¹ The usual pattern of entry to a Mercy convent was for a girl to spend about six months with the nuns as an observer of their lifestyle. Then she had to be ‘clothed’ in a novice's habit to signify her first step in casting off the things of the outside world. After two years as a novice she could make her final profession of vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. On that occasion she would receive her nun's habit. The clothing ceremony cited here was at St. Catherine's Convent, Lauriston Gardens, Edinburgh, 8 October 1885.

² William Humphrey, MA of Aberdeen University, was a convert to Catholicism in 1868, having served as incumbent of St. Mary Magdalen's, Dundee, and as Chaplain to the Bishop of Brechin. He was ordained a Catholic priest of the Oblates of St. Charles on 4 March 1871 and later joined the Jesuits at St. Beuno's College, St. Asaph, North Wales, where he died 3 June 1910. Humphrey was the author of many spiritual books including Divine Teacher, Written Word, Other Gospels, Mary Magnifying God.

³ Humphrey, W.: The Spouses of the King (Edinburgh 1885) p. 12.Google Scholar

⁴ Ibidem, p. 17.

⁵ There is considerable confusion in the scraps of evidence available about the identity of these first nuns. The list given here has been compiled after careful analysis of the Register and the early letters of the community. For details of individual dates of profession see Register of Endsleigh Nuns p. 1, Endsleigh Archives (Ends. A), Hull.

⁶ For a detailed study of Catherine McAuley see Burke-Savage, R: Catherine McAuley: The First Sister of Mercy (Dublin 1950)Google Scholar or Bourke, MC: A Woman Sings of Mercy: Reflections on the Life and Spirit of Mother Catherine McAuley (Sydney, Australia 1987).Google Scholar

⁷ Whitty's biography was published in Melbourne in 1972. See O'Donoghue, Mary X: Mother Vincent Whitty: Woman & Educator in a Masculine Society.

⁸ Burke-Savage, op. cit., p. 375.

⁹ Letter from Sr. Vincent Whitty to Monsignor Yore VG, 18 October 1854, cited in Bolster, A: The Sisters of Mercy in the Crimean War (Cork 1964) p. 28.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Two nuns each from Baggot Street, Cork, Charleville, Carlow and three nuns from Kinsale.

¹¹ The ‘McAuley spirit and the ideals of the Mercy Congregation’ are treated at length in McClelland, M: Early Educational Endeavour: A Study of the Work of the Hull Mercy Nuns 1855–1930 (unpublished MPhil thesis, Hull University 1993).Google Scholar See also Miley, H: The Ideals of Mother McAuley and their Influence (New York 1931)Google Scholar or A Sister of Mercy (ed): Familiar Instructions of Catherine McAuley (St. Louis, 1888).

¹² O'Donoghue, op. cit., p. 15.

¹³ Hadfield, J (ed): The Shell Book of English Villages (1980) p. 325.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Lane-Fox, H: Chronicles of a Wharfedale Priest (1909) p. 33.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Ibidem, p. 36.

¹⁶ Hansom was asked to draw up plans for the church from drawings found at Traquair by Mr. Maxwell, friend of Fr. Edward Clifford. Much credit for the building of the church, however, went to George Roberts a local Clifford builder.

¹⁷ Ends. A, Single sheet entitled ‘The Clifford Community (from Canon Lewthwaite's Manuscript)’, undated.

¹⁸ Lane-Fox, op.cit, p. 38. Hildebrand Lane-Fox was a monk of Fort Augustus.

¹⁹ Leeds Diocesan Archives (LDA) Clifford Papers, Two letters from Fr. Edward Clifford to Bishop Robert Cornthwaite, 21 November and 23 December 1861.

²⁰ Agnew was superior of the Bermondsey Mercy Convent in 1842 but later joined the Trappistines in search of a more contemplative religious life. Her book Illustrations of the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy (Charles Dolman, London 1840) was written in French and English.

²¹ Bolster, A: Catherine McAuley, Venerable for Mercy (Dublin 1990) p. 88.Google Scholar

²² Statistics given by Sr. Saurin to the Court of the Queen's Bench, Saurin v Starr, 6 February 1869.

²³ LDA, Clifford Papers Cullimore, J: ‘Visitation 1863–4: Clifford Mission’.

²⁴ LDA, Briggs Papers No. 1962 Letter from Mother Starr to Bishop John Briggs, 1 February 1858.

²⁵ Fr. Michael Trappes was the seventh son of Francis Michael Trappes of Nidd Hall in the West Riding. His family could trace its lineage as far back as the Plantagenets and had remained staunchly recusant throughout the post-Reformation period. Trappes was ordained at Ushaw in December 1821 at the age of 24. After considerable missionary experience in Monkwearmouth, Manchester, Rochdale, Bury, Brough Hall and Huddersfield, he came to St. Charles's Hull in 1848 and remained until his death 25 years later.

²⁶ Middlesbrough Diocesan Archives (MDA) Sisters of Mercy Papers Fr. Trappes's agreement with the nuns dated 22 December 1856 is contained within a ‘Statement concerning the establishment of the Sisters of Mercy in Hull’ signed by Mother Kennedy on 3 March 1887.

²⁷ McClelland, M., op.cit, Chapters 5 and 6.

²⁸ LDA, Briggs Papers No. 1962 Letter from Mother Starr to Bishop Briggs, 1 February 1858.

²⁹ LDA, Briggs Papers No. 1963 Letter from Fr. E. Clifford to Bishop Briggs, 5 February 1858.

³⁰ See n. 28.

³¹ Fr. Clifford gave a lengthy account of his problems in Clifford in a 21 page letter to Bishop Cornthwaite, 21 November 1861 (LDA, Clifford Papers).

³² Ibidem.

³³ LDA, Clifford Papers Letter from Canon Render VG to Fr. Clifford, 27 July 1860. Fr. James Cullimore, a Waterford man, was ordained in 1853 for the Beverley Diocese. He remained in Clifford for forty-four years until his death in 1904.

³⁴ Best, G: Popular Protestantism in Victorian Britain’ in Robson, R (ed): Ideas and Institutions of Victorian Britain (London 1967) p. 128.Google Scholar

³⁵ This bill was introduced under the Prime Ministership of Lord John Russell in 1851 to counteract fears of ‘Papal aggression’ resulting from the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy by Pius IX in 1850. The Bill imposed a fine of one hundred pounds on any Catholic claiming a title to ‘pretended sees’ and invalidated all deeds and endowments executed by such Catholics. Although the bill remained on the statute book until 1871, it was never enforced, largely because of Cardinal Wiseman's successful Appeal to the English People in which he assuaged the fears of both people and Parliament.

³⁶ Hansard, CXU, 1851, p. 266.

³⁷ Best, op.cit, pp. 127–128.

³⁸ Ibidem.

³⁹ Spurrell's pamphlet inspired the following publications in the same year:

(1) A Reply to Spurrell from Miss Sellon

(2) A Letter to Miss Sellon from Henry Philpotts, Lord Bishop of Exeter

(3) A Rejoinder to Miss Sellon's Reply by James Spurrell

(4) Remarks on Miss Sellon's Reply by W. M. Colles

(5) A Further Statement of the Rules, Constitution and Working of the Anglican Society of the Sisters of Mercy by Diana A. G. Campbell.

⁴⁰ Wiseman, N: ‘Miss Sellon and Her Sisterhood’, in the Dublin Review, June 1852, p. 461.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Clear, C: Nuns in Nineteenth Century Ireland (Dublin & Washington, 1987) p. 76.Google Scholar

⁴² LDA, Sisters of Mercy Papers 1850–1903 An undated document confirms Mother Kennedy as superioress in Hull ‘for another triennium notwithstanding that she has previously held that office for three such periods successively’ and indicates a rescript from the Holy See giving such faculties to Kennedy ‘the text of the Rule notwithstanding.’

⁴³ Summary of the Lord Chief Justice to the Jury at the Court of the Queen's Bench, Saurin v Starr, 26 February 1869.

⁴⁴ LDA, Saurin v Starr Papers Letter from Sr. Saurin to Bishop Cornthwaite, 28 September 1862.

⁴⁵ LDA, Saurin v Starr Papers Letters of deposition concerning Sr. Saurin from twelve nuns to Bishop Cornthwaite. For minute details of Saurin's reported faults see also the transcript of the trial published under the title The Inner Life of the Hull Nunnery Exposed (Vickers, London 1869)Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Evidence given by Mother Starr before the Court of the Queen's Bench, Saurin v Starr, 15 February 1869.

⁴⁷ LDA, Saurin v Starr Papers Letters from Fr. Tom Mathews to Bishop Cornthwaite, 10 January and 13 January 1866.

⁴⁸ LDA, Saurin v Starr Papers 30 page Report by Fr. E. Goldie and individual Reports from each of the five Commissioners.

⁴⁹ Counsel for the plaintiff: The Solicitor General (Sir John Coleridge QC) and Messrs Digby Seymour and A. Wills QC; Counsel for the defendants: Lord Charles Russell QC and Messrs Hawkins and Mellish QC.

⁵⁰ Memorials of the Irish Province (Jesuit publication, Dublin 1901) Obituary notice, p. 230.

⁵¹ The Freeman's Journal, 25 May 1869, Letter from Bishop Thomas Nulty to the proprietor.

⁵² McCullen, J: The Call of St. Mary's (Drogheda, 1984) p. 38.Google Scholar

⁵³ The Inner Life etc, op.cit, p. 11.

⁵⁴ Evidence given by Fr. E. Goldie before the Court of the Queen's Bench, Saurin v Starr, 20 February 1869.

⁵⁵ LDA, Cornthwaite Papers W145 Memorandum from George M. Arnold, Solicitor to the Archbishop of Westminster and the Bisho of Beverley, Low Sunday 1869.

⁵⁶ Beverley Guardian, 20 February 1869.

⁵⁷ The Inner Life etc., op.cit, p. 128.

⁵⁸ LDA, Sisters of Mercy Papers 1850–1903 Letter from Parker, Rooke & Parker to R. H. Dawson, 21 April 1869. (Parker & Co. were solicitors acting on behalf of Mellish QC; Dawson was the solicitor acting for the Hull nuns.)

⁵⁹ Carroll, A: Leaves from the Annals of the Sisters of Mercy in 4 volumes (New York 1881–8), Vol II, p. 487.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ This information was gratefully received from Sr. M. Joanna Callender, Archivist, Visitation Convent, Waldron nr. Heathfield, 30 January 1991.