The Boarders
It had always been the custom for the Convent to take in a few guests or boarders in guest lodgings or “outward quarters” as they called them. Indeed, in 1800 the nuns bought Spetisbury House “ in the name of Mrs. Tunstall, a lady who boarded with them.” This was the Mary Tunstall, a widow, who was living with the community at Amesbury Abbey in 1796. And Hutchins mentions that in 1810 “a separate building housed a chaplain and some “respectable” boarders.”
In 1804 one of the guests was a Miss Taunton from Shepton Mallet, who also had two nieces in the school. She wrote a series of letters to her friend Miss Hippisley telling her about life in the convent. It was certainly not a dull life. “I have seen Mr & Mrs Weld, Mr & Mrs Jones of Lanarth with her Sister Miss Lee, Dowager Lady Clifford, Lady Teresa & Miss Lease, Sir Thomas Tancred & his Brother, Mr Plunketts, Doctor & Mrs Underhill, Revd Doctor Rigby, he preached here, Mrs F Hutton, Miss Lotwich; besides other Clergy &c &c. At this Season we have not much company.” She also described some of the relics, “We have here part of Sir Thomas More’s Hair Shirt, and Queen Clementina’s bedgown which she wore when she received her last sacraments; it is white Satin, lined with Crimson silk.”
In March 1829 one of the boarders, the Hon Anna Maria Arundell, the sister of Lord Arundell of Wardour Castle, died aged 42 years.
In 1829 the nuns started building a private chapel at St. Monica’s which was financed by the same Mrs. Tunstall who bought the house for them in 1800.“These ladies expressed much gratitude to the nation at large; and particular obligation to a lady, Mrs. Tunstall, widow of Marmaduke Tunstall, who boarded with them, and built them a private chapel, over the entrance of which her arms are placed” Mrs Tunstall spent the last years of her life with the Visitation nuns in Somerset and died in 1825 so she must have left money for the chapel in her will.
In 1833 with the permission of the Bishop and the consent of the sisters, the Dowager Lady Clifford came to lodge within the enclosure (Lady Clifford was the aunt of the Anna Maria Arundell who had died at Spetisbury in 1829) “it put us to great inconvenience as well as giving up the rooms for her as in many other ways” “she was very kind and generous to us and edified us much by her piety and charity and expressed much gratitude for our admitting her, tho’ she paid her board very liberally”. The Hon. Eleanor Mary Arundell had been born at Wardour Castle in 1766 and married Lord Charles Clifford in 1786 in London. They had 11 children and Charles Clifford predeceased his wife, dying at Ugbrook Park in 1831. Lady Clifford died at the Convent on the 24th November 1835. “She had wished to be buried at Spetisbury but her family did not agree so she was buried in the family vault at Ugbrook.”
This may have been what the nuns believed, but in fact in Lady Clifford’s will (Appendix 18) she directed that her “mortal remains … be deposited in either the family vault at Ugbrook or in that at Durham”. Although Lady Clifford was a lady of considerable wealth with a large estate, she failed to mention the nuns in her will. One of her daughters, the Honourable Christina, who was the wife of Humphrey Weld, Esq. of Dorset, received “my Chariot with all its several appurtenances and appendages together with the several articles of furniture to be found in my apartment at Spetisbury” and the “sum of two hundred pounds sterling”. Humphrey Weld was also one of her executors.
Helen Sharrock, who had boarded with the nuns since 1807 died on the 20th May 1834. “an old maiden lady and sister to Bishop Sharrock, she had boarded here in the outward apartments 27 years showing great kindness to all our friends and relations when they came to see us and always generous and friendly to every member of the community.” In her will (Appendix 19) she left most of her estate to one of her nieces but she also remembered the Community “I give unto Mrs Catherine Berington of Spetisbury House in the said County of Dorset out of gratitude for all her kindness towards me the sum of fifty pounds and my Clock and all my other furniture not hereinbefore bequeathed And I direct that the sum of ten pounds be paid by my said trustees and executors out of my residuary estate to the said Catherine Berington to defray the expences of my funeral And my wish is and I hereby request to be buried in the private burial ground attached to or adjoining Spetisbury House aforesaid I give unto my great niece Mary Courbon and to the Reverend Andrew Byrne and Angela Preston all of whom are now resident at Spetisbury House aforesaid the sum of five pounds each I also give unto the Reverend Joseph Lee of Spetisbury House aforesaid the sum of twenty four pounds for his own proper use and also the further sum of ten pounds which I request he will cause to be distributed in Charity.” Rev. Francis Lee was also one of her executors.
In 1836 new guest rooms were built at the convent. According to the Chronicle, “This year the rooms of the outward quarters were built adjoining the walls of the school”
In the 1841 census there are two ladies living at the convent, Mrs. Hernon aged 60 and Miss Shuttleworth aged 26, both of independent means, who could possibly be guests of the community.
Mary Trant, a widow from Wallingford in Berkshire, and described as an “annuitant boarder” in the censuses of 1851 and1861, moved with the community when it went to Devon. “We also took with us a poor old Lady, Mrs. Trant, who had for some years boarded in the out quarters at Spetisbury.” Mrs. Mary Trant was 82 years old when they moved.