NEWMAN, John Henry, Cardinal (1801-1890). Leader of the Oxford movement, beatified 2010.
Autograph Letter Signed to [Richard] Spiers, 2 pages 8vo (blank removed), The Oratory, Birmingham, 26 September 1861, Thanking him for a letter and a present, which he cannot yet see because it has been locked up by a friend while he is away, and thanking him for an introduction to his son.

'I returned home yesterday, with the hope, not only of answering your letter, which I had already received, but of taking possession of your kind present - but a friend, at present away, to provide for its safety, has locked it up, and I cannot get hold of it. However, I already know what it is, as you are aware, having been shown the whole of your very handsome publication by your son. I am very much obliged to you for it - as a remembrance of Oriel, and as a remembrance of you. ...'

There had been many disappointments and setbacks for Newman in the previous decade, and in the summer of 1861 he was advised by his doctor to rest for several months; he was not only exhausted but deeply depressed. Anxious to encourage Catholic education, he had responded for the need for a new type of Catholic school, which would provide the kind of education offered by public schools and that middle-class converts particularly wanted for their children, by opening the Oratory School in Birmingham in 1859. The school was resented by the existing Catholic schools which were run on very different lines.

Richard Spiers was the Mayor of Oxford from 1853 to 1854 and a successful retailer and prominent freemason. He had 12 children who survived into adulthood, notably Walter Spiers, curator of Sir John Soane's Museum (1904 to 1917), and Richard Phené Spiers, an architect. It is uncertain which son the publication refers to.

It was during the 1930s at Oriel that Newman became the driving force behind the Oxford Movement, which sought to reassert the catholic heritage of the Church of England in theology and practice. He first came to the college as a Fellow in 1822, a position that he held until 1845.
[No: 26414]