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314 CASSIAN OF STANLEY This paper, however, has a much humbler role than to try to unravel the tangled skein of fact and fiction that has surrounded the memory of Father Archangel: that would claim a separate study. The main purpose of the present essay is to offer a piece of information that has, as far as I am aware, passed unnoticed. Nevertheless, at the risk of some unevennes in the present study something will be said first of the friar's family background. The Barlows of Slebech William Barlow, later to be known as Archangel of Pembroke, was the second son of John Barlow of Slebech in Pembrokeshire and his wife, Elizabeth Fisher of Marton. The Barlows were people of some standing in Pembrokeshire, and William was born about 1568, probably at Slebech, the family seat. If Welsh by birth, he was certainly English by descent, for the Barlows had not been settled long in Wales 4 • His branch of the family had been well established and well connected in Essex and held property there and in Hert– fordshire. However, one of its members implicated in the rebellion of Perkin Warbeck in making his escape to the Continent had sought shelter at the house of William's great grandfather. The unfortunate host was committed to the Tower and his whole estate was confiscated and given by Henry VII to Earl de Vere, Count of Oxford. « After wch Troubles», William's brother records in an interesting account of the family, « my Grandfather Roger Barlow Esq. & his brothers were constrained (being thereby destitute of means) to seek their Fortunes » 5 • These impoverished children made their way in the world quite successfully. Three of the four sons entered the Church and the only daughter, Elizabeth, after being maid of honour to Queen Margaret -of Scotland, married first Lord Elphinstone and on his death became tivita missionaria dei Minori Cappuccini nel Brasile (1538?-1889), Roma 1959, 45. Totally mis– taken regarding Father Archangel's identity is the reference in J. 0RCIBAL, Les origines du Jansenisme. II: Jean Duvergier, Abbe de Saint-Cyran et son temps (1581-1638), Louvain-Paris 1947, p.14 n.4. 4 L. DwNN, Heraldic Visitations of Wales and part of the Marches between 1586 and 1613 I, Llandovery 1846, 117-118. Here is provided a pedigree of the first Barlows in Wales. Father Archangel's brother, George Barlow, in a marginal note in a manuscript to be described later, states: « It pleased Almightie God to raise the Farnely of Barlow to an Estate not much inferior to that they formerly enioyed but removed unto a remote Country by the space of 100 yeares, yet nevertheless reputed strangers ... » (Cf. Cardiff ms. 4.97 appendix. f.9r). 5 The account of the Barlow family by George Barlow is found in a bound manuscript in Cardiff Public Library and is known as Cardiff ms. 4.97. This manuscript, which bears on its spine the title Collectanea Barlowi[ana], is, chiefly, a commonplace-book compiled by the Capuchin's brother. In a separately paginated section or appendix there is An Inventarie of Uniting the Ancient Fameleies of Barlowe and Barley written by G.B. late of Slebech Esq. This will be cited, hereafter, as Cardiff ms. 4.97 app.