'' (1792) Francis Plowden, born in
Shropshire on 8 June 1749, was the eighth son of William Ignatius Plowden of
Plowden Hall; his grandfather was Charles, fifth Baron Dormer of Wenge and five of his brothers became Jesuits including
Charles Plowden and
Robert Plowden. He was educated at
St. Omer's College and entered the Jesuit novitiate at
Watten in 1766. When the Society was
suppressed, he was teaching at the College at
Bruges. Not being in
holy orders he was, by the terms of suppression, relieved of his first vows, and soon afterwards married Dorothea, daughter of George J. Griffith Phillips, esq., of Curaegwillinag,
Carmarthenshire. "Curaegwillinag" is an
anglicisation of the Welsh placename for an old
commote located in Carmarthenshire.
Kymwt Carnywyllawn was in
Cantref Eginawc (anglicized as "Eginog"), which was in
Ystrad Tywi. He entered the
Middle Temple and practiced as a
conveyancer, the only department of the legal profession open to Catholics under the
Penal Laws. After the
Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 (
31 Geo. 3. c. 32) he was called to the Bar. His first major work,
Jura Anglorum, appeared in 1792, a conservative formulation of natural rights and contract theory. It was attacked in a pamphlet by his brother
Robert Plowden, a priest under the title of "A Roman Catholic Clergyman". The book was so highly thought of that the
University of Oxford presented him with the honorary degree of
D.C.L., a unique distinction for a Catholic of those days. His improvidence, extreme views, and intractable disposition made his life a troubled one. Having fallen out with the
Lord Chancellor, he ceased to practice at the bar and devoted himself to writing. While in Dublin (1811) he published his work "Ireland since the Union" which led to a prosecution on the part of the Government for libel, resulting in a verdict of £5000 damages. Plowden considered that this was rewarded by a packed jury and determined not to pay it. He escaped to
Paris where he spent the remaining years of his life in comparative poverty as a professor at the
Scots College, dying on 4 January 1829, aged 79. ==Family==