No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
John Bede Brewer: Priest and Property
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2015
Extract
Rev. Dr John Bede Brewer OSB arrived to serve the Catholic mission in England in 1776. Like other contemporary English Catholic priests, he had been educated and trained abroad and, even though choosing to join a religious order, Brewer expected to be posted to serve for many years at some mission in England. An inevitable consequence of being spread rather thinly throughout the country was that quite frequently many priests were left much on their own resources in coping with their location and mission. During the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries a preponderance of missions had, of necessity, been based rurally in gentry or aristocratic households where protection and economic support were available. During the eighteenth century as industrialization, population movement and urban growth all took hold new demands, personal, financial and organizational, became apparent for the small cohort of English Catholic clergy. There were four vicars apostolic to superintend the Catholic Church in England but much was left to the initiative, effort and resources of individual priests, particularly as the Relief Acts of the later eighteenth century relaxed the penal laws and gave greater freedom to Catholic clergy.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Catholic Record Society 2006
References
Notes
1 Scott, G., Gothic Rage Undone: English Monks in the Age of Enlightenment (Bath, 1992), p. 107.Google Scholar I am indebted to Abbot Scott for his support and assistance with Woolton material.
2 Williams, J. A. (ed.), Post Reformation Catholicism in Bath (Catholic Record Society 61, 1975), pp. 66–70, 105;Google Scholar Haydon, C., Anti-Catholicism in Eighteenth-Century England: A Political and Social Study (Manchester, 1993),Google Scholar passim; Blundell, F. O., Old Catholic Lancashire, vol. II (London, 1941), p. 142.Google Scholar
3 Hardwick, C., History of the Borough of Preston and its Environs in the County of Lancaster (Preston, 1857), p. 525;Google Scholar Mannex and Co. (eds.), History, Topography and Directory of the Borough of Preston with the Neighbouring Townships (Beverley, 1851), p. 55;Google Scholar Smith, J. P. (ed.), Lancashire Registers IV: Brindle and Salmesbury (Catholic Record Society 23, 1922), pp. 74–75.Google Scholar
4 For example, the manor of Kirkham belonged to Christ Church College, Oxford. It was let to Thomas Clifton Esquire of Lytham who had as his sub-tenant there at Newton cum Scales in 1758 one Thomas Brewer. See Cunliffe Shaw, R., Kirkham and Amounderness (Preston, 1949), p. 100.Google Scholar
5 Lancashire Marriage Bonds 1734–1745 (Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 100, 1949).
6 Whittle, P., History of Preston, Vol. II (Preston, 1837), p. 246.Google Scholar
7 Holt, G., The English Jesuits: A Biographical Dictionary (Catholic Record Society 70, 1984), p. 4.1 Google Scholar
8 H. Fishwick, The History of the Parish of Preston (Rochdale, 1900), pp. 306,331–332,427; Blundcll, Old Catholic Lancashire, vol. II, pp. 140–143.
9 Sharpc France, R. (ed.), Lancashire Papist Estates 1715–1788, vols. I, II and II (Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 98 (1945), 108 Google Scholar (1960), 117 (1977)); Estcourt, E. E. and Payne, J. O., English Catholic Nonjurors of 1715 (London, 1900).Google Scholar
10 Gillow, J., Biographical Dictionary of the English Catholics (London, 1885), Vol. 1, p. 291;Google Scholar Lancashire Record Office in Preston (Lanes RO), QDF 2/32/37; 2/38/31.
11 Sec family tree.
12 Hilton, J. A., ‘The Catholic Ascendancy in the North 1685–88’, North West Catholic History 5 (1978), p. 8.Google Scholar
13 Brewer's thesis was published in three volumes in London as Religionis Naturalis et Revelatae Principia in 1774. See Birt, H. R., Obit Book of the English Benedictines from 1600–1912 (Edinburgh, 1913), p. 133;Google Scholar Green, B., The English Benedictine Congregation (London, 1980), p. 24.Google Scholar
14 Lanes RO, WCW Henry Brewer of Preston, 1795. I am indebted to Dr D. Pope for assistance in tracking members of the Brewer family.
15 Lanes RO, WCW Jane Rhind of Liverpool, 1778.
16 Burke, T., Catholic History of Liverpool (Liverpool, 1910), pp. 18–25;Google Scholar Green, English Benedictine Congregation, pp. 27–28.
17 Liverpool RO (Liv RO), Records of St. Mary's Woolton, 282 MAR 5/3.
18 Leeds Diocesan Archives, Hinslcy Hall, Papers of William Gibson/361: 2 December 1799, Jerome Sharrock to William Gibson; Green, English Benedictine Congregation, p. 24; Green, B., ‘The Founderof Ampleforth: Bede Brewer’, Ampleforth Journal 84 (1979), p. 136.Google Scholar
19 Hollinshead, J. E., ‘From Cambrai to Woolton: Lancashire's First Female Religious House’, Recusant History 25 (3), (1995), pp. 465–467.Google Scholar
20 Douai Abbey Archives, Brewer to Parker 1815, Cab IR/A/30.
21 Green, ‘The Founder of Ampleforth’, p. 134.
22 See Hollinshead, J. E., ‘Hall to House: The Catholic Mission in Woolton During the Eighteenth Century’, North West Catholic History 32 (2005) pp. 5–20.Google Scholar
23 Scott, Gothic Rage Undone, p. 112; Hollinshead, ‘From Cambrai to Woolton’, pp. 465–467; Hollinshead, ‘Hall to House’, pp. 5–6.
24 Ampleforth Abbey Archives (AAA), Woolton Easter Communicant Lists HX17-1. I am indebted to Dom Ansclm Cramer for assistance with access to these archives.
25 Hollinshead, ‘From Cambrai to Woolton’, pp. 465–467; Hollinshead, ‘Hall to House’, pp. 5–6.
26 Lally, J. E. and Gnosspelius, J. B., History of Much Woolton (Liverpool, 1975), pp. 24–26.Google Scholar
27 Birt, Obit Book of the English Benedictines, p. 77, p. 87, p. 94; Cramer, A. (cd.), A. Allanson, Biographyof the English Benedictines (Ampleforth, 1999), pp. 158–159,Google Scholar 175, 189; see R. & Dickinson, F. (trans.), Foster, I. (ed.), The Register of the Parish Church of Childwall Part II, 1681–1753 (Lancashire Parish Register Society 122, 1983).Google Scholar
28 Liv RO, Records of St. Mary's Woolton, 282 MAR 4/1.
29 Worrall, E. S. (ed.), Returns of Papists 1767: Diocese of Chester, Catholic Record Society Occ. Pub. 1 (Oxford, 1980), pp. 3–4;Google Scholar Hollinshead, ‘Hall to House’, p. 13.
30 Sharpe France, R., ‘The conveyance of Woolton Hall’, Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 102 (1951), pp. 178–181.Google Scholar
31 Dolan, G., ‘Lancashire and the Benedictines’, Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 49 (1897), p. 151;Google Scholar Hand, C. R., Notes on Woolton Priory (Liverpool, 1913), p. 3;Google Scholar Birt, Obit Book of the English Benedictines, p. 112; Allanson, Biography of the English Benedictines, pp. 209–210; Hollinshead, ‘Hall to House’, pp. 9–13.
32 Scott, Gothic Rage Undone, p. 112; Hollinshead, ‘From Cambrai to Woolton’, pp. 465–467.
33 Liv RO, Records of St. Mary's Woolton, 282 MAR 6/1–5.
34 Liv RO, Records of St. Mary's Woolton, 282 MAR 6/6–7. Benet Bolas OSB was priest at Croxteth in 1758 and Anselm Bolas OSB was Northern Provincial during the 1780s. See Giblin, J. F., ‘The Molyneux Family and the Missions at Scholes Hall and Our Lady's Portico’, North West Catholic History 21 (1994), p. 6 Google Scholar and Scott, Gothic Rage Undone, p. 175. Interestingly a chapel was opened in 1774 at the Benedictinemission at Warwick Bridge. Kelly, B. W., Historical Notes on English Catholic Missions (London, 1907, reprint 1995), p. 4, p. 7.Google Scholar
35 Lally and Gnosspelius, History of Much Woolton, p. 28; Hand, Notes on Woolton Priory, p. 2.
36 Liv RO, Records of St. Mary's Woolton, 282 MAR 6/9–12.
37 Liv RO, Records of St. Mary's Woolton, 282 MAR 6/13.
38 Haydon, Anti-Catholicism, p. 16.
39 The Register of the Parish Church of Childwall; Liv RO, Register of Childwall parish church 1753–1896, 283 CHL 1/43; Hollinshead, ‘From Cambrai to Woolton’, pp. 478–479; Liv RO, Records of St. Mary's Woolton, 282 MAR 1/1; Hand, Notes on Woolton Priory, p. 6.
40 Scott, Gothic Rage Undone, pp. 18, 41.
41 Gibson, W., Church, State and Society 1700–1850 (Basingstoke, 1994), p. 70.Google Scholar
42 Hollinshead, ‘From Cambrai to Woolton’, pp. 468–469; Archives Departmentales du Nord, France, Lille 18H31; Clifton Archives 1772–88, nos. 37, 53. This property was possibly at Woolton Grove on the boundary between Woolton and Halewood, since Brewer refers to it as at the bottom of Woolton hills.
43 Archives Departmentales du Nord, France, Lille 18H 31; Clifton Archives 1772–88, nos. 37, 48.
44 Scott, Gothic Rage Undone, p. 176.
45 Scott, Gothic Rage Undone, p. 217; see also Cramer, A. (ed.), Lamspringe: An English Abbey in Germany 1643–1803 (Ampleforth, 2004).Google Scholar
46 Clifton Archives 1772–88, no. 53.
47 The Land Tax was imposed from 1692 until 1831. From 1780 a duplicate of the local assessment had tobe sent annually to the county Clerk of the Peace. The returns for Woolton are housed at Lanes RO: QDL 2/5/89, 2/6/91, 5/5/89, 22/9/86, 10/5/89. Only a few years during the period 1780–1831 are missing. I am grateful to Miss J. Gnosspelius for drawing my attention to these records and assisting with their interpretation.
48 Moore-Rinvolucri, M. J., ‘The Catholic Contribution to Liverpool Education in the Eighteenth Century’, Dublin Review 228 (1954), pp. 282–290.Google Scholar
49 Hollinshead, ‘From Cambrai to Woolton’, pp. 464–465.
50 Among the subscribers to Brewer's chapel in Bath in the late 1770s had been a John Porter esquire, Mrs Catherine Porter and Mrs Frances Porter. Williams (ed.), Post Reformation Catholicism in Bath, p. 105.
51 ‘Brief Narrative of the seizure of the Benedictine Dames of Cambray by Ann Teresa Partington’, The Downside Review 25 (1906), p. 280.Google Scholar
52 Hollinshead, ‘From Cambrai to Woolton’, pp. 469–470, 475–477; Archives of Stanbrook Abbey Worcestershire, Account Book 1795–1850. By 1800 the nuns were paying nearly £60 a year for rent and taxes in two instalments. I am indebted to Dame M. Truran for assistance with access to the Stanbrook archives.
53 Leeds Diocesan Archives, Papers of William Gibson/351: 29 October 1799 Brewer to Gibson; Hollinshead, ‘From Cambrai to Woolton’, pp. 477, 480.
54 Hollinshead, ‘From Cambrai to Woolton’, pp. 469–472.
55 Lanes RO, QDL 2/5/89, 2/6/91, 5/5/89, 22/9/86, 10/5/89.
56 Cramer, A., Ampleforth The Story of St Laurence's Abbey and College (Ampleforth, 2001), pp. 24–50.Google Scholar
57 Douai Abbey Archives/Cab IR/A/30: 31 October 1815 Brewer to Parker; Cramer, Ampleforth, p. 57.
58 Liv RO, Childwall and Woolton Waste Lands Inclosure Act 1805; Lanes RO, Plan of Allotments in Childwall and Great Woolton 1813; Lally and Gnosspelius, History of Much Woolton, pp. 34–39. Allotment 21 lay to one side of the new Quarry Street, and was adjacent to Allotment 22 awarded to the Trustees of the Poor of Dublin who were in possession of Mercer's estate in Woolton.
59 See for example the case of Cuthbert Simpson in Hollinshead, J. E., ‘Dame Elizabeth Benedict Simpson:A Lancashire Nun in a Changing World’, North West Catholic History 30 (2003), pp. 61–64.Google Scholar
60 Liv RO, Records of St. Mary's Woolton, 282 MAR 7/1 and 7/2.
61 Scott, Gothic Rage Undone, pp. 4–6, 18, 42–43, 49–50.
62 AAA, HX17–3, 4 and 6; Hollinshead, ‘Hall to House’, pp. 9–11.
63 Lanes RO, WCW Mary Dwyer of Much Woolton, 1818. However, Mary Dwyer did not die until April 1823, aged 71, and Father Jenkins became the beneficiary.
64 Lanes RO, QDL 2/5/89, 2/6/91, 5/5/89, 22/9/86, 10/5/89.
65 Lanes RO, QDL 2/5/89, 2/6/91, 5/5/89, 22/9/86, 10/5/89; WCW Hugh Bullen of Liverpool, 1827. Bullen's probate valuation was calculated at under £40,000. His will describes him as a ‘distiller’ and refers to plate, books and pictures as well as his wines and cellar stock. He left his wife an annuity of £400 per annum.
66 Barker, H., Historical Notes of the Parish of St. Mary's Woolton (Liverpool, 1960);Google Scholar Liv RO, Records of St. Mary's Woolton, 282 MAR 1/2.
67 Information supplied by Miss J. Gnosspelius of Woolton. Probably Allotment 21 in the enclosureaward.
68 Lanes RO, Tithe award and plan, DRL Much Woolton 1840.
69 Liv RO, Records of St. Mary's Woolton, 282 MAR 1/1 and 1/2.
70 Hollinshead, ‘From Cambrai to Woolton’, p. 472.
71 Liv RO, Records of St. Mary's Woolton, 282 MAR 1/2.
72 Allanson, Biography of the English Benedictines, p. 309.
73 Ibidem, p. 293.
74 Ibidem, p. 297.
75 Liv RO, Records of St. Mary's Woolton, 282 MAR 1/3; Henry Brewer was based at St. Mary's in Liverpool from 1819 until 1822.
76 Liv RO, Records of St. Mary's Woolton, 282 MAR 1/1, 1/2 and 1/3; and Barker, and Birt.
77 Liv RO, Records of St. Mary's Woolton, 282 MAR 1/3.
78 Phillips's incumbency saw steady growth in Woolton's population, including many victims of the Irish famine. Even before this the Watergate Lane chapel had been extended in 1828 at a cost of £607.
79 Liv RO, Records of St. Mary's Woolton, 282 MAR 1/3 and 4/1.
80 The Catholic Chapels and Chaplains, with the numbers of their respective Congregations in the County of Lancaster, as taken at the end of 1819 (Liverpool, 1819).Google Scholar The national census returns recorded a total population for Woolton of 439 in 1801, 601 in 1811 and 970 in 1821. See Lally and Gnosspelius, History of Much Woolton, p. 37.