Subseries 2025-06-23/2208 - Statim post mortem - testimonials

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FILING CABINET 009:

DRAWER TWO: SPENCER PAPERS

FILE THREE: TESTIMONIALS: STATIM POST MORTEM:

1. Statement from Mrs Mackey [Mr?], undated, probably 1864-5, referring to 1837 re. Fr George Spencer’s apostolate in Erdington, when he was in Oscott. Unfinished.

2. Extract of a letter from Bishop Ullathorne to Mother Francis Raphael OSD [Stone?], 1864

3. Letter from F.T.N. Munton, Smethwick, 31 January 1957, referring to ‘gossip’ about Fr Ignatius Spencer in Brington in 1912.

4. Copy of a letter, 4 January 1865 to ‘Very Rev. and dear Sir’ from F.C. Husenbeath [to Fr Eugene Martorelli for his forthcoming life of Fr Ignatius Spencer, written by Fr Pius Devine CP]. Says he did not keep Ignatius’ letters to him.

5. Letter, 10 November 1864 from St George’s [Southwark?] to Fr Eugene. Refers to ‘His Eminence’ - Cardinal Wiseman as having said he could supply many passages in the life of good Father Ignatius when he was at the English College in Rome but says that he, the present writer, has no letters. His impression (and that of all who knew Fr Ignatius) was of his kindly and gentle disposition. When he was in Rome his family used to send him 60 scudi every month, which in a few hours he had given to the poor, until his Confessor, Father Glover SJ, told him to let the Rector dispose of it for him. This money enabled the Cardinal to save the monuments of the old church which are now in the side corridor of that College.
   Signature is illegible but is that of a bishop (Nimanfont??) [probably the Bishop of Southwark]

6. Letter, 5 January 1865, from Father B. F. Hall C.SS.R, St Mary’s, Clapham to Fr Eugene Martorelli. “I have had at different times several letters from Fr Ignatius, all breathing the same spirit of charity and of devotedness for the good of souls which so eminently characterised him.” Did not keep them.

7. Letter, Fr S.A. Proctor OP, Woodchester, 22 November 1864, to ‘Very Revd and Dear Father’. Says Fr Ignatius was received into the Church by Fr B. Caestryck of Leicester and spent the following day at Hinckley. Ignatius had told them it was the consideration of the necessity of Traditio that brought about his conversion. Ambrose Phillipps De Lisle brought him about 10 p.m. to consult Fr Caestryck. Had an hour’s discussion and then he said he was ready to be a Catholic. Immediately made his profession of Faith in the chapel. Wrote from Hinckley to the Bishop of Peterborough renouncing his living, saying to the Dominicans, “There goes £3000 per annum”.

8. Letter, 7 October 1864 from Bishop William Turner of Salford to Revd Mother Winefride Lynch [Srs of the Holy Family (Cross and Passion), Sutton]. Says he had “ever esteemed [Father Ignatius] and considered [him] a Saint.”

9. Letter to Fr Eugene Martorelli from Mrs R. Jeffery, Springhill Terrace, Wolverhampton, 24 November 1864. Apparently Fr Eugene had put a notice in the Weekly Register that the Passionists wanted to write a life of Fr Ignatius. Says she was one of his first converts at West Bromwich. Describes his being stoned by boys on his way to Dudley. Said Vespers in Dudley in an old malthouse.

10. Letter, Northampton, 27 October 1864 from Bishop Francis Amherst to ‘Dear Rev. Father’. Refers to a most pleasing letter Fr Eugene had received from Lord Spencer. Says he prays to Fr Ignatius very often.

11. Letter, 14 October 1864 to ‘My dear Revd Father’ from Ambrose Phillipps de Lisle. “Deeply grieved and shocked.” “I feel convinced that dear Father Ignatius is now with the Blessed Founder of your Order enjoying the beatific vision and I implore of him to pray for the reunion of England to the Catholic Church.”

12. A copy in French of a statement by Fr Ignatius Spencer.

13. Letter, C.G. Wheatley, 2 September [1928?] to Dear Fr Oswald from St Peter’s, Broad St, Birmingham. Says Fr Ignatius Spencer preached morning and evening in St Chad’s, Birmingham on 31 January 1864. He was then a boy of ten. His mother knew Fr Ignatius very well and revered him. She was received into the Church by him when he was at West Bromwich. “He was a real saint”, she said.

14. An anonymous and undated section of a statement from a Church of England clergyman who knew Fr Ignatius at St Botolph’s, Bishopgate where Archdeacon Blomfield, afterwards Bishop of London, was Rector.

15. Letter, Convent of Holy Cross, Sutton, St Helens: +JMJ, Very Rev. and dear Father [Writing is the squigley kind in Sutton Convent Records] Anonymous. Writer was at the retreat Fr Ignatius Spencer gave to our Sisters at Newton Heath in January 1854 [although she gives the date as 1852]. She must really therefore be Sister Mary Paul Taylor. Says he never used the bed; and he used a discipline severely every night. “As our dear Lord loved him very much “ etc, [Ign and MMJ] “However to remove any scandal that might follow and to show this good priest I have no ill feelings, I will go to Confession to him this evening (which he did).”
    An unfinished copy of this letter in another hand - possibly Sr Mary Margaret Chambers?? See our Sutton documents.
    Photocopies of all the above letters.
    See also FILING CABINET 009: DRAWER ONE: SPENCER PAPERS:
    FILE W:
    FOLDER SIX: WOODWARD TO PROVINCIAL [?]:
    Letter, undated, but after Fr Ignatius Spencer’s death, from Charlotte Winifred Woodward, possibly to Father Provincial. It is testimony to Fr Ignatius Spencer’s virtue.
    A Memorial Card of Father Ignatius Spencer CP, pre-1867