Margaret Haydock

Margaret Haydock (Sr. Stanislaus, O.S.A.; 1767? - 1854) was a Roman Catholic nun and teacher, whose life exemplified the plight of English Catholic nuns in exile on the Continent during the French Revolution.

Family background

Margaret Haydock continued the long tradition of her family in standing firm for her Faith during the Penal Period against Catholics in England. Her ancestors include William Haydock, O. Cist. (1483?-1537) who suffered execution for his participation in the Pilgrimage of Grace and Blessed George Haydock (1556-1584) executed simply for serving as a priest. Along with her brothers James Haydock and George Leo Haydock, both priests, and Thomas Haydock, a noted Catholic publisher, she was a member of a remarkable generation that made an extraordinary contribution to the preservation of Catholicism in England.

Career as a Roman Catholic nun

Little is known about Margaret Haydock's early life. However she felt the same call to a religious vocation as her brothers James and George Leo. Since Catholic orders were not allowed to serve in England, she went to the convent of Saint Monica that had been established for English Catholic exiles in Louvain. A kinswoman, Jane Haydock, was already serving there and an ancestor, Father Gilbert Haydock (1682-1749) had served there as chaplain. There, on 2 February 1790, she professed as an Augustinian nun, taking the name Sr. Stanislaus, O.S.A.[1] The nuns there maintained a boarding school for girls. Hostilities related to the Flanders Campaign precipitated by the French Revolution forced evacuation of the convent in 1794. Sister Stanislaus and her fellow nuns left on 28 June that year and settled in Hammersmith Convent near London after a perilous escape via land and water through Breda, Rotterdam and Gravesend. In 1800, the nuns moved west to Amesbury, near the prehistoric monument Stonehenge. After one year there, they settled in St Monica's Priory, Spetisbury in Blandford, Dorsetshire on England’s southern coast.[2] There they began a new boarding school for girls. Known as Peggy by her family, Sr. Stanislaus frequently wrote her brothers. Unfortunately failing eyesight in her later years required her to have others write in her behalf. She died at Spottisbury on 11 April 1854, the last surviving member of St. Monica’s convent at Louvain.[3]

See also

• Roman Catholicism in Great Britain (The 18th century & The Catholic Revival in the 19th century)

References

1. The Tablet, vol. 101, June 10, 1903
2. Guilday, Peter, The English Catholic Refugees on the Continent 1558-1795, vol. 1, p. 385
3. Gillow, Joseph, The Haydock Papers, London, 1888, p. 190.

• Gillow, Joseph:
  • The Haydock Papers, 1888.
  • A Literary and Biographical History, or Bibliographical Dictionary, of the English Catholics, 5 vols., 1895–1902
• The History of St. Monica's Priory, Spetisbury, Dorset
• The Tablet, Vol. 101, June 10, 1903
• Guilday, Peter, The English Catholic Refugees on the Continent 1558-1795, Vol. I
• Who Are the Nuns?
• Williams, Richard G., Mannock Strickland 1683-1744 Agent to the English Convents in Flanders. Letters and Accounts frm Eile
• Haydock Family Papers, Ushaw College, Durham

External links

• Hammersmith