I was reading an old book written in the 1930s about the history of Brighton on the train this morning and there was an interesting account of Catholic priests and nuns fleeing France during the French Revolution. This particular story was from October 1792:-“That October the gales were unusually violent, and one day the Brighton packet was forced to land her passengers in Shoreham harbour. Among them were thirty-seven nuns, driven out of their convent in Lille with only £30 between them. Private carriages conveyed them to Brighton, where they were provided with rooms at the New Ship Inn. The Prince of Wales and Mrs.Fitzherbert, whose Catholicism gave her an additional interest in them, paid the poor ladies a long visit at their inn: and after leaving, the Prince drove to one of the libraries on the Steine and himself opened a subscription for them. Their appearance aroused the greatest curiosity among the townspeople, because a nun had scarely been seen in Brighton since the Reformation: while, in addition, the reports that they had celebrated Mass at the inn, and that they had all insisted in sleeping in separate beds, were considered sufficiently extraordinary to be printed in the county newspaper.”
I’m now intrigued how many would normally fit in a bed in Brighton…
3 comments:
Why didn't Mrs Fitz put them up in her own house (now the YMCA) it is huge.
Was there a Catholic connection with The Ship? Charles II escaped through the Catholic underground and The Ship, I seem to remember from somewhere.
Number of Nuns in bed: it depends on their sleeping habits
Mrs Fitzherbert probably had too many servants to fit in any nuns. As far as I know there wasn't a Catholic connection with the Old ship, it just happened to be the only place to stay in Brighton. The Ship Inn probably had more of an allegiance with smuggling than with popery. Charles II however was aided to escape to France by an underground network of Catholics - at a time when Catholics weren't allowed to travel further than five miles from their home town without the permission of the local sheriff. Charles II reputedly stayed in The George Inn (possibly located in Middle Street) the night before he sailed to France. You can see the gravestone of Captain Tettersall, the man who sailed Charles over to France, in the graveyard of St. Nicholas' Church at the end of Upper North Street. The stone is located on the south east side near the chancel door.
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