ROMAN CATHOLICISM
In (fn. 1) 1577 William Meredith, who lived in the
cathedral precincts, was suspected of supporting
and visiting Roman Catholics abroad. Of the
handful of other Gloucester people described as
recusant in 1577 (fn. 2) Thomas Alfield, the most not-able, had visited the English seminary at Douai in
1576 (fn. 3) and Lewis Vaughan, the wealthiest, was
removed in 1581 from the post of physician to St.
Bartholomew's Hospital for being a Roman
Catholic. (fn. 4) Alfield, son of a former master of the
College school, returned in 1580 to the seminary,
by then at Rheims, with his relative Thomas
Evans. Alfield, whose brother Robert was servant
to the Jesuit Robert Parsons, became a priest in
1581 and joined the mission to England. In the
latter part of 1583 he was sheltered at Hasfield
Court by John Pauncefoot, and he also visited the
Gloucester area in 1584. In 1585 he was convicted
of importing and distributing seditious books and
was hanged at Tyburn. His accomplice Thomas
Webley of London came from a Gloucester family. (fn. 5) In the mid 1580s two Roman Catholic priests
arrested in Gloucestershire were hanged, drawn,
and quartered in Gloucester. William Lampley, a
Gloucester glover, apparently met a similar end in
1588 for proselytizing some relatives. (fn. 6)
In the late 16th and early 17th century Catholic
recusancy in Gloucester almost, if not completely,
disappeared (fn. 7) and in 1676 there was said to be one
papist in the city. (fn. 8) James II sent a priest to the
city (fn. 9) but the mission gained few converts. One
was Alderman John Hill, who became mayor in
1686. He opened a chapel in the Tolsey, (fn. 10) which
James attended on his visit to Gloucester in
1687. (fn. 11) Other adherents were Anselm Fowler,
who succeeded Hill as mayor in 1688, and John
Wagstaffe, a former mayor, to whom James
entrusted the protection of the priest and his
chapel later that year. (fn. 12) In the turmoil in the city
following William of Orange's invasion the chapel
was ransacked, the priest was imprisoned for a
time, and Catholic houses, including that of Sir
William Compton at nearby Hartpury, were
attacked. (fn. 13) The mission was ended by those events
in 1688, and in 1735 only two papists were
recorded at Gloucester. (fn. 14)
Mary Webb (d. 1787), daughter of Sir John
Webb of Hatherop, left 1,000 guineas to found a
mission to the city, and a priest arrived there in
late 1788 or early 1789. (fn. 15) Tradition states that in
the early 1790s mass was said in a house in
Berkeley Street used for a Catholic school. From
1790 the mission was undertaken by John Greenway (d. 1800), who bought a house in the later
London Road and built a small brick chapel
behind it. The chapel was registered in 1792 and
had a congregation of 40 in 1813. (fn. 16) The mission
had close links with a convent established at
Hartpury in the mid 1790s, and Robert Canning,
who became lord of the manor of Hartpury in the
early 19th century, was the mission's principal
benefactor. (fn. 17) In 1851 the chapel, which was
dedicated to St. Peter ad Vincula, had morning
and evening congregations of 110 and 130 respectively. (fn. 18) In 1857 Frances Canning gave £1,000 for
building a larger church and in 1859 the chapel
was demolished and the new church, which was
not oriented, was erected in an early 14th-century
style to a design by Gilbert Blount. It was not
completed until after 1867 when the presbytery
was pulled down and the aisled and clerestoried
nave was extended southwards by two bays to the
street and a south-west tower and spire were built.
A new presbytery was built in 1880. (fn. 19) On a Sunday
in 1881 St. Peter's church had morning and
evening congregations of 192 and 248 respectively. (fn. 20) From the late 1920s the number of Roman
Catholics in the Gloucester area increased, and in
the mid 20th century mass centres were established in Brockworth, Churchdown, Matson, and
Tuffley. (fn. 21) St. Peter's church continued as the
parish church for much of the city and the area to
the south and west in 1981 when Sunday masses
were attended by as many as 1750 people. (fn. 22)
In 1862 the Institute of the Blessed Virgin
Mary opened a convent school in London Road. (fn. 23)
It was at Greyfriars in 1870 (fn. 24) and has not been
traced after 1871. (fn. 25) In 1940 the Poor Servants of
the Mother of God opened a convent in Barnwood
Road. They moved it in 1946 or 1947 to a house in
Denmark Road. The convent, dedicated to St.
Michael, performed educational work in 1981. (fn. 26)
At Tuffley mass was said regularly from 1943,
at first in a public house and then in an hotel in
Southfield Road. In 1946 a hut was purchased
and erected elsewhere in Southfield Road for use
as a chapel. The chapel, dedicated to the English
Martyrs, opened in 1947 (fn. 27) and was replaced by
another building opened there in 1966. In 1968 a
mass centre was established at Lower Tuffley, (fn. 28)
which became the focus for Catholic worship in
the south part of the parish. In 1980, when mass
was said in the Anglican church of St. George, a
chapel was built in Tuffley Lane. (fn. 29) The Southfield
Road chapel, which it replaced, was sold and
demolished. The Tuffley Lane chapel, designed
as a hall, was served by a priest from St. Peter's
church and had a congregation of 200 in 1981. (fn. 30)
Mass was celebrated regularly from 1952 in a
temporary building on a new housing estate at
Matson. Later a community centre was used for
worship (fn. 31) and then a public house. (fn. 32) In 1961 work
began on a church in Matson Lane. The church,
dedicated to St. Augustine, opened in 1962 and
was given a parish. (fn. 33) In 1981 the average congregation was 250. (fn. 34)
From 1953 St. Peter's church also held mass
according to the Eastern Rite for Ukrainian
Catholics in Gloucester. (fn. 35) In 1974 they bought the
church of the Good Shepherd, in Derby Road,
from the Church of England (fn. 36) and after some
alterations opened it for their own use in 1977. (fn. 37)
In 1981, when a patriarchal dispute divided
Ukrainian Catholics in Great Britain, a priest
from London said mass twice a month before an
average congregation of 80. (fn. 38)
An Old Roman Catholic church described as
Pro-Uniate worshipped in a room in Brunswick
Square for several years. The meeting place,
dedicated to St. Clement, was closed in 1941. The
spiritual leader of the church, Bernard Mary
Williams, lived in Upton St. Leonards. (fn. 39)