| Popis: |
Emily Scobell joined the Society of St. Margaret, an Anglican sisterhood, in 1857 against the vociferous objections of her elderly father.1 Two months after she joined the Order, she died of scarlet fever which she had contracted when nursing the poor. The bitterness which the Reverend Scobell harboured towards the St. Margaret’s Sisters and the founder of their Order, J. M. Neale, was quite apparent at her funeral in Lewes. In effect, her biological and spiritual families confronted each other across her coffin. The tension soon spilled over to a riot among the onlookers, the majority of whom seemed to be on her father’s side. Neale and the Sisters were forced to take refuge in the village pub until the mob lost interest. For Neale, one of the most troublesome things about the riot was his perception that Scobell deliberately failed to protect the Sisters. Neale claimed that when the riot began, ‘I stepped up to [Scobell] and said, “Mr. Scobell, you see how threatening the mob is, will you not protect the Sisters?” He bowed and passed & a rush was immediately made upon us.’2 |
