Edward Caswall: Marriage

Contributed by Valerie Kerslake for St Peter's Church Millennium Festival, 2000

A year after his appointment to Stratford-sub-Castle, Edward Caswall married Louisa, daughter of General Walker of Taunton, who shared his interest in literature and also in the Roman Catholic church that was already preoccupying him. The two of them travelled in Ireland and on the Continent to see how Catholicism was practised abroad. Back in his Wiltshire parish Caswall is said to have introduced a daily communion service for poor children, followed by a meal at the vicarage. It was while here that he wrote, or more often translated, many of the hymns that still appear in our hymn-books today.

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