Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2016
Bernard Burder, Abbot of the Cistercian Abbey of Mount St Bernard's, Leicestershire, from 1853 to 1858 is largely forgotten today; but for a few years in the middle of the last century his activities were important, and to a considerable extent, anticipated those of Archbishop Manning in the field of reformatory education. Burder's spiritual progress was similar to Newman's: he began life as a nonconformist, was then converted to Anglicanism and finally joined the Catholic Church one year after Newman. That same year, 1846, he entered Mount St Bernard's and on the death of its first Abbot, Dom Bernard Palmer, in 1853, was, in December of that year, elected to succeed him.
1 The first Catholic reformatory was set up by Cardinal Wiseman at Hammersmith, London in 1855.
2 Abstract of proceedings of the meeting held at Birmingham Town Hall, 11 December 1855, Birmingham Archdiocesan Archives, B. 3543.
3 Ibid.
4 The Diaries of Laura de Lisle, 26 October 1856, now in the possession of Squire de Lisle at Quenby Hall, Leicestershire.
5 The English Catholics, 1850-1950, ed. G. A. Beck, p. 564.
6 Ninth Report of the Inspector of Reformatory Schools in Great Britain. P.P. 1866, 38, p. 344.
7 Memorial of the Abbot and Community, 27 February 1872, Mount St Bernard's archives.
8 Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education, 1857-58, p. 598.
9 Household Words, extract from Charnwood, 27 April 1857.
10 Third Report of the Inspector, P.P. 1860, 35, p. 804.
11 Letter of Fr Ignatius Sisk to the Bishop of Salford in Mount St Bernard's archives.
12 Fifth Report of the Inspector, P.P. 1862, 26, p. 567.
13 Third Report of the Inspector, P.P. 1860, 35, p. 804.
14 Ibid.
15 Fifth Report of the Inspector, P.P. 1862, 26, p. 567.
16 Ibid.
17 Sixth Report of the Inspector, P.P. 1863, 24, p. 500.
18 Brook Green, Hammersmith and Market Weighton, Yorkshire.
19 Sixth Report of the Inspector, P.P. 1863, 24, p. 500.
20 Ibid.
21 Leicester Journal, 17 April 1863.
22 Statement of the Pecuniary Relations between Mount St Bernard's Reformatory and the Diocese of Liverpool, Birmingham Archdiocesan Archives.
23 Seventh Report of the Inspector, P.P. 1864, 26, p. 530.
24 Hansard, Parliamentary Debates, Third Series, vol. 176, p. 1646.
25 Tenth Report of the Inspector, P.P. 1867, 36, p. 683.
26 Fourteenth Report of the Inspector, P.P. 1871, 28, p. 722.
27 East Lancashire Directors’ Diary, 1863-1881, now at Ratcliffe College.
28 At this time, a juvenile delinquent had to spend a short time in prison before committalto a reformatory.
29 Seventeenth Report of the Inspector, P.P. 1874, 28, p. 540.
30 Beck, op. cit., p. 163.
31 British Parliamentary Papers, Crime and Punishment, Juvenile Offenders 4, Session 1884, q. 746.