Background
He was born in county Durham, of Protestant parents who disowned him when he became a Roman Catholic convert.
He was born in county Durham, of Protestant parents who disowned him when he became a Roman Catholic convert.
Having completed his studies, he was ordained a priest, and spent several years, from 1662, as procurator or agent at the College of Saint Omer.
He is a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1929 by Pope Pius XI. He was made a professed father in 1676, and was sent to England the same year. He resided in London as procurator of Saint Omer"s College, and was also one of the missionary fathers there. In 1678 he was summoned, on the information of Titus Oates, to appear before the Privy Council, and committed to Newgate Prison.
His correspondence was seized, but to the Crown"s disappointment it turned out to be completely innocuous: as he forcefully pointed out at his second trial, among at least a thousand letters there was not one word of treason.
He was tried for high treason with William Ireland, in that they had conspired to kill King Charles II, a charge fabricated by Oates and later embellished by other informers. As the evidence of treason was insufficient, he was remanded back to prison.
Oates and two other notorious informers, William Bedloe and Stephen Dugdale, were the main witnesses against them, and in accordance with the direction of Lord Chief Justice William Scroggs the jury found the prisoners guilty, despite their spirited defence. At the end of the prosecution case Fenwick made a vigorous protest:
"I have had a thousand letters taken from me: not any of these letters had anything of treason in them.
All the evidence comes but to this: there is but saying and swearing."
The five Jesuits suffered death at Tyburn on 20 June 1679: as an act of clemency the King, who was well aware that they were innocent, but realised that it would be politically unthinkable to grant a royal pardon or reprieve, ordered that they be allowed to hang until they were dead, and be spared the indignity of drawing and quartering.
In a sign that public synpathy was turning against the Plot, the large crowd heard them out in respectful silence, as each maintained his innocence. Fenwick"s remains were buried in the churchyard of Saint Giles-in-the-Fields.