Revd Richard Enraght SSC (1837-1898)

Brighton, Sussex, 1868-1872

'Prisoner of Conscience'

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.

“The Public Worship Regulation Act was avowedly passed with the intention of “stamping out” of the Church of England clergy and laity holding my principles - principles which we believe to be the most faithful embodiment of the Doctrine, Worship, and Discipline of the reformed Church of England”. (Revd R. W. Enraght., My Prosecution...., 1883)
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Fr Enraght SSC, served seven years of his ministry in the Diocese of Chichester,
in the County of Sussex, from 1868 to 1872 as a Curate of St Paul's Brighton, from 1872 to 1874 as the Curate-in-Charge of St Andrew's Portslade, and back at St Paul's Brighton for one year in 1883.

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 returned to St Paul's to assist his old friend, Fr Wagner while waiting for another Parish appointment. In November 1884, Fr Enraght left Brighton to take up a Curacy in Poplar, which was reported at the time, as 'the poorest Parish in the East End of London'.

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)

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The Revd Richard William Enraght B.A., SSC [1] 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.

Fr. Enraght’s promotion of the Church of England's ancient Catholic Tradition, his use 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 in 1880, he endured prosecution, imprisonment and in 1883, eviction with his young family from their Holy Trinity Vicarage in Bordesley, Birmingham, for conscience sake.

Early Ministry and Publications

Richard Enraght graduated with B.A., & Div. Test., at Trinity College, Dublin 1860. In 1861 he was ordained a Deacon and later a Priest in 1862 by the Bishop of Gloucester & Bristol, at Gloucester Cathedral.

Revd Enraght served as a Curate at Corsham in Wiltshire (1861-1864), Sheffield (1864-1866) and Wrawby in Lincolnshire (1866-1868).

While serving as a Curate in Corsham, Fr Enraght gave a Lecture in Rowde, Wiltshire on the English Reformation (1862) and as a Curate in Sheffield, he published the following pamphlets: To the Poor the Gospel is Preached (1865) and Bible Ritualism (1866), the 'Bible Ritualism' pamphlet did not please his 'Low-Church' Bishop, and resulted in Fr Enraght being moved on to a new parish in Wrawby, Lincolnshire from where he eventually moved in 1868 to the Anglo-Catholic Parish of St Paul's Brighton, Sussex.

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 coincidentally 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]

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
(Edwardian Postcard)
Fr Enraght served as a Curate at St Paul's Brighton
from 1868 to 1872.
This Church was built in 1848 as a mission church for
Brighton’s fishermen and their families.
In Victorian times this area was densely populated.
The narrow streets around the Church were lined
with small shops, fishersmen's cottages and slums.
Today, St Paul's is surrounded by Brighton's
modern high-rise buildings and on Brighton's premier road -
'West Street' - which links Brighton's Railway Station
with Brighton's Palace Pier and the Seafront.

Fr Wagner whom Fr Enraght served under as curate at the Church of St. Paul, Brighton, was a follower of Tractarianism 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.

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.

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 Protestant Defence mob by being beaten-up for his courageous stance near his Brighton church.

In another Parish in Brighton, the Curate of St James' Church, Fr John Purchas (1823-1872), the former editor of the Directorium Anglicanum, (the Anglo-Catholic 'Manuel of Ancient Church Rites') was prosecuted, at the insistence of the Church Association, for using vestments and the eastward position in 1871. The case took three years to conclude and resulted in the Church of England paying £7,661 in legal costs, Fr Purchas had placed his property in his wife's name so unable to pay the legal costs himself. [6]. To appreciate the scale of these legal costs, a small terraced house in Brighton could be rented for £16 per annum in 1871. Fr Purchas was removed from his Parish and some commentators believe his persecution led to his early death in October 1872.

Fr Enraght knew Fr John Purchas from their days as curates at St Paul's, Brighton, and ten years later at a Lecture in Derby in 1882, he stated, “It was his solemn conviction that the Church Association 'killed' Mr. Purchas of Brighton”

'The Chichester Extinguisher' from Punch, 24 October 1868
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:-

copyright © D. Sharp
The former Brighton home of
Fr Richard & Dorothea Enraght
at 36 Russell Square
(originally numbered 42)
from 1869 until 1872, where
their children, Ellen and Hawtrey
were born.
Their eldest son, William was born
at their previous Brighton
address, of 5 Queens Square
in 1868.

"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.

The Brighton Gazette reported that Fr Enraght, formerly the 'Travelling Secretary' of the National Association for Freedom of Worship, gave a 50 minute lecture on the subject of 'The Freedom of Worship' at Brighton’s Town Hall in December 1871.

Fr Enraght SSC served as the Secretary and Treasurer of the Brighton Chapter of the Society of the Holy Cross, the Chapter was spoken of by its national leadership, “as one of the most promising and was carrying on a vigorous campaign in Brighton” [12].

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In the winter of 1874 Fr Enraght left St Paul's Brighton to take on a new challenge at the six years old District Church of St Andrew's, 4 miles along the coast in the Parish of St Nicolas Portslade, where he would have sole control as Curate-in-Charge.

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***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)

In 2007, six years after the article appeared on the 'St Nicolas & St Andrew’s Portslade’s website' a brief 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 (with some errors) 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. see Biography References

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SEE THE REV RICHARD ENRAGHT IN PORTSLADE PAGE

Above Text & Page Design by dave-portslade

Enraght Family of Ireland & England, 1805-1932.

The Parish Church of St Peter & St Paul, Aston, Birmingham,
where Richard Enraght & Dorothea Gooch were married
in February 1865

Revd Richard Enraght married Dorothea Mary Ann Gooch on 21^st February 1865 in the Parish Church of St Peter & St Paul, Aston, Birmingham.

Dorothea’s family were amongst the early pioneers of the building of Britain’s railway system and the designs of locomotives, her father was John Viret Gooch (1812-1900) the Resident Engineer and Superintendent of the London & South Western Railways. Dorothea's Grandmother's Longridge family owned the Bedlington Ironworks in Northumberland.

Dorothea (née Gooch) Enraght's uncles:-
Sir Daniel Gooch, the Superintendent of the Great Western Railways and was instrumental in the laying of the first Transatlantic Telegraph Cable, he also served as a Member of Parliament.
Thomas Longridge Gooch, Civil Engineer for the Manchester & Leeds Railways.
William Frederick Gooch, Manager of the Swindon Railway Works in Wiltshire, and later the Director of the Vulcan Iron Foundary (locomotive builders) in Lancashire.

During Fr Richard and Dorothea Enraght's married life they had seven children:-

Mary (born and died 1866, Wrawby, Lincolnshire.),
William (b.1868 at 5, Queens Square, Brighton, Sussex.),
Ellen (b. 1870, at 36, Russell Square, Brighton, Sussex.),
Hawtrey (b.1871 at 36, Russell Square, Brighton, Sussex.),
Grace (b.1873 at 5, Station Road, Portslade, Sussex.),
Dora (b.1875, The Vicarage, 175, Camp Hill, Bordesley, Birmingham, Warwickshire.) and
Alice (b.1879, The Vicarage, 175, Camp Hill, Bordesley, Birmingham, Warwickshire.) [50] .

The eldest son, William (1868-1954) was later to become Dr William Enraght M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., a surgeon in London. The 1893 Medical Directory for London shows Dr W Enraght living in Croyden Road, Anerly, in a house named 'Curraghmore'. During the First World War, Capt Dr William Enraght of the Royal Army Medical Corps, served on H.M. Hospital Ship Formosa in the Gallipoli Campaign. In 1918 Capt Dr Enraght transferred to the Royal Air Force's Medical Department.

In 1896 Fr Enraght had the joy of seeing his son Hawtrey ordained priest in Norfolk.
Revd 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]

Hawtrey was married to Emily Newton (his second cousin), the granddaughter of Sir Daniel Gooch, whom was also the great uncle of Hawtrey (see above for the Gooch Family).
The Revd Hawtrey Enraght, his wife, and eldest daughter were close friends of the composer Benjamin Britten, and would regularly visit him at his home in Kirkley Cliff Road, Lowerstoft, for afternoon tea in the 1930s.

Fr Richard Enraght’s widow, Dorothea and daughter Grace moved to Little Walsingham. Grace later married the Revd Edgar Reeves, the Vicar of St Mary & All Saints, Walsingham, in 1905. [51]

Dorothea (née Gooch) Enraght died in 1932 and was buried next to her husband at Bintree.

Brief Timeline of the Revd Matthew Enraght's Life (the Father of Richard Enraght) :-

1805, Richard's father, the Revd Matthew Enraght was born in 1805 in Rathkeale, County Limerick, the son of Matthew and Mary Enraght, the family ran a Grocery, Wine & Spirits Merchants in Rathkeale, they also owned the 14 acre Knockanavod Farm and Farm House which adjoined the town.
Sadly 2 years after Matthew's birth in 1807 his father, Matthew died.

1832, Matthew, Graduated with B.A., Trinity College, Dublin.

1834, Matthew Enraght and Maria Anne Cox, were married on 24th November 1834, at Kilmastulla Church in Tipperary. Maria was the daughter of the late Revd Richard Cox and Sarah (née Hawtrey) Cox of Caherconlish in County Limerick and the sister of Sir Ralph Hawtrey Cox of Dunmanway in County Cork. The late Revd Richard Cox was the grandson of the Very Revd Michael Cox, the Archbishop of Cashel.

1835, Matthew, Ordained Priest by the Archbishop of Armagh.

1837, Richard Enraght was born on 23rd February 1837, in Moneymore *(see notes below), the son of the Revd Matthew and Maria Anne.
Revd Matthew was the Senior Curate at Desertlyn St John's Church , Moneymore, (County Derry / County Londonderry).

Richard's mother, Maria Anne (née Cox) Enraght, died in May 1837 at Moneymore.

1839, Matthew married his second wife, Sarah, the daughter of Henry Thomas Houghton of Kilmanock House, Arthurstown, County Wexford. In October 1840, a month after the couple had lost their son who was stillborn, Sarah sadly died.

1841, Revd Matthew Enraght moved to Donnybrook & Booterstown, Dublin, to serve as a Curate.
Revd M Enraght was a committee member of the Black Rock & Booterstown Fellowship Society (financial help for the poor), he also served as chairman of the Booterstown branch of the Protestant Orphan Society which supported 12 orphaned children in the Parish.

1843, In February 1843 at Booterstown's Church, Dublin, Matthew married his third wife, Henrietta Hickman Massey the only daughter of the Revd Henry Hickman Massey of Stoneville, County Limerick and the granddaughter of the late Sir Thomas Fetherstonhaugh of Ardagh and Member of Parliament for County Longford.

1845, Curate at Williamstown, Blackrock, Dublin.

1849, Curate at Monktown, Dublin.

1851-1853, Curate at St Paul's Church, Kilburn, London, and Chaplain to the 3rd Earl Castle Stewart, (Edward Stewart).

1853-1856, Vicar of St Mary's, Nonnington, Kent.

1856, Vicar of St Mary Magdalene, Lyminster in West Sussex.
In 1866 Matthew, took time off from his ministry, and with his wife who was in poor health, spent a few months in Florence, Italy.
At Lyminster, the Revd Matthew was just 20 miles, with a very good railway connection, from his son Richard and grandchildren in Portslade, East Sussex.

1873, retired from his Lyminster ministry.

1873-1874 the Revd Matthew Enraght spent a year at Château-d'Oex, Canton de Vaud, Switzerland, where there was an Anglican community and chaplaincy, for the benefit of his wife, Henrietta’s, health.

1878 Henrietta Hickman Enraght died in Surrey.

1881 Revd Matthew Enraght and Dr Walter Phillimore (later Lord Phillimore), gave speeches at the Oxford Branch of the English Church Union, in support of imprisoned Anglican Priests.

1882, The Revd Matthew Enraght, lived with his daughter and granddaughter in Clifton, Bristol and died while visiting Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, on the 13th April 1882.

Image Credit the Hathi Trust Digital Library
The Drapers' Company's Reports of Deputations (1841) - Estates of the Company in Drapers Town.(present day - Moneymore).
Image of Moneymore in 1827

Brief Timeline of Richard Enraght's Life:-

1837, Richard Enraght was born on 23rd February 1837, in Moneymore (County Derry / County Londonderry), the son of the Revd Matthew Enraght and Maria Anne Cox, who were married on 24th November 1834, at Kilmastulla Church in Tipperary.

Maria Anne was the daughter of the late Revd Richard Cox and Sarah (née Hawtrey) Cox of Caherconlish in County Limerick. Sarah was the sister of Sir Ralph Hawtrey Cox of Dunmanway in County Cork.

Richard's mother, Maria Anne (née Cox) Enraght, died in May 1837 at Moneymore, where his father was serving as an Assistant Curate at St John's Church, Desertlyn, Moneymore.

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*Moneymore Birth Notes*

The 1891 UK Census for Poplar, Bromley, in the year that the Revd Richard Enraght was serving as the Curate of St Gabriel Church, records his place of birth as ‘Moneymore’

This 1891 Census' enumerator’s itallic handwriting is very poor, the badly formed ‘M’ letter appears to be ‘Cl’ the ‘n’ letter appears as ‘r’ and the ‘y’ letter as a ‘g’.

In the same Census, an unrelated female resident of Bromley, with the Christian name of 'May' also has a badly written 'M' which also appears as a 'Cl', showing her Christian name as 'Clay'

An ‘AI Bot’ has determined that this poor itallic handwritten ‘Moneymore’ is actually spelt as ‘Cloregmore’ (No place of that name in Ireland) and also in the same 1891 Census the handwriting of the surname ‘Enraght’ has been interpreted by the 'Bot' as being spelt as ‘Enragtt’.

Some genealogical and history websites have assumed this ‘AI Bot’ miss-interpreted word of ‘Cloregmore’ is the actual village of ‘Clonmore' in County Carlow. The Enraghts and their related Cox and Hawtrey families, have no historic connection with Clonmore.

Richard Enraght’s son, the Revd Hawtrey Enraght stated to the British Guardian newspaper in 1898, that his father was born in Moneymore in 1837.

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1851, student at the Sheffield Collegiate School, Yorkshire. (UK Census)

1860, Graduated with B.A., & Div. Test., Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.

1861, Student of Divinity at St Mary the Virgin, in Nottingham (UK Census)

1861, Ordained a Deacon and Priest (1862) by the Bishop of Gloucester & Bristol, at Gloucester Cathedral.

1861-64, Curate of St Bartholomew Church Corsham, Wiltshire.

1864-66, Assistant Curate of Sheffield Parish Church in 1865, (now known as Sheffield Cathedral), and in early 1866 he was appointed Assistant Curate in the nearby, St Luke the Evangelist, Solly Street, but this posting did not last long.

The Sheffield Independent reported that Fr Enraght had his License revoked by the 'anti Oxford Movement' Archbishop of York, and he left St Luke’s in April 1866. The Sheffield Independent called Fr Enraght a Martyr for Ritualism. As an Assistant Curate in Sheffield, Fr Enraght published two pamphlets, To the Poor the Gospel is Preached and Bible Ritualism, which probably contributed to his dismissal.

While living in Sheffield, Fr Enraght served as the Travelling Secretary of The National Association for Promoting Freedom of Worship in the Church of England.

1866-68, Curate of St Mary's Church, Wrawby, Lincolnshire,

1868-72, Curate of St Paul's Church, Brighton, East Sussex.

Revd Richard and Dorothea Enraght moved to Brighton and lived at 24 Norfolk Road for a few weeks. By 1868 the couple had moved to 5, Queens Square where their son, William was born. From 1869 until 1872 the Enraght Family lived at 36, Russell Square, where their children, Ellen and Hawtrey were born.

1872-74, Curate in Charge of St Andrew's Church, Portslade, East Sussex. From 1872 until 1874 the Enraght Family lived at No. 5 Station Road Portslade (originally named, Courtney Terrace), where their daughter Grace was born in 1873.

1874-83, Vicar of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, Birmingham, where their daughters Dora (1875) and Alice (1879) were born.

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.
On St Matthew's Day, 21st September 1882, Fr Enraght attended Dr Pusey's funeral at Christ Church, Oxford.

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. He assisted Fr Wagner at St Paul's Brighton while waiting for his next Church appointment.

1884-88, Curate of St Michael & All Angels, Bromley by Bow, Poplar, London

1888-95, Curate of St Gabriel, Poplar, London. The Enraght Family lived in St Gabriel's Vicarage, in Morris Road, Poplar.

In November 1894, Fr Enraght officiated at the funeral of his cousin, Dr Richard Hawtrey Lyon at St Mary's Church, Thatcham, Berkshire. Dr Richard was a partner in a Medical Practice in Thatcham with his brother, Dr Francis Henry Lyon.
The brothers were the sons of the late Revd Thomas Lyon, Chaplain to the Marquis of Thomond, Rural Dean and Rector of Kilbarron in County Tipperary, like Fr Enraght, they were nephews of the late Sir Ralph Hawtrey Cox of Dunmanway in County Cork.
(The late Revd Thomas Lyon was married to Richard Enraght's mother's sister).

1895-98, Rector of St Swithun, Bintree (then Bintry) with Themelthorpe, Norfolk

1898, Died September 21st, on St Matthew’s Day, at Bintree, Norfolk.

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)

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.

St Swithun Church, Bintree, Norfolk.

The Lady Chapel windows at
St Swithun’s Bintree
depicting the Annunciation of Our Lady
('The Enraght Memorial Window')

In April 1933, 'The Enraght Memorial Window' was dedicated at St Swithun 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 Stephen O'Rorke, a former Bishop of Accra, the Rector of Blakeney in Norfolk and a Guardian of The Shrine at Our Lady of Walsingham)

copyright © Revd 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

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

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. The Pollock brothers were born on the Isle of Man.
Holy Trinity Bordesley was the neighbouring Parish to St Alban the Martyr.

Tributes

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”

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The Public Worship Regulation Act (1874) was kept on the Statute Books for 91 years until it was finally repealed on 1st March 1965 by the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measures of 1963 (No.1) [56]

The City of Brighton & Hove, 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 operation,
after 17 years of service throughout the
City of Brighton & Hove.)

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.

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Above Text & Page Design by dave-portslade

1880 Arrest of the Revd Richard Enraght

“Reproduced from the “Our Warwickshire” website © Warwickshire County Record Office
(reference CR 2902/84).
Warwick Prison, to where the Revd Richard Enraght was taken under arrest on the 27 November 1880.
(Prison demolished in 1934)

The following transcript is from the Sheffield Daily Telegraph 29 November 1880:-

THE RITUALISTIC CONTROVERSY

ANOTHER CLERGYMAN ARRESTED

EXTRAORDINARY SCENE

The long-pending arrest of the Rev. R. W. Enraght, Vicar of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, took place on Saturday. Since the commitment of the Rev. Gentleman his arrest has been almost hourly expected, and the delay which has taken place has naturally excited considerable speculation in the district.

On Friday night the complainant’s solicitor wrote to Mr. Roper, the Sheriff’s officer for the Borough of Birmingham requesting that he would serve it at once.

On Saturday morning intelligence was received by Mr. Enraght that the writ would be brought over by the quarter past twelve train from Warwick. On this information being received, the following notice was posted on the board near the church railings – “Your Vicar will be arrested this afternoon at 1.30. Train leaves for Warwick Gaol at 2.4.”

A little crowd soon congregated on this announcement being made, and it is not a little remarkable that one of the first passer by to glance at the notice was Canon Wilkinson, who chanced to be walking along Camp Hill. As the hour for the arrest drew nigh, the crowd outside the church gradually increased, and, the original object of exhibiting the notice having been served, it was taken down.

Between twelve and one o’clock a number of Mr. Enraght’s most intimate friends arrived at the house to witness the departure for Warwick. Among the visitors were the Revs. C. Boddington, J. S. Pollock, W. Elwin, L. Taylor, G. F. B. Cross, Messrs. Clay and Harris (churchwardens).

Mr. Roper, the sheriff’s officer, arrived about one o’clock with the writ, ans was courteously ushered into the drawing-room, where he took up his stand until Mr. Enraght was in readiness to accompany him. The few minutes that remained passed away without any incident of note, Mr Enraght chatting pleasantly with his friends without appearing in the least degree disconcerted by the presence of the officer of the law. About twenty minutes to two Mr. Enraght having previously retired for a few minutes to complete his preparations, returned, wearing his cassock, and advancing up to the sheriff’s officer, announced his readiness to accompany him.

The sheriff’s officer, producing the writ, replied ; Mr. Enraght I have a warrant here to lodge your body in Warwick Gaol.

Mr. Enraght amidst the cheers of his friends, delivered the following address protest :- I solemnly protest in the name of God and of the Church of England against your arresting me or interfering with me in any way under the authority proceeding from the Court of Lord Penzance, whose jurisdiction over me in spiritual matters I do not acknowledge.

The sheriff’s officer pleasantly remarked that he must obey his instructions and take Mr. Enraght to Warwick Gaol. Mr. Enraght of course had his remedy afterwards. Mr. Harris, one of the churchwardens, addressing the sheriff’s office, said ; “in my name, and in the name of my colleague, I most emphatically protest against this arrest.”

The process of arrest having been completed, Mr Enraght and his friends filed out of the room into the churchyard, which was crowded, and there was another great concourse outside. The sheriff’s officer was among the first to pass down the churchyard, and he was enabled to reach the street unrecognised. Immediately the Vicar appeared among the crowd there was a tremendous cheer, accompanied by deep groans for a certain member of the congregation who instituted the proceedings which now culminated in the arrest.

A number of the congregation pressed forward to shake hands with the Vicar, who must have felt extremely gratified with his reception. On reaching the churchyard gate the Vicar motioned to the crowd that he wished to address them, and immediately there were cries of “Silence” and “Hats off.”
The Rev. Gentleman spoke in a firm, clear voice, a few words of exhortation and hope. The Doxology was then sung by the crowd, amidst great excitement the Vicar and the Sheriff’s officer, accompanied by the churchwardens, proceeded to Bordesley station, where they left for Warwick by the 2.4 train.

Mr. Enraght, who had been hourly expected during the morning, arrived at Warwick by the 2.50 train. He was accompanied by about thirty friends, amongst them being his churchwardens, Messrs. Harris and Clay, Rev. James Pollock, Rev. T. L. Taylor, Curate of St Andrew’s Bordesley, Mr. Rowland Bagnall, Mr. Playne, Mr. Farley, secretary to the Birmingham Branch of the English Church Union ; Mr. Whitworth, secretary to Church of England Working Men’s Society ; Mr. H. T. Ratcliffe, churchwarden of St Alban’s ; Mr. Pearce, secretary Midland District Church Union, and Messrs. Norman Perkins and Fairley, representing the congregation of St. Nicholas, Tower Street.

The Rev. Gentleman was met at the station by the Rev. Dr. Nicholson, of Christ Church, Leamington, with whom he shook hands most cordially, remarking those around him, “We are not Ritualists, but simply Churchmen.”

Mr. Enraght at his own desire, proceeded on foot to Warwick Gaol, a distance of half a mile, and upon reaching the prison exchanged a farewell with his friends outside the gaol. He looked somewhat anxious, but appeared in excellent spirits.

Just before entering the prison, Mr. Enraght knelt upon the stones and received a blessing at the hands of the Rev. Dr. Nicholson. A large crowd had meanwhile assembled and cheered Mr. Enraght enthusiastically.

During Sunday several persons called at the prison lodge and left their cards for the Rev. Gentleman. Mr Enraght is said to be in excellent spirits. He is imprisoned as a first-class misdemeanant.

The services at Holy Trinity were yesterday conducted in the precise way adopted by Mr. Enraght and for which he is now lying in Warwick Gaol. It is not intended to deviate in the slightest degree from the pronounced Ritual services of the imprisoned Vicar. At both morning and evening services the church was densely crowded.

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From the Governor, H. M. Prison Warwick, 29^th November 1880.
To:- Revd James Benson Pollock, St Alban the Martyr, Birmingham,

You are allowed to visit The Rev. R. W. Enraght between 2 and 5

on any Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Please present this Order.
John M. Anderson, Governor.

Mr John Anderson, 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.

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Image from the New Catholic World v.33 (1881)
The above noticed was posted on walls around the Parish of Holy Trinity, Bordesley

The following letter from Mr. W. Perrins (a Birmingham Jeweller) to the London Church Review, gives an account of the arrest of the Revd. Richard Enraght on 27th November 1880 :-

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?

Mr. Dale was taken to prison at night, when but few could see or hear about it, but had we been able to choose our own time, we could scarcely have chosen better. Though it was only known one hour before the arrest, yet so earnest were his friends in their sympathy and devotion that by the time the arrest took place, half-past one P.M., a vast crowd, numbering about two or three thousand persons, assembled, who showed the deepest sympathy with the persecuted vicar.

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 gray-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.

Before leaving the house the vicar read a solemn protest against his arrest (a copy of which and address I enclose), and then came out accompanied by the Rev. J. Pollock and C. Bodington arm-in-arm, several other clergymen and friends, including the two churchwardens, bringing up the rear.

The vicar, 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.

The vast crowd of course could not get into the station, in fact very few, or else many would doubtless have gone to Warwick with the prisoner. As it was, about thirty friends went, including the Rev. J. Pollock and the two churchwardens, who, to whose honour, be it said, never left the prisoner till he arrived at the gate of the jail. Immediately we left the train at Warwick the vicar was met by the Rev. Dr. Nicholson, of Leamington, who took the prisoner by the arm and did not leave his side until we reached the gate, walking all the way. The road from the station is a rather lonely one, up and down hill, and as we started upon it the vicar exclaimed, "We are not Ritualists, but simple Churchmen."

I then thought, for the first time, he looked lonely, but as though the Divine eye was watching him in his trouble, the rainbow appeared in its beauty, bidding him hope and trust in One who has said, "I will not leave thee nor forsake thee," "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." The vicar's friends had taken care that the luggage should be substantial, but right willingly was it carried by those present, as though each was anxious to do what he could for the one who was to be cast into a prisoner's cell.

Before we reached the Jail we were met by the Rev. S. Harris, of Leicester Hospital, Warwick, who in an excited manner called for cheers for the prisoner, remarking that "that was the reward of hard work and faithful service, also an answer to the question why we could not get more candidates for holy orders." 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.

Our dear friend then entered the prison-gates, his last words being "The Lord be with you." We could not help responding, "And with thy spirit."

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.

W. PERRINS.
BIRCHFIELDS, BIRMINGHAM,
Feast of St. Andrew, 1880.

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(Illustration from the Birmingham Daily Post 28th November 1880)

Fr Richard Enraght entering Warwick Prison in chains, handing a bag entitled, "Paraphernalia of Ritualism" to his Curate, the Revd Warwick Elwin (later to become the Vicar of St. Andrew the Apostle, Worthing, Sussex.)
(Although not factually correct, the artist has added the names of the Revd T. P. Dale and Revd F. Green above the other cell doors, under the heading of 'Religious Liberty'. Revd Dale was actually sent to Holloway Prison in London and the Revd Green to Lancaster Castle Prison)

The following text is from the What is the Use ? poster affixed to the prison wall in the above Birmingham Daily Post illustration :-

What is the Use ?

The prosecutions must prove futile, because the doctrines aimed at, may be legally taught by ministers of the Church of England. It has been decided that baptismal regeneration may be lawfully taught; it has also been decided that a real presence in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper may also be lawfully taught. As to the assertion of a priesthood, the Prayer Book is full of it; and the Low Churchmen are conscious of the difficulty of explaining it away. If then, the doctrine remain and must remain --- for no one seriously propose to expunge it by legal process --- of what use is it to go on prosecuting and imprisoning clergymen who insist upon the use of symbols as a means of enforcing a doctrine which they may preach without legal hindrance, from one end of the year to the other

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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).

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."

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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]

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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]

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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".

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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.

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SEE:- 'High Church & Low Church 1883' page and Revd Richard Enraght 1874-1883 Bordesley page

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*N.B. because of his active opposition to the Conservative Government's Public Worship Regulation Act., the Revd Richard Enraght, his wife Dorothea, and their six young children were evicted at Easter 1883, from their Bordesley Vicarage by order of the Lord Bishop of Worcester.

The Enraght Family with the help of the Church Union, moved to Brighton in Sussex, where Fr Enraght could continue his ministry helping his former vicar, Fr Wagner of St Paul's Brighton.

See the 'My Ordinations Oaths' page, written by Revd Richard Enraght while in Warwick Prison in December 1880.

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Transcriptions by D. Sharp 2025