AN OBJECT LESSON IN CONTINUITY

New Zealand Tablet, 9 January 1913, Page 19

AN OBJECT LESSON IN CONTINUITY

Few churches in this country (remarks the London Universe ) can boast such early and sacred associations as St. Mary’s, erected at Carlton, near Snaith, in Yorkshire, during 1841-2, from the designs, of Messrs. Weightman and Hadfield, of Sheffield, who two years later were the architects of St. JohiLs Cathedral, Salford. A mural tablet recently erected in the porch of this church put on record for the benefit of its numerous non-Catholic visitors, its mediaeval, and therefore essentially Catholic and Roman antecedents, and provides us with perhaps a unique example of genuine continuity of faith, in contrast to that suggested by a mere succession of clergy or by identity of structure. This tablet,, which is of dark slate, bears the following historical inscription - To the greater honor and glory of God, and of the Virgin Mother of our only Redeemer, Jesus Christ, True God and True Man. By a Grant of Pope Boniface IX., given at Saint Peter’s, in Rome, during the second year of his Pontificate, as related therein,* ‘ his dear children, the noble Bryant de Stapilton, and all the inhabitants and dwellers at Carlton,’ in 1397 were granted their petition that there should ‘be canonically built in the same village a Chapel of Ease, in honor and under the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary.’ During the 16th century this mediaeval chapel, which was eventually razed to the ground, being alienated from its original use, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass continued to be offered, and the Sacraments of the Catholic and Roman Church were secretly administered at Quosque, and also within the sheltering walls of Carlton Hall, now known as Carlton Towers. After three centuries of most cruel persecution, during the Pontificate of Pope Gregory XVI., in 1842, its private chapel was replaced by this public church, also erected under the Roman Obedience, and in honor and under the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Its site was the gift of the members of its congregation, and its cost, with that of the presbytery attached, was defrayed in equal parts by donations and subscriptions obtained by its first priest-in-charge, and by a legacy under the will of Lady Throckmorton, nee Catharine Stapleton, the relict of Sir George Throckmorton, of Weston Underwood, Bart. Born in 1765, she died at Northampton in 1839, having refounded the missions formerly dependent upon Carlton Hall within the Northern Vicariate, but now in the diocese of Leeds within the Province of Liverpool, created during October, 1911, by Pope Pius X. Upon her, and on all benefactors, God have mercy. Within the sacred edifice itself are recorded also the names of twenty penpal-time clergy, who from 1660 onwards are known to have served this ancient mission, the second being the last of the English Martyrs, the Venerable Thomas Thwing, whose name was so spelt by his cousin and patron, Sir Miles Stapleton, then lord of the manor of Carlton. These priests, many of them confessors, and one a martyr, are commemorated by a bronze plate, let into a richly moulded black marble tablet, bearing the following inscription, with the names and authenticated dates in parallel columns :- .

Recorded Names of Chaplains at , Carlton Hall, During Penal Times, The Last of Whom Erected this Church, 1841-2. 1660-65. Rev. John Robinson. 1665-68. Ven. Thomas Thwing, M. 1668-86. Rev. John Harper. 1686-93. Rev. John Edisford, S.J. 1693-1718. Rev, John Lodge. 1718-66. Rev. William Hardisty. 1766-68. Rev. John Nestfield. .1768-73. Rev. Thomas Meynell, S.J. 1774-81. Rev. William. Allan, S.J. 1781- Rev. Joseph Berrington, D.D. 1782- Rev. George Witham. 1791-97. Rev. Charles Hoghton. 1797-1802. Rev. M. P. Fradoulet. 1802- Rev. Wm. A. Longuemere. 1803- Rev. Edward Pitchford. 1808-10. Rev. Charles Forestier. 1810-22. Rev. Robert Hogarth. 1823-27. Rev. John Billington, 1828- Rev. George Bert. 1829- Rev. George Heptonstall, ‘ Blessed Are They That Suffer Persecution For Justice’s Sake.’ May They Rest in Peace. The last of these chaplains at Carlton Hall (now Carlton Towers, the residence of Baroness Beaumont, the present representative of the Stapleton family), in 1842 became the first priest-in-charge of St. Mary’s, where he died at the presbytery attached as recently as 1875. Eventually a member of the Chapter of Beverley, and later of Leeds, his name and the names of his successors are inscribed on a second tablet, also recently erected in the porch of his church at Carlton, thus completing an authentic clergy list covering a period of over 250 years —the more interesting because during penal limes such records were rare, as in themselves affording evidence endangering the lives or liberty of the Catholic clergy then in England.