Ferdinand Poulton

Who was Ferdinand Poulton?

Ferdinand Poulton, S.J, was a Jesuit missionary in the newly founded Province of Maryland. He was born to a noble family in either 1601 or 1603 in Buckinghamshire, England, and was educated at the College of St. Omer in Artois, France. He entered the English College of Rome in 1619 for his higher education and joined the Society of Jesus in 1622. He was back at St. Omer's in 1633 and at Watten, Nord, in 1636. He completed his initiation into the Jesuit order on December 8, 1635. To help hide his identity from anti-Catholic authorities Poulton, like other Jesuits, used aliases including Father John Brooks and John Morgan, an alias that his uncle, who was also named Ferdinand Poulton, had previously used.

Poulton first arrived in British North America in 1638. He joined other Jesuits including Andrew White, Thomas Copley, John Altham Gravenor, and Thomas Gervase at the colony they had begun in 1634 near St. Mary's City, Maryland. He was quickly elected Superior of Mission, replacing Thomas Copley, though Copley would later retake this leadership role. While the Superior, Poulton was summoned by Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore to attend the Maryland Assembly on September 19, 1640. Poulton lived primarily at the Jesuits' Proprietary at Mattapany on the Patuxent River.