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A file relating to the controversy between Dr Edward Thomas O'Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick and Mungret College concerning the admission of lay boys to the College. The file contains manuscript material written by Fr Thomas Morrissey SJ. In a summary he remarks that the Bishop saw the presence of lay students at Mungret 'as a threat to his seminary' (nd, 1p). Includes correspondence, and prospectus for Mungret College, 1882, Annual reports of the Irish Apostolic School, Mungret, 1889 and 1895.

Diary of Fr William A. Sutton SJ. Includes note dated 19 Jan. 1901 on last page which reads ‘Have been reading diary all up to this. Interested & benefited. Plenty to smile at. More than twenty years have passed. I don’t seem to be much better intellectually. Morally & spiritually much the same. I am [ ] better some ways peptically. I am now 53½ years old. I have much more sober & modest notions of myself. What a lot of things happened!’

Includes entry dated 18 September 1894 which reads: ‘I have read all diary up to this. It has done me good intellectually and spiritually. I see what kind of life I have led.…Worry, hoping, struggling, trying again, thinking, prayer, trying to be humble, wishing to be holy, compromising or compounding with obstacles, determined to avoid deliberate sin of all kinds with God’s grace,…much to endure mentally & bodily, feel responsibility of office very much, studying same books as well as matters connected with new duties. I suppose such will always be my life’ (1p.).
Also includes entry dated 22 January 1901 which reads, ‘I have read all diaries up to this.…I think I will begin keeping it again. Kept it up to about year ago I think pretty regularly. Life much the same. Health much better.…This is my sixth year as Superior at M(ill)town Park. Hopes it lasts.’
Also includes entry on last page dating to 12 November 1912 which reads ‘Have read D(iary) fr(om) beginning to here.…Had given up keeping diary for years, but last month began again though not on the same lines. My idea was to put down day by day what I had come to, what I thought, what I tried to be, to take stock of myself in all my bearings, as a kind of statement of what all my experiences had made me. I have written more in this kind of diary…since Oct. 1st than perhaps in a whole year of ordinary kind. I began with repugnance, I soon got some facility & even liking for such writing. I have never felt the joy that writers feel so often in using their steel pen, though I have written a good deal.…The eight years I was at Mungret 1903 – 1911 I taught Lat(in), Greek, English, most pass, a good deal honours too of English (I, II Arts) & all the University classes in Latin fr(om) Matric. to B.A. incl..…In the resumed diary I was putting down all about humility etc., etc., as if it were almost something new, a better way etc., & I find I’ve been always at it. But I really think I am better at it now, for I have learnt to recognise that I am all out-of-joint & therefore much better able to get on, feeling how infinitely better off I am than I deserve to be, how others better, how grateful I ought to be (& try to be) to be in God’s house, a member of the Society, how silly to find fault with what wise & holy men have appointed. Health all along much the same, discomfort, no positive pain, at times not easy to be patient or cheery with, but on the whole I am splendidly off here & dont wish ever to be elsewhere.…I think I may say I never was so well off & so peaceful & so come to anchor as I feel here & have felt since coming, but especially this second year & most since I took up D(iary) again.’

Diary includes entry dated 31 August 1909 which reads, ‘Since coming here to Mungret six years ago I’ve been struggling on much on the old lines ever seeking peace one way or another…It came upon me quite by surprise to be sent here from M(ill)town Park. I had been told I sh(oul)d be there 10 years (of course not for certain). Any way I made best of it. It was compensation to get away from relatives who had given me awful bother, poor creatures. I came here as Vice Rector & had lots of teaching. I had to study much & got on well enough. I expected to be appointed Rector, but after 2 years ceased to be Superior & felt it someways though I would have chosen it too.…In the matter of Latin it seems to me as if I had never known much about it before & still I am far from being a Latin scholar. This is absolutely true. Last year I had 2nd Arts Pass Greek & learnt a good deal about it too & glad of additional insight.…First year I had 1st Arts English Pass & Honors besides Pass [ ] of B.A. [And] 2nd Arts. Eyes got affected. Two months not allowed to read. Enjoyed the time. This year I had only Lat(in) B.A. & 2nd Arts & so like last year.…For all my reading, writing, thinking, results not much. I have not turned out at all what I expected. Much better so. I have given up thinking I ever shall.…I am now in my 63rd year, old enough to have sense. It is something to know that one has not much sense & never shall. Men are but children of larger growth.…one w(oul)d think I ought to have made more mark. Since I came here six years ago I have never been asked to preach anywhere, not even at the Crescent. I am glad now. I am determined for the future to be absolutely truthful with regard to mental state, & give up all sham.…I have a great deal of the buffoon in me. This vacation I was three weeks away at C.W.C.,…(Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare)…in Dublin & in [...]. All that time I was going about & meeting many. I joked & told stories & made people laugh &…in my own esteem shone & I am sure several thought I was always goodhumoured… the truth is very different.…As I have given up all desire of distinguishing myself, of attracting notice etc. I will try to make diary a companion.…The way to please God is to be as useful & helpful as one can. I must try. Reading & writing may be best for me.’

Diary is resumed after a three year break, on 1st October 1912, in an entry beginning ‘Tullabeg. here since Aug. 24th 1911.’

Includes entry on first page which reads ‘Since I took up again to diarykeeping some months ago, I have written what would make a rather larger volume I think if printed. It is not mere diary dottings by any means. It is a kind of record of what I think about myself & my doings & most that concerns me & a sort of summing up of my life previously recorded in a diary of many years duration.…If so, I am writing what would make a large work in print. I may very well be making a fool of myself as the saying is. How many with more ability than I possess, have left a mass of MSS after them & how often no one took the trouble to read the same. In some ways my case is peculiar. I am most willing to concede that I have been very silly & very much every way but what I should have been long ago…’ (20 Feb. 1913)

Diary includes entry which states “It seems to me that this Diary would be worth printing after my death. Not all, most of it I think. Readers would profit by it, & ought to be much interested as well as I can judge. In the first place it is no ordinary record of spiritual struggle in one who had much to contend with…but in much has been blessed. This latter part, beginning about last October is a kind of consummation or crowning record in which I have tried to compress results of life struggle. In many ways I seem like one who has safely come into port after long sailing on stormy, dangerous seas in quest of some ‘golden harbour’…In the second place there is a great deal throughout Diary of matter, which is as good & valuable from a literary point of view as anything I ever wrote, & I have been much & sincerely praised by competent critics for much that I have written. All my writings except this Diary have consisted of contributions to magazines, 'Irish Monthly', 'Month', 'New Ireland Review', far the most, but there were good things too from this pen to other Catholic periodicals, 'Lamp', 'Irish Ecc(lesiastica)l Record' (not much; I got £4 at end of one year fr(om) Editor for two or three short articles), 'Ave Maria', dont remember more. To 'Baconiana' I contributed several articles, all very favourably received.”

Diary of Fr William A. Sutton SJ.

Diary of Fr William A. Sutton SJ.

Diary includes entry dated 16 December 1902, following his one of his periodic reading of past diaries, which reflects ‘It has been a great help to me to have hit upon a subject of writing and study which is interest(in)g & useful. I have written & studied much about Bacon being Shakespeare. This has done more good than anything in the way of cheering etc., but it is not everything. I can do much for religious truth through this subject too.…This is my seventh year here…(Milltown Park)…as Superior. Present Prov(incia)l has often told me I do excellent work here & that no one else would suit so well. Wonderful. I am not an atom conceited about it. I see well that any good in me or done by me is by God’s help & that my not having any conceit is sole way of continuing’

Diary of Fr William A. Sutton SJ.

Includes last entry written on 3 March 1922, five weeks before his death, which reads, ‘Couldnt have thought could have endured so much, sometimes pain, others weariness, impatience etc. Get sleep off & on.…Still able to carry on somehow thank God. Every attention 1st rate.…’

Letter to Fr William A Sutton SJ from Fr Herman Walmesley SJ congratulating him on behalf of Fr General, on the Golden Jubilee of his entrance into the Society.

Letter from Dr John Henry Newman (founder of the Oratorian Congregation at Edgbaston, Birmingham, from where the letter was written) to Fr John Walford SJ, congratulating him on ‘having fixed’ his vocation. Fr Walford entered the English Province of the Society on 13 September 1867.

Letter found among the papers of Fr William A. Sutton SJ however the connection with Fr Walford or Cardinal Newman is unknown.

Letter to Fr William A Sutton SJ from his brother, Sir Abraham Sutton following the publication of 'The Clongownian' in June 1921, containing a photograph of him (Sir Abraham), following his election as President of the Clongowes Union, for 1920 – 1921, and an appreciation (p.120 – 121). States in his letter ‘Dont fail to read 'The Clongownian'. You will be amazed to read about your younger brother as indeed he was to read about himself.…I suspect who wrote it but I am not quite certain. It is artistically done but much over laudatory. You cried when I returned to the world but Providence decreed otherwise for there were many family matters that required my special attention. Just think I entered my 73rd year on last Monday. Oh how short they appear now!’

Letters and cards sent to Fr William A Sutton SJ from an old school-friend R. Chinnery (Waterloo Place, Cork) for his birthday.

Letters and notes to Fr William A Sutton SJ from various individuals including the Editor of 'The Lamp', Alfred de Burgh (Shankill, County Dublin), Hanbury Geoghegan, Charles Coppinger (Upper Merrion Street, Dublin) and A.H. Matthew (Chelsfield, Kent).

Letters to Fr William A Sutton SJ from Dr Robert M. Theobald. Includes: copy of letter sent to him as Editor of ‘Baconia’ from an irate native of Stratford-on-Avon (10 Jan. 1903, 2pp); letter to Fr Sutton from Dr Theobald’s cousin, W. Theobald (29 Apr. 1903, 2pp); letter to Dr Theobald from Walter Begley (see also J18/43) (30 May 1904, 4pp & envelope); letter from Dr Theobald enclosing newspaper articles consisting of a review of 'Passages from the Autobiography of a Shakespeare Student' by R.M. Theobald and a letter to the Editor of 'The Morning Post' from an Edwin Durning–Lawrence (27 Dec. 1911, 3 items) and letters to Dr Theobald from a ‘P.S.’ (n.d., 2 items).

Letters to Fr William A Sutton SJ from his nephew George in Inniscarrig House, Cork. Includes: note enclosing letter from a Mr Michael Holland a ‘local artist and literary man’ explaining the history of a statue of William Pitt, the elder, commissioned by Cork Corporation in recognition of Pitt’s ‘active part in promoting Irish interests in the English Parliament when Vice-Treasurer of Ireland’ (May 1914, 2 items & 1 envelope) and letter containing family news and thanking him for sending a letter of condolence following the death of his [sister] Ma[i] in childbirth (17 Jul. 1918, 2pp & 1 envelope).

Letters to Fr William A Sutton SJ from Isaac Hull Platt.

Letters to Fr William A Sutton SJ from Judge Thomas Webb, author, scholar and fellow Baconian.

Letters to Fr William A Sutton SJ from Mrs Constance Pott, founder of the Bacon Society.

Letters to Fr William A Sutton SJ from Professor Edward Dowden.

Letters to Fr William A Sutton SJ from Sir Edward Sullivan (brother of Fr John Sullivan SJ).

Letters to Fr William A Sutton SJ from Edwin Reed, Andover, Massachusetts, U.S.A..

Letters to Fr William A Sutton SJ from Walter Begley (Greencroft Gardens, Hampstead, London, England).

Letters to Fr William A Sutton SJ from William [Smedley] (CheyneWalk, London).

Letters to scholastic William Sutton SJ from fellow Jesuits, Frs Heinrich Thiemann (Stonyhurst) and Edmund O'Reilly (Milltown Park) on philosophical matters.

List of novices for the Irish Jesuit Province and their status as regards fee payment.

Lists of writers (arranged alphabetically) of the Restored Society and their publications (1832-1925, 38pp, ). Compiled by Fr James Rabbitte SJ of Gardiner Street, (Custodian of the Irish Province Archives, 1924-1930). Typed list of Irish Jesuit authors and title, 20th century (1900-1939, 6pp).

Photograph of the M. Abbe l'Heritier (standing), sitting l-r: Frs William Ronan, William Sutton and Thomas Head. 4 members of the orginal staff of Mungret. Taken by Dominic Kelly SJ.

Photographs of Fr William A Sutton SJ and various members of the Smithers family at their home, ‘Homefield’ in Knockholt, Kent. Includes postcard showing exterior of the house.

Statement by Irish Fr Provincial Thomas Brown SJ indicating that he has received and accepted ‘the sum of £900 on 3 per cent stock’ from Sister E.M. Sutton of the Ursuline Convent of Ardanche, France, on certain conditions.

Material relating to a translation of Thomas Kempis ’s 'The Imitation of Christ' by Fr. Thaddeus, O.F.M.. Includes newspaper articles and correspondence of, and concerning Sir. Francis Cruise, the author of a 1904 translation of 'The Imitation of Christ'. (This material was found among the papers of Fr William A. Sutton SJ, the connection between it and F. Sutton is unknown.

Sir Francis Cruise left his collection of books to the library of St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street.