John Molyneux was born in Liverpool 23 January 1783 of humble parentage.
See MS.238, Nos 9 and 10 (1800) letters written as from Edward and Mary Molyneux, of Manchester, to their son John, then a church student of Lamspring. Here, and in other early records, the name is spelt Molineux. The parents in 1800 were carrying on some small trade in Manchester; there is no indication that they had removed from Liverpool, the place of birth given by the Obit Book.
He was educated at Lamspring and at the date of the suppression of that abbey (3 Jan 1803) had completed his school studies and was ready to enter the novitiate. That being no longer possible at Lamspring, President Brewer arranged that John Molyneux and his schoolfellows, Peter Baines and Edward Glover, should become novices in St. Lawrence's community, then recently established at Ampleforth (1802). The young men landed at Hull in the spring of 1803 and went immediately to Ampleforth. They were clothed there as novices 27th May 1803, John Molyneux as Br. Alban being the first novice to be clothed for Ampleforth. He was professed 8 Jun 1804, received Minor Orders and the Subdiaconate 28 May 1806, the Diaconate 16 September 1807 and the Priesthood 14 December 1808.
MATRICULA gives the death-year wrongly as 1861. Note this: He was ordained priest in September 1807 and in the following year he proceeded to the Mission of Knaresboro'.
Before the end of that year (1808) Fr. Alban was appointed incumbent of the mission of Knaresborough, in succession to Fr. Denis Allerton who had been his prefect of studies at Lamspring. After eight years at Knaresborough, he was in 1816 transferred to Warrington, where he remained until his death in 1860. Abbot Allanson, in his account of the Warrington mission, gives the following information: 'As the old chapel, dated from 1778, was found too small for the increasing number of Catholics, Fr. Alban Molyneux, the Incumbent, purchased a plot of ground and erected a new House and Chapel, which was opened 13 November 1823. To meet the expense of the undertaking the funds of the place, amounting to £900, were taken up, £300. was collected, and the residue, amounting to more than £1,000, was paid out of the peculium of the Incumbent.'
In the early period of his missionary career Fr. Alban played no part either in the affairs of Ampleforth or in those of the Congregation at large. He appears to have lived in some isolation from his brethren and to have concentrated his whole attention on the administration of his parish. He was evidently a good man of business, who besides setting his mission on a sound basis was able to amass a considerable personal property.
In the year 1838 Fr. Alban emerged from his comparative seclusion to be elected Third Definitor of the Regimen at the General Chapter of July in that year. We find him appending his signature (with surname in the form Molineux) to the Resolutions for the abandonment of the Lamspring foundation at Broadway (24 August 1841, MS.262, No.21).
Ampleforth was at this period still suffering from the effects of the Prior Park episode and Prior Cockshoot in his first quadriennium (1838-42) made no progress towards the solution of his financial problem. In his second period, however, he had conspicuous success, and when he left office in 1846 the financial state of the House was transformed. This happy consummation was due in no small degree to the assistance generously given by Fr. Alban Molyneux.
In the beginning the second period of his rule, in 1842, Prior Cockshoot obtained the permission of General Chapter to the unusual procedure of co-opting three Missioners into his House Council. Of these three, Fr. Alban was the chief. He served on Council until November 1845, when considering that the state of the House no longer required this exceptional arrangement he voluntarily resigned.
During the period of his Councillorship Fr. Alban assisted Ampleforth not only with money but also with much help in regard to the external affairs of the Community. In the minutes of Council he is several times styled Monasterii ad extra Procurator, and proved himself thus of the greatest value to Prior Cockshoot. (See Prior Cockshoot's letters to him in MS.243.) This assistance he continued to Prior Cockshoot's successor, Fr. Ambrose Prest, with whom he was on especially good terms. (see his letters in MS.243 and MS.262).
As regards his financial contributions to Ampleforth, he sank in the House during the Priorship of Fr. Cockshoot the substantial sum of £3000, and at later dates a further £200. Besides these sums he transferred to the house in 1854 some Warrington Gas shares, of which the cost price was £390.
Fr. Athanasius Allanson, seeking Fr Alban's advice, writes thus to him in a letter of 17 January, 1842: 'In my judgement there is no member of St. Lawrences's whose long experience of affairs and whose constant habits of application, independent of the high office which you now hold in the Body, can entitle them to pass an opinion which deserves to be as much respected and regarded as you own.' (MS.262, No.33)
About the middle of 1843 President Barber conferred on him the title of Doctor, honoris causa. His sterling qualities had already earned for him among his brethren the sobriquet of 'Honest John'.
At the General Chapter of 1846, Dr. Molyneux became Provincial of York, in succession to the unfortunate Fr Anselm Brewer. For a full account of the latter and of his grave mismanagement of the funds of the Province, see Allanson's biography. While unsparing in his condemnation of the proceedings of Provincial Brewer, Allanson does not hesitate to criticise Provincial Molyneux also for his severity towards his predecessor.
When elected Provincial in 1846, Dr. Molyneux had at the same Chapter been nominated Cathedral Prior of Gloucester. To the General Chapter of 1850 he submitted a Petition which urged a drastic reformation of the financial methods of the Congregation and in particular regular audits of accounts. The Chapter took up his suggestions and gave partial effect to them in its twentieth Definition and subsequently. At the same chapter of 1850, he was chosen Second President-Elect and exchanged his priorship of Gloucester for the more distinguished one of Durham.
The President of the Congregation, D. Luke Barber, died 29 December 1850, and Dr. Molyneux, then in his sixty-eighth year, succeeded him not without some reluctance (MS.262, No.133). He was appointed at the same time to the Titular Abbacy of St. Albans, resigning his priorship of Durham. When he ceased to be President in 1854, since his abbacy did not confer membership of General Chapter, he became as well Cathedral Prior of Canterbury.
The Hierarchy had just been restored in this country when Dr. Molyneux became President and it was expected that the Regulars who have much to do to maintain their ancient privileges; but as yet there was no serious conflict. One of the first matters with which President Molyneux had to deal was the question of that small property in Rome which was acquired by the Congregation in the year 1638 and which because of its remoteness and consequent difficulty of administration provided little more than chronic trouble and expense until it was finally sold in 1908. President Molyneux in his period contemplated the sale of the property or its transfer to the Italian Benedictines; but no conclusion was reached. See various letters in MS.262 (Nos. 146, 160, 164,169) and MS.263.
A more important matter was the establishment of a Benedictine Chapter for the new diocese of Newport and Menevia, which led to the foundation at Belmont of the Common Novitiate and House of Studies. The Bishop - (D. Thomas Joseph Brown, Prior of Downside 1834-40, Vicar Apostolic of the Welsh District 1840-50) - was very urgent to have his Chapter established and impatient of delay. But the establishment of the Chapter necessarily involved the foundation of a monastery and provision for the occupation and subsistence of the Canons. So it became President Molyneux's chief business to put these points before the Bishop and to check his impetuosity. A further point to be settled was the site of the monastery. These various matters involved the President in much correspondence with the Bishop, so that the progress of the business may be followed closely in the letters which are preserved. (MS.262, Nos.171-5,178,180; MS.239, No.52; all of 1852). Other sites had been considered but were eclipsed in September 1853 when Belmont was offered. (MS.239, Nos.58-64, 66) The final decisions were taken at the General Chapter of 1854, when Dr. Molyneux laid down his office and was succeeded by President Burchall. But before this consummation it fell to President Molyneux to placate Colonel Vaughan, who had offered another site (MS.262, No.198) and to continue his tactful, yet firm correspondence with Bishop Brown (cf. MS.262, No.199) In a final letter, written on the eve of the General chapter of July 1854, he invites Bishop Ullathorne, in cordial and pressing terms to attend the Chapter and give the assembled Fathers the benefit of his invaluable advice.
During the year 1853 the President received from the Abbot of St. Paul's in Rome a letter (May 16TH) which informed him that it was proposed to re-open the ancient College of St. Anselmo and expressed the hope that the English Benedictines would contribute students. The President answered this letter with much warmth of appreciation and expression of devotion to Monte Cassino and the Holy See, but declared that existing circumstances would not at that time allow him to promise any students. (MS.262, Nos.192,193) [See Downside Review, 1 (20) 1901 p32-6 for Collegium Gregorianum de Urbe]
In the same year (1853) the President found it necessary to check the Prior and Council of St. Lawrence's, very anxious to build their new church and to start on it immediately, although they had not fulfilled the preliminary conditions which he had imposed (May 16; MS.262, No.189). He was firm in his refusal to allow an immediate start, and, as it appears from a second letter (ibid.) by no means pleased with the answer which he had received to his first. At a later date (7 March 1855), when the conditions had been fulfilled, he was to concur as First Definitor in giving the formal consent of President and Regimen (Council Book p160-1)
With the end of his presidency in July of 1854, there is no further correspondence of his preserved in our archives, so that we have little record of the last six years of his life. He had taken up the incumbency of Warrington in 1816 and until 1846 served this Mission, which included not only the whole of the town but also a considerable surrounding district, single-handed. In the year 1846 he acquired an assistant in the person of Fr. Edmund Poole. In the year 1853, though continuing to reside at St. Alban's, he resigned the incumbency to Fr. John Placid Hall. A letter of Fr Hall to Prior Cooper of 11 Aril 1856 (MS.262, No.42) gives us a glimpse of him in his seventy-fourth year. Fr Hall writes:
Dr Molyneux has quite made up his mind that he is to die this year, and is busily engaged in preparing for his departure. For some time he has been engaged in arranging his money matters. This week we have been looking over the Books etc. A copy of his Direction to his Executors is now before me, signed by the President.
There is a copy of this paper in the Ampleforth archives (in the box labelled Bequests) of which this is a full transcript:
Distribution of the Peculium of Dom Alban Molyneux
1. To the North Province, which I have served nearly half a century, I have given with consent of Chapter £3000. Of it £1,100 is already advanced, subject to an annuity of £5 per cent, and I have transferred to it (reserving the dividend for my life) my London and North Western Railway shares, worth at present more than £1,500. Whatever is deficient of the sum named above, as the value of railway shares may be different at my death, will have to be taken out of the residue of my peculium.
2. To the Benedictine Mission of Warrington, which I have served nearly 40 years. I have given the house, in which I live, the house, in which Mrs. Parsons died, and the house used as a back-kitchen to the one tenanted by Mr. Ashton and which I bought of Mr. Beamont. I also wish this Mission to have my plate, furniture and generally whatever is in the house, upon condition that all be kept in as good a state as it was when I gave up, and that nothing be charged in future to any incoming Incumbent. The Books and pictures I also wish to remain to the Mission, only the Prior of Ampleforth to be allowed to select any, that are not in the library there, to the number of one third of the whole. The wine and spirits, if any, also to remain for the use of Confreres, who may visit at and after my funeral.
3. The shop and six cottages in Tanner's and Dallam Lanes (one of them in St Alban's Street) are also my peculium, but subject to a ground rent to the Chapel or Mission. After that is duly paid I should wish £25 per annum to be set aside to bring up a student for the community of Sts. Adrian and Denis, with whom I had my early education. To make this valid and constitutional, I intend, on the first opportunity to solicit approbation of the President. If anything of the rents then remain, I with it to be applied to the School, but only if the Missioners can conveniently spare it.
4. Ampleforth the house of my profession to have my Gas shares for the purpose of educating an Ecclesiastical Student to be selected from this Congregation, if conveniently can be. Indeed I consider them to belong to it, and therefore I have generally applied the Dividends to that purpose. Ampleforth of course will have the remainder of my peculium, which I hope may amount, after the payment of my debts and liabilities, to the sum of £4000, which I agreed in Mr. Cockshoot's Priorship to sink in the house for an annuity; but £3000 of which they only then took. £200 more has since been paid on the same account.
John Alban Molyneux.
Paragraphs 2 (two) and 3 (three) to be taken in an absolute sense. Paragraphs 1 (one) and 4 (four) in a conditional sense; so that in case the sums of £3000 and £4000 respectively cannot be fully made up the Province and Ampleforth must suffer in proportion to the sums left to them.
Richard Burchall President
John P. Hall
Praes.Gen.Secretarius
Warrington 21 July 1855
These directions were not in the event fulfilled to the letter, President Burchall in 1861 overriding the instructions of the postscript. The North Province was accorded a further £300 out of the Warrington properties, and Ampleforth was allowed to cancel the proposed Church student fund and add the £390 received in Gas shares to the £3200 of moneys sunk.
Though expecting his death in 1856, Dr. Molyneux did not die until 13 October 1860 when his age was 77 years 8 months and 21 days. He had been First Definitor of the Regimen from 1854 to 1858. He retained the twofold dignity of Abbot of St. Albans and Cathedral Prior of Canterbury until his death.
Additions from MATRICULA:
New chapel at Warrington opened the 15th of November 1823 by Dr. Baines who preached on the occasion.
After he had long discharged the duties of the Mission by himself, Fr. Edmund Poole was sent to him as Assistant in 1846. At the Chapter in the same year he was elected the Provincial of York and though he continued to be re-elected at the Chapter in 1850, yet he resigned in the September following. He was not re-elected President in 1854 'owing to his growing infirmities'.
In 1853 he had resigned the incumbency at Warrington, but continued to reside at the Chapel House. In the spring of 1856 his hands became paralysed and from this period he ceased to say Mass. His mind also became affected and he continued in this state until his death which took place after he had received the rites of the Church on the 13th October 1861, and was buried in the public Cemetery at Warrington.
Note (J McCann): More information about his financial arrangements and their fate in my notes on the Ampleforth Church Student Funds.
John ALBAN Molyneux 13 October 1860 1783 23 Jan Born 1803 Clothed 1804 Professed 1808 Priest Knaresborough 1816 St Alban's Warrington 1846 Provincial of York 1860 13 Oct died