St. Joseph's Church
A History of Catholicism in Leyton

St. Thomas More and Family

The family of Thomas More (1531-1606), son of Saint Thomas More, were the most notable mainstays of Catholicism in Leyton in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Thomas settled here in 1582 and from that date his family, servants, and friends living in Leyton, were repeatedly charged with recusancy at quarter sessions, at assizes, and in the archdeacon 's court. Among those charged along with them were Lady Guldeford and members of the Gage and Povey families, who were related by marriage. The Tyas family, who were tenants of the Mores on their forfeited estates in Yorkshire, were also charged. Thomas himself was in prison from 1582 to 1586. In 1593, as required, he registered his name with the Vicar and constable.

The More family lived quietly on their small Leyton estate, which remained free of sequestration. Mary More, wife of Thomas, was reported in 1605 as being 'no seducer of others. bringeth up her children and servants in recusancy. of peaceable and quiet carriage'.

After the death of Thomas in 1606 the indictments at quarter sessions continued against his son, Christopher Cresacre More, and his household. In 1613 Cresacre took the oath of allegiance and was not presented again after 1614. Between 1616 and 1629 he was frequently licensed to leave Leyton, officially his place of confinement, and appears to have left here about 1617 to settle on the family estate at North Mimms in Hertfordshire, though described as 'of Leyton' in licence's up to 1629. Cresacre continued to own the Leyton house until his death in 1649. However, after his son Thomas (died 1660), he conformed in 1650. The More's estates were cleared of penalties and then the Leyton house was probably sold. The house stood on what is now the present cricket ground and there is a plaque to commemorate it on Leyton High Road opposite Francis Road.

The Beginnings of a Catholic Community

In 1676 no papists were reported in Leyton, but by 1766 many Irish papists were reported in the parish, and again in 1810, many of the lower class were said to be "Irish papists."

The Cemetery, Cardinal Wiseman & Etloe House

St. Patrick's Catholic cemetery, provided by London Catholics, was opened in Union - now Langthorne Road in 1861.

Etloe House was leased in 1856 as a country house for the first Catholic Archbishop of Westminster - Cardinal Wiseman - who lived there from 1858 to 1864. Apparently, Cardinal Wiseman did not move to Leyton from Walthamstow until 1858, although the rates for Etloe House were being paid in the name of a Revd. F. Searle from 1856 , and a tithe commutation rent charge was due in January 1857.

St. Joseph's started as part of the Westminster Archdiocese under Cardinal Vaughan. The first baptism registered in the parish records is by a Fr. Thomas Ryan, who baptised a George Furnell on 1st November 1881. There was no Catholic Church in Leyton until February 1897 when Father F. C. G. Brown was chosen to found a mission.

Services were at first held in the chapel of St. Agnes school and orphanage, formerly Cardinal Wiseman's home and now Etloe House in Church Road. Etloe House, which was sold after Cardinal Wiseman's death in 1865 and privately owned for about 40 year's, was known as St. Pelagia's Home from 1908. St. Pelagia's provided originally for the destitute, and later for mentally handicapped women and was run by the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary until the early 1980s. The Sisters continue to live in their convent at Chigwell.

St. Agnes Catholic 'poor school' was established in 1874 at Leyton House, renamed, Park House. In 1882 it was a mixed school combined with an orphanage. The St. Agnes Orphanage in Church Road moved to Brentwood in 1901. The London Electric Wire Company, Leyton's largest employer and Europe's largest wire manufacturer, acquired the Leyton House and extensive grounds. The site is now an industrial and housing estate.

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