Charles Sidney Beauclerk

Fr Charles Sidney de Vere Beauclerk SJ (1 January 1855 – 22 November 1934) was a Jesuit priest who attempted to turn the town of Holywell into the "Lourdes of Wales". He was also notable for his connection to the novelist Frederick Rolfe, and for his involvement in the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship. Early life Beauclerk was the third child of Charles Beauclerk, a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and Joaquina Zamora, daughter of Don J M Zamora, Chief Magistrate of Cuba. Beauclerk (pronounced bo-clair) was a male line great-grandson of Topham Beauclerk, and consequently direct descendant of Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans, illegitimate son of Charles II and Nell Gwyn. He was also descended from Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford and Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough. Educated at Beaumont College, he became a Jesuit in 1875 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1888. One of his brothers, Henry Beauclerk, also became a Jesuit, serving as a missionary in British Guiana (now Guyana), and another brother, Robert Beauclerk, joined the Jesuits but left before completing his seminary training. Holywell Beauclerk was Parish Priest at Holywell in North Wales from 1890 to 1898. Holywell was named from St Winefride's Well, a holy well surrounded by a chapel. The well has been known since at least the Roman period, and has been a site of pilgrimage since about 660 when Saint Winefride was beheaded there. At the time of Beauclerk's arrival the town was in a state of apparently "terminal decay", with industrial decline and poor housing. Beauclerk intended to restore Holywell to its former status as a centre of Catholic pilgrimage, aspiring to "purify it with literature and art". He developed the Holywell processions, and promoted the events through a journal, the Holywell Record, bringing in a significant number of pilgrims. He was assisted by Father Fletcher who established the Guild of Our Lady of Ransom in the town and predicted that Holywell would become the "centre for the conversion of England" to Catholicism. Beauclerk also believed that this would soon occur. He promoted a beautification programme for the town, including church rebuilding and public decorative schemes. He also commissioned Catholic religious art, most notably a statue of Jesus as The Sacred Heart, which was transported through the town in a massive procession.