Dom William Gregory Cowley, OSB

William Gregory Cowley, O.S.B., President of the English Benedictine Monks, at Vernon Hall, Lancashire http://books.google.com/books?id=xOsCAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA173&lpg=PA173&dq...

Order of Saint Benedict The Order of Saint Benedict (Latin name: Ordo Sancti Benedicti) is a Roman Catholic religious order of independent monastic communities that observe the Rule of Saint Benedict. Within the order, each individual community (which may be a monastery, a priory or abbey) maintains its own autonomy, while the organization as a whole exists to represent their mutual interests. In the English Reformation, all monasteries were dissolved and their lands confiscated by the Crown, forcing their Catholic members to flee into exile on the Continent, although during the 19th century they were able to return to England, including to Selby Abbey in Yorkshire, one of the few great monastic churches to survive the Dissolution.

[The Rev. William Gregory] Cowley, [O.S.B.], at Vernon Hall, [near Liverpool, Lancashire], to [the Rt Rev. Charles Berington, Vicar Apostolic of the Midalnd District]; congratulates him on the end of his troubles and asks his help for a similar solution for Mr [the Rev. Joseph] Wilks. [Copy, in the hand of the Rev. John Kirk] [This document is kept with C1007] http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=1480-z5_2&c...

British History Online: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=53411&strquery=...

"Dom" is an honorific prefixed to the given name. It derives from the Latin Dominus (dominant). It was used in English for certain Benedictine monks who belongrf to the royal and imperial families. Dom has historically been used on occasions in French, as an honorific for Benedictine monks, such as the famous Dom Pérignon.

Gregory Cowley, who had set up Vernon Hall School in Lancashire in 1795 had his pupils recite Perrin's Dialogues by heart in their French grammar lessons (Diocese of Clifron Archives, 1796 vol., no.4) http://www.plantata.org.uk/pdf1977-1996/1993scott.htm