ROMAN CATHOLICISM.
Eleven parishioners
did not receive communion in 1571 and 13 in 1579,
including members of the Leeds family of Wappingthorn. (fn. 63) John Leeds (d. 1606), recorded as a
recusant since 1569, (fn. 64) was said by an informer to be
keeping priests at Wappingthorn in 1594. (fn. 65) His son
Thomas, who at first conformed, later embraced
his father's faith and settled in Belgium. (fn. 66) Since
later owners of Wappingthorn conformed, Roman
Catholicism gradually died out in Steyning. Eleven
possible recusants were recorded in the parish in
the 1620s, (fn. 67) and three in 1669. (fn. 68) In 1767 there
were only two. (fn. 69)
A Roman Catholic community had reappeared
in the parish by 1948, when the town hall began
to be used as a temporary mass centre. A converted
barn at Penlands farm on the road to Bramber was
opened in 1951 as the church of Christ the King,
and Steyning was made a separate parish in 1968. (fn. 70)
Footnotes
| 63 |
W.S.R.O., Ep. 1/23/1, f. 19; Ep. 1/23/5, f. 48; cf.
ibid. Ep. 1/23/6, f. 10; Ep. 1/23/7, f. 40. |
| 64 |
V.C.H. Suss. ii. 25. |
| 65 |
Cal. S.P. Dom. 1591-4, 504, 510, where he is erroneously called Thos. |
| 66 |
G. Anstruther, Seminary Priests, ii. 188-9. |
| 67 |
Chwdns. Presentments, i (S.R.S. xlix), 17, 68, 111. |
| 68 |
Cath. Rec. Soc. vi. 317-19. |
| 69 |
H.L.R.O., papist return (ex inf. Mr. T. J. McCann,
of W.S.R.O.). |
| 70 |
E. E. Reynolds, Par. of Christ the King, Steyning (n.d.). |