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Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > W > Ven. Swithin Wells


VEN. SWITHIN WELLS

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English martyr, born at Brambridge, Hampshire, about 1536; hanged at Gray's Inn
Lane, London, opposite his own house, 10 December, 1591. He was the youngest of
the five or six sons of Thomas Wells of Brambridge, by Mary, daughter of John
Mompesson. It is not known when or whom he married. For many years he conformed,
and received the Protestant communion, and for six years (probably 1576-82) kept
a school for young gentlemen at Monkton Farleigh, Wiltshire. On 25 May, 1582,
the Privy Council ordered a search to be made for him, and in that year or 1583
he was reconciled to the Church. In 1585 he came to London where he took a house
in Gray's Inn Lane. On 4 July, 1586, he was discharged from Newgate on bail
given by his nephew, Francis Parkins of "Weton", Berkshire. On 9 August, 1586,
he was examined for supposed complicity in the Babington plot, and on 30
November, 1586, he was discharged from the Fleet prison. He was again examined 5
March, 1587, and on this occasion speaks of the well known recusant, George
Cotton of Warblington, Hampshire, as his cousin. On 1 Nov., 1591, Edmund
Gennings was taken saying Mass at Wells's house in his absence, but in the
presence of Mrs. Wells and the venerable martyrs Polydore Plasden, Brian Lacy,
Sydney Hodson, and John Mason. According to one account Ven. Eustace White was
also taken at this Mass. When Wells returned to his house he also was arrested.
All the above-mentioned martyrs, included Mrs. Wells (but with the possible
exception of Brian Lacy), were indicted at Westminster, 4 Dec., 1591, and were
condemned, 5 Dec., under 27 Eliz. C. 2. According to another account they were
arraigned, 6 December. Mrs. Wells was reprieved, and died in prison in 1602. All
the rest suffered on the same day, Gennings and Wells at Gray's Inn Lane, and
the other five at Tyburn. Of his brother-in-law Gerard Morin, to whom the letter
printed by Bishop Challoner is addressed, no information is to hand. Swithin's
eldest brother Gilbert, alive in 1598, suffered much in purse and person for the
Faith. Another brother, Henry, of Purbeck, who entered Winchester College in
1541, aged twelve, and was a fellow of New College, Oxford, 1549-50, was also a
Catholic. Our martyr was a follower of Blessed Thomas More and jested both at
his apprehension and at his execution; but his last words were of pardon to his
persecutor, Topcliffe: "God pardon you and make you of a Saul a Paul. . .I
heartily forgive you."


SOURCES

Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ. (London, 1905 --), II, 261, 267; V, 131-3, 206-8, 292;
CHALLONER, Missionary Priests, I, n. 91; POLLEN, Acts of English Martyrs
(London, 1891), 100-1, 107-8; BERRY, Hampshire Genealogies (London, 1833),
110-1; MORRIS, Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers, III (London, 1872-7), 48,
49; FOLEY Records English Province S. J. (London, 1875-83), III, 295; V, 791;
VI, passim.


ABOUT THIS PAGE

APA citation. Wainewright, J. (1912). Ven. Swithin Wells. In The Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15580b.htm

MLA citation. Wainewright, John. "Ven. Swithin Wells." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912.
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15580b.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Thomas M. Barrett.
Dedicated to the English Catholics martyred in 1591.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

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