ROMAN CATHOLICISM
An undated list of papists in the diocese of Salisbury,
compiled not later than 1672, names four persons
living in the city. (fn. 1) In 1676, at the time of Archbishop Sheldon's enumeration, three popish recusants were reported in St. Martin's parish, and
five in the parish of St. Thomas, (fn. 2) while a diocesan
list compiled thirty years later reveals the presence
of twelve adult papists in Salisbury. (fn. 3) Jesuits working in Wiltshire and elsewhere sometimes held their
meetings in 'the White Hart' in Catherine (later St.
John's) Street, (fn. 4) but as far as is known no Jesuit
priest worked in Salisbury until 1765 when James
Weldon was there. (fn. 5) In 1767 Weldon's place was
taken by James Porter, S.J., who was chaplain to
Raymond Thomas Arundell, (fn. 6) whose house, and
not, as has been suggested elsewhere, (fn. 7) the house in
the Close known as Arundells, appears to have been
the mass centre for Salisbury in the later 18th
century. Porter's patron was the second son of the
6th Lord Arundell (d. 1746), (fn. 8) and the single household consisting of 'a gentleman and his lady', their
four servants, and a priest, which was said in 1767 to
constitute the Roman Catholic congregation of
Salisbury, was certainly his. (fn. 9) He had married Mary
Porter in 1760, and after his death in 1768 (fn. 10) her
house in Rosemary Lane, off the north side of the
Close, appears to have continued as the centre for
Salisbury's Roman Catholics. It must be this house
to which Fanny Burney refers when she wrote in
1780 'there is no Romish chapel in the town; mass
has always been performed for the Catholics of the
place at a Mrs. Arundell's in the Close'. (fn. 11) That year
thirteen papists were returned in St. Thomas's
parish, and two for each of the other parishes, (fn. 12) but
according to the Bishop Charles Walmesley, Richard
Turner, at that time the Jesuit priest in Salisbury,
reported a congregation of between 40 and 50 communicants 'fluctuating as strangers come and go'. (fn. 13)
In c. 1785 Richard Turner was chaplain at Mrs.
Arundell's house, (fn. 14) and was probably there from
the time of his arrival in Salisbury some ten years
before. (fn. 15) His congregation in c. 1785, according to
the reminiscences of one of its members, comprised
besides the Arundell household, the Salisbury
families of Peniston and Weeks, an old woman who
sold pies and cakes, and an innkeeper from West
Harnham, who had been employed on the building
of Wardour House, home of the Arundell family. (fn. 16)
James Everard Arundell, younger brother of Raymond Thomas, also attended mass at the house in
Rosemary Lane when he was resident in the Close,
suggesting that there was no chaplain at his house
known as Arundells at this date. (fn. 17) In 1792 among
the sixteen Salisbury Roman Catholics who took the
oath required by the Relief Act of the previous year
were Richard Turner, S.J., Mary Arundell and her
servants, two members of the Peniston family, a
fishmonger, a silk dyer, and a victualler. (fn. 18)
Mary Arundell subsequently moved to a house in
the Square (later St. Thomas's Square), (fn. 19) where a
chapel was arranged in the attic, and the room
allotted to Richard Turner was used as a confessional. (fn. 20) The congregation was somewhat enlarged
about this time, and Salisbury sheltered a number
of emigrant priests from France. (fn. 21) Richard Turner
died in 1794, (fn. 22) and either then, or perhaps earlier,
he was succeeded as Mary Arundell's chaplain by
the Abbé Nicholas Begin, who was later replaced by
the Abbé Jean-Baptiste Marest. (fn. 23) Begin, with the
congregation that followed him, moved to a chapel
provided in a house in the Close belonging to
Thomas Peniston, and this was certified for religious
worship in 1797. (fn. 24) The chapter, however, objected to
the arrangement, and the following year Begin
registered a house in Brown Street, later known as
Chapel House, rented by James Everard Arundell
and William Weeks. (fn. 25) In 1814 this was replaced by
St. Martin's chapel built, partly at the expense of
Lord Arundell (d. 1817), son of the above James
Everard Arundell, in St. Martin's Lane, off St.
Martin's Church Street. (fn. 26) Begin died in 1826, having
worked in Salisbury for some 30 years. A local
newspaper recording his death mentioned in particular his charitable work among the poor. (fn. 27) In
1848 the chapel in St. Martin's Lane was closed
when the present (1960) Roman Catholic church of
St. Osmund in Exeter Street was consecrated. (fn. 28)
St. Osmund's church is built of flint with stone
dressings and has a chancel, nave, side aisles, and
west tower. It was designed by A. W. Pugin, who
had previously lived in Salisbury for some years. (fn. 29)
The cost of the building was largely borne by John
Lambert, a member of the congregation, who had
spent his early life at Wardour. (fn. 30) In 1851 the average
number attending mass at St. Osmund's over the
previous year was 170, and it was noted that the
congregation was a scattered one, and that during the
winter many were unable to attend. (fn. 31)
Shortly before the Second World War the need
for another Roman Catholic church in Salisbury
was felt, and in 1938 the church of St. Gregory and
the English Martyrs was built in the city's western
suburbs. (fn. 32) This is built in a modernized Romanesque style with a concrete roof.
Since 1868 a community of Sisters of Charity of
St. Vincent de Paul, at St. Elizabeth's convent in
Exeter Street, have conducted St. Osmund's
school. (fn. 33) A private school for girls in Campbell Road
is run by the sisters of La Retraite. (fn. 34)