Thomas Weld (of Lulworth)

Bookplate in the Luttrell Psalter showing crest and ownership of Thomas Weld. British Library

As the new owner of Lulworth Castle and the Lulworth Estate, Thomas Weld, who until then had been living with his wife in Britwell in Oxfordshire, refurbished the interiors of the "castle" in the then fashionable Adam style. It is said the most sumptuous was the library indicating he was a keen bibliophile who possessed a number of exceptional rarities in his collection, including the Luttrell Psalter, the Bedford Book of Hours, bought from Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland in 1786 and Shakespeare's history textbook, Holinshed's Chronicles 1587 2nd edition.[6][7][8] Thomas Weld's Ex Libris book plates all bear the family motto on the plates' ribbon "nil sine numine". Weld is known to have collected artworks. He was a friend of another Jesuit school alumnus, Giles Hussey (1710-1788), a Dorset artist specialising in portraiture and depictions of Charles Edward Stuart. Two pencil drawings of Thomas and his wife, Mary are known to have survived.[2]

Although the "Castle", originally intended as a hunting lodge, fell victim to a disastrous fire in 1929, a number of valuable items it housed appear to have been saved. Unless it had been sold prior to the fire, one of them would have been Engelbert Kaempfer's History of Japan, translated from the German manuscript held by Sir Hans Sloane and published in 1728.[9]

Grade I listed RC Chapel of St Mary, built to look like a house, 1786

Owing to his personal friendship with King George III, Thomas Weld was able in 1786 to build a Roman Catholic church dedicated to St. Mary to serve as the family chapel in the grounds of Lulworth Castle. Pevsner relates that he needed permission from the King which he obtained on condition it did not look like a church from outside. He asked John Tasker who was responsible for the interior refurbishment of the castle, to design it drawing inspiration from a classical Greek mausoleum, at a cost of £2,380.[10] It was to be the first Roman Catholic chapel to be erected since the time of the Protestant Reformation.[11] It was indeed to be his and his wife's final resting place. The building has been Grade I listed.[12]

On August 15 1790 John Carroll, an American Jesuit friend of Thomas, was consecrated bishop by Bishop Charles Walmesley, in the chapel of Lulworth Castle. Carroll was later to become the first Roman Catholic archbishop of Baltimore.[13] The next episcopal consecration took place there on 19 December of the same year when John Douglass was consecrated bishop of The London District (which included the home counties, the West Indies with the exception of Trinidad, and the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey) by William Gibson, titular bishop of Acanthus, and Vicar Apostolic of the Northern District.[14]

Weld became known especially for his charitable works on behalf of the English refugees of the French Revolutionary wars. He donated his Lancashire seat, Stonyhurst, near Clitheroe, with 30 acres (120,000 m²) of land, to the returning exiled English Jesuits. He supported the English Poor Clares who had fled from Gravelines. He founded and maintained a Trappist monastery at Lulworth (now Mount Melleray Abbey, Ireland).

Following the French Revolution, surviving members of the French royal family were invited to use Lulworth as one of their residences-in-exile. Later Charles X of France and family also stayed there briefly, following the July Revolution of 1830 on their way to Edinburgh.[15]

He was regarded as very pious and greatly hospitable.[16] He endowed a church, St Michael's and St John's in Clitheroe, and requested that the parish priest say Mass annually for the repose of his and his wife's souls.[17] He was one of the first English Catholics to entertain the king, in 1789 and in 1791 at his Lulworth Estate.[18][2] He was also a supporter of John Milner. He died suddenly at Stonyhurst, where two of his sons also died, one of them, John, was its Jesuit Rector at the time. He was buried in the chapel of Lulworth Castle.[19] Themas Weld is believed to have given away half his income to charitable causes.[5]