A history of St. Aldhelm’s Roman Catholic Church
The story of catholic faith here in Malmesbury is an interesting one. In June 1848, a young French Priest of the order of Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales was sent from Annecy the Mother house to a village called Kamptee in India. It so happened that near that village, the Wiltshire Regiment was encamped and Captain Dewell whose home was in Malmesbury and who had recently been received into the Catholic Church was leading the regiment. Providentially, Caption Dewell had met Father Larive and gradually made acquaintance with him.
The English officer dreamed of starting a mission in his native town, and requested Fr. Larive if he could help. Captain Dewell decided to resign his commission and the two left India and travelled to Malmesbury. It was a bitter disappointment for captain Dewell to find on his arrival, in May 1861, that his house had contrary to his instructions been let on a 5 year lease which would not expire until 1866. Father Larive went to Chippenham and from there, started a mission in Devizes, and Captain Dewell entered the Jesuit novitiate and became a lay brother. As regards starting a mission in Malmesbury, Bishop of Clifton told Father Larive to wait, and the Order also wrote to him not to start any new mission in England because of the financial restrains that the order was facing. But Brother Dewell begged Father Larive not to forget his aim of starting a mission in Malmesbury.