Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 42.djvu/439

Owen who on 30 Dec. signed a protest against the action of the Long parliament, for which they were on the same day impeached of high treason, and committed to the Tower (see the ‘Protest’ in, Hist. of the Rebellion, iv. 140; , Works, ed. Bliss, iii. 243, 454; , Protests of the Lords, i. 7–8). They were again and again brought to the bar of the House of Lords to plead, and Owen put in the same plea of not guilty as the others. Phillips, in his ‘Civil War in Wales and the Marches’ (i. 91), on what authority is not known, states, however, that Owen pleaded that he had signed the protest ‘through ignorance and indiscretion, and that he had no designs to overthrow the fundamental laws of the land.’

The bishops were eventually voted by parliament guilty of præmunire, and all their estates forfeited, excepting small sums which were allowed each of them, Owen being voted, on 6 April 1642, 200l. a year (House of Commons' Journals). Thereupon the bishops were released on bail; but, the commons objecting, they were re-arrested and confined for six weeks longer, when, upon giving bonds for 5,000l. they were allowed to depart from the Tower, having ‘spent the time betwixt New Year's Eve and Whitsuntide in those safe walls’ (see Journals of House of Lords between 30 Dec. 1641 and May 1642; also, Hard Measure). Owen then retired to Wales, ‘whither his sufferings likewise followed him, as well for the sake of his Patron as of his order and loyalty’ (, Sufferings of the Clergy, ed. 1714, pt. ii. p. 37). His palace at Mathern, near Chepstow, with all his revenues, was seized by one Green from Cardiff. Thereupon Owen went to live at his birthplace, Y Lasallt, where he was visited by the puritanical vicar, Rees Prichard [q. v.] of Llandovery, whom he is said to have accompanied on a visit to St. David's, 2 Aug. 1643 (Prichard's ‘Memoirs’ in Canwyll y Cymry, ed. Rees, p. 314). He died at Y Lasallt 5 March 1644–1645 (, Athenæ, loc. cit.; inscription on memorial slab in Myddfai Church, see Arch. Cambr. 3rd ser. iv. 419, v. 71). Local tradition says his death was precipitated by the news of Laud's execution (see, Memoirs, p. 317; , Llandaff, p. 70).

He was buried on the north side of the altar in Myddfai Church. By his will, dated 14 Dec. 1644, and proved 12 Dec. 1645, he bequeathed 20l. a year to the grammar school at Carmarthen out of the rectory of St. Ishmael's, Carmarthenshire (see Table of Pious Benefactors in St. Peter's Church, Carmarthen).

On 21 Dec. 1648, having previously petitioned the committee of the lords and commons in December 1646, Morgan, son of Rees Owen, a brother of and ‘right heir’ to the bishop, compounded for his uncle's sequestered estates. The nephew's claim to the property was resisted by an old servant of the bishop, Owen Price, on the strength of a lease said to have been granted to him about October 1641, when, it was stated, Owen was in the Tower (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 31 Dec. 1648; Cal. of Proceedings of the Committee for Compounding, 1643–1660, pp. 1881–2).

The family surname adopted by the descendants of Morgan ap Rees was Rice, a grandson of his being Morgan Rice, lord of the manor of Tooting Graveney and high sheriff of Surrey in 1776. The bulk of the bishop's property was, however, inherited by another nephew, Morgan Owen, who died in 1667, and was succeeded by his son, Henry Owen, both of whom are commemorated on a slab in Myddfai Church (ut supra; Physicians of Myddfai, loc. cit.) [Wood's Athenæ Oxon. iv. 803; Willis's Survey of Llandaff, p. 70; Laud's Works, ed. Bliss, vol. iii.]

 OWEN, NICHOLAS (d. 1606), jesuit, often called ‘Little John’ from his diminutive stature, which led to his name being sometimes given as John Owen, entered the Society of Jesus as a temporal coadjutor about 1579. Henry More (1586–1661) [q. v.] calls him one of the first English lay brothers. Owen had probably been a builder, and, after joining the society, was at different times servant to Campion, Garnett, John Gerard, and others, who found his architectural skill of the greatest use. He evinced considerable ingenuity in constructing secret cupboards and passages, and by this means saved many jesuits from capture. About 1590 he made his profession after the usual period of probation, and is said to have laboured more than twenty years near London. He was himself imprisoned more than once; in 1594 he was transferred from the Marshalsea to the Tower, whence he escaped; he is said to have planned and effected the escape of John Gerard (1564–1637) [q. v.] from the Tower in 1597. From this time until 1605 he travelled with Henry Garnett [q. v.], and he furnished the plans for Hindlip Hall, Worcestershire, which was built as a hiding-place for priests; there, in December and January 1605–6, he was concealed with Chambers in one of the secret closets, while Garnett and Oldcorne were hiding in another (cf. , Worcestershire, i. 584). After the house had been carefully watched for four days, Owen gave himself up, in order to save Garnett, by personating him, according to Owen's catholic 