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PLOWDEN

EoMrND Plowden

tleman charged with hearing Mass, and detected that the service had been performed by a layman for the purpose of informing against those who were present, whereon he exclaimed, "The case is altered; no priest, no Mass", and thus secured an acquittal. This inci- dent gave rise to the common legal proverb, "The case is altered, quoth Plowden". He himself was required to give a bond in 1569 to be of good behaviour in re- ligious matters for a year, and in 1580 he was delated to the Privy Council for refusing to at- tend the Anglican service, though no measures seem to have been taken against him. His works were: "Les comentaries ou les report es de Ed- munde Plowden" (London, 1571), often reprinted and t ranslated into English; "Les Quares del Mon- .'iieur Plowden" (London, no date), included in some editions of the Re- ports; "A Treatise on Succession", MSS. preserved among the family papers. Its object was to prove that Mary, Queen of Scots, was not debarred from her right to the English throne by her foreign birth or the will of Henry VIIL Several MSS. legal opinions are preserved in the British Museum and the Cambridge University Libra- ries. He married Catherine Sheldon of Beoley and by her had three sons and three daughters. There is a portrait effigy on his tomb in the Temple Church, and a bust in the Middle Temple Hall copied from one at Plowden.

Plowden. Records of Plowdtn (privately printed, 1SS7); Cooper, Athence Cantabrigienses CCambridge. 1858) ; A Wood, ed. Bliss, AlhencB Oxonienses (London, 1813-20); Dodd. Church History, I (Brussels, verc Wolverhampton. 1737-42) ; Foss. Judges of England, V (London, 1848-64) ; Foley, Records Eng. Prov. S. J. (giving Plowden pedigree), IV (London, 1878); Cooper in Diet. Nat. Biog.; Gillow, Bibl. Did Eng. Cath.

Edwin Burton.

Plowden, Fr.\ncis, son of William Plowden of Plow- den Hall, b. at Shropshire, 8 June, 1749; d. at Paris, 4Jan., 1819. HewaseducatedatSt.Omer'sand entered the Jesuit novitiate at Watten in 1766. When the Society was suppressed, he was teaching at the College at Bruges. Not being in Holy Orders he was, by the terms of suppression, relieved of his first vows, and soon afterwards married Dorothea, daughter of George Phillips of Carnarvonshire. He entered the Middle Temple and practised as a conveyancer, the only department of the legal profession open to Catholics under the Penal Laws. After the Relief Act of 1791 he was called to the Bar. His first great work, "Jura Anglorum", appeared in 1792. It was attacked in a pamphlet by his brother Robert, a priest under the title of ".\RomanCatholicClergyman". Thebookwasso highly thought of that the University of Oxford pre- sented him with the honorary Degree of D.C.L., a unique distinction for a Catholic of those days. His improvidence, extreme views, and untractable dispo- sition made his life a troubled one. Having fallen out with the Lord Chancellor, he ceased to practise at the bar and devoted himself to writing.

His "Historical Review of the state of Ireland" (1803) was written at the request of the Government; but it was too outspoken a condemnation to meet their views, and was attacked by Sir Richard Musgrave in

the "Historical Review" and also by the "British Critic ". Plowden answered by a " Postliminious Pref- ace", giving an account of his communications with Addington, and also by a "Historical Letter" to Sir Richard Musgrave. While in Dublin (ISll), he pub- lished his work "Ireland since the Union", which led to a prosecution on the part of the Government for libel, resulting in a verdict of £5000 damages. Plow- den considered that this had been awarded by a packed jury and was determined not to pay it. He escaped to Paris where he spent the remaining years of his life in comparative poverty. He continued to WTiteat intervals, his "Historical Letters" to Sir John Cox Hippisley (1815) containing important matter connected with the question of Cathohc emancipa- tion. His other works are: "The Case Stated" (Cath. Relief Act, 1791); "Church and State" (London, 1795); "Treatise on Law of Usurj'" (London, 1796); "The Constitution of the L'nited Kingdom" (London, 1802); "Historical Letter to Rev. C. O'Conor" (Dub- lin, 1812); " Human Subornation " (Paris, 1824).

Cooper in Diet. Nat. Biog., s. v.; Gillow, Bibl. Diet. Eng. Cath., s. v.; Kirk, Biographies; Foley, Records Eng. Prov. S. J., IV, VII (London, 187S-80), giving pedigree of Plowdens; Ward, Dawn of Cath. Revival (London, 1909); Genfs Magazine (1829).

Bernard Ward.

Plowden, Robert, elder brother of Charles (su- pra), h. 27 Jan., 1740; d. at Wappenbury, 27 June, 1823. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1756, and was ordained in 1763. After some years spent at Hoogstraet in Belgium, as director of the Carmelite Nuns, he returned to England, and was stationed at Arlington, Devon, from 1777 to 1787. Appointed to Bristol, he had a wider field for his zeal and ability: at his coming, the Catholics had onh' one wretched room in a back alley for a chapel; Father Plowden's exer- tions resulted in the erection of St. Joseph's Church, together with a parochial residence and schools. His activity was extended to the mission of Swansea and the South Wales District, of which he may be consid- ered the principal founder. He remained at Bristol for nearly thirty years, beloved by his flock, and es- teemed by all for his frank character, disinterested la^ hours, and bounty to the poor. Removed from Bris- tol in 1815, he became chaplain to the Fitzherbert family at Swj'nnerton until 1820, when he retired to Wappenbury, where he died. He was a keen theolo- gian, "a more solid divine than his brother Charles", according to Bishop Carroll — an unflinching defender of Catholic principles and practices, and a firm sup- porter of Bishop Milner in trj-ing circumstances. The inscription on his tomb commemorates his candour, zeal, and learning. He translated from the French: "The Elevation of the Soul to God", which passed through several editions in England; American edi- tions, Philadelphia, 1817, and New York, 1852.

Foley, Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, IV, 554; Oliver, Collections S. J.

E. I. Devitt.

Plowden {alias Salisbury), Thomas, b. in Oxford- shire, England, 1594; d. in London, 13 Feb., 1664; grandson of Edmund Plowden, the great lawyer; en- tered the Society of Jesus, 1617; sent on the English Mission about 1622. He was seized, with other fath- ers, by the pursuivants in 1628, at Clerkenwcll, the London residence of the Jesuits. He filled various re- sponsible offices of the order, and laboured on the perilous English INIission until his death. He trans- lated from the Italian of D. Bartoli "The Learned Man Defended and Reformed" (London, 1660).

Foley, Records of the English Province of Ihe Society of Jesus, I. VII.

E. I. Devitt.

Plowden, Thomas Percy, b. at Shiplake, Oxford- shire, Knglimd, 1672; d. at Watten, 21 Sept., 1745; joined the Society of Jesus in 1693. He was rector of