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‘Dismal Johnny’: A Companion of Newman Recalled

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Stewart Foster 0.S.M.
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Extract

Among the companions of John Henry Newman at Littlemore at the time of his reception into communion with Rome in October 1845, perhaps the least remembered is John Walker. Indeed, Ambrose St. John, Richard Stanton, and Bernard Dalgairns followed Newman to the Oratory, yet Walker could never bring himself to do likewise. Often confused with Canon John Walker of Scarborough (one of Newman’s subsequent theological correspondents), ‘Dismal Johnny’, as he was dubbed by Manuel Johnson, the Radcliffe Observer, enjoyed a less than happy relationship with Newman. To recall the life of Walker is to shed some further light upon Newman’s own character, and to witness a reconciliation of estranged companions in old age.

Type
Articles
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , May 1992 , pp. 99 - 110
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1973

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References

Notes

1 Rev. Michael Watts Russell (1815–75), together with his wife and children, was received into the Roman Catholic Church with Faber at Oscott in November 1845. Watts Russell lived first in Birmingham and then in Italy, where he acted as supplier and translator of the ‘Lives’ of continental saints published in England by Faber. After his wife died he was ordained to the priesthood (21 December 1868), on his own patrimony, and served in the Archdiocese of Westminster.

2 Ker, I., John Henry Newman: A Biography (Oxford, 1988) p. 275 Google Scholar. Ker is quoting from a letter of Newman to Keble, 18 May 1843.

3 Trevor, M., Newman, The Pillar of the Cloud(London, 1962) p. 369 Google Scholar.

4 LD 11, p. 21.

5 Ker, op.cit. p. 322 LD 11, pp. 165, 195–96, 200–1, 211. For a description of the horarium at Maryvale see W., Ward, the Life of John Henry Cardinal Newman vol. 1 (London, 1912) pp. 120–21.Google Scholar

6 LD 11, p. 150.

7 Ker, op.cit. p. 321.

8 Gilley, S., Newman and his Age (London, 1990) p. 247.Google Scholar

9 LD 11, pp. 204–5.

10 ibid p. 211.

11 ibid, p. 259.

12 ibid 11, p. 302.

13 R.J. Schiefen, ‘Wiseman’s Oscot’ in Champ, J. F. (edit.) Oscott College 1838–1988: A Volume of Commemorative Essays (Oscott, 1988) p. 73.Google Scholar

14 Ward, W., The Life and Times of Cardinal Wiseman vol. 1 (London, 1900) pp. 348–49.Google Scholar

15 Ker, op.cit. p. 329.

16 LD 12, p. 91.

17 Newman to Walker, 2 November 1847 in LD 12, p. 128 refers to the efforts of Newman to allay Walker’s misgivings.

18 LD 12, pp. 297, 312.

19 LD 13, pp. 215, 256.

20 ibid 13, pp. 336–37.

21 Newman to Faber, 3 January 1850, in LD 13, p. 359.

22 LD 13, p. 382.

23 see Spencer-Silver, P., ‘George Myers, Pugin’s Builder’ in Recusant History vol. 20, no. 2 p. 267.Google Scholar

24 Trevor, M., Newman, Light in Winter (London, 1962) p. 185.Google Scholar

25 LD 18, pp. 352–53.

26 Ker, op.cit. p. 470.

27 LD 18, p. 372.

28 Trevor, Light p. 185.

29 LD 19, p. 294.

30 ibid 23, p. 9.

31 see my The Catholic Church in Stock.

32 LD 28, pp. 326–27.

33 Ker, op.cit. p. 712 cf LD 19, pp. 58–9, 62.

34 The Tablet, 5 October 1878, p. 435.

35 Trevor, Pillar p. 386.