Edward Fortescue

Edward Bowles Knottesford-Fortescue (1816–1877) was an English Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism. Life Edward Fortescue was born in 1816 in Stoke-by-Nayland in Suffolk, the son of Francis Fortescue and his wife Maria, only daughter of the Revd George Downing, rector of Ovington and prebendary of Ely Cathedral. Francis Fortescue inherited the estate of Bridgeton with the manors of Alveston and Teddington from his father's cousin, John Knottesford, who was also godfather to Francis. Upon coming of age, Francis added the name Knottesford, which was a condition of the will. Francis and Maria had two sons, George and Edward. Fortescue's father was ordained in the Church of England. In 1823 the family moved to the family estate at Alveston on the outskirt of Stratford-on-Avon, where Francis Fortescue became rector of the parish of Billesley. Fortescue was educated at home before entering Wadham College, Oxford, on 5 June 1834 at the age of 18. He acquired a B.A. in 1838, and an M.A. in 1842. He was ordained in 1840. After a curacy in Billesley, he became the incumbent at Wilmcote. The Oxford Movement was a Catholic revival movement in the Church of England beginning in the early 19th century, centred in Oxford, and Wilmcote was the site they chose to build a church, a school and a retreat house. The early 19th-century village had no church and was then a part of the adjoining parish of Aston Cantlow but with a growing working class population due to the growth of the Wilmcote quarries, the village was much in need of a church and a school. The modern church of St Andrew, built in 1841, is a monument to the influence of the Oxford Movement in the parish. It was built by the Francis Fortescue-Knottesford and Edward, who became the first curate, to meet the semi-industrial conditions created by the opening of the cement works in the 1830s. The parishes were re-organized, and portions of the parishes of Aston Cantlow and Stratford-on-Avon became the consolidated chapelry of St Andrew, Wilmcote. Fortescue introduced the use of Eucharistic vestments while at Wilmcote. He was "highly regarded as a preacher and retreat master".