Hunston’s nuns: RIP in Chichester

Hunston’s nuns: Records of their earthly deaths, 1872-1994
This is a record of the 36 nuns who died and were buried within their enclosure during the 120 years’ existence of the Chichester Carmel (aka Hunston Convent) and were reinterred in 1994 in Portfield Cemetery, run by Chichester District Council. (Amongst those buried in Portfield there is one Hunston nun who died elsewhere but was interred amongst her sisters in Chichester, and two secular members of staff and a priest, who were buried first in Hunston and then reinterred with rest of the community.)

Read more: Hunston’s nuns: RIP in Chichester

The Hunston Convent cemetery and its remains were in effect private and privy, whilst the Portfield cemetery and its records are in the public domain (though not hitherto digitized and made available to be published by a third party, I think).

Should RDN publish this material?

In November 2024 publication of the Portfield cemetery material received the endorsement of Sister Mary Care Trolley, who transferred to the Carmelite community in Terre Haute on Hunston’s closure, and is one of the few remaining members of the Hunston community. Sister Mary Clare has been a monastic abbess and is senior in US Carmelite associations.

Why read the material?

Reading this material should not, I think, be taken to be mawkish, sentimental, sensationalist or gruesome. A monastic order might indeed take it to be of interest because it is perhaps the only record for many of the women of their passage from enclosed devotion to heavenly glory.

It may also be that this record serves both the memory of the Hunston community’s members and the interests of their families’ descendants or others.

Background to the table

This table is culled from burial records kindly sent to RDN by Chichester’s cemeteries department. It covers all the 36 sisters (nuns) who died and were buried at Hunston Convent (officially the Chichester Carmelite Convent) during its existence from its opening in 1872 to its closure in 1994. In that year, the remains of these Hunston nuns (and one other, who died elsewhere) were disinterred from Hunston and reinterred at Portfield Cemetery, Chichester.

(The Portfield records show that one sister, Mary Sankey, whose religious name was Mary Assumpta, died in “Brooklands N/H Bracklesham”, which I deduce perhaps to have been a National Health Hospital or a nursing home, and was buried in June 1994 directly at Portfield. Hence the figure of 37 nuns engraved on the communal gravestone in Portfield Cemetery.)

It seems worthwhile to publish the Portfield burial records because they give clues to the lives, religious and secular, of 37 women who devoted themselves to a particular spiritual discipline and hope. Included are the burial records of two of the convent’s secular staff, and of a priest, Fr Hippolytus Francis Gravey, who was with the Hunston community whilst it was still at Valognes in France, and came with them, and worked with them at their new English home.

Reading the table of Portfield reinterments

Unfortunately, the dates of the sisters’ births and deaths are not given in the Portfield records and only in a few cases can they be deduced.

Portfield material does have the ages of death of the re-interred nuns, which mostly derive from a handwritten record also in the possession of the Chichester cemetery authorities and which presumably originated from convent records, and were shared by the cemetery authorities with RDN. (RDN has not inquired into the provenance of the handwritten records.)

The heading “Waterbeach transfer” denotes those nuns who moved to Hunston from the Waterbeach Carmelite convent, which itself was founded in 1937, having moved from Grantchester Road, Cambridge in the 1920s. The Waterbeach community moved to Hunston in the early 1970s, about doubling the number of sisters living there. I have derived the names of the transferee from online census records for the Waterbeach Carmelite community as it stood in 1937. It is quite possible that there are later, or better, sources of information on the Waterbeach community which transferred to Hunston.

RDN has been fairly diligent in culling the information below, and hopes to be forgiven for any errors.

Click the line below for the table:

The Hunston community reinterred in Portfield Cemetery

Secular name	Religious name (from Portfield’s handwritten scraps)	Official burial records identifier	Age at death	RDN note
Nicholl, Imelda Mary	Mother Mary Teresa of the Mercy of God	18681	70
Hall, Mary Bertha	Sr Teresa Francis of the Dolours of Our Blessed Lady	18682	88
Dixon, Frances	Sister Ann Joseph of our Lady of Mount Carmel	18683	69
Leviounas, Lea [sic]	Sr Ann Teresa of the Immaculate Conception [sic]	18684	30	The name Leah Levionnais occurs in “I Carried You…”, with the religious name of Anne Teresa, c30 years old, a nun from Valognes who died at Mundham and was interred as the first sister in Hunston’s convent cemetery. The formal burial records from Portfield have her as “Sr Anne Teresa of the Immaculate Conception.” She can be assumed to have died in March or April 1872.
Meslin, Clementine	Sr Mary Martha of Jesus	18685	62
Perelle, Alice de la	Sr Teresa Joseph of Jesus crucified	18686	26
Sankey, Emily Eileen	Sr Mary Angela of Jesus	18687	73	Has a sibling nun, Mary. Waterbeach transfer (in W’beach in 1937)
Seeligman, Muriel	Sr Miriam Teresa of the Immaculate Conception	18688	64
Page, Mary Teresa	Mary Philip of St Teresa	18689	86	Waterbeach transfer (in W’beach in 1937)
De Horne, Joyce Yvonne	Mary Bernard of Christ	18690	55
Orford, Hannah Matthews	Mary Veronica of the Sacred Face	18691	76
Alexandra Capice Galeota Della Regina	Sr Mary Gabriel of the Incarnation	18692	78	If Alexandra’s secular name seems unusual, see Don Carlo Capece Galeota the Duke of Regina (1824–1908)
Burchell, Sophie	Sr Magdalen Teresa of Jesus	18693	69
Gardiner, Beatrice Mary	Sr Teresa Margaret Joseph the Sacred Heart	18694	82
Henderson, Jane	Sr Mary Aloysius of the Infant Jesus	18695	92
Watt, Eleanor Mary Hilda Rose	Sr Mary Evangelista of Jesus	18696	78
Roope, Matilda Mary Catherine	Mother Teresa Augustine of the Martyrs of Compiegne	18697	83
Barnes, Irene Marie A Abigail	Sr Teresa Catherine of the Annunciation	18698	74
Cox, Ann	Sr Mary Teresa of the Holy Angels	18699	80
Desvallées, Marie Ernestine	Sr Mary Xavier of the Holy Name of Jesus	18700	74
Carpue [Cardue?], Ann Sarah	Sr Mary Charles St Alphonsus Liguori	18701	65
Richardson, Frances	Sr Mary Bernard of the Crown of Thorns	18702	77
Marest, Boune [sic] Marie Francoise Charlotte [sic]	Sr Mary Magdalen of the Blessed Trinity	18703	96	[Had a sibling, Marie, housekeeper, see below.] Waterbeach transfer (in W’beach in 1937) Marie Bonne Marest was a niece of Father Marest who had been important to the English Carmelites exiled in Valognes. See, “I Carried You…”
Neville, Mary Jane	Mother Mary Joseph of the Blessed Sacrament	18704	73
Bulbeck, Teresa Mary	Mother Teresa Joseph	18705	64
Gadd, Mary Ann	Sr Mary Angela of St Joseph	18706	56
Bamber, Dorothy Trevor	Sr Mary Bede of the Incarnation	18707	82
McSweeney, Geraldine	Sr Mary Magdalen of the Holy Ghost	18708	92	Recorded in Portfield Burial Records but not in the handwritten scraps.
Makepeace, Doris Mary	Sr Teresa of Jesus	18709	87	Recorded in Portfield Burial Records but not in the handwritten scraps. Waterbeach transfer (in W’beach in 1937)
De Giorgio, Antoinette	Sr Antoinette of Jesus	18710	63	Recorded in Portfield Burial Records but not in the handwritten scraps.
De Seganville, Anne Mary Louise	Mother Anne of the Holy Spirit [Burial Record says Ghost]	18711	74	Waterbeach transfer (in W’beach in 1937)
Walsh, May	Sr Mary of the Heart of Jesus	18712	84	Waterbeach transfer (in W’beach in 1937)
Raymond-Baker, Winifred	Sr Rosario of Christ	18713	90	Waterbeach transfer (in W’beach in 1937)
Jenkins, Rose	Sr Mary Gertrude of the Blessed Sacrament	18714	76
Hamilton, Selina	Sr Therese of Child Jesus	18715	89
Amann, Evelyn	St Mary Martha of St Joseph	18716	85
Wallace, Jessie	Housekeeper	18717	Not given
Marest, Marie	Housekeeper	18718	Not given	Had a sibling, at first a helper and then a professed nun, Bonne (see above)
Penderell, Sarah	Mother Mary Baptist of St Joseph	18719	81	Born 1805, died 1886.The founding Mother Superior at Hunston, transferring the convent from Valognes. See her gravestone at Hunston and extensive mentions in “I Carried you…”
Gravey, Hippolytus Francis	Reverend Father	18720	81	The priest who accompanied the Valognes nuns to Hunston. See a note in Breeze’s “History of the Chichester Carmel” and extensive mentions in “I Carried you….”
Sankey, Mary Constance	Mary Assumpta	18670 (separate document)	94	Recorded in Portfield Burial Records but not in handwritten scraps. Has a sibling nun, Emily. Died in NHS hospital and interred in Portfield direct. Waterbeach transfer (in W’beach in 1937)