353
NO. IX
THE NUNS OF THE INSTITUTE OF MARY AT YORK from 1677 to 1825 THE Registers of York Bar Convent Chapel laity would seem incomplete without some account of the Ladies at the Bar, " the nuns who provided facilities for those sacraments of which the Registers record the first. On opening the question it seemed that there was ample room for inquiry; in some cases only the bare record of a name existing, no date , no parentage . Over fifty years ago, through the mistake of one person, the bulk of the annals of the Community were consigned to the flames ! The loss is irreparable , and can only be mitigated. The work was very arduous and must remain for the present incomplete ; but by various means some facts have been arrived at, and some prospect of a definite knowledge seems attainable. Such work is eminently that of the Catholic Record Society, which is nothing if not useful . This is an attempt to ascertain particulars of the earliest nuns associated with the foundation at Dolebank , Heworth Manor, Castlegate , in the city, and lastly under the city walls , where the community has never ceased to exist , doing good for over two hundred and twenty years. The order of sequence of eighty- one nuns, who joined down to the year 1825, cannot be fixed with certainty or even with approximity. The endeavour has been to arrange them in order of profession in the Order, or in the order that they joined the York Community . Perhaps many people seeing what is here shown, may know of facts , which they may communicate to the Reverend Mother, so that a reliable account may some day be published . The existing historyof the Convent, published by one of the Community in 1887 (Burns and Oates), has been of some use , and Revd Mother Superior has kindly placed many further facts at our disposal ; but still much remained to be done. Thanks are due to her , and all whose names appear in the paper for information which could not have been ascertained without the cordial support of several to whom reference is made below and to whom thanks are due. The nuns merit the lasting gratitude of English Catholics , especially those in the North of England ; and the compiler renders his part of the work as a small recognition of a great debt of gratitude for spiritual assistance to his family. J.S.H.
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I. Frances Bedingfeld, alias Long, born 1616, educated abroad , took the vows 8 Sept. 1633 in Rome, where she was the constant companion of Mary Ward, the founder of the Institute of Mary"; went to Munich, accompanied Mary Ward to London in 1639 , and to Hutton Rudby in 1642, to Heworth (a mile N.E. of York ) in 1644, where the foundress died 1645, there being no register of her burial at the parish church of St Thomas, Osbaldwick , where her tombstone is still in existence. Under the direction of Mary Pointz, she probably went with the community to Paris in 1650, and joined the chief superioress, Barbara Babthorpe , in Rome. Later she was in Munich , whence she conducted a party of nuns to London in 1669, settling for a time in St Martin's Lane, thence removing to Hammersmith . She did not personally take part in the foundation at Dolebank, in the parish of Ripon , the five first, sent 23
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