The Wykehamist
Primus in Indis
Thomas Stephens( 1551-1619, Coll: 1565)
Given Thomas Stephens’ pivotal place in the earliest days of England’ s involvement in India, it is remarkable that he has been so little celebrated. Earned 400 years ago, does Stephens deserve the title‘ First Englishman in India’?
Born in the 16 th century at a time when England’ s official religion made five significant changes in a 30-year period, his life was in large part defined by his religion. Stephens( or Stevens according to some interpretations of the Register of Scholars) left Winchester determined to eschew Anglicanism and convert others to the Catholic faith. Arriving in Goa in 1579, his eloquent letter home, describing the journey from Lisbon, is said to have inspired interest in the sub-continent of India and even to have influenced the formation of the East India Company. His devotion to his Goanese flock and his ability with language tongues resulted in a legacy that is still in evidence today as a grammar for Konkani, one of the official languages of modern India.
Stephens was born in Wiltshire around 1551. His father, also Thomas Stephens, was a London merchant and his brother Richard is probably the Stephens recorded in the Register of Scholars for 1553. The Register notes that he was born in Bushton, Wiltshire. He arrived at Winchester in the early years of Elizabeth’ s reign, just when Catholicism was facing a backlash after the Queen Mary years. However, there would have been many Catholic influences on him. The Headmaster, Christopher Johnston( 1560-71), and Warden Thomas Stempe( 1556-81) are said to have been‘ Catholics at heart’ and Catholic practices had been allowed to flourish in the College under predecessors such as John White( HM, 1535-42; Warden, 42-54), who preached at the funeral of Queen Mary. Furthermore, allowances had been made by the Reformers for Oxford and Cambridge colleges( the privilege extended to Winchester and Eton) to hold church services in Latin, so that students could better practise their knowledge of the language.
After leaving Winchester, Thomas fell in with another Wykehamist and staunch Catholic supporter, Thomas Pounde. Together they resolved to enter the Society of Jesus and become Jesuits. Pounde was not initial-
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