| Description | This volume contains the personal correspondence of Fr John Morris SJ and is divided into four sections:
1. Letters written to Mr and Mrs Scott Murray between 1851 and 1880. Charles Robert Scott Murray (1818-1882) was a Conservative politician and MP for Buckinghamshire. He married Amelia Charlotte Scott Murray (née Fraser) (1824-1912) in 1846. He converted to Catholicisim in 1845 and erected the Catholic Church of St Peter's at Marlow in 1846 and designed by Augustus Pugin and, subsequently, a domestic Chapel at their country house, Danesfield in Buckinghamshire. The letters were given to Fr John Hungerford Pollen SJ by Miss Scott Murray in 1914. They provide an account of Morris' life from 1851 to 1880: from his studies in the English College in Rome from where he was ordained in 1849, his time as Vice-Rector in Northampton in 1853, his position teaching canon law at St Beuno's from 1869, to his role as Master of Novices and Rector at Roehampton beginning 1880. In addition to documenting his day-to-day life and retreats, these letters cover Morris' process of researching the lives of martyrs, particularly John Gerard, on whom he was writing a biography, and Recusant families.
2. Morris' Letters to Various Correspondents cover the period 1852 to 1893, during which he spent time at St Beuno's, Malta, and Farm Street. The letters demonstrate Morris' interest in church doctrine and dogma. Another common subject of these letters is his research into English martyrs, a cause he dedicated much of his life to. Morris wrote prolifically on English martyrs, who were then mostly unknown, in an effort to give them greater recognition.
3. Letters to Cardinal Wiseman, written between 1855 and 1863, primarily document Morris' life before becoming a Jesuit. After his first rejection in 1851, Morris had to wait until 1868 before he entered his novitiate. In these letters, Morris frequently requests to be transfered to London to be given work in Wiseman's diocese, refers to matters of canon law, and his interest in English martyrs begins.
4. Morris' letters to Thomas Estcourt, written between 1870 and 1876, are entirely about his research into the English and Welsh Catholic martyrs of the Reformation. In these letters Morris discusses Cardinal William Allen's family, the identity of various martyrs, and various contemporary and later sources.
According to Morris' index card, this volume contains letters to the following unidentified individuals: Whitgreave, Miss Bridge, Mr Shepherd, Mr Maxwell Stuart, and Mr Payne. The letters in this and MSB/78 were taken from RB/6, DZ, CE/4, F/1, and 46/17/5/5. |