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William Rogers and his Correspondence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

John Fendley
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Extract

William Rogers (b c1646) was a convert Catholic who from obscure origins in the lesser gentry of Gloucestershire came to know many of the leading Catholic clergy and laymen of Restoration times, and became an enthusiastic, if unconventional, advocate of his Faith. Much that is known of him comes from the works of the Oxford antiquary Anthony Wood, and in particular from the letters written by Rogers which survive as part of Wood's voluminous correspondence in the Bodleian Library.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , May 1997 , pp. 285 - 317
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1997

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References

Notes

* These and subsequent Roman numerals relate to the identification of Rogers's letters in Appendix 1.

1 Mary Hill, Dowdeswell Court Book, 1577–1673, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society (1967) vol. 67, p. 119; GRO D269A F19: Dowdeswell (anon).

2 Baddeley, A Cotteswold Manor (2nd ed., 1929) p. 198, and more informatively in the same author's MS notes: Gloucester Reference Library, Baddeley bequest, vol. 72, p. 45.

3 GRO P244 CW4/1: Painswick churchwardens’ book. For the Jerninghams at Painswick, Bergin, Journal of the Gloucestershire and North Avon Catholic History Society, (1990) vol. 15, p. 2.Google Scholar

4 v. ref 76 supra. The College School was founded at the Dissolution in 1541, at the same time as the Chapter was established.

5 DNB.

6 Dodd iii, p. 280. For Philip,, v. Dockery, Christopher Davenport, Friar and Diplomat (1960) p. 67 Google Scholar and subsequent refs.

7 Theyer was in the service of the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester at least as early as 1641, when he acted as their attorney at Quarter Sessions (GRO; GDR D936 A1/2 p. 148). He later also figures as their chapter clerk and steward, and as their rentcollector for the city of Gloucester. For a long time his services were well received. In 1643 the Cathedral Register of Leases records (GRO; GDR D936 E12/2 p. 417) that a life annuity was made to John Theyer ‘in consideration of service by him done for the Deane and Chapter’, together with the grant for life of the stewardship of the manor of Abloade Court, a house in the parish of Sandhurst. In 1661 they made a further grant of many properties, which included a ‘messuage or tenement’ in the parish of Sandhurst, to their ‘true and lawfull substitute Deputy and Attorney’. This harmony came to an end soon after: in 1665 Theyer was dismissed from his post as rentgatherer on the grounds that ‘John Theyer of Cooper's Hill in the county of Glos., gent., hath for several years been entrusted by the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester to collect and gather the Rents of their Tenements … and to pay them in yearely … which the same John Theyer hath not done and still refuseth to do’ (D936 E12/3 p. 86). This seems to reflect either a sudden change of heart on the part of Theyer or a harsh judgment, as the Cathedral Treasurer's accounts record payments by Theyer up to the year ending at Michaelmas 1664 (D936 A1/2 and A1/3). However, this altercation did not undermine the commitment to pay Theyer's annuity, and the Treasurer's accounts record annual payments of £2 to ‘Jo Theyer, seneschio apud Abload’ up to the year before his death in 1673. I am indebted to Miss Suzanne Eward, now Librarian and Keeper of the Muniments of Salisbury Cathedral, for guiding me to the sources quoted above.

8 Appendix 2.

9 Foster, Alumni Oxonienses 1500–1714 (1891).

10 Ath. Ox. (1691/2), ii p. 456.

11 Appendix 1.

12 In the appendix ‘Explications concerning the Resolution of Faith against some exceptions …’ of the second edition of ‘A Rational account of the Doctrine of Roman Catholics concerning the Ecclesiastical Guide … (1674).

13 In a life of Woodhead which prefaces the posthumously (1736) produced Ancient Church Government, part 111. It was probably written by Cuthbert Constable (d.1746) ‘the Catholic Maecenas of his age’, based on material from Francis Nicholson, a convert former member of University College.

14 Bodleian MS Eng. Misc 88, 17 August 1730. (MS transcription of Thomas Hearne's correspondence with Cuthbert Constable).

15 It is now generally accepted that the author was Richard Allestree (1619–1681), canon of Christ Church and provost of Eton. The many conjectures identified both Catholics and Anglicans.

16 Appendix 2.

17 HMC 12th Report Appendix vii p. 150 (27 Nov 1658).

18 Ref. 14 supra (28 August 1730). One of his accusers was Israel Tonge, the associate (and dupe) of Oates in fomenting the Popish Plot.

19 L&T ii 488 (20 June 1670).

20 Jerusalem and Babel or the Image of Both Churches, being a Treatise Historically discussing whether Catholiks or Protestants be the better Subjects by PDM. The Second Edition Reviewed andcorrected was published at London in 1653. The first edition appeared under a different title at Tournai in 1623. The identity of the author is doubtful (Allison and Rogers, The contemporary printed literature of the English Counter-Reformation between 1558 and 1640 (1994), vol. 2, at p. 116).

21 Hearne i p. 295 (17 Oct 1706).

22 Records of the Society of Lincoln's Inn (1896). He was called to the Bar in April 1673.

23 Dockery, op.cit.. p. 37.

24 Remarkably dedicated to Charles I.

25 Dockery, op.cit., p. 92n.

26 Appendix 2.

27 Ath. Ox. iv p. 672. The reference is to ‘Schism Dispatch’d or a Rejoinder to the replies of Dr Hammond and the Lord Derry’. Wood was told that ‘Thom Anglus ex Albiis (White) wrote it and Sergent had the name of it’.

28 In the 1691/92 edition of his Ath. Ox. Wood says that this informant told him that Obadiah Walker, and not Woodhead, was the author of the Brief account of Ancient Church Government, but this is not so. In his own copy of Ath. Ox. (Bodl. Wood 431a) Wood has struck this paragraph out, and it does not appear in Bliss’ edition.

29 For instance in the case of Walker's edition (Oxford, 1688) of Woodhead's Discourse concerning the Adoration of our Blessed Saviour in the Eucharist which was intercepted and sent sheet by sheet to Arthur Charlett, later Master of Univ., whose reply appeared in the next month.

30 Recorded in Pepys's Diary, 23 April 1665. Thus the Earl of Southampton on presenting Stillingfleet to the living of St. Andrew Holborn.

31 Ref. 13 supra.

32 3 Jac.1 c.5, xv: ‘… from time to time to search the lodgings of every Popish Recusant … for Popish Books and Reliques of Popery … the same shall presently be defaced and burnt’.

33 PRO PC2/65 p. 335 (9 Aug 1676).

34 ‘Information having been given to his Matie in Council upon Oath that there are divers Popish and Unlicensed Books lodged in the chambers of William Rogers of Lincoln's Inn and … Blunt of the … Temple …’ Thomas Blount (1618–1679), to Wood ‘a papist, but an excellent man and well versed in antiquities’, was a substantial landowner who spent much of his time on his estates at Orleton in Herefordshire. Dodd (iii 256) refers to him as a member of Davenport's circle at Somerset House. He was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple and was a lawyer of some standing as well as a prolific author. He is best remembered for his Fragmenta Antiquitatis, Antient Tenours of Land, and Jocular Customs of some Manors … (1679). He was much assisted by Wood in his A Law Dictionary inter-preting such difficult and obscure Words and Terms as are found in our Common and Statute, Ancientand Modern Lawes … (1670, revised and extended in 1691). He also wrote The Catholic Almanacfor 1661–2-3 and A Catalogue of Catholics who lost their Lives in the King's cause during the Civil Wars (1674). His extensive correspondence, in which Wood was much involved, has been edited by Bongaerts, The correspondence of Thomas Blount, a recusant antiquary (Amsterdam, 1978). He was a friend of Rogers, who figures in his correspondence with Wood (MS Wood F40 f. 169, 4 Oct 1673), and in a letter from Wood of [Holy Thursday] 1678 cited by Bongaerts (op.cit.. p. 175).

35 L&T ii p. 337 (26 Jan 1676).

36 PRO PC2/65 p. 29. In An account of the barbarous attempt of the Jesuits upn Mr. de Luzancy uponhis conversion to the Protestant religion, de Luzancy gave a colourful account of his supposed sufferings (Bodl. Wood 657(3)).

37 Bodl. Wood 632(52). Incorrectly 631 in L&T.

38 Wood: Fasti Oxonienses (ed. Bliss) 3rd ed.(1815) pt 1 col.352. The Acts of the King's Council for the period make no reference to this episode, but Wood's account (which he presumably had from Rogers) is sufficiently circumstantial to be accepted as authentic. He also noted this matter in annotations made to Wood 632(52): ‘printed in the summer time at London 1676. Mr Will Rogers who dispersed it told me ‘twas about Easter’, and ‘When this pamphlet was printed, Will Rogers before mentioned dispersed it, for which and the disposing of others he was brought before the King and his councell in Aug or Sept 1676’.

39 House of Lords Record Office: Main Papers 321.

40 Ref. 76, infra.

41 L&T i 130 (Sept 1646).

42 L&T ii 143 (1 and 7 Sept 1668).

43 MS Wood F45 f.23 (22 Feb 1665).

44 L&Tii 151 (4 Mar 1669).

45 L&T ii 312 (23 April 1675). Edward Wyborne's Epitaphium potentissime et nobillissimi principis guillelmi Howard (C1519X) was published at Paris in 1683. In 1694 Ralph Sheldon (IV) enquired of Wood whether he had seen an epitaph of Stafford written by Wyborne (MS Wood F44 f.202).

46 Hugh (in religion Serenus) Cressy, OSB, (1605–1674), one-time fellow of Merton, converted after achieving some standing in the Anglican church. He became chaplain to Henrietta Maria and lived at Somerset House. He was one of Stillingfleet's major opponents.

47 L&T ii 168 (29 Aug 1669).

48 L&T ii 191 (6 May 1670). Fr Dockery, his sense of propriety apparently outweighing the demands of strict accuracy, records this episode as ‘It was Friday, but had a good fish dinner …’ (op.cit., p. 134).

49 In his copy of Davenport's Religio Philosophi peripati discutiendo (Douai, 1662) Wood has written ‘Note that most of the works of Fr a S Clara were printed at Doway in 2 vol. in fol. an. 1665. But this book is not printed among them’ (Bodl. Wood 883(5)). 51

50 Bodl. MS Wood F41 f.24 (20 Sept 1670). Later Aubrey asked Wood (MS Wood F39 f.255, 23 Feb 1673) whether the Vice-Chancellor's suspicions that he had turned Papist were well founded.

51 Bodl. MS Wood F41 f.18 (13 Aug 1670) and following.

52 Bodl. Wood 657(15).

53 Bodl. Wood 487(1).

54 Bodl. MS Wood F39 f.163 (27 Jan 1671).

55 Bodl. MS Rawl A178 f.237 and C859B f.144.

56 Dodd iii 280.

57 L&T in 194 (15 Aug 1686).

58 Bodl. Tanner MS 460 f.54.

59 University College Benefactors’ Book, iii p. 49:—Gulielmus Rogers de Panswick in Agro Glocestriae, hujus Collegii olim Commensalis, ultra quod Bibliothecae contulit Jacobus II, Regis Angliae &c. Statuam Lapideam Proprii Sumptibus erexit AD MDCLXXXVII. 1 am indebted to the Master and Fellows of University College for allowing me to make use of their Benefactors’ Book and to Dr. Robin Darwall-Smith for making it accessible. It is remarkable that Wood (L&T iii 210) apparently did not know that his close friend Rogers was the donor, V. also University College Record, 1951/2, p. 24.

60 Bodl. Wood D19(3) f.68; also Lár iii 209 (6 Feb 1687).

61 Wood's extended account of these events (MS Wood D19(3) f.81; also L&T iii 235 (5 Sept 1687)) acknowledges Rogers by name as one of his sources (Wood himself was not there).

62 PRO 2/71 p. 363, also Miller, Popery and politics in England 1660–1688, Appendix 3.

63 Duckett, Penal Laws and the Test Act 1687–88 (1883) pp. 266, 450. His response is left to be inferred from the note ‘A Catholick’.

64 GRO P244 CO1/1: Painswick Constables’ book.

65 DNB.

66 Bodl. MS Wood F45 f.77 (11 April 1690).

67 Though he certainly wrote to Wood as late as 1692. v. Appendix 1.

68 GRO P244 CW4/1.

69 Corresponding to the grant of 2/– in the £ of 1 W&M s2 cl of 1688. Notwithstanding the statement sometimes made that the double tax was introduced after the Revolution by 4 W&M c1 of 1692 the texts of both Acts are identical both as regards the form of the imposition as a pro rata levy and the manner of its special application to Papists (Statutes of the Realm, vol. 6 (1819)).

70 Baddeley, ref.2 supra. Other than Theyer, the Greenwoods are the only Catholics so far identified whom Rogers probably knew through his Gloucestershire associations.

71 The Antient and Present State of Glostershire (1712, republished 1974), p. 598.

72 His name does not appear in the country-wide tabulation of ‘names of Papists … who have registered their estates …’ of 1715 (Bodl. MS Rawl. D387).

73 Hearne ii 143 (25 Oct 1708): ‘… Mr Wm Rogers a very honest Roman Catholick of Glocestersh. who was once of this college [Univ.] has always had a most grateful Respect to that Society’.

74 Hearne x 323 (27 August 1730).

75 His wife Susanna died in London with her infant son in 1682 (VI) and the baptism of a daughter, also Susanna, is recorded in the Painswick registers of 1677. A hatchment referring to his wife's death ‘elsewhere’ was once in the church at Painswick (Bodl. MS Rawl. B323 f.203b). It bore the arms Rogers impaling Hawley, the latter identical with those of the Hawleys of Buckley in Somerset. The Susanna Hawley (d.1706) who became a nun in 1641 (Records of the English Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre at Liège, CRS 17 (1915) p. 2 and subsequent refs) is said by Gillow (iii 165) to have been closely related to that family.

76 Thus described in a compilation of benefactors of the College School and their benefactions, written by Maurice Wheeler, who was appointed its master in 1684 (Gloucester Cathedral Library MS 206: I am grateful to the Dean and Chapter for this source): Vir benevolus & generosus, eruditionis & eriditorum cultor addictissimus, ac in maxima fortunae varietate sibi semper constans & immutabilis; utolim sedem inter hujus Scholae studiosos ingenio dignam … Rogers's literary benefactions to the school are set out in Appendix 2 below. He also gave a portable clock that had once belonged to Woodhead.

Rogers's daughter Susanna (ref 75 supra) also figures among the benefactors: Virgo non honestioribus tantum soli natalis moribus instructa, sed & amplissimus spoliis adaucta: ut quam sibi peregrinando conquisivit experientiam, studiosis hoc musaeo sedentibus facilius impertiret: Lasselii iter Italicum dedit intuentibus percurrendum. The reference is to The Voyage of Italy: or a Compleat Journey through Italy (op. posth. 1670), by the priest Richard Lassels. The local historian Baddeley (Gloucester Reference Library, Baddeley bequest MS72) attributes this gift to Rogers himself, said to have been made after a journey undertaken after his wife's death.

77 Two of them Catholic works of controversy (Appendix 2).

78 As recorded on a plaque there.

79 Ref. 73 supra.

80 Bodl. MS Wood F44 f.111 (27 May 1679).

81 Bodl. MS Wood F44 f.67 (20 Dec 1676).