John Arnold of Monmouthshire

John Arnold, widely known as John Arnold of Monmouthshire ( – 1702), was an English Protestant politician and Whig MP. He was one of the most prominent people in the Welsh county of Monmouthshire in the late 17th century. Arnold represented the constituencies around Monmouth (known as the Monmouth Boroughs) and Southwark in Parliament in the 1680s and 1690s. Arnold was also a notable priest hunter during the religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Wales. His strongly anti-Catholic and Whiggist beliefs and private war against underground local Catholic priests, such as St David Lewis, and Recusant laity made Arnold a particularly unpopular and controversial figure in his native Monmouthshire. In his later years, his behaviour became increasingly eccentric, and he was widely believed to have faked an attempt on his own life. Amongst his close associates, particularly during the anti-Catholic moral panic and witch hunt based on the conspiracy theory known as the Popish Plot, were fellow Whigs Titus Oates and Lord Shaftesbury. More recently, Jan Morris dubbed Arnold, "the most ferocious... of all the persecutors of the Catholics in Wales".

Early life

Arnold was born in Southwark, around 1635, the first son of Nicholas Arnold of Llanvihangel Crucorney and his wife Lettice Moore, and the maternal grandson of Sir Edward Moore of Drogheda, County Louth. The Arnold family had their seat in Llanthony Priory by the end of the 16th century but had to lease it to the Hoptons owing to financial difficulties. Llanvihangel Court became the family seat and John succeeded his father in 1665. Educated in Southwark, he became Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1669.

Arnold was made a deputy lieutenant, captain of the county troops, and Justice of the Peace in 1677 by Henry Somerset, 3rd Marquess of Worcester. However, Worcester formed a strong dislike for Arnold, and a lifelong feud began between them when Worcester had him "turned out of the commission of the peace for opposing his candidate at a by-election and generally 'affronting' him". Arnold reportedly gave some of his harshest criticism to its steward, Henry Milbourne, describing him as an "undoubted Papist" who only "held lands worth £100 per annum in one county, but is made justice of the peace in four". He denounced Milbourne in the House of Commons but with little success; several MPs believed Arnold's report was poorly constructed and some believed that the lord-lieutenant was a Catholic activist in south Wales. On 17 November 1678, Arnold also captured Father David Lewis, also known as Charles Baker, at St Michael's Church in Llantarnam. Father Lewis spent the night "in an upper room under John Arnold's roof" at Llanvihangel Court.