Arthur Hamilton.
P.S.—I shall be happy to give further information and more details if required, and inclose my card to the Editor.
VICARS-APOSTOLIC IN ENGLAND.
(Vol. vi., pp. 125. 297. 400.)
I send the following as some answer to the inquiries made by your correspondent A. S. A. For the more ample account of Bishop Ellis, I am indebted to an article in the Rambler, vol. vii. p. 313., entitled "Collections illustrating the History of the English Benedictine Congregation."
Richard Smith, appointed Bishop of Chalcis, Feb. 4, 1625, and Vicar-Apostolic of England; he withdrew to France four years afterwards, and died in Paris in 1655, aged eighty-eight, in a house belonging to the English convent upon the Fossé St. Victor. He was probably buried in the convent chapel, where a monument to his memory was erected. See the Rev. Joseph Berington's Memoirs of Panzani, p. 109.
John Leyburn, consecrated Bishop of Adrumetum, and appointed Vicar-Apostolic of England, 1685: on the country being divided into four vicariats in 1688, he was appointed to the London, or southern district. On the breaking out of the revolution in the same year, he was committed to the Tower; but his peaceable and inoffensive conduct soon caused him to be discharged, and he was suffered to remain unmolested until his death, which occurred in 1703. He was greatly beloved and respected by his flock.
Bonaventure Giffard, of the ancient Roman Catholic family of the Giffards of Chillington, Staffordshire, appointed Vicar-Apostolic of the Midland District, 1688. Like Bishop Leyburn, on the breaking out of the revolution, he was committed to the Tower, but was soon released, and on the condition of always making the place of his abode known to the government, he passed the remainder of his days unmolested. On the death of Bishop Leyburn in 1703, he was removed to the London, or southern district, where he died March 12, 1734, aged ninety. There is a good portrait of Bishop Giffard at the Roman Catholic College of Old Hall Green in Hertfordshire.
Philip Ellis, third son of Rev. John Ellis, Rector of Waddesden, Bucks, by his wife Susanna Welbore, whilst a pupil in Westminster School, was called to the Catholic faith, and to the grace of religion, in St. Gregory's Convent, Douay, where he made his profession, 30th November, 1670, æt. eighteen. After duly qualifying himself for the ministry, he was sent to labour in the English vineyard. His great abilities recommended him to the notice of King James II., who appointed him one of his chaplains and preachers; and when Innocent XI., on 30th January, 1688, signified his wish that his majesty would nominate three fit subjects to fill the newly constituted vicariats, midland, northern, and western (for Dr. John Leyburn, Bishop of Adrumetum, during the last three years had governed the whole of England), Father Ellis, then thirty-six years of age, was selected for the western vicariat, and was consecrated bishop on Sunday, 6th May, 1688, at St. James's, where the king had established a convent of fourteen Benedictine monks, by the title of Aureliopolis. In the second week of July, the new prelate confirmed a considerable number of youths, some of them recent converts, in the new chapel of the Savoy. (Ellis Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 62.) In his letter (ibid. p. 145.) to his brother John, dated from St. James's, 26th August, 1688, he describes the uneasiness of the court at the preparations making in Holland by the Prince of