‘Pierce the Dim Clouds’: The Correspondence of Francis Turville with his Chaplain, Thomas Potts, 1785–1789

Abstract

In 1763, Francis Fortescue Turville inherited Husbands Bosworth Hall at Bosworth, Leicestershire, from his cousin Maria Aletha Fortescue. He inherited the estate directly, because his father had abandoned the Catholic religion and this debarred him from the bequest. The seat had been in the Fortescue family since 1630. In 1780 Francis Turville married Barbara Talbot, sister of the Earl of Shrewsbury. It was a marriage into a leading Catholic family and through his marriage, Francis Turville was connected with the most powerful Catholic families in the country, which had provided two vicars apostolic in the eighteenth century. But at Husbands Bosworth Hall, the Turvilles were by no means part of a larger Catholic community. Bosworth, and Leicestershire, were not strongly Catholic. With the exception of the Hastings family of Braunston and the Nevilles of Holt, both of which families sheltered missions, there were few notable Catholic families in the county; it has been estimated that Catholics made up less than five per cent of the population of the county of Leicestershire. This may have been one of the factors that influenced Francis Turville's decision to live abroad. Between 1784 and April 1789 Francis and Barbara Turville lived in Nancy in the Province of Lorraine. Although there is no explicit evidence, it seems probable that Francis Turville, like many Catholic gentry, moved to France in order to educate his son, George. One of the principal concerns of Catholic parents who sent their sons to be educated in France or the Netherlands was that they would return having lost all Englishness and connection with their family. This often led families to travel with their sons, or to send a trusted family member with them. It may also be that Francis Turville did not have a high regard for the lot of a Catholic gentleman in England. In 1786 it was reported to Turville that one of his neighbours, Mr. Saunders, ‘did not seem much to relish the description which you gave of the situation of a Roman Catholic gentleman in England. He could not conceive how the latter could be said to be oppressed’. While he was abroad, Turville maintained a correspondence with his chaplain, Thomas Potts, who remained at Husbands Bosworth Hall. This article seeks to indicate the nature of the relationship between Turville and his chaplain and to suggest that the rôles of a domestic chaplain were critical in maintaining the sense of an English Catholic community.