Weld, Thomas, Cardinal (1773 -1837)

Thomas Weld was the eldest son of Thomas Weld of Lulworth Castle in Dorset, and Mary, daughter of Sir John Massey Stanley of Hooton. From an old Roman Catholic family, he was educated at home, and early showed great piety. When the Society of Jesus and other religious orders fled at the French Revolution, he and his father gave Stonyhurst to the Jesuits, and Lulworth to the Trappists, and also assisted several orders of nuns. He married, 14 June 1796, Lucy Bridget Clifford, second daughter of Thomas Clifford of Tixall, fourth son of Hugh, 3rd Lord Clifford. They had one daughter, and when his wife died, and after the marriage of his daughter, he decided to enter the priesthood, and was ordained 7 April 1821. He was made a Bishop, with the intention of helping in the mission field in Canada in 1826, but his daughter fell ill and he accompanied her and her husband to Italy. While there, in 1830 [or 1829?], Pius VIII made him a Cardinal. The stamp is made out of separate pieces. Books from his library were sold, after a fire at Lulworth Castle, by Sotheby's on 3 March 1930. They were then the property of Mrs Alfred Noyes, the wife of the poet, and the widow of Richard Shirburne Weld Blundell, of Ince Blundell Hall in Lancashire.