Gill Hogarth
PERSECUTION AND PERSEVERANCE, Survival of Catholicism in Somerset
25th April 2012
Paper delivered at Ss Joseph and Teresa Catholic Parish, Wells, Somerset, for the English Catholic
History Association by Mrs Gill Hogarth, Assistant Archivist, Diocese of Clifton.
The story of a persecuted minority religion in an area often ignored in Recusant histories, should be
short: Bossy, for example, barely mentions us. I know we can’t compare to Lancashire, but we too had our
saints, our writers and those whose lives are ‘known only unto God’. And we had our families in
whom that thread of faith continued unbroken through the generations, albeit from branch to branch;
and across links by marriage and by patronage
But first - Three general points:
First Just because somebody held a particular view, it doesn’t always follow that he and his family always
held the .those views – nor, of course that they didn’t.
Second Many of the people we know about were not just West Country folk, many had connections
elsewhere in the Kingdom. The circles in which they moved were small; and families were interrelated
Third Just what did it mean to be a Catholic? Closet Catholics conformed in public and did as they liked
in private; But for those who refused to attend church services, there was always the risk of a fine and
sometimes that threat was carried out - some people even lost their homes, some their liberty and some
even their life. Priests received the worst punishments.
Alexander Briant, who probably came from the borders of Somerset and Dorset, was taken at the height
of the search for Edmund Campion and his friend Robert Persons, who was of course, another Somerset
man. Briant suffered terrible torture, but refused to break. Eventually on 1st December 1581, a dank and
dreary morning, he, Edmund Campion and Ralph Sherwin, were taken to Tyburn. He was the third in line
to have the rope placed around his neck. We’re told the rope was not well placed and caused him the
utmost pain as he dropped. Hanged, disembowelled, quartered….
So where should we start?
Let’s start with a quotation from a sermon preached in this very church 125 years ago by Fr. Joseph
Butcher:
Like a weary traveller, who halts and looks back on the road already traversed, we
cannot sever ourselves from the past; we cherish its memory, we recall its vivid joys
–its victories, and we linger with sympathy even on its weaknesses. The past is linked
to the present in our memories.
(The Catholic Mission in Wells Farewell Sermon of Dr
Butcher March 10th 1887, Wells Journal)
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So now we’ll go chronologically and
look at individuals – after all, people,
not statistics, made the history
The 1530s - The fate of the
Glastonbury Abbey martyrs is well
known, but what of the lesser clergy and
their congregations? - The simple
fact is, we just don’t know. A few
parishes such as Morebath in Devon
and Yatton, near Weston super Mare are
lucky in their parish records but even
these don’t necessarily tell us what
people thought.
George Croft, parish priest of Shepton Mallet, less than six miles away from here, was charged, pleaded
guilty and executed in December 1538 for declaring that the Pope, not Henry, was head of the Church in
England. Admittedly he held benefices in other parts of the country and had friends in high places with the
same doubts, who were treated in the same way; but in this area it is a long held tradition that he was
hanged for his faith in his own marketplace in Shepton Mallet.
The 1530s were a difficult time to have a conscience. Bruton, thirteen miles from here, was the home
town of Sir John Fitzjames, Chief Justice. At the trial of Sir Thomas More he famously gave this equivocal
reply:
My Lords all, by St Julian, I must needes confess that
if
th’acte of parliament be not unlawfull, then is not the
indictment in my conscience insufficient’ whereupon the Chancellor gave a verdict
of guilty. (Guy, John For what did Thomas More so silently die
http://www.tudors.org/public-lectures/76-for-what-did-thomas-more-so-silently-die.html)
Sort that out, if you can. Over the years, family allegiance and slant of religious belief change. We find in
the Fitzjames family not only traditional parents striving to bring up their families in the old way, but
rebellious young men seeking action by travelling to Spain and perhaps engaging in a very minor way in
possible plotting against the Crown; whilst their younger brother joined the Benedictines.
but yet another slightly later branch of the family produced this memorable epitaph:
So that her deathe was even the doore to entre to salvation.
She wayghed no Romyshe trashe, she knew no Purgatorye,
Besides Chrystes Bloode, true God and Man, to whom be endless glorye.’
(Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries Vol XVI p. 181; I believe
probably composed end of 16th century, beginning of 17th century)
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Of course, back in the 1530s, it wasn’t just political ramifications of the King’s Great Matter that were
changing things. The early reformers were also making their mark.
Sir John Newton of East Harptree, nine miles across the Mendips was married to a member of the
Poyntz family of Iron Acton, Gloucestershire. The Poyntz family later became a famous recusant family,
but at this time they were providing support and lodging to the early reformers John Earley and William
Tyndale. Sir John Newton died in 1568 - his will shows him to have left traditional Catholicism far behind.
His forebears are buried in a chantry chapel at Yatton where there are wonderfully preserved memorials to
them. His memorial is equally grand but it was erected in the chancel where it partially obscured the east
window: meaning presumably it stood in the place of the high altar. Today it stands in the church porch
and his twenty children are depicted, kneeling prayerfully, alongside the front panel.
Two of his sons were ordained during Edward’s reign, one went abroad in Mary’s time and both felt able to
accept the Elizabethan Settlement. Several sisters had places at Court, and these probably tempered their
religious beliefs according to prevailing wind but several others married into families whose conformity to
the Established Religion was more than questionable.
But what of Wells itself? The Bishops of Bath and Wells barely set foot in the diocese, being busy at
Court in the service of the King. The Cathedral Chapter had a fair amount of trouble regarding the
appointment of deans during the periods of change under Edward, Mary and Elizabeth, when the
conservative John Goodman and the radical Protestant William Turner caused chaos as they took turns in
the office.
But for our purposes, William Good is perhaps an even more interesting character since he bridges
the gap between the old and the new. Born in Somerset, he attended Glastonbury School, where, aged 12,
he may well have witnessed first-hand the Abbey’s downfall.
He was ordained in Mary’s time and appointed canon of Wells Cathedral and master of the school.
Then unable to accept the Elizabethan Settlement, he fled to the Continent. Cutting a long story short, he
became a Jesuit, introduced Robert Persons to the Society and ended his career as Confessor to the English
College, Rome where William Allan described him as
‘In that Reverend Father Good, a man that is good indeed, is to be confessor of the
College, I greatly rejoice; for he is especially qualified to form character and skilled in
the whole art of direction’. (See entry for William Good Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography)
It was William Good who designed and supervised the martyrology frescos on the walls of the English
College. Images designed to stir the students’ zeal by showing them the history of their faith stretching
back to the time of St Peter. The later pictures led to the cultus that would, in time, became a focus for the
beatification and canonisation of the Elizabethan martyrs.
George Bridgewater held posts at Wells and was Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford, where he was ideally
placed to influence others. He made his way abroad in 1574 with several of his students, some from
Somerset: John Colleton, later taken with Edmund Campion, John Gibbon and the martyr William Hart.
William Hart was born in Wells, godson of William Good; he was ordained abroad and returned to serve
in England. He was arrested on Christmas morning 1582 and executed three months later. He wrote to his
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mother who was living in Wells, shortly before his death, Asking her to keep faith and trust in God, the
words ring with sincerity and love, when he says he is not alone, God is with him, and with her. He
mentions that he knows that James Fenn and John Body are in prison and asks her to remember him to ‘his
brothers, to Andrew Gibbon’s mother, Mrs Body and the rest’. One can well understand perhaps the
mother hugging the letter to her heart, but also the pride with which she showed it to others, and thus how
a copy of it came to be passed around and even back to the English College, Rome
The letter would seem to indicate a small group of Catholics in and around Wells.
John, Richard and Andrew Gibbons, three brothers, born near Wells, became priests and lived their
whole lives abroad. John had the courage to say that he had not the courage to go to England, but instead
he would spend his life collecting and transcribing the stories of those who did. His work was first
published in 1583. The youngest brother Andrew was all set to go on mission to England, probably with
the news of William Hart’s execution ringing in his ears, but he never reached England, he died on the
journey. Richard also lived his life abroad, teaching in various colleges and always being somewhat of a
square peg in a round hole. They were certainly confessors for the faith although they were not called upon
to shed blood.
William Hart’s letter referred to Mrs Body and her son John. John Body studied at Winchester and Oxford.
When required to swear the Oath of Supremacy, he refused, and was deprived of his fellowship. Like many
others, he went to Douai, but he did not aim for the priesthood. He studied civil law alongside John Slade
from Dorset. Both men returned to England where they became schoolmasters. It was a dangerous time
to stand up for Catholic beliefs. Both were arrested at separate times for voicing their opinions, imprisoned,
tried and found guilty and executed.
John Body’s younger brother Gilbert had been taken prisoner alongside Alexander Briant. Briant was the
prize, Gilbert was unimportant and released on a bond which was never called in. John made arrangements
before his death for Gilbert to travel to safety abroad.
Most accounts of John Body quote Challoner’s Memoirs that on hearing of her son’s happy death, his
mother made a great feast to which she invited her neighbours, rejoicing at his death as at his marriage, by
which his soul was happily and eternally espoused to the Lamb. Perhaps more proof there was a small
group of Catholics in Wells at this time.
What of the ordinary people? Most probably accepted through ignorance, indecision, indifference or
apathy – nothing changes. But it is difficult to believe that, at times of extreme emotion, people did not
revert to long held customs such as prayers for the dead. When she was about to be confined in childbirth,
Frances, Lady Cobham, daughter of Sir John Newton of East Harptree, and member of Queen Elizabeth’s
Bedchamber , wrote to her friend Bess of Hardwick:
I pray you pray for me. I know I shall speed the better for a good woman’s prayers;
(Lovell, M S. Bess of Hardwick. Abacus 2005 p.184)
At such worrying times, I cannot believe that some people did not turn to the old Catholic prayers
The Buckland family, close neighbours of the Newtons, were conformist minor gentry in West Harptree.
Whereas George Bridgewater and many other Oxford men had sought safety abroad to practise their
religion, others had stayed behind to spread the word. Ralph Buckland went to Oxford where he studied
Law but he also had contact with these ‘fifth columnists’ and he continued to read ‘books of controversy’
even after he left Oxford for the London Inns of Court. Once he had decided he could no longer accept
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the views of the Established Church, he left his career, his family and his inheritance behind and went to
Douai.
He completed his training in Rome and was ordained in 1588, in the week of the Spanish Armada, and left
for England at around the same time as John Gerard. John Gerard’s Autobiography gives an idea of what
Buckland might also have faced, but nothing is known of where Buckland lived or worked in England.
But what we do have are his writings. These somewhat resemble the Hebrew psalms. Impassioned
outpourings designed to comfort a marginalised people. One can perhaps imagine they also show his grief
at his own isolation as he writes. Clearly he was captured and imprisoned at some point since he was
among those exiled after the failure of the Gunpowder Plot. He died in 1611, place unknown, although
there is a suspicion that he returned to England and even to Somerset.
The Douai Diary records that he presented a relic of St Thomas of Canterbury to the College during his
exile. Interestingly there is also a tradition that the parish church of West Harptree once held a relic of St
Thomas. Can we believe this? Did a villager hide the relic away through long years until Ralph was given it
to take to a place where it could be given due recognition? Or did the story come about through Ralph’s
connection with the village, rather than that of the relic?
Let’s move on to Wells in the 1620s and show links that get us to Shepton Mallet in 1804:
Some of the Godwin family of Wells were Catholic, but they probably kept their heads down .One notable
member was Elizabeth Godwin who was professed an Augustinian nun in 1622 at Louvain. Whilst she was
still at home, the story goes that a young man asked her to find him a priest since he was in desperate need
to be reconciled. After some delay she was able to arrange for him to meet a priest in her mother’s house
without anyone else knowing. The young man later became a Jesuit.
Martin Family of Athelhampton, Dorset, Catholic since before 1600
Offshoot of Martin family moved to Baltonsborough, near Shepton Mallet
Godwin family of Wells married into the Martin family by 1675
Martin family converted John Taunton of West Lydford, near Baltonsborough c. 1680s
Martin family provided a ‘fund for a priest’ c. 1690s
Taunton family possibly converted William Hippisley of Shepton Mallet
William Hippisley provided a room for a missioner and a room for Mass c. 1760s
The first free standing chapel built 1804, partially from the above fund.
Thomas Martin of Baltonsborough, near Shepton Mallet married Mary Godwyn; recusant in 1675.
Dom John Martin OSB, travelling to the sickbed of his father in Baltonsborough, died of smallpox in Wells
in 1672.
The Taunton family of West Lydford, near Baltonshorough were staunch Catholics throughout the
nineteenth century. I think it’s possible that the Martin or Taunton families may have aided the conversion
of William Hippisley, a draper of Shepton Mallet.
The Martin family left a field to provide a fund which was applied “for one, who being a Jesuit shall live
among and assist my relations and other Catholics in Wells, Glastonbury and neighbourhood. This fund
provided the foundation of the mission of Shepton Mallet, whose chapel was built in 1804.
But back in Wells in Jan 1625, eleven people had been charged with not attending services of the
Established Church. They were given a chance to mend their ways, and all did except William Beaumont
and William Evans.
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The Beaumont family has proved an interesting research line. There were two branches of the family in
Wells - one conformist and involved with Cathedral life, and the other Catholic and quietly carrying on
their stocking business, playing little part in town affairs. They owned land in Ston Easton, up the hill out
of Wells, not far from the Harptrees and by the time of the Civil War they may have been spending more
time in the country. A later generation of the family produced four sons, three of whom became priests.
William Beaumont SJ served the Stourton family in Wiltshire before retiring to the family home at Ston
Easton, He probably built the small freestanding chapel on his family’s land at Ston Easton. Interestingly
this building is within clear view of the lane and within a very short distance of the parish church. And
when he died in 1764, an epitaph was painted onto the chancel wall of this parish church.
His brother, Joseph Beaumont SJ was chaplain to Mrs Eccleston in Lancashire. He lived out his life in
Lancashire but retained close links with Somerset.
It seems likely he arranged for two of the nine daughters of Thomas Tatlock from Lancashire, to marry two
of his great nephews in Somerset. Since Mrs Eccleston stood as sponsor for the baptism of the ensuing
children, she probably had a hand in the marriage arrangements. Joseph died in 1773 and since his eldest
brother had died without issue, Joseph arranged for his offspring of his sister, to take on the family name
and property. The trustees of his will included Mrs Eccleston and William Banks, both of Lancashire and
Elias Pierce, a Catholic of Wells, and Richard Hippisley Coxe of Ston Easton. The Hippisley family of Ston
Easton, were Anglican and the local Lords of the Manor, but seemingly at this stage sympathetic to the
Catholic faith. They must not be confused with the Hippisley family of Shepton Mallet.
William Hippisley was a mercer or draper and had premises in the marketplace where George Croft is
thought to have been executed. His daughter, Ann, left an account of how her parents would walk from
Shepton to Bristol or Bath for the privilege of hearing Mass, until they prevailed on the missioner at
Bonham in Wiltshire (the Stourton’s old home, and today known as Stourhead), to travel to them once
every six weeks to say Mass in a room, rigged up for the purpose in their house. Then she describes how
they then achieved the impossible – a priest of their own, who stayed with them until his death 32 years
later. He started the Shepton Mallet baptismal register and this shows him serving the families from the
area all around Shepton Mallet, Brewer left money for the building a church and presbytery. This money,
and presumably the money from the Baltonsborough fund enabled the next priest to erect the chapel in
1804.
Now let’s return to the Beaumonts . Elizabeth Beaumont, sister of the three Beaumont priests married a
Catholic farmer, William James of East Harptree
There’s an interesting tale surrounding the conversion of his father, or possibly grandfather towards the
end of the seventeenth century. It seems this man, also called William James, bought some sheep at
Salisbury market and hired a local drover to bring them home; he kept the drover on. The man didn’t attend
church but instead would sit in a corner of the barn with some beads and an old book. As was the duty of a
good master, William challenged his man about his non-attendance at church, but being so impressed with
his servant’s answers he was himself converted to this ‘queer religion’ and brought his own children up
likewise. It is not impossible that the servant hailed from the Wardour area.
The Jacobite uprisings affected events even in such a rural area as Harptree – The Vicar Apostolic,
Lawrence York, lived in Bath, but was forced to go into hiding for a while after a letter, probably forged,
implicated him in Jacobite activity. He chose to hide out in East Harptree with members of the James
family. But even here wasn’t safe: neighbours, including members of the family, were keen to show the
authorities that the papists were busy intriguing against King and Establishment.
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Joseph Hunt, the grandson of Elizabeth Beaumont and William James studied at the English College
Douai, after ordination he stayed on to teach and serve as collage bursar. Captured and imprisoned during
the French Revolution he returned home to East Harptree in 1795. His family and friends built him a house
and chapel, known as Shortwood in 1806.
The missions of Shepton Mallet and Shortwood thus predate the arrival of the Benedictines at Downside.
Although there had been an influx of religious communities during the time of the French Revolution, the
only group to settle in this area was the Sisters of the Visitation in Shepton Mallet in 1810. They only
stayed a matter of some twenty years: their home having been repeatedly flooded, they found better
accommodation at Westbury-on-Trym, near Bristol. There were of course other convents, famously in
Taunton and Cannington.
By the second part of the century the numbers of Catholics in Wells had grown to some thirty and they
wanted their own chapel. Female religious orders were continuing to thrive, opening new communities.
Sometimes it was difficult to find the right surroundings. The Carmelites at Plymouth found their
surroundings, situated next to a public house and overlooked on all sides as somewhat unsatisfactory for a
contemplative life.
Bishop Clifford was approached about having them move to the Clifton Diocese. The two seeming
problems dovetailed perfectly: he wrote to the Prioress:
It seems to me that Providence has put in our way the very thing you require. The
late Bishop of Bath and Wells did not like to reside in the episcopal palace at
Wells because he considered it was damp, so he took a house in the town which
has a large garden attached to it. When he died his widow continued to reside
there, and she having died recently the place is for sale. … It has quite the look of
a convent..
Negotiations had to be carried out by a third party since ‘there would be no chance of getting it, if it were
known to be wanted by Catholics’. There was some uproar when news broke out that the Catholics had
acquired it, but the deed was done.
The house was purchased for £2,250. Bear in mind this was the time when in this area, average wages for a
farm worker were about 10s a week. Just yards up the road from this house, is Beaumont House.
Beaumont House was built on the foundations of the house once owned by the Beaumont family and
where Mass was reputedly said in secret during the early recusant years.
The Sisters settled in and the first Mass was said in 16th July 1875. Within two years, Mr John Mercer of
Wigan, Lancashire, nephew of one of the nuns undertook to provide the money to build a chapel in the
convent grounds, for the benefit not only of the nuns, but also the Catholics in the neighbourhood. This
consisted of what is today’s present nave.
The Blessing and Laying of the Corner Stone by Bishop Clifford was reported in the local paper, in March
1877. The architect was Charles Hansom and the design was such to be suitable for a cathedral city,
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interestingly the exterior resembles that of the Slipper Chapel at Walsingham, although that chapel had not
yet restored. The Wells Journal described the design being adapted from a small “wayside chapel” in
Norfolk, a kind of building very common in France and Belgium.’ The barrel roof interior follows the
design of roofs found in Pre-Reformation Somerset churches.
Bishop Clifford was back in Wells two weeks later for the reception of two young novices. On 4 th April
1877, two young ladies were received into the Convent; once again the local paper gives the detail:
describing not only the ceremony, but also the elaborate dresses worn by the Hon Edith Teresa Clifford,
third daughter of Lord Clifford of Ugbrooke and Miss Mary Fagge, daughter of an Anglican vicar, who had
lately resigned his living in order to be received into the Catholic Church.
The small convent church took less than a year to build and was opened on 15th October 1877 and
dedicated to the two patrons of the Carmelite order: SS Joseph and Teresa. After the Pontifical High Mass,
about eighty guests went to luncheon at the Swan Hotel. (Although I cannot see how eighty guests
crammed into the tiny chapel).
After lunch came the speeches. Bishop Clifford thanked the sisters for sharing the chapel with the
Catholics of the town; he thanked Mr Hanson for his beautiful design which befitted the city and Mr
Mercer for his kindness offering the finance. Mr Mercer replied it gave him much pleasure and he was
surprised to see ‘so good a chapel built for so small a sum’. Mr Hanson said, in his turn, that he had merely
been an adaptor of the ideas put forward by the Bishop: ‘His Lordship had laboured more on the plans than
he had himself’ the idea having been ‘taken chiefly from a way-side chapel in Norfolk..’ He thanked the
builder, Mr Brown, and Mr Brown in reply hoped that they would be able to work together to complete
the sanctuary and choir.
Ten years later, the chapel was extended with the addition of the current sanctuary; Canon Scoles, a noted
architect, designed a handsome altar and reredos. There was a new choir for the sisters leading off to the
left, behind a solid wall with a grille, shielding the sisters from view. Today the solid wall has been replaced
by the arch and the sisters’ choir is the side aisle.
The debts paid off, the church was consecrated on 31 July 1890. The local papers described each of these
major events in great and glowing detail.
Diocesan records show there were sixteen and twenty nuns and this is confirmed by the National Census.
(Courtesy of Ancestry.co.uk)
1881 Census
The Vista Wells
1. Frances Clayton, Superior, 48, prayer and active worker, Ingatestone
2. Julia Jonbier,
52,
France
3. Rosa Messonier,
60,
France
4. Frances Cook,
48,
Ledbury, Herefordshire
5. Eliza Wadley
44,
Box, Wilts
6. Anna M Kopp,
49,
Germany
7. Margaret O’Kelly, 42,
Ireland
8. Caroline Plomer,
31,
Helston ,Cornwall
9. Justine Monnmaertes,
50,
Belgium
10. Mary Fagge ,
27,
Aston, Warwickshire
11. Edith Clifford,
27,
Cannington , Somerset
12. Agnes Silvertop,
26,
Riding Mill, Northumberland
13. Annie Bourke,
21,
Kingston , Jamaica
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14. Ann Burns,
15. Mary A O’Brien,
16. Frances Storm,
17. Mary Evans
18. Josephine Trenchard,
42,
37,
23,
Servant,
Servant,
25th April 2012
Ireland
Bloomsbury , Middlesex
Ireland
69,
Broadwindsor , Dorset
17,
Taunton, Somerset
The Forster Education Act brought the school provision to the fore in many minds. It is probably less
well known that there was, for a time, a second convent is Wells. The Sisters of the Third Order of St
Teresa came from Wardour to Wells in 1876, with the intention of running the mission school. They left
three years later, but returned in 1887 when Bishop Clifford purchased No 22, Chamberlain Street for
them.
Some five or six nuns managed to eke out a precarious existence teaching the school, but the Order left
finally in 1936.
There were around thirty Catholics living in Wells when Bishop Clifford invited the Carmelites to the City.
By 1903, diocesan statistics show numbers had doubled. By the time of the First World War there were 98
adults and 17 children. Although in 1915 this included 15 Belgian refugees and in 1916 it did not include 12
on active service.
Numbers continued to grow; by 1932 there were 168 adults: which included fifteen Catholic inmates in the
local asylum. Annual Corpus Christi processions took place through the city streets, no doubt watched with
curious interest by the locals.
It seems the nuns were financially secure in the early years – probably through the generousity of one or
two families, but by the 1920s and 1930s, the nuns, like many other people, were having to make
economies. By 1947 they could no longer support their chaplain, and Bishop Burton called a meeting of all
Catholics in Wells to tell them that if they wanted a priest, they would have to devise some means of
supporting him. As a result a great deal of fundraising went on and Fr Kelliher became the first parish
priest, and he also served the nuns. In 1947, rationing and hardship still very much a part of many people’s
life. I do not know, but I imagine there must be many untold stories relating to the fundraising, and of
people giving perhaps more than they could afford, to ensure they had a church. Oral history suggests this
was the case for the neighbouring parish of Chew Magna, which developed from the Shortwood mission.
Twenty five years later, in 1972, decreasing vocations led the sisters to leave Wells and join the Carmelite
convent in Darlington. The convent buildings were turned into flats and the sisters paid for the alterations
of the church. Their choir became the side aisle and part of the convent grounds formed a new entrance.
Both church and school here continue to thrive, although, like so many places, the parish priest has to
divide his time between two parishes. Fr Philip Thomas is parish priest of Wells and also priest-in-charge
of St Michael’s, Shepton Mallet, the mission, founded by the Hippisleys.
The likeness of SS Joseph and Teresa, Wells to the Slipper Chapel at Walsingham is remarkable.
Walsingham
Wells
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The Pre-Reformation Slipper Chapel,
Walsingham had in the intervening
years been used as a poor house, a
forge, a cow shed and a barn. It was
restored to the Catholic Church in
1896 by Charlotte Pearson Boyd.
When she was aged about twelve,
Charlotte used to wander around the
ruins of Glastonbury Abbey,
wondering perhaps somewhat
romantically about its past. But it
wasn’t until 1875, when aged 38 and
in possession of a large family
fortune she was able to fulfil her
dream of founding the English
Abbey Restoration Trust. Her first
project was West Malling Abbey which took nearly twenty years. In 1894 she was received into the Catholic
Church and set her ambitions on the restoration of Walsingham.
Additional notes not given as part of the original paper:
In 1883, the Shortwood mission had moved to a new location within the village of East Harptree. By 1934
the mission was without a resident priest, and being looked after by a priest from Downside who also
ministered to the Catholic Irish workforce building the Cheddar Reservoir at Axbridge. The following year,
when a priest was appointed to East Harptree, Downside donated a car so he was also able to serve
Cheddar. During the Second World War, the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions took refuge in Chew
Magna, some six miles north of East Harptree. It was not long before the parish priest, also serving as
chaplain to the sisters, moved to Chew Magna, and thus the centre of the parish moved once more,
although Mass continued to be said at East Harptree. After much fund-raising, a church was built at Chew
Magna in 1964 and two years later, in 1966, Shepton Mallet also moved to a new church building.
In 1994, congregation numbers at East Harptree were such that the church was too small for Sunday Mass,
and a sharing agreement was reached with the Anglican parish of West Harptree. Just a few decades earlier,
even for a Catholic to set foot in an Anglican building was not to be thought of. One wonders what Ralph
Buckland would have made of it. In 2007 Chew Magna’s parish priest died, just on the point of retiring at
the age of 81. Faced with the shortage of priests, the Bishop had no real alternative: Chew Magna was
served by the parish priest of Whitchurch, Bristol from 2007 to 2009 and now the parish shares a priest
with St Pius X, Withwood, Bristol.
In September 2012, Fr Philip will no longer have the care of Shepton Mallet, instead Shepton will be served
from the Cheddar parish.
Illustrations
Photographs of Glastonbury Tor, Sir John Newton’s memorial, Wells Cathedral exterior, West Harptree Parish Church,
Exterior of former Convent; taken by author.
Shepton Mallet Marketplace; Davis, F The Shepton Mallet Story 1977
Prayer cards; Alexander Briant, Forty Martyrs; collection belonging to Fr Richard Barton
Interior of Ss Joseph and Teresa; Clifton Diocesan Archives
M. Mary Gonzaga; Clifton Diocesan Archives
Ston Easton and Shepton Mallet chapels; Harding J A The Diocese of Clifton 1850-200 A Celebratory History 1999
Carmelite Sister; Steele, F M The Convents of Great Britain 1902
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Gill Hogarth
PERSECUTION AND PERSEVERANCE, Survival of Catholicism in Somerset
25th April 2012
College student; Williams M E The Venerable English College Rome: a history 1579–1979 1979
Walsingham Slipper Chapel; http://www.walsinghamvillage.org/about/the-roman-catholic-shrine-slipper-chapel/
Ss Joseph and Teresa exterior; http://www.yourlocalweb.co.uk/images/pictures/19/26/st-joseph-and-teresa-church189983.jp
Sources for this paper include
Clifton Diocesan Archives
Wells Cathedral Archives (re Beaumont)
Anstruther, G The Seminary Priests
Camm, Bede with J Morris and Pollen J H Lives of the English Martrys
Catholic Encyclopaedia www.newadvent.org
Catholic Record Society volumes
Challoner, Richard Memoirs of Missionary Priests 2 vols., 1741–2
Davis, F The Shepton Mallet Story 1977
Duffy E Stripping the Altars 1994
Foley, Henry Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus: historic facts illustrative of the labours and sufferings of its members in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
Gillow, Joseph. A literary and biographical history or bibliographical dictionary of the English Catholics from the breach with Rome, in
1534 to the present time.
Harding J A The Diocese of Clifton 1850-200 A Celebratory History 1999
Hogarth, G The Tread of Faith - 200 Years of Catholicism in the Chew Valley 2006
Keane P The Martyrs’ Crown 2009
Knowles D Dom The Religious Orders 1959
Murray, M Unpublished research notes (Diocese of Clifton Archives))
Oliver, George Collections illustrating the history of the Catholic religion in the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Wilts, and
Gloucester 1857
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com
Rodwell K and Bell R Acton Court English Heritage 2004
Steele, F M The Convents of Great Britain 1902
Waugh, E., Edmund Campion, Longmans, Green & Co., 1935.
Williams M E The Venerable English College Rome: a history 1579–1979 1979
Recusant History Journals
Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Proceedings (re George Croft, Fitzjames)
Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries (re Fitzjames)
South West Catholic History Journals
Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Transactions (re Newton, Poyntz)
Newspaper cuttings from Wells Journal 1877-1890 re Carmelite Convent
Parish History of Catholic Church of Ss Joseph and Teresa, Wells 2001
Ss Josph and Teresa website http://www.ssjosephandteresawells.co.uk/history.html
St Michael’s, Shepton Mallet website http://www.saint-michaels.org.uk/site/index.php?page_id=499
Carmelite, Darlington Website
Guy, John For what did Thomas More so silently die
http://www.tudors.org/public-lectures/76-for-what-did-thomas-more-so-silently-die.html)
Gillian Hogarth, 10 Glanville Drive, Hinton Blewett, Bristol. BS39 5GF
Tel 01761 453275
gillhogarth@hotmail.com
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