Francis Wegg-Prosser

Francis Richard Wegg-Prosser (19 June 1824 – 16 August 1911), born Francis Richard Haggitt, was a wealthy Englishman and Roman Catholic convert who established the Benedictine community which became Belmont Abbey and so played a significant role in the English Catholic Revival.

Early life Wegg-Prosser was born Francis Richard Haggitt, the only son of Prebendary Francis Haggitt, rector of Nuneham Courtenay Oxfordshire. He was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford from where he graduated with a Mathematics degree in 1845.

Public service He served as Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Herefordshire from 1847 to 1852. In 1849, he inherited the very substantial estates (estimated at over £250,000 - equivalent to around £10 million in 2005) of his great-uncle, Richard Prosser, Archdeacon of Durham. At the time of this inheritance he changed his name by royal licence to Wegg-Prosser. He also translated, under the title Rome and her captors (London, 1875), the letters collected by Count Henri d'Ideville upon the Roman question of 1867–70.

In 1850 he married Lady Harriet Catherine, daughter of the second Earl Somers. She died in 1893, leaving two sons and two daughters.

He died near Hereford, England, in 1911, aged 87.