ESBVM

Francis Edwards was born on 16 January 1922 at Clapham, son of Reginald, a civil servant, and Phyllis Eleanor Row Edwards. He had a younger sister Eileen. Educated initially at Sir John Bowyer’s (elementary) School, Clapham, he won a "free place" at Walter St John’s Grammar School, Battersea. From 1939 until 1942 he studied history at Birkbeck College, University of London. A member of the Ayrshire Yeomanry( the 152 Field Regiment of the Royal Artillery), he saw action in north Africa, Italy and Austria. On 15 January 1944, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church at Sainte Jeanne d’Arc, Constantine, Algeria. Discharged in 1946, he went to Campion House, Osterley, to complete his undergraduate degree and to prepare for admission into the Society of Jesus. He entered the novitiate at Roehampton on 7 September 1947. He completed philosophical studies at Heythrop College (Oxon.), a diploma in education at Manresa College, and theological studies at the Gregorian University. He was ordained at the Church of Sant’Ignazio, Rome, on 6 July 1957.

Fr Edwards presented us a Congress paper on ‘Marian doctrine and devotion as shown in the writings of some recusant authors in the sixteenth century’, which was subsequently published in One in Christ in 1980. He was a significant historian of the early recusant period, being a member of the Royal Historical Society, the Ecclesiastical History Society and the Catholic Record Society. He was particularly interested in the famous Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

Edwards’ arguments that the Gunpowder Plot was concocted by Sir Robert Cecil (ably following in the footsteps of his father William Cecil, Lord Burghley) to prevent the newly crowned King James I from making any concessions to English Catholics, have not convinced his colleagues. In fact some criticisms bordered on ad hominem. To his credit, Francis Edwards never replied in kind. He consistently promised to deal with many real objections in a future publication.

In 1986 Father Edwards was called to Rome to serve as director of the Roman Archives of the Society of Jesus. For various reasons, including medical, he returned to London in late 1989 to serve on the parish staff at Farm Street. He found time to fulfil the promises so often made and to write what he hoped would be his magnum opus: an extensive study of the Cecilian plots and conspiracies during the Elizabethan and early Jacobean period.

The first two volumes, Plots and Plotters in the Reign of Elizabeth I (Dublin, 2002) and The Succession, Bye and Main Plots of 1601-1603 (Dublin, 2006), have appeared. He had the satisfaction of completing the manuscript of the third volume "The Enigma of Gunpowder Plot 1605: The Third Solution" shortly before his death. It is hoped that this manuscript, the final word of the last No-Plotter, will eventually be published.

Fr Edwards died on 14 September 2006, after a year-long battle with cancer of the oesophagus.