(1700 - 1715)

In the eighteenth century many of the gentry families that had been pillars of Catholicism died out. The natural tendency for the male line of any family ultimately to fail was exacerbated by the relatively high proportion of celibate religious vocations and by economic decline affecting marriage prospects. And Anglicanism became increasingly attractive to those wishing to retain their social gentry status.

The decline of the Catholic gentry gave them the impression that English Catholicism as a whole was declining. In reality it was slowly growing, for as the Catholic squires died out, there was a simultaneous growth of the Catholic middle class.

As the century started, further anti-Catholic legislation was introduced. Anyone responsible for the arrest and conviction of a Catholic priest could now claim £100 (= £4,800 today). Catholics were forbidden to acquire an interest of any kind in land or property. Any they would have gained through marriage or inheritance was to go instead to their Protestant next of kin. Only by renouncing Catholicism could the interest be recovered.

One who had to cope with the new property laws was Alexander Pope, a London linen merchant. He was the son of a Hampshire rector and a convert to Catholicism. Having been widowed, he married a Yorkshire woman, Editha Turner, whose family was partly Catholic.

Shortly after William and Mary became joint monarchs, Catholics were expelled from the City of London. The Popes moved up river to Hammersmith, but in 1700 they relocated to Binfield near Bracknell. There the principal manor house, Binfield Place, was held by the Catholic Dancastle family. The village was also only seven miles across the heath from Hall Grove, Bagshot in Surrey. This was the home of Magdalen Rackett, Mr Pope's daughter by his first wife.

Pope's Manor, Binfield
Refurbished as the headquarters of the Bryant Southern construction company

It was through Magdalen's husband Charles Rackett that Pope had been able in 1698 to purchase Whitehill House, a small manor house in fourteen acres of land at Binfield. The house has been known successively as Binfield Lodge, The Firs and Arthurstone. Now much altered, and renamed Pope's Manor, it is (1991) the headquarters of the construction company Bryant Southern.

The Racketts kept a Catholic chaplain, Fr William Mannock. So too did the Popes, whose priest sometimes acted as tutor to their son Alexander, who was to become one of England's greatest poets. At the time of the Popes' relocation to Binfield in 1700, young Alexander was twelve years old. Fr Mannock described him as having 'a great deal of sweetness in his look'. However, shortly after the move the boy drank some infected milk which gave him Pott's Disease, an infection of the spine which was ultimately to deform his whole body.

In 1701 both William of Orange and the deposed James II died. William's wife Mary, who was James's daughter, had died some years earlier. The new monarch was her Anglican sister Anne, wife of Prince George of Denmark, and an opponent of any nonconformity, whether Catholic or Protestant.

The last record of the Stonors in connection with Blount's Court, Rotherfield Peppard dates from this time. Thereafter the estate was sold to James Jennings, probably a relative of the man who bought Shiplake Court from the Plowdens. The Stonors had long-established links with Shiplake, and as late as 1696 Henry and his brother Thomas were described as justices of Shiplake. Presumably it was only through the influence of their formerly Catholic uncle the Earl of Shrewsbury that they were able to hold these positions. The Stonors retained land at Shiplake Row called Holmwood until the 1830s, including Holmwood House, a Georgian residence that still stands.

Blount's Court was later altered and now presents an early nineteenth century appearance. It is part of the Johnson Matthey Technology Centre and has a Sonning Common postal address. Company security and the twentieth century offices and laboratories adjacent to the old house make viewing difficult but the seventeenth century chimney hides still remain.

In 1704 the sixteen year old Alexander Pope met the poet William Wycherley, then sixty-four. Wycherley had been a successful Restoration dramatist but had since lost royal favour and spent four years in jail for debt. Fr Mannock described the old man as Pope's 'first poet-friend'.

Pope's Manor, before and after refurbishment in the 1980s
Photos from Bryant Southern brochure

Pope and Wycherley met at Whiteknights, seat of Anthony Englefield II since his father Anthony's death in 1667. Englefield often played host to leading literary figures and lived only ten miles from Alexander Pope's home at Binfield.

The friendship between Pope and Wycherley initially proved good for both of them. Pope corrected Wycherley's work and suggested improvements, while Wycherley provided Pope with numerous literary contacts in London. But after six years the old man tired of Pope's corrections and the friendship cooled. Nonetheless Pope visited Wycherley on his deathbed, where the old dramatist became a Catholic.

In the spring of 1704 Austin Belson of Aston Rowant was heavily in debt. He set out for the Netherlands pending resolution of his financial situation. However, he was arrested at Hull on suspicion of being a subversive. He wrote from prison seeking character references from two Members of Parliament, Tanfield Vachell of Coley Park and Sir Richard Neville of Billingbear near Twyford, Berkshire.

Austin Belson was not the only Catholic suspected of being a subversive. In the following year four properties in the south Chilterns were searched for arms. These were the Stonor residences at Stonor and Watlington Park, a shepherd's house at Greenfield (½ mile SE of Watlington Park) and Shirburn Castle. But nothing more subversive than a 'birding gun' was discovered.

Also in 1705 John Talbot Stonor returned to Paris to resume studying for the priesthood after a break of seven years. He had previously concluded that he did not have a vocation. His change of heart was to have a profound influence on Catholicism, both locally and nationally.

The head of the Stonor family at this time was John Talbot's brother Thomas Stonor, whose deceased first wife, Isabella Bellasis, was a granddaughter of the Great Loyalist, John Paulet. Thomas had subsequently remarried, his new wife being Winifred Roper, a member of the family into which Sir Thomas More's eldest daughter Margaret had married. Winifred Roper was also a granddaughter of the Catholic Viscount Montague of Cowdray, Sussex.

Thomas Stonor's uncle, William Stonor, had gone into exile with James II. Eighteen years had since elapsed. He was now in his mid forties and wanted to return home. Thomas asked the Duke of Marlborough to intercede with Queen Anne and a pardon was obtained. Thus William Stonor was able to retire quietly to Cornwall.

But if Queen Anne was capable of acts of clemency towards individual Catholics, she showed no compromise to Catholics in general. In 1706 she made it a treasonable offence to convert anyone to Catholicism. She ordered the enforcement of the laws against Catholics and had a census made 'of the Number of Papists in every Parish, with their Qualities, Estates and Places of Abode'. The Catholic population of the Thames Valley area remained fairly static at about 1 per cent. In Berkshire, for example, there were 293 known or suspected Catholics. In the city of Oxford there were fourteen. That year Thomas and Winifred Stonor, along with ten servants and three other people, were fined at the Oxford Quarter Sessions for being Catholics.

Catholicism generally continued to be based around the country homes of Catholic gentry. The village of Noke on the edge of Ot Moor provides an example. The estate had probably been in Catholic hands continuously since Elizabethan times, having been held successively by the Fermors, Winchcombes and Halls. In 1706 John Palmer from the nearby village of Islip headed the Catholics of Noke, probably as lessee of the manor. The rest of the Catholic community of the village seems to have consisted of his family and servants, and a pair of yeoman families.

A year or so later Henry Benedict Hall of High Meadow, Gloucestershire, sold the Noke estate. Most of it, including the manorial rights, passed to the first Duke of Marlborough. His wife Lady Sarah Churchill, the confidante of Queen Anne, subsequently demolished Noke manor house. However, as late as 1767 a Catholic priest visited the village to 'mutter dirges over the dead'.

Anthony Englefield's daughter Martha had married Lyster Blount of Mapledurham. They had two daughters: Teresa, who called herself Zephelinda; and her younger sister Martha, who styled herself Parthenia, but was otherwise known as Patty. Martha and Teresa Blount were introduced to Alexander Pope at Whiteknights in 1707. Pope and Teresa were both nineteen, Martha seventeen.

Pope had a puzzling relationship with the girls that lasted all his life. He was a frequent visitor to them at Whiteknights and Mapledurham. More attracted to Teresa at first, he later became closer to Martha.

He frequently wrote romantic and outrageously libertine letters to them. It seems that the correspondence was permitted partly because no one took the content seriously, partly because of his genius for poetry and partly because he was an increasingly hopeless invalid.

Until the early nineteenth century the parish of Ufton had consisted of two separate manors, Ufton Nervet and the Perkins's estate, Ufton Robert. In 1709 Ufton Nervet was purchased from Lord Abingdon on behalf of Francis Perkins IV by two trustees, Lord Stawell of Aldermaston and Leonard Belson. At the same time a 35 acre plot of meadowland belonging to James Bertie was bought on Perkins's behalf by his bailiff, John Berrington. (The use of Protestant or ostensibly Protestant intermediaries to purchase the land was necessary to evade the anti-Catholic property laws.) Thus, apart from a few smallholdings, all the land in the parish now formed one estate controlled by Francis Perkins.

Littlestoke
View towards the house at dusk

In November 1709 Mary Eyston died aged thirty. She was a daughter and coheiress of William Hildesley of East Ilsley and Littlestoke. He had died two years before leaving no male heir. She was buried in the Eyston family aisle in East Hendred parish church where she lies alongside her husband Robert Eyston. He survived her by seventeen years and was the son of the George Eyston who restored St Amand's Chapel at Hendred House. They had three sons, the oldest being named George Hildesley Eyston, so that he would perpetuate the Hildesley name as a descendant of the main Ilsley branch of the family. What became of him is a mystery.

In spring 1711 John Talbot Stonor was ordained at Paris at the age of thirty-three. He was the first priest in the family for 250 years. After his ordination he stayed at Paris for a further three years studying for a university degree and a doctorate in divinity.

The year after John Talbot Stonor's ordination Alexander Pope's famous poem 'The Rape of the Lock' was published. It caused a storm, especially among some of the senior Catholic families.

In the previous year a feud had broken out between the Fermors of north Oxfordshire and the Petres of Essex. Lord Robert Petre, a ward of Pope's friend John Caryll of Sussex, had stolen a lock of hair from the head of his attractive relative Arabella Fermor. She was then about twenty-two years old and one of the most eligible beauties in London.

Miss Fermor was enraged and her family took great exception to the incident. Caryll therefore suggested that Pope should write a humorous poem to defuse the situation. Pope contacted Lord Petre and Miss Fermor before publication and both appeared happy with the idea. However, when the poem was published she objected strongly. Her second cousin, the pompous Sir George Browne, even threatened to cane Pope!

By the end of 1713 the fuss had died down and shortly afterwards Pope published an expanded version dedicated to Arabella Fermor. Within two years 'Bell' Fermor had married the forty year old Francis Perkins IV of Ufton Court. The house was 'much-refashioned and enlarged' for her. The frontage was updated and the hall and dining room repanelled. She is said to have played literary hostess at Ufton to wits such as Pope, Arbuthnot and Lord Bolingbroke.

Panelling with religious motifs at Ufton Court
IHS stands for Jesus and MR for Maria Regina (Mary Queen of Heaven).
The panelling in the lower picture, preserved behind later panelling, is in much better condition.

About the time that 'The Rape of the Lock' was first published the yeoman Catholic community of the Dorchester district witnessed the completion of Overy Manor House. Overy is a hamlet which faces Dorchester across the River Thame, the two communities being linked by Dorchester Bridge. Overy Manor House was built by William Davey for his second wife Helen. Their initials can still be seen on the building. Before its construction the Daveys, by then the leading Catholic family of the area, had lived in a substantial old house which stood a hundred and fifty yards south-west of the present building.

The old house contained a room which served as a Catholic chapel. It was fully equipped with altar furniture and was used for Mass about seven times a year. A few relics of this chapel still exist; some ancient vestments now on display in Dorchester Abbey, an oil painting later presented to an Oxford convent, and an old mission chalice. The chalice is kept at the Catholic church of St Birinus opposite the abbey. It is small and takes apart for easy concealment. (In 1583 a priest wrote to Cardinal Allen telling him that he had ordered thirty such chalices to be made.)

In the summer of 1713 Alexander Pope wrote to his friend John Caryll. He complained that Henry Englefield, who had inherited Whiteknights from his father Anthony, had 'not shown the least common civility to my father and mother by sending, or inquiring of them from our nearest neighbours, his visitants, these five months.' Pope wrote that he would take the hint and Englefield would be 'as much a stranger to me as he desires'.

The following spring Alexander Pope returned to his parents' home at Binfield from one of his frequent periods in London. With him came the poet Thomas Parnell, a charming Irish Anglican clergyman who was greatly liked by the Catholic household. Two months later Parnell revisited Binfield and from there he and Pope travelled to Letcombe Bassett (3 miles SW of Wantage). There another Irish Anglican clergyman, Dean Jonathan Swift, was living at the rectory. Pope already knew Swift, both being founder members of a literary club. However, their close friendship only lasted a short time.

In the autumn of 1713 Martin Wollascott died aged fifty-two. He was buried in Brimpton parish church. He had succeeded to the manor of Woolhampton two years after William and Mary came to the throne. Martin Wollascott had married Mary Throckmorton, daughter of Sir Francis Throckmorton of Coughton Court. At least two of their sons were educated at Douai. Two daughters became nuns, one at Louvain, another at Paris: portraits of them in their habits are in the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

Martin Wollascott owned a 1684 missal (Mass book) printed in Paris. On the flyleaf he recorded the birth dates, names, christenings, godparents and confirmations of his seven children. One of his manor houses was Shalford House, an old Wollascott property now known as Shalford Farm. It stands less than a mile east of Brimpton and is said to have had secret hiding places, including a chimney with a double flue offering an escape route to the roof. Martin was succeeded by his son William Wollascott V.

Queen Anne died in the summer of 1714 and the Crown passed to George I, a Hanoverian Lutheran descendant of James I. However, for some weeks he was unable to get to London from Germany. In the meantime the authorities grew ever fearful of a coup by the Jacobites, supporters of the Stuart cause. The reward for the capture of Prince James Edward Stuart, son of James II and pretender to the throne, was therefore raised to a staggering £100,000 (= £4.8m today).

George I was crowned in October 1714. Alexander Pope's friends Martha and Teresa Blount of Mapledurham were in London for the coronation. Martha, however, seems to have missed it through catching smallpox. Both girls were taken back to Mapledurham soon after the ceremony and missed the celebrations that followed. Pope tried to console them by writing a poem about a young woman taken away from the attractions of London and brought back to 'Old-fashion'd halls, dull aunts, and croaking rooks' and 'To morning walks, and pray'rs three hours a day.'

On the accession of the new King, the Oath of Allegiance was altered to include statements rejecting both the Pope and Prince James Edward Stuart. The oath could be demanded of anyone suspected of disloyalty. Failure to take it could lead to sequestration of two thirds of the refuser's estates.

John Young was steward to Lady Elizabeth Bisshopp, a Catholic convert who lived at Culham near Abingdon. Shortly after the revised oath was introduced he ignored an order to take it at Wheatley. The following year William Wollascott V of Woolhampton was listed as a non-juror - someone who refused to take the oath. Also listed was Thomas Kimber of Holywell in Oxford and of Littlemore.

In the coronation year George Browne, great grandson of Sir George, sold Great Shefford manor to Sir William Trumbull, formerly William III's Secretary of State. Thus the manor passed out of Catholic hands.

The visitor to the ancient parish church of Swyncombe who lifts the carpet will see a memorial slab to Francis Fettiplace of Swyncombe House who died in 1671. The slab states that he was 'descended from the ancient family' of Fettiplace. His son Bartholomew was the last male Fettiplace to hold Swyncombe. He died in 1686 leaving a twenty-seven year old widow, his second wife Margaret.

As a young girl she had been educated at Paris and had stayed abroad to avoid the aftermath of the Oates Plot. Before her marriage she had rejected the idea of becoming a nun, but in widowhood her views changed. Eight years after her husband's death she became Sr Margaret Theresa, eventually becoming prioress of the Teresine convent at Lier near Antwerp.

Bartholomew Fettiplace left financial provision for his widow and this caught the attention of the authorities. When in 1715 Sr Margaret returned to Flanders from a visit to England she was followed by government agents. Presumably they were concerned that she might be giving financial aid to the Jacobites. However, the nuns had support from an unexpected quarter. The Duke of Marlborough, hero of the recent war against France, had earlier helped obtain a pardon for William Stonor for his Jacobite activities. Now the Duke was in Flanders and used his influence in support of the convent at Lier.

Shirburn Castle had passed to Joseph Gage, whose mother was the former Mary Chamberlain. Joseph Gage had a reputation for his excellent team of six coach horses. His son Thomas inherited from his father both the castle and a taste for fine horses.

In the summer of 1715 Thomas was staying in London. His own team of Flemish coach horses had recently been seized by the authorities. The sight of other people's fine horses passing by so upset him that, according to Alexander Pope, he rushed out, took the Oath of Abjuration and became an Anglican.

Thomas Gage's liking for thoroughbred horses led to a major Catholic dynasty abandoning the religious heritage it had fostered through a century and a half of trials and tribulations. This was just what the authorities wanted and the return of his horses was only the first of many worldly benefits that Thomas Gage gained by abandoning his religion.

One of his first moves was to dispose of Shirburn Castle, which for so many years had been a Catholic house. He sold it to the Lord Chief Justice, Baron Parker, for £25,695 8s. 5d. (= £1.3m today). Thomas Gage subsequently became Baron of Castlebar, Viscount of Castle Ireland (now Castleisland, 12 miles N of Killarney), a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Verderer of the Forest of Dean. In later life he was Master of Household to the Prince of Wales. In 1744 he succeeded to the baronetcy and estate of Firle in Sussex, thus becoming head of the Gage dynasty.

Thomas Gage married Benedicta Hall, a woman with a strong a recusant background. Her father was Henry Benedict Hall, her mother the former Frances Fortescue. Benedicta's father had sold the Noke estate partly to provide a marriage portion for her. The male line of the Halls had failed and she was the sole heir to their main estate, High Meadow, Gloucestershire, which passed to her husband on their marriage. (High Meadow is in the Forest of Dean, near Symonds Yat, hence Thomas Gage's appointment as Verderer of that particular forest.) Benedicta's Christian name perpetuated the link with Benedict Winchcombe, the Catholic Sheriff of Oxfordshire, who left his estates to his nephew Benedict Hall in 1623.

Before he died in 1754 Thomas Gage reverted to Catholicism. His portrait is on view at Firle. His brother Joseph's life was very different. Having lost a fortune in commerce, he emigrated to Spain and became a nobleman of the highest rank.

In the spring of 1715 Alexander Pope paid his last visit to the family home at Binfield in Windsor Forest. Whitehill House, his parents' home, had been sold and a few weeks later they moved to Chiswick.

Pope's attitude to his religion was regarded by some Catholics as half-hearted. In his 'Essay on Man' he wrote:

'For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight,
His can't be wrong whose life is in the right.
In Faith and Hope the world will disagree,
But all Mankind's concern is Charity.'

When Pope's father died the Anglican Bishop of Rochester suggested that Alexander might as well join the Church of England. He replied that he did not wish to, because it would upset his mother. He summed up his own position by stating:

'I am not a Papist, for I renounce the temporal invasions of the Papal power ... I am a Catholic in the strictest sense of the word.'