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REGISTERS OF READING
Father George Athanasius Baynham, O.S.F.: approved for preaching and confessions 1761 ; Vicar of Douai 1762-64 ; professor of philosophy 1764-67 ; confessor of the Poor Clares at Aire 1767; Vicar of Douai 1768-1770 ; Preses of the Residence of Birmingham 1770-1773 : Titular Guardian of Coventry and confessor at Aire 1773 and 1774: Guardian of Douai 1776 and 1777; confessor at Bruges 1778 (see C.R.S. , xxiv) ; Titular Guardian of Greenwich 1779-1782 ; Definitor 1782-85 ; Titular Guardian of Cambridge 1785-1788 , and of Oxford 1790 ; Custos 1791-94 ; Titular Guardian of York 1794, and of London in 1800 Franciscans in England, p . 199) . He was also at Burton, Sussex, Oct., 1780, to Feb. , 1781 (C.R.S. , xxii, 309). Miss Sharp, in her History of Ufton Court (p. 133 ), states that Father Baynham " lived on alone in the deserted Court till his death on March 29th, 1803. The Laity's Directory for 1804 gives March 25th, 1803, as the date of his death, at the age of 66.
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WHITEKNIGHTS.
This was the seat of the Englefield family, situated about two miles from Reading . Little is known of the early years of the Mission here, and no records prior to Father Baynham's Register of 1780 have come down to us. The first Knight was Sir Francis Englefield (died 1596 ?). The following details of him are given in the Concise Dictionary of National Biography (1903) : " Roman Catholic exile; knighted at Edward VI's coronation, 1547 ; imprisoned for celebrating [? Mass before the Princess Mary 1551; privy councillor 1553 ; Knight of the shire of Berks; placed on the Witchcraft Commission 1555; fled to Valladolid 1564 ; attainted and forfeited 1585, Elizabeth seizing even the estates he had alienated ; pensioned by the King of Spain; corresponded with the Pope and the King of Spain on behalf of Mary Stuart 1586 ; buried at Valladolid . Canon Burton tells us that for very many years the estate of Whiteknights was a Franciscan Mission. The Englefields , who were a very ancient English family, had lost by forfeiture , in the reign of Elizabeth, the Manor of Englefield in Berkshire, which they claimed to have held for seven centuries , and had only managed to retain their estate of Wooton Bassett in Wiltshire . * Sir Henry represented the younger branch of the family, but though he had inherited the Wooton Bassett estates as well as the baronetcy in 1782, he retained his seat at Whiteknights . He was a great friend of the Franciscans , and his brother, Father Felix Englefield, was a member of that Order. The chaplain at Whiteknights was always a Franciscan, and at one time the Titular ' Guardian of London made the house his headquarters, and part of their library was kept there " (Life and Times of Bishop Challoner , vol . i, p . 176) . The requisites for the Chapel in the Hosier Street presbytery (1795) were chiefly from Whiteknights, whence the Englefield family had removed in disgust at the offensive prejudices of the neighbouring gentry (Cowslade MS.). In the Mapledurham Catholic Register the Confirmation of five persons by Bishop Talbot at Whiteknights on 16th July, 1762, is
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recorded . The following details of the last Knight are given in the Concise Dictionary of National Biography: Englefield, Sir Henry Charles (1752-1822), antiquary and scientific writer; F.S.A. 1779 ; P.S.A.; directed the Society's issue of engravings of English cathedrals and
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* See Notes on the Family of Englefield, by the Rev. G. P. Crawfurd
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