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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2015
A large collection of letters from John Thorpe, an English Jesuit resident in Rome from 1756 until his death in 1792, are in the British Jesuit archives in London. Those in this collection which date from 1756–67 were to John Jenison S.J. a student of theology at Liège and later chaplain at Wardour Castle, and those from 1781–92 to Charles Plowden S.J. chaplain at Ellingham in Northumberland and from 1784 at Lulworth Castle. This article uses the letters to Plowden written between 1784 and 1792.
1 Earlier articles on the letters were published in Archivum Historicum (Rome 1997 and 2002) vols. 66 and 71.
2 Thorpe was at St Omers College c.1741–47 and Blundell 1738–43. Holt, G.: St Omers and Bruges Colleges, CRS 69, 1979, 264 Google Scholar and 40.
3 The Santa Casa at Loreto was a place of pilgrimage.
4 Charles Towneley, the important collector of antiquities. For Jenkins and the villa Negroni see below.
5 Pius VI.
6 Roger Charles Boscovitch 1711–87.
7 Stefano Antonio Morcell S.J., 1737–1822.
8 The Dukes of Cumberland and Gloucester were younger brothers of King George III.
9 Philippe Carandini, created cardinal in 1787 by Pius VI.
10 James Byres of Byers, archaeologist, collector and famous guide for tourists.
11 The naval battle known as the ‘Battle of the Saints’, 12 April 1782.
12 Mr Fogg—see below.
13 Simon Mattzell, 1733–1802, a suppressed Jesuit, gave a panegyric in Fribourg at the death of Pope Clement XIV.
14 A Scottish priest, long resident in Rome and well known to visitors. He died in 1784.
15 In Rome ?—1774–83—? Thorpe wrote elsewhere that he was the Duchess of Kingston's ‘master of languages’. (Ingamells, John: A Dictionary of British & Irish Travellers in Italy 1701–1800, New Haven& London 1997, p. 957).Google Scholar
16 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography IV, p. 880.
17 John Thorpe was much involved with the furnishing of Thomas Weld's chapel at Lulworth. See ‘Thomas Weld's New Chapel at Lulworth; Some contemporary correspondence’ by Holt, T. G.: The Proceedings of the Dorset Historical & Archaeological Society, 99 (1980).Google Scholar
18 This surely refers to the altar-piece for the chapel at Wardour.
19 Fewer figures to save expense.
20 Weymouth and Poole being not far from Lulworth.
21 Dissolution of monasteries was part of the Emperor Joseph's ecclesiastical policy.
22 Not identified.
23 Queen Maria who was later to lose her reason.
24 Not identified.
25 Timothy Oliveira (1707-?). The king was Pedro III, Maria's husband, who died in 1786.
26 Gustavus III, king of Sweden from 1772; a great reformer.
27 Leonardo Ximenes (1716–86).
28 Name not legible.
29 Thorpe wrote in a letter to Plowden ‘The query of the British ministry on the terms on which the Catholicks are tolerated in Sweden and Denmark can only be dictated by the spirit of persecution which notwithstanding all the boasting of modern philosophy prevails in our government.’ (17/5/88)
30 According to the Dictionnaire des Cardinaux, 518, de Bernis did not take the oath.
31 Charles Booth S.J. (1707–97) was then chaplain at Wardour Castle. He was rector of the English College in Rome from 1762 till 1766.
32 Jean Xavier Padilla S.J. (1723–?).
33 Thomas Falkner S.J. (1707–84). In 1784 chaplain at Plowden Hall, Shropshire. Holt, G.: The English Jesuits 1650–1829 (Catholic Record Society, 1984, p. 91).Google Scholar
34 See below.
35 This may be his book Description of Patagonia of which an abridged edition was published in Paris in 1787. ( Sommervogel, C.: Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jesus, Brussels, 1891, iii, p. 536).Google Scholar
36 See Caraman, P.: The Lost Paradise, London, 1975, p. 282.Google Scholar
37 Poole, Peter S.J. (1728–93), Holt, G.: English Jesuits, p. 200.Google Scholar He was in London from 1769.
38 Giovanni Caprara was nuncio in Cologne.
39 King George III.
40 Lord North, later Earl of Guildford, was prime minister at the time.
41 The Bull Apostolicum of Clement XIII issued in 1765 was in high praise of the Society. Peter Poole's letter must have puzzled his Spanish suppressed Jesuit friends.
42 The peace treaty between Britain and France and Spain at the end of the American revolutionary war in 1783.
43 Jean de Velasco S.J. (1721–?). Historian. Sommervogel VIII, p. 539.
44 Bourgeois, François S.J. (1717–?). Diccionario Historico de la Companie de Jesus, I, Rome and Madrid, 2001, p. 510.Google Scholar
45 Panzi, Giuseppe S.J. (1734–1811). Diccionario Histórico, III, 1967.Google Scholar
46 Not legible.
47 Giuseppe Doria Pamfili, nuncio in Paris.
48 Francesco Piranesi.
49 Papal official much involved in the suppression of the Society.
50 There is a description of the villa in Pastor, XXII, pp. 203–5.
51 Thorpe had two sisters in the convent at Lier.
52 Details not found.
53 Jean Charles Boschi (1715–88). Created cardinal 1766.
54 Frederick II ‘the Great’ died in 1786.
55 François Berthier, Guillaume S.J. (1704–82). Historian. Diccionario Histórico, I, p. 422.Google Scholar
56 ‘This work aimed to show the continuity of Catholicism in England from our first kings christened unto these days.’
57 William Pitt, the elder.
58 James Connell's dates not found.
59 Berkeley, Joan: Lulworth and the Welds, Gillingham, 1971, p. 188.Google Scholar
60 See Pastor, xxxix, pp. 111–25.
