INTRODUCTION In the last volumes of his Records of the English Province theSociety Jesus ( 1877-83) Brother Henry Foley included short biographical sketches
of
of of
the membersofthe province from the first English Jesuitsto the timeofwriting and also ofthe membersofthe Scottish and Irish Jesuitmissionswhich were not part of the English province . As more sources , particularlyin Rome, have become available since Foley's time it is now possibleto compile more detailed biographies and this has been the object of this volume . The list of biographies (some 1560 of them) includes those who entered the Society of Jesus between January 1st, 1650 and the Catholic Emancipation Act of April 1829. More researchneeds to bedone on the period before 1650, and after 1829 information is readilyavailable in more easily consulted sources. The following areentered in this dictionary: (1) Jesuitsofthe English province (not the Scottish or Irish missions), orwho worked in the English province or the missions attached to the English province, or who were English or Welsh in origin , or who joined the English province having enteredthe Society in another province . (2 Those who left the Society aftercompleting the noviceship or who died in the noviceship (but not those who left the noviceship unless there is some possibility of their having completed it) and those who were dueto finish their noviceship in the Septemberof 1773 when the Briefof Suppressionof the Society waspromulgated in Flanders. and Wales or in the houses of the (3) Foreigners who worked in England province on the Continent after 1650. (because of the (4) Those who are recorded as having died at unknowndates possibilitythat they entered the English province after 1650). (5) Thosewho are stated in somerecordsto have been membersoftheEnglish province but are notfound in the annual cataloguesof the province under the namerecorded. . (6 Those received into the Society of Jesus in articulomortis (7) Henry Foley refers occasionally to the Catalogue of Deceased in the Louvain University Library' and enters as possible members of the English province those in the Catalogue with likely sounding names or who died in places on the Continent where there were English Jesuit houses. He has beenfollowed in this. The catalogues of the province are an important source of informationbut they have not survived for every year. When a Jesuit was stationed on the Continentthey usually provide detail about his residenceand work; should he, however, be in England , Walesorin the missionsofthe province in Maryland or Pennsylvania they givevery little informationfor obvious security reasons . Itis only from 1767 that they mentionplaces of residence in England and Wales. Duringthe period of the suppressionofthe Society from 1773 theydo not, of course, exist and other recordsprovide less informationthan usual. After 1803 they have survived, but for a few years only before 1829; fortunatelyinformation from other sources for that period can fill the gaps.
)
)
'