Source: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/staffs/vol17/pp239-241
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 00:46:56+00:00

Document:
About 1800 a Revd. James Gordon left money to support a mission in the neighbourhood, and Perry bought a house and shop in Harden Lane (now Harden Road), Bloxwich. The shop was lengthened and converted into a chapel, and Perry appointed an émigré priest as his resident assistant. He was succeeded in 1804 by another émigré, who was followed in 1807 by Francis Martyn. By then the number of communicants, which c. 1800 never exceeded 20, had reached about 50, and in 1808 there were 90 Easter communicants. The chapel became too small for the growing congregation and was enlarged in 1808 to hold about 300. The dedication was to St. Thomas the Apostle. (fn. 19) By will proved in 1819 Perry left the property to the vicar apostolic of the Midland District. (fn. 20) The congregation exceeded 300 by 1819, and Martyn then opened a centre in Walsall itself. (fn. 21) In 1851 the average Sunday mass attendance at St. Thomas's was 145, but the congregation was very scattered, some living 6 miles away. (fn. 22) The church was replaced by St. Peter's in Bloxwich in 1869, but the building still stood in 1974 when it was known as Cromwell Cottage and was occupied by a women's hairdressing business.
1. See e.g. S.H.C. 1929, 37, 39, 42; C.R.S. xviii. 303-5, 307, 309; C.R.S. lx. 112; S.H.C. 1915, 298; Staffs. Cath. Hist. iv. 28-9; ibid. v. 28; L.J.R.O., B/V/1; Glew, Walsall, 117-18; S.H.C. 4th ser. ii. 88.
2. S.H.C. 1929, 37; C.R.S. xviii. 297, 299-300; liii. 176; lvii. 145, 151; lx. 112; lxi. 86, 218; Staffs. Cath. Hist. iv. 28; L.J.R.O., B/V/1/33 sqq. to /75; S.H.C. 4th ser. ii. 88; above p. 174. Dorothy Birch, widow, occurs among the Roman Catholics of Walsall in 1705 and 1706: Staffs. Cath. Hist. xiii. 46.
3. Hist. MSS. Com. 9, Cecil, xvii, pp. 623, 643; Staffs. Cath. Hist. iv. 28-9.
4. See p. 172 and below.
5. S.R.O., D. 1287/9/10, return of Staffs. papists by bp. of Coventry and Lichfield Mar. 1629/30; L.J.R.O., B/V/1/52, 55, 71, 75; S.H.C. 4th ser. ii. 88; W.T.C. II/13/49, dole acct.; S.H.C. v (2), 246-7; S.H.C. 1923, 126.
6. S.H.C. 4th ser. ii. 88.
8. Staffs. Cath. Hist. xiii. 46. The following year 29 were returned: ibid. 46-7.
10. Willmore, Walsall, 381; A. Willis, Hist. of Bridge St. Chapel, Walsall (Walsall, 1893), 10; A. G. Matthews, Congregational Churches of Staffs. 139.
12. Cal. S.P. Dom. 1603-10, 268. Two of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators were taken at Walsall in Nov. 1605: Hist. MSS. Com. 9, Cecil, xvii, p. 503.
15. B.A.A., A. 416. The priest was also to say two monthly masses for Thomas's parents and for the souls in Purgatory at some other time.
16. Staffs. Cath. Hist. vii. 29.
17. 'Catholic Chapels in Staffs.' Cath. Mag. v (1834; printed in Staffs. Cath. Hist. xiv), 307-8; Homeshaw, Bloxwich, 104; W.T.C. II/182, II/183/3. For the second priest at Wolverhampton, established under the will of Bp. Bonaventure Giffard (d. 1734) with the duty of serving the surrounding area, and also for Perry see Cath. Mag. v. 383-4; V.C.H. Staffs. iii. 110, 112 n. The tenants in the later 18th century were the Partridges, who were Roman Catholics: W.S.L., S. MS. 453; W.T.C. II/178/9 sqq.
18. Cath. Mag. v. 310; B. W. Kelly, Hist. Notes on Eng. Cath. Missions, 410; C.R.S. xiii. 290-1; V.C.H. Warws. vii. 399.
19. Cath. Mag. v. 308. This gives the 1804 priest as L. Bertrand, but he signs the register in 1805 as G. S. Bertrand (B.A.A., R. 83, p. 1). Before 1805 the Sedgley Roman Catholic register was used for the mission: ibid., note on title-page. For the situation of the chapel see W.S.L., S. MS. 417/Walsall, no. 843.
21. Cath. Mag. v. 308-9.
22. H.O. 129/380/3/2 (printed in Staffs. Cath. Hist. viii. 32).
23. Cath. Mag. v. 311; Laity's Dir. (1820); S.H.C. 4th ser. iii. 142.
24. Cath. Mag. v. 311-12. For Bagnall see White, Dir. Staffs. (1834), 430.
25. Laity's Dir. (1827), 26; Pigot, Com. Dir. Birm. (1829), 90; St. Peter's Cath. Church, Bloxwich, list of priests (Walsall, 1956; copy in W.C.L.).
26. Walsall Red Book (1892), 161.
27. Cath. Mag. v. 312.
28. Staffs. Cath. Hist. viii. 32.
29. Walsall Observer, 14 Apr. 1967; ex inf. the parish priest of St. Mary's (1974).
30. Cath. Dir. of Archdioc. of Birm. (1974).
31. Cath. Dir. (1854; 1863), showing them in charge of the girls' school; G. Hudson, Mother Geneviève Dupuis, 150.
32. Glew, Walsall, 30; Cath. Dir. of Province of Birm. (1915), 56; above p. 238.
33. Cath. Dir. of Archdioc. of Birm. (1969), 230; Express & Star, 10 June, 3 Oct. 1966; Walsall Observer, 3 June 1966; plate on facing page.
34. Cath. Dir. of Province of Birm. (1915), 57.
35. Cath. Dir. of Archdioc. of Birm. (1964), 204; Walsall Observer, 17 May 1963; G.R.O., Worship Reg. no. 69547; above p. 237.
36. Cath. Dir. of Archdioc. of Birm. (1974).
37. Ex inf. the sister superior (1974); above p. 152.
38. St. Peter's Catholic Church, Bloxwich (Walsall, 1956; copy in W.C.L.); Staffs. Advertiser, 18 Sept. 1869.
39. Cath. Dir. of Archdioc. of Birm. (1974).
40. Cath. Dir. of Province of Birm. (1913), 108; Homeshaw, Bloxwich, 154; D. E. Parry and K. F. Jones, Bloxwich in History (Bloxwich, 1941), 20 (copy in W.C.L.); Evening Mail, 29 Apr. 1964.
41. Cath. Dir. of Archdioc. of Birm. (1960), 198; (1961), 198-9.

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