GRANT, THOMAS, 1816-1870.
Letters, 1848-1867.

MANUSCRIPT NUMBER 203

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CITATION:  Thomas Grant Letters, MSS 203, Archives and Manuscripts Dept., Pitts Theology Library, Emory University.

Born of Irish parents in France, Thomas Grant received his formal education at Ushaw College, Durham, England.  Afterward, Grant went to Rome, where he was ordained and eventually became the rector of the English College from 1844-1851.  While there, he also helped to petition the Pope for the restoration of a diocesan hierarchy in England.  After the hierarchy had been restored, he was consecrated the Bishop of Southwark and returned to England in 1851.  Toward the end of his life, he participated in Vatican Council I, where he was considered one of the most able theologians among the English bishops.  In 1870, he died in Rome.

This collection consists of several letters written by Grant, most of which are addressed to William Bernard Ullathorne, an English Benedictine monk and archbishop.  There are also a few letters addressed to Edgar Edmund Estcourt, a convert to Roman Catholicism who became the diocesan oeconomus in the western district of England.  The topics contained in the correspondence include the following: political events in Rome at the time, the restoration of the diocesan hierarchy in England, Pope Piux IX, the Vatican, and the English College in Rome.

The bulk of the letters were written in 1851, but there are five letters with no dates.