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Robert Rodolph Suffield's Dominican Decade (1860–1870)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2015
Extract
Robert Suffield entered the Dominican novitiate at Woodchester on 31 July 1860 if not trailing clouds of glory, then with a shining reputation as a preacher. As Fr. Gonin, the Woodchester Prior, writes to the Dominican Master, ‘…ayant une renomée de Prédicateur’. Suffield had been chief organiser of a huge meeting in the Newcastle Town Hall on Monday 23 January that year to express sympathy with the difficulties and distress of the Pope. With the recent loss of the Romagna to the Piedmontese forces, the remainder of the shrinking Papal States was clearly menaced. A wave of sympathy swept through the Catholic world. Here in Newcastle, with its very large Irish immigrant population, feelings were running high.
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References
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1 Procter to Jandel, 12 Sept. 60, OPAG XIII 65081 f 222.
2 Gonin to Jandel, 21 July 60, OPAG XIII 65081 f 207.
3 The assassination of the Pope's Minister, Pellegrino Rossi, and Pio Nono's flight to Gaeta.
4 The Times, 25 Jan. 60 TAB 28 Jan. 60; p. 54 & WR 28 Jan. 60 p. 4.
5 HARG particularly pp. 11–55.
6 Newman to Henry Wilberforce, 13 Aug. 70, JHN vol. XXV p. 181.
7 Suffield's Address in South Shields, INQ 10 April 75 p. 234.
8 Suffield, Five Letters on a Conversion to Roman Catholicism (1873) quoted in INQ 27 Sept. 73 p. 623.
9 Venn, J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses (Cambridge 1954) p. 80;Google Scholar Waller, A. W., Peterhouse Admission Book (Cambridge 1912) p. 474.Google Scholar
10 Suffield to Gladstone, 20 March 76, WEG.BL, ff 254–257; William Thomson (1824–1907)— distinguished Scottish mathematician and physicist, created 1st Baron Kelvin 1892.
11 HARG p. 9.
12 Thomas Eustace Smith (1831–1903)—Newcastle shipping magnate; Liberal MP for Tynemouth (1868–1885).
13 See, for instance, T. W. Allies, Journal in France & Letters from Italy 1845–1849 (revised edn. n.d.).
14 Suffield to Thomson, 13 June 47, Cambridge University Library, Kelvin Papers, Add. MS.7342 S588.
15 Hogarth to Grant at the English College, Rome, 2 Feb. 49, HNDA, RCD 1/8 p. 327.
16 HARG p. 15.
17 HARG p. 16 gives diaconal ordination on 25 May 50 and priestly ordination on 25 Aug. 50, but Ushaw College Diary gives 24 May 50 and 15 Aug. 50 respectively (Ushaw College Archive).
18 Hogarth to Suffield, 10 Oct? 50, 11 Nov. 50, 26 Dec. 50, HNDA, RCD 1/8 pp. 685–686, 703, 723.
19 Suffield, ‘An Eclectic View of Roman Catholicism’, a paper read to the Liberal Social Union on 29 May 84, reprinted in INQ 31 May 84, pp. 339–341; the Order at St. Laurent-sur-Sevre was possibly the Company of Mary, a society of priests founded by St. Louis Grignion (1673–1716).
20 St. Ninian's Chapel, Wooler, printed appeal letter, dated 8 June 54, HNDA, RCD 4/42.
21 Suffield to Gladstone, 6 Feb. 75, WEG.BL, ff 192–199 & Archive of Darlington Carmel.
22 Catholic Directory 1857: ‘St. Ninian's Mission House (1847). Burnt down by accident’.
23 Suffield: The Holy Order of St. Dominic —Lecture delivered on Whit Monday 1860 (1860) 46 pp.
24 Agreement between Bishop Hogarth and Fr. Procter—clause 9 relates to Suffield; copy in EDA of Fr. Raymund Palmer OP, BL MS. vol. IVD 4974.
25 Procter to Aylward, 12 March 60, EDA; Hogarth to Procter 31 March 60, ibidem, Maltus to Procter, 18 April 60, ibidem; Procter to Suffield, 20 April 60, HNDA, St. Dominic's parish file; Procter to Suffield, 24 April 60, EDA, Procter Papers; Procter to Jandel, 26 April 60, OPAG, XIII 65081 f 202.
26 Procter to Jandel, 24 July 60; 12 Sept. 60; Gonin to Jandel, 15 Sept. 60, EDA.
27 Jandel to Procter, 20 Jan. 60 OPAG IV 278 f 109; Procter to Jandel, 6 Feb. 60, OPAG XIII 65081 f 193.
28 Jandel to Procter, 23 Dec. 59 OPAG IV 27 f99.
29 Procter to Jandel, 12 Sept. 60, OPAG XIII 65081 f 222.
30 ibidem.
31 Suffield to Procter, ? Oct. 60, EDA.
32 ‘Nearly all the English members of the Dominican Priory at Woodchester were as good, as nearly all the foreigners there were the opposite’. Suffield to Gladstone, 19 Feb. 75, WEG.BL of 200–205; yet the biggest scandal in the Province in the 1860s was at Newcastle when a senior English friar, Fr. Bernard Morewood, decamped late May or early June 63, leaving considerable financial problems.
33 HARG p. 30.
34 Tugwell, Simon OP in introduction to Bailey, Bode OP, Aidan Bellenger, Dom & Tugwell, Simon OP (ed.) Letters of Bede Jarrett (Downside 1989) p. x:Google Scholar ‘There were eight members of the Province, but only four eligible to vote, of whom one was too sick to attend’. Jarrett, Bede OP, The English Dominicans (1921) p. 201,Google Scholar gives the total of friars as 6; Raymund Devas OP, The Dominican Revival in the 19th Century (1913) p. 60.
35 S. Humphries, ed. S. Bullough, ‘The Woodchester Story’, typescript in EDA.
36 Jandel to Morewood, 24 May 52, EDA.
37 Gonin to Procter, 20/22 Nov. 61, EDA.
38 Procter to Jandel, 22 Jan. 62, OPAG XIII 65093 f 4.
39 Suffield to Gladstone, 30 Jan. 80, Flintshire Record Office GG 697.
40 ibidem.
41 Newman to Henry Wilberforce, 13 Aug. 70, JHN vol. XXV p. 181.
42 Mother Imelda Poole to Bishop Ullathorne, 5 July 69—extract from a letter in SCA, copy in EDA. An extraordinary confessor came 4 times a year to hear those who wished for an occasional change from the regular weekly confessor.
43 Letter from Miss de Lisle, printed at end of funeral sermon for Osmund de Lisle, in Rosary Magazine February 70 p. 75.
44 Memoir of the Hon. Henry Edward Dormer (1868) p. 3.
45 Jacks, L. P., From Authority to Freedom (1920) p. 79.Google Scholar
46 WR advert., 22 Feb. 62, repeated 22 and 29 March and weekly throughout April and May.
47 Heimann, M., Catholic Devotion in Victorian England (Oxford 1995) pp. 71, 73, 75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
48 Church Times, 7 Jan. 76, p. 9.
49 TAB, 1 Dec. 66, p. 768.
50 The Crown of Jesus (1862) p. 499.
51 TAB, 15 Aug. 63, p. 518.
52 Cormier, H.-M., Vie du Pere Jandel (Paris 1890) p. 380 Google Scholar—my translation.
53 ‘Notes of a retreat given at Esker Priory’, Galway, by Suffield, begun 21 Aug. 63. Irish Dominican Province Archive at Tallaght.
54 TAB, 9 July 64, p. 439.
55 TAB, 10 March 66, p. 152.
56 Article in Weekly Despatch under initials ‘C.P.’ The author identified as T. P. O’Connor in pencil note, probably by Fr. Antoninus Keane OP, in copy of HARG in Irish Dominican Province Archive. Reprinted in HARG pp. 35–40.
57 Henry & Arthur Wilberforce to parents, 17 Nov. 53. Begun by Henry, but completed by Arthur. ‘Henry Edward Wilberforce: the Letters of a Schoolboy’ in Ushaw College Magazine vol. XLIX 1939 p. 35.
58 Newman to Froude, William, 19 July 64, JHN vol. XXI 1864 p. 159.Google Scholar
59 Harper, G. H., Cardinal Newman and William Froude, FRS. A Correspondence. (Baltimore 1933) pp. 157, 158.Google Scholar
60 Procter to Suffield, 20 April 60, HNDA, St. Dominic's Parish file; Procter to Suffield, 24 April 60, ibidem; Torcelli to Procter, 24 April 60, EDA, Procter Papers; Doussot to Procter, 22 April 60, ibidem.
61 TAB, 9 Jan. 64, p. 32.
62 TAB, 15 May 69, p. 951.
63 TAB, 18 Feb. 65, p. 112: ‘Sold by Mrs. Gibson, Catholic Depository, Woodchester, Glo'stershire’.
64 The Rosary Magazine, March 70, p. 90.
65 Fitzpatrick, W. J., The Life of Father Thomas Burke OP (1894) pp. 104, 105.Google Scholar
66 Altholz, J., The Liberal Catholic Movement in England (1962) pp. 6, 7;Google Scholar Beck, G. A. (ed), The English Catholics 1850–1950 (1950) p. 490;Google Scholar W. J. Fitzpatrick, op.cit., p. 112.
67 Fitzpatrick, W. J., op. cit., p. 116;Google Scholar Julian, J., Dictionary of Hymnology (1892, revised Doveredn. 1957) pp. 181,Google Scholar 1616; WR, 27 May 64, p. 327 & 18 June 64, pp. 390, 391; photograph in Carisbrooke Convent album, EDA.
68 Norman, E. R., Anti-Catholicism in Victorian England (1968) pp. 17, 18.Google Scholar
69 WR, 18 June 64, pp. 390, 391.
70 Fr. Bertrand Wilberforce OP left Ushaw for Woodchester on 22 April 1864, was ordained at Clifton on 1 May and clothed on 7 May (W. Gumbley OP, Dominican Obituary Notices 1555–1952, Blackfriars 1955).
71 WR, 18 June 64, pp. 390, 391.
72 Woodchester Council Book 1854–1874, MS., EDA.
73 Sr. Isabella Philumena's report to Clifton Convent, 23 June 66, SCA; ‘Account of the Triduo [sic]’ 4 July 66, SCA; TAB, 30 June 66, pp. 406, 407.
74 Drane, F. R., Life of Mother Margaret Mary Hallahan (1929) p. 467.Google Scholar
75 Sr. Mary Hugh OP, Archivist SCA: ‘22 July 64. Fr. Suffield came to Stone—he was very anxious we should go to London. [About this time a foundation at Walthamstow or Bow was being considered]’.
76 TAB, 14 July 66, p. 438; photograph in Carisbrooke Convent album.
77 Capes, H. M., Life and Letters of Father Bertrand Wilberforce (1906) p. 16.Google Scholar
78 Viscount & Viscountess Amberley—Lord A. (1842–76)—son of 1st Earl Russell; married 1864 Katherine, d. of 2nd Lord Stanley of Alderley; MP for Nottingham 1866–68; advanced Liberal in politics; left political life to write An Analysis of Religious Belief (2 vols 1876), completed in November 1875 shortly before death. Lady A. (1842–74) ‘Kate’—feminist, admirer of J. S. Mill, with husband publicly advocated birth control; family lived at Rodborough near Woodchester until 1870 when father-in-law sold property; died of diphtheria, leaving two sons—Frank, 2nd Earl Russell, and Bertrand, philosopher, peace activist and 3rd Earl—brought up after 1876 by Lord A.’s mother, Countess Russell.
79 AMB, vol. 1, p. 528. The ‘Mr. Wordsworth’ is possibly the convert Anglican clergyman, Cullen Forth Wordsworth.
80 Suffield to Lord & Lady Amberley—15 letters in the Russell Papers at McMaster University Library.
81 ‘Death of the Rev. R. Rodolph Suffield’—photo-copy of article in unknown Reading newspaper in the Berkshire Record Office, Reading. Suffield told the reporter shortly before his death: ‘My father's grandmother… was a Wood. Through her the Barony of Cramond comes to us, of which I am now the representative’. However, Sir Malcolm Innes of Edingight, former Lord Lyon King of Arms, writes: ‘…The destination of the peerage [Cramond] was limited to the heirs male. This being the case, any claim could have no prospect of success’.
82 INQ, 5 Feb. 76: ‘During that time [c. 1868–1869] I happened to have been at Arundel Castle’.
83 Suffield to Lady Amberley, 2 Nov. 66? from Everingham Park (McMaster University Library, Russell Papers); Suffield to Gladstone, 1 Jan. 75: ‘I think you know my cousin L'd Herries’. WEG.BL ff 176–182.
84 Suffield to Charles Jones, 5 Sept. 69, from Husbands Bosworth but on Newnham Paddox notepaper (Balliol College Library, Urquhart Papers); Lord Denbigh to Suffield, 6 Sept. 69 (ibidem).
85 AMB, vol. 1 p. 528, footnote 1.
86 AMB, vol. 1 pp. 17, 18.
87 Quoted in Gardiner, J., The Victorians (2002) p. 155.Google Scholar
88 Suield to Lady Amberley, undated but probably late 69; Frank Russell was born 12 Aug. 65, so would have been about 4 years old.
89 AMB, Lady Amberley's Journal: on 1 March 65, she and her husband met Miss Cobbe for the first time; on 26 May 67, they met James Martineau and Francis Newman; they attended Unitarian worship to hear Martineau at Little Portland Street Chapel twice in Feb. 63 and again in Feb. 66.
90 Jandel to Morewood, 19 May 55; Jandel to Nickolds, 8 Aug. 55, 3? Sept. 55, Jandel Letters, vol. 2, EDA and 27 April 56, Jandel Letters, vol. 1, EDA.
91 TAB, 5 Oct. 67, p. 629.
92 JHN, vol. XXIII p. 385, footnote 2.
93 Newman to Suffield, 18 Dec. 67, JHN, vol. XXIII p. 385.
94 Newman to Suffield, 13 Nov. 69, vol. XXIV p. 371.
95 INQ, 5 Feb. 76, p. 92.
96 INQ, 23 March 72, p. 186—report of Suffield's sermon reprinted from The Birmingham Gazette; Suffield, Five Letters on a Conversion to Roman Catholicism (1873) p. 11: ‘I left the Roman Catholic Church on the day on which the Papal Infallibility was proclaimed’.
97 Newman, F. W., The Soul, Its Sorrow & Aspirations (1849), HARG, p. 150.Google Scholar
98 Sir Bell, C., The Hand: its mechanism and vital endowments, as evincing design —Bridgewater Treatise IV (1833). Suffield to Gladstone, 14 June 76, WEG.BL, ff 260–264. SeeGoogle Scholar Corsi, P., Science & Religion (Cambridge 1988) pp. 237, 238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
99 Vincent King to Suffield, 15 Aug. 70, HARG p. 182, beginning affectionately: ‘My very dear Fr. Suffield.’
100 HARG, p.47 & INQ, 5 Feb. 76, p. 92.
101 TAB, 8 Feb. 68, p. 85.
102 Ord, B. T., St. Joseph's Church, W. Hartlepool, Account of the Opening Ceremony with History of the Mission, etc. (West Hartlepool 1895) pp. 9, 10.Google Scholar
103 Foster, R. F., Modern Ireland 1600–1972 (1989) pp. 390–395.Google Scholar
104 Suffield, ‘Fenianism & the English People’ (1868) HARG, pp. 267–281; p. 42 gives month as Feb. 68, but p. 267 gives Jan. 68.
105 Thomas Graves Law (1836–1904)—historian and bibliographer, grandson of 1st Earl of Ellenborough and nephew of 2nd Earl; family converted in 1851; entered London Oratory in 1855; ordained priest 1860; sent by Fr. Dalgairns to consult with Suield at Woodchester over doubts in mid 1860s; left Church in 1878; stayed with Suffield Christmas and New Year 1878–79; Suffield wrote to Gladstone asking recommendation of Law as Keeper of the Signet Library, Edinburgh; appointed 1879; main area of study 16th century church history and Scottish history; published historical works, many articles and reviews.
106 Suield to Gladstone, 16 Dec. 78: ‘one uncle, Lord Ellenborough was I think …in the cabinet with you…’ WEG.BL, ff 296–299.
107 HARG, p. 267.
108 The O'Conor Don was a prominent Catholic landlord and junior MP for Roscommon County; see Larkin, E., The Consolidation of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland 1860–1870 (Dublin 1987).Google Scholar
109 Longford, E., Victoria RI (1987) p. 360.Google Scholar
110 TAB, 15 Feb. 68, p. 99—Suield's letter to The South Durham Mercury,6 Feb. 68, reprinted.
111 TAB, 8 Feb. 68, p. 85—report abridged from The Durham & Cleveland Mercury.
112 TAB, 16 May 68, p. 312& 6 June 68, pp. 373, 374.
113 Suffield to Gladstone, 6 Feb. 75, WEG.BL ff 176–182, & 1 Jan. 75, WEG.BL ff 192–199.
114 TAB, 30 Jan. 69, p. 444.
115 TAB, 20 Feb. 69, p. 547—reprinted from The Market Harborough Advertiser.
116 JHN, vol. XXIV, pp. 231 & 233.
117 ibidem, p. 260.
118 TAB, vol. 2, 3 July 69, p. 155.
119 Mother Imelda Poole to Ullathorne—Extract from letter in SCA, copy in EDA.
120 Aylward to Williams, 20 Aug. 69, EDA, Newcastle Papers.
121 Copies of reports of 15 Sept. 69 in The Newcastle Journal, The Newcastle Daily Chronicle and The Northern Daily Express, EDA.
122 David Urquhart (1805–1877)—political activist, Russophobe and Turkophile; MP for Stafford 1847–52; married 1854 Harriet, daughter of Chichester Fortescue; attempted to impeach Palmerston for offences against national and international law; in late 1860s preoccupied with morality of war; Protestant admirer of the Pope and Catholic canon law; with wife's help conducted successful campaign from chalet in French Alps and in his Diplomatic Review to have issue placed on Vatican Council agenda; after his death, family became Catholics and son, Francis ‘Sligger’ Urquhart, was first Catholic Dean of Oxford College (Balliol) since 17th century.
123 See my article ‘Monstrous Propositions of a Dominican—Rodolph Suffield & David Urquhart on the Morality of War’ in New Blackfriars, vol. 82, no. 959, Jan. 2001, pp. 23–34.
124 Aylward to Williams, 23 July 70, EDA, Newcastle Papers.
125 TAB, 9 Oct. 69, p. 590—Leader on ‘Père Hyacinthe & his Order’.
126 HARG, pp. 52–55, report reprinted from The Westminster Gazette, 29 Jan. 70.
127 HARG, p. 108: ‘..in doctrine I agree with Theodore Parker, but in mode I prefer a more scriptural tone’. Theodore Parker (1810–60)—American Unitarian minister and ardent social reformer, influenced by R. W. Emerson and F. D. Strauss; ostracised by more conservative Unitarian colleagues for his rejection of miracles; venerated Jesus as a supreme moral teacher: ‘Christianity … is absolute simple morality; absolute pure religion; the love of man; the love of God acting without let or hindrance’. Wintersteen, P. B., Christology in American Unitarianism (Boston 1977) pp. 51, 52.Google Scholar
128 F. W. Newman (1805–1897)—Professor of Latin at University College, London; controversial writer on religion, who persistently opposed his famous brother; author of The Soul, Its Sorrows & Aspirations (1849) which Suffield admired, and Phases of Faith (1850) which in general received a hostile reception; his denial of Jesus’ sinlessness angered orthodox Christians; his lack of poetic sensibility provoked Matthew Arnold's stinging attack in On Translating Homer (1861). Martineau admired him: ‘If you are not a Christian, you have more Christian virtues than all the saints in the calendar …’ (Martineau to F. W. Newman, 14 May 52, in Drummond & Upton, The Life of James Martineau, vol. 2, p. 321).
129 Frances Power Cobbe (1822–1904)—Irish philanthropist and journalist, animal lover and anti-vivisectionist, energetic campaigner for women's rights, friend and admirer of James Martineau; she attended Little Portland Street Chapel during his ministry there; author of Broken Lights—An Inquiry into the Present Condition & Future Prospects of Religious Faith (1864) which had a Parkerite emphasis upon the ‘Moral Truth’ of Christianity; she believed Unitarians would ‘reach the hearts of thousands’ if only they would have the courage to adopt the new, advanced, teaching (Broken Lights, pp. 95 & 97).
130 HARG, p. 59.
131 TAB, 7 May 70, p. 591.
132 Fr. Walter Gumbley OP (1887–1968)—former archivist of the English Dominican Province—MS. Notes, EDA.
133 See my article ‘From Friar to Free Christian’ in The Transactions of the Unitarian Historical Society vol. XXI, no. 4, April 1998, pp. 296–301.
134 See my article: ‘One of the Advanced School—Robert Rodolph Suffield's Croydon Ministry 1870–1877’ in The Transactions of the Unitarian Historical Society vol. XXII, no. 3, April 2001, pp. 261–274.
135 ‘The Free Christian Union’—formed in Nottingham in 1866, as a liberal religious ‘umbrella’ organisation on principles broad enough to cover the whole area of liberal Christian churches, old or new. It attracted much interest, some loyal support but also considerable opposition among Unitarians, and insufficient reliable commitment. Martineau was the main promoter and it was he who proposed it be dissolved on 8 Dec. 1870 (Drummond & Upton, Life of James Martineau, pp. 415–436).
136 Martineau to Suffield, 5 Aug 70, HARG, pp. 125–128.
137 Jandel to Aylward, 29 July 70, vol. 1 Jandel Letters, EDA.
138 Jandel to King&Aylward, 18 Aug. 70, OPAG IV 286 f 395.
139 Suffield to Martineau, 11 Aug. 70, HARG, pp. 161, 162.
140 Newman to Henry Wilberforce, 13 Aug. 70, JHN vol. XXV p. 181.
141 Newman to Trenow, 31 Aug. 70, EDA.
142 Portley to Williams, 9 Sept. 70, EDA, Newcastle Archives.
143 Her late father, a leading solicitor, had been Town Clerk. The family were members of Upper Chapel (Unitarian), Sheffield.
144 Gumbley, op. cit.
145 I have located, so far, 88 items of this correspondence in BL, Flintshire Record Office and Hibbert Journal vol. XXIV, pp. 605–615. Of the latter printed source, an extensive search has not revealed whereabouts of most of the original MS.
146 INQ, 29 Dec. 77, p. 862, letter reprinted from The Newcastle Chronicle.