George Anselm Touchet

George Anselm Touchet

Born at Stalbridge, Dorset; died about 1689. He was second son of Mervyn, twelfth Lord Audley, second Earl of Castlehaven, and a man of profligate life; his first wife was Elizabeth Barnham. He was professed as a Benedictine at St. Gregory's, Douai, 22 Nov., 1643, taking the name Anselm in religion. Being sent on the mission in the south of England, he was finally appointed chaplain to Queen Catherine of Braganza in 1671. In that capacity he lived at Somerset House till 1675, when he was banished.

Dodd states that he was expressly excluded from the succession to the Earldom of Castlehaven by the Act of Parliament which in 1678 confirmed the earldom to his elder brother James. While living in London he published a book called "Historical Collections out of several grave Protestant Historians concerning the Changes in religion, and the strange confusions following, etc." (1674; 2nd ed., 1686), and in 1680 he issued "The Secret Paths of Divine Love", translated by him from the French of Constantine Barbason.

DODD, Church History, III (Brussels vere Wolverhampton, 1737-1742); KIRK, Biographies of English Catholics (London, 1909); OLIVER, Collections (London, 1857); WELDON, Chronological Notes (London, 1881); SNOW, Necrology of the English Benedictines (London, 1883); COOPER in Dict. Nat. Biog.; GILLOW, Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath.

EDWIN BURTON