Thursday, September 10, 2009

Mother Richard: a book and her baptismal entry


Joanna Bogle phoned today to tell me she has been commissioned by Gracewing to write a book about Mother Richard. I have invited her down to give a talk when she has sufficient material. She wanted to see her baptismal entry, so I have copied it here, it is easier than e-mailing it. It is the bottom one. I thought readers might be interested too, it is significant that for some reason her Solemn Profession has not been noted, maybe things were different before the 1915 Code of Canon Law, anyone know?
Some of you found some interesting things out about her, Joanna would be interested in anything anyone might know. Leave a note here, the same if through her intercession some miracle should occur.
Obviously until God grants some sign that will lead to her beatification by our Mother the Church we can't encourage cult but it would be good to encourage a loving admiration for her. I sent off an e-mail this morning to the Postulator of her Cause, Mgr Oscar Sanchez, asking for permission for us to publish a prayer card, all these things have to be checked and cleared, we can't we shouldn't even hint that someone is in Heaven, if they are not. I must check out the day of her death and get out the black vestments for a Requiem.
Any ideas

19 comments:

Michael Petek said...

Give Joanna my regards when you see her, Father.

gemoftheocean said...

I thought just sacraments were to be noted, so perhaps that's why not? Or was it also to include religious professions as well? [Or sloppy note keeping on whomever was to record it?]

Jackie Parkes MJ said...

Very interested..love the Bridgittines..

Michael Petek said...

She died on 26 June 1966.

fr paul harrison said...

I think I may have found her in the 1901 census. Living in Carlisle a boarder at a convent. Would you be interested in a copy..

Fr Ray Blake said...

Fr Paul, That's her, send a link or something.

fr paul harrison said...

Fr Ray - posting a link is not possible. I will give you a ring very soon. I have online access to the census and have been rooting around about her parents - fascinating!

pelerin said...

Fascinating to see the baptismal entry. Googling around I have found someone with the surname Fisher looking for those with the Hambrough surname. Coincidence I first thought that she has the name of Mother Mary Richard's own mother before marriage.

Then I found that two of her relatives mentioned bore the names of Mother Mary Richard's parents who were married in 1877 and sure enough their three children were mentioned.

What confused me at first was that there was no child called Madaleina. But one called Katherine Maria Clarice Beauchamp Hambrough (down as born 1888 which must be a mistake unless the church entry is wrong). I was puzzled until the penny dropped. This was St Mary Magdalen's church and her parents obviously gave her the new name Madaleina on her baptism in honour of the church's patron saint. (I was able to take a new name on my own adult baptism but I don't know whether this is still done.)

She appears to have had two brothers born 1886 and 1893 and I wonder whether there are descendants of these alive today? Was the younger one also received into the church at the same time? Does he appear in the records? The brothers names were Dudley Windsor and Basil Tudor Vincent - both Hamboroughs. Mother Mary Richard's name of Beauchamp appears to be another Christian name rather than a double barrelled name.

Unlike Fr Harrison I have been unable to access the 1901 census but have been pleased to uncover a possible link to the family. However this request was put on a few years ago and is not recent. I have sent an email and hope for a reply.

Roses and Jessamine said...

When the Daily Mail article about Mother Richard came out 6 months ago, I was inspired to do a little research and found links to Mother Richard (born Katherine Maria Clarice Beauchamp Hambrough) on this message board: http://boards.ancestry.myfamily.com/surnames.hambrough/2/mb.ashx

Following this, I made contact with one Linda Fisher (in Canada?)who is related to the Hambroughs through marriage. She wrote me in February this year:

"My husband's branch of the Hambroughs, Algernon Arthur Cyril Adair Hambrough and wife, Harriet Denny have left very little information, just mysteries. AACA Hambrough died in 1894 and his wife and two children left for the US by 1899. I don't know why they left England but I suspect she had difficulties with the family.

It seems that there were a lot of financial difficulties for the family during the 1880's and 1890's along with the possible murder of a son of Dudley Albert H. in 1893. I would love to know how or if any of this affected the familiy's decision to send Katherine to the Church."

pelerin said...

In 1961 many documents concerning the Hambrough family were deposited in the London Metropolitain Archives.

Details are on line and they include the birth certificates for both brothers of Mother Mary Richard (no mention of her though) and the marriage certificate of their parents on Aug 29th 1877.

In 1910 her father's address is given as Sefton Cottage Bognor. Her older brother Dudley died in 1926. It looks as though her other brother died young too as there is mention of a Mrs Isabel Emma Maria Hamborough as being the widow of Basil Tudor Vincent Hambrough, her younger brother.

However, there is mention of grand children of her father so there may well be descendants of one or both of her brothers alive today.

The fact that Mother Mary Richard's birth certificate is not with the other family certificates makes me wonder whether she had to present it on entering the convent?

One other interesting point on this site mentions that her father was made bankrupt in 1887 just a year before she was born so life could not have been easy for them.

Many of the family had exotic names and I am trying to work out who Otho Oldisworth Le Marchant Hambrough was. Genealogy is fascinating but complicated!

pelerin said...

Roses - I see you found Linda Fisher first! As the posting was put on the ancestry message board in 2003 and she has had no replies to date, (apart from someone who posessed a newspaper cutting about the murder) it did not look promising.

However it does look as though the London Metropolitain Archives will be the source of information for Joanna Bogle. I wonder who deposited all these documents in 1961 - surely it must have been one of the family?

Roses and Jessamine said...

The Met Archives sound like a good resource on the Hambrough family.

Re: Windsor Dudley Cecil Hambrough, son of Dudley Albert Hambrough - The Ardlamont Incident in Scotland (1893) was never proven, so legally it shouldn't be referred to as a murder, even if there are suspicions that the accused, Alfred John Monson, got away with it. Details at Newcastle University's archives: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/specialcollections/treasures/treasure_2009_04_1.php

I've found a living descendant of Monson's defence lawyer, John Comrie Thomson, who says she has a lot of information on the trial. I'm wondering if within that defence case there will be information about the Hambrough family in the 1880s and '90s so I'm emailing her.

Michael Clifton said...

The Southwark diocesan Archives contain a lot of information on how Fr Benedict Williamson recruited young ladies with a view to becoming Brigittines and seems to have had a little group of them nearby when he was PP at Earlsfield. Perhaps she was herself confirmed at Earlsfield ??

Pseudomodo said...

So...

I notice some of the latin notes.

In Articulo Mortis - at the point of death

Converso ab heresi - converted from heresy.

Sub Conditione - Baptised conditionally.

Why was she baptised conditionally?

pelerin said...

Interesting to see the additional notes in the entry above that of the baptism of the future Mother Richard were written by Fr George Tatum who I learnt from the parish website was received into the Church by Cardinal Newman.

The parish seems to have had many connections with great figures in the history of the Catholic Church.

Roses and Jessamine said...

The great-granddaughter of John Comrie Thomson, defence lawyer at the Monson trial, wrote me:
"Dudley and Katherine were in fact second, not first, cousins. His father was Dudley Albert Hambrough, born 1849, the son of Albert John Hambrough, born 1820.
Albert John's brother was Windsor Edmund Hambrough, born 1830, whose son was Windsor John Beauchamp Hambrough, the father of Katherine. That is, Dudley Albert and Windsor John Beauchamp Hambrough were first cousins, and their children Dudley and Katherine were second cousins.
From what I remember, Dudley's father had been in some financial difficulties, and this might have been how he came into contact with Monson and some other dodgy characters. I will have to go back to the trial records for the details. So the families might not have been all that close at the time of the murder.
All the newspaper articles about [Mother Richard] are very interesting and impressive - what a wonderful story.
Kind regards - Sue Comrie-Thomson."

Sue also tells me that Dudley (Windsor Dudley Cecil Hambrough), was buried at Ventnor, Isle of Wight after the incident in Scotland. There is currently a hotel at Ventnor called The Hambrough, so I'm emailing the hotel manager for possible leads.

pelerin said...

Roses - do hope you will receive a reply from the hotel with information. Did you know there is actually a video on youtube showing this very elegant hotel which looks as if it was once a hill top villa? The film shows the chef at work with mouthwatering dishes.

There is a connection with the family to be found on;

http://www.ventnor-iw.co.uk/history/ventnorhistory.html

where it mentions John Hambrough of Middlesex in the 1820s ...

He was an important landowner and lead the opposition to amy railway being built at the time.

Roses and Jessamine said...

Meanwhile, Sue Comrie Tomson (in Australia), the great-grandaughter of John Comrie Thomson, who defended Monson at the Ardlamont Case trial, is very resourceful. She wrote me:
"I have been researching the school at Stanwix and have found out quite a lot - I am thrilled to play a part in history, as you say! One thing has led to another, and this is how my research has unfolded today:
From Bulmer's History & Directory of Cumberland, 1901:
"At St. Ann's Hill, upon a commanding site, stands the Convent of the Sacred Heart, a large and handsome pile of buildings of red brick. The house was built in 1891 at a cost of 25,000 pounds, and opened the 1st March, 1892. The grounds cover about eleven acres, and are tastefully laid out in gardens etc. The community consists at the present time of 22 sisters, whose object it is to look after the spiritual and temporal well-being of the young ladies placed under their charge for their education. It is said there are more wild flowers to be met with in the district of St. Ann's Hill than in any other part of England."
Carlisle History (a website):
Sacred Heart Convent - The nuns built what was to become Austin Friars School; foundation stone of convent laid 16.4.1891; nuns left for Newcastle in 1903 and convent school closed.
Austin Friars St. Monica's School (website).
An independent co-educational school, founded by members of the Order of Saint Augustine in 1951.
Sacred Heart Catholic High School in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, established in 1905 as a small fee paying, all-female private secondary school in Fenham.
I found their website and have just emailed them asking if they have any pupil records from when Madeline Hambrough was there.
As I went to a Sacred Heart convent in Sydney (the French Sacre-Coeur order) I also emailed their provincial office in England to ask if the Stanwix convent had been part of their order, but that was before I found out that the nuns had moved to Newcastle. Newcastle is not on the current list of Sacre-Coeur convents in England, so it probably wasn't.
I am continuing with my research on the Hambrough family and will send you full results when I have finished. Today on Ancestry.co.uk I found the Anglican baptism record of Katherine:
Christ Church St. Pancras, Nov. 20th, 1887: Katherine Marie Clarice Beauchamp Hambrough, parents: Windsor John Beauchamp and Louisa Frances
Lettson Hambrough, of 37 Park Village E.
However, soon after that date, I found in The Times, December 24, 1887:
"From The London Gazette, Friday Dec. 23. Bankruptcy - First Meetings and Public Examinations - In London:
Hambrough, Windsor John Beauchamp, Park-village east, Regent's Park, gentleman - Jan. 3, Bankruptcy-buildings, Portugal-street, Lincoln's Inn-fields; Jan. 27, 34 Lincoln's-inn-fields."
I found his death:
The Times, Friday September 15, 1911:
HAMBROUGH - On the 11th inst., at Bognor, suddenly, of acute pleurisy, WINDSOR JOHN BEAUCHAMP HAMBROUGH, son of the late Revd. Windsor Hambrough, and grandson of the late John Hambrough, of Steephill Castle, Isle of Wight.
1912 Wills: HAMBROUGH, Windsor John Beauchamp of Sefton Cottage Bognor Sussex died 11 September 1911. Probate London 17 January to Louisa Frances Lettsom Hambrough widow and Alfred Thomas Plant solicitor. Effects 103 pounds, 8s.
I found that Louisa had also later become bankrupt:
The Times, Wednesday April 27, 1927:
Bankruptcy - Receiving Orders.
Hambrough, Louisa F.L.B., 3, Montoliew-gardens, Putney, S.W. (widow).
Court - Wandsworth.
That's all for now - back to the research!
Kind regards - Sue.

Roses and Jessamine said...

No links from the the modern-day Hambrough Hotel in Ventnor, Isle of Wight, however, the Ventnor Local History Society (Fay Brown, Secretary) said:

"The Hambrough Hotel in Hambrough Road only came into being in the last few years - before that it was the Palmerston Hotel.
The Hambrough House is in a street nearby and is the name of part of a flats complex which was built on the site of Ventnor Junior School, formerly the National Schools for which the Hambrough family gave financial assistance. It was not an historic house, but a school.
The Hambroughs lived at Steephill Castle which was demolished in the 1960s and houses and bungalows were built there. John Hambrough paid for the Parish Church and the Parsonage to be erected in 1837.
We have information at the Museum about the Hambrough Estate which covered a large area of Ventnor and a couple of pictures of Charlotte Hambrough's funeral and Dudley Hambrough astride his horse.
In my own files I have information about various members of the family, which I am quite willing to photocopy for you - most is in my own handwriting. Brighton is mentioned occasionally in these references. Also have cuttings on Steephill Castle etc."
- Fay Brown [Secretary of the Ventnor Local History Society, Isle of Wight]

I'm in contact with Fay Brown and waiting for postal documents.

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