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Parson to Printer: A Victorian Convert’s Story
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 February 2015
Extract
In 1910 W. Gordon Gorman identified 572 clergymen of the Church of England who had become Catholics in the previous sixty years. Of this number a large proportion had gone on to seek ordination, but the marital status of many precluded this possibility. In addition to the sacrifices that married convert clergymen had to make, those without extensive private means were also faced with the necessity of earning their living and supporting their wives and children. This article charts the fortunes of one of their number, the difficult path to Rome, and his subsequent attempts to be of service to his new Communion.
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References
Notes
1 Gorman, W. G., Converts to Rome: a Biographical List of the More Notable Converts to the Catholic Church in the United Kingdom during the last sixty years (London, 1910), p. xiii.Google Scholar
2 V. Alan McClelland, ‘The Formative Years, 1850–92’, in Alan McClelland, V. and Hodgetts, Michael (editors), From Without the Flaminian Gate: 150 Years of Roman Catholicism in England and Wales, 1850–2000 (London, 1999), pp. 14–17 Google Scholar.
3 Francis White & Co., History, Gazetteer and Directory of the County of Derby (Sheffield, 1857), p. 288 states that in 1851 there were 19 houses and 114 inhabitants in Kirk Hallam and 76 houses and 359 inhabitants in Mapperley. Birmingham Archdiocesan Archives [hereafter, BAA], R1359, Letter from George Augustus Selwyn, Bishop of Lichfield, to Alfred Newdigate, 27 February 1868, gives the population as 100 at Kirk Hallam and 435 at Mapperley.
4 White, History, p. 288. Hamilton, N. E. S. A., The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland, 3 vols (London, 1868), vol. 2, p. 171 Google Scholar valued the living at £280, but by the end of the century the tithe rent-charge had fallen to £208; see Kelly’s Directory of the Counties of Derby, Notts, Leicester and Rutland (London, 1891), p. 219.
5 Charles Cox, J., Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire, 4 vols (Chesterfield, London and Derby, 1875–1879), 4 (1879), pp. 211–216 Google Scholar. Mapperley became a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1870.
6 Ilkeston Pioneer, 29 November 1860. I am grateful to Mrs. Esther Collington, of the Friends of Kirk Hallam Church, for providing me with this and other information relating to Alfred’s incumbency.
7 BAA, R1364–1367, 13 January–6 February 1869.
8 Diary found in the Parish Box, Kirk Hallam.
9 Ibidem, 9 November 1865.
10 BAA, R1359 and R1360, Letters from George Augustus Selwyn, Bishop of Lichfield, to Alfred Newdigate, 27 February and 6 March 1868. The hymn was, of course, ‘Faith of our Fathers’, by F. W. Faber.
11 Diary found in the Parish Box, Kirk Hallam.
12 They were Gertrude Selina (1861), Charles Alfred (1863), Mary (1864), Edward (1866), Bernard Henry (1869), Agnes (1870), Edith Margaret (1872), Katherine Margaret Mary (1875), Barbara Maria (1878), and Sebastian Francis (1880).
13 BAA, R1375, Letter from John Henry Newman to Helen Bradley, 28 April 1871.
14 Ibidem, R1373, Letter from Augustine Dignam, S.J., to Selina Charlotte Newdigate, 8 April 1871. Dignam was returning and commenting on two ritualistic pamphlets and concluded that ‘no church can teach as Christ was sent to teach, but a church which cannot err. Infallible she must be and claim to be if to her His promises were made. No other church dares to make this claim but one, and that one is the church of Peter, the church of Rome’.
15 Ibidem, R1439, Letter from Selina Charlotte Newdigate to Alfred Newdigate, n.d. [November 1873].
16 Ibidem, R1376a–b, Memorandum and Letter from Augustine Dignam, S.J., to Alfred Newdigate, 10–11 June 1871; R1377, Letter from John Henry Newman to Alfred Newdigate, 20 October 1871.
17 Ibidem, R1378, Letter from Augustine Dignam, S.J. to Selina Charlotte Newdigate, 10 February 1872: ‘Yours will not be the first case where the wife’s courage has brought the same grace for him whom it cost so much to leave in matters of faith’.
18 Ibidem, R1383, Letter from John Henry Newman to Alfred Newdigate, 15 May 1873; Manning’s offer was made in a letter to Helen Bradley, dated 15 February 1872, R1380.
19 Ibidem, R1384, Letter from John H. Wynne, S.J., to Alfred Newdigate, 19 May 1873.
20 Ibidem, R1386, Letter from Alfred Newdigate to John H. Wynne, S.J., 23 May 1873.
21 Ibidem, R1385, Letter from John Henry Newman to Selina Charlotte Newdigate, 21 May 1873.
22 Ibidem, R1389, Letter from John Henry Newman to Selina Charlotte Newdigate, 23 July 1873, and R1388, Letter from John Henry Newman to Alfred Newdigate, 23 July 1873.
23 Ibidem, R1390, Letter from Bishop Charles John Abraham to Alfred Newdigate, 15 August 1873.
24 Ibidem, R1392, Letter from John H. Wynne, S.J., to Helen Bradley, 17 August [1873].
25 Ibidem, R1393, Letter from John H. Wynne, S.J., to Selina Charlotte Newdigate, 1 October 1873; he surmised that Selina had shrunk from telling Alfred ‘the conviction of your conscience’, to which he believed Alfred would never act as an obstacle.
26 Ibidem, R1439, Letter from Selina Charlotte Newdigate to Alfred Newdigate, n.d. [November 1873].
27 Ibidem, R1395, Draft Letter from Alfred Newdigate to George Augustus Selwyn, Bishop of Lichfield, n.d. [November 1873].
28 Ibidem, R1396, Letter from George Augustus Selwyn, Bishop of Lichfield, to Alfred Newdigate, 14 November 1873.
29 Ibidem, R1397, Letter from John H. Wynne, S.J., to Selina Charlotte Newdigate, 20 November 1873.
30 Ibidem, R1399, Letter from Augustine Dignam, S.J., to Selina Charlotte Newdigate, 24 November 1873.
31 Ibidem, R1401, Letter from Sr. Marie de Ste Magdalene to Selina Charlotte Newdigate, 15 June 1874: ‘It is one of the chief objects of our prayers to ask for the conversion of Anglican Clergymen’.
32 Ibidem, R1402, Letter from George Augustus Selwyn, Bishop of Lichfield, to Alfred Newdigate, 23 August 1874. Selwyn offered to pray for Newdigate ‘in the Company of those faithful Bishops and Presbyters who are striving to uphold the Catholicity of our Anglican Branch of the Church of Christ, in the Western World’.
33 Ibidem, R1414, Draft Letter from Alfred Newdigate to an unknown person, [1875], outlining ‘the inestimable blessing of a settlement of all doubts on religious questions after long & anxious enquiry’. Bishop Abraham rightly identified that in Alfred’s mind Rome’s unity with the ancient Church was the strongest point in its favour; ibidem, R1407, Letter from Bishop Charles John Abraham to Alfred Newdigate, 17 December 1874.
34 Ibidem, R1408, Letter from George Augustus Selwyn, Bishop of Lichfield, to Alfred Newdigate, 1 January 1875.
35 Ibidem, R1416, Letter from [Alfred Newdigate] to Charles [Newdigate], 15 January 1875.
36 Ibidem, R1418, Draft Letter from Alfred Newdigate to [Vernon W. Hutton], n.d. [February/March 1876]. Arthur Wollaston Hutton, Rector of Spridlington, Lincolnshire, was received in January 1876 at the Birmingham Oratory, which he joined as a probationer in July of the same year and was ordained in October 1879. Announcing that he had ceased to believe in Christianity and a personal God, he left in October 1883, married a former teacher of the Oratory school the following year, and in 1898 resumed his Anglican ministry until his death in 1912.
37 Ibidem, R1411, Letter from C. Soltian to Selina Charlotte Newdigate, 13 [January 1875]. She also wrote, ‘I am sure that you must be deluged with letters condemnatory—I hope that you receive a few of a more consoling nature’.
38 The story of Gertrude’s recalcitrance is related in her obituary notice in Lettres Annuelles de la Société du Sacré-Coeur de Jésus, 1888–89, pp. 175–176. I am grateful to Sr. Eileen Foster, RScJ, for this reference. Gertrude entered the Society of the Sacred Heart in December 1881 and died in May 1888. Her sisters Agnes and Edith also joined the Society, Agnes dying in 1953 and Edith in 1965.
39 BAA, R1443, Letter from Charles Alfred Newdigate to Alfred Newdigate, 20 June [1875]. Charles had made his confession and received absolution, which he described as ‘if a great load had been pulled off me; today is the happiest day of my life as yet, tomorrow I hope will be happiest of all’.
40 Ibidem, R1413, Letter from William Bernard Ullathorne, Bishop of Birmingham, to Alfred Newdigate, 14 January 1875. In the same letter, acknowledging that it might not be expedient for him to take his family abroad at present, Ullathorne advised Newdigate simply to ‘take a quiet residence somewhere for the present, and until you see your way’; this suggestion may have prompted the move to Leamington Spa.
41 Ibidem, R1420, Letter from William Bernard Ullathorne, Bishop of Birmingham, to Alfred Newdigate, 2 March 1875.
42 Ibidem, R1424, Letter from John H. Wynne, S.J., to Alfred Newdigate, 16 September 1876.
43 Ibidem, R1427, Letter from Peter Gallway, S.J., to Alfred Newdigate, 3 April 1884.
44 There is a hint of financial straightening in ibidem, R1425, Letter from William Bernard Ullathorne, Bishop of Birmingham, to Alfred Newdigate, 18 September 1877, concerning a school for his son, Edward, in which Ullathorne recommended St. Mary’s College, Oscott, but felt constrained to mention, ‘if expense is a consideration’, St. Wilfrid’s College, Cotton, where ‘though half are church boys, many others are sons of professional men’, and from where Edward, if he had a vocation for the priesthood, could pass to Oscott ‘on lower terms’.
45 In the 1891 Census, Alfred’s occupation is shown as ‘Printer and Compositor’, RG12/2472, Folio 47, p. 32, whereas in the 1881 Census he was shown as ‘M.A. Oxon. No occupation’ but living on dividends, RG11/3093, Folio 47, p. 38.
46 Thorp, Joseph, B. H. Newdigate, Scholar-Printer, 1869–1944, (Oxford, 1950), p. 5.Google Scholar
47 Ibidem, p. 3.
48 Ibidem, p. 5.
49 In 1904 Bernard moved the print-shop to Letchworth in Hertfordshire and re-named it the Arden Press. See Tomkinson, G. S., A Select Bibliography of the Principal Modern Presses Public and Private in Great Britain and Ireland (London, 1928)Google Scholar.
50 BAA, R1472, ‘A Proposal for Disseminating Catholic Books’, June 1886.
51 Ibidem, R1535, Letter from William Bernard Ullathorne, Bishop of Birmingham, to Alfred Newdigate, 31 May 1886.
52 Ibidem, R1472, ‘A Proposal for Disseminating Catholic Books’.
53 Ibidem, R1470, Circular Letter from Alfred Newdigate to potential subscribers, n.d. [1886].
54 Ibidem, R1472, ‘A Proposal for Disseminating Catholic Books’.
55 Ibidem, R1470, Circular Letter.
56 Ibidem, R1521, Letter from Henry FitzAlan Howard, Duke of Norfolk, to Alfred Newdigate, 11 July 1886.
57 Ibidem, R1506, for example, Letter from Edward Lucas to Alfred Newdigate, 26 July 1886, in which he doubted the venture was a sound business proposition, since the difficult task of creating ‘a taste for reading’ among Catholics would only succeed ‘by moving very slowly’ and the opening of shops would not achieve it ‘in a reasonable time’.
58 Ibidem, R1540, Letter from John George Wenham to Alfred Newdigate, 2 July [1886]: ‘My conviction, coming painfully from my own experience of years & years of efforts made by myself and others in the work of helping the establishment & support of Bookholders Shops & Depositories is that it cannot be made to succeed’. The St. Anselm’s Society had been founded in 1860 to diffuse good literature among Catholics, which makes Wenham’s remarks all the more striking.
59 Ibidem, R1496, Letter from William Anthony Johnson to Alfred Newdigate, 1 November 1886, and R1514, Letter from John Henry Newman to Alfred Newdigate, 12 October 1886. Newman did, however, encourage Newdigate in several letters and offered money to help establish a local repository.
60 Ibidem, R1544, Confidential Circular Letter from Alfred Newdigate, November 1886.
61 Ibidem, R1525, Letter from James Spencer Northcote to Alfred Newdigate, 12 November 1886.
62 Among the exceptions was Lyme Regis in Dorset, where the priest described the Catholic population as ‘gentry (converts) in reduced circumstances & Servants’, ibidem, R1575, completed pro forma, 14 December 1886.
63 Ibidem, R1564, Letter from Dom Ralph Jerome Pearson to Alfred Newdigate, 17 December 1886.
64 Ibidem, R1566, Letter from George Angus to Alfred Newdigate, 15 December 1886.
65 Ibidem, R1590, Completed pro forma, 18 December 1886. The priest nevertheless asked for a supply of Catholic Truth Society publications ‘to give to protestants if you had any to give away’.
66 Ibidem, R1593, Completed pro forma, 16 December 1886.
67 Ibidem, R1547, Letter from Augustine Philip Bethell to Alfred Newdigate, 14 December 1886.
68 Ibidem, R1531, Letter from Dom Charles Gregory Smith to Alfred Newdigate, 16 March [1887], complained about ‘the fashion prevailing in the north [of England] by which so many of the clergy do a little business on their own account’ by setting up a ‘Sunday shop’ in competition with lay businesses; he described such enterprises as ‘not edifying to the public and certainly oppressive to trades people’.
69 Ibidem, R1551, Letter from Philip J. Capron to Alfred Newdigate, 15 December 1886, relating to Barrow-on-Soar, Leicestershire.
70 Ibidem, R1599, Completed pro forma, 14 December 1886.
71 Ibidem, R1585, Letter from John B. Bagshawe to Alfred Newdigate, 12 January 1887.
72 Ibidem, R1518, Letter from Alfred Newdigate to Cardinal John Henry Newman, 20 April 1887.
73 Ibidem, R1543, Report on Repositories, n.d. [late 1887].
74 Ibidem, R1542, Draft Agenda for Committee Meeting, 19 April 1887.
75 Ibidem, R1475, Letter from James Britten to Alfred Newdigate, 5 July 1886. He later offered £100.
76 Ibidem, R1478, Letter from James Britten to Alfred Newdigate, 27 September 1886, and R1477, Letter from James Britten to Alfred Newdigate, 2 September 1886.
77 Ibidem, R1480, Letter from James Britten to Alfred Newdigate, 23 November 1886.
78 Catholic Truth Society Minute Book, Vol. I, 1884–1891, p. 69.I am grateful to Mr. Fergal Martin, General Secretary of the C.T.S. for his kind permission to research in the Society’s archives.
79 Catholic Truth Society Minute Book, Vol. 2, 1891–1899, pp. 16, 47, 94 and 171.
80 Joseph Thorp, op. cit., p. 3.
81 BAA, R1463, Letter from William Barry to Alfred Newdigate, 26 December 1921.
82 There is some indication of Selina’s interest and involvement in the wider Catholic cause in ibidem, R1428, Letter from Mary Fielding, Countess of Denbigh, to Selina Newdigate, n.d., concerning the possibility of inviting Don John Bosco to England.