Surname Index

to

Report of the inquiry instituted by the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Exeter as Visitor of the Orphan's Home established by the Sisters of Mercy at Morice Town, Devonport,
into certain statements published in the Devonport Telegraph.

by

Plymouth: Roger Lidstone (1849) 80 pp.; appendix, iv..

Index prepared by Michael Steer

The 1849 inquiry by the Lord Bishop of Exeter, Henry Phillpotts, arose out of certain statements made in one of the local newspapers relative to the alleged semi-popish character of the sister's religious observances, and the anti-protestant influences exerted on the orphans in their charge. These statements purported to be the evidence of three females who were recently inmates of the orphans' home, two as orphans, and the other as a female servant. The affair excited considerable interest, and the hall of the institute was well filled with the clergy, magistrates, and gentlemen, with others of the town and neighbourhood. It was a rowdy meeting. Lady Superior, Miss Sellons' Devonport Sisters of Mercy were Anglo-Catholics in the Tractarian tradition rather than Roman Catholics and many of their 'high church' ritual practices were detested as 'papist' by a majority of 'low church' protestants at that time. The Devonport sisters worked with the clergy of St Peter's Plymouth in the cholera epidemics of the late 1840s, and petitioned the parish priest, Fr George Rundle Prynne, for a celebration of the Eucharist each morning to strengthen them for their work. This rare and much sought-after book was produced digitally by Google from a copy in the University of Illinois, Urbana, Champaign Library collection and can be downloaded from HathiTrust. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.