The Burning of the Charlestown Convent

On the night of August 11, 1834, a mob burned down the Urusline convent and boarding school that occupied land in what is now East Somerville, including the site of the East Branch of the Somerville Public Library. The pretext for the attack was a rumor that a Protestant girl was being held in the convent against her will and had been forced to convert to Catholicism, but the underlying causes included working-class resentment of the convent's wealth and anti-Catholic (and anti-Irish) prejudice.

Descriptive Summary

A collection of primary and secondary materials relating to the 1834 burning of the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown, including contemporary fiction on relevant themes and twentieth-century scholarly research on the subject.

• Primary Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Archival Box #1
• Archival Box #2
• Vertical File
• Microfilm

Primary Sources

Caldecott, Thomas Ford. Hannah Corcoran: an authentic narrative of her conversion from Romanism, her abduction from Charlestown, etc. Boston: Guild and Lincoln, 1853.

• A supposedly true account of a young novice’s liberation from the Charlestown convent.

Frothingham, Charles W. The Convent’s Doom: A Tale of Charlestown in 1834. Also, The Haunted Convent. Boston: Graves and Weston, 1854. LOCAL HISTORY S271.9

• This antebellum best-seller consists of a fictionalized account of the Charlestown Riot and another narrative featuring stock characters and themes illustrating anti-Catholic sentiment in New England.

Hazel, Harry. The Nun of St. Ursula: or the Burning of the Convent. A Romance of Mount Benedict. Boston: F. Gleason, 1845. LOCAL HISTORY S271.9 HA (photocopy; plastic-comb-bound).

• Another fictionalized account of the Charlestown Convent with themes and characters similar to those of Frothingham’s works.

Mahoney, Dorah. Six Months in a House of Correction. [ Boston: B. B. Mussey, 1835]. LOCAL HISTORY S271.9 MA.

• Comb-tooth bound photocopy of a vicious 1835 parody of both Catholics and Protestants.

Photocopies of Materials on the Ursuline Convent. LOCAL HISTORY S271.9 PH

• Includes copies of many works mentioned elsewhere here, and others not listed, such as the “Argument of James T. Austin before the Supreme Judicial Court in Middlesex, on the case of John R. Buzzell, one of the 12 individuals charged with being concerned in the destroying of the Ursuline Convent,” and George Ticknor Curtis’ The Rights of Conscience and of Property; or the True Issue of the Convent Question.

Reed, Rebecca. Six Months in a Convent and Supplement. New York: Arno Press, 1977.LOCAL HISTORY S271.9 RE

• A reprint of the lurid antebellum best-seller, as well as the “Letter to Irish Catholics,” (exhorting them to become Christians) and the Supplement, which includes a highly subjective account of the convent riot, a conspiracy theory view of Catholic education, and a “refutation” of the Ursuline Mother Superior’s Answer toSix Months in a Convent.

White, Lucy Thaxter. [The Mount Benedict Ursuline Community and the Burning of the House. A Letter from a Pupil.] Saturday Evening Transcript. Feb 4, [1835?]

• A purported eye-witness account of the riot by one of its Protestant pupils.

Whitney, Louisa (Goddard). The Burning of the Convent: A Narrative of the Destruction by a Mob of the Ursuline Convent on Mount Benedict, Charlestown, As Remembered by One of the Pupils. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1877. LOCAL HISTORY S271.9

• A purported eye-witness account of the riot by one of its pupils.

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Secondary Sources

Bisson, Wilfrid Joseph. Some Conditions For Collective Violence: The Charlestown Convent Riot of 1834. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI, 1989. LOCAL HISTORY S271.9 BI

• An attempt to discover the factors behind the increased occurrence in mass violence in 1830s America by examining the causes of the Charlestown Riot.

Cohen, Daniel A. Alvah Kelley's Cow: Household Feuds, Proprietary Rights, and the Charlestown Convent Riot. [Boston, MA]: The New England Quarterly, 2001. LOCAL HISTORY 271.9 CO

• An examination of the convent riot as the culmination of a series conflicts among households and families in the Charlestown area.

Evans, George Hill. Burning of the Mount Benedict Ursuline Community House. Somerville, MA: Somerville Public Library, 1934. LOCAL HISTORY S93 EV

• A monograph by a local historian (and Somerville librarian) on the Charlestown Riot. Includes a reprint of the convent school prospectus.

Reed, Rebecca, and Maria Monk. Veil of Fear: Nineteenth Convent Tales. Introduction by Nancy Lusignan Schultz. West Lafayette, IN: NotaBell Books, 1999. LOCAL HISTORY S271.9 SC

• Two accounts of convent life that were antebellum best-sellers, edited and with an introduction placing these narratives in their social and historical context.

Schultz, Nancy Lusignan. Fire and Roses: the Burning of the Charlestown Convent, 1834. New York: Free Press, 2000. Call Number: 974.4 SC

• The definitive account of the Charlestown Convent Riot and its aftermath

--"Burning Down the House: the Ursuline Convent Riot, Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1834." Sextant: the Journal of Salem State College. 4(2):24-29. LOCAL HISTORY 271.9 SC

• A brief account of the riot and its aftermath that includes a discussion of its causes

--, ed. Lifting the Veil: Remembering the Burning of the Ursuline Convent. Somerville, MA: The Somerville Museum, 1997.

• This catalog of a commemorative exhibition at the Somerville Museum includes articles on the Charlestown Riot

Somerville Comics Collaborative. Fire on the Nunnery Grounds: The 1834 Burning of the Ursuline Convnent. City of Somerville: Somerville, MA. 2000. LOCAL HISTORY S271.9 SO

• The story of the convent riot in graphic novel form. Autographed by Comics Collaborative members.

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Archival Box #1

Report of the Committee, Relating to the Destruction of the Ursuline Convent, August 11, 1834. Boston, J. H. Eastburn, 1834.

• The report of the committee appointed by the mayor of Boston in August 1834 to investigate the destruction of the convent and to identify and prosecute the perpetrators. 2 copies.

Documents Relating to the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown. Boston: Samuel N. Dickinson, 1842.

• A reprint of the report made by the committee appointed by the mayor of Boston. The second document (not sure what this means?) is a report to the Massachusetts House of Representatives on the convent riot during the winter session of 1842. 3 copies.

Pay, Richard S. An Argument before the Committee of the House of Representatives, upon the petition of Benedict Fenwick and Others, with a Portion of the Documentary Testimony. Boston: J. H. Eastburn, 1835.

• An appeal for material compensation for the convent's destruction. Includes reprinted documents (including letters from parents of former pupils) in support of the convent.

"The Rise and Fall of the Ursuline Convent." Charlestown Advertiser. Boston: Saturday, June 10, 1876.

• A brief history of the Charlestown convent cut from a local newspaper and pasted into the blank pages of a book (what kind of book?) ?

Mary Edmond St. George. Answer to "Six Months in a Convent," Exposing its Falsehoods and Manifold Absurdities. By the Lady Superior. With some Preliminary Remarks. Boston: Printed and Published by J. H. Eastburn, 1835.

• A rebuttal to Six Months in a Convent by the Lady Superior of the Charlestown Convent.

A Review of the Lady Superior's Reply to "Six Months in a Convent," Being a Vindication of Miss Reed. Boston: William Pierce and Webster & Southard, and Light & Horton, 1835.

• A defense of Six Months in a Convent and its author.

Hale, Charles. A Review of the Proceedings of the Nunnery Committee of the Massachusetts Legislature; and Especially Their Conduct and that of Their Associates on Occasion of the Visit to the Catholic School in Roxbury, March 26, 1855. With an Appendix Containing Several Documents Relating to the Subject. Boston, Charles Hale at the Office of the Boston Daily Advertiser, 1855

• Allegations of improper conduct by the House Committee appointed to examine Catholic schools.

Stetson, Caleb. A Discourse on the Duty of Sustaining the Laws, Occasioned by the Burning of the Ursuline Convent. Delivered at the First Church in Medford, Sunday, August 24, 1834. Boston: Hilliard, Gray and Company, 1834.

• A sermon delivered shortly after the destruction of the convent riot.

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Archival Box #2

Duplicate of Answer to "Six Months in a Convent." Life of Mother St. Augustine O'Keefe, Superioress of Ursuline Convent, New Orleans. By an Ursuline Nun. 1888. S271.9

• A biographical sketch of one of the nuns in the Charlestown Convent. Note: born France O'Keefe. Sometimes referred to as Sister Mary Austin.

De Costa, Benjamin Franklin. In Memoriam: Sister Saint Claire, Order of St. Ursula. Charlestown: Advertiser Press. 1876. 2 copies.

• A biographical sketch of one of the nuns in the Charlestown Convent.

Munroe, James Phinney. "The Destruction of the Convent at Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1834." New England Magazine. Feb. 1901. pp. 637-649.

• A brief description of life at the convent and an account of the riot. Includes a partial list of pupils.

Material about the Ursuline Convent, Mt. Benedict, Charlestown, Mass. Trans. from Les Ursulines des Trois Rivieres. v.2 219-231.

• Anonymous typescript translation that includes an account of the 1827 death of Mary Saint-Augustin [sic], and a purported eyewitness account by one of the Ursuline nuns of the destruction of the convent.

O'Malley T. F. New England's First Convent School. 1901.

• A privately printed history of the Charlestown Convent.

The Charlestown Convent; Its Destruction by a Mob, etc.. Boston: Patrick Donahoe, 1870.

• An account of the riot and subsequent trial. Includes brief sketches of individuals with some connection to the convent or the riot.

Kissling, Thomas E. "Burned a Hundred Years Ago." Somerville Journal. August 17, 1934

• A centennial account of the riot.

Duplicate of The Burning of the Mount Benedict Ursuline Community House.

• Comb tooth-bound photocopy of Life of Mother Saint Augustine O'Keefe and In Memoriam: Sister Saint Claire.

The Nun of St. Ursula. Pages of an 1845 printing bound in glue-in archival binder.

Six Hours in a Convent. Pages of an 1855 printing placed in library binding.B

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Vertical File Folder

"Somerville--VF--Ursuline Convent"

• Contains copies of many of the articles referred to above, as well as many other items: e.g., Schulz's bibliography of the Charlestown Riot, and articles from the Boston Globe and the Chronicle of Higher Education on the Somerville Museum Exhibit.

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On Microfilm

• The Nun of St. Ursula
• Hannah Corcoran
• Six Hours in a Conven t
• Convents Doom
• Six Months in a House of Correction
• The Charlestown Convent