ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 10th of December
SAINT SWITHIN WELLS, MARTYR
English martyr, born at Brambridge, Hampshire, about 1536; hanged at Gray’s Inn Lane, London, opposite his own house, December 10, 1591.
He was the youngest of the five or six sons of Thomas Wells of Brambridge, by Mary, daughter of John Mompesson. It is not known when or whom he married.
HE WAS RECONCILED TO THE CHURCH
For many years he conformed, and received the Protestant communion, and for six years (probably 1576-1582) kept a school for young gentlemen at Monkton Farleigh, Wiltshire.
On May 25, 1582, the Privy Council ordered a search to be made for him, and in that year or 1583 he was reconciled to the Church.
HE CAME TO LONDON
In 1585 he came to London where he took a house in Gray’s Inn Lane. On July 4, 1586, he was discharged from Newgate on bail given by his nephew, Francis Parkins of "Weton", Berkshire.
On August 9, 1586, he was examined for supposed complicity in the Babington plot, and on November 30, 1586, he was discharged from the Fleet prison. He was again examined March 5, 1587 and on this occasion speaks of the well known recusant, George Cotton of Warblington, Hampshire, as his cousin.
THEY WERE TAKEN DURING HOLY MASS
On November 1, 1591, Edmund Gennings was taken saying Mass at Wells’s house in his absence, but in the presence of Mrs Wells and the venerable martyrs Polydore Plasden, Brian Lacy, Sydney Hodson, and John Mason. According to one account Venerable Eustace White was also taken at this Mass. When Wells returned to his house he also was arrested.
THEY WERE CONDEMNED ON DECEMBER 5
All the above-mentioned martyrs, included Mrs Wells (but with the possible exception of Brian Lacy), were indicted at Westminster, December 4, 1591, and were condemned, December 5 under 27 Eliz. C. 2.
According to another account they were arraigned, December 6. Mrs Wells was reprieved, and died in prison in 1602. All the rest suffered on the same day, Gennings and Wells at Gray’s Inn Lane, and the other five at Tyburn. Of his brother-in-law Gerard Morin, to whom the letter printed by Bishop Challoner is addressed, no information is to hand.
"I HEARTILY FORGIVE YOU"
Swithin’s eldest brother Gilbert, alive in 1598, suffered much in purse and person for the Faith. Another brother, Henry, of Purbeck, who entered Winchester College in 1541, aged twelve, and was a fellow of New College, Oxford, 1549-1550, was also a Catholic. Our martyr was a follower of Blessed Thomas More and jested both at his apprehension and at his execution; but his last words were of pardon to his persecutor, Topcliffe: "God pardon you and make you of a Saul a Paul... I heartily forgive you."
Source: Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913
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