Richard Prest was born at Knaresborough in 1801 of a family connected with the cotton [perhaps rather, linen] industry which then flourished in that town. He came to college in 1813 with an elder brother, by name John. In the same year came three other boys whose names afterwards became prominent in Ampleforth History, viz. Peter Allanson, Ralph Cooper and William Hampson. Richard Prest took the habit and the name of Ambrose on 22 December 1818, and was professed 23 December 1819. He was ordained priest at the age of 23 on 18 December 1824, and before the end of the same year was appointed to the mission of Knaresborough. At this date the chapel and presbytery were in Briggate, which remain the site of the mission until 1831, when the present premises in Bondgate were erected. After four years at Knaresborough, Fr. Ambrose was transferred in 1828 to the rural mission of Swinburne in Northumberland, a chaplaincy of the Riddell family. But he was moved before the end of the same year to the very different conditions of Liverpool, where he became second assistant to Provincial Robinson at St. Peter's, Seel St. After four years in Liverpool, he returned in 1832 to Ampleforth and was a member of the resident community until 1837. There is no record of his life during this period, but we may assume that he took a full share in the life of the house. Ampleforth was at this period suffering acutely from the effects of the Prior Park episode and the little Community needed all the help it could get during these difficult years. Fr. Ambrose was a gifted man both in mind and in character, and we may be sure that his brethren welcomed both his able assistance in the school and the bright friendliness of his gentle disposition.
In the year 1837 he left Ampleforth again for the mission field, being entrusted this time with the establishment of a new missionary centre at Aigburth, near Liverpool. A local Catholic family, by name Challoner, had provided the necessary land and promised an endowment for the support of the priest, on condition that that priest was Fr. Ambrose. The Vicar Apostolic, Bishop Briggs, was not favourable to the foundation of this new Benedictine Mission and had given his consent only after much negotiation. (see the correspondence the transcribed in Allanson's Records, IV, p. 209 ff.) However, his consent was finally obtained, and for the five years 1837-42 Fr. Prest was engaged in the arduous task of building a house and church and organising the new mission. His health had never been robust, and as a result of these labours deteriorated so much that a complete change of work and climate was deemed advisable. So the General Chapter of 1842, to his surprise and even to his amazement, he was appointed as Procurator in Rome.
On 18 November 1842, when about to leave England, he wrote as follows to President Barber:
When he reached Rome, it was to find that he was expected to live in conditions of food and lodging which were by no means suitable for an invalid (MS.238, No.58 etc: see Ampleforth Journal 16 1910-11 p52-65; p145-63; 19 1913-14 p460-70). The President had empowered him, for the furtherance of his work in Rome, to assume the dignity of a Cathedral Prior, and his letters show him concerned to acquire a proper costume. He looked into the matter of the English Benedictine property in Rome, but without achieving a solution. His chief business appears to have been to keep the authorities in Rome informed about the progress of the missionary work of the Congregation in England. A tangible result of his months in Rome was an indult which empowered the president to confer the degree of Doctor of Divinity upon four members of the Congregation (Allanson, History III, p.329 note) His stay in Rome had not been a happy one, and it was with much relief that he returned to England in the summer of 1843 and resigned the office of Procurator.
The next few months may have been spent by him either at Aigburth or as assistant at Ormskirk. In November of 1844 we find him at Stockeld Park, Wetherby, a difficult post, to judge by his half-humorous letters (MS.243, Nos.16,18,18a). It seems probable, but is not certain, that he was at Stockeld until July of 1846, when he was elected by General chapter to be Prior of Ampleforth. If we may believe the representation of his predecessor, Fr. Anselm Cockshoot, Prior Prest was not the choice of the Community but of General Chapter, which in those days held the ultimate electoral power. Fr. Anselm appears to have been aggrieved that he was not himself re-elected and did not scruple to put this point before his successor (MS.243, No.23). The information was not pleasing to Prior Prest, who was by nature modest and diffident, and it was necessary for President Barber to assure him that apart from his natural diffidence he had every qualification for the priorship (MS.243, Nos.10 and 11). Certainly his priorship, though distinguished for no striking achievements, was quietly prosperous. Fr. Cuthbert Almond in his History of Ampleforth Abbey (p.342) says of him that 'he was the hope of the government in a period of gestation, when the resources of the college were carefully nursed.' Fr. Justin McCann, in his survey of the contemporary finances of Ampleforth, describes Prior Prest as 'a man of rather delicate constitution, whose talents and engaging personality made him liked and valued by his brethren. He had none of Prior Cockshoot's passion for accounts, nor were the cares of office very congenial to him, yet his administration was quietly successful. The letters of the period (MS.243) show that the relied much on the counsel of and help of Honest John Molyneux, ie. D. Alban Molyneux of Warrington, who had given much help to P Prior Cockshoot. The latter also was instant with advice (and schedules) but Prior Prest did not find this interest so much to his liking.' Indeed, he complained of his predecessors's interference to Dr. Molyneux and the latter advised him as follows in a letter of 20 December 1846:
A vexatious matter, which involved Prior Prest in much trouble and correspondence, was the controversy between Ampleforth and the North Province over the estate of Fr. Oswald Talbot (d. 1847). For a full account of this matter, the reader may be referred to Allanson's History, Vol. III, p.323-9. Prior Prest while strenuously pressing the claims of Ampleforth, was a temperate advocate and so conducted the controversy as not to impair the friendly and fraternal relations between himself and his opponents.
In the first months of his rule Prior Prest was involved in correspondence with Bishop Brown of the Welsh District over a somewhat odd project which the Bishop had devised for the benefit of his needy Vicariate. This was that the English Benedictine monasteries should take candidates provided by himself, educate and profess them, etc., and then transfer them to his jurisdiction for the service of the Welsh District. For this unusual project he obtained in 1843 the approval of the Regimen, and Prior Cockshoot accepted at Ampleforth two such candidates, of whom one, Br. Clement Gibson, was profession in 1844, received minor orders in 1845, but died in the October of that year. Bishop Brown in 1846 (Nov 18th) proposed to Prior Prest that he should take three such candidates, of the ages of 14, 18 and 22 (MS.262, No.43) and the matter was discussed in a series of letters (MS.262, No.46-51). Prior Prest was loath to take the men, both for practical reasons and on the substantial ground that the project was at variance with the Constitutions of the Congregation and would introduce a new ground of division in the Body. At the same time the other Houses (Downside and Douai) refused to have anything to do with it. The President arranged a meeting between the Bishop and the Priors at Coventry in January of 1847 (MS.243, Nos.25,27). The issue of this meeting was that the project was unanimously rejected by the three Houses and no more was heard of it. (see. Allanson's History, III, p. 338-340)
Like other Priors under the Provincial System, Prior Prest suffered chronically from shortage of staff. Writing to the President in November of 1846 (MS.240, No.26) he begs for his help, informing him that the Community, including a novice, numbered in all only 10 persons. He repeated his appeal a few days later (MS.238, No.63) with the result that Fr. Maurus Margison returned to Ampleforth from St. Anne's Liverpool;; but he was there scarcely more that half a year when the President called him out again, for service at Seel St. The Prior's difficulties were somewhat alleviated in December of 1847 with the clothing of five novices, who in those days did some teaching in the school; and still more by the return from their theological studies at Parma in the summer of 1848 of BB. Laurence Shepherd and Austin Bury. But in the autumn of that year the President took away the Procurator, Fr. Bede Almond, and the Prior was at his wits' end to find a man to take his place (MS.262, Nos.117, 118). And so it wen on through his priorship, a constant struggle to secure even a minimum staff.
As already mentioned, Prior Prest relied much on the advice and assistance of Dr. Molyneux, and the extant letters show him receiving such help on many occasions, especially in regard to the external business of the House. Several of these letters are interesting from the details which they give of the fortune of the Ampleforth farms and other such matters (MS.243, Nos.33,34 etc).
A letter to Dr. Molyneux of about November 1846 (MS.243, No.24) is interesting for the history of the Ampleforth buildings and show the writer displaying the architectural capacity which he afterwards put to such good use at Belmont:
Throughout his four years of Priorship Fr. Ambrose had suffered from chronic bronchitis, an infliction which made the burden of office all the heavier. It must, therefore, have been a relief to him when he resigned the priorship at the General Chapter of July 1850, to be succeeded by Fr. Wilfrid Cooper. At the same time he was accorded the titular dignity of Cathedral Prior of Gloucester, which constituted him a member of General Chapter. It is possible that he remained on at Ampleforth for a short while after his resignation, in order to be of assistance to his successor. In November of the same year (1850) we find him at Aigburth, where he had probably gone for rest and recruitment (MS.243, No.40). His health continued to be poor, and in the period 1850-53 he had several changes of residence. After about a year at Aigburth, he was in October of 1851 appointed to the mission of Rixton. But in 1852 and 1853 he was at Waterloo, Liverpool, not a Benedictine mission. Before the end of 1853 he was once again at Aigburth, which he served until the year 1858, when at the bidding of the President he took up work at Belmont.
Both during his priorship and in the period which followed Fr. Ambrose's advice was sought in the several stages of the project for the new foundation. He was a man of considerable artistic talent and architectural taste, so that as the project matured he was called upon to work out the plans for the proposed Common Novitiate and House of studies. The abundant correspondence regarding the erection for the new monastery shows what a large share Fr. Ambrose had in every detail of its design and arrangement. Fr. Anselm Cockshoot, who played a chief part in the foundation, wrote to him in 1855 in the following terms: 'Pugin's adoption of your plan proves that you have all in your hands, and whoever may gain the credit of the plans, you will know to whom the merit belongs. Pugin yields the palm to you'. To give a complete account of his work for the foundation of Belmont, it would be necessary to recount the whole history of that foundation and its various vicissitudes. For this the reader must be referred to the Annals of the period. In the second half of 1857, when building operations had begun, Fr. Ambrose paid a brief visit to Hereford. At the end of the same year he was again at the seat of action, this time for a stay of about three months. He was in the district again in September of 1858, staying at Abergavenny, where he remained until May of 1859. After a visit to his old friends, the Challenors, at Aigburth, he was at Abergavenny again in September of that year. The buildings at Belmont were now nearing completion and his services were no longer required. His health had now become poorer than ever, and when he returned finally to the north in October of 1859, it was not to resume missionary duty but to retire as an invalid to his monastery. We learn from a letter of October 18th that he proposed to start for Ampleforth on the following day and to reach the monastery on October 20th. It is to be presumed that he followed this programme and took up his residence a Ampleforth, though there is no record of the fact nor any account of his life for the twelve months which followed. when we next hear of him he is at Aberford, staying with Fr. Austin Atkinson, and in the grip of his final illness. Prior Cooper of Ampleforth, in a letter of 23 November 1860, writes to President Burchall as follows:
But a removal was out of the question. The condition of the invalid deteriorated rapidly and he died on December 5th. Provincial Allanson, in a letter of December 7th. reported his death to President Burchall in these terms:
Fr. Ambrose's character is very abundantly illustrated in his letters. He was a constant and copious letter-writer, with gifts of humour and self-expression that were beyond the ordinary. We do not get the impression of a strong character, in the ordinary acceptation of that phrase, but of one who was perhaps overmuch harassed by the daily cares and necessities of existence. Yet he was dogged by chronic ill-health, and it is a sufficient proof of his fundamental courage that he was able to achieve so much despite this handicap. He did a very considerable work for Ampleforth, both before and during his priorship, for the people of Aigburth and other missions, and for the Congregation at large in his contribution to the foundation of Belmont. He was a man of a very gentle and kindly disposition, modest and unassuming, very loyal to authority and very considerate towards these subject to him. Throughout his life he maintained a certain wistful humour and cheerfulness and never failed to win both respect and affection.
Richard AMBROSE Prest 5 December 1860 1801 Born 1818 Clothed 1819 Professed 1824 Priest Knaresborough 1828 Swinburne St Peter's Liverpool 1837 Aigburth 1844 Stockeld 1850 Aigburth 1851 Rixton 1852 Waterloo, Liverpool 1853 Aigburth 1859 Hereford 1860 5 Dec died