Frances Dickinson or Clare Joseph of the Heart of Jesus (July 12, 1755 – March 27, 1830) was a British

prior Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...

ess at Port Tobacco Carmel, Maryland (1755–1830).

Life

Dickinson was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1755. Her mother's first name is unknown but her name had been Halford before she married George Dickinson. Her family paid a £100 dowry to allow her to enter the Carmelites in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

in 1772. She had been educated in Paris with the Ursulines. She professed under the religious name of "Clare Joseph of the Sacred Heart" in 1773. The idea of having a better representation in Maryland is credited to the Carmelite prioresses Bernadine Matthews at the English

Hoogstraten Hoogstraten () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises Hoogstraten, Meer, Meerle, Meersel-Dreef, Minderhout and Wortel (Meersel-Dreef includes the northernmost point in Belgium). Hoogstraten (o ...

Carmel and Mary Margaret Brent of the English Carmelite convent at Antwerp. Brent was born in Maryland but she died in 1784. However the freedom of religion agreed in Maryland in 1776 and the peace treaties established in 1783 all encouraged the idea of establishing a new Carmel in America. The monastery was founded on October 15, 1790, by four Carmelite nuns who had been based in Belgium. The first three were Americans they were Mary Aloysia Matthews, Mary Eleanor Matthews and their aunt Bernadine Matthews. Matthews was the heir apparent to lead the new community. The fourth nun was the English Dickinson, who like thousands of English Roman Catholic girls she had left to be a nun in Belgium. One of their first tasks was to build somewhere to live and this building is still extant. Dickinson would be the first prioress.

Death and legacy

Dickinson died in Port Tobacco Village in 1830. She was the first and last prioress at Port Tobacco. The following year the nuns abandoned the property because they were ordered to move to the larger city of Baltimore, across the Chesapeake Bay. The nuns' building in Port Tobacco,

Mount Carmel Monastery The Mt. Carmel Monastery is a historic monastery located at Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland, United States. It is a two-part frame house, the main block of which was built about 1790 and restored in 1936–37. It consists of a two-story st ...

, was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1973.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickinson, Frances 1755 births 1830 deaths People from London Priors 18th-century English Roman Catholic nuns 19th-century American Roman Catholic nuns British emigrants to the United States