17/05/2026
Who discovered the secret Catholic activities in the chapel at the mansion? 💭
In the 1600s, the Gunter family remained committed to Catholicism at a time when it was illegal and dangerous in Britain.
At Gunter Mansion, we think Thomas converted the attic into a hidden chapel. Here, Catholics would have gathered for Masses led by Jesuit priests, including David Lewis and Philip Evans.
The chapel attracted official attention. In 1678, John Arnold, a Justice of the Peace, reported Thomas Gunter’s activities to the government during the period known as the Popish Plot.
Read an extract from Arnold’s report in 1678 below.
“...that he had seen a Publick chapel near the house of Mr Thomas Gunter, a papist convict, in Abergavenny, adorned with the mark of the Jesuits on the outside, and is informed that Mass is said there by Captain Evans, a reported Jesuit, and by the aforesaid David Lewis in that very great numbers resort to the said chapel and very often at Church time, and he hath credibly heard that hundreds have gone out of the said chapel when not forty have gone out of the said church, that the said chapel is situate in a publick street of the said town, and doth front the street.”
Both Philip Evans and David Lewis were later arrested and executed.
You can read more about Gunter Mansion’s history on our website:
https://www.plasguntermansion.org.uk/history
