James Yorke Bramston
James Yorke Bramston (born March 15, 1773 in Oundle , Northamptonshire , † July 11, 1836 in Southampton ) was a convert from the Anglican to the Catholic Church, Catholic Bishop and Vicar Apostolic of London .
Life
James Yorke Bramston, son of the lawyer Stephen Bramston, attended the school in his hometown, then Trinity College, Cambridge and finally studied law under the direction of the well-known Catholic lawyer Charles Butler (1750-1832). It was through him that he first came into contact with the Catholic Church. In the vicinity of Butler's house was the Sardinian Legation Chapel, where James Yorke Bramston soon took part in services and in Christian doctrine; In 1790 he converted to the Catholic Church.
His parents respected the decision, as did his friends. Bramston wanted to become a clergyman at once, but his father recommended that he examine himself for at least a year to see whether his decision was firm. After this time, James Yorke Bramston entered the English exile seminary in Lisbon in 1792 ; In 1796 he was ordained a Catholic priest here. Already as a seminarian and now as a priest, he looked after English soldiers stationed there in Portugal. When the plague broke out in Lisbon, Bramston was particularly active among the sick.
After the death of his father, he returned to his English homeland in 1801. At that time there was no regular Catholic church hierarchy here because of government restrictions. The country was divided into provisional parishes led by Vicars Apostolic in the rank of titular bishops . John Douglass , then Vicar Apostolic of London , appointed James Yorke Bramston pastor in 1802 to St. George in the Fields, Southwark , then the poorest Catholic parish in London. It later developed into a center of local Catholicism and in 1841 received a large church, today's St. George's Cathedral . Here he remained active until 1823, in 1812 the new Vicar Apostolic William Poynter (1762-1827) appointed him as his Vicar General . In 1815 both traveled to Rome and Poynter asked Bramston to be coadjutor there .
On February 4, 1823, James Yorke Bramston was appointed Titular Bishop of Usula by the Pope and ordained bishop on June 29, 1823 by Bishop Poynter at St. Edmund's College, Hertfordshire . With Poynters death in 1827 he succeeded him as Vicar Apostolic of the London district. The office was transformed into that of Archbishop of Westminster in 1850 with the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in England . Bramston held it until his death in 1836. He suffered from poor health throughout his tenure and was unable to walk in the last year of his life. Therefore, in 1828 he accepted the somewhat younger Robert Gradwell (1777-1833) as coadjutor; but he died before him. From 1830 James Yorke Bramston lived in the house at No. 36 Golden Square in London and used the nearby Warwick Street Church , which was under Bavarian legation protection, as a bishopric. There is still a commemorative plaque with the Bavarian coat of arms there, on which he and Bishop Gradwell are listed as bishops serving here under Bavarian protection. On the occasion of the first cholera epidemic in England (1831), Bramston ordered public prayers in all churches under his control.
Bishop Bramston died in Southampton in 1836 recreational and was buried in St. Mary's Church, Moorfields . When it was demolished (1899), his remains were transferred to St. Edmund's Church, Ware (Hertfordshire) .
The standard Dictionary of National Biography states that James Yorke Bramston possessed good judgment, profound knowledge and remarkable conversational skills, but that the main characteristic was his great charity.
literature
- David August Rosenthal : Convertite pictures from the nineteenth century. Volume 2. Hurter Verlag, Schaffhausen 1867, pp. 21-23.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Oundle history webpage
- ^ Reginald Fuller: A short history of Warwick Street Church, formerly the Royal Bavarian Chapel , Kath. Pfarramt Warwick Street Church, London, 1973, p. 38
- ^ Catholic Magazine and Review. Volume 1, 1831, p. 706 ( books.google.de ).
- ^ Obituary In: Carlisle Journal. July 23, 1836
- ↑ Bernard Ward: History of St. Edmund's College, Old Hall. 1893, p. 241; (Detail scan)
- ↑ Website on the funerals of the English bishops ( memento of the original from September 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bramston, James Yorke |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English Catholic clergyman, titular bishop and vicar apostolic of London |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 15, 1773 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Oundle , Northamptonshire county |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 11, 1836 |
| Place of death | Southampton |