WATERWORTH, WILLIAM

WATERWORTH, WILLIAM. — Jesuit, born on 22 June 1811 at St. Helen’s (Lancashire), died on 17 March 1882 at Bournemouth.

He studied at Stonyhurst College, entered the Society of Jesus in 1829, and from 1833 taught at a school opened by the Jesuits in London. Ordained a priest in 1836, he completed his theological studies in Rome. Professor of dogmatic theology at Stonyhurst Seminary from 1838 to

1841, parish priest at Hereford until 1854 and thereafter in London, he was rector of St. George’s College, Worcester (1857–78), and superior of the Bournemouth mission (1880–82). He published several works on English ecclesiastical history: England and Rome, or the history of the religious connexion between England and the Holy See (179-1534) (London 1854); Origin and developments of Anglicanism (ibid. 1854); On the gradual absorption of early anglicanism by the Popedons (ibid. 1854); Queen Elizabeth versus the Lord Chancellor or a history of the Prayer Book of the Church of England (ibid. 1871). He also wrote a history of the Society of Jesus (The Jesuits, ibid. 1852) and of the Irish Church (The Church of St. Patrick, ibid. 1869).

BIBL.: Sommervogel, VIII, 1001-1002; anon., Some Reminiscences of Fth. W. W., in Letters and Notices, Roehampton 1883, pp. 145-58; T. Cooper, s. V. in Dict. of Nat. Biogr., XX, London 1921-22, pp. 908-909, with bibliography. Silvio Furlani
Cite this article

“WATERWORTH, WILLIAM.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XII (1954), p. 1031. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/waterworth-william.