1 Northampton Diocesan Archives (hereafter NDA) A5.2.19.j: Letter of Bishop Amherst on 25th anniversary of the Restoration of the Hierarchy, 13 September 1875. I am indebted to Mrs. Margaret Osborne, Diocesan Archivist, for her help in the preparation of this article.

2 Roskell, Dame Mary Francis (edit. Vaughan, H. F. J.), Memoirs of Francis Kerril Amherst (London, 1903), p. 319 Google Scholar. The author was a Benedictine nun at East Bergholt who used Amherst’s diaries, letters to his family, and autobiography (which covered his younger days only) to produce a ‘Life’ of the bishop. Much of his family correspondence (including letters to his mother, who lived until 1871) is kept in the archives of the British Province of the Society of Jesus at Farm Street. His younger brother William was a Jesuit and in the 1870s served in the Diocese of Northampton as rector of the Society’s mission in Norwich. William Johnson referred to in the letter quoted above was secretary to Cardinal Manning and later (1906–09) an auxiliary bishop of Westminster.

3 Roskell, p. 223.

4 William Wareing (1791–1865) resigned as Bishop of Northampton on 11 February 1858 on grounds of ill-health. He was translated to the titular see of Retimo and served as chaplain to the Benedictine nuns at East Bergholt, Suffolk, until his death.

5 The increase in the number of missions with a resident priest by county (1858–79) was as follows: Northamptonshire from 3 to 4; Bedfordshire 1 to 2; Buckinghamshire 3 to 6; Cambridgeshire 4 to 6; Norfolk 7 to 8; Suffolk 7 to 9 (plus 1 closure); Huntingdonshire 0 to 1. Mass centres: Northamptonshire 2 to 4; Buckinghamshire 2 to 3; Cambridgeshire 1 to 3; Norfolk 1 to 3; Suffolk 1 to 6; Bedfordshire 0 to 1; Huntingdonshire 0 to 2. In 1858 there were 20 secular priests and 6 religious (5 Jesuits and 1 Benedictine); in 1879 there were 34 secular priests and 9 religious (6 Jesuits, 1 Benedictine, 1 Pallottine, 1 Canon Regular of the Holy Cross) and 1 ‘unattached’.

6 Charles Talbot, 15th Earl of Shrewsbury, was the brother of Amherst’s maternal grandmother.

7 William Kerril Amherst purchased the property at Little Parndon in 1822 and occupied its Georgian brick mansion until 1834. The estate now forms part of Harlow New Town and a hospital occupies the site of Upper House. See Bateman, L. H. (edit.), History of Harlow (Harlow, 1969), pp. 85–86.Google Scholar

8 Foley, whom the Amhersts had first met at Bosworth Hall, seat of the Turville family in Leicestershire, had founded the mission at Northampton in 1823. He opened a modest chapel dedicated to St. Andrew and in his house established an academy which he hoped would act as a preparatory school for Oscott. There were ten boys in the school in April 1829, including members of the Jemingham and Petre families. From 1840 the house was used by Bishop Wareing and was extended in 1844 to accommodate the Eastern District’s small ‘Seminary of St. Felix’ formerly at Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk. In the same year Wareing added the chapel of St. Felix which was to become the pro-cathedral of the Diocese of Northampton in 1850.

9 See Dennison, P., ‘Thomas Walsh’s vision of Oscott: hopes and realities’ in Champ, J. F. (edit.), Oscott College 1838–1988: A volume of commemorative essays (Oscott, 1988), pp. 37–44.Google Scholar

10 For the influence of Pugin see R. O’Donnell, ‘Pugin at Oscott’ in Champ op. cit., pp. 45–66. For St. Augustine’s, Kenilworth, see Spencer-Silver, P., Pugin’s Builder: The Life and Work of George Myers (Hull, 1993), pp. 58, 254.Google Scholar

11 Amherst’s successor at Stafford, John Dowling (1859–61), also subsequently tried his vocation with the Dominicans at Woodchester.

12 Amherst Papers in Jesuit Archives, Farm Street (hereafter APSJ): Bishop Amherst to his mother, 7 May 1858 (copy in NDA).

13 John Morris (1826–93) was received into the Church in 1846 and ordained at the English College, Rome, for the Eastern District. He was appointed a Canon of Northampton on the erection of the Chapter in 1852. He became part of Wiseman’s household, acting as secretary, and came to prominence after the cardinal’s estrangement from his principal secretary Monsignor Searle, who opposed Manning in the Westminster Chapter and supported Errington in the coadjutorship dispute. Morris was appointed to the Westminster Chapter. A noted historian, he served as secretary to Manning (1865–67) before entering the Society of Jesus.

14 Talbot papers, Venerable English College, Rome: Morris to Talbot, 17 February 1862, quoted in Schiefen, R. J., Nicholas Wiseman and the Transformation of English Catholicism (Shepherdstown, 1984), p. 307.Google Scholar

15 St. Pancras, Ipswich, was created a Missionary Rectorate in 1875.

16 APSJ: Bishop Amherst to his mother, May 1859.

17 Roskell, p. 231.

18 Augustus Pugin had drawn up plans for a new cathedral for Bishop Wareing in 1851, but the project was never begun.

19 See Husenbeth’s account of the proceedings in The Weekly Register, 7 May 1864.

20 Information from the Diocesan Archivist.

21 Information obtained from Fitzgerald-Lombard, C., English and Welsh Priests 1801–1914 (Downside, 1993), pp. 65–70.Google Scholar

22 See Foster, S., ‘The Life and Death of a Victorian Seminary: The English College Bruges’ in Recusant History vol.20 (1990), pp. 272–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The three students trained at this seminary were Patrick Rogers (an Irishman transferred from All Hallows, Dublin, in 1859 and ordained in 1861), William Moser (a convert from Norwich ordained in 1872), and Bernard Murray (who completed his training at the Grand Seminaire and was ordained in 1875). All three eventually became canons of the Northampton Chapter.

23 Roskell, p. 377.

24 See Whelan, B., Historic English Convents of Today (London, 1936), pp. 186–194 Google Scholar. A boarding school was maintained at East Bergholt until 1878.

25 See Hudson, G. V., Mother Genevieve Dupuis: Foundress of the English Congregation of the Sisters of St. Paul the Apostle 1813–1903 (London, 1929), pp. 245–249 Google Scholar; for Great Marlow and Costessey (see main text below).

26 St. Francis Home, Shefford, was established as the diocesan orphanage. Directed by the clergy, it took orphan and destitute boys from workhouses in the Dioceses of Northampton and Nottingham, as well as those provided for under the Industrial Schools Act. Under Amherst’s successor Bishop Riddell, a small seminary was also opened.

27 APSJ: Bishop Amherst to Rev. William Amherst S.J., 20 December 1869.

28 Ibidem,

29 APSJ: Bishop Amherst to his mother, 3 January 1870.

30 Ibidem.

31 APSJ: Bishop Amherst to Rev. William Amherst S.J., 27 December 1869.

32 APSJ: Bishop Amherst to his mother, 21 January 1870.

33 APSJ: Bishop Amherst to his sister Anne, 13 January 1870. The article appeared in The Tablet, 8 January 1870, pp. 54–55, and was reprinted from The Weekly Register.

34 NDA F3.1.a: Bishop Amherst to Dr. Oleron, 11 December 1869.

35 APSJ: Bishop Amherst to his mother, 10 February 1870.

36 APSJ: Bishop Amherst to his sister Anne, 3 February 1870.

37 APSJ: Bishop Amherst to Rev. William Amherst S.J., 7 February 1870.

38 Cwiekowski, F. J., The Ecclesiology of the English Bishops at the First Vatican Council (Louvain, 1971), pp. 472–73.Google Scholar

39 See Roskell, p. 338.

40 NDA F3.1.a: Bishop Amherst to Dr. Oleron, 2 April 1879.

41 See The Tablet 23 June 1883, p. 993; 4 July 1883, pp. 73–74.

42 See The Tablet 1 September 1883, pp. 339–41.

43 Cardinal Manning to Rev. William Amherst S.J., 24 August 1883, quoted in Roskell, p. 373.