James Talbot (priest)

James Robert Talbot (1726–1790) was the last English Roman Catholic priest to be indicted in the public courts for saying Mass.

He was born in Isleworth, Middlesex on 28 June 1726, a younger son of the Honourable George Talbot and Mary FitzWilliam. James' eldest brother George succeeded as the 14th Earl of Shrewsbury in 1743, and his younger brother Thomas became Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District in 1778.

James was educated at the English College, Douai, to which he was a great benefactor. He was ordained to the priesthood on 19 December 1750. At the age of thirty-three, he was appointed the Coadjutor bishop to Dr Richard Challoner, on 10 March 1759. On the same day, Talbot was appointed Titular Bishop of Birtha, and consecrated to the Episcopate by Bishop Challoner on 24 August 1759. During his episcopate he was twice brought to trial, on the information lodged by the well-known informer William Payne, in 1769 and 1771 respectively. In each case he was acquitted for lack of evidence, but the judge, Lord Mansfield, was seen as being on Talbot's side, in consequence of which, although he was no friend to Roman Catholics in general, his London house was sacked during the Gordon Riots of 1780.

On the death of Bishop Challoner in 1781, Talbot became Vicar Apostolic of the London District, which he ruled for nine years. He lived a retired life in Hammersmith, his charitable nature gaining for him the title of "the Good Bishop Talbot". His chief work during these years was the completion of the purchase of the property at Old Hall, Hertfordshire, where he had a preparatory academy which afterwards developed into St Edmund's College. The penal laws against Roman Catholic schools still existed, and Talbot was again threatened with imprisonment; but he contrived to evade punishment. During the last years of his life the Catholic Committee was already threatening trouble. In order to control it, Bishop Talbot allowed himself to be elected a member; but it was soon evident that the laymen were beyond the control of the hierarchy. The crisis however had not yet arrived when in 1790 Talbot died at his house at Hammersmith.

Sources

• "Bishop James Robert Talbot". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney. Retrieved 8 September 2011. 
• "James Talbot, Royal Offences > religious offences, 20th February 1771". The proceedings of the Old Bailey. Retrieved 8 September 2011. 
• Brady, W. Maziere (1876). The Episcopal Succession in England, Scotland and Ireland, A.D. 1400 to 1875. Volume 3. Rome: Tipografia Della Pace. pp. 176–178. 
• Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "James Talbot". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton. 
• Schofield, Nicholas; Skinner, Gerard (2009). The English Vicars Apostolic. Oxford: Family Publications. pp. 44–49. ISBN 978-1-907380-01-3.