CCHA Historical Studies, 52(1985), 5-34
The Catholic
Church in Newfoundland:
The Pre-Emancipation Years
by Mary MULCAHY, R.S.M.
St. John's, Newfoundland
The
foundation of the Catholic Church in Newfoundland dates back, officially, to
the year 1784 when the Rev. James O Donel was sent out as Prefect Apostolic. He
was the first fully accredited priest in the Island and to him was given the
responsibility of organizing the Church there, directly under the oversight of
Rome.
Father O
Donel was not the first priest to visit Newfoundland. The Portuguese, the
English and the French had all brought priests with them on their voyages of
exploration. When George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, established his English
colony at Ferryland in the 1620’s, religious freedom was permitted1 but this ceased with the failure of the colony. Likewise,
when the French established themselves at Placentia, after the middle of the
seventeenth century, they were permitted to enjoy the free exercise of their
religion “according to the usage of the Church of Rome and as far as the laws
of Great Britain allowed.2 The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 dealt a death blow to
French power and prestige in the New World and thus the efforts of the French
to establish the Catholic Church on a firm basis failed. It was left to the
emigrants from Ireland and the priests who followed them into exile to make the
real foundation of the Catholic Church in Newfoundland.
The Early Irish Catholics
The Irish
began to come to Newfoundland in the seventeenth century, on board English
ships bound for the fishing grounds. Those ships called in at Irish ports,
mainly Waterford and Cork, to pick up supplies and provisions for the fishing
season and there they were joined by Irishmen, some to take part in the
fisheries, others to work as servants.3
At that time colonization of the Island was forbidden
and not until the nineteenth century was full freedom to settle in Newfoundland
granted. As early as 1633 an order of the Star Chamber, largely the result of
pressure from the powerful English merchants, established the rule of the
fishing admirals whereby the captain of the first ship to enter a harbour
became the virtual governor of that harbour for the fishing season. These
regulations were reconfirmed by Charles II in 1660 and an injunction was added
that “all owners of ships trading to Newfoundland are forbidden to carry any
persons not of ship’s company or such as are to plant or settle there, and that
speedy punishment may be inflicted on offenders.”4 By an order of the King, issued in 1670, masters of
ships were “to bring back or cause to be brought back into England all such
seamen, fishermen or other persons they shall carry out (mortality and the
danger of the sea excepted).”5 Further confirmation of those regulations came from
William III in 1698, in “An Act to Encourage the Trade of Newfoundland.”6 Here
provision was made for a vice-admiral, the master of the second ship to enter a
harbour, and a rear-admiral, the master of the third ship. The fishing admirals
were, in the main, rough, ignorant, illiterate skippers who tyrannized a
floating population and dispensed justice with barbarity and unscrupulousness
and often neglected their duty.7 The jurisdiction of fishing admirals lasted till 1793
when it was abolished by the establishment of regular courts of judicature.
The Act of 1698 had some positive aspects: it made no mention of penalties and
it gave title to all persons who had built houses, stages, or other
improvements, since 1685, that did not belong to fishing ships, to “peaceably
and quietly enjoy the same to his or her own use without any disturbance of or
from any person or persons whatsoever.”8
Regulations
governing the fisheries and trade of Newfoundland were meant to apply to all
those who came to Newfoundland, English and Irish alike, but from the beginning
Irish Catholics became special objects of persecution. In 1720 the Lord
Commissioners for Trade and Plantations instructed the commanders-in-chief of
the Newfoundland convoy not “to encourage Irish Papists who are disaffected to
our present happy establishment” and to find out “what number of such may now
be among the French.”9
To the first governor, Captain Henry Osborne,
appointed in 1729, was given the instruction “to permit a liberty of conscience
to all persons (except Papists) so they be contented with a quiet and peaceable
enjoyment of the same not giving offence or scandal to the Government.”10
This instruction was repeated verbatim to subsequent governors, all
naval men, who followed one another in rapid succession.11'
Governors seemed to signalize their tenure of office by issuing bigoted
enactments and proclamations against the Irish Catholics. Some governors were
less callous than others. In 1732 Governor Falkinham wrote back to England that
while he found in general the inhabitants of Newfoundland frequented the Church
of England “there are great numbers of Irish servants, Roman Catholics, who are
not allowed or permitted to exercise their religion.”12
A report
consisting of answers to a series of questions was sent home by the governors
annually. In 1738 Governor Vanbrugh, in answering the several articles
contained in His Majesty’s instructions, reported that the most serious
material complaint of the traders and inhabitants was against the great numbers
of Irish Catholics annually imported, and since a much greater number of these
remained during the winter than Protestants the latter feared the ill
consequences that could attend them in case of war. He reported further that
“drunkenness is a common vice especially among the Irish servants of which
there are great numbers and occasion many disorders and thefts committed.”13
The
following year Captain Medley reported in similar vein.14 Governor
Byng also deplored the great number of Papists in the Island “especially at
Ferryland, almost all.” “The English inhabitants,” he said, “employ themselves
and servants in sawing boards, building boats, providing timber and other
necessities for the new fishing season, but the Irish for the most part, except
cutting fuel, spend the greatest part of their time in excess and debauchery.”15
Governor Rodney, in 1749, complained of the great number of Irish Papists who
remained in the Island during the winter and he described them as “most
notoriously disaffected to the Government, all of them refusing to take the
Oath of Allegiance when tender’d to them” adding that “the majority of
inhabitants to the southward of St. John’s are Papists, but to the northward
very few.” Governor Drake’s report in 1750 was no different.16
By mid-eighteenth century the Irish population had
grown considerably. Attempts to keep their number in check were of little
avail. Even in 1717 it was reported that “masters of ships are very negligent
in bringing their men home, whereby they have charge of their passages and
those men are enticed and carryed to New England.”17
Later, the Justice of the Peace at Ferryland was ordered by the Governor “to
keep a watchful eye over the Irish Papists and that you disarm them agreeable
to the Act of Parliament and to send as many out of the country as you possibly
can and this late season will permit.”18
In the early
1750’s the Irish were caught in a cross-fire between the planters and the
Government and the West Country merchants. The planters appealed to the
Government for some form of civil authority to protect them against the
cruelties of the fishing admirals. The merchants, from Poole, Dartmouth,
Teignemouth and Exeter, all trading in Newfoundland, strongly opposed any form
of civil government and sent memorials to that effect to the Lord Commissioners
for Trade and Plantations. From Poole came the following observation:
As to the number of Papists and other disaffected persons increasing in Newfoundland your memorialists beg leave to observe that they are in general His Majesty’s natural born subjects that go from Ireland, that they think their increase to be no more than in proportion to the increase of Protestants and that their behaviour has given no cause to apprehend any danger to the well-affected to His Majesty’s government residing here.19
Merchants
from Dartmouth, Teignemouth and Exeter all concurred in this observation. They
had one thing in common – they were all opposed to the appointment of a
resident governor and they maintained that existing laws pertaining to the
fishing admirals were adequate for the encouragement of trade.
Governor
Bonfoyle, in 1754, spoke of the many thefts and disorders committed by the
Irish who remained in the country during the winter. Having nothing on which to
subsist they stole from the traders and inhabitants.20 In
the fall, when Bonfoyle returned to England, as was the wont of
all governors, the principal magistrate of St. John’s,
Michael Gill, kept him informed of the activities of the Irish, “enemies of our
religion and liberty.”21
The administration of the next
governor, Richard Dorrill, 1755-1756, was especially characterized by intolerant
bigotry and persecution of the Catholics. A probable reason for the severity of
his actions was given some years later:
War with France
having broken out at this time, Government suspected that the Irish Catholics
could not with safety be trusted and that they would be inclined to join the
enemy in case the Island should be invaded which was probably the cause of the
severity exercised towards them by the Government.22
In 1755 Dorrill wrote
to George Garland, Justice of the Peace at Harbour Grace, that
Whereas I am
informed that a Roman priest is at this time at Harbour Grace and that he
publicly reads Mass which is contrary to law and against the peace of our
Sovereign Lord the King. You are therefore required and directed on the receipt
of this to cause the said priest to be taken into custody and sent round to
this place (St. John’s); in this you are not to fail as will answer the
contrary at your perrille.
Garland was quick to answer, not, it may be
assumed, in defence of the priest, but in self-defence, that the priest had
said Mass in a place other than Harbour Grace “for if he had read it in the
Harbour I would have secured him; after he was informed that I had intelligence
of him he immediately left the place. I was yesterday informed he was gone to
Harbour Main.”23
The matter, however, was not allowed to
drop, for in September of the same year Dorrill’s surrogate, Thomas Burnett,
ordered the Justice of the Peace at Harbour Grace to burn down a storehouse
where Mass had been said. The owner was not present at the time but he had
failed to lock the door of his storehouse to keep out the men and maid
servants. He was required to pay a fine of ten pounds, the money to be used to
defray the expense incurred by the Governor in sending his deputy to the
northern circuit of the Island. The fishrooms of two other storeowners were
demolished at Harbour Main because they permitted a priest to read Mass there.
They were fined and ordered to sell all their possessions and leave the country
along with their servants. The servants were also fined, the money to be used
to pay their masters for their losses. The house of another man was burned down
because Mass was said in his house and he and his wife had been married by a
priest. He and his servants were fined subject to the same condition imposed on
previous offenders. Similar incidents took place at Carbonear and Musketa Cove.
The hoisting of the Irish colours did not
go unpunished. Burnett, the notorious surrogate of the notorious Governor
Dorrill, ordered the Justices of the Peace at Harbour Grace to issue a fine to
captains of three ships who had raised the Irish flag in defiance of the
“English and Jersey men” of the Harbour. The captains were accused of planning
to stir up sedition and mutiny among Catholics.
Dorrill repeated the threats of his
predecessors to punish masters of ships who failed to bring back with them the
Irish whom they brought out with them for the fishing season
a great part of
which have but small wages so that after paying their passages to this place
and the charges of clothing, etc., during the fishing season their whole wages
are spent and they have not wherewith either to pay their passages home or to
purchase provisions for the winter by which means they not only become
chargeable to this place but many robberys and felonys are committed by them to
the great loss and terror of His Majesty’s subjects on the Island.24
With a view to curbing drunkenness and the
crimes and disorders associated with it Dorrill directed the Justices of the
Peace in St. John’s to see to it that no Catholic be allowed to sell spirituous
liquors.25 Governor Thomas Graves, described by Prowse26 as being entirely
free from the bigotry of the age, nevertheless enjoined the Justice of the
Peace to continue in due force the tax levied on Catholic traders by his
predecessor, Governor Webb, and to make return of what money had been collected
on that account.27 Graves
was also requested by the King’s instructions to find out the number of
Catholics in Newfoundland “and what proportion they have to Protestants,” as
well as to find out “whether the French do not encourage the Irish Papists who
are disaffected to our present happy establishment and what number of such may
now be among the French.”28
Governor Hugh Palliser, who came to
Newfoundland in 1764, distinguished himself by his barbarous treatment of
Irish Catholics. Though he had a special predilection for presecuting the
Irish, no one escaped his brutality. Prowse says, “No ruler since the days of
Charles II hated the country he was set over more bitterly than Sir Hugh
Palliser.”29
In reporting on the men doing
garrison duty in St. John’s, Palliser described the auxiliary people as totally
unfit for the service, “being all Irish Roman Catholics and not proper to be
trusted even so far as to be learnt their duty.” He ordered the destruction of
the “butts” of the Irish Catholics in St. John’s. He accused the Catholics of
having “priests secreted among them to the great disturbance of the peace and
good government of the country in the winter season,”30 He complained to
the King that his regulations were not being carried out, that
the masters of
ships which carryed out passengers from this kingdom and from Ireland either
not having the power to oblige them to return or perhaps not finding it their
interest to bring them back when the fishing season was over the practice of
their remaining there began and has continued and gradually increased to the
extent at which it has at the present arrived... The greatest part of them are
Roman Catholics; that they are under no control of any regular civil
government, except what arises from the ineffectual establishment of justices
of the peace who oftener use their own private interest rather than the public
welfare.31
For the purpose of “better preserving the
peace, preventing robberies, tumultuous assemblies, and other disorders of the
wicked and idle people remaining in the country during the winter” he
proclaimed:
That no Papist
servant man or woman shall remain at any place where they did not fish during
the summer preceding.
That not more than two Papist men shall dwell in any house during the winter, except such as have Protestant masters.
That no Papist
shall keep a Publick House or vend liquor by retail.
That no person keep
dyeters during the winter.
That all idle,
disorderly, useless men and women be punished according to law and sent out of
the county.32
A great many poor women found their way to
Newfoundland. Palliser ordered ships’ masters not to land “any women without
first giving security for their good behaviour so as not to become chargeable
to the inhabitants.”33
He restricted the number of public houses
to eight or ten “and no more shall be licenced for the entertainment of strangers,
etc., and none to be kept by Roman Catholics or that are reputed so.”34
The harsh regulations of Palliser were
applied by subsequent governors35 and his influence continued to be felt long
after his term as governor was over and no place was it more noticeable than
in Palliser’s Act which in 1775 decreed that
the person so
hiring or employing seamen or fishermen shall be at liberty to reserve, retain
or deduct and he is hereby authorized, required and directed to reserve, retain
and deduct out of the wages of every person so hired or employed a sum of
money not exceeding forty shillings for each man, which money such hirer or
employer shall pay or cause to be paid to the master or other ship who shall
undertake to carry such seamen or fishermen to the country.36
By 1779 a break was
on the way for the Irish Catholics. With the coming of Governor Richard Edwards
there was a slackening of persecution. His arrival coincided with an
instruction from King George which read: “It being our intention that all
persons inhabiting our Islands (Newfoundland and Madelaine) should have full liberty
of conscience and the free exercise of all such modes of religious worship as
are not prohibited by law.”37 For the first time there was omitted from the
King’s instructions the phrase “except Papists.”
This concession prepared the way for Catholics to practise their religion openly. There was, however, a total lack of priests among the Irish population. Dearth of clergymen was of concern to members of the Established Church as well. Colonel J. Gorham, in charge of the garrison at Plancentia made a request to the Lord Bishop of London to this effect:
There is between
five or six hundred transient people employed in the fishery (as are a number
of the inhabitants) mostly of the Roman Catholic persuasion who I am informed
would nevertheless attend was there a clergyman established among them and
willingly join with the other inhabitants in paying their proportion for the
support of a clergyman.38
The time seemed ripe for
Catholics to act but it would be naive to assume that achieving religious
freedom in practice was to be an easy task. Impediments abounded. At the time
Newfoundland was not much more than a fishing station and a nursery for the
British navy. The penal laws in force in Ireland were applied with harshness in
the Colony. There were no churches, no roads, no postal communications, no
opportunities for social or cultural development, no fair system of justice.
Ownership of land was forbidden although there was tacit approval for use of
land. The civil government was in a primitive state – the governor, like the
migrant fishermen, came to Newfoundland in the spring and went home in the
autumn.
The severity with which the Irish had been
treated had left its mark on them in a variety of ways. Large numbers of them
were “disaffected,” disloyal, disorderly, enured to drunkenness, debauchery,
vices and felonies of all kinds, but as one writer says, they “were hunted down
like wild beasts... What else could one expect them to be?”39 In spite of
adverse conditions and repressive regulations there were many others who,
either by evading the restrictions or putting up with them, had established
themselves in respectable businesses and trades; even a few teachers were
found among them.40
Such were the political, social and
religious conditions in Newfoundland when in January of 1784 a group of
Catholics represented to James Talbot, Bishop of Birtha and Vicar Apostolic in
the London District41 that the Government of Newfoundland had
granted permission to build a chapel in St. John’s.42 A request for a
priest followed.43 Thus it was that the first official priest came
to Newfoundland.
The Rev. James O Donel, a member of the
Franciscan Order, as were the four Bishops who followed him, was that priest.
He was appointed Prefect Apostolic by Rome on May 30, 1784 and arrived in St. John’s
on July 4, 1784.
Shortly after his arrival liberty of
conscience and liberty of religion were proclaimed in Newfoundland. In October
of 1784 Governor Campbell directed the respective magistrates of the Island
to allow all
persons inhabiting this Island to have full liberty of conscience and the full
exercise of all such modes of religious worship as are not prohibited by law,
provided they be contented with a quiet and peaceful enjoyment of the same, not
giving offence or scandal to Government.44
At the time of this indulgence
the Catholics were still subjected to the numerous restrictions imposed by the
“prohibited by law” clause of the proclamation and it was to take years of
struggle before they could enjoy a measure of real freedom.
There were marriage restrictions.
Instructions from the Court of St. James required that a “Table of Marriages as
established by the canons of the Church of England be hung in every orthodox
church or chapel and duly observed.”45 Another
instruction stated “It is... our will and pleasure to reserve to you (governor)
and to all others by whom the same may hitherto have been exercised or to whom
it may lawfully belong, the granting of licenses for marriage.”46 Further, every
Catholic was obliged previous to marriage to have the banns published in the
Protestant parish church.47
There were restrictions on the holding of
public offices – Catholics were excluded from public offices. An Act made in
the 25th year of the reign of King Charles II entitled “An Act Preventing
Dangers Which Happen from Popish Recusants” was spelled out to each governor
who came to the Island as well as regulations regarding the oaths Catholics had
to take.48 The Justices of the Peace were ordered by the governor to take care
that all Popish recusants and other persons dissenting from the Church of
England “do take such oath or oaths as are usually taken in Great Britain by
persons executing such offices and trusts.”49
There were restrictions on burying the
dead. The Catholics had no distinct burying ground of their own. They were
obliged to bury their dead in the burying ground of the Established Church and
a clergyman of that Church was to perform the ceremony according to the rites
and ceremonies of the Protestant Church. Fees were paid for the burying ground
as well as for the services of the clergyman.50 Giving their dead
a proper burial always seemed to be an important and an emotional issue with
the Irish. Back in 1755 Burnett, surrogate in Harbour Grace to Governor
Dorrill, complained that it was sometimes a difficult matter for the Protestant
clergy to bury the Catholic dead and “lawmen have been obliged to make use of
all force they could assemble to prevent their insolence while they were
burying the dead.”51
Some clergy of the Established Church and
the governors, generally, showed hostility towards the Catholic clergy and the
expression of their fears became a recurring theme in their reports home to
England. The year in which Father O Donel came to St. John’s, the Rev. Walter
Price, a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in
Foreign Parts, spoke of the arrival in St. John’s of three “Romish” priests
from Ireland much to his disadvantage. One of these priests was Father O Donel,
a second was to be missioned to Harbour Grace, while the third was a school
teacher. He expressed fears that the Catholic presence in Newfoundland would
lead to a reduction in members of the Church of England. He accused the priests
of proselytizing and of disturbing and subverting the Established Church. He
also mentioned that there were sundry “Popish” schools in St. John’s and tracts
and catechisms of that Church were very plentifully distributed among the
people. He did, however, concede that Father O Donel appeared to be a “well
disposed intelligent person.”52
About the same time the Rev. James Balfour,
SPG missionary at Harbour Grace, observed that “Since the late toleration for
the Roman Catholics Popery is likely to be the only prevailling principle
round this Island... while priests carry all before them with great pomp and
parade.”53
Dissenting clergymen had begun their
missionary work in Newfoundland by 1784. They found themselves experiencing
some of the same hostility which the Catholic clergy met. On one occasion, the
Rev. Price circulated a rumour that a Congregational minister, Rev. John
Jones, had preached against the Catholics, an accusation which was later
disclaimed. The same Rev. Jones had an entry in his diary to the effect that
“this year, 1784, the Romish priest came to the Harbour, got full tolerance to
marry and exercise his religion in all respects, obtained leave to build a
chapel and laid the foundation thereof.”54
It is understandable why the governors
would be so closely linked with the Established Church – they were required to
take a whole series of Oaths, the Declaration against Transubstantiation, the
Declaration against Popery, the Oath of Supremacy, the Oath of Allegiance and
the Oath of Abjuration.55
The year following Father O Donel’s arrival
Lt. Governor Elford in a letter to the Colonial Secretary, Lord Sydney,
described the effects of the coming of a Catholic priest thus:
Last summer an
Irish Roman Catholic priest arrived here and they began building a chaple (sic)
(with which the English merchants are much dissatisfied as they think it will
in the end turn out very prejudicial) the consequence of which is, as soon as
the fishery was over, away they came here in great numbers from the out
harbours, never thought of going home, spent the money they got in the summer
and was reduced to the greatest distress, for upon a list of them being taken
it appears, there are about five Roman Catholics to one Protestant, the lower
class of people being mainly Irish.56
Finding a place to
live and ground on which to build a chapel was of immediate concern to Father O
Donel. Consequently, in the fall of 1784, with the support of a group of
Catholic laymen, he procured a piece of land with a house and garden attached
and a space of ground on which to build a chapel.57 The structure when
built became known as the “Old Chapel.”
Father O Donel gradually extended his
ministrations beyond St. John’s, to Ferryland, Harbour Grace and Placentia.
Just a year after his arrival he had the embarrassing experience of having to
deal with the behaviour of a troublesome priest at Placentia. Governor Campbell
became involved in the incident as well, for he wrote to the Justice of the
Peace at Placentia to have the priest sent away;
A Mr. William
Saunders having represented to me that there is a Roman priest at Placentia
named Londergan of a very violent and turbulent spirit who has given great
interruption to Mr. Burk, a regular and sober man of the Catholic persuasion
and that unless the former is sent out of the country the peace of the place is
in imminent danger of being disturbed. I desire you will cause the said
Londergan to be put on board the first vessel that may sail from Placentia for
England or Ireland.58
A few years later Father O Donel had a similar
situation with a troublesome priest in Ferryland and again the Governor
intervened. A riot broke out in that place in 1788 and a Father Patt Power was
accused of stirring up a spirit of rebellion among the Catholics. A committee
to deal with the riots was set up, consisting entirely of Protestant
inhabitants. Both Father O Donel and Father Power were reprimanded. An account
of the reprimand was sent to Captain Pellew, surrogate at Ferryland, by Lt. Governor
Elford:
I have admonished
Father O Donel as you have Father Power and as they must plainly perceive that
their diabolical proceedings will not be suffered to pass unnoticed or with
impunity. I am inclined to believe or at least to hope that both of them for
the future will take care to remain quiet.59
To meet the needs of a growing population
Father O Donel requested from Governor Milbanke permission to build some
chapels. His secretary conveyed the refusal saying the Governor
so far from feeling
disposed to allow of an increase of places of religious worship to the Roman
Catholics of this Island he very seriously intends next year to lay those
already established under particular restrictions. Mr. O Donel must be sensible
that it is not the interest of Great Britain to encourage people to winter in
Newfoundland and he cannot be ignorant that many of the lower order of those
who now stay would, if it were not for the convenience with which they obtain
absolution here, go home for it at least once in two or three years, and the
Governor has been misinformed if Mr. O Donel instead of advising their return
to Ireland does not encourage them to winter in Newfoundland.60
By 1794 Rome felt it was time to consider
episcopal supervision for the mission in Newfoundland. Besides, a group of
priests and laymen, representatives of the Catholic population from St.
John’s, Harbour Grace, Ferryland and Placentia sent an urgent appeal to Pope
Pius VI asking that Father O Donel be made a Bishop. The request was granted
and in a Bull dated January 5, 1796, Father O Donel was appointed Bishop with
the title Bishop of Thyatria in partibus, and Vicar Apostolic.61 He was consecrated
at Quebec on September 21, 1796 by Bishop Francis Hubert with co-consecrators
Rev. Frs. Francis Gravé and Rev. Philip John Desjardins.62
On the occasion of his visit to Quebec for
his episcopal consecration good wishes came to him in a memorial from the Chief
Justices, Magistrates, Protestant merchants and principal inhabitants of St.
John’s.63
In the years that followed his consecration
Bishop O Donel, besides continuing to organize and expand his growing church,
set about fostering friendly relations with the civil authorities. When in 1797
Governor Waldegrave issued a proclamation establishing a fund for the relief of
the poor he sent a copy to Bishop O Donel requesting his approval, a request
which was immediately granted.64 O Donel’s name was listed among the committee
members who administered the fund.65
About the same time the Bishop appealed to
the Governor for a grant of land, stating that he had no other ground except
that which provided for his house, garden and chapel and that two previous
governors, Campbell and King, had offered him some land which he was compelled
to decline. Waldegrave replied immediately, ordered the land to be surveyed66 and eventually
granted the Bishop’s request “strictly forbidding his being interrupted in the
quiet and peaceable enjoyment of the same during His Majesty’s Pleasure.”67
Waldegrave, of whom Prowse says “The
fire-eating old sailor was most sincerely religious and in private life the
kindest and most benevolent of men,”68 was, like the
governors before him, and in spite of his personal regard for Bishop O Donel,
suspicious of the Irish Catholics. On refusing permission to his Chief Justice
to leave Newfoundland in 1798 he wrote to the Colonial Secretary, the Duke of
Portland, by way of excuse for his refusal that
nearly nine-tenths
of the inhabitants of this Island are either natives of Ireland or immediate
descendants from them and that the whole of these are of the Roman Catholic
persuasion. As the Royal Newfoundland Regiment has been raised in the Island,
it is needless for me to endeavour to point out the small proportion the
native English bear to the Irish in this body of men... how little dependance
cou'd be placed on the military in case of any civil commotion in the town of
St. John’s.69
The civil commotion happened when, in 1799, a
mutiny of the military stationed in St. John’s occurred. Bishop O Donel, by
private and public admonition, brought all his influence to bear on his people
and restored peace and order. Later he has to receive a reward for his
services.
At the time of the revolt Edward Duke of
Kent, Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty’s forces, finding that forces were not
up to strength in Newfoundland asked for more men: “either the English, Scotch
or German, but on no account Irish should be sent out to complete the 66th
Regiment.. . men on whom dependence can be placed ... not one of Irishmen.” The
Royal Artillery was to be strengthened by gunners sent from England “after
driving the Irish out of it.”70
Bishop O Donel feared greatly the presence
among his people of the French whose revolutionary principles and rebellious
and irreligious views were in wide circulation. These fears prompted him to
publish his Diocesios statutas in 1801. They were designed for the
guidance of his priests and adapted, as well, to the state of the Church in Newfoundland
at that time. The missionaries were exhorted to visit each other as frequently
as possible; all were to come to St. John's at least once a year, and the
priests of Harbour Grace and Ferryland twice a year. Public prayers were to be
offered every Sunday and holyday for King George III and the Royal Family.
Priests were to use every means to turn aside their flocks from the vortex of
modern anarchy; they were to inculcate a willing obedience to the laws of
England and to the commands of the governors and magistrates of the Island.
They were to oppose with all means in their power all those who favoured the
French and to use every endeavour to withdraw their people from the plausible
cajolery of French deceit.71
The actions of Bishop O Donel in this time
of crisis impressed Governor Gambier who ruled the Island in the early years
of the nineteenth century. It may not be amiss to say that the British
Government bore no great love for the Irish Catholics and their Bishop, yet it
felt it was safer to preserve the people in Catholicity as a safeguard against
anarchy and to use Howley’s words, “it was better to have the Newfoundlanders
loyal Catholics than Gallican rebels and Dr. O Donel’s influence was cheaper
and more serviceable than an armed force.”72
In course of time a cordial relationship
developed between Gambier and Bishop O Donel. When the Governor appealed for
assistance to build a steeple for the episcopal church in St. John’s as well as
to provide a clock and bells, the Bishop responded graciously and generously.
When in 1802 Gambier drew up a plan for the establishment of charity schools in
St. John’s whose purpose it was to teach religion and morality, he consulted
the Bishop as well as a clergyman of the Established Church, Rev. J. Harris.
The plan required that every master of a family from the governor to those of
the lowest circumstances make a voluntary contribution to the support of two
or more schools, one Protestant, the other Roman Catholic, the funds to be
divided among the two persuasions.73
Gambier left Newfoundland before he could
put his plan into operation and it was left to his successor, Governor Gower,
to get the schools firmly established. The schools, one for girls and one for
boys, were set up along nondenominational lines, and not along the confessional
lines envisaged by Gambier. It was Gower’s hope that his arrangement would
have the effect of reducing schools of the lower classes kept by Catholics.
Gower also provided for instruction in an appropriate form of domestic economy
as well as in religion and morality. He directed that “some regulation be
adopted for assembling the children at school every Sunday and requiring the
master and mistress to send such of them to the Established Church as belong
there, and the assistant to see the Roman Catholic children to the Chapel.”74 For years numbers
of Catholic children attended these schools.
The early years of the nineteenth century
brought only a modicum of prosperity to the poor of Newfoundland and they had
but little money to contribute to the support of their priests; hence it was
that the Bishop requested a pension from the Governor. The magistrates,
merchants and other principal inhabitants, many of them Protestants, sent a
petition to Gower on the Bishop’s behalf, attesting that for the twenty years
he had lived among them
he has strenuously
and successfully laboured to improve the morals and regulate the conduct of the
planters, servants and lower classes of the inhabitants of this and the
neighbouring districts, whereby he has effectively prevented the quarrels and
animosities which before were frequent and rendered our persons and properties
unsafe, particularly in the Spring of 1799, when next to General Skerret, he
was the person who saved the valuable island from becoming a scene of anarchy
and confusion by making the most unwearied exertions and using the extensive
influence he had acquired over the lower classes by which means they were
prevented from joining mutineers of the Newfoundland Regiment, at a time when General
Skerret had not sufficient forces to oppose such dangerous combination ... We
earnestly request that you will use your benevolent influence with His
Majesty's Ministers, to reward. this very respectable gentleman, with some
little independence during the short remainder of a long life spent in the
service of the King, country and neighbour.75
Gower acknowledged
the petition immediately and wrote the Colonial Secretary, Earl Camden,
enclosing a supporting letter from General Skerret, asking for a pension of
fifty pounds. Camden authorized the Governor to grant the sum of fifty pounds
to Bishop O Donel as long as “he remains in Newfoundland “76 In informing the
Bishop, Gower spoke of the “harmonious relations he had established between the
Roman Catholics and the Established Church” and he hoped “the habits of
industry, sobriety and good order” he had established among the Catholics would
continue. The Bishop’s response was gracious; he assured the Governor that he
would not desist from pursuing the same line of conduct he had followed for the
past twenty-one years “without any farther expectation of fee or reward than
what I hope to receive from the Deity for discharging my duty to him, my
country and my neighbour.”77
Within a short time, finding his health
declining, and planning to retire to Ireland, Bishop O Donel appealed to the
Governor for an additional pension. As on the previous occasion, Gower wrote
to the Colonial Secretary commending the high qualities of the Bishop and
expressing the hope that, if the pension were granted,
it would encourage
in his successor the same spirit of allegiance to His Majesty and assiduous
attention to improve the morals of the labouring classes and render them
faithful subjects and good members of the community, which in Newfoundland, is
a consideration of the greatest importance, as the far greater proportion of
that class are Roman Catholics from Ireland and their numbers are yearly
increasing... At present they are remarkable for industry, sobriety and good
order and there is no doubt of their attachment to His Majesty’s Government which
I understand may be attributed in great measure to the beneficial influence of
their Bishop’s admonitions and example.78
A pension of fifty
pounds was granted.79
In 1806 there was established in St. John’s
the Benevolent Irish Society, a nondenominational body, founded on the
principles of benevolence and philanthropy and made up of Irishmen or
descendants of Irishmen. The original officers, with one exception,80 were all
Protestants. At the founding meeting the committee formed to draft a code of
rules and regulations for the governance of the Society and the extension of
the charity, consulted Bishop O Donel. At the general meeting held on February
17, 1806, the Bishop took the chair, something he, and the Bishops who followed
him, did at all meetings where elections were held. Later he was made an
honorary member of the Committee of Charity. The. Governor became the honorary
President of the Society.81
Bishop O Donel returned to Ireland in 1807
and died there in April, 1811, in his seventy-fourth year, having spent
twenty-three years as Prefect Apostolic and Bishop in Newfoundland.82
Bishop Patrick
Lambert, 1806-1817
Bishop Patrick Lambert succeeded Bishop O
Donel. Father Lambert had already spent some time in Newfoundland, having come
to St. John’s as an assistant to Bishop O Donel in 1805.83 In April 1806,
at the age of fifty-five he was consecrated at Wexford with the title Bishop of
Chitra in partibus and shortly after came to Newfoundland.
The Colony to which Bishop Lambert returned
was a more stable place than that to which his predecessor came in 1784. Other
problems were substantially the same. Resentment of Catholic priests on the
part of governors and clergy of the Established Church persisted. Governor
Holloway, successor to Governor Gower, received from the Court of St. James the
customary set of directions relative to the restrictions imposed on Catholics
with the observation that
It is greatly to be
lamented that there are not more than three clergymen of the Established Church
and one dissenting minister of the Protestant faith upon this Island to
counteract the zeal and energy of the Catholic priests whose religion
predominates here.84
A few years later Holloway, in a letter to the
Archbishop of Canterbury, spoke of the increasing number of Catholics
whose priests
labour with indefatigable industry and are too successful in making converts to
their religion... Unless clergymen can be found it must be expected that the
Catholic religion will gain a greater ascendance by the exertions of priests
who are so well rewarded not only in a pecuniary way but also in their triumph
over our Established Church.85
It became a source of irritation to the
governors to have to allow grants of land to the Catholics to provide places of
worship. In 1809 Holloway allowed a chapel to be built at Carbonear “in such a
spot as may not interrupt the fishery or be within 200 yards of the shore.”86
At the beginning of 1810 there were four
Catholic priests in St. John’s, one each in Ferryland, Harbour Grace and
Placentia. There were seven places of worship. Salaries of both Protestant and
Roman Catholic clergy were made up by public subscription. Episcopal ministers
received, in addition, funds from the SPG and fifty pounds from the Government.
The Methodist minister occasionally received some small contribution from the
Methodist Society in England, so the official report says, and
Roman Catholic
ministers are exceedingly well provided for by contributions by being paid for
marriages, christenings, absolutions, masses, etc., and very frequent legacies
are often bequeathed to them.87
The provision of schools for Catholic children
posed a problem. In 1810 there were in addition to the Schools of Charity in
St. John’s and the Free School in Harbour Grace, both nondenominational and
offering instruction to children of the poor, a number of private schools. For
Catholics there were three such schools in St. John’s, and one in Bonavista.
At the same time there was in St. John’s an academy under the supervision of
Paul Phillips to which a number of Catholic boys of the “higher classes” went.
Phillips had received permission from the Governor to keep “a school for the
instruction of Protestant youth” and he was directed to take the Oaths of
Allegiance and Supremacy and to subscribe the Declaration before the Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court.8888 These arrangements
were obnoxious to the feelings of the Catholics and as soon as their engagement
finished they withdrew their support from the school and Phillips was forced to
close his academy and, as he wrote to the Secretary of the SPG, “In a society
where two third are Catholic such action cannot but materially injure the
teacher who adheres to the Established Church.”89
The ministers of the Established Church
continued to resent the growth of Catholic influence. The Rev. D. Rowland, in a
letter to the SPG, complained of the great advantage of “Romish priests” over
the clergy of the Established Church “in point of number.” He spoke of “Popish
superstitions and idolatry” and the increased proselytizing of the priests.90
A growing church needed buildings and
Bishop Lambert did not lag behind his predecessor in seeking out land on which
to build. He arranged for a lease of property situated at the back of the
Chapel for a term of sixtythree years from October 20, 1811, carrying a rent
of ten pounds a year.91 He enlarged the “Old Chapel” by the addition
of transepts, the old building being too small for the population. Later, he
built the “Old Palace,” an episcopal residence.92 He had also
received from Governor Duckworth permission to build chapels at Harbour Main93 and Burin.94
The question of burying practices
resurfaced. The arrangements made in Bishop O Donel’s time proved unsatisfactory.
Complaints had been made, on occasion, to the Governor that the Protestant
clergyman had been kept waiting for the corpse to arrive at his burying ground
with the result that a body was interred without the services of a minister.
The Governor reprimanded Bishop Lambert, who duly apologized, promising as far
as he was able to make every effort to prevent a recurrence of such a happening
in future. Exasperated with the whole situation, the Catholic people of St.
John’s sent a petition to the Governor to complaining that, while they were
willing to pay the fees required for the ground and for the minister’s services,
they asked to be exempted from the necessity of his officiating as a Protestant
clergyman over the last remains of those who lived and died in the principles
and faith of the Catholic religion. They stated they were asking for nothing
more than what they had enjoyed in Ireland even before the repeal of the penal
laws.95 Permission was given by the Prince Regent and Duckworth advised Father
T. Ewer, Vicar-General, that
until a burying
ground is set apart distinctly for the Roman Catholics they must of course
continue to be interred in that of the Protestant Church and the Roman Catholic
ministers will officiate on those occasions but when their own burial ground
is alloted those only who have been old inhabitants and who may have a strong
desire to lie near their families in the Protestant burying ground will be suffered
to be buried there.96
In expressing
thanks to the Governor, Father Ewer assured him that the Catholics “duly
appreciate this boon which serves to inform the world, that under your mild and
beneficial administration they feel in this Island the glow of that increasing
and enlightening liberality which marks the present era.” Two days later Ewer
informed Duckworth that in compliance with his direction he had advised the
Catholics of St. John's “of the necessity of continuing the usual fees to the
Protestant incumbent on the occasion of funerals, either in or out of the
present churchyard, to which they agree.”97 This unfair
practice was to continue till the time of Bishop Fleming.
The story of the burying ground did not end
there. The plot of land was found and granted but it was claimed by the Nova
Scotia regiment; it was the property of the troops granted to them by a former
government. In time the difficulty was resolved.98
Bishop Lambert maintained the same close
relationship with the B.I.S. as Bishop O Donel had done. He attended the
meetings regularly and generally extended his patronage and influence to its
work. In 1814 the Society established itself at Harbour Grace, the initiative
coming from Father Ewer along with some prominent Irishmen.99
Following the precedent set by Bishop O
Donel, Lambert requested a pension from the Governor on the grounds that he was
called upon to discharge duties of religion to His Majesty’s subjects in the
hospital, garrison and prison, citing also as a precedent that in Ireland His
Majesty’s Government allowed a salary to Catholic clergy who attended
hospitals, gaols and garrisons. Furthermore, the declining state of his health
warranted consideration. Keats, the successor to Duckworth, made a request to
the Colonial Secretary, Lord Bathurst, suggesting to him that the Bishop had
every claim to his Lordship’s consideration because of the faithful discharge
of his duties and that
When the particular
descriptions of Catholics in Newfoundland and their great preponderance in
numbers are considered the necessity that would be felt for their active
services in the event of an enemy appearance I confess I am disposed to think
also pleads in support of the merits of the Petitioner... A still more
considerable pension than that bestowed on his predecessor which I believe was
considered small.100
Bathurst granted the pension of seventy-five
pounds as long as the Bishop remained in Newfoundland. The Government expense
book carried the following reference to the pension:
By allowance to the
right Rev. Patrick Lambert, Bishop of Chytra, as head of the Catholic Church in
this Island, during the same period, allowing an abatement in the property tax,
he having made affidavit that the whole of his income, derived from every source
whatever in Great Britain does not exceed seventy-five pounds per annum.101
Keats, no less than the governors who preceded
him, feared the increase of the Catholic population. He expressed his fears in
a letter to Bathurst as he informed him that members of the Established Church
are every day
becoming a prey to the proselytizing of the Catholic priests... In a population
of perhaps 60,000 there are three ministers of the Established Church and a few
dissenting ministers. To the northward of St. John’s inhabitants are generally
Protestant, to the southward Catholics whose members much exceed that of
Protestants. The Catholic Bishop or Vicar Apostolic has numerous priests at
his direction, successful in making proselytes. For marriage and baptism
another cause of increase of Catholics and that evil grows with the population.
(sic)102
A year later
Keats complained to the Archbishop of Canterbury of the indifference of
Newfoundland to the Established Church and suggested that this indifference
profited both dissenters and Catholics.103 He was fair enough
to come to the defense of the Irish engaged in the fishery when they were under
attack and he wrote he could “discover no trace of premeditated disobedience”
among them.104
Bishop O Donel was embarrassed before the
Government by the behaviour of a recalcitrant priest, Father Patt Power. Bishop
Lambert had a similar experience with a Father John Power, whom he silenced in
1812. A commentary on the problem was sent to Bathurst by Keats:
John Power went to
Newfoundland from Ireland without any recommendation or introduction to his
Bishop. This person is now under the censure of the Church and suspended by his
Bishop from all ecclesiastical functions to which he submits with an ill
grace... I have asked to have him secretly removed if it could be effected by
an arrangement through the Government of Ireland. Measures could be taken by
His Majesty’s Government to prevent any priests being suffered to go from
Ireland in future to Newfoundland whose characters may not be known and whose
introductions to the head of the Catholic mission are irregular.105
The Bishop became
embroiled in a riot which took place among the Irish factions in St. John’s in
1815. Economic conditions and dissatisfaction with the merchants over wages
were partially responsible for the troubles but in essence “the contest was
between persons coming from different parts of Ireland.” Government intervened
and came to the assistance of Bishop Lambert who was once again in
confrontation with Father John Power. The case was espoused by the Justice of
the Peace in St. John’s, Caesar Colclough – like the Bishop a Wexford man – who
sent a full description of the events to the Colonial Secretary in England:
Our Roman Catholic
Bishop, a very loyal, honest and well-intentioned man, has some time since
suspended and silenced one of his priests.. . This man is very popular and it
has occasioned a great schism among the people and he seems to me to have more
supporters than the Bishop: he is either a County Tipperary or Waterford man.
The Bishop is a County Wexford man as are also his two chaplains, and I believe
a large proportion of his clergy. This seems to have given umbrage to all the
persons coming from that part of Ireland of which Power is one and every demonstration
of respect and attention is paid to Mr. Power the ‘suspended priest’ and some
very respectable people speak favourably of him. I am convinced that though Dr.
Lambert is an irritable man of no abilities he is an honest one and would not
intentionally do wrong.106
The riots were
put down and punishment meted out to the offenders with Bishop Lambert left
somewhat debilitated after the fray. He was a man of delicate health at all
times and now the work of the mission was taking its great toll on a man who
was well advanced in years when he came to Newfoundland. He returned to Ireland
and from Wexford wrote to Keats to request a pension such as Bishop O Donel had
received. The Governor answered to say that he would anticipate difficulties
in granting the pension “since the warrant by which it was issued authorized
payment expressly to continuance in office.”107 The following
year, Governor Pickmore informed the Bishop he was not entitled to a pension
“except when residing in Newfoundland as head of the Romish Church.”108 Bishop Lambert
died in Wexford in 1817.
Bishop Thomas
Scallan, 1817-1830
The Rev. Thomas Scallan, like his
predecessor, had spent some time in Newfoundland before his appointment as
Bishop, having first come out in 1812. He was appointed Bishop of Drago in
partibus in 1815; in January 1816 he was nominated coadjutor to Bishop
Lambert and on May 1 of the same year was consecrated in the parish church ,of
Wexford by Dr. Troy, Archbishop of Dublin.109
Bishop Scallan returned to Newfoundland in
the summer of 1816 to the same sorts of problems that plagued his predecessors.
There was the struggle to get ample space to bury the dead and to get a place
of worship for the living. Governor Pickmore gave him permission to extend the
burial ground in St. John’s, under His Majesty’s instruction and under the
usual conditions, that no building (except for fishing purposes) be built on
ground capable of being employed in the fisheries. Within the five years
following, permission, under the usual conditions, was given to build a chapel
at Bonavista,110 a chapel and clergy residence as well as to own a burial ground at
Carbonear111 and a chapel at Torbay.112
Hard economic times fell on Newfoundland
between 1815-1820. Three ravaging fires swept St. John’s and these combined
with changes in trade relations, restricting the financial contributions the
Bishop could receive from his Catholic people. He therefore appealed to
Governor Hamilton for a pension. The latter sent the request to the Colonial
Secretary, immediately, pointing out that Bishop Scallan’s “conduct has been
in all respects exemplary and calculated to keep up in his flock the best dispositions
to loyalty and good order.”113 No answer came from the Colonial Secretary so
in 1823 Hamilton renewed his request and confirmed the sentiments he had
expressed in his letter of November 1819.114 There is no record
that an answer was ever received or that the pension was granted.
By 1820 Irish laymen had begun to play an
active role in the life of the community and the Church. One such person was
Patrick Morris. A committee of the inhabitants of St. John’s, under the
chairmanship of Morris, prepared a report for the Crown on the State of
Newfoundland,115 anticipating a bill to revise
the laws of Newfoundland which was read in the House in July, 1823.116
In October, 1823 the Catholic clergy and
laity of St. John’s presented a memorial to Governor Hamilton objecting to some
of the clauses in the provisions of the new marriage act. From the passing of
the act, marriage would be performed by some person in Holy Orders of the
United Church of England and Ireland, provided always that when inconvenient to
parties intending to marry it would be lawful for a Roman Catholic priest to
officiate at the marriage. This would impose an unnecessary penal law and it
would prevent priests in St. John's and other districts where it would be
convenient to get an episcopal clergyman, from officiating at a marriage of
Catholics. The memorialists asked for a change.117
The following month Morris presided over a
meeting of the merchants and other inhabitants of St. John’s to prepare a
petition to present to the Crown objecting to many of the clauses in the bill
before Parliament.118
This was followed up in February 1824 by a
petition to George IV from the Bishop, clergy and laity of Newfoundland,
objecting to two specific clauses in the proposed revision. One clause had to
do with the conditions under which a marriage would be performed; the petitioners
felt the priest would be entirely deprived of the privilege he always enjoyed
in Newfoundland and in Ireland. The second objection was to the imposition of a
tax for registering marriages.119
The petitions all bore fruit, for in March
of 1824 J. Stephen wrote from Lincoln’s Inn to Under-Secretary Horton to say
that he had sent to the Secretary’s office, i.e., the office of Bathurst, “a
draft of a Bill for the Administration of Justice in Newfoundland in which are
incorporated such of the amendments suggested in the Colony, as I learn to have
met Lord Bathurst’s approval.” A fuller explanation came later:
The Catholics have
been accustomed from the earliest times to solemnize marriages and this, I
conceive, they were entitled by law to do. The Church of England acknowledges
the validity of Roman Catholic ordination and the Common Law of England
considered any marriage contract as valid which was celebrated by a person who
had himself received valid orders. ... Such a rule as this would give the
greatest umbrage to the Roman Catholic portion of the Society, without
producing any corresponding advantage to the Church of England.... A petition
very numerously signed has been addressed by Lord Bathurst on the subject, and
this regulation has been introduced in compliance with the prayers of that
petition.120
The Bill was passed
on June 17, 1824.121
Governor Cochrane was not so successful in
having Catholic members appointed to his Council. He was himself aware of the
disabilities under which His Majesty’s Roman Catholics residing in Newfoundland
laboured.122
As a member of his Council Cochrane chose
Lt. Colonel Burke, a Catholic, commander of the military forces and had
administered to him the Oaths of Allegiance and of Office. He reported to
Bathurst that because Burke was a Catholic he could not take the Oath of
Supremacy or make and subscribe the Declaration (against Transubstantiation)
and therefore he assumed the Oath and the Declaration could be dispensed with
as had been done in similar cases in Lower Canada.123 The chief justices
and assistant judges doubted the legality of Burke’s vote as a member of the
Council without a dispensing instruction. Cochrane requested from Bathurst
approval for his action:
The great majority
being of Roman Catholics it would be highly gratifying to them to have a
person of their persuasion as a member of the Board and the removal of Lt.
Colonel Burke from it might be a great disappointment to them. I beg leave also
to add that I consider him peculiarly qualified for the situation and that I
expect to derive much assistance from his advice and opinions.124
Burke being the
officer commanding the military forces, he would be the logical person to take
over the administration of the Government on the death or in the absence of the
Governor. Cochrane asked for an instruction in this matter. To both requests he
received a refusal and he was advised that Burke and all other Catholics must
be excluded from the Council.125
Cochrane also nominated Bishop Scallan for
the Council saying
I have included the
Catholic Bishop of Newfoundland in the Council as a precedent is to be found
for such an appointment in that of the Catholic Bishop of Lower Canada... I
consider Dr. Scallan is entitled to this distinction from the rank he holds in
the Catholic Church and the influence he thereby professes among persons of
that persuasion in the Colony... as well as from his private character, which
is marked by great liberality of principles and moderation.126
A refusal came with a brief note: “Exception
which is made in favour of Roman Catholics in Lower Canada is not applicable to
those residing in the Colony under your Government” and Dr. Scallan’s name was
not submitted for His Majesty's confirmation.127
Like Bishops O Donel and Lambert, Bishop
Scallan was a good friend of the B.I.S. By 1823 Patrick Morris had become the
first Catholic President of the Society.128 Due to his efforts
permission was obtained from the Governor for a piece of land on which to build
an Orphan Asylum in St. John’s129 and for establishing the
Orphan Asylum School,130 an institution which became in time an
all-Catholic school.
The last confrontation with the Government
came in Bishop Scallan’s last year, when he was too ill to take an active
interest in events. The Emancipation Act, “An Act for the Relief of His
Majesty’s Roman Catholic Subjects,” was passed in 1829. It was the opinion of
the legal authorities in Newfoundland that the Act did not apply in
Newfoundland. The Governor transmitted the conclusions of the Attorney General
and the Judges of the Supreme Court to England for His Majesty's pleasure.131 The Catholics of
St. John’s immediately called a meeting to express their surprise and
indignation at the decision and requested to be informed “whether the Act
alluded to does or does not apply to His Majesty’s subjects in this Island.”
They were informed that the Act “does no more apply to His Majesty’s colonial
possessions than those penal statutes it is intended to repeal, and that the
relief it affords to His Majesty’s Catholic subjects in Great Britain and
Ireland must, in the colonies, emanate from His Royal Will.132 Shortly after, the
Secretary informed the Catholics that immediate steps were being taken for
extending to His Majesty’s subjects in Newfoundland, by a royal instruction,
the provisions of the Act.133
A strange logic is to be observed here. The
Emancipation Act did not extend to the colonies, the penal laws not having been
enacted for these countries. If the penal laws did not extend to Newfoundland,
then neither did the disabilities which were created by these laws. It was left
to Bishop Fleming to resolve the matter.
In 1828, finding he could no longer
discharge his duties, Bishop Scallan asked for and received a coadjutor, Father
Michael Anthony Fleming, for a number of years a missionary in Newfoundland.
On October 28, 1829 he was consecrated by Bishop Scallan in the “Old Chapel,”
the first episcopal consecration in Newfoundland. Bishop Scallan survived only
a short time after that and died on May 29, 1830 and was interred in the yard
of the “Old Chapel.” His remains were later transferred to the cathedral and
buried in the choir behind the high altar.134
Conclusion
The death of Bishop Scallan brought to an
end the pre-emancipation era of the Catholic Church in Newfoundland. It was a
period that witnessed countless advances, albeit modest ones: some relaxation
of penal restrictions, a greater tolerance, an increase in numbers, wealth and
social standing of the Catholic population, the beginnings of formal education
for both rich and poor, the establishment of organizations devoted to the
betterment of conditions of the poor and other benefits.
These improvements were due, in large
measure, to the exertions of the early Bishops O Donel, Lambert and Scallan,
who guided the infant Church through difficult days. They were men of vision
but, withal, realistic for they knew that only by slow stages could progress
be made. They had a dream of emancipation but the fulfilment of the dream was
not to be theirs – this was left to Bishop Scallan’s immediate successor,
Bishop Fleming. They were men of such calibre as could submit to the servility
and venality heaped upon them by a system which was abhorrent to them but which
they endured for the sake of their people, so many of whom supported them and
worked with and for them. A small number of devoted priests also shared their
burdens with them.
Those who came after them may have accomplished greater things, materially, but it was Bishops O Donel, Lambert and Scallan who paved the way for those greater things to come. It was their sacrifices as well as the sacrifices of their priests and grateful people which made it possible for them to put down the deep and strong roots of the Catholic Church in Newfoundland.
1C.O.
195/1, “A Grant of the Province of Avalon to Sir George Calvert and his
Heires,” April 2, 1623 (In PANL, Provincial Archives of Newfoundland. All C.O.,
Colonial Office, and GN, Government of Newfoundland, Documents, Governors' Papers,
B.I.S. and S. P.G. Papers are in PANL).
2Thomas
Graves Papers, 1761-1764, Ms 9365,
Copy of the 14th Article of the Treaty of Utrecht.
3C. 0.
194/ 1, Dec. 4, 1692, p. 32.
4C.O.
195/1, Jan. 24, 1633, p. 29; Jan. 26, 1660, p. 36.
5C.O.
195/2, March 10, 1670, p. 59.
6John
Reeves, History of the Government of Newfoundland, (London: J. Sewell,
1793), Appendix (Copy of full text of the Act, pp. i-xv).
7C. 0.
194/34, Dec. 9, 1779, p. 91.
8Reeves,
op. cit., p. vii.
9C.O.
195/7, March 9, 1720, p. 73.
10Ibid.,
May 14, 1729, p. 199.
11C.O.
194/24, To Byng, Feb. 22, 1742, p. 152; C.O. 195/8, To Drake, April 6, 1760. p.
226.
12Ibid., July 20, 1732, p. 69.
13Ibid., Nov. 6, 1738, pp. 85-93
14Ibid., March 30, 1740, p. I10. He repeated the complaint
for the year 1740, see ibid., Dec. 24, 1740, p. 124.
15Ibid.,
Feb. 22, 1742, pp. 153-158.
16C.
0. 194/12, Oct. 2, 1749, p. 119; Dec. 24, 1750, p. 186.
17C.O.
195/6, May 9, 1717, p. 355.
18C.O.
194/24, Oct. 2, 1743, p. 184
19C.O.
194/13, Nov. 8, 1752, p. 34.
20Ibid.,
Jan. 6, 1754, p. 120.
21Ibid., Nov. 22, 1754, p.
186.
22P 1/5, Duckworth
Papers, M3717, Nov. 20, 1811, p. 2296.
23GN 2/1/2, Aug. 15,
1755, p. 202.
24Ibid., Sept. 22, 1755,
pp. 236-263.
25Ibid., Oct. 17, 1755, p.
279.
26D.W. Prowse, A
History of Newfoundland, (London: Eyre & Spottiswoods, 1896), p. 314.
27 GN 2/1/3, Oct. 29, 1762, p. 150.
28 Thomas Graves
Papers, No. 62, May 3, 1764.
29Prowse, op. cit.,
p. 319.
30C.0. 194/16, Sept.
1, 1764, p. 6.
31C.O. 195/9, April
29, 1765, pp. 409-411.
32GN 2/1/3, Oct. 31,
1764, pp. 272-273 (Dyeters, men who remained in the Island during the winter,
living upon their summer wages without engaging as winter servants.)
33Ibid., July 2, 1764, p.
232.
34GN 2/l/4, Aug. 31,
1767, p. 84.
35GN 2/1/5, July 13,
1772, p. 102; GN 2/1/6, Oct. 16, 1775, p. 10 1.
36C.O. 194/37, Act of
Parliament, 15 Geo., Cap. 31, 1775, p. 227.
37C. 0. 195/ 10, May
6, 1779, p. 389.
38Fulham Mss, Newfoundland, No.
47, British Manuscripts, Nov. 12, 1771, in PANL.
39Prowse, op. cit.,
p. 293.
40GN 2/39/a, Census,
1794-1795, 1796-1797.
41After the treaty of
Utrecht in 1713, jurisdiction over Newfoundland passed to the Vicar Apostolic
of London and remained there until the appointment of Father O Donel in 1784.
See M.F. Howley, Ecclesiastical History of Newfoundland, Belleville,
Ont.: Mika Publishers, 1979 (originally published in 1888).
42Hans Rollman,
“Memorable Dates for Roman Catholicism in Newfoundland, 1783/1784” from the
Archives of the Sacred Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith, Rome.
Notes in Archdiocesan Archives. Names of Catholic laymen: James Keating,
Patrick Gaul, John Commins, Lewis Maddock.
43Cyril Byrne, ed., Gentlemen
Bishops and Faction Fighters, (St. John's: Jesperson Press, 1984), p. 38.
44GN 2/ 1 /11, Oct.
28, 1784, p. 138.
45C.O. 194/23, June
1, 1786, p. 352.
46GN 2/ I/ 11, Aug.
5, 1787, p. 281.
47C.O. 194/21, Feb.
22, 1793, p. 420.
48C.O. 195/15, April
26, 1782, p. 124.
49GN 2/1/12, Sept.
15, 1792, p. 153.
50Duckworth Papers,
M3717, Oct. 26, 1811, p. 1565.
51GN 2/1/2, Sept. 15,
1755, p. 252.
52SPG, A Mss 167, No.
69, Oct. 25, 1784.
53Fulham Papers, Nov. 22, 1784.
54Extract from the
Journal of Rev. John Jones sent to Archbishop Skinner, St. John’s, Newfoundland,
April 17, 1975, by Rev. J.S.S. Armour, St. David's Presbyterian Church, St.
John’s, in Archdiocesan Archives.
55Duckworth Papers, M3716, pp. 942-946.
56C.O. 194/36, May
14, 1785, p. 14.
57GN 2/1/10, Oct. 18,
1784, pp. 106-109. Copy of lease signed on behalf of John Rogers, Captain of
His Majesty’s late Newfoundland Regiment and by James O Donel, Andrew Moloney,
Garrett Quigley, William Burke, Edward Cannon, Luke Maddock. Lease for 99
years, renewable for another term of 99 years. Lease renewed by Bishop Mullock
in 1863. Copy of lease also in Archdiocesan Archives.
58GN 2/1/10, Oct. 14,
1785, p. 197. T.P. Londergan was a Dominican priest who had come from France to
Placentia where his demeanour got him into trouble with the authorities, Byrne,
op. cit., p. 62, and he died at Fogo, Oct. 25, 1787, ibid., p.
360.
59GN 2/1/11, Oct. 24,
1788, pp. 439-440. Father P. Power was a “thorn in Father O Donel’s side.” He
was a Franciscan who was “irregularly operating,” Byrne, op. cit., p. 4
& p. 62.
60GN 2/1/12, Nov. 2,
1790, p. 102.
61“Excerptus en buuis
dabs die januarii, 1796”, in Archdiocesan Archives.
62Quebec Document
copied February, 1854, re consecration of Bishop O Donel, in Quebec in 1796, in
Archdiocesan Archives.
63Pole Papers, July 19, 1796.
6464GN 2/1/13, Oct.
13, 1797, pp. 313-314.
6565GN 2/1/14, Oct.
5, 1798, p. 335.
6666GN 2/1/13, Sept.
25, 1797, pp. 261-262.
67Ibid., Oct. 13, 1797, p.
345.
68Prowse, op. cit.,
p. 373.
69GN 2/1/14, June 19,
1798, p. 250
70Pole Papers, May 24, 1800
71James O Donel, Diocesios
statutas, Aug. 2, 1801, in Archdiocesan Archives.
72Howley, op. cit.,
p. 188.
73 GN 2/1/16, Oct. 13,
1802, p. 350; Oct. 9, 1802, pp. 338-341.
7474GN 2/1/18, Sept.
26, 1804, pp. 19-20; June 24, 1805, pp. 214-216.
75GN 2/1/17, Aug. 10,
1804, pp. 337-339.
76 76GN 2/1/18,
March 12, 1805, p. 197.
77Ibid., June 15, 1805, pp.
206-207; June 17, 1805, p. 210.
78Ibid., Nov. 28, 1805, pp.
397-399.
79GN 2/1/19, March
31, 1806, p. 5.
80Henry Shea was the
first secretary of the Society; later he became vice-president, a post he held
till his resignation in 1823. Minutes of B.I.S. Meeting, March 17, 1823.
81Centenary of the
B.I.S. of St. John’s, N.F.,1806-1906, pp. 10-23.
82Letter of Rev. B.
Egan, Ireland, Feb. 8, 1977, in Archdiocesan Archives.
83GN 2/1/25, n.d.,
1813, p. 117.
84Duckworth Papers, 1768-1809, June 6,
1807, p. 163.
85Ibid., Feb. 4, 1810, pp.
291-292.
86GN 2/l/20, Sept.
20, 1809, p. 216.
87C.0. 194/49, pp.
120-121. (priests: St. John’s – J. Lambert, J. Martin, J. Sinnott, J. Power;
Harbour Grace – T. Ewer; Ferryland – A. Fitzpatrick; Placentia – A. Cleary.
Teachers: St. John’s – W. MacLeod, M. Dierney, Mrs. Cleary; Bonavista - E.
Macawley.)
88GN 2/1/21, Aug. 1,
1810, p. 39.
89SPG, Box/A/17,
Sept. 4, 1810.
90Duckworth Papers, M3717, Sept. 5,
1810, p. 1297.
91GN 2/1/21,
Aug. 1, 1810, p. 39.
92SPG, Box/A/17,
Sept. 4, 1810.
93Duckworth Papers, M3717, Sept. 5,
1810, p. 1297.
94Duckworth Papers, M3718, Oct. 12,
1811, pp. 3213-3214.
95Ibid., M3717, Oct. 2,
1810, p. 1562; Oct. 26, 1810, pp. 1565-1566
96Ibid., M5899, Aug. 29,
1811, p. 379. In 1810 there were 200 funerals of which 133 were Roman
Catholics. Parson’s fees were 5 pounds, sexton’s fees, 5 pounds, clerk’s fees,
2/6 pounds, total of 12/6 pounds, ibid., M3717, p. 1831.
97Ibid., M3717, Sept. 4,
1811, pp. 1834-1835; Sept. 6, 1811, p. 1852.
98GN 2/1/24, July 20,
1813, p. 346.
99Centenary of
B.I.S, pp. 25-27.
100GN 2/1/25, n.d.,
1813, p. 117; Dec. 18, 1813, pp. 171-172.
101C.O. 194/68, Oct.
20, 1814, p. 14.
102GN 2/1/25, Dec.
18, 1813, p. 173.
103103 GN 2/1/26,
Dec. 29, 1814, p. 102.
104GN 2/I/27, Nov.
10, 1815, p. 35.
105GN 2/I/27, Nov. 10,
1815, p. 35.
106GN 2/1/26, March
21, 1815, p. 197; March 22, 1815, pp. 212-215.
107GN 2/1/27, March 5,
1816, pp. 95-96; March 19, 1816, p. 97.
108Ibid., Feb. 25, 1817, p.
386. Pickmore was the first resident Governor in Newfoundland. He came to the
Island in 1816 and died there in 1818.
109Account of Bishop’s
consecration in Archdiocesan Archives
110GN 2/1/28, Oct. 1,
1817, p. 46; Dec. 17, 1817, p. 165.
111GN 2/1/32, Nov. 10,
1821, p. 229.
112Ibid., Nov. 19, 1822, p.
349.
113GN 2/1/31, Nov. 19,
1819, pp. 66-67.
114 GN 2/1/34, Nov. 28,
1823, pp. 20-21.
115C.O. 194/65, Dec.
6, 1822, pp. 211-212.
116C.O. 194/68, July
10, 1823, p. 106.
117C.O. 194/67, Oct. 27,
1823, pp. 88-94. Signers of the petition – Clergy: James Scallan, Nicholas
Devereux, S.S.F. Burgess, James Sinnott; a long list of laymen, among them
Patrick Morris, Lawrence O'Brien, and others who figured prominently in later
events.
118C.O. 194/68, Nov.
7, 1823, p. 344.
119 C.O. 194/67, Feb.
27, 1824, pp. 258-263. Signers of petition – Clergy: T. Ewer, N. Devereux, D.
Mackin, M. Fleming; a large number of laymen.
120C.O. 194/68,
March 5, 1824, p. 110; March 12, 1824, p. 128.
121C.O. 194/69, June
17, 1824, pp. 16-17. The Bill was entitled “An Act for the Better
Administration of Justice in Newfoundland, and for Making Further Provisions
for the Solemnization of Marriage in the Said Colony and for Other Purposes.”
122C.O. 195/17, March
30, 1830, pp. 390-391.
123C.O. 194/72, Oct.
8, 1825, p. 137.
124Ibid., Oct. 11, 1825, pp.
153-154; Dec. 29, 1825, p. 253.
125C.O. 194/73, Jan.
6, 1826, p. 143 .
126C.O. 194/72, Dec.
29, 1825, p. 253.
127C.O. 195/17, April
10, 1826, pp. 231-232.
128Minutes of Meeting
of B.I.S. Feb. 17, 1823.
129C.O. 194/66, Oct.
12, 1823, pp. 182-183.
130Minutes of B.I.S.,
May 27, 1827.
131GN 2/1/37, Dec. 10,
1829, pp. 307-308.
132Ibid., Dec. 22, 1829, pp.
310-311.
133Ibid., June 30, 1830, p.
374.
134Notes in
Archdiocesan Archives.