FROM USK TO LONDON AND BACK AGAIN

Fr David Lewis was taken to Usk Gaol on a cold and snowy January day in 1679. He was committed to the Monmouth Assizes in March. Although the Titus Oates Plot had been the catalyst in the Jesuit’s arrest, the official Calendar of Assizes listed the charge against him as “David Lewis pro Sacred Roman”, in other words, “David Lewis for being a Roman priest”. Also, at Fr Lewis’s trial the Judge, Sir Robert Atkins, explicitly stated, “It is enough that you have exercised the functions of a priest in copes and vestments used in your Church, and that you have read Mass and taken Confession. He that uses to read Mass commits treason.” In any case, the accused was found guilty and sentenced to the usual punishment for treason – to be hanged, drawn and quartered. However, he was not to die just yet.

In May, along with his cousin and fellow priest, eighty year old Fr John Kemble, Fr Lewis was taken to London. Here he was examined by Titus Oates and other anti-Catholics including Lord Shaftesbury. Lord Shaftesbury offered the priest his life and rich rewards if he would tell them about the plot or conform to the Protestant religion. The good priest said he was unable to tell anything about the plot because he knew of no plot. Neither would he conform because, he said, it was against his conscience. He was sent back to Usk to await execution.

Three months later, on 27th August 1679, the condemned priest was taken from the Gaol on Bridge Street. He was tied to a hurdle, feet foremost, and drawn along the river path to the place of execution. This was in the grounds of what is now Porth-y-Carne House. (Less than a week earlier, on 22nd August, the aged Fr John Kemble had been martyred at Hereford.) In the 1800s, a Catholic Church, dedicated to St Francis Xavier, was built opposite the site of the martyrdom of St David Lewis. Fr David Lewis was canonised by Pope Paul VI on 25th October 1970. In 1974, the Church of St Francis Xavier was rededicated and, in honour of the martyred priest, it is now known as the Church of St David Lewis and St Francis Xavier.

ALIAS CHARLES BAKER

In November 1638, at the age of 21, Abergavenny born David Lewis entered the English College, Rome. He assumed the alias, Charles Baker. In those dark days of bigotry, fear, mistrust and persecution, it was common practice for priests destined for the “English Mission” to take an assumed name. Upon completion of his studies, he was ordained a priest on 20th July 1642. Three years later he joined the Society of Jesus. After his profession as a Jesuit, Fr Lewis returned to Wales. With the exception of one year in Rome, Fr David Lewis spent the rest of his life ministering to the Catholics of South Wales. He laboured for them for more than 30 years until his arrest at Llantarnam in November 1678. All this time he worked under the name of Charles Baker. He was martyred at Usk in August 1679 and canonised by Pope Paul VI in October 1970. In the Catholic Church of Our Ladye and St Michael, Abergavenny, there is a beautiful stained glass window which commemorates St David Lewis under his alias of Charles Baker.