The English Community of the Canonesses Regular of the Holy Sepulchre (also referred to as the English Sepulchrines) was founded by Susan Hawley (1622-1706). Together with three others sisters including Frances Cary, S. Francis (1619-1659), Hawley arrived in Liège to found an English house of the Canonesses in 1642, the only English branch of this international order. The Community grew steadily from its earliest days, with 22 sisters residing there as early as 1649 and Hawley elected as the first prioress three years later. The Community was founded with the purpose of providing enough of an education for English girls to join religious orders at a time when practising the Catholic faith was illegal. The school became one of the most sought-after educational establishments of its time, particularly during the guidance of the sixth prioress, Mary Dennett, S. Christina (1730-1781). The Community flourished in Liège for 150 years, maintaining a close connection with the Society of Jesus and the nearby English Jesuit College. In its early years, the Community was centred around three sites within the city. Initially established in the small parish of St Hubert, it quickly moved to a larger plot in the more gentrified suburbs of the parish of Saint-Servain. However, the building of a nearby barracks on Rue Pierreuse in 1655 made the location of the convent unsuitable so the Community was forced to relocate to a fomer Coquin Brothers monastery in the parish of Saint-Christophe. Following the French Revolution, Liège became a battleground in the early 1790s, changing hands between the Imperial and Revolutionary troops several times. The Canonesses were initailly able to circumvent the more extreme consequences of the military occupations by playing on their 'Englishness' and avoiding payment of 'donations' which other religious communities were required to pay to the occupying forces. With the declaration of war by England on 1 February 1793, the situation became more dangerous for a community of English women religious and the decision was taken to evacuate the community. Several hundred portable wooden chests were commissioned from a local carpenter for the transportation of their library, ensuring the survival of their books, archives and other precious items (other religious communities, such as the Jesuit English College in the city, were not so lucky). On 29 May 1794, the Community left their convent at Rue Saint-Gilles, silently processing through the convent grounds to the procured coal barges. The Canonesses finally arrived in England on 16 August, disembarking from their barges in Greenwich dressed in lay clothing to avoid attracting attention. They made their way to two separate dwellings at Burlington Street and Dover Street which proved to be far too small for such a large community so they took up residency at the house of Lord Charles Clifford in Mayfair. Lord Charles Stourton (1752-1816) then offered them the use of his property, Holme Hall, in the parish of Holme upon Spalding Moor in the East Riding of Yorkshire whence they moved on 23 October 1794, staying there for two years. Larger accommodation was then secured at Dean House in Wiltshire and here they stayed for two years. In November 1798, the Revd Mother Clough proposed to the Chapter the purchase of New Hall, a former lost palace of King Henry VIII near Chelmsford in Essex. The house was purchased at a cost of £6,000, £4,000 of which was donated by a wealthy lay Catholic benefactor, Michael McEvoy, who was brother of a Canoness, Ann McEvoy, S. Aloysia Stanislau (1768-1836). As was common with Catholic buildings during this period, the house was located far enough away from Chelmsford to allow complete privacy for the Community, but near enough to allow them access to the relevant facilities and amenities. Following their arrival in February 1799, the Canonesses re-established the school and undertook an extensive programme of building and repair which included the addition of a chapel and new cells for the sisters. Apart from a brief spell during the Second World War when the Community was evacuated to Newnham Paddox, near Rugby, the sisters remained at New Hall until 2006, at which point they handed the school over to a lay trust. The sisters remain at Howe Close in Colchester, continuing to serve their local community in new ways.
