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Recusant Houses in the Southern Netherlands as seen by British Tourists, c. 1650–1720

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

C. D. Van Strien
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Extract

The English who, in the seventeenth century, went abroad in order to get to know the countries and peoples of Europe looked upon the presence of their countrymen and women in convents in Flanders and Brabant as one of their many subjects of inquiry. Protestant travellers who had little occasion to mix with Catholics at home and who had gone abroad to widen their horizons visited these houses as a matter of course. For them, as for the much smaller number who came to see relatives and acquaintances, the informal conversations must have been a welcome change after the ‘Compulsory’ visits to public buildings and all sorts of collections of curiosities in cities far away from home.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , October 1991 , pp. 495 - 511
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1973

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References

Notes

1 Evelyn, 69–70; Scott, 24; Mure, 175; for more information on recusant houses in the Netherlands, cf. P. Guilday, The English Catholic Refugees on the Continent, 1558–1795, vol. I, The English Colleges and Convents in the Catholic Low Countries, London 1914; also various articles in the Publications of the Catholic Record Society.

2 Among the texts consulted there are only two journals kept by women (Burnet, 1707); cf. C. D. van Strien, British Travellers in Holland during the Stuart Period, Publications of the Sir Thomas Browne Institute, Leiden (to be published 1991).

3 Berry, 14v–15r; Egmont, 32v; 34r; Leake, 30r.

4 Burnet, 103r–105r.

5 Berry, 16; Shaw, 59–60.

6 Probably William Woodcock alias Shaw (1661–1717), cf. Foley, H., Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, London 1877–83, vol. VII, part II, p. 858.Google Scholar

7 Taylor, 17v, 18r; Anon. 1721, 53r–54v.

8 Perth, 40; Burnet, 123r; cf. Anon. 1695/9,21/2, who saw a procession ‘for the deliverance from a great Sickness’ at Antwerp: ‘The several companies go in their gowns with lantherns and flamboys, then the priests and friars with wax lights and crosses and some carrying images of our Saviour and the virgin Mary, for whose honour, being the patroness of this city, her image is set up in all churches and in the corners of most streets and also in the shops of most traders in this city. In this procession the host is carried by a priest under a canopy with music and singing going before and the people crowding on all sides’; on another occasion to avoid kneeling he ‘hasted away but still looked back to observe the ceremony’; Taylor, 17r/v (in Brussels).

9 Fraser, 126; at Antwerp he met ‘father Williamson, a Scotchman in the Franciscan cloister and one father Orari among the Capucins’ (122).

10 Skippon (1663), 362, visited the English Clarisses (abbess Taylor): ‘she spoke very civilly to us and told us they were in number 44. They live very strictly and never see the face of any man; the bars were of iron that we discoursed through. They have a large house and garden. About 8 years ago part of their chapel was blown up with the magazine of the town. The abbess is chosen for life by the major vote’; Walker (1671), 18: ‘Here is a large nunnery of poor Clares, consisting of about four score in number. The abbess did us the favour to grant us a view of about 50 of them at their devotion at once’.

11 Cf. Skippon (1663), 368: ‘Gölnitz in his itinerary says there are about 60 [convents], among which are 2 English nunneries. One of the Augustine order and the other of the order of St. Clare, being Franciscans’.

12 Skippon, 363; cf. Walker (1671), 18: ‘two small English nunneries, one of the poor Clares another of the Dames. In that of the Dames we saw two beautiful Irish ladies nuns, one was named Legg; the abbess was of the family of the Carolis in Sussex’; Bowrey (1698), 16–7: ‘Two nunneries of English nuns, the one of the order of St. Benedict and containing about 60 nuns; the Lady abbess’ name Lady Mary Caryll; the other of the poor Clares and contains about 50 nuns’; Blundell (1617,163) visited two of his sisters and an aunt at the poor Clares.

13 Richard Vaughan (1674–1727) joined the Jesuitsin 1690, professed 1708, taught maths, and Hebrew at Liège; 1725–7 rector of the Jesuits’ college of Ghent (cf. H. Foley, op. cit, vol. V, 892).

14 Cf. Skippon, 732: ‘They will ask whether you are of the Religion, i.e. Protestant; or of the Eglise, i.e. Roman Catholic religion, the first time you fall into their company’.

15 Penson, 83–8.

16 Fraser, 128v: ‘There is a neat convent of English nuns a little below the great church; another convent of Irish nuns near the great Piazza. There is also a community of Irish priests 28 in number near the Pla… Bi.. at the sign of the harp’; Skippon (1663, 375) mentions two convents: ‘English nuns of St. Bruno’s order and other nuns called by some the galloping nuns, because on afternoons they have liberty to go abroad’; L. Guicciardini’s Description of the Netherlands, first published at Antwerp in 1567 and often reprinted in many languages during the next century; A. Gölnitz, Ulysses Belgico-Gallicus, Lugd. Bat. 1631.

17 Browne, as quoted in Harris, II, 541; 525; 540.

18 Cf. Shaw (1700), 85: ‘A convent of English Carthusians of five monks, who being all gone abroad upon a Thursday to take the air, I had the liberty of going all over their convent; everyone has a parlour, a bed chamber, a study, and a little garden to himself, where those who love solitude, may pass their time with much pleasure’; Blundell (1716, 162–3) saw 16 monks here including father Hunter.

19 Veryard, 57: ‘A convent of English friars, another of monks and a college of secular priests; the two latter keeping schools of humanity, philosophy and divinity for the education of young Roman Catholic gentlemen of our nation’; in an English college. Anon. 1711, 13, met Mr. Berrington, ‘a Herefordshire man and Mr. Dickinson, brother to the gentleman who owns Stanton; […] There is also the English Recollects, where Sir Henry Fletcher is building a chapel’; Anon. 1721, 52, added: ‘His arms are all over the building’; Leake (1712), 43:’The Scotch fathers’convent […] is but small and far from being a magnificent structure. Upon the outside walls […] was a petition inscribed to one Margaret Queen of Scotland and a Saint, to pray to God pro conversione Scotorum’.

20 Veryard, 42–3 (Newport; St. Omer); 57 (Douai); 25–8 (Liège); the dials were already described by Sir James Hope, (171–2) in 1648.

21 Northleigh as quoted in Harris, II, 721 (Liège); 715–6 (St. Omer); cf. Ferrier (1687), 39: the Jesuit college was ‘now rebuilding’ after ‘being about 3 years since burnt to the ground’.

22 E.g. A Journey through the Austrian Netherlands, London 1732 (2nd ed.) and Thomas Nugent, The Grand Tour, London 1749; however, A. D. Chancel, A New Journey over Europe, London 1714 only mentions the seminaries at Douai, St. Omer and Ghent and the English nuns at Dunkirk and Ghent (38–43).

23 Shaw, 62: Antwerp, Irish convent, English ‘Tiresian’ [ = Carmelite] nunnery; 64: Malines, English Dominicans ‘erected since the peace’, ‘one English nunnery and two of Irish Capucins’; 67: Brussels, Dominicans, two English nunneries: Clares and Dominicans; 75: Ghent, English Jesuits, nunnery of English Benedictines; 84: Bruges, nunnery of the 3rd order of St. Francis (30 nuns), Augustine nuns; 85: Newport, English Carthusians; 87: Dunkirk, ‘an English nunnery of poor Clares and another of Benedictine nuns called the rich Dames, under the direction of the Jesuits’; 89: Gravelines, English nunnery of Clares; 92: St. Omer, ‘convent of about 30 English Jesuits and a seminary’; ‘a league off at Watte is another English noviciat [ … ] where lies buried Father Peters, the late King James’ confessor’; 94: Douai; cf. Anon. 1721,52–3: ‘The English Benedictines of St. Vedast isalso very large and well adorned, having commodious lodgings for a great number of students founded there. Several English regulars are also interspersed with other nations in the foundations and more particularly the Irish, who are still called English abroad.’

24 Evelyn, 65; Fraser, 126r; Broekman, 76v; Penson, 88.

25 With brother Wilkins (Prideaux, 75v) and father Welch (Leake, 31/2r); he also invited Leake ‘to a noble consort of music’ in the Jesuits’ chapel.

26 Prideaux, 77v; Perth (1694), 30 and his wife were invited to dinner with the chaplain of this community, which consisted at that time of 53 nuns, ‘all women of quality’; at Louvain. Prideaux, 77v also mentions Mother Plowden, prioress of the English Canonesses Regular ‘where we also saw the Lady Ursula Stafford, sister Ireland and others’; the Irish Recollects and the convent of Irish Dominicans; Father Magee prior; Dr. Sullivan was at the Irish College; Fraser (1659), 132 mentions several monasteries and adds: ‘Father Tashall an Irish Capucin gave me the best account of the place’.

27 Skippon, 377: The students who showed him around: ‘Mr. Fortescue, Mr. Plompton, Mr. Constable, Mr. Short and Mr. Brian an Irishman [ … ] lodge and diet at this nunnery’; Idem: ‘They [i.e. the nuns] rise to their devotions at midnight and have service five times a day’.

28 Leake, 31–2; Skippon, 377; 362; Anon. 1695/9, 21; Egmont, 35v; Mrs. Knatchbull, cf. n. 30; Perth, 42 (at the grate of the Augustine nuns); Scott, 24 (as quoted in Bowrey, 21); the abbess gave him letters to deliver in England.

29 Leake, 31–2; Taylor, 19r; Sister Mary Delphina Howard (1658–1714), one of the 6 sisters of Henry Stafford Howard, Earl of Stafford (1648–1719); Prideaux (1712), 77r: ‘We saw the Rev. mother Busby, the Lady Mary Stafford, Mr. Bernard Howard’s three daughters’; Anon. 1711, 16: ‘Mrs. Busby, a Bucks lady was abbot and there I discoursed with Mrs. Mildmay and 3 Mrs. Comptons’.

30 Benedictines at Ghent: Shaw, 75; Skippon (1663), 370, talked to ‘Mrs. Fortescue, the prioress and to Mrs. [Mary] Minshul, [ … ] Madame Mannock (who has a sister in the nunnery at Dunkirk) and Madame Monson, and Madame Wakeman (who has a brother in the college at Rome). [ … ]Madame Knatchbull, Sir Norton Knatchbull’s sister is the abbess. There are 33 dames of the choir and 16 lay-sisters who help as servants in ordinary occasions that belong to this convent’; Perth (1694,43), met the then 85-year-old abbess (d. 1696), who hardly looked 55, and ‘my lady Catherine Howard (a lady of excellent parts and admirable virtue)’; Prideaux (1712), 78v, also saw Mrs. Howard, another abbess Knatchbull (abbess 1711–30) and ‘Dame Portil’; ‘Lady Cath. Howard, the D[uke] of N[orfolk]’s aunt’ told Anon. 1711, 10–1, that ‘they consisted of 22, whereof 5 were then vacant; 2 of Mr. Demsey’s? daughters of the North were just newly come in’; Blundell, 161–9.

31 Burnet, 103r; 106r; she also visited a cousin at Liège (121v).

32 Perth, 42–3; Egmont, 29v, and his wife also had a conversation with this abbess; Browne, letter, 52r (quoted in Van Strien, op. cit. app. I).

33 Prideaux, 76v; after visiting the nuns he ‘went to see Canon Bignon, where we passed the evening in company’.

34 Skippon, 377; Walker, 13: ‘At the grate we discoursed with two nuns who bore the name of Russell; they were Augustines by order, the Lady Wigmore was their abbess’; Perth, 44.

35 Prideaux (1712), 77r: ‘We saw the Lady Abbess Blundell [abbess 1682–1713], the 2 Dames Doryll, Dame Lucy Ireland and Dame Mannock’; Ibidem 77v: ‘We went to the English Benedictines to see father Roper, uncle to the Lord Tenham’; Leake, 36: ‘Their confessor was a young brisk Irishman’; Anon. 1711, 16: ‘While I was there were professed Mrs. Berkley and Errington and we were civilly entertained by Mrs. Ireland, sister to the gentleman that married Mr. Prishale’s daughter’.

36 Thornhill, 69–70; cf. Skippon (1663), 370: ‘They say their devotions seven times in a day, They say their matins overnight at 9 of the clock. In the morning they rise at 5 and work before dinner an hour and a half without speaking a word, except the prioress gives them leave. An hour after dinner, the time we were entertained by them, and an hour after supper is allotted them for recreation. In the afternoon they work an hour and a half and they go to supper at 5 of the clock and to bed at 10. They teach young gentlewomen to sing etc., who are at liberty to return home when they please. We saw some of their work, which was an imitation of flowers and greens in a pot. They have a fair building and a large garden’.

37 Anon. 1721, 87–88.

38 Walker, 15–6: ‘In the chapel was buried the heart of the Lady Tenham of that family with an inscription over it’; Perth, 44: ‘the poor Clarisses are of a far more rigid order and indeed one of the most austere of the Church of God; these are far more mitigated [ … ]In their chapel is the heart of the late Duke of Norfolk [Henry Howard, 6th Duke] in an urn of porphyry with a noble inscription on it’; Grey, 70v–71r.

39 In 1669 the order settled in the Spellekenshuis, which Cardinal Howard had bought for them. Henne, A. and Wauters, A., Histoire de la ville de Bruxelles, Bruxelles 1845, III, 572.Google Scholar

40 Taylor, 19r: ‘She had been almost twenty years in the house’ and was one of the three daughters of Bernard Howard, brother to Cardinal Howard: Elizabeth Dominica (1677–1761), Mary Rosa (1678–1747) and Catherine Mary Joseph (1683–1753), cf. CRS, 25.

41 Shaw, 62; Taylor, 19r; Leake, 36; 31–2.

42 Fraser, 144; Shaw, 92; cf. Anon. 1721, 52 (on Douai): ‘Here is the famous seminary of English popish priests, where many things have been hatched for our destruction, worthy only of the authors to contrive’.

43 Penson, 86; Ann (c. 1680–1714) or Teresa (c.1681–1731) Vaughan, who were pupils at the convent in 1692–4, returned on August 29th 1707 and made their profession on 13th June 1709 (information kindly provided by The English Convent, Carmersstraat 85, Brugge); Taylor, 33v: ‘there are 45 nuns professed’, cf. Monasticon Belge, III, vol. 4, pp. 1143–65.

44 Taylor, 33v–34r.

45 Burnet, 121, on the Sepulcrins [Order of the Holy Sepulchre] at Liège: ‘They wear a red cross on a white surplice, the rest is black and a long black robe with crimson rope of silk’.

46 Mrs. Burnet, 123r:’The house stands very high, pleasant and healthful [ … ] they rise twice in the night and there is strict in some respects’; she met Lady Mary Stafford, daughter to Lord Stafford; cf. Taylor, 19r: ‘The Lady BoiIe [ … ] is governess over about 25 ladies professed’, i.e. Eliz. Boyle (c.1631–1717), cf. CRS 25, 191–9.

47 Burnet, 123v; Walker, 10.

48 Perth, 39; it was possibly here that Prideaux (1712), 75r/v saw ‘Mrs. Burton and 2 sisters of the family of the Howards’. A princess was then staying with them as a lodger.

49 E.g. English Jesuits’ college at Ghent: Skippon (1663), 370: ‘a mean building, we discoursed with one Greene, a father; the rector’s name is Bennet. They expect a removal to a better place’; Perth (1694), 43: ‘the principal is Lieutenant-Colonel Midietown, who laid down his employment under the King because the King was Catholique and by his own search it pleased God to give him the knowledge of the truth and so he became Catholique and religious and is a worthy good man’; Prideaux (1712); 78v: Father Paston rector; Father Murphy minister.