Joseph Smith was born 9 June 1801 at Drax Abbey Farm near Selby. He was the fourth son of Robert Smith, yeoman, and his wife Ann, daughter of John Howe of Everingham. (For further details about the Smiths of Drax see Catholic Record Society Vol 1 p137. Drax Abbey Farm marks the site of a Priory of Austin Canons settled in that locality from the 12th century to the 16th) Joseph Smith came to Ampleforth with his brother Charles on 5 March 1811. He took the Habit and the name of Bede 22 December 1818, and was professed 23 December 1819. He received Minor Orders and the Subdiaconate during his noviciate, on 25 January 1819. He became Deacon 10 June 1822, and Priest 11 July 1825.
He was sent on the Mission in 1827 to St Mary's Liverpool. He was transferred in 1829 to Brindle and became Incumbent of that Mission in 1830: which post he held for 44 years.
From Mr Joseph Gillow's Introduction to the Registers of Brindle (C.R.S. Vol XXIII) we learn of improvements made by Fr Bede.
To these fruitful early years, there succeeded a period of trouble and conflict. Brindle Lodge, after the death of Squire Heatley in 1840, had passed to a Mr Thomas Eastwood, husband of the old Squire's niece. This gentleman, being gravely dissatisfied with the terms of the Squire's will, under which the bulk of his estate had passed to his spiritual adviser, the Rev Thos Sherburne of Kirkham, instituted legal proceedings. A compromise was achieved in 1841 but was followed by further litigation and much unpleasant controversy, which divided the allegiance of the congregation to their pastor. In June of 1844, a petition was presented to the House of Commons, signed by a number of Mr Eastwood's adherents, praying the House to afford that protection formerly given to patrons of Catholic Chapels, and that the same should be vested in laymen and not in the Pope's vicar. Mr Eastwood's next move was to defy Fr Bede Smith by refusing to pay pew-rent, claiming as his own a tribune which Mr Heatley had been accustomed to occupy. Six members of the Congregation were convicted for assault during a disturbance made by Mr Eastwood, and on refusing to pay the fines were committed to the Preston House of Correction. This was in March 1846. Squire Eastwood then left the Church and removed from College his two sons who were studying for the priesthood.
As already recorded, Fr Bede provided a home at Brindle for Fr Clement Croft from 1844 to 1848. At a later date he gave shelter to a Lamspringe junior, Br Denis Tootle, invalided home from Australia, until he went to Ampleforth as a laybrother. It is evident also that he showed kindness to Br Cyprian Hubberstey in his misfortune. The latter writes (MS.240, No.102):-
And Fr Placid Corlett, in 1872, passed the last months of his life under Fr Bede's hospitable roof.
The Introduction to the Brindle Registers, already cited, gives a description and appreciation of Fr Bede. He was short in stature, inclined to portliness, possessed of a sharp and merry eye, quick-witted, of great humour, a believer in old friends, old times, old books and old wine. But this devoted and genial priest was not a good administrator, either of the mission funds or of his own. Several entries in the North Province Council Book (MS.173, 1862-70) show him to have been constantly in debt and suggest that he died in that condition. Nor would it appear that his circumstances justified this state. Such, at least, was certainly the opinion of his Provincial.
Fr Bede died peacefully, in his 73rd year, on the 29th of January 1874, and was buried at Brindle. His father and mother are buried near him, his mother having come to live at Brindle after her husband's death, 1832, and having died there 21 December 1846.
Appendix.
To this account we venture to subjoin a letter of Fr Bede's (MS.244, No.77) which has several points of interest. It was written from Brindle 28 October 1861 in answer to an invitation to be present at Ampleforth for the Opening of the New College. It is practically certain that it was written to Fr Bede Prest, Procurator, who some 40 years later, as Abbot Prest, made use of it in writing his 'Old Recollections' (See Ampleforth Journal Vol VI, p32 ff)
Fr Bede was writing in the jubilee year of his arrival as a boy at Ampleforth, of which arrival he gives the exact date. We may note that the 'Ampleforth Lists' (Diary, Christmas 1894) give the date wrongly as 1816. The same Lists are in error also in saying that Fr Bede came from Market Rasen, Lincolnshire.
The letter indicates that a new Chapel came into use on Easter Sunday of 1811. This is the Chapel embodied in the West Wing added to the old house by Prior Marsh, towards the end of his priorship, 1806-10. See his 'Reminiscences' (MS.73, p.14) Evidently it was left to his successor, Prior Robinson, to complete the work. Easter Sunday in 1811 fell on April 14th.
Letter of Fr Bede Smith. Ampleforth in 1811
(Spelling as in the original. Punctuation amended)
Will you make my compliments to Fr Prior and say I am obliged by his kind invitation for the 13th, but that it will not be in my power to be present on the great day. I regret it, but it cannot be.
In reply to your enquiries about days gone by, I scarcely know what I can add to my former account.
The premises occupied by the students were in a little compass: the present Laundry supplied us with everything. The larger upper room was the Chapel until Easter Sunday 1811; the smaller upper room was the dormitory; the larger room below was divided, one window being taken off for the Prefect's Room, in which he slept; the rest was our study-place, playroom, refectory also for some time. Afterwards the refrectory was where Mrs Beed's room is and part of the kitchen. The other lower room was used by the men.
My brother Charles and I went to Ampleforth March 5 1811. The Community consisted of the following:-
Rev Thos Greg Robinson. Prior.
Rev Peter Aug Baynes. Subprior.
Rev Ed B Glover. Ordained March 6th 1811
No deacons or subdeacons
Religious
Thos Cuth Rooker
Sam Bede Day
Vin Jos Glover
Thos Law Burgess
Novices
Ed Placid Metcalfe
Hen Anselm Brewer
Thos Jerome Brindle
Jas Bernard Dowding
Laybrother
Br William Sharrock
The three first novices were professed October 10 1811. Br Jas B Dowding left in October.
I enclose you a very rough drawing of the premises occupied by us. I fear you will not understand it.
Wishing you every success, I am
Your sincere Confrère,
JB Smith.'
Joseph BEDE Smith 29 January 1874 1801 Born 1818 Clothed 1819 Professed 1825 Priest 1827 St Mary's Liverpool 1829 Brindle 1874 29 Jan died