This Parish of Portslade & Mile Oak
website is
Dedicated to the Memory of its
former Curate,
Revd Richard W. Enraght SSC
As the Vicar of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, Birmingham in 1880, Fr Enraght came to National and International prominence, when he was jailed for “conscience sake” under the Disraeli Government's Public Worship Regulation Act.
Fr Enraght spent six years, 1869 to 1874 & 1883 to 1884, in the Diocese of Chichester,
three years as a Curate at St Paul's Brighton and two years as the Curate-in-Charge of St Andrew's Portslade and a year back at St Paul's, Brighton, in the County of Sussex.
website is
Dedicated to the Memory of its
former Curate,
Revd Richard W. Enraght SSC
As the Vicar of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, Birmingham in 1880, Fr Enraght came to National and International prominence, when he was jailed for “conscience sake” under the Disraeli Government's Public Worship Regulation Act.
Fr Enraght spent six years, 1869 to 1874 & 1883 to 1884, in the Diocese of Chichester,
three years as a Curate at St Paul's Brighton and two years as the Curate-in-Charge of St Andrew's Portslade and a year back at St Paul's, Brighton, in the County of Sussex.
Fr
Enraght returned to Sussex in 1883 after his release from prison and
eviction from his Bordesley vicarage. The Enraght family lived in the
Parish of St Michael & All Angels, Brighton, to recuperate for a year. Fr Enraght assisted Fr Wagner at St Paul's while waiting for another Parish appointment. In November 1884, Fr Enraght left
Brighton to take up a
Curacy in a deprived Parish in the East End of London.
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| Revd Richard Enraght B.A., SSC. This photograph was reproduced by kind permission of the Principal & Chapter of Pusey House, Oxford (Hall Collection 3/13, Pusey House Oxford) |
*******
The Revd Richard William Enraght B.A., SSC [1]
was the Curate-in-Charge of the new District Church of St Andrew's Portslade with
St Helen Church, Hangleton from 1872 until 1874. He was an Irish born Church of England priest
of the late nineteenth century who was heavily influenced by the Oxford
Movement and is amongst the number of priests commonly called “Second
Generation” Anglo-Catholics.
Coincidentally Richard’s father, the Revd Matthew Enraght, a Curate in the Church of Ireland, moved to England to serve in the Diocese of Chichester as Vicar of St Mary Magdalene Church, Lyminster from 1856 to 1873. Father and son lived just over 20 miles from each other in the County of Sussex.
Coincidentally Richard’s father, the Revd Matthew Enraght, a Curate in the Church of Ireland, moved to England to serve in the Diocese of Chichester as Vicar of St Mary Magdalene Church, Lyminster from 1856 to 1873. Father and son lived just over 20 miles from each other in the County of Sussex.
Fr. Enraght’s belief in the Church of England's Catholic Tradition, his promotion of ritualism in worship, and his writings on Catholic Worship and Church-State relationships, led him into conflict with the Disraeli Government's Public Worship Regulation Act, for which he paid the maximum penalty under the Law, of prosecution, imprisonment and eviction with his family from the Holy Trinity Parish in Bordesley, Birmingham in 1880, for conscience sake.
Brighton and "the South Coast Religion"
The
Anglican Church in Brighton was heavily influenced by the Oxford
Movement to an extent unparalleled elsewhere in the country apart from
London.[2]. In Anglo-Catholic
circles Brighton would become known under the collective title of
"London-Brighton and South Coast Religion", which was a play on an
actual railway company’s name London, Brighton and South Coast
Railway, this coincidently or otherwise, linked all the large and
growing centres of Anglo-Catholic worship spreading from London to
Brighton and then east and west along coast of Sussex to the
neighbouring counties of Kent and Hampshire.[3]
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|
copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton &
Hove |
Fr
Wagner whom Fr Enraght served under as curate at the Church of St.
Paul, Brighton, held Tractarian opinions since his time at Cambridge
University and was the leading light of the Catholic Revival in Brighton
with his prolific church and school building and generous charitable
works of building 400 houses for the poor, all at his own expense.
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| copyright ©
Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove Brightonian Newspaper Revd Arthur Douglas Wagner (1824-1902) |
Fr Wagner was the subject of critical debates in the House of Commons for his ritualist practices. Legislation was proposed to halt the Catholic Revival in Brighton by taking away Fr Wagner’s authority to install Anglo Catholic priests as Vicars in the five churches that he had financed.[4]
The
atmosphere in Brighton, created by the local press and the Brighton
Protestant Defence Association (the forerunner of the Church
Association) was very hostile to ritualist priests. The Brighton Gazette
was highly vitriolic towards any clergy that adhered to the English
Catholic Tradition. The same newspaper in 1873 published a bias report
that Fr.Wagner had refused in court to answer questions that would
“involve him to breach the confessional”. As a result of this article,
Fr. Wagner was brutally assaulted on the streets of Brighton.
His assailants went to prison but Fr. Wagner characteristically supported their wives and families at his own expense [5]. Fr Wagner was not the only priest to suffer violence in Brighton.
His assailants went to prison but Fr. Wagner characteristically supported their wives and families at his own expense [5]. Fr Wagner was not the only priest to suffer violence in Brighton.
Fr
Thomas Perry of St
Michael & All Angels Church, stood alone at a Brighton public meeting and
defended Fr Wagner’s cause. He too was to suffer at the hands of the mob
by being beaten-up for his courageous stance near his Brighton church.
In
another Parish in Brighton, at St James Church in St James's Street (demolished in 1951). Fr John Purchas was
prosecuted for using vestments and the eastward position. The case took
three years to conclude and resulted in the Church of England paying
£7,661 in costs (Fr Purchas had placed his property in his wife's name
so unable to pay the costs) [6]. To appreciate the scale of these costs, a house in Portslade could be rented for £13 a year in 1872 [7]. Fr Purchas was removed from his Parish and some commentators believe his persecution led to his early death.
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'The Chichester Extinguisher' from Punch, 18 July 1874
Caption:- Bishop of Chichester. "GO! GO! YOU INSOLENT, REBELLIOUS BOY. WHAT WITH YOUR NONSENSE AND INCENSE AND CANDLES YOU'LL BE SETTING THE CHURCH ON FIRE." Master P-cu-s. "JUST WHAT I'D LIKE TO DO. THERE!" (The Bishop of Chichester is holding a fire-beater with the words 'Thirty-Nine Articles' written on its side, Fr John Puchas is holding a thurible) |
While
serving under Fr Wagner at St Paul's Brighton and sharing his Anglo-Catholic views, Fr
Enraght wrote the pamphlet, which was published nationally on the
subject "Who are True Churchmen and Who are Conspirators ?" (his
exposition on The Last Settlement of English Reformation in 1662), he
stated in his conclusion he had proved that the English Church was both
Catholic and Reformed. Fr Enraght's pamphlet was clearly aimed at the
Church Association to counter their campaign of miss-information to the
general public:-
"I have now, then, I think, sufficiently demonstrated what I undertook to prove. I have proved that the last Revision and Settlement in 1662 of the Formularies of the English Church, by which the Bishops and Clergy are bound, both by their Ordination promises and by Act of Parliament, was distinctly Catholic.
I have proved, therefore, that the Catholic-minded clergy of the English Church alone are in the right, that the charge of “Romanizing” and unfaithfulness to their Church, so persistently brought against them because of their faithful adherence to Catholic truth and practice, is a grievous slander, and that the only consistent course for their opponents to adopt—in order, if they can, to put themselves in the right—is to endeavour to get the Formularies of the Church altered in a “Protestant” direction, and so to alter the basis on which we now stand".
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| The
former Brighton home of Fr Richard Enraght at 36 Russell Square, (originally numbered 42) where his daughter Ellen was born in 1870. |
"I have now, then, I think, sufficiently demonstrated what I undertook to prove. I have proved that the last Revision and Settlement in 1662 of the Formularies of the English Church, by which the Bishops and Clergy are bound, both by their Ordination promises and by Act of Parliament, was distinctly Catholic.
I have proved, therefore, that the Catholic-minded clergy of the English Church alone are in the right, that the charge of “Romanizing” and unfaithfulness to their Church, so persistently brought against them because of their faithful adherence to Catholic truth and practice, is a grievous slander, and that the only consistent course for their opponents to adopt—in order, if they can, to put themselves in the right—is to endeavour to get the Formularies of the Church altered in a “Protestant” direction, and so to alter the basis on which we now stand".
"Puritans ever since the first dawn of “the Reformation,” have been in
the Church of England only on sufferance. If any are to be restrained,
it must not be those clergy who loyally carry out the principles of the
Church which the Revisers of 1662 so strenuously maintained against all
attacks, but any who (although many of them holding position and
preferment within the Church) use their position and influence, contrary
to their Ordination promises, to carry out the work of the
Nonconformists of 1662, and undermine the Reformation principles for
which the Revisers of 1662 contended, and which they have preserved in
the Formularies of the Church." [8]
Fr Enraght's fearless writings of confronting the architects of the forthcoming Public Worship Regulation Act by using the Book of Common Prayer to prove that the Church of England has an unbroken Catholic Tradition no doubt marked him out as a future target for the attentions of the Church Association and its lawyers.
Fr Enraght's fearless writings of confronting the architects of the forthcoming Public Worship Regulation Act by using the Book of Common Prayer to prove that the Church of England has an unbroken Catholic Tradition no doubt marked him out as a future target for the attentions of the Church Association and its lawyers.
Portslade and Hangleton Ministry
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© G. Osborne On the far left in the 1870s, No. 5 Station Road Portslade (originally named, Courtney Terrace), was the home of Fr Richard Enraght, Curate-in-Charge of Portslade by Sea. His daughter Grace Enraght, was born here in 1873. On the far right are the gates of the Level Crossing and out of view behind the Railway Inn was the original location of Portslade's Railway Station. (The Railway Station moved to its present site on the opposite side of Station Road in 1881) |
In
1872, after previously serving as a Curate to Fr Arthur Wagner the
Vicar of St Paul's Brighton, Revd Richard William Enraght continued his
ministry at Portslade by Sea and Hangleton. He was appointed Curate in
Charge of the new District Church of St Andrew’s Portslade by Sea with
St Helen's Hangleton by the Revd Frederick Holbrooke the Vicar of Portslade (St Nicolas) who at
that time held the patronage of St Andrews [10].
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© D. Sharp The former Portslade home of Fr Richard Enraght at 5 Station Road in 2025. At the beginning of the 20th century these terrace houses were converted into shops and their front gardens were paved over. |
Fr
Enraght’s appointment was not without controversy. There was an
unsuccessful appeal to the Bishop of Chichester by the Vicar of the
neighbouring Parish of Southwick who questioned the authority of the
Vicar of Portslade, the Revd Frederick Holbrooke to make the appointment of a priest to this new
District Church of St Andrew's, Portslade by Sea which did not have a permanent
priest [11]. The Revd W. Hall the Vicar of Southwick had donated the land which St Andrew's was built on and this new district of Portslade (Copperas Gap) also included a part of his Parish of Southwick namely Fishersgate. The Bishop eventually assigned the control of this new District of Portslade to the Vicar of Portslade.
In 1873 The Rock (a hard line Protestant Church of England Newspaper), with the motto, 'Opposed to Rationalism, Ritualism & Romanism', published an article under the title of The Ritualistic
Conspiracy, which went on to list the names of every priest in England who
were members of 'ritualistic organisations'. Fr Enraght (St Andrew's, Portslade) was listed as a
member of the following organisations:- Society of the Holy Cross, a 'Priest Associate' of
the The Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament and the English
Church Union.
The Revd Frederick Holbrooke the Vicar of Portslade (St Nicolas) was listed in The Rock as a member of the English Church Union.
The Revd Frederick Holbrooke the Vicar of Portslade (St Nicolas) was listed in The Rock as a member of the English Church Union.
Portslade is only
3 miles from Brighton with very good railway links, so therefore Fr Enraght SSC was able to continue as an officer of the Brighton Branch of
the Society of the Holy Cross, the Branch was spoken of by its national
leadership, “as one of the most promising and was carrying on a vigorous campaign in Brighton” [12].
While living in Brighton and Portslade, Fr Enraght also served as the Organising Secretary for the National Association for the Promotion of Freedom of Worship, and campaigned for the abolition of "pew-rents" [13]. St Andrew Church Portslade (built in 1864), where Fr Enraght served as its priest, was one of the earliest, if not the first church in Sussex never to have had "pew-rents" in its history [14].
While living in Brighton and Portslade, Fr Enraght also served as the Organising Secretary for the National Association for the Promotion of Freedom of Worship, and campaigned for the abolition of "pew-rents" [13]. St Andrew Church Portslade (built in 1864), where Fr Enraght served as its priest, was one of the earliest, if not the first church in Sussex never to have had "pew-rents" in its history [14].
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© J. Middleton Fr Enraght served as Curate-in-Charge of St Andrew's Church, Portslade, from 1872 until 1874. |
In Portslade, Fr Enraght continued to be very active in his defence of Ritualism in published pamphlets and letters to the Brighton Gazette promoting
adherence to the English Catholic Tradition within The Church of
England.
In May 1873 Fr Enraght was in London to attend the Synod of The Society of the Holy Cross at St Peter’s London Docks. On the agenda was a proposal by Brother Enraght of Portslade for a learned Statement of the Doctrine of the Church of England, on the subject of Sacramental Confession, to be drawn up and presented to the Bishops.
As Curate-in-Charge of Portslade by Sea, Fr Enraght published the pamphlets:- "The Real Presence & Holy Scripture" (1872) of which the Church Times described as "A masterly exposition of the texts which more directly relate to the Blessed Eucharist" and "Catholic Worship"(1873), which promoted the importance and necessity of ritual in worshipThese writings put him on a collision course with the pro PWR Act local newspaper the Brighton Gazette who were sensitive to any hint of ritualism in worship. The Brighton Gazette’s editorial 8th January 1874 was titled "Protestant Reaction" and sub titled ‘a warning to polemics’ from which these quotes are taken; "True Protestants can scarcely desire the loss of power and influence this would involve and the great help it would be to the Papists to re-establish their supremacy in Britain, through the Ritualists"
From
the pages of the same newspaper Fr Enraght was accused of Puseyism (used
here as a term of abuse) and of trying to turn the local St Nicolas
Church School in Portslade into a Puseyite school.
The letter column of the Brighton Gazette carried this personal attack on Fr Enraght made by a Mr Gossett of Carlton Terrace, a Portslade anti-ritualist and a member of the Brighton Protestant Defence Association (the forerunner of the Church Association) , "The Revd Mr. Enraght, whose doctrines, if they were not doctrines of the Church of Rome, he (Mr. Gossett) was ignorant to what Church they belonged".
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© J. Middleton St Nicolas Church School, of which Revd Enraght was accused of turning into a Puseyite School
The
inscription on the School's west wall reads:
'These Schools were erected by Hannah Brakenbury for the benefit of the Poor of the united parishes of Portslade and Hangleton A.D. 1872'. |
The letter column of the Brighton Gazette carried this personal attack on Fr Enraght made by a Mr Gossett of Carlton Terrace, a Portslade anti-ritualist and a member of the Brighton Protestant Defence Association (the forerunner of the Church Association) , "The Revd Mr. Enraght, whose doctrines, if they were not doctrines of the Church of Rome, he (Mr. Gossett) was ignorant to what Church they belonged".
In reply to this personal attack, Fr Enraght sent the following statement to the Brighton Gazette:-
" My attention has only just be drawn to an attack made upon me, in my absence, by Mr. Gossett, of Portslade. I only noticed Mr. Gossett’s slander for the sake of the people to whom I lately ministered. I beg to inform all who care to know that “my doctrines” are those of the “one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church”, in which Mr. Gossett has professed to, but does not, I suppose “believe”; whereas I do.
If Mr Gossett means that amongst “my doctrines” as – The Holy Trinity; the Incarnation; the Atonement; that “a child is by baptism regenerates” (Private Baptism of Children in Houses) or “the body and blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord’s Supper”, (Church Catechism); or that “Our Lord Jesus hath left power to his Church to absolve all sinners who truly repent and believe in him (Visitation of the Sick); or any such like doctrines common to all parts of the Catholic Church in all ages, and therefore now held by the Church of England in common with “the Church of Rome”- he utters a truism.
It is shameful that “Protestants (Church Association)” should persist in deceiving the people with the palpable fallacy that because we hold the old faith in Christ in common with Rome, therefore we also hold all that Rome has seen fit to add to that old faith " [15]
Another example of the Brighton Gazettes bias reporting, for Thursday 21st May 1874:-
"The Revd R. W. Enraght of Portslade has given notice of his intentions to hold a “Retreat”-our readers will not have forgotten what sort of things these “retreats” are - at Lancing College in August next. The rev. gentleman’s name appears in the roll of The Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament for 1872, so that here we get another peep into the interior economy of those notorious “Woodard Schools”, of which Lancing College is the headquarters."
In 1874 the Government, under the leadership of Disraeli, with the backing of both Primates and many Bishops, decided to crush ritualism in the Church of England by passing the Public Worship Regulation Act. Fr Wagner, Fr Purchas, Fr Enraght and the many other Brighton Anglo-Catholic priests all carried out their ministries to large sympathetic congregations.
The local press spoke only for a minority in their campaign to use the Public Worship Regulation Act to rid ritualism from the churches of Brighton. From the Brighton Gazettes editorial for the 23rd April 1874 on the topic of the Public Worship Regulation Act, quote, "Let us have the law obeyed and let there be an easy mode of redress from offending clergyman".
" My attention has only just be drawn to an attack made upon me, in my absence, by Mr. Gossett, of Portslade. I only noticed Mr. Gossett’s slander for the sake of the people to whom I lately ministered. I beg to inform all who care to know that “my doctrines” are those of the “one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church”, in which Mr. Gossett has professed to, but does not, I suppose “believe”; whereas I do.
If Mr Gossett means that amongst “my doctrines” as – The Holy Trinity; the Incarnation; the Atonement; that “a child is by baptism regenerates” (Private Baptism of Children in Houses) or “the body and blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord’s Supper”, (Church Catechism); or that “Our Lord Jesus hath left power to his Church to absolve all sinners who truly repent and believe in him (Visitation of the Sick); or any such like doctrines common to all parts of the Catholic Church in all ages, and therefore now held by the Church of England in common with “the Church of Rome”- he utters a truism.
It is shameful that “Protestants (Church Association)” should persist in deceiving the people with the palpable fallacy that because we hold the old faith in Christ in common with Rome, therefore we also hold all that Rome has seen fit to add to that old faith " [15]
Another example of the Brighton Gazettes bias reporting, for Thursday 21st May 1874:-
"The Revd R. W. Enraght of Portslade has given notice of his intentions to hold a “Retreat”-our readers will not have forgotten what sort of things these “retreats” are - at Lancing College in August next. The rev. gentleman’s name appears in the roll of The Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament for 1872, so that here we get another peep into the interior economy of those notorious “Woodard Schools”, of which Lancing College is the headquarters."
In 1874 the Government, under the leadership of Disraeli, with the backing of both Primates and many Bishops, decided to crush ritualism in the Church of England by passing the Public Worship Regulation Act. Fr Wagner, Fr Purchas, Fr Enraght and the many other Brighton Anglo-Catholic priests all carried out their ministries to large sympathetic congregations.
The local press spoke only for a minority in their campaign to use the Public Worship Regulation Act to rid ritualism from the churches of Brighton. From the Brighton Gazettes editorial for the 23rd April 1874 on the topic of the Public Worship Regulation Act, quote, "Let us have the law obeyed and let there be an easy mode of redress from offending clergyman".
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| St Andrew's Portslade and St Nicolas Portslade - congregation donations to the Free & Open Church Association in 1874. (£1 in 1874 is equivalent in purchasing power to £144 in 2020) |
In
the winter of 1874 Fr Enraght left Portslade to take on a new challenge
in the City of Birmingham as Vicar of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, an area
much like Brighton where the Church Association were very active.
Portslade was a good stepping stone in Fr Enraght's ministry as this was
his first Parish where he had sole responsibility for the parishioners
and being so close to Brighton he was able to maintain his links with
the Brighton Branch of The Society of the Holy Cross.
Bordesley, Birmingham in the 1860s-1880's
In
1865, Fr James Pollock was invited by Dr. Oldknow, the well-known
Tractarian Vicar of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, to start a Mission among
the newcomers in a part of his parish. Eventually, to ensure continuity
of the Mission it was necessary to set up a separate District for St
Alban the Martyr, Highgate, Fr James Pollock was soon joined by his brother Fr Tom
Pollock to assist him in this new parish.
After Dr Oldknow died in 1874, and partly through Fr Tom Pollock of St Alban’s private influence, Dr Oldknow’s successor at Holy Trinity, Bordesley, was the Rev. Richard Enraght, a priest in every way in sympathy with the aims of his Tractarian predecessor. The two Birmingham parishes enjoyed close connections with their Anglo-Catholic traditions and the friendship of the three priests. The Pollock brothers and Fr. Enraght were former graduates of Trinity College, Dublin. [16] [17]
An indication of Fr Enraght’s popularity and support of his use of ritualism in worship at Holy Trinity, was the attendances for Holy Communion, Sunday mornings would attract a congregation of between 400 to 500 while the Sunday Evensong (with sermon) would attract even more at 700 to 800 parishioners.
With his parish’s support he was even able
to introduce weekday celebrations of Holy Communion. Fr Enraght brought
an increase of life and beauty to the services at Holy Trinity, together
with a hearty loving kindness and helpfulness that made the vicarage
and its residents most deeply loved. No one could say that Fr Enraght
did not do his utmost; there were no aggrieved parishioners, not one of
these parishioners complained of the services or wished them altered. [18].
After Dr Oldknow died in 1874, and partly through Fr Tom Pollock of St Alban’s private influence, Dr Oldknow’s successor at Holy Trinity, Bordesley, was the Rev. Richard Enraght, a priest in every way in sympathy with the aims of his Tractarian predecessor. The two Birmingham parishes enjoyed close connections with their Anglo-Catholic traditions and the friendship of the three priests. The Pollock brothers and Fr. Enraght were former graduates of Trinity College, Dublin. [16] [17]
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| Image Credit the Hathi Trust Digital Library The Old & New Birmingham by Robert Kirkup Dent (1880) Holy Trinity, Bordesley, Birmingham. (Church closed in 1971) |
An indication of Fr Enraght’s popularity and support of his use of ritualism in worship at Holy Trinity, was the attendances for Holy Communion, Sunday mornings would attract a congregation of between 400 to 500 while the Sunday Evensong (with sermon) would attract even more at 700 to 800 parishioners.
In 1875 a group of men from Fr Enraght’s congregation who played for the Church's cricket team formed a football club called the Small Heath Alliance F.C., eventually over the years this football club was to be renamed Birmingham City F.C.
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Birmingham
was the equal to Brighton in hostilities to Anglo Catholics from the
Church Association, a radical group of Protestants, who had unlimited
funds to mount prosecutions. The Church Association sort to separate
Priests from their congregations by registering its members in these
parishes, so as to become “aggrieved parishioners” and therefore the
clergy could be prosecuted under the new PWR Act.
In one parish in the north of England they resorted to bribing parishioners to speak out against their priest, in one instance a churchwarden was offered £10,000 to give evidence, (a fortune in the Victorian era) [19] [20]. The Church Association was essentially aggressive. Its avowed object was ‘to uphold the Principles and Order of the United Church of England and Ireland’, which meant, in practice, fighting Ritualism by legal action wherever it occurred in the Country.
In one parish in the north of England they resorted to bribing parishioners to speak out against their priest, in one instance a churchwarden was offered £10,000 to give evidence, (a fortune in the Victorian era) [19] [20]. The Church Association was essentially aggressive. Its avowed object was ‘to uphold the Principles and Order of the United Church of England and Ireland’, which meant, in practice, fighting Ritualism by legal action wherever it occurred in the Country.
The
Church Association earned the nickname, given by Bishop Magee (a
non-ritualist Bishop and future Archbishop of York) as the ‘Persecution
Company Limited’, because they employed special agents to seek out
ritualist priest, [21] while many other opponents of The Church Association simply labelled it as, ‘ The Church Ass’ [22].
In
London, the situation was no better. Fr. Lowder, the founder of the
Society of the Holy Cross, was threatened with prosecution under the
Public Worship Regulation Act but escaped legal action by the
intervention of the Archbishop of Canterbury who feared the consequences
of such a high profile Anglo-Catholic being put on trial.
On the 1st August 1880, Fr. Richard Enraght was invited to London to preach at the Church of St Peter’s, London Docks, by Fr. Charles Fuge Lowder, for High Celebration to mark the 4th anniversary of The Church of England Working Men’s Society. Sadly this was the last major service at St. Peters that Fr. Lowder would attend, as he died a few weeks later while on holiday for health reasons in Austria [23].
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'Black
Sheep' from Punch,
18 December 1874:-
Archbishop Tait has a crook which reads PUBLIC WORSHIP REGULATION BILL, the black sheep have RITUALISM written on their backs, the wall is called the ESTABLISHED CHURCH, and the sign post is TO ROME. |
Prosecution
Fr
Enraght practices at Holy Trinity, Bordesley included, adoration of the
Blessed Sacrament, the use of Eucharistic lights, chasuble and alb, the
use of wafer bread in Holy Communion, the ceremonial mixing of water
and communion wine, making the sign of the Cross towards the
congregation during the Holy Communion service, bowing his head at the
Gloria and allowing the Agnus Dei to be sung, all of which his Bishop,
Dr. Philpott forbade. These illegal practices resulted in Fr Enraght
having to face the full force of the Law from its defenders, the Church
Association's lawyers and the presiding Judge, Lord Penzance [24] [25].
"If
the English Church be true portion of the one Catholic Church of
Christ," argued Fr. Enraght, "is it not only reasonable that her Church
buildings and services should resemble those of other branches of the
Church Catholic. " [26]
Fr
Enraght refused to attend his own trial on 12th July 1879 on the
grounds, “as I could not recognize Lord Penzance or his court, which
derives its authority - not from "this Church and Realm," but solely
from an Act of Parliament, as having any spiritual jurisdiction over me,
I was unable conscientiously to defend myself before it.” [27]
He was convicted on the 9th August 1879 in his absence under the Public
Worship Regulation Act by Judge Lord Penzance at the Arches Court on 16
counts of breaking the Law.
Fr
Enraght's prosecution became known nationally as the “ Bordesley Wafer
Case”, the collection of one of the pieces of evidence used in Court is
documented here in a narration from “The History of the English Church
Union”,: On August 31st, 1879, Mr Enraght denounced from the altar the
conduct of a person who, on February 9th, had carried off from the altar
a Consecrated Wafer, obtained under the pretence of communicating, in
order to file It as an exhibit in the law courts as evidence of the use
of wafer-bread.
A feeling of intense horror and indignation was excited when the fact of this fearful sacrilege became known. It was difficult to credit the fact that a Consecrated Wafer, after having been sacrilegiously secreted by a pretended communicant, had actually been delivered to Mr Churchwarden Perkins, the prosecutor, produced in Court as evidence, marked with pen and ink and filed as an exhibit! Thanks to some members of the Council of English Church Union, the Consecrated Wafer was obtained from the court and given over to the care of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who reverently consumed it in his private chapel at Addington on Friday December 12th, 1879.
It may be added that the indignant parishioners at the next ensuing vestry rejected Mr. Perkins when nominated as, churchwarden [28].
A feeling of intense horror and indignation was excited when the fact of this fearful sacrilege became known. It was difficult to credit the fact that a Consecrated Wafer, after having been sacrilegiously secreted by a pretended communicant, had actually been delivered to Mr Churchwarden Perkins, the prosecutor, produced in Court as evidence, marked with pen and ink and filed as an exhibit! Thanks to some members of the Council of English Church Union, the Consecrated Wafer was obtained from the court and given over to the care of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who reverently consumed it in his private chapel at Addington on Friday December 12th, 1879.
It may be added that the indignant parishioners at the next ensuing vestry rejected Mr. Perkins when nominated as, churchwarden [28].
Imprisonment
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| (from the Daily Post Newspaper (Birmingham) 26th November 1880)
Fr Richard
Enraght entering Warwick Prison in chains, handing a bag entitled,
"Paraphernalia of Ritualism"
to his Curate Revd Warwick Elwin (later to become the Vicar of St. Andrew's, Worthing) |
After several preliminary failures by Lord Penzance over the course of the following year to imprisoned Fr Enraght, the Prosecutor at last succeeded on the 27th November 1880 and Fr Enraght was finally arrested at his vicarage and taken to Warwick Prison to serve his sentence. [29]
The following are extracts from a letter by a Mr W. Perrins to the London Church Review, giving an account of the arrest of Fr Enraght. It is as follows:-
"SIR,—Will
you kindly permit me to send you a short account of the wonderful
scenes that took place at the arrest of our dear friend Mr. R. W.
Enraght? I arrived upon the scene a few minutes before the Vicar left
the house, and such a scene I never saw before, and perhaps may never
see such a one again. Ladies, with tears in their eyes and quivering
lips and anxious faces, thronged around the door; and one grey-haired
old man I spoke to burst into tears and said, "Ah, Sir, this is
religious liberty in England." There were many working men of the
congregation, with their dirty, but sympathetic faces, who had rushed
from their work to bid a farewell to one they so loved and venerated,
and all looked as though each heart was full. Fr Enraght, walking to his
gate, paused on the step and indicated that he wished to speak to the
vast crowd, and then he gave the memorable address, which those who
heard will not in a hurry forget.
The emotion of the people was intense. We could hardly imagine we were in the nineteenth century, for as we stood after the address to sing the doxology, it seemed like the early Christians going to their martyrdom; but the most touching part of all up to the present was at the close of the singing. The assembly bared their heads, and those around knelt upon the pavement while the vicar pronounced a most solemn benediction. The prisoner then walked to the railway-station, followed by the vast crowd, who cheered most lustily, occasionally giving a hearty groan for "Perkins," etc., etc. During the whole of the proceedings I did not see or hear one dissentient."
On arrival at Warwick Prison after the train journey:- "As we drew near the prison gate the vicar let down his cassock so that he might enter as a Priest. At the gate he shook hands with us all, Dr. Nicholson saying, "Let us give him the blessing before he enters," and there, upon the damp stones, the prisoner knelt, and the white-haired doctor, with uplifted hand, pronounced the most solemn benediction I think I ever heard. So ended the arrest of one of the best men who ever suffered for his Master, and the impression it has left upon our minds seems to be "disestablishment," for it is too great a price to pay for the advantages of being united to the State." [30]
The emotion of the people was intense. We could hardly imagine we were in the nineteenth century, for as we stood after the address to sing the doxology, it seemed like the early Christians going to their martyrdom; but the most touching part of all up to the present was at the close of the singing. The assembly bared their heads, and those around knelt upon the pavement while the vicar pronounced a most solemn benediction. The prisoner then walked to the railway-station, followed by the vast crowd, who cheered most lustily, occasionally giving a hearty groan for "Perkins," etc., etc. During the whole of the proceedings I did not see or hear one dissentient."
 |
“Reproduced
from the “Our Warwickshire” website © Warwickshire County Record
Office
(reference CR 2902/84). Warwick Prison, Cape Road, Warwick. (demolished in 1934) |
On arrival at Warwick Prison after the train journey:- "As we drew near the prison gate the vicar let down his cassock so that he might enter as a Priest. At the gate he shook hands with us all, Dr. Nicholson saying, "Let us give him the blessing before he enters," and there, upon the damp stones, the prisoner knelt, and the white-haired doctor, with uplifted hand, pronounced the most solemn benediction I think I ever heard. So ended the arrest of one of the best men who ever suffered for his Master, and the impression it has left upon our minds seems to be "disestablishment," for it is too great a price to pay for the advantages of being united to the State." [30]
A Mr. G. Wakelin’s recollections of the events surrounding Fr Enraght’s imprisonment where such:-
“To describe his leaving the vicarage where his people had ever found in himself and Mrs. Enraght helpers in all times of need and trouble, is beyond my power; most pathetic and touching was the going to Warwick Prison. His friends, and even those who had to carry out the sentence, were far more touched and overcome than was the vicar himself, who went through it with a calm fixed patience, with thorough cheerfulness and resignation.
The Governor of Warwick Prison, who was no High Churchman, said of Fr Enraght to one of his visitors: "The sooner that gentleman is out, sir, the better, for he is altogether in the wrong place". For nearly two months he was kept in Warwick Prison, and during that time a great meeting was held, when Birmingham Town Hall was filled from end to end, and so many came from far and near to protest against the imprisonment; the singing of the " Church's one Foundation " at the end was something impressive and touching.” [31]
Fr. Enraght’s imprisonment became widely known in the USA. On the 19th December 1880, a sermon was preached in St. Ignatius Church in New York, by the Revd Dr. Ewer, S.T.D on the subject of 'The Imprisonment of English Priests for Conscience Sake', he praised the English priests stand, as "simply a determined resistance to a violation of Magna Charta, and was proud to make common cause with them, so far as is possible, from this distance, and feeling that when one member of the Catholic Church suffers, all the members suffer with him". the text of this sermon was printed in full in the New York Herald and New York Tribune the following morning, (there were also four other priests who served prison sentences in England, Arthur Tooth, T. Pelham Dale, Sidney Faithorn Green and James Bell Cox) [32]
“To describe his leaving the vicarage where his people had ever found in himself and Mrs. Enraght helpers in all times of need and trouble, is beyond my power; most pathetic and touching was the going to Warwick Prison. His friends, and even those who had to carry out the sentence, were far more touched and overcome than was the vicar himself, who went through it with a calm fixed patience, with thorough cheerfulness and resignation.
The Governor of Warwick Prison, who was no High Churchman, said of Fr Enraght to one of his visitors: "The sooner that gentleman is out, sir, the better, for he is altogether in the wrong place". For nearly two months he was kept in Warwick Prison, and during that time a great meeting was held, when Birmingham Town Hall was filled from end to end, and so many came from far and near to protest against the imprisonment; the singing of the " Church's one Foundation " at the end was something impressive and touching.” [31]
 |
copyright © PCC of St Alban and St Patrick, Highgate, Birmingham. The
above Prison Pass, is issued to the:-
Revd James Benson Pollock, Curate at St Alban the Martyr, Highgate, Birmingham, H. M. Prison Warwick 29th November 1880 – You
are allowed to visit The Rev. R. W. Enraght between 2 and 5 any
Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please
present this Order. John M. Anderson, Governor.
|
Fr. Enraght’s imprisonment became widely known in the USA. On the 19th December 1880, a sermon was preached in St. Ignatius Church in New York, by the Revd Dr. Ewer, S.T.D on the subject of 'The Imprisonment of English Priests for Conscience Sake', he praised the English priests stand, as "simply a determined resistance to a violation of Magna Charta, and was proud to make common cause with them, so far as is possible, from this distance, and feeling that when one member of the Catholic Church suffers, all the members suffer with him". the text of this sermon was printed in full in the New York Herald and New York Tribune the following morning, (there were also four other priests who served prison sentences in England, Arthur Tooth, T. Pelham Dale, Sidney Faithorn Green and James Bell Cox) [32]
While in prison Fr Enraght received a letter of support from the Conference of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament in the USA, "to express the sympathy of the Conference for Fr R. W. Enraght in his incarceration for conscience’s sake." [33]
In England, the Revd Prof. Edward Bouverie Pusey wrote a letter to the editor of The Times defending
both Fr Richard Enraght and Fr Alexander Heriot Mackonochie saying,
they have not been struggling for themselves but for their people. The
Ritualists do not ask to interfere with devotion of others ….only to be
allowed, in their worship of God, to use a Ritual which a few years ago
no one disputed. [34] Over the
Christmas period of his imprisonment Fr Enraght also received many
letters of support and goodwill from his own and former parishioners
around the Country as well as Christmas Cards from children in Bordesley [35]
See the full transcription of 'My Ordination Oaths' (1880) pamphlet written by Fr Enraght while incarcerated in Warwick Prison.
See the full transcription of 'My Ordination Oaths' (1880) pamphlet written by Fr Enraght while incarcerated in Warwick Prison.
 |
| The text above, is from an 1880 protest poster against the Public Worship Regulation Act [58] This poster was attached to walls and hoardings around England, to express the continuing public opposition to the Public Worship Regulation Act. A copy of this poster was also fixed to a wall close to Lambeth Palace, which greatly annoyed Archbishop Tait of Canterbury. |
Released from Warwick Prison
As
Fr Enraght's prison sentence progressed , the English Church Union took
steps to quash the proceedings that had been taken against him. Their
case seemed unanswerable to an unprejudiced mind, but it was soon clear
that the judges meant at all costs to stand by Lord Penzance. Fr Enraght
was, however, released on the 17th January 1881 after 49 days in prison
by the Court of Appeal upon the grounds of a technical informality in
the writ for committal. The Prosecutor, by the advice of the Church
Association, at once endeavoured to have Fr Enraght re-committed, but
the English Church Union, by taking further legal proceedings,
frustrated his attempts. [36] [37].
On
the Revd Enraght’s release from Warwick Prison he was met at the New
Street station Birmingham, by his solicitor Mr. Jacob Kowlands; the
Revd. Warwick Elwin and many friends
and well-wishers.
Revd Warwick Elwin, Fr Enraght's curate, later became the Vicar of St. Andrew's, Worthing and was the son of the Revd Whitwell Elwin, the critic and editor of the Quarterly Review.
In the evening an enthusiastic crowded meeting welcomed him back to Bordesley. The Yorkshire Post in a piece of bias reporting on Fr Enraght's return to Holy Trinity did not mention his welcomed return but merely emphasised the comments of one bystander at New Street Station who called out “No Popery; I hope they will soon have you in again” to which Fr Enraght simply remarked to his companions, “I should not have liked that man as Governor of Warwick Prison”. [38] [39]
Eviction from Holy Trinity
Revd Warwick Elwin, Fr Enraght's curate, later became the Vicar of St. Andrew's, Worthing and was the son of the Revd Whitwell Elwin, the critic and editor of the Quarterly Review.
In the evening an enthusiastic crowded meeting welcomed him back to Bordesley. The Yorkshire Post in a piece of bias reporting on Fr Enraght's return to Holy Trinity did not mention his welcomed return but merely emphasised the comments of one bystander at New Street Station who called out “No Popery; I hope they will soon have you in again” to which Fr Enraght simply remarked to his companions, “I should not have liked that man as Governor of Warwick Prison”. [38] [39]
See the full transcription of 'My Prosecution
Under the Public Worship Regulation Act' (1883) pamphlet, written by Fr Enraght after his release from prison.
Eviction from Holy Trinity
It
appears that through the failure of an appeal to the House of Lords in
May 1882 by Fr Enraght, he became liable to another term of
imprisonment. Three months later, under the provisions of the PWR Act,
the benefice of Holy Trinity, Bordesley became vacant, although still
canonically held by Fr Enraght. In March 1883 Bishop Philpott revoked
Fr. Enraght's Licence and appointed another clergyman to the benefice
against the wishes of the congregation.
Following Fr Enraght’s dismissal and his family's eviction from Holy Trinity vicarage by order of Bishop Philpott, a crowded meeting of the Congregation and Parishioners of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, was held in the Highgate Board School, on March 28th 1883, to say good-bye to Fr Enraght and Mrs. Enraght. Churchwarden Thomas Harris read the following testimonial on behalf of the Parish: -
"To the Rev. Richard William Enraght, B.A., on leaving Holy Trinity, Bordesley, Easter, 1883. - Our Dear Vicar, - The parting of friends is always sad, but the parting is made unspeakably painful by the grievous injustice which has robbed us of your ministry, together with the church and worship which we loved so well. For your ready sacrifice of yourself in submitting to persecution, imprisonment, and now casting out from your home and your work, in the cause of the Church, we may be allowed to express our unfeigned admiration; for the ungrudging labour, the great ability, and the unwearied affection with which you have for eight years and a half exercised your office as vicar of our church and parish, we can offer you no adequate thanks.
We believe that we shall show our gratitude best by bearing your many lessons in our hearts and proving them in our lives, when you are no longer here to help us. We feel that we owe Mrs. Enraght our sincerest thanks for the uniform zeal and the genial kindness with which she has always been eager to throw herself into every good work which concerned our welfare. In parting with you we ask her to accept a purse of 150 guineas which has been subscribed by us, the under mentioned members of the congregation, as a slight outward token of our love and our appreciation of the many benefits which have been conferred on us.
We pray that God may comfort you both in your suffering, and may grant you a congenial and peaceful sphere of labour, where the enemies of truth will not molest you. In reluctantly bidding you good-bye as our Pastor, we ask you still to remember us who have been bound to you by the strong tie of this common sorrow. “We are, yours most faithfully and affectionately, the Congregation and Parishioners of Holy Trinity, Bordesley” [40] [41]
When two months later Bishop Philpott (foolishly or courageously) preached at Holy Trinity on the 6th May 1883 the churchwardens handed him a formal protest condemning the removal of Enraght and stating that ‘we, the truly aggrieved, have been left as sheep without a shepherd’, and implying that the Rev. Watt’s (Fr Enraght’s replacement) actions in toning down ritual had led to a significant reduction in size of congregation [42].
See the full transcription of 'High Church & Low Church' (1883) newspaper article.
The Royal Commission of 1881 and its report in 1883 marked a historic turning point for the Church of England. The sustained effort to repress ritualism in order to keep the Church in harmony with popular tastes and prejudices was abandoned. Ritualists’ policy of civil disobedience and its consequence of imprisonment had both embarrassed Evangelicals and cemented an alliance with the moderate High Church, thus posing a threat to the unity of the Church if the attempt to crush ritualism was kept up. Archbishop Tait was therefore obliged to subordinate his concern for National opinion and devote himself to mending his ecclesiastical bridges [43].
Back to Brighton
After the Enraght Family's eviction from the Bordesley Vicarage in March 1883, the family took lodgings in Montpelier Street, Brighton, where they spent just over a year in the Anglo-Catholic Parish of St Michael and All Angels, Brighton to convalesce and wait for another Official Parish appointment to continue Fr Enraght's ministry. [44].
While living in Brighton, Fr Enraght and his family were financially supported by the English Church Union's Sustentation Fund.
St Michael’s was known to Fr Enraght, a few years earlier in October 1874, while living in Portslade, he was invited to assist the Vicar of St Michael & All Angels, the Revd Charles Beanlands at the Celebration Service to mark the 12th Anniversary of the Dedication of St Michaels & All Angels.
The Daily Chronical newspaper (below) reported that Fr Enraght had served as a Curate in Brighton, after being evicted from his Bordesley Vicarage.
The Yorkshire Gazette reported in August 1884, ‘It had been thought that through ill-health he is prevented from work, but Mr Enraght informs the World that he is assisting his old friend Mr Wagner’.
As a ‘retired’ priest, Fr Enraght would have been able to officiate, with the Bishop's permission, at many of the services at St Paul’s and at the Church of the Holy Resurrection (the ‘overspill’ church of the fashionable St Paul’s).
The Church of the Holy Resurrection in Russell Street, was amongst the overcrowded houses in the narrow backstreets behind St Paul’s, built in 1876, closed in 1911, and demolished in 1968 to make way for Brighton’s Churchill Square Shopping Center.
St Paul’s and the Church of the Holy Resurrection were less than half a mile from Fr Enraght’s home in Montpelier Street.
Following Fr Enraght’s dismissal and his family's eviction from Holy Trinity vicarage by order of Bishop Philpott, a crowded meeting of the Congregation and Parishioners of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, was held in the Highgate Board School, on March 28th 1883, to say good-bye to Fr Enraght and Mrs. Enraght. Churchwarden Thomas Harris read the following testimonial on behalf of the Parish: -
"To the Rev. Richard William Enraght, B.A., on leaving Holy Trinity, Bordesley, Easter, 1883. - Our Dear Vicar, - The parting of friends is always sad, but the parting is made unspeakably painful by the grievous injustice which has robbed us of your ministry, together with the church and worship which we loved so well. For your ready sacrifice of yourself in submitting to persecution, imprisonment, and now casting out from your home and your work, in the cause of the Church, we may be allowed to express our unfeigned admiration; for the ungrudging labour, the great ability, and the unwearied affection with which you have for eight years and a half exercised your office as vicar of our church and parish, we can offer you no adequate thanks.
We believe that we shall show our gratitude best by bearing your many lessons in our hearts and proving them in our lives, when you are no longer here to help us. We feel that we owe Mrs. Enraght our sincerest thanks for the uniform zeal and the genial kindness with which she has always been eager to throw herself into every good work which concerned our welfare. In parting with you we ask her to accept a purse of 150 guineas which has been subscribed by us, the under mentioned members of the congregation, as a slight outward token of our love and our appreciation of the many benefits which have been conferred on us.
We pray that God may comfort you both in your suffering, and may grant you a congenial and peaceful sphere of labour, where the enemies of truth will not molest you. In reluctantly bidding you good-bye as our Pastor, we ask you still to remember us who have been bound to you by the strong tie of this common sorrow. “We are, yours most faithfully and affectionately, the Congregation and Parishioners of Holy Trinity, Bordesley” [40] [41]
When two months later Bishop Philpott (foolishly or courageously) preached at Holy Trinity on the 6th May 1883 the churchwardens handed him a formal protest condemning the removal of Enraght and stating that ‘we, the truly aggrieved, have been left as sheep without a shepherd’, and implying that the Rev. Watt’s (Fr Enraght’s replacement) actions in toning down ritual had led to a significant reduction in size of congregation [42].
See the full transcription of 'High Church & Low Church' (1883) newspaper article.
The Royal Commission of 1881 and its report in 1883 marked a historic turning point for the Church of England. The sustained effort to repress ritualism in order to keep the Church in harmony with popular tastes and prejudices was abandoned. Ritualists’ policy of civil disobedience and its consequence of imprisonment had both embarrassed Evangelicals and cemented an alliance with the moderate High Church, thus posing a threat to the unity of the Church if the attempt to crush ritualism was kept up. Archbishop Tait was therefore obliged to subordinate his concern for National opinion and devote himself to mending his ecclesiastical bridges [43].
Back to Brighton
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© D. Sharp Montpelier Street, Brighton, where the Enraght Family took lodgings after their eviction from the Bordesley Vicarage, St Michael & All Angels Church, is visible at the top of the road. |
After the Enraght Family's eviction from the Bordesley Vicarage in March 1883, the family took lodgings in Montpelier Street, Brighton, where they spent just over a year in the Anglo-Catholic Parish of St Michael and All Angels, Brighton to convalesce and wait for another Official Parish appointment to continue Fr Enraght's ministry. [44].
While living in Brighton, Fr Enraght and his family were financially supported by the English Church Union's Sustentation Fund.
St Michael’s was known to Fr Enraght, a few years earlier in October 1874, while living in Portslade, he was invited to assist the Vicar of St Michael & All Angels, the Revd Charles Beanlands at the Celebration Service to mark the 12th Anniversary of the Dedication of St Michaels & All Angels.
The Daily Chronical newspaper (below) reported that Fr Enraght had served as a Curate in Brighton, after being evicted from his Bordesley Vicarage.
The Yorkshire Gazette reported in August 1884, ‘It had been thought that through ill-health he is prevented from work, but Mr Enraght informs the World that he is assisting his old friend Mr Wagner’.
As a ‘retired’ priest, Fr Enraght would have been able to officiate, with the Bishop's permission, at many of the services at St Paul’s and at the Church of the Holy Resurrection (the ‘overspill’ church of the fashionable St Paul’s).
The Church of the Holy Resurrection in Russell Street, was amongst the overcrowded houses in the narrow backstreets behind St Paul’s, built in 1876, closed in 1911, and demolished in 1968 to make way for Brighton’s Churchill Square Shopping Center.
St Paul’s and the Church of the Holy Resurrection were less than half a mile from Fr Enraght’s home in Montpelier Street.
In June 1883 Fr Enraght travelled to Birmingham from his Montpelier Street, Brighton home, to assist in fund raising for St Alban’s the Martyr, Highgate.
Many years later St Gabriel's was demolished because of bomb damage in the Second World War.
In 1893 Fr Enraght was invited to Worthing, for the Annual General Meeting of the Worthing Branch of the English Church Union, to which he gave a Lecture on the past 50 years history of the Church of England.
(see the right-side Index for the transcription of the Worthing Lecture)
Bintree, Norfolk
This priest of conscience and conviction arrived at his final Parish of St Swithun Church Bintree in 1895, after being presented to the benefice by Lord Hastings , to end his ministry and life in a quiet country parish in Norfolk. [45]
The above newspaper article reports that Fr Enraght served as a Curate in Brighton, after being evicted from his Bordesley Vicarage. If this is so and not a reporting error ?, than this location of his new ministry is not listed in Crockford's Directory. Fr Enraght and Family did take lodgings in Montpelier Street, Brighton close to the Anglo-Catholic Church of St Michael & All Angels, Brighton, to convalesce after being forced out of Bordesley.
Fr Enraght died on St Matthew’s Day, September 21st, 1898 and is buried at the south east end of St Swithun’s churchyard, Bintree. His grave is that of a “Confessor” (someone who suffered for the faith, while not dying for it). Two windows of the Lady Chapel, depicting the Annunciation of Our Lady are dedicated to Fr. Enraght as well as a statue of St. Swithun above the porch, inscribed: “It is placed as a memorial to a great and good priest Richard William Enraght”. [46]
Those who knew the Revd Richard Enraght at Brighton, Portslade and Birmingham could bear witness to his kind and helpful life as priest and friend to all his people, and those who were witnesses of his arrest and imprisonment would never forget the solemnity and pathos of that event. [47 ]
Throughout Fr Enraght’s ministry his wife Dorothea played an active part in church life wherever he served, and stood by him through the times of prosecution, imprisonment and the family’s eviction from their Bordesley vicarage. In this period of hardship of losing his living in Birmingham and the next stage of his ministry in finding a new parish, the Church Union’s Sustentation Fund generously supported Fr Enraght and his Family, while they spent a short time to convalesce in Brighton after a most traumatic period of his and his Family’s lives. [48] [49]
During Fr Richard Enraght and Dorothea (née Gooch) Enraght's married life they had seven children:-
Mary (born and died 1866, Lincolnshire),
William (b.1868, Brighton),
Ellen (b. 1870, Brighton),
Hawtrey (b.1871, Brighton),
Grace (b.1873, Portslade),
Dora (b.1875, Birmingham) and
Alice (b.1879, Birmingham) [50] .
In 1896 Fr Enraght had the joy of seeing his son Hawtrey ordained priest in Norfolk.
The account of this visit is from the Brighton Gazette 21 June 1883:-
"At St Alban’s Church, Birmingham, on Sunday last, the Rev. R. W. Enraght preached morning and evening to over-flowing congregation. Almost every member of the late congregation of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, was present at one or other of the services. In the evening Mr Enraght exhorted his friends, in their great trouble, to remember the duty of thanksgiving for the provision made for them in St Alban’s Church – a church which did not exist when he first came to the neighbourhood a few years since".
"He urged them to do all that lay in their power to free St Alban’s from heavy debt which crippled its work, and expressed a fervent hope that one of the many laymen in the country whom God had blessed with great riches would come forward, and of his abundance ease the burden which lay upon the shoulders of Birmingham Churchmen. The offertories for the building fund amounted during the day to £402". (£400 in 1880 is equivalent in purchasing power to about £40,000 in 2025 - Bank of England Inflation Calculator)
The Illustrated London News reported on 4th October 1884, ‘the Revd R. W. Enraght formerly Vicar of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, visited Birmingham last week, and was presented by his old congregation with a silver communion service; a chalice and cross handsomely inlaid with precious stones; a communion bag and a cheque for £150. Mr Enraght preached to large congregations at All Saints’ Small Heath and at St Alban’s Birmingham'.
In November 1884 the Enraght family left Montpelier Street, Brighton, for Bromley by Bow in the East End of London.
East End of London
Fr Enraght continued the next 9 years of his ministry in the East End of London:-
In 1888 the Parish of St
Michael & All Angels, Bromley by Bow, was split up to create the separate Parish of St Gabriel, to which Fr Enraght was appointed the Curate-in-Charge, where he stayed until 1895. St Gabriel's was in the slums between East India Dock Road and
Bow Road. |
| Image Credit the Hathi Trust Digital Library St Michael & All Angels, Bromley by Bow, Poplar, London. (In the 1980's, this church was converted into flats
and is now known as St Michael's Court) |
Fr Enraght continued the next 9 years of his ministry in the East End of London:-
In December 1884 Fr Enraght was licensed to the curacy of St Michael’s
Bromley by Bow, Poplar (Tower Hamlets) by the Bishop of London.
A year later in December 1885, the Wells Journal reported, there were calls
from the Church Association for the Bishop of London (Dr Frederick
Temple) to revoke the Curacy License of Fr Enraght at St Michael &
All Angels, which the Bishop absolutely refused to do. (In 1896, Dr
Frederick Temple was appointed the Archbishop of Canterbury)
 |
| St Gabriel Church, listed in the London Post Office Directory (1891) |
Many years later St Gabriel's was demolished because of bomb damage in the Second World War.
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© National Library of Australia Newcastle Morning Herald (New South Wales) 11 September 1889
This newspaper report of 1889 has the sensational headline of ‘Recent Prisoner’,
in fact, it was 8 years previous in 1881 when Fr Enraght was released from prison ! |
In 1893 Fr Enraght was invited to Worthing, for the Annual General Meeting of the Worthing Branch of the English Church Union, to which he gave a Lecture on the past 50 years history of the Church of England.
(see the right-side Index for the transcription of the Worthing Lecture)
Bintree, Norfolk
 |
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© Heart of Norfolk Benefice St Swithun Church, Bintree, Norfolk. |
This priest of conscience and conviction arrived at his final Parish of St Swithun Church Bintree in 1895, after being presented to the benefice by Lord Hastings , to end his ministry and life in a quiet country parish in Norfolk. [45]
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© National Library of Australia The Telegraph (Brisbane) 29 October 1895 |
The above newspaper article reports that Fr Enraght served as a Curate in Brighton, after being evicted from his Bordesley Vicarage. If this is so and not a reporting error ?, than this location of his new ministry is not listed in Crockford's Directory. Fr Enraght and Family did take lodgings in Montpelier Street, Brighton close to the Anglo-Catholic Church of St Michael & All Angels, Brighton, to convalesce after being forced out of Bordesley.
Fr Enraght died on St Matthew’s Day, September 21st, 1898 and is buried at the south east end of St Swithun’s churchyard, Bintree. His grave is that of a “Confessor” (someone who suffered for the faith, while not dying for it). Two windows of the Lady Chapel, depicting the Annunciation of Our Lady are dedicated to Fr. Enraght as well as a statue of St. Swithun above the porch, inscribed: “It is placed as a memorial to a great and good priest Richard William Enraght”. [46]
 |
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© D. M. Swyer St. Swithun statue above the porch, inscribed: “It is placed as a memorial to a great and good priest Richard William Enraght |
Those who knew the Revd Richard Enraght at Brighton, Portslade and Birmingham could bear witness to his kind and helpful life as priest and friend to all his people, and those who were witnesses of his arrest and imprisonment would never forget the solemnity and pathos of that event. [47 ]
Throughout Fr Enraght’s ministry his wife Dorothea played an active part in church life wherever he served, and stood by him through the times of prosecution, imprisonment and the family’s eviction from their Bordesley vicarage. In this period of hardship of losing his living in Birmingham and the next stage of his ministry in finding a new parish, the Church Union’s Sustentation Fund generously supported Fr Enraght and his Family, while they spent a short time to convalesce in Brighton after a most traumatic period of his and his Family’s lives. [48] [49]
 |
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© D. M. Swyer
Revd
Richard Enraght's gravestone at Bintree.
His
grave is that of a “Confessor” (someone
who suffered for the faith, while not dying for it). |
During Fr Richard Enraght and Dorothea (née Gooch) Enraght's married life they had seven children:-
Mary (born and died 1866, Lincolnshire),
William (b.1868, Brighton),
Ellen (b. 1870, Brighton),
Hawtrey (b.1871, Brighton),
Grace (b.1873, Portslade),
Dora (b.1875, Birmingham) and
Alice (b.1879, Birmingham) [50] .
In 1896 Fr Enraght had the joy of seeing his son Hawtrey ordained priest in Norfolk.
Shortly
after Fr Richard Enraght’s death his widow Dorothea and daughter Grace
moved to Walsingham, where Grace eventually married the Revd Edgar
Reeves the Vicar of Walsingham. [51] Fr Hawtrey Enraght served as Vicar of St Helen’s Ranworth where the altar in the north parclose was dedicated to his father. [52]
In later life his ministry took him to St Margaret’s Lowestoft. For his
long and dedicated service to his Diocese of Norwich the Revd Hawtrey
Enraght was awarded the honorary title of Canon in 1928 [53]
Dorothea (née Gooch) Enraght died in 1932 and was buried next to her husband.
Dorothea (née Gooch) Enraght died in 1932 and was buried next to her husband.
Lost & Surviving Memorials to the Revd Richard W. Enraght
All Saints, Birmingham
In May
1899, the Birmingham Branch of the English Church Union held their
second anniversary at All Saints in Small Heath. The main purpose of
the meeting was the unveiling and dedication of a memorial stained
glass window in the north aisle of All Saints to the memory of the
late Revd R. W. Enraght, Vicar of the neighbouring Holy Trinity,
Bordesley. The Revd. Hon. H. Douglas unveiled the new window with the
words “in pious memory of Richard William Enraght, priest”.
Canon
Douglas gave a short address recalling the life and times of Revd
Enraght ‘whom was a personal old friend and whose self-sacrificing
devotion and beautiful character’ were the subject of a warm
panegyric. The Canon went on to say Revd Enraght was a man who
admitted no compromise in any way, but he was endowed with grace and
charity, for “no one was ready to forget injuries and to make the
most of all good to be met in the World”.
A sermon by
Canon Bodington was devoted to a brief exposition of the Catholic
Faith as “the religion of common sense,” with particular
reference to the “settled principles of the English Reformation of
which the Revd Enraght wrote some years ago”.
Sadly, a
bombing raid on Birmingham in the Second World War completely
destroyed the All Saints Church along with the Enraght Memorial
Window. In the subsequent years a new All Saints Church was built on
the bomb site.
St Gabriel Church, Poplar, London
In
December 1898 the Morning Post reported, “The Enraght
Memorial – As a memorial to the late Revd R Enraght it has been
decided to complete the temporary side Chapel of St Gabriel,
which is in a most unfinished state. The estimate cost is about £200.
The Holy Eucharist is offered daily in the chapel, this being
inaugurated by Mr Enraght when he was appointed to the Curacy in
charge ten years ago. The Bishop of Stepney has approved the
proposal”.
It was
announced in September 1899 that the £200 had been
raised by public subscription, amongst the subscribers, were the
Bishops of Islington and Stepney and the Hon. Lionel Holland, M.P.
for Tower Hamlets Bow & Bromley.
Again Sadly, a bombing raid
on London in the Second World War, damaged St Gabriel’s beyond
repair and the Church along with the ‘Enraght’s Chapel’ was
demolished.
 |
The
Lady Chapel windows at
St Swithun’s Bintree depicting the Annunciation of Our Lady ('The Enraght Memorial Window') |
St Swinthun Church, Bintree, Norfolk.
In April 1933, 'The Enraght Memorial Window' was dedicated at St Swinthun Church, Bintree. The subject was a two light window is the Annunciation. This window was installed in the Lady Chapel above the altar. This stained glass window was a gift from members of the Enraght family. Bishop O’Rorke dedicated the window at a special evensong service, two representatives of the Enraght family, Mrs Wilkinson and Mrs Spurgeon, both from Aldeburgh, were amongst the large congregation. (Bishop Mowbray O'Rorke was a Guardian of The Shrine at Our Lady of Walsingham)
Some years earlier a statue of St Swithun was place above the entrance of the Church, inscribed: "It is placed as a
memorial to a great and good priest Richard William Enraght"
St Alban the Martyr, Highgate, Birmingham
Tributes
In 1933, the Catholic Literature Association issued the following tribute to Fr. Richard Enraght and the four other priests that had been imprisoned:-
St Alban the Martyr, Highgate, Birmingham
 |
| copyright © PCC of St Alban and St Patrick, Highgate, Birmingham. Fr Enraght’s chasuble |
The above photograph shows Fr
Enraght’s chasuble on display at St
Alban the Martyr,
Highgate, Birmingham.
Fr Enraght was close friends with the
Vicar and Curate of St Alban’s, the Revd James Samuel Pollock and his
brother the Revd Thomas Benson Pollock, whom Fr Enraght had known since
their days together at Trinity College, Dublin.
Holy Trinity
Bordesley was the neighbouring Parish to St Alban the Martyr.
In 1933, the Catholic Literature Association issued the following tribute to Fr. Richard Enraght and the four other priests that had been imprisoned:-
"The
names of those who suffered the indignity of imprisonment were Arthur
Tooth, Vicar of St. James', Hatcham; R. W. Enraght, Rector of Holy
Trinity, Bordesley; T. Pelham Dale, Rector of St. Vedast, Foster Lane,
in the City of London; Sidney Faithorn Green, Rector of St John's, Miles
Platting; and James Bell Cox, Vicar of St. Margaret's, Liverpool. . . .
To these brave priests and many others who suffered we owe a great
tribute of thankfulness and praise, for it was through their
determination to stand by the Church in her hour of peril that we have
won the tolerance and liberty we have today. The Act of Parliament under
which these priests suffered is still on the Statute Book, but for all
practical purposes it is dead." [54]
Again
in 1933 Marcus Donovan wrote, "These ‘Five Confessors’, in obeying the
laws of the Church, suffered deprivation and imprisonment under the
P.W.R. Act, and by their witness and steadfastness may be said to have
brought to an end the policy of legal persecution". [55]
A modern day commentary on the events that surrounded the Public Worship Regulations Act of 1874 comes from the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church:- “This attempt at suppressing Ritualism so discredited the Act (in fact it created Anglo-Catholic martyrs) led to it being regarded as virtually obsolete”
A modern day commentary on the events that surrounded the Public Worship Regulations Act of 1874 comes from the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church:- “This attempt at suppressing Ritualism so discredited the Act (in fact it created Anglo-Catholic martyrs) led to it being regarded as virtually obsolete”
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The
Public Worship Regulation Act (1874) was kept on the Statute Books for
89 years until it was finally repealed in the Ecclesiastical
Jurisdiction Measures of 1963 (No.1) [56]
Brighton Tribute ?
In February 2006 The Brighton Newspaper, The Argus,
reported that Brighton & Hove City Council had accepted the name of
Fr Richard Enraght, whom they described as a “Priest, fighter for
religious freedom”, as a candidate for a Blue Plaque to be erected in
his memory on his former home at 5 Station Road, Portslade. The date of
its installation is yet to be announced, if ever ?
 |
| copyright
© D. Sharp The Revd Richard Enraght 'Bus', 22 November 2013. In Boundary Road, Hove, the opposite side of this street is called, Station Road, Portslade, where Fr Enraght lived in 1872. (In 2023 this bus was taken out of service, because of the age of the bus, and not replaced with another 'Enraght bus') |
In
September 2006, Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company honoured Revd
Richard Enraght’s memory by naming one of their new fleet buses after
this former Priest of St. Andrew Church Portslade and the Church of St
Paul, Brighton. His name joins the extensive list of locally and
nationally famous people who have contributed to the City's life in some
way over the past few hundred years with a Brighton and Hove Bus named
after them.
Timeline of Fr Richard Enraght SSC Life & Ministry [57]
1837 Born 23rd February, in Moneymore, County Londonderry, Ireland, son of the Revd Matthew Enraght, Assistant Curate of St John's Church, Desertlyn, Moneymore.
(Richard's father the Revd Matthew Enraght also moved to England and served as Vicar of Lyminster in West Sussex from 1856 until 1873)
1860 Graduated with B.A., Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
1861 Ordained a Deacon by the Bishop of Gloucester & Bristol, at Gloucester Cathedral
1861-64 Curate of St Bartholomew Church Corsham, Wiltshire, (Ordained Priest in 1862)
1864-66 Curate of St Luke the Evangelist, Sheffield
1866-68 Curate of St Mary's Church, Wrawby, Brigg, Lincolnshire,
1867-72 Curate of St Paul Church, Brighton, East Sussex, ( under the Revd Arthur Wagner)
1872-74 Curate in Charge of Portslade by Sea with Hangleton , East Sussex
1874-83 Vicar of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, Birmingham.
1880-81 Arrested and sent to Warwick Prison, after refusing to attend his trial, at which, in his absence, he was found guilty of contravening the Public Worship Regulation Act
1882 Through the failure of an appeal to the House of Lords in May by Fr Enraght, he became liable to another term of imprisonment
1883 Dismissed and evicted from his vicarage with his young family by order of the Bishop of Worcester at Easter 1883. Fr Enraght & Family took lodgings in Montpelier Street, Brighton, close to the Church of St Michael & All Angels, Brighton, to convalesce.
1837 Born 23rd February, in Moneymore, County Londonderry, Ireland, son of the Revd Matthew Enraght, Assistant Curate of St John's Church, Desertlyn, Moneymore.
(Richard's father the Revd Matthew Enraght also moved to England and served as Vicar of Lyminster in West Sussex from 1856 until 1873)
1860 Graduated with B.A., Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
1861 Ordained a Deacon by the Bishop of Gloucester & Bristol, at Gloucester Cathedral
1861-64 Curate of St Bartholomew Church Corsham, Wiltshire, (Ordained Priest in 1862)
1864-66 Curate of St Luke the Evangelist, Sheffield
1866-68 Curate of St Mary's Church, Wrawby, Brigg, Lincolnshire,
1867-72 Curate of St Paul Church, Brighton, East Sussex, ( under the Revd Arthur Wagner)
1872-74 Curate in Charge of Portslade by Sea with Hangleton , East Sussex
1874-83 Vicar of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, Birmingham.
1880-81 Arrested and sent to Warwick Prison, after refusing to attend his trial, at which, in his absence, he was found guilty of contravening the Public Worship Regulation Act
1882 Through the failure of an appeal to the House of Lords in May by Fr Enraght, he became liable to another term of imprisonment
1883 Dismissed and evicted from his vicarage with his young family by order of the Bishop of Worcester at Easter 1883. Fr Enraght & Family took lodgings in Montpelier Street, Brighton, close to the Church of St Michael & All Angels, Brighton, to convalesce.
1884-88 Curate of St Michael & All Angels, Bromley by Bow, Poplar, London
1888-95 Curate of St Gabriel, Poplar, London
1895-98 Rector of St Swithun, Bintree (then Bintry) with Themelthorpe, Norfolk
1898 Died September 21st, on St Matthew’s Day, at Bintree, Norfolk.
Local Websites featuring Fr Enraght
The Parish of Portslade & Mile Oak, while Fr Richard Enraght was Curate-in-Charge of St Andrew's Church Portslade, he wrote, The Real Presence and Holy Scripture and Catholic Worship.
Portslade in the Past, local history website:- St Andrew's Church Portslade
St Paul's Church, West
Street, Brighton. Fr Enraght served as a Curate at St Paul's from
1867-1871 under Fr Arthur Wagner the leading light of the Catholic
Revival in Brighton. It was at St Paul's that Fr Enraght wrote the two
nationally acclaimed pamphlets "Who Are True Churchmen, and Who Are Conspirators?" and "Free and Open Churches and the Weekly Offertory". See the St Paul's website for detailed information on the life of Fr Wagner and the Catholic Revival in Brighton.
International
Based in New York, Project Canterbury, is the home on the internet of classical Anglican documents expressing the Catholic identity of Anglicanism.
International
Based in New York, Project Canterbury, is the home on the internet of classical Anglican documents expressing the Catholic identity of Anglicanism.
***Notes Concerning the Timeline of the above Revd Richard Enraght text appearing on the Internet.
The above article on the Revd Richard W Enraght was first written in 2001 and uploaded to the Parish of St Nicolas & St Andrews Portslade’s Btinternet website. (See Internet Archive's Wayback Machine for confirmation proof)
In
2007, six years after the article appeared on the 'St Nicolas & St Andrew’s Portslade’s
website' a section of the above
text was uploaded to Wikipedia to create a new Richard W Enraght
Wikipedia page, by
the author of this above text. Over the years, the Wikipedia page for
Richard Enraght has been greatly edited and now differs substantially
with the above Enraght text.
Unfortunately in 2010, BT shut down all free of costs
websites for
Churches, therefore
this Enraght page moved to a new St Nicolas & St Andrew Blogspot
Parish website, again this website was shut down in 2013 and a small section of the above Enraght page moved to the present website of the Parish of Portslade & Mile Oak
in 2016.
In 2025 the above Biography article was greatly expanded from the original 2001 Biography text by new updated research.
In 2025 the above Biography article was greatly expanded from the original 2001 Biography text by new updated research.
*******
Above Text & Page Design by dave-portslade