SUMMONED TO LONDON

St David Lewis

In March 1679, having been caught up in the fabricated Popish Plot spawned by the evil Titus Oates, Fr David Lewis S J was convicted of being a Catholic priest and saying Mass.  At that time this was considered High Treason.  The punishment for High Treason was to be hanged, drawn and quartered.  Fr Lewis was returned to his cell in Usk Gaol to await his fate. 

In late April 1679 there was a great hullabaloo in Parliament.  Word had been received that there was a plot afoot to poison Oates and his fellow lowlife, Bedloe.  Once again, there was no plot but, as Canon J Barrett Davies tells us, “The Government had not been able to produce any evidence to lend substance to the inventions of Titus Oates, and no doubt they felt it was high time a real Catholic priest was implicated or the commonalty might become as sceptical about the Plot as His Majesty was already known to be”. 

The House of Lords Journal for 28^th March 1704 records;

“23 rd April 1679, Upon report from the Lords Committees for Examinations, that their Lordships find it requisite that David Lewis, who hath been tried and condemned as a Popish Priest at the Assizes held for the County of Monmouth, and is now in Gaol there, may be brought to Town.  It is ordered that the Sheriff for the said County of Monmouth be, and is hereby required, to take care and give order for the speedy conveying of the said David Lewis in safety from the said Gaol, to be delivered into the Prison of Newgate; the charges of which service shall be allowed to the said Sheriff upon his Account in the Exchequer.

The like Order for Roger Hanslip, in the Gaol at Gloucester.

The like Order for John Kemble, in the Gaol at Hereford.

The like Order for Francis Johnson, alias Webb, in the Gaol at Worcester.”

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Newgate Prison

So it came to pass that on 23^rd April Fr David Lewis was ordered to be brought to London for questioning.   He was lodged in the disgusting hellhole that was Newgate Prison.  He was joined there by the three other priests, Fr John Kemble, Fr John Wall O F M (alias Francis Johnson) and Fr Roger Hanslip.   Fr Kemble, an eighty year old secular priest, and Fr Lewis were cousins.  John Wall* and David Lewis had been students together and were old friends. 

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St John Kemble

The journey to London was a torturous one for the aged Fr Kemble who suffered from a complaint, possibly arthritis, which made riding practically impossible for him.  Dom Bede Camm says that he made the journey strapped like a pack on the horse.  The four priests were to be examined by Titus Oates and two other miscreants involved in the Plot.  In the House of Lords Journal for 23^rd May 1679 we read:

“Oates, Bedloe and Dugdale to visit condemned priests to see if they are any of those whom they knew to be concerned in the (Popish) Plot.”  It continues; 

“ORDERED, by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, that Mr Titus Oates, Mr William Bedloe and Mr Stephen Dugdale be and are hereby appointed to repair to the Prison of Newgate this afternoon, there to see and speak with David Lewis, Roger Hanslip, John Kemble and Francis Johnson, alias Webb, condemned Popish Priests, now prisoners there; and that the said Titus Oates, William Bedloe and Stephen Dugdale do attend the Lords Committees for examining matters relating to the discovery of the late horrid conspiracy tomorrow at nine of the clock in the forenoon to give the said Lords Committees an account whether they know that any of the said Popish Priests have been engaged in the said horrid conspiracy.”

The unholy trio of examiners could find nothing to implicate the priests in any plot and, although the three were ordered to report to the Lords Committees the next day, it appears that only Oates did so.  The priests were then questioned by Lord Shaftsbury who offered each of them life as well as rich rewards if they would reveal something of the Plot or renounce their Catholic faith. 

St John Wall

Shaftsbury had wasted his breath for the priests would neither lie nor apostatize!  On 18^th July, John Wall stated in a letter, “I told them I would not buy my life at so dear a rate as to wrong my conscience”.  Fr Lewis, in his last speech on 27^th August, said “Discover a plot I could not, for I knew of none, and conform I would not, for it was against my conscience”.

Despite the rigorous interrogation of the four priests, nothing was found to incriminate them.  Therefore, on 28^th May, an order was issued to return them to their respective gaols.  Fr Kemble was permitted to walk for most of the journey back to Hereford – no mean feat for a man of eighty!  Not surprisingly, he was in very poor health after this ordeal.   By 9^th June Fr Kemble and Fr Lewis were back in their respective gaols, Hereford and Usk.

John Wall was hanged, drawn and quartered at Red Hill near Worcester on 22^nd August 1679.  On the same day, at Widemarsh Common, Hereford, Fr John Kemble was executed.  Less than a week later, on 27^th August, Fr David Lewis was martyred at Usk, in Monmouthshire. 

As far as I can ascertain, Fr Roger Hanslip was reprieved.  If anyone knows differently, I would be very pleased to hear from you.

*While working on the English Mission, John Wall used several aliases, including Francis Johnson, Francis Webb and Francis Dromore.

A VISIT TO TRIVOR

On 1st November, I and six other members of Friends of Saint David Lewis had the privilege of visiting Trivor, at St Maughans near Monmouth. Because it was All Saints Day, some members of Friends of Saint David Lewis had other commitments and were unable to join us. However, we set off in two cars and indeed the saints smiled on us, for the weather was glorious with the sun accentuating the autumnal glory of the countryside.

When we arrived at Trivor, we were met by the owner, Mr Iorwerth Harries. As well as a pleasant and friendly host, Mr Harries proved to be a knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide! After greetings and introductions, Mr Harries showed us around the outside of the house, pointing out the various features. He told us that there had been a house on the site since the 1200s but, in the early 1400s, during Owain Glyndwr’s rebellion, the whole area was devastated. The present house is a mixture of periods with the oldest part being 17th century. Traces of the original limewash, on the outside front of the house, are still visible.

Construction of the oldest part of the property was begun in 1625 by the prosperous James family and completed about five years later. Generations of the James family were staunch Catholics and, like many other prominent Catholics in Penal Times, they suffered hardship in the practise of their religion. Walter James was one of those mentioned by William Bedloe when Bedloe perjured himself giving evidence about the nonexistent Popish Plot. Bedloe accused James of being secretary to the great Catholic Army supposedly mustering in the remote parts of Wales. Walter James was summoned to London for questioning but was allowed to return home on his own recognizance of £1,000. Fortunately for James, nothing more was heard of the matter.

A secular priest, Fr John Lloyd, the brother of Fr William Lloyd, frequently stayed at Trivor while tending to the spiritual needs of the persecuted local Catholics. At Trivor, the Jameses maintained a Catholic chapel on the second floor and Fr John Lloyd regularly celebrated Mass and administered the sacraments to the Catholics who assembled there. We were taken into the room that was once the chapel and shown a niche high on the wall. The altar is thought to have been below this recess, which would have held a crucifix or a statue. Being in the room where St John Lloyd had said Mass three centuries ago was an awe-inspiring experience. On the third floor there are two attic rooms which were the priest’s rooms. A spy hole from there into the chapel is still visible. We were also shown an ancient door which opened onto what some believe was a priest hole but our guide thought more likely to be an escape route. From its location, we were inclined to agree with him!

We learned that Fr John Lloyd was one of the itinerant priests of South Wales who was caught up in the horror spawned by the fabricated Popish Plot. As historians now agree, the Plot existed only in the perverted minds of Titus Oates and his henchmen. Fr John Lloyd, like his brother Fr William Lloyd, was arrested. William was sentenced to be hung drawn and quartered but, a few days before the execution was to be carried out, the innocent priest died in prison from abuse and maltreatment. Fr John Lloyd was also sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered and the sentence was carried out at Cardiff on 22nd July 1679. Fr John Lloyd suffered the added agony of having to watch his fellow priest, Fr Philip Evans, suffer the same butchery that he himself was to undergo. Fr John Lloyd was canonised in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

One of the myriad interesting facts about Trivor is that in 1845 it was sold to the Rolls family and it became part of the Hendre Estate. This is worthy of note because one of the Rolls family, Eliza, married John Francis Vaughan of Courtfield. The Vaughans were another of the wealthy Catholic recusant families who for generations had clung to the Old Faith. Eliza was from a sincere Evangelical background and shortly after her marriage she converted to Catholicism. She was a devout woman who spent many hours in prayer, tending the sick and distributing food and clothing to the poor. Eliza was the mother of fourteen children. One died in infancy and, of her remaining children, six sons became priests and four daughters became nuns. Eliza’s eldest son, Herbert, became Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, founder of the Mill Hill Fathers, and builder of Westminster Cathedral!

Trivor was purchased by its present owners in 1982 and extensive restoration work has been carried out. However, 17th century features have been maintained in every room of this wonderful house, which looks much as it did in 1690. Original fireplaces, wood panelling, doors, beams, plaster work and much else are all there for the lucky visitor to marvel at and enjoy.

Our visit to Trivor was truly one to remember and we hope to return again in the spring when we will be joined by the friends who were unable to be with us on 1st November. Thank you Iorwerth and Harriet for making our day such a rewarding one. Thank you too for preserving such an important part of the history of Monmouthshire.

Our day wasn’t over yet though. On our way home, we stopped at Monmouth for lunch. Where did we have lunch? Well, in keeping with the theme of our outing, it had to be the Robin Hood Inn. The Robin Hood Inn is one of the oldest buildings in Monmouth and before Catholic emancipation Mass was regularly celebrated there in an upper room. But, that’s another story for another day!

FATHER CHARLES PRITCHARD, S J

(THE CWM AS IT IS TODAY)

When the poison of the Oates Plot spewed over the country in 1678, Fr Charles Pritchard was one of the Jesuits at the College of St Francis Xavier at a place called the Cwm, near Llanrothal in Monmouthshire. This priest of “meekness and simplicity” was soon to be engulfed in a terrifying ordeal.

Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey was the London magistrate appointed to investigate the Oates Plot and when he was found dead in mysterious circumstances, Catholics came under suspicion. A reward of £500 was offered for the discovery of the murderer /murderers. It was then that the professional criminal and perjurer, William Bedloe, inspired by the reward of £500, came on the scene. In November, Bedloe appeared before the Lords and announced that Godfrey had been murdered by three Jesuits. One of the Jesuits, claimed Bedloe, was Fr Charles Pritchard. Since, as confirmed by the Jesuit Provincial letter for 1680, Fr Pritchard had been on the English mission for sixteen years and in all that time, he had never left South Wales, he could not have played a part in Godfrey’s murder in London. Bedloe, purporting to be a trusted emissary of the Jesuits, also declared that Fr Prichard was his informant! Of course, this was all fantasy, for why would the Jesuits, who carried out their ministry at great risk to themselves, trust a known felon and perjurer? However, with Oates and Bedloe avidly spreading their vicious lies and certain politicians using them to their own advantage, the ashes of anti Catholicism were soon fanned into a raging inferno.

Intoxicated with the celebrity status he was now enjoying and the success of his fabrications so far, Bedloe went on to dizzying heights of fictional accusations. He asserted that he had learned of plans for uprisings all over Wales and that every noteworthy Catholic in the country was aware of the plot. Some of this information, fanaticised Bedloe, had come from the Rector of the Cwm, Fr David Lewis. Fr Charles Pritchard, according to Bedloe, was to murder the Duke of Buckingham and Bedloe himself had been offered £4,000 to commit a murder!

The son of James and Elizabeth Pritchard, Charles Pritchard was born in 1637 at Blaen Llymman, Monmouthshire. He became a Jesuit in 1663 and around 1667 he embarked upon the English mission. He spent the remainder of his life ministering in the South Wales area, particularly Monmouth.

In light of the Oates Plot and Beldoe’s preposterous accusations, Fr Lewis grasped the gravity of the situation and decided to evacuate the Cwm, and the priests were dispersed. Some were sheltered by Catholic families but some had to take to hiding in woods and countryside.

Fr Pritchard now had a price on his head. A reward of 80 gold Crowns was offered for his capture and conviction. Despite this, for six months the priest was sheltered in the home of an unidentified faithful friend in the area of Monmouth. By day he remained hidden but at night Fr Pritchard emerged to attend to the needs of Catholic families in the area. Under such conditions, Fr Pritchard’s health suffered greatly and one dark night, whilst engaged in the visitation of his flock, he suffered a fall. As a result of this fall, the courageous Jesuit died in his friend’s house on 14th March 1680. He was buried secretly in the garden. At 43 years of age, Fr Charles Pritchard, S J, had given his life in the service of the oppressed Catholics of South Wales.

*FOR RELATED POSTS, SEE

http://lastwelshmartyr.blogspot.com/2010/07/jesuit-college-at-cwm.html

http://lastwelshmartyr.blogspot.com/2010/01/father-ignatius-price-s-j.html

FATHER IGNATIUS PRICE S J

Fr Ignatius Price was born in Monmouthshire in 1610. Based at the Jesuit College of St Francis Xavier at the Cwm and working under the alias of Walter Price or Harries, he served the Jesuit Welsh Mission from 1644 until his death in 1679. Because of the tolerance of many of the Monmouthshire magistrates and officials, who turned a blind eye to the practise of the Old Faith, the diligence and hard work of the priests based at the Cwm was very productive.

However, there were those, notably John Arnold, a Justice of the Peace and Member of Parliament for Monmouthshire, Charles Price of Llanfoist and John Scudamore of Kentchurch, who were less than happy with their fellow magistrates and officials. In 1670 they informed the House of Lords that “there were still six priests living at the Cwm, a place which had been a centre for nearly forty years.” In 1674, as a result of such reports, Parliament ordered the arrest of the priests who lived at the Cwm and threatened to punish all Catholics with the immediate seizure of two-thirds of their lands. Thanks to the support amongst local magistrates, some of whom had Catholic relatives and friends, these orders were not obeyed and nothing was done.

Early in 1678, Arnold and Price presented the House of Commons with a printed document named an “Abstract of Examinations”. Arnold and Price were unflagging in their efforts to have the anti-Catholic Laws enforced and this document gave an account of the work of the Church as seen by the informers. By that time, Parliament had grown increasingly alarmed by its inability to root out and destroy the Old Faith and its apparent growth and revival in Monmouthshire and Hereford. There was also much talk of dark plots. In this atmosphere, Titus Oates, bolstered by the support of Chepstow born William Bedloe, had little trouble spreading his poisonous fabrication, “The Popish Plot”. The effects of this evil hoax spread into Monmouthshire about October 1678.

Fr David Lewis was Rector of the Cwm from 1667-1672 and again from 1674 until its sacking in 1679. Fr Lewis, realising the danger of their situation, quickly evacuated the Cwm. The priests were scattered. A few found shelter with courageous Catholic families but most of them were forced, in harsh winter weather, to hide in woods and cave, wherever shelter could be found. Fr Ignatius Price was one who took to the hills and died, harried and hunted like an animal! Fr Lewis and Fr Ignatius Price were friends as well as colleagues and Fr Lewis referred to Fr Price as his “very good friend”.

Fr David Lewis had been arrested on 17th November 1678 and incarcerated in Monmouth Gaol. On 13th January 1679, in atrocious weather and under guard, he was transferred to the new County Gaol at Usk. On the way, the group stopped at an Inn in Raglan for a brief respite from the cold and snow. While there Fr Lewis received a heartbreaking message. Fr Lewis wrote:
“Whilst I was in Raglan, a messenger came to the door of the inn, desiring to speak with me on urgent business. A very good friend of mine, one Mr Ignatius alias Walter Price, lay dying about half a mile away. He had undergone much hardship from hunger and cold and lay dying. He desired to see me. But I was quite unable to perform the friendly duty, as I was under the actual custody of the officers. So I only sent him my true and best wishes for his soul’s happy passage out of this turbulent world to an eternity of rest.”
Three days later Fr Price died.

Based on a firsthand account, Brother Henry Foley gives us a vivid and harrowing description of the last days of Fr Ignatius Price.

“For nearly two months in the depths of winter, scarcely a night passed in which he was not sought for in the houses of Catholics, flying from cottage to cottage, sometimes barefoot through heavy snow and deep water, clad for the most part in linen, the aged priest had no place that could offer him any real shelter. Catholics even, through fear of the terrible laws, sometimes denied him hospitality, while he avoided their houses lest he involve his host in the punishment of death for harbouring a Jesuit. In order to avoid the snares laid for him, Fr Price had been compelled to fly by night ‘from barn to barn, from cave to cave, even from hogsty to hogsty'. At length, he contracted a violent fever from which he soon died.”

It is believed that his relative, Charles Price of Llanfoist, the venomous collaborator of John Arnold, was responsible for this relentless pursuit of Fr Ignatius Price. There are even reports that, upon discovering the Jesuit’s grave, he had it opened so that he could remove a cross which had been buried with the priest. It was said that, given the man’s avaricious nature, this was not for love of the cross but for love of the metal!

So died Fr Ignatius Price S J, another brave and selfless priest. Although never brought to trial and not executed on the gallows, Fr Price was another innocent victim of the evil Titus Oates, his fellow liars, the non-existent Popish Plot, the bigoted Arnold, the rapacious Price, and their ilk.

(I think that I should say a special "Thank You" to my long-suffering husband. I wanted a winter photo to go with this post and I didn't have one that I considered appropriate. I didn't want a pretty winter scene or a happy one. It had to be one that conveyed a sense of the cold and dark conditions under which Fr Ignatius Price spent his last months. So, my dear husband, shortly after midnight and with snow still falling, opened our bedroom window and took a couple of photographs! The above photo is one of them and I think it is very apt as well as starkly beautiful. So - "Thank You", long-suffering husband!)

THE ARREST OF FR DAVID LEWIS S J

For a time, Fr David Lewis had lived with his relatives, the Morgans, at Llantarnam Abbey. However, with the danger precipitated by Titus Oates and his fiendish plot, the priest did not want to bring trouble to the family so he decided to live elsewhere. He moved into a cottage adjoining the blacksmith’s shop, opposite the Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels, Llantarnam.

On Sunday morning, 17th November 1678, Fr Lewis was preparing for Mass. On the orders of John Arnold and Charles Price, a party of six dragoons descended on the priest. They were led by the motley crew of Seys, Bedloe and James! Roger Seys of Penrhos, was a petty constable of Arnold’s parish of Llantilio Crossenny. William Bedloe was a nephew by marriage of Charles Price, another rabid anti-Catholic Justice of the Peace. William James, motivated by revenge and greed, received a reward of £220 for leading the group to the priest.

Of his arrest, the 63 year old Jesuit wrote;
“After my full thirty years poor missionary labours in South Wales, on Sunday morning, a little before day, being the 17th November 1678, I was taken by six armed men sent by Mr John Arnold and Mr Charles Price, until then my two very good friends and acquaintances. I was taken in a little house in the parish of St Michael-Llantarnam in the County of Monmouth. From thence by the soldiers, together with such church stuff of mine they there found, carried I was to the house of Mr Charles Price in Llanfoist”

The “church stuff” to which Fr Lewis referred consisted of one large silver gilt chalice and patten, one pair of small silver flower pots, one silver thurible and cover, one small silver plate for crewetts, one silver crewett, one silver bell for the altar, one pair of silver candlesticks, several pieces of silver originally from a crucifix and one picture of the Virgin Mary with silver gilt frame.

After months of incarceration and a rigged trial, Fr David Lewis S J, was martyred at Usk on 27th August 1679.

On Saturday, 17th November 2007, exactly 329 years after the arrest of St David Lewis, a plaque marking the site of his arrest was blessed and unveiled at the Old Post Office, Llantarnam.