SISTERHOODS 



479 



in Calcutta they have charge of the Latly Canning 

 Home, the nursing of the European General Hos- 

 pital and of the Medical College and Eden Hos- 

 pitals ; also of the Pratt Memorial School, the 

 European Orphan Asylum, and the hospital at 

 Darjeeling, &c. 



St Peter's Home, Mortimer Road, N.W., rivals 

 the hospice for the dying near Dublin in the 

 beauty and comfort of all arrangements that may 

 cheer and comfort the dying. It is in England a 

 unique home in this respect, and receives, besides 

 the dying, patients needing long and tender care, 

 incurables, infirm old women, ladies, especially for 

 operations, &c. The sisterhood of St Peter's was 

 founded in 1861 .by the late Benjamin Lancaster, 

 Esq., and his wife. The sisters have several other 

 houses, including a convalescent hospital on the 

 hi;;li heath and pinewood grounds above Woking 

 Station. They also have mission houses under the 

 parochial clergy in three parishes in the east of 

 London and at Sydenham. 



The first sisterhood in England, that founded by 

 Dr Pusey, was broken up in 1855, after the war in 

 the Crimea, where some of the sisters had worked 

 under Florence Nightingale. A few of the original 

 members of this first English sisterhood joined a 

 small community which had been founded by Miss 

 Lvdia Sellon :n 1849, called the Society of the 

 Holy Trinity. The sisters have a house at Ply- 

 mouth for lower and middle class schools, and a 

 penitentiary ; also a tine convalescent hospital and 

 orphanage near Ascot, and a school at Honolulu, 

 Hnwaian Islands. They also work amongst the 

 poor in Spital fields. 



One of the largest and most important sister- 

 hoods in England was founded in 1851 under the 

 title of ' Sisters of the Poor,' by the late Miss 

 Harriet Byron. Their headquarters is All Saints' 

 Home, in Margaret Street, but they have now 

 eleven houses in London, l>esides the entire nursing 

 of University College Hospital ; thirteen all over 

 Finland, including a splendid convalescent home 

 at Eastbourne ; one at Edinburgh ; six in America ; 

 five at Capetown, l>esides the charge of New Somer- 

 set Hospital ; and at Bombay the nursing of three 

 lin-)>it;il- and the care of two government schools. 



St Margaret's Sisterhood was founded at East 

 Grinstead in 1854 by the Rev. Dr J. M. Neale 

 (q.v. ) for the purpose of nursing the sick poor or 

 rich in their own homes. They have fulfilled this 

 object in all parts of England, ami in the poorest 

 cottages, and have also undertaken almost every 

 other charitable work. They have, including 

 daughter houses depending on their own resources, 

 thirty-two houses in England ami Scotland ; one at 

 Boston, U.S., with sixteen branch houses; and an 

 orphanage and mission-work at Colombo. They 

 also work under the clergy in five London parishes. 



The Holy Cross sisterhood, whose headquarters 

 are at Holy Cross Home, Hayward's Heath, was 

 formed in 1857 to aid in the St George's Mission- 

 work, under the Kev. Charles Lowder, a task in 

 which they persevered during twenty years of 

 hand-to-hand fight with the heathenism of Rat- 

 clifle Highway. They have still a branch house at 

 St Peter's, London Docks, and others at Charl- 

 ton, Dover, Winchester, and York, l>esides an 

 orphanage and large training-school at Hayward's 

 Heath, Sussex. One of the most flourishing sister- 

 hoods in England that of St Mary's, Wantage 

 was founded by the Rev. Dr Butler, afterwards 

 l>cnn of Lincoln, primarily for penitentiary work. 

 Like other societies, its objects have multiplied, 

 and now embrace hospital nursing, schools, mission- 

 work, &c. Seventeen houses in London and vari- 

 ous part* of England, a mission at Poona, India, 

 with the government high school, the Saasoon 

 Hospital, an orphanage for natives, a government 



native school, and a high-caste native school, are 

 under the \Vantage Sisters' care. The ' Sisters of 

 Bethany,' founded in 1866, have their headquarters 

 in Clerkenwell, and are chiefly devoted to educa- 

 tion and to mission-work in poor parishes. They 

 have six houses in London, two at Brighton, one 

 at Shirebropk, Derbyshire, and an orphanage for a 

 hundred children at Bournemouth. St Raphael's 

 Sisterhood, Bristol, founded in 1867, follows, as far 

 as possible, the rule of St Vincent de Paul, and is 

 devoted entirely to the service of the poor ; middle- 

 class education and penitentiary work being ex- 

 cluded. Nine mission-houses, convalescent homes, 

 &c. are under the care of the forty sisters and 

 novices, of which five are in or near Bristol, one at 

 Leeds, and one at Magila, Central Africa, in con- 

 nection with the Universities Mission. 



The 'Sisters of the Church,' Randolph Gardens, 

 Kilburn, founded in 1870 by Miss Emily Ayek- 

 bowm, developed with extraordinary rapidity, as 

 regards the number of sisters, now nearly 150, the 

 immense number and variety of its work, and the 

 large scale upon which each separate branch i 

 carried on. Their prime object was to rescue girls 

 from workhouse upbringing; and beginning with 

 two little orphans in 1875, they have now 500 

 girls under their care, admitted without vote or 

 payment, their only passport being entire friend- 

 lessness and destitution. In 1884 they opened an 

 orphanage for forty boys at Brondcsbury, and 

 in 1886 a convalescent home for 300 children at 

 liroadstairs. Their houses are spread over all 

 parts of London and over England, education and 

 mission work being amongst their chief objects. 

 They have a large publishing establishment in 

 Paternoster Row; and one of their monthly pub- 

 lications- the Banner of Faith, begun in 1882 has 

 a circulation of 320,000. They have immense 

 schools, teaching many thousands of children, and 

 training-homes for teachers. It would be impossible 

 to enumerate all their works in connection with 

 mission-work : restaurants for working-men, a night 

 refuge for men, food-trucks for the unemployed, 

 dep6ts for the sale of second-hand clothing, and an 

 accident hospital at Rotherhithe. Two houses and 

 schools have been founded by these sisters in 

 Canada, and one at Madras. 



Besides these large communities there are many 

 smaller sisterhoods in England : ( 1 ) All Hallows, 

 at Ditchinghani, the sisters' chief work being 

 amongst fallen women. They have a rescue 

 hospital and another house at Norwich, and an 

 orphanage, county hospital, and training school at 

 Ditchinghani ; also a branch in British Columbia. 

 (2) Sisters of the Holy Name, founded 1865, work- 

 ing in the parish of St Peter's, Vauxhall, and with 

 houses at Wednesbury, Malvern Link, Birming- 

 ham, and Worcester. (3) St Katharine's, at 

 Fulham, founded 1879, their special object being 

 prison rescue work. ( 4 ) St Laurence's Sisterhood^ 

 Belper, for the care of the helpless, and to nurse 

 the sick. The sisters have a middle-class school, 

 cottage hospital, and mixed school ; also houses at 

 Derby and Scarborough. (5) St Agnes' Sisters, 

 Birmingham. (6) St Mary's Sisters, Brighton, in 

 charge of penitentiary, industrial school, orphans, 

 schools, &c. (7) St Michael's Sisters, Bussage, 

 who have charge of the Diocesan House of Mercy. 

 (8) St Peter's Sisterhood, Horbury, in charge of a 

 penitentiary for seventy-five inmates, and with 

 branch houses near I5oston and Manchester. (9) 

 Sisters of the Holy Rood, at North Ormesby, in 

 charge of a cottage hospital for accidents, and two 

 other small hospitals in the mining districts ; also 

 of a home for girls. (10) St Thomas' Sisterhood, 

 Oxford, in charge of three schools of different 

 grades, a penitentiary at Basingstoke, and an 

 oqihanage at Southsea. ( 11 ) St Denys' Sisterhood, 



