The Rosminians had worked very successfully in the Nottingham and Leicester areas and later in North London. The Rector of the North London Mission was Father William Lockhart, an Oxford convert and friend of the man who was to become the great English Cardinal, John Henry Newman; and it was Lockhart’s conversion that finally convinced Newman that he too should become a Catholic.

The then Cardinal, Henry Manning, wished the Rosminians to serve in the slum areas of Holborn. Father Lockhart was chosen for this task. And in December 1873, he learned that the ancient Chapel of St Etheldreda’s was about to be sold by auction. Father Lockhart faced competition from the Welsh Episcopalians, who had the backing of a Welsh steel magnate. But at the auction, the Welshmen made a mistake. They thought Father Lockhart’s agent was theirs, so they stopped bidding. And with the next bid of £5,400 St Etheldreda’s was knocked down to the Rosminians. As is recorded:

William Lockhart & St Etheldreda’s

On 25 September 1843, a procession emerged from the school at Littlemore just outside Oxford. The children in their best clothes, and a small group of clergy sang as they entered the church. It was beautifully decorated with garden flowers. Every seat was taken and the large congregation needed extra chairs. There was a solemn silence about the gathering.

There were several distinguished names in the procession that made its way gravely up the nave: The great theologians of Oxford university were present: However the centre of attention was undoubtedly John Henry Newman who had shepherded this little flock for 15 years. He had built both the parish school and the church dedicated to Saint Mary and St Nicholas. More recently, he had moved to the village with a group of young men to pray and study, far away from the politics of the university.

That day’s Communion service marked the anniversary of the church’s consecration but the joy of the occasion was diminished by recent events. Newman was here to preach his farewell sermon. One member of the congregation Edward Belasis wrote to his wife “the sermon I can never forget. Newman was making an effort at restraining himself together with a deep interest of his subject”. Newman controlled his emotions but many others could not. Dr Pusey, was in tears. Bellasi’s letter continued “the services of the greatest man of all times, and one of the most laborious and most energetic of the sons of the English Church is lost to us today”.

All those who knew William Lockhart realised that it was he who had precipitated Newman into leaving his ministry. Young Lockhart had promised to stay for three years with the community at Littlemore but after only 12 months he had suddenly left the church of England and been reconciled to Rome.

Under the influence of Fr Luigi Gentlli, the Rosminian Missionary, William Lockhart had become a Catholic and was now in the Novitiate House of the Rosminians at Loughborough. In Newman’s sermon on the parting of friends he recounted the old Testament story of Ruth and Naomi’s sorrow. After Lockhart had become a Catholic, the intention of the community at Littlemore began to fall apart. Newman and most of his friends became Catholics over the next few years. At this time, William Lockhart was only 24 years old and had a great career to look forward to in the Church of England. Yet he was sure that he was called to become a Catholic and indeed, became a Catholic and more than that became one of the forgotten giants of the Victorian Catholic Church.

By the time Lockhart went to university, the Oxford movement was five years old. For Newman the movement started with John Keble’s sermon in 1833 concerning government interference in the Irish Church. He went on to write many of the 'Tracts for the Times' with Froude Palmer and Pusey. They constituted a recovery of patristic theology, the reality of Sacramental grace, the beauty of holiness in the Church of England as well fighting for state independence in spiritual matters.

Nicholas Schofield tells us in his biography of Lockhart that at first, the young student did not think much of the ‘Catholicising’ school at Oxford yet he was surrounded by the huge interest shown in Catholic matters. At home, his mother was reading 'Tracts for the Times' and regularly attended the choral services at the cathedral.

Lockhart had admired Newman from his early days at the university. Later he would say “Newman impressed me in a way that none but one other man has impressed me, that man, Antonio Rosmini, the founder of the Order to which I have the honour to belong.” Lockhart commented on Tract 90, the most powerful one written by Newman “on us young men, Tract 90 had the effect of strengthening greatly our growing convictions that Rome was right and the Church of England wrong.” He followed Newman to the house, a sort of Anglican monastery with a programme of prayer and study at Littlemore. It was after writing Tract 90 that the fury of reactions caused Newman, very sadly to leave Littlemore.

William Lockhart had met the Rosminians in the person of Fr Luigi Gentili, a most colourful character who was himself a convert from Italy. Fr Pagani, wrote to Rosmini: 'Don Luigi with his gentle attractive ways began little by little to win the soul of the good young man'. Dinner over, Don Luigi persuaded him to go and visit the Trapist monastery at Mount Saint Bernard and the church at Shepshed. The next day during his visits to these places, Don Luigi propose him to stay at Loughborough and make a retreat. He accepted this and is now received into the Catholic Church by Don Luigi in our chapel at Loughborough.' Gentili’s mission was based at the home of Ambrose Phillips De Lisle - from here, he was an itinerant preacher, evangelising the villages of Shepshead, Hathern, Belton and Osgathorpe. We can meet today families who recollect that their antecedents, from 1840 onwards remember the spiritual power of don Luigi Gentili.

Around this time, Ratcliffe in Leicester was chosen as the location of the Institute’s new noviciate and college and Pugin provided the designs. Lockhart was here as a novice and brought 20,000 pounds from his family money to assist the building of Ratcliffe.

He was preparing for the Rosminian vocation, which embraces not only the pastoral care of parishes, but the preaching of missions. Newman was received into the Catholic Church in October 1845 and visited Ratcliffe the following Epiphany. Pagani later wrote to Rosmini “What an edifying sight to see Mr Newman receiving Holy Communion kneeling on the floor with our brothers and clerics among whom Lockhart, was once his disciple and spiritual son.

William Lockhart was made a Deacon at Oscott in June 1846 and ordained a priest in December of the same year. In his early ministry, Lockhart assisted in the preaching of missions in the local area. Gentili would not charge anything for baptisms and evangelised by talking to the local people in groups large and small. Lockhart continued in this way and later would move his discourse into challenging topics, which he enjoyed. Lockhart spent a brief period stationed at Saint Marie’s Rugby which the Institute took over in September 1849. It is a beautiful design by Pugin and had been built by captain Hibbert who converted to Catholicism after the church had been erected.

From 1851, Lockhart acted as a full-time missionary as did many of the Rosminians travelling around the United Kingdom preaching the gospel and adding converts to the faith. In March 1851, he was at Saint Joseph’s Liverpool, a parish almost exclusively inhabited by the poor: labourers artisans and small tradesmen. Lockhart was impressed by their piety, the bell need only be rung and in a few moments the church would be filled from the immediate neighborhood. He was impressed also by the priest, Father Carter who had just moved from a country parish living among green meadows watered by a beautiful salmon stream . He moved to a densely populated part of Liverpool where his two predecessors had died of cholera.

Lockhart was involved also in a number of missions in Ireland then recovering from the tragedy of the great famine, His Irish experiences have been called perhaps the most important and fruitful of his Priestly career. They were not simply an attempt to evangelise the Irish poor. It has been said that one of the main concerns of the Irish catholic hierarchy in the 1850s was the threat of proselytism. The decade was dominated by struggles between Protestants and Catholics for the souls of the Irish population. The Belfast Mission of April 1851 was considered a highpoint, when Lockhart and Rinolfi were to board the ship for the return voyage to Liverpool hundreds of Irish came to the quay to see them off - even to kiss and touch their garments as they passed.

Lockhart was something of a curiosity to the Irish congregation as an Oxford convert and his name attracted widespread attention. At Saint Audeon’s in Dublin where Gentilli had been buried in 1848, a particular attraction was given to this mission by the fact of Father Lockhart being an Oxford convert. It was a great subject of joy to the Catholics see such a man in the midst of them. Apart from that consolation which Catholics experience in the good and happiness of others they could not help rejoicing in hearing one who had come out from the camp, as it were, of the enemy, bearing witness to the truth and sanctity of their religion. Whenever the good Father alluded to his own conversion and to its motives, a murmur of joy and gratitude was to be heard throughout the whole mass of the devout faithful people.

Throughout Lockhart’s life, the active apostolate was interrupted by periods of poor health and nervous exhaustion. A weakness that had presented itself at Oxford as he was struggling with his Anglican difficulties. In a letter to Rinolfi, the provincial, in April 1853 Rosmini himself was concerned for our two zealous workers Furlong and Lockhart. And suggested that after three weeks of work, or a month at the most, there should be a period of a week or 10 days complete rest before they undertake another mission. After one serious breakdown in health, Rosmini called Lockhart to spend some time in Rome for recuperation but Lockhart was not purely a man of leisure he was assigned to assist Bertetti who was then acting as Rosmini’s agent in Rome. These were critical years for the Institute since the works of Fr Founder were being examined by the Holy See.

Rosmini had been encouraged by the popes not only in his vision for the Institute which was approved by Gregory the 16th in 1838 but also in his philosophical writings, Pius VIII told him in 1829 “It is the will of God you should occupy yourself in writing books - the church at present has great need of writers - of sound and reliable writers of whom we have a shortage”. As his heath improved, Lockhart had been called to serve in London, but on his way there he called at Stresa to speak with Antonio Rosmini. In his biography of the founder Lockhart looked back on these happy days. He joined him for his afternoon walk along the vine-clad path bordering lake Maggiore and was impressed by Rosmini’s practice of assembling the community after the evening rosary to read a few verses from the gospel and suggest three points for the morning meditation. Lockhart no doubt spoken to Rosmini about the English mission. Years later, he observed that many of Rosmini’s finest men had been sent to England, “Those men had gone to exchange the lovely scenes of the Italian sky and lake and mountains and foliage for the cloud shrouded land and the smoke and fog of huge cities of ceaseless and difficult labour in the pilgrimage of Grace”. Rosmini had hoped to visit England, but a little more than a year later “he was gone forever from this world in body, but he is with his children in spirit wherever they go under God, and guides them in their ways.”

The first Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Nicolas Wiseman was friendly towards Rosmini, and had visited him at Stresa in July 1842. The work of the Institute also fitted in with his vision of an energetic Catholicism and the perceived group of clergy who could travel from place to place offering instructions and missions. However in light of the censuring of two of Rosmini works and the increasing opposition to his teachings Wiseman forbade members of the Institute to preach in his diocese because as Rosmini put it they “had their superior a man who had books on the index. ”Eventually the Cardinal’s attitude softened especially in the lead up to the Pope’s decree Dimitantur, the document to dismiss accusations against Rosmini. In 1854, Lockhart reported to the provincial “I was at the Cardinal’s place last night but I found him particularly friendly and agreeable. There is no doubt that a change has taken place in his feelings towards us”. In May 1854, Lockhart moved to Kingsland in North London in the area of Moorfields and Hackney and took up residence in a house loaned to him by Thomas Kelly an Irish builder. He turned the ground floor into a chapel. Later Manning celebrated the first Mass. At the end of 1854, Lockhart was busy setting up the mission and they purchased the paper factory situated in Tottenham Road. This became a complex with schools on the ground floor and the church above. He was assisted at Kingsland by a number of Rosminian confreres, including Fortunatus Signini a great apostle of South Wales.

Education was a key concern as with many other Catholic missions. There were separate schools for boys, girls and infants. Mrs Lockhart assisted with funds and in 1865 the Rosminian Sisters of Providence arrived in Kingsland to take care of the girls and infant school. The sisters would not take boys over the age of seven and this disappointed Lockhart. He got laymen to teach the boys. He also set up a hostel for young men at the presbytery at Culford Road called St Joseph’s Home. The boarders had a room each and a safe home from the dangers of London life. The conduct of the boarders was encouraged by genial influence rather than disciplinary restraint.

Lockhart was not content with merely parish affairs; he envisaged a large Rosminian house with a proper religious community and even a college. In his letters to superiors he emphasised the importance of making Kingsland in London a religious house bringing together some of our best men for preaching in London and other places, making the parish mission one but not the only object of the establishment. In 1961, he was happy to report that our mission and schools are going on satisfactory, we are always receiving some converts and our congregation is on the increase. The Diocesan inspector praises the state of our girls school and the boys school and Brother Atkinson is progressing very well; Lockhart stressed that nothing is more needed than good preachers in London. Faber is dead and there is no one of much name but Manning, as for the Jesuits, they are preaching only to the ladies. the Rosminians could make a valuable contribution to the church in London. He had an eagerness to leave the East End for the West End. By 1872 Lockhart was disillusioned with his lot: “we are doing nothing more than the work of secular priests” he wrote “no wonder no one joins us”. Despite these reservations however Kingsland had become an important centre of Catholicism in North London. In 1873 Lockhart while remaining director of Kingsland moved to Cardiff to look after the mission in succession to Father Signini who himself transferred to Kingsland.

The Institute had accepted care of Cardiff in 1854 when the town was a rapidly developing seaport of South Wales, the principal place of embarkation for the coal and iron ore from the mining districts. There was built a splendid church of Saint Peters designed by Charles Hansen which was opened in September 1862. Lockhart reported in 1874 that the churches are well filled and we hope that Divine Providence will enable us to meet the interest of the debts which the provincial has taken on himself in Cardiff. Lockhart became close to the third Marquis of Bute, a convert and wealthy local landowner. He had contributed much to the opening of Saint Peters school and also rebuilt Cardiff Castle for himself as a Gothic residence. The first Post -Reformation Corpus Christi procession in Wales was held in 1874. The Marquis later proved to be a great supporter of the restoration of Saint Etheldreda, at Ely Place.

Lockhart had long dreamed of moving to a better location where a central house of the Institute could be established. In 1871, Manning revived Wiseman’s idea of combining the mission of Baldwin Gardens and Saffron Hill. Lockhart wrote to the provincial “my opinion is that we could not select a more advantageous position”. At the time, Mrs Lockhart was dying but he knew that she would like to use her legacy in setting up a new house. The Institute’s agent Mr Harting noticed that the mediaeval chapel of Saint Etheldreda in nearby Ely Place was to be auctioned. it was built at the end of the 13th century and was the only surviving part of the London Palace of the bishops of Ely. John of Gaunt died in there in 1399 and Shakespeare later put on the dying man’s lips the famous “This sceptred Isle” speech in Richard II. The place continue to be owned by the bishops of Ely until the 18th century. It was used by the Spanish Embassy in the 1620s and Catholic Mass was once again celebrated in the chapel. After the sad accident in 1623 when 100 Catholics nearby, were killed by falling masonry, 18 of the victims were buried in the crypt of the church. In 1775 Ely Place was built on the site of the bishop’s palace. The surviving chapel was let for use by the Church of England and then the Welsh Episcopalians. In 1874 Ely Place was sold by order of the Court of Chancery in order to settle the lawsuit between the descendants of the original buyer, This came about at the right moment for the Rosminians as Lockhart later related in his book “Saint Etheldreda’s and Old London” how the old chapel fell into Catholic hands once again.

On 22 June 1874, Fathers Lockhart and Signini and Brother Atkinson moved into Ely Place, together with two maids who lodged in a separate building at the bottom of the garden and the following day Lockhart said Mass in the quickly fitted domestic oratory. It was the feast of Saint Etheldreda. Festive breakfast was served in the parlour afterwards, attended by a number of friends and benefactors. That evening the fathers returned to Kingsland for a large farewell tea party. The Archbishop was present and spoke affectionately of “our dear old friend Father Lockhart, whom he had known intimately as one man to another.” Manning claimed responsibility for recommending the appointment of the Fathers of Charity to the mission in 1854 feeling a great interest in this part of London. “I looked about me,” he said, “to see who I could recommend to the Cardinal and I fixed my eyes on Father Lockhart whom I have known for 30 years”. The Archbishop acknowledged the sadness at their departure for pastures new.

The parishioners of Kingsland were also very distressed after the departure of Father Lockhart and the community. They sent petitions to the Cardinal and the Provincial with 529 signatures. The first task at Saint Etheldredas was to prepare the crypt for public use, although there were complaints when the ancient floor of the crypt was lowered and modern stone pillars replaced the old wooden ones. Saint Bridgets in the Crypt was opened for worship in June 1876 and the Cardinal himself came to celebrate a Mass in the presence of the Duke of Norfolk, the Marquis of Bute, and the Marchioness of Londonderry. Lockhart was proud that some declare that they can say their prayers here better than anywhere they know. The thick walls kept out the roaring of the wheels in Holborn and the temperature was constant so that it is the “coolest place in summer and the warmest in winter in all London.”

A restoration committee including eight Catholic peers was set up so that funding could be provided for the restoration of the church, a sacred purpose for which it was built by the priority of our forefathers. To be carried out in a way as faithfully to preserve every part of the original work. Lockhart calculated that £6000 would be needed and hoped that the church would be ready by the summer of 1878, but the opening was postponed until the following year. There was much excitement on the 19th of April 1875 when part of the covered ceiling was removed in a shower of dust to reveal the mediaeval roof which was substantially intact. Lockhart even climbed the ladder to have a close inspection of the roof. He climbed up and perched upon a frail support, even though he had a fear of heights.

Under Lockhart's direction, the crypt and upper church were restored by George Gilbert Scott to their original 13th-century designs. John Francis Bentley designed a choir screen incorporating a confessional, an organ and a choir gallery. Lockhart found real pleasure in removing the Royal arms, which dated from the reign of Charles the first and once hung over the Protestant communion table. He placed in the porch an inscription “The emblem of the royal supremacy was removed from the church of Saint Etheldreda when it was restored to the Roman obedience.”

Lockhart received from Vincent Harding a relic of the hand of Saint Etheldreda. He commented that as the body of Saint Etheldreda was always preserved in her cathedral at Ely, until the dispersion of her relics, at the Reformation, so it would seem likely if a portion of her sacred body was removed from the original shrine, it would likely to be found in the chapel of the Bishop of Ely in London. The opening of the upper church was delayed and finally scheduled for 22nd of June 1879 when the ceremony of the reconciliation of the desecrated church was performed by Lockhart.

At first Vespers for the feast of Saint Etheldreda, a procession was formed. The relics of the patroness were borne from the side altar in the crypt as the choir sang the litany of the Saints and the church sprinkled with holy water. After the ritual, the Blessed Sacrament was brought in with great solemnity and placed in the newly blessed tabernacle. The following morning, the feast of Saint Etheldreda, the Rosminian provincial, Fr Gazzola celebrated the Mass. The Cardinal preached from the altar one of his striking sermons, in the course of which he expressed his love of England and his hopes of her returning one day to the fold of Christ and Saint Peter. Slowly over the years, the windows were filled with coloured glass thanks to sponsors such as the Duke of Norfolk, Edward Belasis, and Edward Delisle, son of Ambrose. Conscious of the historical connections, Lockhart planned a window in honour of the English martyrs since it was the only ancient public Catholic Church in London where in those days they could have heard Mass. Lockhart also desired a style of music in harmony with the church and developed a choir made up of gentlemen who have leisure for practice and love of the Gregorian plain song and harmonise music of the school of Palestrina. He discovered a stone bowl deep inside the crypt. Later it was moved upstairs beside the south door. He considered it most ancient and wondered if it would have dated back to the earliest Christian church of London on this very spot. “It is evidently a holy water vessel” and was restored to its earlier use. For Lockhart that was the great secret of the place. Not only an essentially located house for the Institute but the powerful symbol of Victorian Catholicism’s continuity with the Old Religion.

The mission was full of the Irish poor. In his commentary Lockhart paid tribute to the Exiles of Erin who had built up the old missions of Baldwin Gardens and Saffron Hill. He combined the dedication of Saint Etheldreda with St Bridget, in order to represent the English and Irish parishioners. On the parish banner, the saints are seen.clasping each other’s hand while saint Patrick gives a blessing on the union, indicating that the time is at hand when class warfare will end, The people of the two islands will forgive and forget the wars and oppression of their rulers, through which the two nations have been kept at variance for centuries. “There is a good time coming” he continues, “and the good example of the steadfast faith of the Irish through centuries of persecution is helping to bring back the English people to the ‘Faith of their Fathers’”.

The patronal feast was celebrated with great splendour each year with the procession of the relic, and much publicity was given to the blessing of throats on Saint Blaise’ day, which, despite becoming common around the country seems to have been first practised in this country at Saffron Hill. The sisters of Providence opened a school for girls in 1876 and a school for boys began in the Presbytery. The older mission Church of the Holy Family, Saffron Hill was no longer needed, once Saint Etheldreda’s was ready and eventually converted into a school building. By 1890, 300 attended the school there.

Perhaps at no time did Father Lockhart appear so thoroughly happy, so truly the parish priest, as on Sunday afternoons, proceeded by the parish band and a banner of Saint Etheldreda and surrounded by a goodly company of his chosen and faithful young men, he would repair to Robin Hood Court, to Bleeding heart yard, or to the slums and alleys of Grays Inn Road. Then mounted on a tub or barrow amidst the cries of “God bless your reverence” and “Long life to the father of London’s Irish poor,” he would plead with them to give up drink and to live the lives of good Christians and Catholics. He continued to foster his friendships; after Easter 1890 for instance, Lockhart made the last of his annual visits to see Newman at Birmingham Oratory. “He sent me to come to him before he rose in the morning saying that after dressing he might feel too exhausted to receive me. I found him weak in body, but bright and clear in mind as ever. I knelt down and took his hand and kissed it. I felt sure I should not see him again. I thanked him for all the good he had done me since under God he had been as I hoped the instrument of salvation. I asked his blessing which he gave me with great and earnest simplicity and tenderness. Three months later I stood by his coffin”. After the great man’s death Lockhart gave a public address on the late Cardinal at Ely Place and published a memorial in which he proudly referred to himself as one of Newmans “oldest living disciples”.

At the beginning of May 1892 the new Archbishop of Westminster, Herbert Vaughan was enthroned at the pro-cathedral in Kensington. Lockhart was one of the 19 clerical signatories to the official Address of Welcome. On 14 May, Lockhart functioned as normal in hearing confessions in the crypt until 10 at night, eating supper with his brothers, and engaging in genial conversation. The following morning as usual he visited the Blessed sacrament and about 8:30 am came to the room of Father Jarvis to ask him to sing high Mass in his place saying he felt very unwell and asked for his confessor Father Bone. The latter entered Lockhart’s room a little later and found the priest lying on his simple camp bed in what appeared to be a deep sleep. However, on further examination it became evident the 72 year- old had died suddenly and alone. It was pointed out; solitary had ended a life devoted to others. The announcement of his death to the congregation of Saint Etheldredas resulted in sad scenes of much emotion. Glowing tributes were printed in the Catholic secular press. The Tablet declared that perhaps no man except cardinal Manning had so strong an influence on various classes of so many people. These were united in sharing a common and irreparable loss. On 19 May, the Office of the Dead and Requiem was sung at Ely Place in the presence of the new archbishop and many of the clergy. Lockhart’s body was then carried by members of the League of the Cross and taken to the railway. The body was transferred to Ratcliffe in Leicester, and solemnly received at the college by all the religious. The boys sang Vespers of the dead and the following day Father Richardson celebrated the Requiem.

At his beloved St Etheldreda’s, Lockhart was shown in various stained glass windows. A window portraying the prophecy of Malachi with regard to the Eucharist, showed Lockhart celebrating Mass. However, we now see further embellishments of this beautiful church. These would surely warm the heart of William Lockhart. In May 1941, during the Blitz, the church was hit by a bomb that tore a hole in the roof and destroyed the Victorian stained glass windows, we have just described. It took seven years to repair the structural damage. In 1952, new stained glass by Joseph Nuttgens was installed in the east window. It features the Trinity, the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as well as the Virgin Mary and Saints Joseph, Bridget of Kildare and Etheldreda. The stained glass windows in the south wall depict scenes from the Old Testament, and the ones in the north wall show scenes from the New Testament.

In the 1960s, two groups of four statues of English Catholic martyrs from the time of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were installed along the north and south walls. They include Saint Edmund Gennings, Saint Swithun Wells, Saint Margaret Ward, Blessed John Forest, Blessed Edward Jones, Blessed John Roche, Saint Anne Line, and Saint John Houghton. A brass plaque was erected in his honour, which can be found by the stairs leading to the upper church.

In memory of William Lockhart, Priest of the Order of Charity founded by Rosmini. Director of this Mission. A man of great kindness, judgement and loyalty of truth. Friend and disciple of Manning and Newman, He proceeded both in the great act of their lives. By his instrumentality this ancient chapel of the Bishops of Ely, the Holy Mass finds an inviolable sanctuary. It was in 1876 restored to the Old Religion of an undivided Christendom.

Fr Chris Fuse IC

Check this page during 2024 for updates on the 150 anniversary of the acquisition of St. Etheldreda’s by Fr. William Lockhart. Further details are available on our events page.

Cover Image: Father William Lockhart, I.C. (1820–1892) Founder and first Parish Priest of St Etheldreda’s. (Herefordshire: Gracewing, 2011). Modified Image.