Many of the following surnames (I noticed on the occasion of the service at the Cenotaph for the fallen) are inscribed into the town's Great War and Second World War memorials. These often familiar names are the Beatified Martyrs of Clifton Diocese:
Thomas Alfield, seminary priest, Douai. Born Gloucester 1552. Ministered in Gloucestershire. Executed, Tyburn 6 July 1585.
Richard Bere, Carthusian Monk, was a nephew of Abbot Bere of Glastonbury, where he was born and attended the Abbey School. He was a priest of the London Charterhouse and was starved to death with eight other monks for upholding the Supremacy of the Pope. He died in Newgate prison on 9 August 1537.
John Bodey, schoolmaster. Born Wells. Studied law, Douai. Executed, Andover 2 November 1583.
James Fenn, seminary priest, Rheims. Probably ministered in Somerset. Arrested at Brympton. Executed, Tyburn 12 February 1584.
John Gavan, Jesuit. Born London 1640, but family from Norrington, Wiltshire. Ministered in Staffordshire. Executed in connection with Popish Plot, 20 June 1679.
John Hambley, seminary priest, Douai. Born St Mabyn near Bodmin, Cornwall, circa 1560. Arrested at Chard, released and again arrested. Executed Salisbury March 1587.
William Hart, seminary priest, Rheims, and then English College, Rome. Born Wells. Ministered in Yorkshire. After lengthy imprisonment executed, York 15 March 1583.
William Lampley, layman. Probably born at Gloucester, was tried for ‘persuading his kin to popery’. Executed at Gloucester sometime in 1588.
John Pibush was born at Thirsk and ordained at Rheims and then ministered in England. He was arrested at Moreton-in-Marsh, taken to London then brought to Gloucester. He escaped from the local jail, but was recaptured and sent back to London. After five years in jail was executed in 1601.
Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury. Born Farleigh Castle, Somerset. Daughter of Duke of Clarence. Governess to the Princess Mary, later Mary Tudor. Mother of Cardinal Reginald Pole, last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury. Executed, Tower of London 28 May 1541.
Edward Powell, seminary priest of Welsh birth. Taught at Eton and Oxford. Rector of Bleadon, Somerset. Vicar of St Mary Redcliffe. Executed, Smithfield 30 July 1540.
Philip Powell, monk of St Gregory’s, Douai. Born in Breconshire. Ministered for 20 years at Leigh Barton on Exmoor. Executed, Tyburn 30 June 1646.
Alexander Rawlins, seminary priest, Rheims. Rather tenuous connections with diocese. Probably born Oxford 1560. Ministered mainly in the North East. Executed, York 7 April 1595.
Stephen Rowsham, seminary priest. Born in Oxfordshire circa 1555. Took orders in the established church but converted and went to Douai Abbey. Was imprisoned in The Tower, banished but returned. Executed, Gloucester 1587.
John Sandys, seminary priest. Born in Lancashire between 1550 and 1555, studied at Oxford and Douai. Arrested in Gloucestershire. Executed 11 August 1586, Gloucester.
Richard Sergeant, seminary priest. Born in Gloucestershire in the late 1550s. Studied at Douai Abbey. Ordained at Laon in 1583. He worked on English mission for three years, arrested and tried. Executed at Tyburn, 20 April 1586.
John Storey, layman. Born Salisbury. Educated Oxford. MP for Hindon, Wiltshire. Exiled for his religion and executed for treason, Tyburn 1 June 1571.
Henry Webley, layman. Born Gloucester, circa 1558. Charged with sheltering a priest, condemned and executed in London 28 August 1588.
Richard Whiting, Abbot and monk of Glastonbury. Last of long line of abbots, probably born Wrington, Somerset. With John Thorne, treasurer of the Abbey, and Roger James, sacrist, executed on the Tor following trial at Wells, 15 November 1539.
For those of us educated by Carmelites, or with relatives in on of the Carmelite orders, we might wish to celebrate with them the Feast of All Carmelite Saints. This is an optional feast - but worth observing, as our Carmelites, both those in communities (discalced, nuns and monks) and OFM (the carmelite friars) have long connections with our area. The Whitefriars established and ran a school for boys in Charlton Kings (which lives on in part within the school of St Edwards), and the White Friars also had a monastery in Gloucester before the reformation. There are some archeological remains of the friary in Gloucester.
