of St. Austin's. He was educated at Oscott and Stonyhurst, ordained priest 27th y\pril, 1851,^ and, after residing at Clifton for a while, took charge of the mission ' (Jscutiun, \ii. ; Hatt, Stonyhurst Lists. SL Thomas 's Priory. 1 1 9 of St. Winifrid's, Shepshed, Co. Leicester, in 1852. In the following year he became chap- lain at the convent in Alcester Street, Birming- ham, where he remained till his appointment to Stafford. Though his stay was brief, he left a lasting memorial behind him in the shape of a sum of /700, which he and his curate, the Rev. John P. Dowling (a young priest ordained at Oscott loth June, 1854), had collected towards the rebuilding of the church. In the autumn of 1859 he proceeded to Woodchester Priory to join the Dominicans; but in 1861 he left the Friar Preachers, and was appointed Rector of West Bromwich, which mission he exchanged for Warwick in 1863. Thence he withdrew to St. Edmund's College, Old Hall Green, in 1864; subsequently lived in retirement for a number of years, till he undertook the charge of Tich- borne in 1884; and is now resting from mission- ary work on sick leave. Whilst at Birmingham Mr. Wyse published a " Manual of the Confraternity of La Salette, comprising every information concerning La Salette, with Devotions for the Confraternities established in England" (London, 1855, i2mo), I20 S^. Thomas's Priory. and about the same time edited " The Music of the Hymns, Anthems, and Litanies for the use of the Confraternities of La Salette," the music being arranged by Mr, Spivey. Though the honour of the erection of the new church was left to his successor, it must ever be remembered that Mr. Wyse was the originator of the movement, and left, as we have already seen, a substantial sum towards the carrying of it out. He had the felicity of being- present at the laying of the foundation-stone, on which occasion his deserts were fully acknow- ledged. With the erection of this church commences a new era in the history of St. Austin's. The old chapel was transformed into a school, and yet remains a speaking memorial of the past, a link with times which happily cannot come again. Dear Mother I at whose angel-guarded shrine The faithful sought of old their daily Bread, How full thou art of iinpulses divine, And memories deep and dread I — F. W. Faber. SL Thomas's Pidory. 121 XIV. Within these walls let holy peace, And love with concord dwell : Here give the troubled conscience ease, And all our passions quell. — Haydock's Hymns. The Rev. Michael O'Sullivan^ became mis- sionary rector upon Mr. Wyse's withdrawal, charged with the onerous task of erecting the new church. He was a native of Ireland, born in 1823, and when but three months old had the misfortune to lose his father, a farmer of the middle class in one of the southern CQun- ties. At the age of ten, in 1834, through the good offices of an uncle, he was placed at the well-known school at Sedgley Park,^ with the view of his being trained for the priesthood. In September, 1837, he was transferred to Oscott College, where he remained five years, and laid the foundation of the scholastic training, and, probably, of the dialectical skill, by which he was distinguished in riper years. His ad- vanced studies in theology were made at the English College at Rome ; but before leaving ^Tablet, Ixxix. g8. -Sedgley Park Register, MS. 122 SL Thomas's Priory. Oscott, in 1842, he matriculated a member of the London University. At Rome he passed a brilHant career, till his ordination, i8th Decem- ber, 1848. His natural quickness and indus- trious study brought him numerous rewards. He gained medals and distinctions in Hebrew, canon law, theology, and other subjects. After ordination his first charge was as assistant priest at St, Peter's, Birmingham. In 185 1 he was removed to the Cathedral, where he was ap- pointed prefect of the church and master of ceremonies. Here he threw himself with great enthusiasm into the work which was being carried on in the schools connected with the Cathedral, particularly in the night-schools, in which elementary education was given to adults who had not enjoyed the advantage of school- ing in their boyhood. In 1857, his health having suffered from overwork, he was sent to the rural parish of Brewood, whence, in November, 1859, he assumed charge of the Stafford mis- sion. Here his energy and zeal were shown in promoting the erection of the new church, and subsequently of the schools in Foregate Street. S/. Thomas's Pi'iory. 123 The site of the church immediately adjoins that of the old chapel on the side farthest from the town. It is a brick structure, in the decor- ated Gothic style, and was designed by the younger Pugin, Simplicity and neatness are its prevailing characteristics. It was intended to seat five hundred persons — three hundred in the nave, and one hundred in each of the aisles, — and the dimensions were to be one hundred by fifty feet, with a tower over the porch at the end of the western aisle, from which was to rise a spire one hundred and ten feet high. The ceremony of laying the foundation-stone was performed on 26th May, 1861, by the vicar- general of the diocese, the Very Rev. George Jeffries, in the presence of some hundreds of people ; and at the subsequent luncheon at the Swan Hotel, the Right Hon. Lord Stafford presided, the vice-chairs being filled by Henry B. G. Whitgreave, Esq., of Moseley Court, and his brother, Francis Whitgreave, Esq., of Burton Manor, all generous benefactors to the new church. The latter gentleman, in propos- intr the healths of the former incumbents of St. Austin's, FF. Huddleston and Wyse, who were 124 •^^- Thomases Priory. present, gracefully acknowledged that it was to the latter that the congregation owed, the com- mencement of the work which had that day been advanced so important a step. The building proceeded apace, so that within little over a year's time it was ready for use. In the words of the ancient hymn, Coelestis urbs Jeru- salem, composed for the anniversary service of the dedication of a church — Scalpri salubris ictibus, Ex tunsione plurima, Fabri polita malleo, Hanc saxa molem construunt, Aptisque juncta nexibus, Locantur in fastigio. On the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 1 6th July, 1862, the opening ceremony took place. The building having involved an ex- penditure of more than ^2500, exclusive of the seats, organ, etc., the smallness of the fund at the command of the congrreoation had neces- sitated a modification of the origintil plans, not only by the omission of ornament, but by a material contraction of the proposed dimensions of the church. The following description ap- SL Thomas'' s Priory. 125 peared in the Staffordshire Advertiser at the time of the opening : — "■ The interior of the structure consists of a nave and two aisles, the nave terminating in a semi-octagonal apse, and being separated from the aisles in the usual manner by arches and columns. The centre of the columns consists of a shaft of granite marble, supported on a base of white Sicilian marble, and this aoain on a support of Yorkshire stone. The deep colour of the polished centre-pieces, contrasted with the white plaster coating of the walls, has a very pleasing effect. Upon the arches there is but little ornamental work, a simple moulding from pier to pier. Above, on either side, is a range of clerestory windows, fashioned in the form of cinque-foils. In the apse at the farther end of the nave there are three stained win- dows, by Hardman of Birmingham, each con- taining three figures. In the centre is a re- presentation of the Crucifixion, with the Blessed Virgin and St. John on either side ; upon the right are Our Saviour, St. Augustine, and St. Gregory, with three of the children known as ' non Angli, sed Angeli ' ; while on the left are 126 SL Thomas's Priory. * the Good Shepherd,' St. Peter and St. Paul, the figures being surmounted by the tiara. In the centre of the apse is the high altar, of Caen stone. . . . The aisles terminate in chapels, that on the left being dedicated to Our Blessed Virgin . . . while in a corresponding position on the opposite side of the church is a figure of St. Augustine bearing his crosier. Here a temporary screen at present shuts off the space destined for another chapel. ... At the western extremity of the church the organ is situated, in a small gallery fronting the high altar. ... In the west front of the church, and to some extent concealed from the congre- gation by the organ, is a large window of stained glass taken from the old building. In the window itself, with its geometrical tracery, there are perhaps more distinct marks of the decorative style than in any other part of the building ; but the glass it contains exhibits such a diversity of design that it is impossible to characterise it as a whole. The only entrances to the church are at the west front by two principal doors. . . . The roof, like the rest of the interior, is covered with plaster, but it is SL Thomas 's Priory. 1 2 7 supported by open woodwork, continued over the aisles." ' '• The Right Rev. Dr. Ullathorne, Bishop of Birmingham, and a large gathering of clergy, were present in the sanctuary at the opening. Fr. Peter Gailwey, S.J., preached, and at the conclusion of the ceremony the procession left the church to the triumphant strains of the Jubilate Deo : — Make ye jubilation to God, al the earth, Say a psalme to His name ; give glorie to His praise. — Ps. Ixv., Douay Bible. 1610. At the luncheon which followed, the chair was taken by Basil Thomas Fitzherbert, Esq., of Swynnerton Park, brother-in-law to the sub- sequent tenth and eleventh Barons Stafford, to whose title his son is nov/ heir-presumptive. In his acknowledgment of the toast of " Pros- perity to the new church," associated with his name, the rector, Fr. O'Sullivan, self- abrogatingly said that the merit of having built a church at Stafford was primarily to be attributed to Canon Huddleston, who built the living church ; to Dr. Amherst and his assist- ant Fr. Dowling, who perfected that living 128 SL TJiomas's Pi'iory. church ; and to Fr. Wyse, who left ^^"700 collected for the new church. Had Fr. Wyse presided over the building, his popularity would have enabled them to erect a more elegant structure. He thanked the benefactors, especially Lord Stafford, Mr. George Thomas Whitgreave, ^ and Serjeant Bellasis ; but he reminded all who had made sacrifices that the end had not come. The town of Stafford was, like a line in Euclid, length without breadth. The new church was at one end, many Catho- lics at the other ; and it was hard to make both ends meet. He thanked them all, and gave credit to his assistant priest, the Rev. Clement I. Harris, for the zeal with which he had ac- complished his share of the labours connected with the opening. Some three years later Fr. O'Sullivan became a member of the Birmingham Chapter, and after seven years' residence at Stafford he was summoned by his bishop to Birmingham, to succeed the Very Rev. George Jeffries as vicar-general of the diocese, an office which ' Mr. Whitgreave gave /"lOO towards the building fund, and ^^50 for the erection of the high altar. SL Thomas's Priory. i 29 he held until 1879. His departure was early in December, 1 866 ; and yet the memory of him has remained fresh in the minds of his people to this day. He changed the scene of his pastoral duties, but the Stafford congrega- tion never seem to have given him up, holding him in their hearts with a devotion that was a striking testimony to his worth. Quando ullum inveniemus parein ? On the formation in 1871 of the first Birming- ham School Board, the canon's experience as an educationalist marked him out as the best re- presentative of the Catholic body. The history of the first School Board was a stormy one. There were Parliamentary and political debates which often riveted the attention of the town, and did much to form public opinion upon the questions which were in dispute. Such men as the Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, the late Mr. George Dawson and Mr. Charles Vince, Dr. R. W. Dale, and the Rev. Dr- Burgess were members ; and side by side with them Canon O'Sullivan, with the kindliest feel- ing and overflowing good humour, held a 9 130 SL TJiouias's Priory. brilliant part on behalf of the interests of which he was the special custodian. In 1876 he withdrew from the Board, his place being taken by Canon Longman. His was a well" known face at public meetings for charitable and philanthropic objects ; and he was a very- enthusiastic member of the Hospital Sunday Committee. Amongst his own people he was especially loved, and at the annual Catholic re- unions he usually received the heartiest applause of the evening when he came forward to say a few words, generally in support of a resolu- tion of thanks to the principal visitor. He was an admirable pastor, a judicious administrator, and an eloquent preacher. In 1877 he with- drew from St. Chad's Cathedral to the com- parative retirement of Solihull, where he took charge of that mission, and erected a charming presbytery, at which he spent the remainder of his days, till his sudden, though not unprepared death, 15th January, 1892, aged sixty-nine. O wel are you that have subdude The force of world's desyre, And in the forte of solitude For safety do rctyre. — Verstegan. SL Thomas's Priory. 131 Canon O'SuUivan was a man of marked literary tastes, and up to the very last maintained a connection with Birmingham littdrateurs as a member of the Old Library Committee, of which he was president about three years before his death. Two years before the latter event, he made a journey to the United States. He had previously travelled a good deal upon the Continent ; and his keen observation of men and things, together with his ready wit and genial disposition, made him a cultured and charming companion. No man was more welcome at a dinner party ; and no man, while freely contributing by his wit to the pleasure of his companions, knew better how to maintain the dignity of his clerical character, or to ensure personal respect. The Rev. Dr. M'Cave, in his funeral panegyric delivered at Birmingham, said that the canon for well nigh thirty years was the quasi leader of Catholicity in the Midlands. He cared not for place, and he cared not for pelf Nay, when an informal offer of an archbishopric was made to him he declined, and preferred to live and die working in Birmingham. That meant many and many a 132 Si. Thomas's Priory. battle, but he threw himself into the fight chivalrously and conscientiously. He loved his Irish fatherland with intensity, and was never so proud as when his audience consisted of the sons and daughters of the Emerald Isle ; indeed, he was the beau id(^al of the Soggarth Aroon. Another feature of his admirable life was the perfect order, precision, and piety with which he discharged his priestly duties. Touch- ing his life at Stafford, we may conclude with an extract from a sympathetic memoir which appeared in the Stafford Catholic Magazine for January, 1892 :— " During the seven years which Canon O'Sullivan spent in Stafford much was done by him, and under him, to promote the work and improve the position of Catholicity in the town. Throutrh his exertions the church was built and freed from debt, and the schools in Foregate Street erected. I n a long and bitter controversy in the Advertiser, the canon vigorously and learnedly defended the doctrines and rights of Catholics ; and in spite of the bigotry aroused by a clerical opponent the cause of this con- troversy, viz., the claim to have a salaried S/. Thomas's Priory. xx'x 03 Catholic chaplain appointed to the gaol, was carried through successfully. On the various boards and committees of the borough the canon was found taking his part, and by his tact and urbanity he succeeded in removing much anti- Catholic prejudice. When he was about to leave the town, the purse of forty guineas presented to him by his own people was aug- mented by a testimonial of twenty-five sovereigns from Protestant gentlemen of the town, headed by Mr. J. Morgan, the mayor, who in his address spoke of the canon as ' a gentleman who had by his uniform kindness and affability shown that social duties were not inconsistent with the priestly office'." Indeed, from the general description of the good canon we seem to have embodied the ideal sought by Richard Crashaw : — A happy soul, that all the way To Heaven hath a summer's day ; * * * * A man whose tuned humours be A seat of rarest harmony ; •X- * * * Warm thoughts, free spirits flattering Winter's self into a spring. In sum, would'st see a man that can Live to be old, and still a man. 1 34 '^^- Thomas's Priory. XV. Though our notes be short and few, And our rests too oft and long, If we keep in time with you, We at last shall sing your song. — John Austin. When Canon O'Sullivan left Stafford he was succeeded by the Rev. John Fanning.^ This venerable man was born at Louorhmore, near Thurles, Co. Tipperary, loth November, 1805. After completing a course of humanities and philosophy in his native country, he came over to Prior Park, Co. Somerset, 14th September, 1836, to pursue his theological studies; and there was ordained priest, 14th March, 1840. His first mission was Taunton, Co. Somerset, on which he entered i6th October, 1841. To oblige Bishop Hendren he consented to separate him- self from his attached congregation, and to ex- pose himself as a forlorn hope to recover the misapplied funds of the well-founded but im- poverished mission of Tiverton, in Devonshire. There he displayed his characteristic tact and energy, from the Advent of 1848 to th(; Advent Cath. Times, 28th August, 1891 ; Oliver, Collns., 249. S^. Thomas's Priory. 135 of 1850, when he was permitted to return to the scene of his first labours, to the deHght of his numerous acquaintances. Soon after, a difference with his superiors over a demand for monies, supposed to have been advanced to the mission some twenty years before his appointment to Taunton, led to his withdrawal from the Ply- mouth diocese, and to his acceptance of Bishop Ullathorne's proffer to receive him into the Bir- mingham diocese. On 30th January, 1853, he bade adieu to his flock, who expressed their sorrow at the separation by presenting him with a eulogistic address, accompanied by a purse of sovereigns. Bishop Ullathorne at once ap- pointed him to the vacant mission of Chipping Norton, Co. Oxford. On the following 30th June he was transferred to the important mis- sion of SS. Peter and Paul, Wolverhampton ; and whilst there he opened with unprecedented solemnity, ist May, 1855, the fine church of SS. Mary and John. After a few more years of zealous and active labour, failing health neces- sitated a change to a lighter mission, and in 1858 he withdrew to Hanley, Upton-on-Severn. In 1 86 1 he was transferred to Bromsofrove, where 136 SL Thomas's Priory. he remained till his appointment to Stafford in 1866. Here he continued his faithful services till, in March, 1871, he had the satisfaction of beins: restored to the Clifton diocese, and was given the charge of Shepton Mallet, Somerset. In 1878 he was transferred to Frome, in the same county, where he continued to labour till old age and infirm.ity necessitated his retirement from the mission in 1884. For some time he resided with or near his nephew, the Rev. James F. Fanning, in Liverpool ; but some three years before his death he returned to his native country to enjoy more fully amongst his friends his well-earned repose. Thus he quietly passed to his eternal reward, at Holy Cross, Co. Tipperary, 13th August, 1891, having nearly attained the patriarchal age of eighty-six. Wherever his lot was cast during his pere- grinations he made the prospects of religion brighter by his zeal and sanctity, and conciliated those at variance through either creed or party by his manners and character. From the world's poor pageantry. Lord, Thou call'st a soul to Thee, Grant her rest eternally. — Rev. Henry Formby. St. Thomas's Priory. 137 The Rev. James Nary succeeded Fr. Fanning, and arrived at St. Austin's iith March, 1871; he had been ordained priest at Oscott, 26th March, 1 864,^ and subsequently served at Stonor, Henley-on-Thames, till 1868, and then at Oxford till his appointment to Stafford. His sojourn terminated in December, 1872 ; and after serving successively at Brewood, Dor- chester, Blackmore Park, Eccleshall, and Can- nock, he is now stationed at Leamington. And now we come to one in whose person the earliest and dearest traditions of the mission are associated — the Very Rev. Edward Charles Canon Acton, D.D., a descendant of the Fowlers of St. Thomas's Priory, to whom the Catholics of Stafford are so deeply indebted for the preservation of their faith during the dark ages of persecution. Dr. Acton is the third son of the late William Joseph Acton, Esq., of Wolverton, Co. Worcester, the repre- sentative of an ancient family deriving descent from the Actons of Acton, and of Mary, widow of William Trafford, Esq., brother of Sir Thomas Joseph de Trafford, Bart., of ^ Oscotiaii, vii. 138 S/. Thomas's Priory. Trafford Park, Co. Lancaster. His grand- father, William Acton, of Wolverton, married, in 1801, Ann Constantia Davies, descended from the family of Fowler, of St. Thomas's Priory.^ And thus is added one more link to the chain of the past : — Behold one more connection, And long may it abide, The brilliant reflection Of vStafford's quondam pride. Dr. Acton -was born at Wolverton on 13th Oct., 1839. In Sept., 1853, he entered Oscott College, and two years later had the distin- guished honour of being elected by his fellow- students their " public man" — an honour only fully appreciated by those who have the privi- lege of calling themselves Oscotians. In 1856 he matriculated at the London University, and proceeded B.A. in 1858, after which he left Oscott for the Iinglish College at Rome, where he took his degree of D.D., and was ordained priest in Sept., 1863. Shortly afterwards he returned to England, and was given charge of ' Burke, Landed Gentry. - Oscoiian, vii. The Very Rev. Canon Acton, D.D. SL Thomas's Pi'iory. 139 the mission of Warwick, which he exchanged for Brewood in 1869. Thence he came to Staf- ford in December, 1872. In Oct., 1880, the Very Rev. John Hawksford, D. D,,^ whose zeal and labour had overwrought his strength, found it necessary, owing to con- tinued indisposition, to resign the presidency of Oscott College ; and the bishop of the diocese, Dr. Ullathorne, called upon Dr. Acton to exchange places with him. Thus, in the following December, Dr. Hawksford took charoe of the conQ-reoation at Stafford, and Dr. Acton was duly installed president of his alma mater. Dr. Hawksford, son of the late Mr. John Hawksford, of Graiseley Hall, a solicitor in Wolverhampton, who had the honour of being the first Catholic mayor of that town in 1 863-4, was admitted into Sedgley Park School in 1844, and was transferred to Oscott in August, 1850,- was ordained priest 19th Dec. 1859, and was retained at the College as a professor till 1868, when he became attached to the Cathedral at Birmingham for two years. In 1870 he returned to Oscott as prefect of studies, and continued ' Oscotian, \ii. - Sed^^lcy Park Reg., MS. 140 SL Thomas'' s Priory. his professorial duties till his election to the presidency, in succession to Dr. Northcote, in July, 1877. Two years later His Holiness Leo XHI, conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity, and in Feb., 1880, he was installed a canon of the Cathedral Church of St. Chad. Towards the close of the latter year he resigned the presidency, and, as we have already seen, came to recruit his health at St. Austin's. Four years later he withdrew from Stafford, to take upon himself the presidency of St. Wilfrid's College, Cotton, the lineal repre- sentative of the venerable and time-honoured school at Sedgley Park — an office which long may he continue to grace ! In January, 1884, the Rev. Louis F. Torond came to supply the vacancy at Stafford. He, likewise, was an Oscotian, ordained priest 23rd December, 1866/ having previously been a " patriarch," or parlour-boarder, at Sedgley Park School from 1862.'^ From that time till his appointment to Kidderminster, in 1877, he was attached to St. Chad's Cathedral. From Kidderminster he came to St. Austin's, and after ^Oscotian, vii. -Sedgley Park Reg., MS. SL Thomas's Priory. 141 serving this mission for a little over a year, he was transferred to Bloxwich, Walsall, where he still flourishes. When Dr. Acton was appointed to the pre- sidency of Oscott, he expressed his determina- tion to uphold and secure for the students by every means in his power that moral and intellectual wellbeing which is embodied in the motto above the College porch, Religioni ac bonis Artibus ; and well did he fulfil his promise ! In 1882, by invitation of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, he attended at St. James' Palace, 28th February, to consider the question of the establishment of a Royal College of Music. In 1884 he was elected to the vacancy in the Birmingham Chapter caused by the death of Canon Estcourt. Early in the following year he announced his resignation of the presidency of Oscott, which aroused general expression of regret. Thus in March, 1885, Dr. Acton returned to Stafford, to the great delight of his old congregation, whose affection and respect is the best evidence of his worth. More needs not ; when acknowledged merits reign, Praise is impertinent, and censure vain. — Attcyhury. 142 SL Thomas's Priory. XVI. Me resonare jubent pietas, Mors atque voluptas. One can hardly conclude this panoramic view of the life of the Church in this country, as represented in the history of Stafford mission, without pondering over the inscrutable ways of Divine Providence. There was a time when Englishmen were " non Angli, sed Angeli ". One altar and one creed alone were known throughout the land ; truth and piety held sway. Yet the avarice and lust of a despot and his sycophants were permitted to disturb and ultimately change the Faith which Christ came to implant. In the wail of the Elizabethan poet, staunch Richard Verstegan, who suffered imprisonment and exile for that Faith, this so-called reformation, or rending of Christ's seamless garment, has been thus quaintly por- trayed : — Somtyme the Crosse as sundry recordes tel, Deryving vcrtue from our Saviour's death, Hath had the force the divel to expel, And by the same confirmed Christian faith. But now it seemes, faith hath sustayned losse, Because the divel hath chaste away the crosse. SL Thomas's Priory. 14 t And now, after three centuries of oppression, by every form of persecution that human in- genuity could devise, what a marvellous change has come over this country ! Is it the effect of a new leaven, or rather the return of the pro- digal to "the days of our fathers "? The nets of Peter are again let down. Narrow prejudice and extreme ignorance are fast giving place to ingenuousness and a sincere desire for enligfhten- ment. Half a century ago there was hardly a bell in England that could be rung from a Catholic church to call its con^regfation to Divine worship. Thrice a hundred years intervened ere toll from turret and steeple called to the ancient service — the sole one of old. Now from numberless Catholic churches peal forth sweet chimes, and over the land hundreds and hundreds of bells like St. Austin's daily send forth their summons : — When mirth and joy are on thawing, I ring ; To call the folks to church in time, I chime ; When God requires of man a soul, I toll. The gloom is lifting, gleams of pure bright- 144 "^^^ Thomas's Priory. ness are spreading. May we not hope, there- fore, that our well-loved country is once more to see the splendour of the day, and to rejoice in the radiance of the true Faith in the one fold ? 'Tis the old history, Truth without a home, Despised and slain, then rising irom the tomb. — Cardinal Newman. FINIS. APPENDICES. lO Appe7idix A. f47 X Pi o CU C/3 O z PL, c/3 < O Qi m o 148 ►S/. Thomas's Priory ttj c y= OJ . tuD' HO Wm a, c u _rt c 5J 1) o c rt :;: • .H o^ , o rt . c XI 5 c rO O P-H ■ X I— I c c -4-riv c ^ 00^ 1-. c X OJ WE tM d x: X (U o — o Vh M rt ^ E <1) rt oi •4-* "~^ f- 4J X UH ^ E &uO ♦J T3 t- :: CJ 0^ g .s ^.b'^ Ss^ 'A'^ >> cr^ . X c/^ > Htlx >-H ^ "'^ . II c £ ■"^■oj go , w -.-Z-t -c (J -E^_^ii g < Sybel, Cham of SI Casi C o-t; t; c i c c ,° -i^ :S u . . . t»- ^^ 'J-' r-\ X ana, d irJno ,w, Ld yor ndon, 501. 1— < ^ d — ; !" rt X U-i tj •-co ™ cs M ■i^ 3,'oc^S-' 5^1- iy5 u u ri II rt rt N 11 o^x 0) > in II II fa ° 1; OJ c c > X " rt S.Sf r J — S U. c > 13 c II ^1-. ^ II <4-l :ich cot dw. X X TJ H c C/3 OJ3 ■a E Q u X Eliz., Andr Loi Wind Appendix A. 149 3 D. t/3 rt o < — t^c^ 0! >-] N <.u h-a 1- -^ s s-^ J=-C XI <-« TD « E z ° 0-5 -w OJ f^Q c^^ ? rt . i- ^ - en c "a ■— 1 cj ^1^ x: > u (J ?■ — . •— c «^ J u ^ oj "O , - u ?§'? c u OJ ^^ ^E g- — ■^^ ^ .2 . u- <*- r?i-i 13 U ' 3 abel reas .t "■ (-1 II II U-i ■ OJ • • _u u UD ^ ' bC u C OS rt 4J bf >X S-g . u S sv° >ii &- w: -u: p C u ■"^ cj rr oica ^c^ii 1 ^Q u 03 of Jo sq.,M, )fRob on, of on, C( op. • ofTh Esq., r, Co. "rrt ■^^^ OJ rt -^^ .,- u tuC tn ~ ^? bjCCO 4J g t£'Jn •d C aronet Cath., Hau 2 c t S5 OJ ■0 P II — < ^ c ffl II II < s <" - 11 c^i- i ;r, of Harnage Co. Salop. '^ en I-. OJ Grange ler, of Pende- afford, ob. 21st wler, Esq., of aet. 29, ad motr. . Jan., 1646. a Fowlers of Fowl( range. s Fow Co. St Feb, er Fo eford, itr. ob. PO Jame ford. OJ Cu ro 'i- C • r- d , ^00 •^ t., d. of idshaw. OJ c C c d. of fort, of . 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O (U [i, o „ c 3 c O D .- -a c N o CO 5 c cr to ^ t-i-. X3 u 2 6 CJ c c S k. (U <: u C/3 >1 XI II ^ CO i , . cr CO CO t-l 'co 4-1 ct! N U2 E CQ CQ tT ■*-» ^ ^ Cu V ? ^ w X 10 . O CO o CJ OO-^-' o CJ - ■- ca u rt e r:« 1) o c CQ s « c r TO o-CL, C/3 E CO XI c -J-) -4-< cti ,. CJ CJ X .>, , c aj a >.-a c u I-. 1) ii <:QQ CO CO o O r „ o >, o u t" X u- u ^ u o >, rt (u W 1> CO X TD <-;- cX -3 cS -^^ c^ O to X p „ O-^ 3X^ U I- ■- n> ^ o =^ a! 1) -a 13 E^CQ CO ' Cu CO C u O a! o ti o'2 "^ ■'-^ X "^ ;h -• IJ ClJ t_ Zx CO ^ ." OJ O - -d =^ ^ 1^^ ^ > ™ o < . bJO 15^ SL Thomas's Priory. U O O Ui CO e I W-i •■72 A- +j Pi OOOJ OO ro U O •« lO cd C OJ rt o « ■ I- « =1 c O D U . C jj O C "5 «-> CQ .2 re n! O -!-• c c Q ""^^ c M b/) >^ rt "a — (U OJ ™ i_ ■~ ^ 3 ^ o Or- t X. t- 4-> u, > rt r^ b/; c C u c ni o a. o Q. c rt -a J2 rt o w aj < — o . • >— 1 ^ ^ ^ rt O o C -'*' C X I- , QJ O rt ._ O o ^ > O 1) rt tuO c 'c c 5 O .1 -^-' jrn^ '~^ oO-p ^ ca „ c CO W X fo o! 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CO U c« c 1 c« 1 154 SL Thomas'' s Priory o o r^ TO oj o c , — > 2 r^'^o.^ «J I- 5 h rt ^ QQ „ "3 *^ CJ i= ^ ■ ^ E D 5 r; rt " O (U t" L>.X " ■n ^.> ji ^ ^ tn o - -^ o ^ =^ ci-x c r o'S g :s «_^ E = T3 en u — ' O M 5j O .b -M •- n) 55 3 c "5 M cj (u rt c CJ *j ■ ■ C <" C^^ nS rt x; u en w •4-1 -' 5-^ rt ,^ c; <*- X t^cQ > W (U u 1/ X en — •- '^ . O OJ X X E2i^-gu < i:2 o C cj u "O . en (u o x; X c - . c u _0J en "> 'i- S2 o.t; T3 ii fe c ?^ C O 03 . ^ en crx; ^ o u O » aj en '^ u en en OJ OJ -M_ ti.^S — X TD en . o M -4-' c a O •a u '% en 2 o CQ o u 'en en X (U *-i en _U rt \-^ u C en u •-" ri ^ <- D OJ X -C •r; en -4-> °X g --. o 2 I d-^ fc en H D- M •r c Appendix A. 155 -• /Z ^ IJ > cj "^ c > I — > o ?* J= o ^ ° C >^ cr oj w ^ 4j O aj CJ ? . 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M O • •-I o 1-0 M o m J^ O M M PO !>. t>. r^ r^ oj M M M M O u 'o in ino r^ !>. r^ O M «00ti 0-) Th"„ " CO 00 t^ " -p t^t^N-f= c^ »^ >.t <4-> -^ oj (-U ^s O T3 u OS CO C u Q ^.?i c o u coC<0 ■>-> u c =: c o "C PQ O x; c o ■4-* tuO c T3 "a "O c/3 "^ c/: "^ cA) T3 — ; u CQ c o a, x: CO -1 u ex C u. in u c '"000'- o CL, , rt c/: rfl (/J V* c; V l-i nl !l> U OS 0. ^ > 1) x: C 1-1 (1) (-X 0) 4J c U3 J^ X 0) X - q o 5 Cfi X 1. i6o SL TAomass Priory. 00 CO " 00 M M r M - w " ri- 6 H Sept., June 25 Nov., Oct. 28 Nov., Sept., 00 M w 00 c^ 5^^^ €?| M t» OT W W t» 00 E o 1-1 Vr „ ,- M M J" ,- U-) ^ (14 Aug. ] Sept Dec, June Nov. Apri Q ^ 'J- C3> ll^"^'^ b£^=2 C in un 3 00 " C CO 00 (U M M rt -- 00 3 "T i; M 1— >*^ < " . 5 2 -d 3 " ., .^ •a iri ^ ott, lies, Nov Coll.,: June : retn ord, 1835. 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M -a . 00 -:!- M O ►-< •MM M '^ _•-■ : M r^ c«'^2 tutor, [855 to ratory, b. 28, irst, 18 enham, ; inval 00 \ •" ^~^ M ?H „oo S— in -^r:: GO •cffi ". j: >> -!-•- •- ^ C/2 rt - O M C/3 <" to 18 Dubl i860 rdin., Chisi 871; to di Dtt, Aug. 1856; 1858 ; S cge, 1847 I, to 1855; s, 1859 to 1 1863; to 1865 ; , 1867 to I ey, 1878 wark. till ordii to 1874 "55 0-0 0^ (A < •a c cd U3 (-• o in : z^ ,n .=i jf t: jc ::2rji-iO Ouc^ '^oo in M 00 _!;• J CO ►^ =" c. Brig Oscott, Eng. C baston Norwo 1867; to 187 Canon C) jfe^.S ^ JU-S ~ 3 b.0 3 = D ~j -a s -a "5 TS ►^w -^U\ -^a II >r l62 SL Thomas s Priory M O C^ t^ CO 00 w l-l o H r r •- o rt u T3 oi SQ ro N t^ r-~. 00 on M M -. ^ 1— 1 • T1 U rt S ro r^ ro O 00 t-- 00 i-i OO 00 „ M M o^ - - N C +-» OS n (^ C/3 o o M H 00 00 00 E w t^ ^ M M ^ o Too r t-To b > M en _ O l^ 13 c c Z c« s rt rt s 1— >|— > •'• c •' M C CO 00 o •-^- 1^ 00 o o CI, 00 >■> c - ij CI. -a u • ? 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