Correspondence and documents, 1834-1841

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169 items

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Most of the selected letters were written in England and Europe and refer only incidentally to Australia and New Zealand. Several letters refer to an appeal against Bishop Polding being allowed to leave Downside to go on a foreign mission (1834) and others refer to his impending departure, news of his mission to Australia, the visit of Father Bernard Ullathorne to England, Ireland and Rome (1836-1838), and financial assistance to the Church in Australia. There are also references to two students of Polding, Thomas Fergusson and Charles Reynolds, whom he had sent to England, and two deacons at Downside, Charles Davis and Bede Sumner, who were later to come to New South Wales.

More generally, the letters and other documents refer to the affairs of Downside Priory, relations with other Benedictine houses, the lengthy dispute between Father Augustine Birdsall and Bishop Peter Baines, the antagonism of Baines towards Downside Priory, students at Downside, appointments, financial matters and the affairs of the Diocese of Mauritius. The principal correspondents are Cardinal Thomas Weld (Rome), Joseph Brown, prior of Downside (1834-1840), Augustine Birdsall, president-general of the English Congregation (1826-1837), William Morris, bishop of Mauritius (1832-1840), Father Bernard Barber, provincial of Canterbury (1834-1842), Father William Collier, procurator at Rome (1834-1840), Father Thomas Appleton (Douai), and Father Thomas Heptonstall, who was based at Acton near London.

The Australian letters listed below were mostly written by Bishop Polding and Father Ullathorne to Prior Brown at Downside and Father Heptonstall in London. Heptonstall was a cousin of Polding and his agent in England.

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