F Thomas Cockshoot was born in 1805 at Ince Blundell near Liverpool and came to Ampleforth in 1816. He took the Habit and the name of Anselm 2 October 1822, and was professed 9 October 1823. For some reason not recorded, he and three others received Minor Orders 10 June 1822, ie three months before their clothing. Br Anselm became Subdeacon 20 January 1827, Deacon 27 June 1828 and Priest 18 September 1830.
Although the Community in 1830 had been depleted by the Prior Park exodus, yet Fr Anselm was sent on the Mission before the end of that year. It may well be that his removal from the house was considered advisable, because he had been, at least for a time, an aggressive partisan of Bishop Baines's project. He was placed at Coventry, where he laboured for the next 8 years, 1830-38. We learn something of conditions at Coventry then from Fr Sebastian Simpson's Centenary Memorial of St Osburg's. Making use of notes left by Fr Anselm, he reckons that the congregation at that time numbered about three or four hundred. It appears also, from the same notes, that there was much bigotry, and that both priest and people suffered much poverty and hardship. There was but a humble chapel with a small presbytery and school in Hill St, which was then in open country. When Fr Anselm came, the school was so dilapidated that he had at once to set about the building of another. Fr Bernard Ullathorne, when sent there in 1841, declared that this building of Fr Anselm's was 'the only good thing about the place.' It continued to do duty until 1875, when the congregation had increased in numbers to about two thousand. A memorandum in Fr Anselm's writing shows that there was some thought of building a church; but this was not achieved until after Dr Ullathorne's appointment, and then only by means of his successful begging tours throughout the country.
At the General Chapter of 1838, Fr Anselm Cockshoot was elected Prior of Ampleforth in succession to Fr Bede Day. He was at this time no more than 33 years of age and had left the Community very soon after his ordination. We may surmise that his work at Coventry had given evidence of ability and energy such as to justify the appointment. Certainly his actual achievement as Prior did justify it.
Ampleforth in 1838 was by no means prosperous. There was a grave burden of debt, and the school had long been working at a loss. (See his letters of 1841 in MS.239, Nos.3 & 4). At the Visitation of April 1841, he submitted to President Marsh a form petition that the house might be equipped with an efficient Council and competent officials. He needed a Subprior, a Procurator and a Professor of Theology. The outcome of this move, and the spirit which inspired it, are described in Fr Almond's History of Ampleforth Abbey (p339-40) He writes:-
Fr Anselm's eight years as Prior came to an end at the General Chapter of 1846 and he retired with the titular dignity of Cathedral Prior of Rochester. He returned to the service of the Mission, being incumbent of Holme-on-Spalding-Moor from 1846 to 1858, twelve years. Here, at first, he devoted much of his leisure to devising schedules which should reform the financial practice of the Congregation. Another, and more extensive, field of labour was presently opened to him. He had already, in conjunction with Fr Ambrose Prest - his successor as Prior - conceived and discussed with many the idea of a Common House of Studies and stricter observance for the Congregation. An opportunity now arose for the fulfilment of this project. At the General Chapter of 1850 Fr Anselm was elected Second Definitor of the Regimen. In the November of 1851 Dr Brown, Bishop of the newly established diocese of Newport and Menevia, proposed to President Molyneux the establishment of a Cathedral Chapter of English Benedictines, leading the monastic life in community and fulfilling the daily duties of the choir. Fr Anselm was now able to put forward the idea of combining the proposed foundation with a Common House of Studies, and even a Common Novitiate also, which latter institution, besides fulfilling its own purposes, would provide further employment and support for the resident Canons. These projects necessarily involved the question of the erection of a suitable monastery, of the site for the same, and of the means which would support it. Fr Anselm produced a great number of schedules, of his characteristic sort, dealing with every aspect of the matter. (See Fr Almond's article The Birth of Belmont in the Ampleforth Journal in 1912, and Abbot Burge's articles A Worthy Son of St Laurence's in the Spring and Autumn numbers of 1928). The site was settled at the General Chapter of 1854, when Mr Wegg-Prosser's offer of Belmont was accepted, and the work then went forward, though not without some difficulties. However, Fr Anselm proved himself throughout an undaunted and tireless worker, possessed of zeal, but also of tact and patience. A tribute to his work is paid in the Belmont Narration, 1912, in these terms:-
However, though all this is absolutely true in spirit and substance owing to difficulties in finding a supply for Holme, it was not until March of 1858 that Fr Anselm was able to reside permanently near Belmont and give his full attention to the work. Before the work started, in May 1857, he had with the architect, Edward Pugin, settled the main outlines and position of the buildings. In the interval his place was taken by Fr Ambrose Prest, with whom he was in constant correspondence, as well as with the architect, the contractor and successive clerks of the works. From March 1858 to the opening day, 21 November 1859, he watched and directed the operations with such assiduity that he could assure Fr Ambrose Prest in the summer of 1859 that he was worn out with a year and a half of continued stretch of mind on one subject and was longing for a rest.
It can hardly be said that he achieved this desire when conventual life began at Belmont. The Bishop appointed him one of his residentiary Canons, and the first Cathedral Prior, D Norbert Sweeney, made him his Procurator, in which post at that time he can have had little rest for mind or body. Early in 1862 a new Prior was appointed in the person of D Bede Vaughan, and in the autumn of that year Fr Anselm was relieved of his procuratorship. For a few months, 1862-3, while retaining his canonry at the express request of the Bishop, he was stationed on the mission at Cheltenham. In the following year, 1863, the Bishop arranged for him to be chaplain to Mr Biddulph Phillips, a recent convert, at Longworth near Hereford. The foundation by Mr Phillips of the convent of Bartestree nearby in 1864 led to his appointment as chaplain to the nuns, while residing at Longworth. He was most devoted and punctual in his performance of these duties. The annals of the Community, as cited by Abbot Burge, pay this tribute:-
After the death of Mr Phillips, when the convent presbytery was ready, he moved there from Longworth and resided at Bartestree 1866-72. Here, once again, he was called upon to use his experience in building. He superintended the erection of the church, of an extra wing to the monastery and the laying out of the cemetery walks and garden. He gave his earnest attention also to the business of the financial support of the Community. Various means had been tried with indifferent success, when his practical mind hit upon the project of a laundry, which proved to be the perfect solution.
But, besides the care of Bartestree, other responsibilities made great demands upon his time and energy. Bishop Brown, then in his 70th year, made him his Vicar General, a most exacting post. And, at the same time, he was continued in his membership of the House Council of Belmont. This last Office, when his attendance was required, regularly involved a walk of 7 miles each way and the sacrifice of a whole day. Though of robust health and used to an austere life, he presently broke down under these various burdens. At the end of a busy Saturday, towards the close of November 1871, he was struck down with pleurisy. Being unable to secure a deputy, he himself performed his Sunday duty in great pain, getting back to the presbytery only with the greatest difficulty. Here he lay for the next two months, cheered at times by the company of two fellow Laurentians, Fathers Romuald Woods and Cuthbert Hedley, who took turns week by week in supplying his place from Belmont. The convent bell was rung at the chief points of the Mass each day, so that he might follow it, and after Mass he daily received Holy Communion.
The end came in February of 1872. Early in that month he had been sufficiently well to attend a solemn Mass in the church. On February 20th, while walking in the little passage of his presbytery, he collapsed. He was found lying on the ground, in a dying condition, by two Fathers who arrived providentially from Belmont, Prior Vaughan and Fr Anselm Gillett. They conveyed his unconscious body to a couch and anointed him. Barely half an hour later he died, in the 67th year of his age, and was buried at Bartestree.
Thus died a man who did very great service for his own monastery of Ampleforth, and, by the part which he played in the foundation of Belmont, an outstanding service for the Congregation generally.