¹ By 1670, another two territorial districts had been created, making 14 in total. The roots of recusant activity in many of the other districts can also be traced back earlier than 1623.

² Stephens, Meic (ed), The Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 94 Google Scholar: see also Bowen, Geraint, ‘Morys Clynnog (1521–1580/1), Transactions of the Caernarfonshire Historical Society, Volume 27 (1966), 92 Google Scholar; Bowen, , ‘Clynog, Morys (or Maurice Clenock) (c.1525–1581)’, Welsh Dictionary Bibliography Online, url: http://wbo.llgc.org.uk/en/s-CLYN-MOR-1525.html Google Scholar (date accessed 19 August 2013) and Mayer, T. F., ‘Clenock, Maurice (c.1525–1580?)’, Oxford Dictionary of national Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 Google Scholar; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5610, accessed 6 March 2014], hereafter ODNB.

³ Allen was later created a Cardinal by Pope Sixtus V in August 1587.

⁴ Ryan, Patrick SJ (ed), ‘Some Correspondence of Cardinal Allen, 1579–1585; from the Jesuit archives’, Miscellanea VII (CRS 9, London: 1911), p. 63.Google Scholar The quotation from Clynnog is cited in Cleary, J M, ‘Dr Morys Clynnog's Invasion Projects of 1575–1576’, Recusant History (October 1966), 306–307 Google Scholar.

⁵ Williams, Glanmor, Welsh Reformation Essays (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1967), pp. 12 Google Scholar, 16–21.

⁶ Davies, John, A History of Wales (London: Penguin Books Ltd, 1994), pp. 248–249 Google ScholarPubMed, 287.

⁷ Bossy, John, The English Catholic Community 1570–1850 (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1979), pp. 98–99 Google Scholar: see also MacCulloch, Diarmaid, Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490–1700 (London: Penguin Books Ltd, pp. 395–396.Google Scholar

⁸ See McCoog, Thomas M SJ, The Society of Jesus in Ireland, Scotland and England, 1589–1597: Building the Faith of St Peter upon the King of Spain's Monarchy (Surrey/Rome: Ashgate Publishing Ltd/Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 2012)Google Scholar, hereafter 1589–1597.

⁹ The term ‘college’ here is entirely territorial, and in fact indicates financial position: Jesuit districts designated as ‘Colleges’ had a secure annual income, whereas those districts designated ‘Residences’ were less financially secure and had to rely on more ad hoc donations.

¹⁰ Whitehead, Maurice, ‘The Jesuit Collegium Sancti Francisci Xaverii in South Wales and the South-West of England and Its Links with the Low Countries, ca. 1600–1679’, in The Jesuits of the Low Countries: Identities and Impact (1540–1773), ed. Faesen, Rob and Kenis, Leo (Leuven-Paris-Walpole MA: Peeters, 2012), p. 199.Google Scholar

¹¹ O’Malley, John SJ, The First Jesuits (Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1994), p. 30.Google Scholar

¹² Xavier was canonised in March 1622 by Pope Gregory XV, having been beatified by Paul Vin October 1619: see Brodrick, James SJ, Saint Francis Xavier (1506–1552) (London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne Ltd, 1952), pp. 537–538.Google Scholar

¹³ See figure 1.

¹⁴ Croft, Bishop Herbert, A short narrative of the discovery of a College of Jesuits at a place called the Come, in the county of Hereford (London: printed by TN for Charles Harper, 1679), pp. 1–3 Google Scholar [hereafter Croft's Narrative].

¹⁵ Camm, Dom Bede OSB, Forgotten Shrines: An Account of Some Old Catholic Halls and Families in England and of Relics and Memorials of the English Martyrs (London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne, 1936), pp. 97–103 Google Scholar; Graves, Michael A. R., ‘Campion, Edmund [St Edmund Campion] (1540–1581)’, ODNB (date accessed 2 September 2013)Google Scholar; http://www.stonor.com/home.htm (date accessed 2 September 2013) and Lobel, Mary D, A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 8 Lewknor and Pyrton Hundreds (London: Oxford University Press for the Institute of Historical Research, 1964), pp. 152–156 Google Scholar and 174–176. Stonor Park facilitated the operation of Campion's secret printing press, on which he produced his Rationes decem (1581), and continued to be a strategically important property for Jesuits and other Catholics serving in the English mission until the eighteenth century.

¹⁶ For 1622, see Jenkins, Philip, ‘Anti-Popery on the Welsh Marches in the Seventeenth Century’, The Historical Journal, 23 (1980), 279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For 1615, see Mathias, Roland, Whitsun Riot: An Account of a Commotion Amongst Catholics in Herefordshire and Monmouthshire in 1605 (London: Bowes & Bowes, 1963), pp. 85–87 Google Scholar [hereafter Mathias, Whitsun Riots]; Murphy, Paul P, ‘The Jesuit College at the Cwm, Llanrothal’, Severn & Wye Review, Volume 1, Part 6 (1970–1972), p. 137 Google Scholar; and Foley, Henry SJ, Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus: Historic facts illus-trative of the Labours and Sufferings of its Members in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 7v. in 8 (London: Burns and Oates, 1877–1880), 4, p. 335 Google Scholar [hereafter Foley, Records]. Foley, Murphy and Mathias all insist that 1615 is the latest possible date for the beginning of Jesuit activity at the Cwm. McCoog also notes that the Cwm is likely to have been a centre of Jesuit activity from as early as 1605, a key date that has been largely overlooked by other historians: see McCoog, Thomas M SJ, The Society of Jesus in England, 1623–1688: An Institutional Study (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Warwick, 1984), p. 14 Google Scholar [hereafter McCoog, Institutional Study].

¹⁷ For more on the Jesuit Residence of St Winefride, see Pritchard, T W, St Winefride, Her Holy Well and the Jesuit Mission (Wrexham: Bridge Books, 2009), pp. 177–189.Google Scholar Choice of patron for the north Wales residence is indicative of the continued importance of the cult of St Winefride to Welsh Catholicism: see Walsham, Alexandra, The Reformation of the Landscape: Religion, Identity and Memory in Early Modern Britain & Ireland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 196–199 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Walsham, , ‘Holywell: contesting sacred space in Post-Reformation Wales’, in Coster, and Spicer, (eds), Sacred Space in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 211–236.Google Scholar

¹⁸ McCoog, Thomas M SJ, English and Welsh Jesuits Part 2: G–Z (Southampton: Catholic Record Society, 1995), pp. 286 Google Scholar and 219 respectively [hereafter McCoog, Jesuits II].

¹⁹ ABSI, Correspondence Relating to St Omers and to North Wales, 1666–1781: Volume 1, ff. 1–3 [hereafter ABSI 1].

²⁰ Ibid., f. 1v.

²¹ McCoog, Thomas M SJ (ed), Monumenta Angliae: English and Welsh Jesuits part 1: Catalogues 1555–1629 (Rome: Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 1992), pp. 290 Google Scholar, 295, 319 [hereafter Mon. Ang. I.].

²² McCoog, 1589–1597, p. 190.

²³ Jones was also a key figure in establishing and developing the large theological library at the Cwm, and some 38 books at Hereford bear examples of his signature, using his preferred alias of ‘Anselmus’. For more information on these, and other provenance marks in the collection, see Thomas, Hannah, ‘The Society of Jesus in Wales, c.1600–1679: Rediscovering the Cwm Jesuit Library at Hereford Cathedral, The Journal of Jesuit Interdisciplinary Studies, volume 1, issue 4 Google Scholar, forthcoming (expected publication date October 2014).

²⁴ Whitehead, , ‘Jesuit Collegium Sancti Fransisci Xaverii (2012), p. 207 Google Scholar: statistics compiled from the collection of early Catalogi Provinciae Angliae in the Archivum Britannicum Societatis Iesu, 114 Mount Street, London.

²⁵ McCoog, Jesuits I, pp. 116–117 (Bennet); Jesuits II, pp. 286 (Salisbury), 264 (Pennant), 217 (Jeffrey) and 328 (Webb). All of the men are listed as serving the ‘Missio Walliae’ in the 1621/22 lists; see Mon. Ang. I, p. 290.

²⁶ McCoog, , Jesuits I, pp. 160 Google Scholar (Eaton) and 171 (Flekney); Jesuits II, pp. 327 (Watson), 248 (Mulsho), 307 (Sweet) and 331 (White). Watson appears to have also had some teaching responsibility at the College.

²⁷ Jesuits II, p. 286 (Salisbury).

²⁸ Ibid., p. 217. Jeffrey is listed as professor or teacher of grammar from 1624 until 1646.

²⁹ McCoog, , Jesuits I, p. 128 Google Scholar (Buckley); Jesuits II, pp. 202 (Harries) and 200 (Hanmer). Buckley is better known by his alias Charles Brown (vere Gwynne), and describes himself as born in Carnarvonshire, giving a further alias of Bodwell: see Kenny, Anthony (ed), The Responsa Scholarum of the English College, Rome, 1598–1621 (Newport: Catholic Record Society, 1962), pp. 229–230.Google Scholar

³⁰ McCoog, , Jesuits II, pp. 202 Google Scholar (Harries) and 200 (Hanmer): see also Mon. Ang. I, p. 319.

³¹ Jesuits I, p. 111 (Bamfield); Jesuits II, pp. 282 (Roffe), 303 (Stanton) and 331 (Whitley): see also Mon. Ang. I, pp. 340–341. Whitley is amongst those listed as teachers at the College.

³² McCoog, , Jesuits I, pp. 161 Google Scholar (Edmunds) and 133–134 (Campion, vere Wigmore); Jesuits II, pp. 273–274 (Putney), 198 (Grimstone), 246–247 (Morley) and 218 (Jones).

³³ Jesuits I, pp. 128–129. Humphrey Browne would take over as rector after the death of Charles Brown in 1647, having been appointed to the position in February that year. Mon. Ang. I, pp. 412–413.

³⁴ McCoog, , Jesuits I, p. 128.Google Scholar Brown also provides important evidence of the ongoing links between the Jesuits of the College of St Francis Xavier and their financial patrons, the Somerset family of Raglan Castle: he is listed amongst those who processed out of the fallen castle on 19 August 1646, presumably having been there during the siege as a chaplain for the Catholic members of the household. See WC, A letter from his Excellencies Quarters … a full relation of all the whole proceedings at Ragland Castle (London: Printed by Bernard Alsop, 1646), p. 5.Google Scholar I am grateful to Professor Maurice Whitehead for drawing this to my attention.

³⁵ McCoog, , Jesuits II, pp. 292–293 Google Scholar (Saville) and 329 (Shelley). Shelley was also known under the alias Antonii Tychborne, and Saville was better known as William Whichcot.

³⁶ McCoog, , Jesuits I, pp. 112 Google Scholar (Bartlett) and 137–138 (Chambers). Sabine Chambers is listed at the College until 1632, presumably until his death in March 1633, and it is likely that a copy of Paludanus's Vindiciae theologicae aduersus verbi Dei corrvptelas (1620) in the Cwm library at Hereford Cathedral bears his initials, shelfmark U.6.11.

³⁷ Ibid., pp. 171–172 (Flint).

³⁸ Ibid., pp. 144–145. Cooke was also known under his alias, Thomas Colford.

³⁹ McCoog, , Jesuits II, p. 248.Google Scholar Morton was described as ‘coadiutor temporalis’ when he joined the College of St Francis Xavier in 1631: see Mon. Ang. II, p. 35.

⁴⁰ The lease has been lost, but is quoted quite comprehensively in Croft's Narrative, p. 2. Hutton was, in fact, also a Jesuit.

⁴¹ McCoog, , Jesuits I, p. 173 Google Scholar (Floyd); Jesuits II, p. 222 (Keynes). See also Mon. Ang. II, p. 60. Floyd also undertook teaching duties.

⁴² Mon. Ang. II, p. 90.

⁴³ McCoog, , Jesuits II, pp. 332–333 Google Scholar. The Residence of Blessed Francis Borgia, which was named in 1625 in honour of the newly beatified saint, became the College of the Holy Apostles in 1633 under the patronage of Lord William Petre (1602–1678), son of William Petre (1575– 1637) and Catherine Somerset (d.1624): see Thomas Seccombe, ‘Petre, William (1602–1678)’, rev. Jane Griffiths, ODNB (date accessed: 6 March 2014), and McCoog, , Institutional Study, pp. 297–299.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ See also McCoog, , ‘SJ in Wales’, pp. 3–4 Google Scholar, 11–15.

⁴⁵ Compiled from records cited in McCoog, Jesuits I and Jesuits II, and Holt, Jesuits.

⁴⁶ McCoog, , Jesuits I, p. 128.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ ABSI 1, f. 1v.

⁴⁸ See footnote 14 above.

⁴⁹ The lease is dated the twelfth year of the reign of King Charles 1; his regnal year began in December thus the twelfth year of his reign ran from December 1635 until December 1636: see Cheney, C R, A Handbook of Dates for Students of British History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 39 Google Scholar [hereafter Cheney]. The lease is also cited in Croft's Narrative (London, 1679), p. 2.

⁵⁰ ABSI, Catalogi varii: see also McCoog, , ‘SJ in Wales’, pp. 13–14 Google Scholar and fn. 72, p. 25.

⁵¹ See pp. 7–8 and 10 above.

⁵² McCoog, , Jesuits II, p. 217 Google Scholar. The terminus date of his teaching career, 1646, is particularly interesting in light of the patronage of the Earls of Worcester, whose base at Raglan Castle remained a key location in the College of St Francis Xavier until August 1646, when it was besieged and destroyed by the Parliamentary army. The school was probably based in Raglan village: see Whitehead, Maurice, English Jesuit Education (Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2013), pp. 28–29.Google Scholar

⁵³ The three men are Bartlett, Richard (Jesuits I, p. 112)Google Scholar, Sabine Chambers (Ibid., pp. 137–138) and Worthington, Lawrence (Jesuits II, p. 339)Google Scholar. Bartlett, for example, left the College in 1629 and is listed as a teacher of grammar in 1632 and 1633 at the College of Blessed Aloysius in Lancashire, before returning to Wales in 1641. It seems possible he may have helped out with the teaching responsibilities.

⁵⁴ Croft's Narrative, p. 2. The Lower Cwm is sometimes used to describe the property more commonly known as The Cwm; it appears as ‘The Cwm’ on modern day OS maps. The Upper Cwm seems to have always been known as the Upper Cwm.

⁵⁵ Holt, Geoffrey SJ, The English Jesuits 1650–1829: A Biographical Dictionary (Southampton: Catholic Record Society, 1984), p. 126 Google Scholar [hereafter Holt, Jesuits].

⁵⁶ Kenyon, John, The Popish Plot (London: The Phoenix Press, 2000), p. 239.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Holt, , Jesuits, p. 127.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ McCoog, , Jesuits II, p. 248 Google Scholar and Holt, , Jesuits, p. 126.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ OSP, Godfrey Anstruther, The Seminary Priests: A Dictionary of the Secular Clergy of England and Wales 1558–1850: Vol. I, 1558–1603 (Gateshead: Northumberland Press Ltd, 1968)Google Scholar; Ibid., vol 2: 1603–1659 (Essex: Mayhew-McCrimmon Ltd, 1975); vol 3: 1660–1715 (Essex: Mayhew-McCrimmon Ltd, 1976), hereafter Anstruther, Priests 1, II and III; Bellenger, Dom Aidan OSB, English and Welsh Priests 1558–1800: A Working List (Bath: Downside Abbey, 1984)Google Scholar, hereafter Bellenger, Priests; Cleary, J M, A Checklist of Welsh Students in the Seminaries Part 1: 1568–1603 (Cardiff: The Cardiff Newman Circle, 1958)Google Scholar, hereafter Cleary, Checklist. Williams also is not listed in Holt, Jesuits or McCoog, Jesuits I and II.

⁶⁰ Hereford Cathedral Archives [HCA] 7008/1, pp. 268–279: Bishop's Book of Bishop Humphreys. The list is entitled ‘An account of papists and reputed papists in ye diocese of Hereford in ye years 1705 and 1706’ and lists recusants by deanery and then by parish. Each entry was sent in by the relevant parish priest or incumbent, with varying amounts of detail given about each parishioner. Bishop Humphrey Humphreys (1648–1712) served the diocese of Hereford from November 1701 until his death in 1712: see Welsh Biography Online, http://wbo.llgc.org.uk/en/s-HUMP-HUM-1648.html (date accessed: 19 August 2013).

⁶¹ HCA 7008/1, p. 271.

⁶² For more on trusts and trustees as used by the Jesuits, see McCoog, , ‘The Finances of the English Province in the Seventeenth Century: An Introduction’, Recusant History, 18 (1986), 14–33 Google Scholar; McCoog, , ‘The Slightest Suspicion of Avarice: The Finances of the English Jesuit Mission’, Recusant History, 19 (1988), 103–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁶³ Holt, , Jesuits, pp. 127 Google Scholar, 51 and 20 respectively.

⁶⁴ Croft's Narrative, p. 2.

⁶⁵ Ibid., p. 8.

⁶⁶ Despite diligent research, Pullen is a mysterious character, and one who has been very difficult to trace beyond his appearance in Croft's Narrative. For example, he does not appear in any lists of recusants in the counties of Monmouth or Hereford, and no other members of the family appear in the aforementioned 1705 list of Catholics in the Deanery of Hereford. It seems likely that Pullen was an agent working for the English Province as a whole, and was moved from district to district as and when required.

⁶⁷ House of Commons Journal: 17 February 1671, Volume 9 1667–1687 (1802), pp. 203–204.

⁶⁸ McClain, Molly, ‘Arnold, John (c.1635–1702)’, ODNB (date accessed 14 november 2012).Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Bod L., Carte MSS 72, ff. 378v, 382–383; cited in McClain, Molly, Beaufort: the Duke and his Duchess, 1657–1715 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 129 Google Scholar [hereafter McClain, Beaufort].

⁷⁰ Arnold, John and Scudamore, John, An Abstract of Several Examinations taken upon Oath in the counties of Monmouth and Hereford and Delivered in to the Honourable House of Commons … together with the account given to the House of Commons the 12th of April by John Arnold and John Scudamore Esqs, of the encouragement given to popery in the counties of Monmouth and Hereford (London: Printed for JC by John Gain, 1680), p. 11 Google Scholar [n b – the page has been wrongly numbered as 20]. The report was initially presented on 29 April 1678 under the heading ‘Danger from Popery’, as seen in Commons 29 April 1678 (1802), pp. 464–471.

⁷¹ McClain, , Beaufort, pp. 129–131.Google Scholar Arnold was named as Justice of the Peace for Monmouth on 23 September 1667, again on 8 March 1680 and as acting JP on 4 August 1681. Arnold is also named as being omitted from the post on 24 November 1677: see Justices of Wales, pp. 364–366.

⁷² House of Lords: 7 December 1678, Volume 13: 1675–1681 (1767–1830), p. 407. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=11622 (date accessed 4 november 2013). See also Foley, , Records IV, p. 463.Google Scholar

⁷³ Croft's Narrative (London: 1679). Scudamore's letter: BL Lansd. 846/73, ff. 229–230, and a copy can also be found at Bodleian Rawlinson MS A, ff. 501–503 [hereafter Scudamore].

⁷⁴ TNA SP 29/408 f.205: Lord B[isho]p of Hereford to Lord B[isho]p of London, 30 December 1678. Croft's eagerness to keep the Cwm books at Hereford is all the more curious when one considers that no more than a handful of books were removed by the parliamentarians during their occupation of Hereford.

⁷⁵ Croft's Narrative, p. 3.

⁷⁶ Marshall, William, ‘Croft, Herbert (1603–1691), bishop of Hereford’, ODNB (date accessed 11 november 2013)Google Scholar. See also Foley, , Records 4 (1878), pp. 467–470.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ The phrase is used in a letter, believed to have been written by Fr William Morgan SJ (1623–1689) to the Jesuit superior general in Rome. He writes “The College of South Wales is rooted up! We of the north have fared a little better thus far, but God knows how long it is to last, for we live in constant fear and peril…”: cited in Foley, , Records 5 (1879), pp. 939–940.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Allen, Richard C., ‘Lewis, David [St David Lewis; alias Charles Baker] (1617–1679)’, ODNB (date accessed: 4 November 2013).Google Scholar See also Challoner, Bishop Richard, Memoirs of Missionary Priests and other Catholics of both sexes that have suffered death in England on religious accounts from the year 1577 to 1684: Volume II (London: Art and Book Company, 1896) pp. 414–420 Google Scholar [hereafter Challoner II]. Lewis had served the College since 1647, and twice been appointed Rector: 1667–1672 and again from 1674 until his death in 1679.

⁷⁹ Allen, Richard C., ‘Evans, Philip [St Philip Evans] (1645–1679)’, ODNB (date accessed: 25 November 2013)Google Scholar: see also Challoner II, pp. 396–400 and O’Keeffe, Madge Cusack, Four Martyrs of South Wales and the Marches (Cardiff: Archdiocese of Cardiff, 1970), pp. 32–52 Google Scholar [hereafter Four Martyrs].

⁸⁰ For more on the role of Sker House in the survival of post-reformation Catholicism in south Wales, see Leslie Evans, A., The Story of Sker House (Port Talbot: Andreas Haaf & Son, 2008), pp. 11–30 Google Scholar and 70–75. The house is located approximately 60 miles west of the Cwm, on the Glamorganshire coastline: see figure 1.

⁸¹ W A J Archbold, rev. G. Bradley, ‘Kemble, John [St John Kemble] (1599–1679)’, ODNB (date accessed 26 november 2013) and Allen, Richard C, ‘Lloyd, John [St John Lloyd] (c.1630– 1679)’, ODNB (date accessed 25 November 2013)Google Scholar: see also Four Martyrs, pp. 32–53, 54–57; Forgotten Shrines, pp. 333–342 and Challoner II, pp. 420–424. Lewis, Evans and John Lloyd were among the 40 martyrs beatified and canonized by Pope Paul VI on 25 October 1970.

⁸² Holt, , Jesuits, p. 92 Google Scholar (Fermor).

⁸³ Holt, , Jesuits, pp. 192 Google Scholar (Petre) and 209 (Richardson).