Guide to the Records of Downside Abbey (as filmed by the AJCP), 1819-1869

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Summary

Collection number:

M995 - M999

Creator:

Downside Abbey

Extent:

713 items

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.

Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.

Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for reference.

Background

Content Summary:

Letters, arranged chronologically, sent to Rev. T. Heptonstall, Abbot Gregory and other members of the Downside community. Correspondents include Polding, Ullathorne, Davis, C. Conolly, Bishop R. Salvado, Bishop R.W. Willson, Bishop F. Murphy, Bishop J.B.F. Pompallier, Bishop J.A. Goold.

Topics include: affairs of the Abbey; the mission in New South Wales; St Mary's Cathedral; travels in rural districts; the establishment of bishoprics in other colonies; the Benedictine convent at Parramatta; financial matters; spread of churches and schools; visit of Polding to Rome; life in the colonies; recruitment of priests and nuns; relations with Irish priests; J.J. Therry; education; and relations with civil authorities, especially Henry Parkes. The Birt Collection

Dom. Norbert Birt (1861-1919) was a graduate of University College, London, and was ordained a priest in 1889. From 1906 to 1914 he was secretary to Abbot Aiden Gasquet, who was prior of Downside Priory (1878-85) and abbot-president of the English Benedictine Congregation (1900-1919). Gasquet wrote extensively on the history of English monasteries and Norbert Birt undertook a great deal of research in the Downside archives and other monastic collections. Among his many publications was Benedictine pioneers in Australia (1911). Birt assembled from many sources a collection of about 8000 letters and documents, mostly dating from 1699 to 1870, which he placed in the library of Downside Abbey. He arranged them in strict chronological order and catalogued each item.

Selected documents from the Birt Collection were filmed by the Australian Joint Copying Project.

Biographical / Historical:

Benedictine abbey in Somerset founded in the late 1700s. Many of the early Catholic priests in New South Wales had trained or taught at Downside, including J.B. Polding, the first Archbishop of Sydney, W.B. Ullathorne and C.H. Davis.

The monastery of St Gregory the Great was founded at Douai in Flanders in 1605 by a group of English monks who had taken vows in the Spanish Benedictine Congregation. The monastery was built in 1611. From the early years a school was attached to the monastery for the sons of English Catholic gentry. Douai was ceded by Spain to France in 1668. On the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 the monastery was disbanded and the monks were imprisoned. They were subsequently released and in 1795 were allowed to move to England. A former pupil at the monastery lent the monks his country house at Acton Burnell in Shropshire, where they lived for nearly twenty years. In 1814 they purchased 66 acres of land and the manor house of Downside in Somerset, a few miles from Bath. The monastery and school have remained there ever since.

In the nineteenth century Downside was a priory. The monks were originally housed in the manor house, but a new building incorporating a chapel was built in 1823 and a school block was added in 1853. Another block was built in 1876, with a refectory, kitchens, dormitory and cloisters. Building of the priory church began in 1873 and it was finally consecrated in 1935. A small monastic school was attached to the priory in the early nineteenth century. It was greatly expanded in the early twentieth century, becoming one of the most famous Catholic schools in Britain. In 1899 Pope Leo XIII raised Downside Priory to the rank of an abbey and Dom Edmund Ford, the 45th prior, was elected the first abbot.

The earliest Catholic priests in Australia were from Ireland and came under the jurisdiction of the Bishops of Mauritius, Edward Slater and his successor William Morris, both of whom were Benedictines. The first English priests arrived in 1833-35 and they were all associated with Downside Priory. William Bernard Ullathorne (1806-1889) was vicar-general in New South Wales from 1833 to 1841, before returning to England and later becoming bishop of Birmingham. Bishop John Bede Polding (1794-1877), who had been the subprior of Downside, was appointed vicar-apostolic of New Holland in 1834. With the establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in Australia in 1842, he was made Archbishop of Sydney and Metropolitan of Australia, offices that he held until his death. Henry Gregory (1813-1877) arrived in Sydney in 1835 and was Polding's vicar-general (1844-61) and prior of St Mary's Priory (1843-61). Later Downside arrivals in Australia included Charles Henry Davis (1815-1854), who was appointed bishop of Maitland and coadjutor to Polding in 1848, and Roger Bede Vaughan (1834-1883), who became Polding's coadjutor in 1873 and succeeded him as Archbishop of Sydney and Metropolitan of Australia in 1877. In 1849 Polding established a convent at Parramatta, which he named 'Subiaco', originally staffed by Benedictine nuns from Stanbrook Abbey in Worcestershire. It remained in existence until 1957. Throughout his years in Australia, Polding sought to reduce the Irish influence on the Catholic Church in Australia, but his early hopes of creating an entirely Benedictine diocese, with a Benedictine monastery at the centre of Catholic life, were not realised.

Access and use

Conditions Governing Access:: Available for Access.
Conditions Governing Use:: Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.