ROMAN CATHOLICISM
In the later 16th century and the early 17th
Roman Catholic worship in the Colchester area
centred mainly around the Audleys of Berechurch who were active recusants for over 140
years. Catherine Audley (d. 1611), her grandson
Sir Henry (d. c. 1672), and Henry's widow Anne
(d. c. 1704) were all supporters of the Catholic
cause. In 1562 mass was said regularly in the
Audleys' house. (fn. 18) In 1577 congregations of up
to 30 people attended mass at Berechurch, and
Catherine, described as a very wealthy and
dangerous woman, was indicted for her involvement with 'riotous assemblies' of papists. (fn. 19) The
daughter of Sir Richard Southwell, she was an
ardent Catholic who encouraged her household
and tenants to defy the authorities. Her servant,
Thomas Debell, 'a notable papist and a lewd
busy fellow', was imprisoned in 1584 for sedition. (fn. 20)
The 1560s and 1570s were a period of intensive
Catholic activity when many papists were
presented for recusancy; the bailiffs, who were
very intolerant of Catholicism, did their utmost
to persuade the dissidents to conform. (fn. 21) One
very prominent Catholic was Richard Cousins
who, in the 1550s, owned the White Hart inn in
which Bishop Bonner's agents stayed. In 1562
Cousins was imprisoned in the moot hall for his
papist activities. (fn. 22) Named repeatedly in the indictments was Roche Green (d. 1602), whose son
Richard (d. 1590) was ordained in Rome in
1582, (fn. 23) and who, resisting earnest attempts to
convert him, spent c. 20 years in prison, some
of them in Colchester. (fn. 24) Other Essex recusants
were imprisoned in Colchester castle, some for
long periods. (fn. 25)
The use of Essex ports by papists crossing to
and from the Continent was seen as a threat by
the authorities; a priest and Mrs. Audley's son
were carried to Douai, probably from Colchester, before 1577 by John Lone, a Wivenhoe
mariner. (fn. 26) Other recusants on their way abroad,
either from the Hythe or from Harwich, passed
through Colchester; in 1578 a party of travellers
which included nuns from the Low Countries
was arrested at the White Hart inn on the way
from Harwich to London. In 1584, in an attempt
to control such traffic, commissioners were appointed to watch the port and issue passports;
bonds were to be taken from all shipowners. (fn. 27)
During the 17th century and the greater part
of the 18th the number of Roman Catholics in
the town, c. 17 in 1625, declined steadily; in 1688
the mayor reported that no fines for non-attendance at church had been levied during the
previous 11 years. In 1766 there were perhaps
only 4 or 5 papists. The nearest priest was at
Great Bromley Hall between c. 1720 and 1760
and at Giffords Hall in Stoke-by-Nayland
(Suff.) in 1767. (fn. 28) By 1795 a small group of Irish
Catholic exiles from the Continent were living
in the town, ministered to by an exiled French
priest. (fn. 29)
In the early 19th century large numbers of
Irish Catholic soldiers arrived in the town. A
priest in St. Botolph's parish who taught French
to officers from the garrison in 1810 may have
been Armand Benard, a French priest serving
Colchester by 1812. In 1814 he recorded 11
civilian Catholics resident in the town and 12
baptisms, some presumably of soldiers' children,
but no chapel seems to have been registered. (fn. 30)
Many Irish Catholic soldiers settled in Colchester after the Napoleonic wars and Irish names
figure prominently in the baptismal registers up
to 1817. In 1816 the military were withdrawn,
Benard moved to Witham Place, and for 19 years
Colchester had no resident priest; Gifford's Hall
and Witham Place were the nearest Catholic
centres. (fn. 31)
In 1831 William Dearne, an ex-soldier who had
settled in the town as an ironmonger and nailmaker, provided a small building at the foot of
North Hill where mass was said regularly by a
priest from Witham. (fn. 32) There may have been a
small chapel in Moor Lane (later Priory Street)
before the permanent church dedicated to St.
James was built there in 1837. (fn. 33) C. P. King, who
had already been serving Colchester from Witham for several months, became the first resident
priest of the Colchester mission which covered c.
120 square miles of north-east Essex. William
Joseph Stourton, Lord Stourton, (d. 1846) transferred from Witham to Colchester an annuity of
£100 paid by his family. The annuity was reduced to £50 in 1880 and the family continued
to support the mission until 1882 or later. (fn. 34)
In 1856 the civilian congregation of fewer than
100 was greatly outnumbered by the c. 800
Catholic soldiers and their families who came to
the garrison at the onset of the Crimean war.
Civilians and soldiers continued to worship
together until 1865 when an army chaplain was
appointed. By 1905 the civilian Catholic population had increased to c. 300 and the Sisters of
Mercy, who came from Brentwood in 1891, were
supporting the priest in his ministry. The
Bourne Institute, named after and opened by F.
A. Bourne, archbishop of Westminster, was built
next to the presbytery in 1910. In 1918 Colchester became a parish in the newly created
Brentwood diocese. (fn. 35)
To serve the growing population on the outskirts of the town several missions opened from
St. James's. By 1944 mass was said in a room in
the Dog and Pheasant public house at Mile End;
in 1947 parishioners helped to build and furnish
the little church of St. Joseph in Mill Road. (fn. 36)
Services were held in the village hall in Berechurch from 1959 until 1964 when the church
of St. Theodore of Canterbury was opened in
Prince Philip Road. (fn. 37) Mass was said in a rented
iron building in Straight Road, Lexden, from
1933 until 1937 when the church of St. Theresa
of Lisieux was built in Clairmont Road. In 1954
a priest-in-charge was appointed and Lexden
became a separate parish in 1960; the building
was replaced by a larger church built nearby in
1971. The church of St. John in Iceni Way, a
simple brick building which opened in 1961, is
served from Lexden parish. (fn. 38) Mass was said in
a church hall in Greenstead in 1974; by 1979 the
church of St. John Payne in Blackthorn Avenue
was serving the Catholic population of Ardleigh
and Greenstead. The mission was given parochial status in 1983 when it also served Mistley. (fn. 39)
The church of St. James the Greater was
known as St. James the Less by 1900. St. Helen
was added to the dedication c. 1902. (fn. 40) The
church stands in Priory Street near its junction
with East Hill. Built of white brick in the
Norman style to the design of J. J. Scoles, it
originally comprised an apsidal chancel and an
aisleless nave with a west gallery. (fn. 41) In 1861 the
organ was removed from the gallery which was
fitted with seating for 100 soldiers. (fn. 42) In 1904 and
1910 the chancel was extended and aisles were
added to the nave. (fn. 43) In 1987 the church was
reordered; glass by Pugin from a redundant
church was inserted in the windows of the newly
formed Blessed Sacrament chapel. (fn. 44)
A permanent army chaplain, appointed in 1865,
conducted services in St. James's church until
1867 when he was permitted to use the camp
chapel in Military Road, but in 1904 the parish
priest again had the pastoral care of Catholic
soldiers from the garrison. (fn. 45) In 1949 Catholic
army families were worshipping in a barrack
block. The Garrison church of Christ the King
was completed at Le Cateau barracks c. 1954.
After several years of falling attendances the
resident chaplain was withdrawn in 1983, and the
church was closed. (fn. 46) In 1988 a weekly mass for
army families was held in St. John's, Iceni Way. (fn. 47)