Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T20:28:33.673Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nuns of the Jerningham Letters: The Hon. Catherine Dillon (1752–1797) and Anne Nevill (1754–1824), Benedictines at Bodney Hall

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Margaret J. Mason
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Hon. Catherine Dillon and her cousin Anne Nevill were Benedictine nuns in the French community of Montargis, which came to Bodney Hall in Norfolk early in 1793. There, near the Bedingfelds at Oxburgh and somewhat further from the Jerninghams at Cossey, the nuns educated young ladies in ‘every branch of useful knowledge becoming the delicacy of their sex.’ Letters from Catherine Dillon (Sr. St. François) and Anne Nevill (Sr. Ste. Agnès de Ste. Thérèse), written from Bodney to Lady Jerningham and Lady Bedingfeld during the period 1795 to 1806, can be found in the Jerningham collection at the University of Birmingham and at the Stafford Record Office. Egerton Castle's two-volume Jerningham Letters, published in 1896, draws upon the large collection of letters written to Lady Bedingfeld, but does not include any letters from her aunt Sr. François or her cousin Sr. Thérèse. Sr. François Dillon was Lady Jerningham's only surviving sister. Sr. Thérèse Nevill was Lady Jerningham's cousin and a sister of Cosmas Nevill of Nevill Holt.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , May 1996 , pp. 34 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1 Princethorpe, p. 94, quoting an advertisement in the Laity Directory of 1794.

2 Henry, eleventh Viscount Dillon (1705–1787) and his wife Lady Charlotte Lee (d. 11 June 1794), eldest dau. of George Henry, second Earl of Lichfield had seven children: Charles, twelfth Lord Dillon (1745–1813); Frances (1747–1825), m. Sir William Jerningham 1767; Arthur (1750–1794), sixth Colonel Proprietor of the Dillon Regiment; Catherine (1752–1797), Sr. François, OSB; Laura (1754— 1768); Charlotte (1755–1782), m. Valentine Browne 1778; Henry (1759–1837), seventh Colonel of the Dillon Regiment.

3 Cosmas Henry Joseph Migliorucci Nevill (1716–1763) m. Lady Mary Lee (who d. 25 March 1758 at age 36) on 31 July 1742. Their children were Mary (Mrs. John Porter) b. 1743, d. 4 Dec. 1801; George Henry, b. 1745, dsp 1767; Charles, a Jesuit, 1746–1792; Cosmas 1748–1829; William b. 1750; Frances 1752–1772; and Anne 1754–1824, CRS vol. 8, p. 393; Bernard Elliott, ‘A Leicestershire Recusant Family: The Nevills of Nevill Holt—II,’ Recusant History, 17 (October 1985), pp. 374–385.

4 In 1787 Sir John Swinburne m. Emma, dau. of Richard Bennet, Esq., of Beckingham, Kent, and niece of the Duchess of Northumberland, and conformed to the Established Church. On turning Protestant young Sir John dismissed the chaplain at Capheaton Hall and pulled down the chapel. Sir John was in favour of the French Revolution, calling himself Citizen Swinburne. He died at age 98 without being reconciled to the Catholic Church. Mark, Bence-Jones, The Catholic Families (London: Constable, 1992), pp. 62, 78, 196.Google Scholar Debretfs Baronetage 1835; Betham, Baronetage, 2 (1802).

5 C.R.S. 8; Castle, 1, p. 29.

6 Bernard, Elliott, ‘Some Notes on Catholic Education Abroad, c. 1760, from the Correspondence of the Nevills of Holt,’ Recusant History, 1 (1963–64), pp. 249–262.Google Scholar

7 B. Elliott, ‘Some Notes on Catholic Education Abroad.’

8 Princethorpe, p. 68.

9 Sheldon.

10 Princethorpe, p. 96.

11 Fernham obituaries.

12 Bellenger, pp. 184, 268: Lived 1739–1821, went to England, c. 1768; Thelton, Norfolk, 1768–1774; Bristol, 1777–1781; Liège 1781, 1783; Montargis, 1786–1792; Bodney, 1792, c. 1795–1796; Bury St. Edmunds, 1800; Kensington, 1800; readmitted S.J., 1803; Haughley, Suffolk, 1807; Pontefract, 1809–1816; Paris, 1816–1821. Père Fontaine caused some consternation at Haughley in 1807 by marrying a maid and a footman without notifying their employers, Mr. and Mrs. Jerningham. See BU letter 443. He was probably the Mr. Fountaine who caused the Jerningham family distress in August 1809 by asking the dying Sir William to make a will: ‘What a pity it is that these good priests cannot confine themselves to spiritual matters!’ (from Lady Bedingfeld's diary). Mr. Fountaine held the crucifix and repeated in a loud voice ‘Jesus! Mary! Joseph!’ as Sir William died. Castle, 1, pp. 344, 356.

13 Elliott, ‘The Nevills of Nevill Holt—II,’ Recusant History, 17 (October 1985), p. 381. This article cites the birth date for their first child, Maria, as 13 April 1785. See also Sheldon.

14 Mark, Bence-Jones, The Catholic Families (London: Constable, 1992), p. 122.Google Scholar See also Castle, 2, p. 316.

15 Sheldon.

16 C.R.S. 17, pp. 24.

17 Princethorpe, pp. 70–81.

18 Sr. St. François’ activities during the French Revolution are taken from her obituary, Fernham.

19 Tour du Pin, p. 23n.

20 Link, p. 360; Princethorpe, p. 84.

21 Fernham obituary.

22 Princethorpe, pp. 90–91.

23 Link, p. 360.

24 Castle, 1, p. 60.

25 Castle, 1, p. 62.

26 Link, p. 361.

27 Princethorpe, p. 92.

28 Northumbrian, p. 58: Barbara Charlton, granddaughter of George Crathorne, said the nuns were given shelter ‘free, gratis, and for nothing.’

29 Princethorpe, p. 93.

30 C.R.S. 7, p. 207.

31 BU letter 20, 12 January 1785, says she was born in February 1780.

32 Sir Henry Webb, seventh baronet of Odstock, Wiltshire, b. 27 April 1806, s. 26 March 1823, unm. as of 1835 ed. of Debrett's Baronetage.

33 BU letter 74.

34 The first profession of a Benedictine nun in England since the Reformation took place in the Brussels Benedictines’ Winchester house on 8 September 1796. Whelan, Historic English Convents, pp. 186–192.

35 Castle, 1, p. 86.

36 Princethorpe, p. 97.

37 BU letter 86, April 1796.

38 Frances Charlotte Bedingfeld m. 2 June 1815 William Henry Francis, eleventh Lord Petre (b. 22 January 1793), and died in childbirth 29 January 1822.

39 Frances Charlotte Bedingfeld was baptised at Oxburgh on 25 April 1796, godparents John Biddulph, who was represented in absentia by Rev. Father John Sanderson, and Lady Jerningham. C.R.S., 7, p. 214.

40 Sr. Thérèse refers to the prioress as ‘Notre Mère’ in French and as ‘Lady Prioress’ in English.

41 Maria Norris was dau. of Jeremiah Norris of Colney Hall, Norfolk, and Mary Havers of Thelton Hall, Norfolk, a religious-minded couple who worked for the poor. M. Ste. Gertrude was the first nun professed at Bodney, in 1798, at age 20. She was to serve the community as procurator for fourteen years, travelling with the prioress to look for properties. She died 1 February 1848 at age 70. Femham, 5 July 1994; see Castle, 2, p. 309.

42 Castle, 1, p. 110.

43 Castle, 1, p. 108.

44 Sheldon.

45 BU letter 339, 1 August 1804, Lady Jerningham to Lady Bedingfeld. The other ladies were Rachel Drake, dau. and coheiress of William Drake of Amersham, who spumed him for George Irby, Lord Boston in 1801; his cousin Henrietta Dillon (‘a B—d,’ according to his mother), bom to Charles, Lord Dillon and Marie Roget before their marriage; and his wife, Emily Middleton. See also, among others, SRO P/3/10/125.

46 Ernest, John Knapton, Empress Josephine (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963), p. 51.Google Scholar Knapton gives her name as Marie-Françoise-Laure de Girardin de Montgerald, Mme de Longpré, and says that the father of her son Alexandre was probably young Alexandre de Beauharnais.

47 BU letter 35.

48 See Gilbert Martineau, trans. Frances, Partridge, Napoleon's St. Helena (London: John Murray, 1968),Google Scholar and The Memoirs of Madame de la Tour du Pin, written by her half-sister Henriette-Lucy Dillon, dau. of General Arthur Dillon and his first wife and cousin, Lucy de Rothe, dame du palais, whose portrait appears on the title page of vol. 1 of Castle. BU letter 1066, 9 December 1817.

49 BU letter 90.

50 See BU letter 79, 19 June 1795.

51 SRO P/3/10/159.

52 SRO P/3/10/161.

53 Both classified as SRO P/3/10/160.

54 SRO P/3/10/165.

55 BU letter 95.

56 BU letter 94, 28 April 1797.

57 Perhaps Jean Girard, curé from Montargis, or François Mathurin Lavenant, from thre diocese of Rennes. Bellenger, pp. 192, 211, 269, 272.

58 Tour du Pin, p. 314.

59 Castle, 1, p. 110.

60 BU letter 96.

61 Sheldon.

62 Princethorpe, p. 96.

63 Lady Bedingfeld to Matilda Betham, June 1797, quoted in Ernest, Betham, éd., A House of Letters (London: Jarrolds, n.d.), pp. 48–49 Google Scholar and in C.R.S., 7, p. 244, ‘Notes, Monuments and Illustrations of the Bedingfelds of Oxburgh.’

64 Pp. 116–117, Elegies and Other Small Poems by Matilda Betham, printed at Ipswich and sold at London and Ipswich, dedication dated 20 November 1797, includes at the end an advertisement for her father the Rev. William Betham's Genealogies of Sovereigns and his forthcoming four-volume Baronetage. Miss Betham's volume is dedicated to Lady Jerningham: ‘That you may long, very long, continue to bless your family, to adorn your rank, and console the unhappy, is the sincere prayer of Your Ladyship's most obliged humble servant, Matilda Betham.’ Matilda Betham's Poems and Elegies have been republished as part of the Garland Series on Romantic Context: Poetry: Significant Minor Poetry, 1789–1830, selected and arranged by Donald H. Reiman, the Carl H. Pforzheimer Library (New York and London: Garland, 1978). ‘Somewhat like Anna Jane Vardill, who published a sequel to Christabel in 1815 (see Reiman, D. H. in The Wordsworth Circle, VI [1975], 283–289),Google Scholar Betham is remembered chiefly as a hanger-on in London literary circles,’ (Introduction to Betham, Poems and Elegies, p. ix.)

65 Tour du Pin. See pp. 318–320 for Mme de la Tour du Pin's description of winter 1797 at Cossey.

66 Tour du Pin, p. 26.

67 SRO P/3/10/163.

68 Princethorpe, p. 108: In the early days at Princethorpe, in the 1830s, ‘A French priest from the Cathedral of Arras, M. Carpue, offered to finish and furnish at his own expense a suite of rooms for himself and his two maiden sisters. The arrangement proved very advantageous, and they lived there for many years. Their friendliness attracted visitors from round about, and among the most frequent was the celebrated Mother Margaret Hallahan, the future foundress of the Dominican Convent at Stone. She was at that time keeping house for the Rev. Dr. Ullathorne at St. Osburg's, Coventry. Many an anecdote was told of ‘Sister Margaret’ (as she was then called), and her friends, the Carpues, who never failed to encourage her charity. She would spend many an hour soothing the old ladies’ scruples and worries.’

69 SRO P/3/10/162.

70 C.R.S. 8, pp. 137, 143.

71 Fernham, 14 January 1994.

72 Castle, 1, pp. 126f; Sheldon; C.R.S. 7, p. 237.

73 Castle, 1, p. 152, letter of 24 March 1799.

74 Castle, 1, p. 151.

75 SRO P/3/10/147.

76 ‘Il est inutile de vous recommander cet affaire connoissant votre bonté toujours empressée à nous en procurer autant qu'il vous est possible.’

77 ‘C'est une consolation pour nous d'espérer qu'elle aura profittée des Semences de Vertu qu'elle a reçue icy pendant son séjour de quatre ans.’

78 Ann, M. C. Forster, ‘The Chronicles of the English Poor Clares of Rouen—II,’ Recusant History, 18 (October 1986), p. 190.Google Scholar

79 Foley, 4, pp. 554–555.

80 Foley, 5, p. 881.

81 Castle, 1, p. 162, March 1800.

82 Castle, 1, pp. 170–173; C.R.S. 7, p. 237.

83 Castle, 1, pp. 172–173.

84 Castle, 1, p. 175.

85 BU letter 172.

86 These Protestant Miss Swinbumes were possibly Charlotte and Amelia Swinburne, daus. of Thomas Swinburne of Pontop Hall, Co. Durham, and his wife (m. 1781) Charlotte, dau. and co-heir of Robert Spearman of Old Acres, Co. Durham. Charlotte and Amelia were great-granddaughters of Sir William Swinburne, second baronet of Capheaton. Amelia m. Thomas Oswald of Sedgfield, Co. Durham, M.D., and d. 4 Jan. 1841. Their brother General Thomas Robert Swinburne, b. 1796, fought at Waterloo and d. 1864. Burke's Landed Gentry 1882.

87 SRO P/3/10/166.

88 C.R.S. 17, pp. 97, 136, 154, 166.

89 Castle, 1, pp. 143–144.

90 C.R.S. 17, p. 24; Anne, Fremantle, ed., The Wynne Diaries (Oxford University Press, 1935), 3, pp. 120, 131.Google Scholar

91 On 10 June 1823, Lady Jerningham wrote about the betrothal of her granddaughter Charlotte Jerningham to Mr. Fraser of Lovat: ‘Lady J. [formerly Frances Sulyard, Mrs. Jerningham] now recollects that she was at Bruges with three Miss Leslies, one of whom is his mother and has turned the tide of orthodoxy into the Fraser family, who were before all Protestants’. Castle, 2, p. 263. C.R.S. 17, p. 168, list of schoolgirls, English Sepulchrines of Liège: ‘Miss Sulyard came upon ye 19th of July 1791. She left us ye 20th of August 1792.’

92 SRO P/3/10/150.

93 ‘C'est toujours à Fanny que je donne le prix quoique les autres sont bien jolies.’ Lady Jerningham thought the grown-up Fanny resembled the Lely portrait of her ancestress, the young Duchess of Cleveland. BU letter 1066, 9 December 1817.

94 SRO P/3/10/59. There were two Lady Fingals in 1800: (1) Henrietta Maria Woolascot of Woolhampton, Berks., who m. in 1755 Arthur James Plunkett, 7th Earl of Fingal; she d. 1809; and (2) Frances Donnellan of Bally Donnellan, Galway, who m. 1785 Arthur James Plunkett, who s. his father in 1793 as 8th Earl of Fingal. Debrett's Peerage 1831.

95 The brothers and sisters of Sr. Joseph Edwards had made up an annuity for her when her father, a clergyman, disinherited her. See C.R.S. 8, p. 351. Letters were written by the Blue Nuns to a Mrs. R. Edwards, No. 4 Church yard, Bath (SRO P/3/10/111); to Mrs. Edwards, Post Office, Exeter (SRO P/3/10/59, 8 January 1801); and to Mr. Edwards at the Post Office, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland (SRO P/3/10/60, 11 January 1801).

96 C.R.S. 17, p. 172, School List of the Sepulchrines at New Hall; Anne, Fremantle, ed., The Wynne Diaries (Oxford University Press, 1935), 3, pp. 120, 128.Google Scholar In 1788 Lady Theresa Plunkett, only dau. of Arthur James, seventh Earl of Fingall and Henrietta Maria Woolascot, married James Dease, Esq., of Turbotston (son of Garrett Dease, Esq., of Turbotston who m. 1740 Susan, dau. and coheir of Oliver Plunkett, Esq., of Rathmore Castle, co. Meath) and by him had issue: Gerald, b. 1790, m. 1820 Elizabeth, dau. and coheir of Edmund O'Callaghan, Esq., of Kilgory, co. Clare; William Henry, of Rath House, Queen's Co., m. Frances, only dau. and heir of H. de Freise, Esq., and d.s.p. 1856; Mary, d. 1851; Theresa, d. 1852; and Charlotte, d. 1868. Burke's Landed Gentry 1882.

In 1808 Lady Bedingfeld at Bath was acquainted with ‘Lady Theresa Dease, sister to Lord Fingali, about 44. A most pleasing woman, with 4 good humoured daughters, 2 only come out.’ Castle, 1, p. 326. In February 1809 Lady Jerningham wrote: ‘The Browne family dined with us yesterday, and Lady Teresa Dease and her daughter. Lady Teresa is sister to Lord Fingali, a widow with four daughters and two sons, the eldest now of age and the other at Old Hall Green. She is, without having ever been handsome, the most genteel pleasing woman that can be imagined. She was brought up at the Abbaye aux Bois. The match the most proper that could take place would be Lady Teresa and Lord Kenmare: birth, age, everything suitable. I wish some entremetteuse would arrange it.’ Castle, 1, p. 334. Valentine Browne, Earl of Kenmare, whose first wife had been the Hon. Charlotte Dillon, Lady Jerningham's youngest sister, on 4 September 1808 had lost his second wife, Mary Aylmer, of Lyons, Kildare. He died 3 October 1812 at 58 without marrying again. Debrett's Peerage 1831; Castle, 2, pp. 104–106.

97 Lady Bedingfeld's diary describes a London dinner party on 1 June 1809 at the home of Mrs. Compton, formerly Miss Gobbet of Norwich, ‘a former protégée of my mother,’ where ‘Miss Jane Martinez a niece of Mrs. Compton’ was one of the party. Three Miss Gobbetts of Norwich had been pensioners at the Blue Nuns’ school in Paris at various times during the period 1772–1779. Castle, 1, p. 339; C.R.S. 8, p. 359.

98 Bellenger, p. 92.

99 SRO P/3/10/152.

100 ‘qui a souhaitté rentrer dans tous les privilèges de son heureux état; et conséquemment profitta dela Paix pour venir s'unir aux Enfans de Notre commun Père S. Bénoit.’

101 Mme de Chabot, who was bom Lady Mary Appolonia Scholastica Stafford in 1720 at Stafford House in London, m. Guy Augustus, Comte de Rohan Chabot, and died 16 May 1769 at the age of 48. She was the eldest daughter of William Stafford-Howard, second Earl of Stafford, and his wife and first cousin Anne Holman, daughter of George Holman of Warkworth Castle. Her two younger sisters, Lady Anastasia and Lady Anne, were Blue Nuns. Lady Anastasia, b. 21 October 1722, prof. 19 March 1740, was living in Paris at Les Filles Orphélines; she d. 27 April 1807. Lady Anne, b. 15 May 1725, prof. 18 April 1743, d. 6 May 1792. They were cousins of Sir William Jerningham; their aunt Mary Stafford-Howard, who m. Francis Plowden of Plowden Hall, Comptroller of the Household of James II, was Sir William's maternal grandmother, and was present at their professions; she d. at St. Germain in 1765. C.R.S. 8, pp. 247, 401, 415–416.

Francis Plowden, James II’s Comptroller, was the second son of Edmund Plowden of Plowden Hall and Elizabeth Cotton, and grandfather of Sir William Jerningham. His brother Edmund Plowden, heir to Plowden, had a great granddaughter, Frances Plowden, who m. Robert Taafe, Esq., of Ireland. Burke's Landed Gentry 1882.

102 ‘et Dieu nous en préserve jusqu’à ce que la Religion soit rétablie.’

103 ‘Les petites Filles veulent être Religieuses. Elle n'ose les faire sortir de dessous ses Ailes!’

104 ‘et pour moi je suis tellement gâtée que je n'en puis porter d'autres sans être gelée de froid. Nousvous serons bien obligées.’

105 George Jerningham's first child was five months old, and as Lady Jerningham told her daughter Lady Bedingfeld the little girl was ‘named Charlotte in honour of you, Dolly for Mrs. Sulyard, and Georgina, as you may suppose. She [Mrs. Jerningham] wishes her to resemble her aunt in mentalaccomplishments as well as in name. The infant has already, towards the outward resemblance, darkhair and blue eyes,’ Castle, 1, p. 194.

106 ‘Mrs. Silvertop m'a aussi donné de ses nouvelles dans le Stile le plus intérressant, et dit quepersonne ne sauroit être plus heureuse qu'elle dans sa Situation. Leur fortune à la vérité est médiocre, mais M. Henry S. a toutes les qualités requises pour Completter son bonheur. C'est un jeune homme bien pieux et fort agréable. Ils ont pris une petite maison à une mile de la Mer près Durham qui s'appelle Hardwick House. Elle espère être Mère au mois de Juin.’

107 BU letter 256; C.R.S. 17, p. 101. Mother Benedict Stourton could have been Mary Stourton's niece Mary, b. 16 Aug. 1801, dau. of William, seventeenth Lord Stourton, and his wife Catherine Weld.

108 SRO P/3/9/10. Betham's Baronetage: On May 18, 1801, Catherine Fermor, only daughter of Henry Fermor of Worcester, Esq., m. as his second wife Henry Lawson, b. 25 Dec. 1750, who, in pursuance of the directions of the last will and testament of his maternal uncle, John Maire, of Lartington, and of Hardwicke, Esq., had assumed the name and arms of Maire in 1771 when he s. to the estates of the Maire family.

109 SRO P/3/10/149.

110 Possibly Margaret Matilda and Anne Talbot, daus. of Mathew Talbot of Castle Talbot (d. 27 Oct. 1795) and his second wife (m. 11 July 1783), Jane D'Arcy, dau. of John D'Arcy of Kiltullagh, Co. Galway, and widow of her kinsman M. le Comte d'Arcy, lieut.-gen. of the armies of the King of France and first aide de camp to Louis XVI. Their daus. Margaret Matilda Talbot d. unm. in Paris; Anne d. unm., Countess of the Order of Bavaria. The Miss Talbots could also have been nieces of the above, daus. of their elder brother William Talbot of Castle Talbot (b. 19 Jan. 1765) and his first wife (m. 30 Jan. 1785) Mary O'Toole of Buxtown, co. Wexford. Maria Theresa Talbot m. 27 June 1814 John Talbot, sixteenth Earl of Shrewsbury; Julia Talbot m. 7 Sept. 1815 Patrick Bishop of Bishops Court, Co. Waterford; and Margaret Talbot m. 20 March 1820 George Bryan of Jenkinstown, Co. Kilkenny. Burke's Landed Gentry, 1882; C.R.S. 8, p. 345.Google Scholar

111 Burke's Landed Gentry 1882, under Bagot of Ballymore: Ellen Fallon, dau. of John Fallon, Esq., of Runnimead, Co. Roscommon, and Letitia his wife, dau. of John Lambert, Esq., of Milford, m. 1811 Thomas Neville Bagot, Esq., of Ard and Ballymoe, b. 1784.

112 SRO P/3/10/148. C.R.S. 8, p. 393, gives Mrs. Porter's death date as 4 December 1801.

113 The Blue Nuns’ diary index lists four Miss Birds who were pensioners at one time at the Blue Nuns in Paris. C.R.S. 8, p. 326.

114 ‘je puis vous assurer que l'affliction que je ressens pour une Soeur que j'aimois aussi tendrement ne m'empêche point de partager sincèrement la vôtre connoissant depuis lontems votre attachement réciproque … Je me Sens consolée en Envisageant le bonheur dont j'espère qu'elle jouit … Notre Reverende Mère et toute La Communauté très Sensible à Votre Souvenir vous prient d'agréer leur Complimens et l'intérêt qu'elles prennent à notre affliction.’

115 SRO P/3/10/156.

116 Edward Jerningham, Lady Jerningham's youngest son, had charge of distributing £4000 to Mrs. Porter's legatees. SRO P/3/10/133, Preston, Sep. 8, 1802, Edward Jerningham to Lady Jerningham: ‘… On Sunday next however I leave Preston, and am extremely sorry to be under the absolute necessity of going up to London for 24 hours, in order to receive four thousand pounds on account of Mrs. Porter's executorship. I must distribute it immediately to the different legatees, who from being ignorant of business, are clamorous against me….’ SRO P/3/10/134, Lincoln's Inn Sep. 16, 1802, Edward Jerningham to Lady Jerningham: ‘… I enclose two drafts for £20 each, the one is on my own account, the other is your legacy for a ring,’ SRO P/3/10/135, Lincoln's Inn, Sep. 17, 1802, Edward Jerningham to Lady Jerningham: ‘… I have just received four thousand pounds on Mrs. Porter's account, and shall be all tomorrow writing drafts and discharging legacies.’

117 Sheldon.

118 Castle, 1, p. 139.

119 BU letter 247.

120 Julian, Boyd et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 10 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1950–), pp. 157–160n.Google Scholar Howard, C. Rice Jr., Thomas Jefferson's Paris (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1976), pp. 98, 105.Google Scholar

121 Castle, 1, p. 218.

122 BU letter 252.

123 ‘et Grace à Dieu il ne lui arrive aucun accident.’

124 ‘Heureuse les Enfans qui ont une telle Mère! et l'on peut ajouter heureuse les Mères qui ont des Enfans si bien disposées.’

125 See C.R.S. 7, p. 206: Aug 1789: ‘Agnes Buckley Housekeeper who came here in 1768 married Thos. Wingham my Butler; he came here 8th May 1787.’ The Census of Oxburgh Catholics 1790–1804, p. 222, shows Thomas and Agnes Wingham, with the addition of a Thomas Wingham Jr. in1803.

126 Bellenger, p. 267: Jean François Elloi de Malancourt, b. 1752, had lived at Canterbury c. 1794—c.1798; was chaplain at Bodney c. 1805; was at Maynooth 1808; then at Acton Burnell and Downside with the Benedictines until his death, 1809–1824. Bellenger quotes Fanny Burney's diary, in a passage written around the time of her husband General Alexandre d'Arblay's death, which occurred at Bath May 1818: ‘Good Dr. Elloi again spent the morning with me. We were chiefly tête à tête… The worthy man, with many gentle apologies, entered upon religious topics. I heard him with real reverence, but took the first opportunity to let him see clearly that I was a hopeless subject as a convert, that I am a Protestant upon principle, and that such I should remain. He openly regretted not having had opportunity to instil into the spirit of my departed angel a desire to change his son to follow the Roman Catholic faith … He discourses in a truly Christian style, as conceiving the path of salvation open to both religions,’ (Burney Diaries V, ed. Dobson, p. 373).

127 See C.R.S. 7, pp. 215–221: John Sanderson performed baptisms at Oxburgh December 1797—July 1811.

128 Northumbrian, p. 59; Bellenger, pp. 243 and 277. Louis le Roux, 1757–1843, was Bodney's chaplain 1802–1811. He was from the diocese of Paris.

129 Bellenger, p. 211, 272; François Mathurin Lavenant, from the diocese of Rennes, was at Bodney Hall, Norfolk, 1797–1802.

130 Castle, 1, p. 219.

131 SRO P/3/10/154.

132 Castle, 2, p. 46, 23 April 1814, concerning the return of King Louis XVIII to France: ‘Mr. Wyatt who married Miss Vivifoy has sollicited to be Garde du Corps, and sets off on Monday for France. His wife and her mother are yet in Staffordshire.’

133 Castle, 1, p. 212: Lady Jerningham's letter of Friday, 11 June 1802, from Tunbridge Wells: ‘Miss O'Reilly is â mes ordres, whenever I wish for Petticoats and she is a good sensible Potatoe Girl. We have been this morning to see the great House of Penshurst…’ P. 214, Sunday after Mass, June 1802, Tunbridge Wells: ‘I walked yesterday with Miss O'Reilly to Lady Suffield's and a few minutes after arrived the Dowr Lady Lucan—a Bel esprit…’

134 Bellenger, pp. 192–269: Jean Girard, curé of the diocese of Sens, had begun his exile in Germany, and was at Bodney Hall 1794–1802.

135 Bellenger, p. 275: Bernard O'Brien, Chaplain of Monsieur, the Comte d'Artois. Resident at 18, Great St. Helen's, Bishopsgate Street, London, in 1798. At King's Cliffe, Northamptonshire, 1793–1804, and Nevill Holt, Leicestershire, 1802–1808. Died at Stamford, Lincolnshire. The priest he replaced at Nevill Holt in 1802 may have been Jacques Liot, Vicar from the diocese of Coutances. Bellenger p. 272.

136 BU letter 256.

137 Katherine Bedingfeld, The Bedingfelds of Oxburgh (privately printed, 1912), pp. 74–75.

138 SRO P/3/10/146.

139 SRO P/3/10/158.

140 ‘La Beauté du Cadre n'ayant laissé aucun doute sur la bienfaisante Main qui nous la présente.’

141 SRO P/3/10/157.

142 Castle, 1, p. 223.

143 Debrett's Peerage 1831.

144 SRO P/3/10/153.

145 SRO P/3/10/155.

146 Princethorpe, pp. 101–113.

147 BU letter 274.

148 C.R.S. 17, p. 172.

149 BU letter 293.

150 C.R.S. 7, p. 237.

151 BU letter 287.

152 Castle, 1, p. 231.

153 BU letter 304.

154 BU letter 335, 17 July 1804; BU letters 329–342, and others.

155 SRO P/3/10/167.

156 Mary, dau. of Benedict Conquest of Irnham, co. Lincoln, Esqr, m. 31 May 1763 Henry, eighth Lord Arundel, who d. Dec. 1808; she d. June 1813. They had two surviving daughters: Mary Christina, m. Everard James Arundel, heir to the Barony, but she d. 14 Feb. 1805 before he succeeded to the title; and Eleanor Mary, b. 20 March 1766, m. 29 Nov. 1786 Charles, seventh Lord Clifford of Chudleigh. Debrett's Peerage 1831.

157 Sr. Louise Térèse Grandin de Monsigny, Sr. Térèse de Chantai Hurard, and Sr. Madeleine Angélique Heugue. Letter from Sister Mary Joanna Callender, V.H.M., Archivist, Visitation Convent, Waldron, nr. Heathfield, Sussex, 5 December 1992.

158 Dom Adam Hamilton, OSB, The Chronicle of the English Augustinian Canonesses Regular of the Lateran, at St. Monica's in Louvain, (now at St. Augustine's Priory, Newton Abbot, Devon), 1548 to 1625, 2 (London: Sands and Co., 1904), pp. 11–12,Google Scholar 32–33; BU letter 1546; Sister Mary Joanna Callender, V.H.M., 5 December 1992.

159 Castle, 1, p. 266–267, letter of 5 May 1805. Sheldon.

160 Northumbrian, p. 59, quoting a 12 December 1896 letter from Princethorpe to Barbara Charlton.

161 The Misses Needham were perhaps related also to M. Ste. Gertrude Norris at Bodney. Rosa Lelia Havers, dau. of Thomas Havers of Thelton Hall, Norfolk, and Catherine Dutry, m. John Needham, Esq., of Bickham, Somerset. Rosa Lelia was a sister of Lucretia Havers who m. Thomas Wright the banker and of Mary Havers who m. Jeremy Norris of Colney Hall, Norfolk. Burke's Landed Gentry 1882. The Misses Needham were brought to the school at Heath around 1815, and eventually became Mère St. Laurent and Mère St. Bénoit and lived to a great age. Princethorpe, p. 99.

162 Northumbrian, pp. 59–63.

163 ‘A Fribourg, je fus frappée, émue jusqu'à la moelle des os de la majesté du culte divin, de la piété avec laquelle il était exercé. Ma vie passée se présente à mes yeux tout autre que je ne l'avais considérée … Dieu m'entraîna vers Lui comme un torrent de feu: je ne trouve point d'autre expression.’ Quoted from Vie et Correspondance de la princesse Louise de Condé (Paris: Dufour, 1843),Google Scholar in Les Moniales, published to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Abbey of Saint Louis du Temple, now at Limon par Igny (Desclée de Brouwer, 1966), p. 85.

164 Margaret William, R.S.C.J., St. Madeleine Sophie: Her Life and Letters (New York: Herder and Herder, 1965).Google Scholar In September 1796 Princess Louise de Condé Bourbon and some former Sisters of Charity settled in an abandoned Visitation monastery in Vienna under the new Fathers of the Sacred Heart. But the Princess had a taste for solitude and did not want a project which would require a multitude of business affairs and difficulties.

165 Moniales, p. 85, quoting the Notebooks of Eleonore Dombrowska, adoptive daughter of Mme de Condé.

166 Moniales, ms. caption for the oil portrait of Mère Marie Joseph de la Miséricorde, unpaged. ‘Je n'ai qu'un Cris vers le Ciel, et le Voici: ‘O mon Dieu! faites connoitre à quelques âmes choisies, ce qu'Est Réellement le St. Etat des Réparatrices de votre gloire; tant outragée dans ce malheureux Siècle! … alors, on l'appréciera, Alors, on le Rétablira, et quand je l'aurai Vu Refleurir, je vous rendrai mon âme en Paix.’

167 See BU letter 987, 27 November 1816.

168 Castle, 1, p. 270.

169 Princethorpe, p. 69.

170 BU letter 404.

171 C.R.S. 7, p. 237.

172 Castle, 1, p. 346.

173 BU letter 601.

174 Fernham, 14 January 1994.

175 Castle, 2, p. 62, letter from Lady Jerningham of 27 March 1815.

176 BU letter 922, 4 November 1815.

177 Castle, 2, p. 292; Sheldon.

178 Fernham obituary.

179 Sheldon.

180 Fernham, 4 November 1992.