Convents

[Speedy65]

Hi, I'm trying to find out what convent my Grandmother went to live in. She was only a small child when placed. I had been led to believe that the convent was in Colinton but I've now discovered that it can't have been that one due to it not taking vulnerable people until 1921. I think that my Grandmother went to live in the convent around 1915 but I don't know which convents accepted small children. An uncle has told me that he believed her to have lived near Lauriston? Can anyone shed any light on where she might have been placed. Her home address was in the Grass Market.

[Jean Jeanie]

Hi Speedy65

I found this place which is near the Grassmarket and Lauriston place. http://www.rc.net/standed/sacredheart/

Don't know if this will help.

Regards
Jean

[Currie]

Hello Speedy,

Here are a couple of lines about St. Thomas of Aquin's from the site Jean posted.

“In 1858 the Sisters of Mercy set up a convent in Lauriston gardens dedicated to St Catherine of Sienna. In 1887 they founded St Catherine's Convent Boarding and Day School for Young Ladies at 6 Chalmers Street, the predecessor of St Thomas's. In 1900 this school extended to numbers 4-18 where it remains to this day.

The new school was additionally a pupil-teacher centre. In 1905 there were 35 pupils and 50 pupil teachers, the latter trained solely for training the many poor children in the district. They began their training at the age of fourteen and, once qualified, could attend the RC Training College in Glasgow.”

In “The Catholic Who's Who and Yearbook” 1920, there’s an advert for the Boarding School and below that what seems to be an additional advert for St Thomas of Aquin’s College. Here’s most of it. http://i944.photobucket.com/albums/ad28 ... ok1920.jpg

But I don’t think you’ve yet mentioned her date of birth. Could she possibly have been defined as a young lady at the time she is thought to have gone there?

All the best,
Alan

[AndrewP]

Hi Speedy65,

St Catharine's Convent of Mercy is Lauriston Gardens, on the corner of Lauriston Place. It is still a functional convent now.

http://www.sistersofmercyunion.org.uk/w ... loadref=14

According to the 1911 census street index for Edinburgh (page 88 of 110), St Catherine's Convent (spelling used in the 1911 census) is in registration district 685/4, enumeration district 80. At that time, RD 685/4 was St Giles (Edinburgh). In the 1911 census, ED 80 of RD 685/4 was St Catherine's Convent and St Thomas's Boarding School for Girls (probably part of the convent, or at least within the convent grounds), and has 135 names in it. They were enumerated as an institution rather than as an address in the street amongst the households in the rest of the street. So the 135 people were within the convent and associated boarding school.

All the best,

AndrewP