Ralph Weldon (12 April 1674 – 23 November 1713) was an English Benedictine monk and chronicler.

Biography

Weldon was from the ancient family of Weldon of

Swanscombe Swanscombe /ˈswɔnzkəm/ is a town in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England, and the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe. It is 4.4 miles west of Gravesend and 4.8 miles east of Dartford. History Prehistory Bone fragments and to ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

. He was the seventeenth child of Colonel George Weldon (youngest son of Sir

Anthony Weldon Sir Anthony Weldon (1583–1648) was an English 17th-century courtier and politician. He is also the purported author of ''The Court and Character of King James I'', although this attribution has been challenged. Relations with King James The st ...

) and of his wife, Lucy Necton. He was born in London on 12 April (N.S.) 1674, and was christened at the Savoy. Being converted to the catholic religion by Father Joseph Johnstone, he made his abjuration at St. James's Chapel on 12 October 1687. He made his profession as a Benedictine monk in the convent of St. Edmund at Paris on 13 January 1691–2. Although a very learned man, he could never be induced to take priest's orders. He died at St. Edmund's on 23 November 1713. He was the author of ‘A Chronicle of the English Benedictine Monks from the renewing of their Congregation in the days of Queen Mary to the death of King James II’ ondon, 1882 4to. The original manuscript, consisting of two folio volumes of ‘Chronological Notes,’ is preserved at Ampleforth, and there is an abridgment of it at St. Gregory's, Downside.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weldon, Ralph 1674 births 1713 deaths Benedictine monks English monks 17th-century Christian monks 18th-century Christian monks People from London English chroniclers