William Weathers

Who was William Weathers?

Bishop William Weathers was a Roman Catholic bishop of the Catholic Church in England and Wales as well the titular Bishop of Amyela.

His parents were originally Protestants from Wales. He, his mother and siblings were converted to Roman Catholicism after his father's death. He was educated at the Franciscan school at Baddesley, and at Old Hall, where he remained for forty years, and held in turn every office. Before his ordination he was already a master. He was prefect of discipline 1840–43, vice-president and procurator 1843–51, prefect of studies for some years, and president 1851–68.

His presidency forms a memorable epoch in the history of the college and of Catholicism in southern England. The years succeeding the restoration of the Hierarchy saw a readjustment of standards.

With a view to invigorate the future secular clergy, Archbishop Henry Edward Manning, also a convert to Roman Catholicism, albeit from Anglicanism, thought it necessary that the control of the seminary should be in the hands of his newly formed congregation, the Oblates of St. Charles. Under Manning's influence, Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman appointed a staff at St Edmund's College, Ware, who were neither desired nor welcomed by the president. The result was an attempt to manage the college without the president's co-operation. The Westminster Chapter took up the matter, and, after an appeal to Rome, the Oblates were withdrawn in 1861.