Catholic Martyrs of Gloucestershire by Michael Bergin and Margaret and Patrick Gethen St Peter's Church, Gloucester Acknowledgements In November 1987, to commemorate the beatification of five Gloucestershire Catholic martyrs, the Gloucestershire Catholic History Society published a booklet written by Patrick and Margaret Gethen. This recounted what is known of Blessed Richard Sargeant, John Sandys, Stephen Rowsham, William Lampley and Henry Webley. The booklet was republished in 2005. Journal No 53 of the Gloucestershire Catholic History Society, published in October 2010, reproduced the original 1987 booklet with the addition of articles by Michael Bergen on Blessed Thomas Alfield and the Venerable Thomas Webley. Thank you to Debbie Cottam who in 2013 re-typed the original text. 1 Statutes under which the martyrs were charged The Statute of Treasons of 1351 (Edward III Stat.5, Cap.2) The basic treason law of England. Compassing or attempting the death of the King, or his heirs, is high treason according to this law. Act to retain the Queen’s Majesty’s subject in due obedience (23 Eliz. I. Cap.1. 1581) This Act made it high treason to reconcile or be reconciled to the Catholic Church or to induce others to be so reconciled, (persuading to popery). Act against Jesuits, seminary priests and other such like disobedient persons (27 Eliz. I. Cap.2 1585) This act made it high treason for a Catholic priest ordained abroad to come into or remain in the realm after 24th June 1559. It made it felony for anyone to harbour or assist him. The sentence for a priest was that he should be hanged, drawn and quartered, for a layman that he should be hanged. Other charges were sometimes added. Two other Martyrs with local connections Blessed John Pibush was arrested in Moreton-in-Marsh. He was tried and imprisoned at Gloucester and later escaped from Gloucester on 19th February 1594. He was (re) arrested during the following day at Matson. Martyred at Southwark on 18th February 1601. St Edmund Campion (1540-1581) was a close friend of Richard Cheyney, Bishop of Gloucester, and he wrote to him - ‘so often was I with you at Gloucester so often in your private chambers, so many hours have I spent in your study and library’. Campion was also associated with the Alfield and Webley Families of Gloucestershire. When he was arrested at Lyford Grange, Berkshire, he was in company with William Webley, a yeoman, probably from Brockworth and Thomas Alfield reported the martyrdom of Campion at Tyburn on 1st December 1581. Edmund Campion was beatified on 29th December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII and canonized as one of the Forty Martyrs of England in 1970 by Pope Paul VI. 2 Thomas Alfield and Thomas Weobley Thomas Alfield was born in Gloucester in 1552. His father, Robert, had been an undermaster at Eton but moved to the then recently established Cathedral school, now Kings School, at Gloucester and had become Master there by 1558. Thomas was educated at Eton, where he was a Kings scholar, until 1568. In September 1568 he was admitted as a scholar at King’s College Cambridge. He graduated B.A. and held a fellowship at the College until he relinquished it in 1575. When, where and by whom Thomas was received into the Catholic Church is as yet not known. What is known is that on the 8th September 1576 he was admitted as a student at the English College, Douai, in the Spanish Netherlands. However, at the time Thomas entered Douai college the continuance of that institution was in danger due to the political situation in Flanders. He had to leave the College two months after his admittance at a time when a raid by Nationalists was expected. Thomas was living in Gloucester in 1577. His name is included in the return of recusants made by Bishop Cheyney of Gloucester in November 1577 by demand of the Privy Council. Thomas is recorded as one of three recusants living in Holy Trinity Parish, Gloucester. It is evident that Thomas Alfield still intended to become a priest. Sometime in July or August 1580 he met Father Robert Persons who had landed in England in June of that year as leader of the first Jesuit missionaries to arrive in the country. Thomas requested that Father Persons take his brother Robert Alfield as a servant. Thomas was concerned for the welfare of his brother and wanted to make arrangements for him before he himself returned to the English College which by then had been relocated from Douai to Rheims. Thomas arrived at the college on 18th September 1580 and he studied there under the pseudonym ‘Badger’. He was ordained priest at Chalon-sur-Marne on 4th March 1581. At the end of March 1581 he was sent on the English Mission using the same alias of ‘Badger’. One of his companions on the journey, John Adams, was also to be a future martyr. It is known that between his arrival in the country and when he was first arrested in April 1582 he ministered much in the north of England, including Yorkshire. Information obtained by the Government during 1582 and up to six years after his death verifies this. It was during his first three months in England that he reconciled another future martyr, William Dean, to the Church. William Dean was at that time a Church of England curate in the Diocese of York. Thomas was present at the execution of Edmund Campion S.J. at Tyburn, London, on 1st December 1581. A member of the Dolman family of Pocklington, Yorkshire, in whose house Thomas had celebrated Mass, and who was then at Gray’s Inn, London, accompanied Thomas to witness Campion’s martyrdom. Mr Dolman and Thomas were associates in writing an account of the death of Campion and of those who died with him, and then having it printed at the secret press of Richard Verstegan (alias Rowlands) in Smithfield, London early in 1582. It was not long after the publication of this account that Verstegan’s press was discovered by the Government, and the arrest of Thomas Alfield soon followed in April 1582. On his arrest Thomas was held in the Tower of London. At the end of April the Privy Council authorised that he be examined and, if necessary, tortured by being put on the rack. This is indeed 3 what happened, but as far as is known, Thomas did not reveal anything on the matters that were put to him. At the end of May 1582, the Privy Council considered sending William Dean (who had also been arrested early in 1582) and Thomas to the north of England to be made an example of, by suffering among the people in whose midst they had ministered. However, this proposal was not carried out. Thomas, between the end of June and the beginning of September, agreed to attend services in the Church of England. He was discharged from the Tower of London ‘upon bondes’. Dr William Allen, the founder of the English College, noted in a letter that ‘Fr Alfield ….. has lapsed to some extent for fear of the torture, and having gone once or twice to the heretical church has been set free’. Thomas, within some months of his release, returned to Rheims, was reconciled to the Church, and resumed his priestly ministry. During 1583 and into 1584 Thomas travelled between the European mainland and England. In this period he acted as an agent for Dr William Allen who, it should be noted, had been drawn into Pope Gregory XIII’s attempts to urge Phillip II of Spain to actively endeavour to restore the Catholic faith in England. In April 1584, for example, Allen sent Thomas Alfield to the Apostolic Nuncio in Paris, about a matter of great consequence, relating to a recent convert Captain john Davis, the explorer. In his letter introducing Thomas to the Nuncio, Allen praises Alfield as ‘very diligent and skilful in the transaction of business’. Allen adds, however, that ‘though specially sent to me from the Island concerning a secret matter, which he will unfold to you but to no one else in these parts, he ought to know nothing about the great affair’ i.e. the contemplated invasion of England. Thomas was involved in a matter whereby consideration was given to Captain John Davis handing over three English ships, filling them with Catholic sailors, and giving them to the Pope or Phillip II. A patron of John Davis was Sir Francis Walsingham, one of Elizabeth I’s Secretaries of State and spymaster. It would appear that Davis was acting as an agent provocateur through this matter. Suffice it to state though that Thomas appeared prepared to be connected to such a plan. In 1583 and 1584 there are also references to his involvement with the Catholic Pauncefoote family of Hasfield, Gloucestershire. He has been recorded as being with the Pauncefootes, John and his wife Dorothy, at their home in Hasfield and in London. What the elements of this involvement were are not entirely clear but, in part it seems to have been associated with the Pauncefootes’ decision making about whether or not they should leave England because of the situation catholics found themselves in. Thomas also helped facilitate the conveying of the Pauncefoote’s son to the European mainland. During 1584 Dr William Allen published his True, Sincere and Modest Defence of English Catholics that suffer for their Faith, a work written in response to a pamphlet written by Lord Burghley in the previous year and entitled The Execution of Justice in England.