Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2015
In the 1740s the English Jesuit house at Liège where students of philosophy and theology were prepared for the priesthood was in financial difficulties. One of the main supports of the college was an annual pension from Bavaria but in the 1740s Bavaria was involved in war and the pension was frequently not paid. The number in the community had to be reduced, many students being charitably welcomed in other Jesuit houses in Europe. It was at this time when the finances of the English province were strained that two plans came up for consideration. One was to extend the apostolate of the Maryland English Jesuit mission in Pennsylvania; the other was to open at Boulogne a preparatory school for St. Omers College. The problem was how to obtain the necessary funds.
1 See Holt, G., The English Jesuits in the Age of Reason (1993) pp. 27 Google Scholar seq.
2 See Chadwick, H., St. Omers to Stonyhurst (1962) p. 270 Google Scholar; Hughes, T., The History of the Society of Jesus in North America (1917), Text vol. 2, pp. 498–9.Google Scholar
3 The Complete Peerage, vol. 11 p. 724.
4 C.R.S. 14 (English Poor Clares of Gravlines), p. 118.
5 Holy Apostles District Accounts (Jesuit province archives—JPA), ff. 39, 40 (1718, 1721).
6 There are memoranda by him on financial matters in papers of the College of St. Aloysius, BL-F (JPA), ff. 57–8.
7 The family tree has been somewhat simplified.
8 H. Foley, Records … 7, p. 754.
9 See an article ‘The Wintours, the Jesuits and Evelench Farm’ by the present writer in Trans, of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society, 3rd series, vol. 10 (1986).
10 See Archives of the Archdiocese of Westminster, (AAW) R155/11/21. I have had access to these papers on the Talbot case by courtesy of Reverend Ian Dickie, the archivist.
11 See E. E. Estcourt and J. O. Payne, English Catholic Nonjurors in 1715, the index, Talbot, John (Longford).
12 There is a copy in AAW, R155/11/17.
13 Gilbert’s deceased brother George had six sons (including George, fourteenth Earl and two vicars apostolic) and three daughters according to Burke’s Peerage and Baronetage (1927); seven sons according to Kirk; eleven nephews and nieces according to AAW R155/11/18.
14 Not of course the Shrewsbury estates which he renounced in favour of brother George. Hughes Text 2, p. 498.
15 CRS 69 (St. Omers and Bruges Colleges), CRS 70 (English Jesuits 1650–1829) and Recusant History 10 pp. 332 seq (The Maire Family of County Durham).
16 Recusant History 10, p. 340.
17 AAWR155/11.
18 Or more probably, perhaps, by Mary (Fitzwilliam), widow of Gilbert’s deceased brother George who was sometimes known as the thirteenth earl and she as countess. See Complete Peerage 11, p. 725 note a. She was the mother of Gilbert’s nephews and nieces. The Jesuit superior general in the letters referred to below mentioned the ‘Comitissa’ in connection with the case.
19 AAW Rl55/11/3, a paper dated 29 September 1743.
20 Papers in AAW Rl55/11; pamphlets in JPA.
21 AAW R155/11/7.14, 15.
22 The general’s letters on the Talbot case in Latin (and in summary in English) are in Hughes Docs., vol. 1, part 1 pp. 85–93 and p. 258. For the subsequent history of the school see Chadwick, pp. 27073, 330–33. It is not clear that Bishop Stonor or Philip Carteret actually published anything.
23 Bishop Stonor’s letter is AAW R155/11/14.
24 Kirk’s Biographies of the English Catholics 1700–1800, pp. 225–7; H. Foley, Records … 7, p. 754.
25 AAW Rl55/11/21; Burke, J., Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies (1838)Google Scholar, s.v. Wingfield.