"In my new abode, I was able to live much more quietly and more to my taste, inasmuch as nearly all the members of the house were Catholics; and thus it was easier for me to conform to the manner of life of the Society, both as regards dress and the arrangement of my time.... While in this residence (and I was there all but two years) I gave much time to my studies. At times I made missionary excursions, and not only did I reconcile many, but I confirmed some Catholic families in the Faith, and placed two Priests in stations where they might be useful to souls."
Amongst those to whom Father Gerard gave the Spiritual Exercises while in this residence, were two brothers of the name of Wiseman, who entered the Novitiate of St. Andrew at Rome "under the names of Starkie and Standish, which they assumed," says Father Gerard, "as a remembrance of me; for under these I passed in the first and second county where I took up my residence." The one died there, and the other at St. Omers, not long after. Their eldest brother was William Wiseman, of Braddocks, or Broadoaks, a family mansion(26) which stands in the fields two miles from Wimbish Church, in Essex. "He had lately come to his estate on the death of his father, and had made himself a large deer park in it. There he lived like a little king, in ease and independence, surrounded by his children, to whom, as well as to his wife, he was tenderly attached. As he kept clear of Priests from the Seminaries, he lived unmolested, feeling nothing of the burden and heat of the day; for the persecutors troubled chiefly those who harboured the Seminarists, not caring to inquire after those who kept the old Priests, that is, those who had taken Orders before the reign of Elizabeth.... In his house there was living my host's mother, a most excellent widow lady, happy in her children, but still happier in her private virtues. She had four sons and four daughters. These latter, without exception, devoted their virginity to God. Two had already joined the holy Order of St. Bridget before my arrival," Ann and Barbara;(27) "and one of these," Barbara, "is even at this day Abbess in Lisbon. I sent the two others," Jane and Bridget "to Flanders, where they still serve God in the Order of St. Augustine at Louvain. Her sons were all pious young men; two," Thomas and John, "died in the Society, as was related above; the third," Robert, "chose the army, and was lately slain in a battle with the heretics in Belgium; he fell fighting when many around him had surrendered; the fourth," William,(28) who married Jane, daughter of Sir Edmund Huddleston, Knight, "was the master of that house, who to his mother's great joy, had given himself up to every good work."