INTRODUCTION
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Clearly, such a communication must have made for strained relations, if it did not reflect them - which it probably did 34 6 - and the two men did not remain much longer under the same roof, for a month later Bishop Walmesley was writing to his coadjutor, Bishop Sharrock, from his new house in Chapel Row "where I hope to find more happiness". He adds that he had sent a copy of Father Digby's note to the Provincial, "who came directly to Bath, highlr exasperated against Mr Digby; they had a warm debate upon it." 47 The upshot was the removal of the candid Father Digby and his replacement by Dom Joseph Cuthbert Wilks 34 8 - scarcely a lucky exchange in view of the subsequent dispute between Wilks and Walmesley, leading to the former's expulsion from Bath for putting his name to the Catholic Committee's manifesto of 17 February 1791.349 By the time of Wilks's arrival on 3 October 1786 the house in St James's Parade (no . 13, now no. 12) was in use and the change of houses was accompanied by the opening of the new Corn Street chapel, described some years later in a local Guide as follows: "The Roman Catholic Chapel, in Corn Street, is well furnished with seats, has a gallery with commodious pews; a fine altar, with an elegant painting of our Saviour dying on the Cross, over it. Here is Divine Service every Sunday at seven, nine and eleven.,,3 50 For five years Wilks officiated at the Corn Street chapel and for most of this time he had the company of Dom Hugh Jerome Heatley who arrived in 1787 but whose principal duties may have related to the Catholics of the surrounding area, since he was later described as "Resident for the Out-Mission".3 5 1 Upon Wilks's departure Father Pembridge returned to Bath btlt in the Spring 1786, incorporated in a letter from Walmesley to Bishop Gregory Sharrock, 6 March 1786). 346 Downside: Allanson, "Biography", II, p. 162: description of Digby as "superciliously scrupulous and censorious ... long a cause of great concern to his Superiors and of annoyance to those who came in contact with him." 347 Clifton Archives, loco cit. The Provincial was still Dom John Bernard Warmol1 (in office, 1777-1805; Birt, pp. 127,343). 348 Clifton Archives: II, no. 32 (Walmesley to Sharrock, 2 Oct. 1786: "Mr Warmoll has just been here to settle Mr Wilks and soon Mr Digby is to be removed"). For Digby's subsequent movements see Al1anson, loco cit.; Birt, p. 135 and Fr. W. Vincent Smith's Catholic Tyneside (n.d.? pub. Newcastle, 1930) p. 71. See also Reg. 1 (entry for 30 Oct. 1786). 349 Ward, Dawn of the Catholic Revival, passim. 350 Historic and Local New Bath Guide (1802). The building later housed the Bath and Bathforum Free School (Original Bath Guide, 1836, pp. 111-2) and subsequently the People's Mission. The St James's Parade house retained for many years a pane of stained glass above the inner door, depicting St John holding a chalice (Archives at St John's Presbytery, South Parade, Bath: MS. "Chronicle of Catholic History in Bath" by the late Miss C.D. Murray, p. 41 & photograph facing p. 42). 351 Downside: Al1anson, "Biography", I, p. 490; Archives Nationales, Paris: S.4619, liasse 5, no. 26: list of Benedictine addresses, 1789 (penultimate figure of date damaged, but confirmed from other sources; e.g. Al1anson and Birt).