The True history of Maria Monk [electronic resource]

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THE TRUE HISTORY

OF

MARIA MONK.

It is nearly sixty years since Maria Monk's Awful
Disclosures first appeared, and a year after its appearance
a complete refutation of the story was published in the
Dublin Review (May 1836). The story, however, was
too much according to the taste of an anti-Catholic
public to be given up for so trifling a consideration as
its proved falsity j and a notorious shop in Paternoster
Row, as well as others established under Protestant
auspices, still continues to print and disseminate it.
The character of the work appeals also to another class
of readers, and it may usually be found in quarters in
which more or less indecent publications are exposed
for sale. It is not easy to believe that a book of
this kind can be accepted as authentic by decent and
well-meaning Protestants ; yet we are assured that such
is the case. To them, therefore, we now offer (i) a
reprint of the Dublin Review article j (2) some further
evidence on the subject which has come to light since
that date; (3) an account of her death. We ask a
careful perusal and an attentive hearing for the evidence
we offer, and we shall be surprised if our readers are not
convinced that the "True History" is a tissue of lies.

I. THE DUBLIN REVIEW ARTICLE.

A book bearing the title of * Maria Monk's Awful
Disclosures ' has just appeared in London. It is a verbal
reprint from the original edition published in New York
in January last (1835), and its object is to calumniate
the members of the Catholic religious establishments of
Montreal in Lower Canada, and thereby to cast discredit
and obloquy on the professors of that faith generally.

'•iA

The True History

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Let us hear how this precious nun introduces her
'awful disclosures.*

" It is hoped that the reader of the ensuing narrative
will not suppose that it is a fiction or that the scenes
and persons that I have delineated had not a real
existence. It is also desired that the author of this
volume may be regarded not as a voluntary partici-
pator in the very guilty transactions which are described ;
but receive sympathy for the trials which she has
endured and the peculiar situation in which her past
experience and escape from the power of the Superioress
of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery at Montreal, and the snares
of the Roman priests in Canada, have left her.
My feelings are frequently distressed and agitated by
the recollections of what I have passed through;
and by night and by day I have little peace of mind,

and few periods of calm or serious reflection

I have given the world the truth so far as I have gone,
on subjects of which I am told they are generally
ignorant; and I feel perfect confidence that any facts
which may yet be discovered will confirm my words,
whenever they can be obtained. Whoever shall ex-
plore the Hotel Dieu Nunnery at Montreal, will find
unquestionable evidence that the descriptions of the
interior of that edifice given in this book were furnished
by one familiar with them ; for whatever alterations may
be attempted, there are changes which no mason or
carpenter can make and effectually conceal, and therefore
there must be plentiful evidence in that institution of
the truth of my description. There are living witnesses
also who ought to be made to speak, without fear of
penances, tortures, and death ; and possibly their testimony
at some future time may be added to confirm my state-
ments. .... It would distress the reader should I
repeat the dreams with which I am often terrified at
night; for I sometimes fancy myself pursued by my
worst enemies; frequently I seem as if shut up again
in the convent ; often I imagine myself present at the
repetition of the worst scenes that I have hinted at or
described. Sometimes I stand by the secret place of

of Maria Monk,

interment in the cellar ; sometimes I think I can hear
the shrieks of helpless females in the hands of atrocious
men ; and sometimes almost seem actually to look again
upon the calm and placid countenance of Saint Frances
as she appeared when surrounded by her murderers."—
{Preface.)*

Thus the authoress confesses that she is afflicted with
terrific dreams, — that she imagines herself to be pursued
by enemies, — shut up again in the * black convent,*—
present once more at the hideous scenes she describes,—
about to be conveyed to the * secret place of interment
in the cellar, — that she hears 'the shrieks of helpless
females in the hands of atrocious men.' Well then, if
the lady be subject to visions of this description, is it not
just possible that some of them might have found their
way into her book ? A glance at her early history, as it
stands recorded by herself, will throw some further light
upon her character. Her parents, she tells us, were
both from Scotland, and resided in Lower Canada.
She was born at St. John's, and has spent the most of
her life in Montreal. Her father was an officer under
the British Government. He is dead, and her mother
has a pension. The latter is a Protestant. Our heroine,
when about six or seven years old, went to a school kept
by a Mr. Workman, a Protestant, who taught her to read
and write, and arithnrt Sc as far as division. A number
of girls of her acquaintance went to school (as day
scholars) to the establishment of the Congregational
Nunnery, or Sisters of Charity, as they are usually called.

When she was ten years old, being anxious to learn
French, she obtained permission to attend the schools of
the Sisters of Charity. The * terrible Black Nunnery ' is
adjacent to that of the Sisters of Charity, being separa-
ted from it only by a wall. The Black Nunnery
** professes to be a charitable institution for the care of
the sick, and the supply of bread and medicines for
the poor ; and something is done in these departments of
charity f although but an insignificant amount compared

* All quotatioDS from Maria Monk are from the book above
mentioned.

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4 T/ie True History

with the size of the buildings and the number of the in-
mates." This is the institution which Maria Monk and her
confederates have thought fit to libel. It is called the
* Black Nunnery * from the colour of the dress worn by
the inmates.

" From all that appears to the public eye, the nuns
of these convents are devoted to the charitable objects
appropriate to each, the labour of making different
articles known to be manufactured by them, and the
religious observances which occupy a large portion of
their time. They are regarded with much respect by the
people at large; and now and then, when a novice
takes the veil, she is supposed to retire from the tempta-
tions and troubles of this world into a state of holy
seclusion, where, by prayer, self-mortification, and good
deeds, she prepares herself for heaven " (p. 14).

Now here it is admitted that these establishments,
which have existed at Montreal for upwards of half
a century, are regarded with much respect by the
people of that place, although we shall presently learn
from the evidence of Maria Monk, that one of them
at least is the perpetual scene of every crime that
can degrade religion, and disgrace human nature.
But let us proceed. While Maria was at the school
of the Sisters of Charity, priests regularly attended to
instruct the pupils in the Catechism. With a view to
forward them in the essential part of Catholic education,
a small catechism in common use amongst us was put
into their hands. * But, says Maria :

"The priests soon began to teach us a new set of
answers which were not to be found in our books,
from some of which I received new ideas, and got, as I
thought, important light on religious subjects, which
confirmed me more and more in my belief in the Roman
Catholic doctrines. These questions and answers I can
still recall with tolerable accuracy, and some of them I
will add here. I never have read ihem^ as we were
taught them only by word of mouth. Question : Why

* [The English Catechism of Christian Doctrine^ can be obtained
from 21 Westminster Bridge Road, S.E., price id., by post i^.]

of Maria Monk.

did not God make all the commandments? Answer:
Because man is not strong enough to keep them.
Question : Why are men not to read the New Testa-
ment? Answer: Because the mind of man is too
limited and weak to understand what God has written.
These questions and answers are not to be found in the
common catechisms in use in Montreal, and other places
where I have been, but all the children in the Congrega-
tional Nunnery were taught them, and many more not
in these books."

Well might Maria say that she had never read these
questions and answers, and that they are not to be
found in the common catechism. The first question
is an absurdity in itself, and the propriety of the second
may be judged of by those who take the trouble to look
into the Missal used by the Catholic laity, which they
will find almost wholly composed of extracts from the
New Testament.

We now begin to see a little of this lady's character.
Her first acquaintance with the Black Nunnery arose
from a service it conferred upon her.

" In the Black Nunnery is an hospital for sick people
from the city, and sometimes some of our boarders, such
as were indisposed, were sent there to be cured. I was
once taken ill myself and sent there where I remained a
few days. There were beds enough for a considerable
number more. A physician attended it daily ; and there
is a number of the veiled nuns of that convent who spend
most of their time there. These would also sometimes
read lectures and repeat prayers to us " (p. 20).

Such are the practices — attending the sick, reading
lectures to them, repeating prayers with them, spending
most of their time with them — of the Black Nuns whom
nevertheless we shall, by and by, find charged by this
grateful patient with the perpetration of the most
horrid crimes !

The only opportunity she appears ever to have had
of becoming acquainted with the interior of the nunnery
in question was that which she enjoyed on this occasion:
and yet she has the audacity, as well as the ingratitude,

The Trice History

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to put forth as a test of the truth of her narrative, the
knowledge of the localities which she acquired during
the period she received from the sisterhood the most
kind, the most beneficial attentions. She proceeds : —

" After I had been in the Congregational Nunnery
about two years, I left it and attended several schools for
a short time; but I soon htcsiTcxQ dissatisfiedj having many
and severe trials to endure at home which my feelings will
not allow me to describe ; and as my Catholic acquain-
tances had often spoken to me in favour of their faith, I
was inclined to believe it true, although, as I have before
said, I knew little of any religion. While out of the nunnery
I saw not hitig of religion. If I had, I believe I should
never have thought of becoming a nun " (p. 21).

According to her own account, Maria was now about
twelve or thirteen years old. Suddenly she takes it into
her head to become a black nun ; she was introduced, she
says, by an old priest, to the superior of the convent
to whom she explained her wishes; and accordingly,
after a short delay, she says, "at length, on Saturday
morning I called about 10 o'clock and was admitted into
the Black Nunnery as a novice, much to my satisfaction "
(p. 23). She states (p. 28) and not incorrectly, that
the usual period of the noviciate is about two years and
a half, which is sometimes abridged, and yet we find her
commencing her fourth chapter in these terms : —

"After I had been a x\o\\ct four or five years yiha-i is, from
the time I commenced school at the convent, one day I was
treated by one of the nuns in a manner which displeased
me, and because I expressed some resentment, was
required to beg her pardon. Not being satisfied with this,
although I complied with the command, nor with the
coolness with which the superior treated me, I determined
to quit the cotivefit at once^ which I did without asking
leave. There would have been no obstacle to my depar-
ture, I presume, novice as I then was, if I had asked
permission ; but I was too much displeased to wait for
that, and went home without speakifig to anyone on the
subject" (p. 33).

Therefore we find that according to her own account,

of Maria Monk.

i»

her noviciate was double the ordinary length of the
period of probation; that from her thirteenth to her
eighteenth year she spent in the ' Black Nunnery' in the
first instance; and that, then, she quitted it without
asking leave of anybody.* We next behold her as
assistant teacher in a school at St. Denis. And, lest
we might be charged with mutilating her narrative by
condensing it, we shall permit her to tell her own story.

" While engaged in this manner I became acquainted
with a man who soon proposed marriage ; and, young
and ignorant of the world as I was, I heard his offers
with favour. On consulting with my friend, she expressed
a friendly interest for me, advised me against taking
such a step, and especially as I knew little about the man
except that a report was circulated unfavourable to his
character. Unfortunately I was not wise enough to
listen to her advice and hastily married. In a few weeks,
I had occasion to repent of the step I had taken, as the
report proved true — a report which I thought justified
and indeed required our separation. After I had been
in St. Denis about three months, finding myself thus
situated and not knowing what else to do, I determined to
return to the convent and pursue my former intention
of becoming a Black Nun could I gain admittance.
Knowing the many inquiries that the superior would
make relative to me during my absence before leaving
St Denis, I agreed with the lady with whom I had
been associated as a teacher (when she went to Mon-
treal, which she did very frequently) to say to the Lady
Superior, I had been under her protection durifig my absence j
which would satisfy and stop further inquiry ; as I was
sensible, should they know I had been married^ I should
not gain admittance " (pp. 35, 36).

Here then we have a novice who ran away from her
convent, married to a man of bad character; having
nothing else to do, she resolves again to become a nun,
and in order to shield herself from inquiry on that
subject, deliberately fabricates a false statement, in

* [The article in the Dublin Review might also have noticed the
absurd age when Maria Monk asserts she was clothed, &c.]

8

TJte True History

which she gets another person to join her, and back she
goes to the nunnery with this lie upon her lips, conceal-
ing too, the fact of her marriage, which, without a legal
separation sanctioried by the Church, is utterly incon-
sistent with the vows into which a nun must enter.
But this is not ail. Having, as she asserts, obtained
permission to take up her abode again in the convent
as a novice, she proceeds to give us the following piece
of information, which, even upon her own showing,
would be enough to disqualify her as a witness in any
court of justice in the world.

"The money usually required for the admission of
novices had not been expected from me ; I had been
admitted the first time without any such requisition;
but now I chose to pay for my readmission. I knew that
she (the Superioress) was able to dispense with such a
demand as well in this as the former case, and she knew
that I was not in possession of anything like the sum
she required. But I was bent on paying to the nunnery,
and accustomed to receive the doctrine, often repeated
to me before that time, that when the advantage of the
Church was consulted, the steps taken were justifiable,
let them be what they would ; I therefore resolved to
obtain money on false pretences^ confident that if all
were known, I should be far from displeasing the
Superior. / went to the Brigade Majors and asked him
to give me the money payable to my mother from her
pension, which amounted to about thirty dollars; and
without questioning my authority to receive it in her
name, he gave me it. From several of her friends, I
obtained small sums under the name of loans, so that
altogether I had soon raised a number of pounds, with
which I hastened to the nunnery, and deposited a part
in the hands of the Superior. She received the money
with evident satisfaction, though she must have known
that / could not have obtained it honestly ; and I was
at once readmitted as a novice" (pp. 36, 37).

We shall only add one other trait of tliis woman's
character, as described by herself:

" The day on which I received Confirmation was a dis-

of Maria Monk,

tressing one to me. I believed the doctrine of the Roman
Catholics, and, according to them, I was guilty of three
mortal sins : concealing something at confession ; sacri-
lege in putting the Body of Christ in the sacrament under
my feet, and by receiving it while not in a state of grace ;
and now, I had been led into all these sins in conse-
quence of my marriage, which I never had acknowledged,
as it would have cut me off from being admitted as a
nun " (p. 40).

It was about a year after this period, that Maria
(as she says) became a nun, by taking the veil, hav-
ing still concealed the circumstance of her marriage,
and consequently committed sacrilege, under all its most
aggravated forms. No sooner did she take the veil than
she was at once initiated in all the crimes which she
says the nuns are in the habit of committing. * From
that moment,' she declares, *I was required to act like the
most abandoned of beings;' then for the first time, she
heard, that 'all her future associates were habitually
guilty of the most heinous and detestable crimes *
(p. 47). It will not be required of us to go through
the dark catalogue of offences which she imputes to the
sisterhood. There is one alleged crime, however, which
we cannot pass unnoticed. It is told with much of cir-
cumstance, and involves a deliberate murder, in which
she says that she herself took a part, and of which if
there was one tittle of foundation for her story, the
authorities of Montreal would have easily disposed, by
having the alleged murderers brought to public trial.

In page loi of her Disclosures she prefers a charge
of deliberate murder against the Bishop of Montreal, the
Superioress of the convent, and five priests, three of
whom are named Fathers Bonin, Richards, and Savage.
The facts are as follows : a certain nun, called * Saint
Frances,' because she would not take part in the alleged
criminal acts of the sisters, is hurried up before the five
priests and the Bishop, sentenced to death, and im-
mediately is bound and gagged, tied face upwards to
a bedstead and mattress, other beds are thrown upon
her, and all the five priests with the nuns jump upon

lO

The True History

the bed and literally crush the *■ poor victim ' to death.
She is then unbound and buried in quicklime in a cellar,
where in a very short time all vestiges of this alleged
murder are destroyed.

The person who records this deed says that she cannot
even think of it now without shuddering. She has no
kindly feelings towards the parties who, she says, were
guilty of this murder. There were other witnesses of
it besides herself. Why then did she not, at least after
quitting the convent, of which she asserts she was at
one time an inmate, go before the King's Attorney
General, and denounce the murderers? Simply because
she knew that the whole scene is a fabrication of her own
brain, or of some other brain more steeped in falsehood
than her own.

We need not pursue this narrative any further. It
will be sufficient to add that Maria confesses that even
after she had taken the veil, she twice quitted the
convent, and that eventually the necessity she was under
of preparing for her own accouchement^ as she confesses,
obliged her to run away altogether. She found refuge,
as she informs us, in an alms house at New York.

Such is the story of this abandoned woman as told by
herself, or at least by others with her 'sanction, abstract-
ing from its truth or falsehood. We ask any reason-
able being, is it a story that deserves the slightest
credit? We might leave the work to its tislte upon the
evidence we have brought against the alleged author
out of her own pages ; but fortunately for the cause of
our religion and of truth, we happen to have in our
hands the means of proving that it is from beginning to
end a tissue of the most unalloyed f 'sehoods ever
penned or uttered. The sources whence .ve derive our
evidence of the utter falsehood of the book, are : i. The
universal testimony of the Protestant press at Montreal.
2. The affidavits of individuals of character residing at
Montreal, and amongst the rest, that of Maria Monk's
own mother, who appears to be a respectable woman.

The first publication of this calumny against the priest-
hood and nuns of Montreal appeared in a New York

of Maria Monk,

II

* religious (?) ' paper called the Protestant Vindicator,
The number in which the infamous libel appeared, was
dated 14th October, 1835, three months previous to the
appearance of the book; it reached Montreal four or five
days later, and was met by immediate and unanimous con-
tradiction from the whole of the Protestant press of the
Province. These contradictions are of the most un-
qualified character; and as the parties from whom they
emanated are, for the most part, politically opposed to
the section of the population to which the priests belong,
they are at once honourable to the good feelings of the
witnesses themselves, and of course the more valuable
as evidence. We shall commence with the evidence of
the Montreal Herald^ in favour of the unimpeachable
character of the calumniated persons. After a paragraph
which it is not necessary to quote, the Herald (in its
issue of 20th or 2ist(?) October, 1835), proceeds as
follows :

" . . . . The first editorial article is entitled * Nun-
neries,' and is intended to be an exposure of debauchery
and murder said to have taken place in the Hotel Dieu
in this city. We will not disgrace our columns nor dis-
gust our readers by copying the false, the abominably
false, article. Though of a different religious persuasion
from the priests and nuns, we have had too many op-
portunities of witnessing their unwearied assiduity and
watchfulness and Christian charity during two seasons of
pestilence, and can bear witness to the hitherto unim-
peached and unimpeachable rectitude of their conduct,
to be in the slightest degree swayed in our opinion by a
newspaper slander; but we would respectfully inform
the conductors of the Protestant Vindicator that there
never existed a class of men who are more highly
respected and more universally esteemed by individuals
of all persuasions than the Roman Catholic Priests of
Montreal. The ' Sisters of Charity,* are equally respected
and are the means of effecting important services to the
community. They practise Christianity by feeding the
hungry, clothing the naked, protecting the orphan, and
ministering to the sick, the afflicted, and the dying, —

1:1

The True History

' pursuing the noiseless tenour of their way,' courting
no popular applause, and seeking their sole reward in
* conscience void of offence towards God and man.'
We do not pretend to be defenders of the Roman
Catholic Religion, or of any of its particular institutions.
We are Protestants and glory in being so; but we
will not so far forget the precepts of our Divine Master
as to connive at traducing the character of individuals,
who are exemplary members of society, although they
are of a different religious persuasion from ourselves."

[The Dublin Review then adds extracts from the
Montreal Gazette and the Rucher Mercury^ belonging
both to the same date Oct. 21, 1835. These are omitted
here for want of space, but they testify with the same
cordiality to the respect and even veneration felt by
citizens of all denominations for the character and
heroic labours of the clergy and nuns.]

These general testimonies in favour of the Roman
Catholic clergy and religious ladies of Montreal, and in
contradiction to the sweeping accusations against them,
contained in the paper already named, produced no
retractation or apology on the part of the editor of the
Protestant Vindicator. On the contrary, in a subsequent
number of that paper, dated the 4th November, 1835,
the calumnies v/ere reiterated and insisted upon, in
the violent and bitter language of ignorant fanaticism,
on the single authority of the unfortunate creature whose
name is attached to the book (which is the object of this
criticism). In the meantime, some of the Protestant
inhabitants of Montreal had voluntarily instituted an
inquiry into the origin of the accusations, and the result
was the perfect establishment of the falsehood of the
statements which have since been woven into the book
under notice.

The first piece of evidence we shall offer is the sworn
affidavit of Dr. Robertson, a physician of long standing,
and a Justice of the Peace. It is not the first in
chronological order, but it is the first in importance, as
it gives a connected history of Maria Monk for a
considerable time previously. The document we give

of Maria Monk,

13

entire, invit.ng the reader's especial attention to the
passages which we have printed in italics : —

" William Robertson of Montreal, doctor in medicine,
being duly sworn on the Holy Evangelists, deposeth and
saith as follows : On the 9th of November, 1834, three
men came up to my house, having a young female in
company with them, who they said was observed, that
forenoon, on the bank of the canal, near the extremity
of the St. Joseph's suburbs, acting in a manner which
induced some people who saw her to think that she
intended to drown herself. They took her into a house
in the neighbourhood, where, after being there some
hours, and interrogated as to who she was, &c., she said
she was the daughter of Dr. Robertson. On receiving
this information they brought her to my house. Being
from home when they came to the door, and learning
from Mrs. Robertson that she had denied them, they
conveyed her to the watch-house. Upon hearing this
story, in company with G. Aiildjo, Esq., of this city, I
went to the watch-house to inquire into the affair. We
found the young female, whom I have since ascertained
to be Maria Monk, daughter of W. Monk of this city,
in custody. She said that, although she was not my
daughter, she was the child of respectable parents, in or
very near Montreal, who from some light conduct of hers
{arising from temporary insanity^ to which she was at
times subject from her infancy) had kept her confined and
chained in a cellar for the last four years. Upon
examination, no mark or appearance indicated the
wearing of manacles or any other mode of restraint
She said, on my observing this, that her mother always
took care to cover the irons with soft clothes, to prevent
them injuring her skin. From the appearance of her
hands she evidently had not been used to work. To
remove her from the watch-house, where she was
confined with some of the most profligate women of the
town, taken up for inebriety and disorderly conduct in
the streets, as she could not give a satisfactory account
of herself, I, as a Justice of the Peace, sent her to gaol
as a vagrant.

14

The True History

"The following morning I went to the gaol, for
the purpose of ascertaining if possible who she was.
After considerable persuasion, she promised to divulge
her story to the Rev. H. Esson, one of the clergy-
men of the Church of Scotland, to whose congrega-
tion she said that her parents belonged. That gentle-
man did call at the gaol and ascertain who she was.
In the course of a few days she was released, and I did
not see her again until the month of August last, when
Mr. Johnson, of Griffin-town, joiner, and Mr. Cooley, of
the St. Ann suburbs, merchant, called upon me about
ten o'clock at night, and after some prefatory remarks,
mentioned that the object of their visit was to ask me as
a magistrate to institute an inquiry into some very
serious charges which had been made against some of
the Roman Catholic priests of the place, and the nuns
of the General Hospital, by a female who had been a
nun in that institution for four years, and who had
divulged the most horrible secrets of that establish-
ment, such as the illicit and criminal intercourse
between the nuns and the priests, stating such
particulars of depravity of conduct, on the part of these
people in this respect, and their murdering the offspring
of these criminal connections as soon as they were born,
to the number of from thirty to forty every year. I
iitftantly stated that I did not believe a word of what
they told me, and they must have been imposed upon
by some evil-disposed and designing person. Upon
inquiry who this nun, their informant, was, I discovered
that she answered exactly the description of Maria
Monk whom I had so much trouble about last year,
and mentioned to these individuals my suspicion and
what I knew of that unfortunate girl. Mr. Cooley said
to Mr. Johnson : * Let us go home, we are hoaxed.'
They told me that she was then at Mr. Johnson's house,
and requested me to call there and hear her story.

** The next day, or the day following, I did call, and
saw Maria Monk at Mr. Johnson's house. She repeated
in my presence the substance of what was mentioned
to me before, relating to her having been in the nunnery

of Maria Monk.

15

for four years ; having taken the black veil ; the crimes
committed there ; and a variety of other circumstances
concerning the conduct of priests and nuns. A Mr.
Hoyte was introduced to me, and was present during
the whole of the time that I was in the house. He was
represented as one of the persons who had come in
from New York with this young woman, for the purpose
of investigating into this mysterious affair. I was asked
to take her deposition, on her oath, as to the truth of
what she had stated. I declined doing so, giving as a
reason, that from my knowledge of her character, I
considered her assertions upon oath were not entitled
to more credit than her bare assertion, and that I did not
believe either ; intimating at the same time, my willing-
ness to take the necessary steps for a full investigation,
if they could get any other person to corroborate any
part of her solemn testimony, or if a direct charge were
made against any particular individual of a criminal
nature.

" During the first interview with Messrs. Johnson and
Cooley, they mentioned that Maria Monk had been
found in New York, in a very destitute situation by
some charitable friends, who administered to her neces-
sities, being very sick. She expressed a wish to see a
clergyman, as she had a dreadful secret which she wished
to divulge before she died; a clergyman visiting her,
she related to him the alleged crimes of the priests and
the nuns of the General Hospital at Montreal. After
her recovery, she was visited and examined by the
Mayor and some lawyers at New York, afterwards at
Troy, in the State of New York, on the subject ; and I
understood them to say that Mr. Hoyte and two other
gentlemen, one of them a lawyer, were sent to Montreal
with her, for the purpose of examining into the truth of
the accusations thus made. Although incredulous as
to the truth of Maria Monk's story, I thought it incum-
bent on me to make some inquiry concerning it, and
have ascertained where she (Maria Monk) has been
residing a great part of the time she states having been
an inmate of the nunnery. During the summer of 1833

i6

The True History

she was at service at William Henry; the winters of
1832-3, she passed in this neighbourhood of St. Ours
and St. Denis. The accounts given of her conduct that
season, corroborate the opinions I had before entertained
of her character.

"W. Robertson."
"Sworn before me, at Montreal, this 14th day of
Nov. 1835.

" Benjamin Holmes.

"Justice of the Peace."

So strong is the evidence of Dr. Robertson, in proof
of the mingled insanity and depravity of Maria Monk,
that we might safely rest upon it, the case of the clergy
and nuns. In the first place, she represented herself as
the daughter of Dr. Robertson. Finding from the per-
sonal attendance of Dr. Robertson, that this story could
not be maintained, she substituted for it a statement to
the effect that her parents resided near Montreal, and
that they kept her chained in a cellar for the last four
years. At a subsequent period she gives up the cellar
story for one which seemed likely to become more
profitable, and she then represented herself as having
been an inmate of the Hotel Dieu during the very four
years that she had previously said she had been chained
in a cellar by her parents.

But although each of these stories contradicts the
other, and all of them completely destroy the general
credibility of the witness, we have further, the direct
testimony of Dr. Robertson, that during the four years
in question, she was neither chained in a cellar, nor out-
raged in a nunnery. In 1832 she was at William
Henry — a town about forty-five miles below Montreal,
and in the winter of 1832-3 sh j was living in the same
neighbourhood, namely, at St. Ours or St. Denis, two
villages lying south and inland of the town just named.

We now come to the affidavit of the mother of Maria
Monk. It is of great length, and contains many minor
details which do not materially strengthen the evidence,
though they would do so were that evidence of a less

of Maria Monk.

17

decided character. Many of those details we shall
therefore omit, giving only the most important passages.
The affidavit was sworn on the 24th October, 1835,
before Dr. Robertson, whose own evidence the reader
has just perused. Mrs. Monk declares in this affidavit:

"That, wishing to guard the public against the deception
which has lately been practised in Montreal by designing
men, who have taken advantage of the occasional mental
derangement of her daughter^ to make scandalous accusa-
tions against the priests and nuns in Montreal, and
afterwards to make her pass herself for a nun who had
left the Convent."

She proceeds to state that in August, 1835, a man
named Hoyte, who stated himself to be a Minister of
New York, called upon her and informed her: —

•* That he had lately come to Montreal with a
young woman and child of five weeks old; that the
woman had absconded from him at Goodenough's
Tavern, where they were lodging, and left him with the
child. He gave me a description of the woman ; I un-
fortunately discovered that the description answered my
daughter; and the reflection that this stranger had
called upon Mr. Esson, our pastor, and inquiring for
my brother, I suspected that this was planned ; I asked
for the child, and said that I would place it in a nunnery ;
to that, Mr. Hoyte started every objection, in abusive
language, against the nuns."

Subsequently the child was delivered to her. Mrs.
Monk then sent an acquaintance, a Mrs. Tarbert, to
seek for her daughter, who was found, but she refused
to go to her mother's house. The only fact of impor-
tance in this portion of the affidavit, is * that Maria
Monk had borrowed a bonnet and shawl, to assist her
to escape from that Mr. Hoyte at the hotels and she request-
ed Mrs. Tarbert to return them to the owner. We now
proceed to quote a further portion of Mrs. Monk's
affidavit: —

" Early in the afternoon of the same day, Mr. Hoyte
came to my house with the same old man, wishing me
to make all my efforts to find the girl, in the meantime

i8

The True History

speaking very bitterly against the Catholics, the priests,
and the nuns ; mentioned that my daughter had been
in a nunnery, where she had been ill-treated. I denied
that my daughter had ever been in a nunnery; that
when she was about eight years of age she went to a
day-school ; at that time came in two other persons,
whom Mr. Hoyte introduced; one was the Rev. Mr.
Brewster; I do not recollect the other reverence's
name. They all requested me, in the most pressing terms ^
to try to make it out my daughter had been in the
nunnery, and that she had some connexion with the
priests of the seminary, of which nunneries and priests
she spoke in the most outrageous terms; said that
should I make that out, myself, my daughter and child,
would be protected for life. I expected to get rid of their
importunities in relating the melancholy circumstances
by which my daughter ivas frequently deranged in her
head, and told them that when at the age of about
seven years, she broke a slate pencil in her head ; that
since that time, her mental faculties were deranged, and
by times much more than at other times, but that she
was far from being an idiot ; that she could make the
most ridiculous, but most plausible stories ; and that as
to the history that she had been in a nunnery, it was a
fabrication, for she was never in a nunnery ; that at one
time I wished to obtain a place in a nunnery for her,
that I had employed the influence of Mrs. De Montenach,
of Dr. Nelson, and of our pastor, the Rev. Mr. Esson, but
without success .... After many more solicitations to
the same effect, three of them retired, but Mr. Hoyte
remained adding to the other solicitations; he was
stopped, a person having rapped at the door; it was
then candle-light. I opened the door, and I found
Dr. McDonald, who told me that my daughter Maria
was at his house in the most distressing situation ; that
she wished him to come and make her peace with me ;
I went with the doctor to his house in McGill Street.
She came with me to near my house, but would not
come in, notwithstanding I assured her that she would
be kindly treated, and that I would give her her child ;

of Maria Monk,

'9

she crossed the parade ground and I went into the
house and returned for her; Mr. Hoyte followed me.
She was leaning on the west railing of the parade; we
went to her; Mr. Hoyte told her: My dear Mary, I am
sorry you have treated yourself and me in this manner ; I
hope you have not exposed what has passed between us;
nevertheless I ivill treat you the same as ever, and spoke to
her in the most ajfectionate terms ; took her in his arms ;
she at first spoke to him very cross, and refused to go with
him, but at last consented and went away with him,
absolutely refusing to come to my house. Soon after Mr,
Hoyte came and demanded the child ; I gave it to him.

"Next morning Mr. Hoyte returned, and was more
pressing than ever in his former solicitations, and requested
me to say that my daughter had been in the nunnery ; that
should I say so, it would be better than one hundred pounds
to me; that I would be protected for life ; and that /
should leave Montreal, and that / would be better provided
for elsewhere ; I answered that thousands of pounds would
not induce me to perjure myself ; then he got saucy and
abusive to the utmost; he said he came to Montreal
to detect the infamy of the priests and the nuns."

What follows is not important, except that Mrs. Monk
heard, a few days after, that her daughter was at one
Mr. Johnson's, a joiner at Griffin-town,* with Mr.
Hoyte; that he passed her for a nun who had escaped from
the Hdtel Dieu nunnery; and on further inquiry she
found that her daughter had subsequently gone off
with the said Hoyte.

To the above ample testimony we shall only add the
most material portion of the evidence of Mrs. Tarbert,
the female who was requested by Mrs. Monk to seek out
her daughter : —

** I know the said Maria Monk ; last spring she told me
that the father of the child she was then carrying, was burned
in Mr. OwsterHs house. She often went away in the
country, and at the request of her mother, I accompanied
her across the river. Last summer she came back to my

* Griffin-town is the western suburb of Montreal

20

The True History

lodgings and told me that she had made out the father of
the child; and that very night left me and went away.
The next morning I found that she was in a house of
bad fame, where I went for her, and told the woman
keeping that house, that she ought not to allow that
girl to remain there, for she was a girl of good and
honest family. Maria Monk then told me that she would
not go to him (alluding, as I utiderstood, to the father of
the child), for that he wanted her to swear an oath, that
would lose her soul for ever, but jestingly said, would make
her a lady for ever. I then told her (Maria) : do not
lose your soul for money."

Here then, not only have we abundant proof of the
utter falsehood of Maria Monk's * Awful Disclosures,'
but the whole character of this abominable conspiracy
is unfolded. It is quite clear that Maria Monk had been
living in a state of concubinage with Hoyte, and there
is every reason to believe that the infant alluded to was
the fruit of their intercourse. Hoyte probably belongs to
to one of those sects of fanatics, so common in some por-
tions of the United States, who will not scruple to resort
to any means, however criminal, to bring discredit on the
professors either of the Catholic or of the Episcopalian
faith. This, at least, is the only mode of accounting for
his conduct, and for that of the other wretches associated
with him.

But little now remains to be added. Touching the
character of the Catholic clergy and nuns of Canada,
we might add the testimony of several persons now
in London, * whose opportunities of observation have
been ample, having resided many years in Canada,
during the whole of which period not even a whisper
was ever uttered against the servants of the Gospel;
on the contrary, the spotless purity of their lives was
universally acknowledged. Living in the midst of
a populous city, their residences open to any visitor,
constantly mixing with the inhabitants, they may be said
to be perpetually under the public eye ; hence it would

* [That is, in 1836, when this Dublin Review article appeared.]

of Maria Monk

21

be quite impossible that any irregularity of conduct
could be practised without attracting attention and
leading to exposure. Most of the individuals named
in Maria Monk's book are specially known for the practice
of every active virtue. With reference to education
particularly, both priests and nuns have secured the
enduring gratitude of the community of Lower Canada.
The seminaries of Montreal and Quebec are the only
public schools of any note in Lower Canada, and there
is scarcely an individual of education in the province
who is not indebted for his mental acquirements to one
or other of these excellent establishments.

The same may be said of the Nunneries as places of
education for girls. So deservedly popular are they, that
the Protestant English are in the habit of sending their
daughters to those institutions for elementary education
and as the Quebec Mercury very properly observes, when
these daughters in their turn become mothers, it is seldom
that they do not evince their confidence in the purity of
the lives and conduct of the members of these establish-
ments, by committing their own daughters to their care.
.... That any persons of a (respectable) station in life
should be found so destitute of all sense of religion, as to
republish known calumny, the falsehood of which was
demonstrated, might indeed create the extreme of sur-
prise, if anti-Catholic and ultra-Protestant bigotry had
not furnished multitudinous instances of the total aban-
donment of all shame, of such an utter disregard of
veracity, that Charles James Fox's expression of " a good
Protestant lie " is not so familiar as to suppress every angry
emotion, and to cause a smile of contempt to take the
place of a more legitimate resentment.

n. FURTHER EVIDENCE.

Here we part company with the Dublin Review
article. Here also we might finish, were it not that
soon after the article in question was written, addi-
tional evidence came to light, still further showing the
utter worthlessness of the book and of the unhappy woman
who was concerned in its publication. A thorough in-

22

The True History

vestigation of the whole aflfair was made by Col. W. L.
Stone, Editor of the New York Commercial Advertiser.
This gentleman, a Protestant, and previously an ardent
believer in the veracity of Maria Monk's story, went
over to Montreal, fully determined to search the convent
in question in confirmation of his belief, and after-
wards to publish for the benefit of the public whatever
result might come from his visit. He was accompanied
by Mr. A. Frothington, President of the Bank of
Montreal, and Mr. Duncan Fisher, another Protestant
gentleman of the same city. They obtained permission
from the Bishop, visited the convent together, and
searched it from garret to cellar. Every hole and corner,
every cellar and passage, was explored by them. They
interviewed the nuns, and questioned them, but none of
them ever knew of such a person as Maria Monk as
ever having been a member of that sisterhood. They
never heard of such an individual as Jane Ray, though
Maria Monk's book contains such pathetic and gloomy
stories concerning the "awful sufferings" of this same
person. We shall see afterwards of what institution
Jane Ray was an inmate. They knew not any nun
called Sister " Frances 'Partridge " or " Sister Frances."
The result of Col. Stone's inspection of the convent was
the firm conviction, and in fact, the certain knowledge,
that the whole account of Maria Monk's Disclosures
was a pure fiction, and Maria Monk herself an arrant
imposter. The whole of this Protestant gentleman's
experience may be seen in a little book, entitled Refuta-
tion of the Fabulous History of the Arch-Impostor Maria
Monk (Art and Book Company, Leamington, price 3d.).
Our account of Col. Stone's investigation has been
taken from it.

Not only were no such persons as are mentioned in
Maria's book known to the Sisters, but the very description
given so minutely by her, of the convent, and the pas-
sages and doors she asserts that she passed through to
make her second escape ; the very position of the con-
vent, the alleged underground passages leading from
the seminary to the convent, all these were found to

of Maria Monk.

25

have no existence, nor ever at any time to have
existed. Another Protestant gentleman named Mr.
W. Perkins, of Montreal, had also obtained episcopal
sanction and visited this convent, searching it all
over and with a like result. (This also is recorded in
Col. Stone's book.) These gentlem.en determined to
shame Maria Monk by publicly confronting her.
Several public interviews took place between Col. Stone
and Maria Monk. The result was in each case, that
she made some glaring blunders regarding the convent
and its inmates which Col. Stone and his friends from
their actual experience were able to contradict on the
spot. Maria Monk's friends made another effort to save
her " reputation." They introduced for the first time a
certain so-called " nun " who asserted she had been since
Maria Monk's time, an inmate of the " Black Nunnery."
The supporters of Maria Monk looked upon the
advent of this new confederate as a godsend, and a
godsend it really proved itself to be, in a manner that
completely overthrew the cause of the "Father of lies."
" In ten minutes," writes Col. Stone, "in the presence of
half-a-dozen other friends, clerical and laical, was the
imposture unmasked." Frances Partridge forgot herself
completely, and in describing the convent, located it on
the wrong side of a very large block of buildings, quite
in a different direction from its actual position ; giving
an entrance leading to it which completely contradicted
the one given by Maria Monk, her prompter, as well
as the actual one seen by Col. Stone with his own eyes
in visiting the convent. This w"as no lapsus lingucRy
writes the Colonel, for time was given Frances to

recover herself; Maria Monk gave her a "hint"
or two, but she did not "take." Three times did
she repeat the same fatal mistake, so that Col. Stone
exposed her and denounced her to her face, together
with Maria Monk as an arrant fraud. There stood
at the same time as the Hotel Dieu Convent, another
institution for the reclaiming of prostitutes to a life
of virtue, known as the " Magdalen Asylum," and
kept by Mrs. McDonnell. This lady has sworn an

24

The True History

affidavit before a public notary at Montreal, that Maria
Monk was never a nun at all, but had always led the
life of a prostitute. She states that the names of
"Fougnde," mentioned in the Awful Disclosures, were
in reality the names of the Misses Fournier, her assistant
directresses in the Magdalen ^. sylum, and that " Howard,
Jane McCoy, Jane Ra, and Reed," introduced into
the same narrative, so far from ever having been nuns,
were reclaimed prostitutes, living in the Asylum at the
very time Maria Monk was under probation for an
amendment of her wicked and infamous career. More-
over Mrs. McDonnell states that the description given
of the Hotel Dieu Convent is alone applicable to the
Magdalen Asylum. The following is the affidavit:—

"Province of Lower Canada, district of Montreal.

" Before me, Adam L. MacNider, one of His
Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the district of Mon-
treal, appeared Agatha Henrietta Huguet Latour,
widow of the late Duncan Cameron McDonnell, who
after making an oath on the holy Evangelists, declared
that for six years past she had conducted and managed
an institution in the city of Montreal, commonly known
and distinguished as the Magdalen Asylum ; that about
the close of the month of November, 1834, Maria Monk,
daughter of Mrs. W. Monk, housekeeper of the Govern-
ment House in the city of Montreal, entered the Asylum
and became an inmate thereof; and she understood
that the said Maria had for many years led the life of a
stroller and prostitute, and that she received her into the
Asylum with the hope of effecting her reformation ; that
in the progress of her acquaintance with the character
of the said Maria, she found her to be very uncertain
and grossly deceitful; but that she nevertheless did
persevere in her efforts to reclaim her to the paths of
virtue and morality.

"And deponent further declared that having been
informed that the said Maria held conversation with
a man who had reached the yard of the Asylum
by scaling the enclosures, she sent for the said Maria,

of Maria Monk.

25

and severely reprimanded her, pointing out that her
conduct in holding such conversation was in direct
violation of the rules of the institution, and did more-
over indicate a disposition to relapse into her former
vicious courses; that the said Maria was not touched
by the remonstrances addressed to her, but became
more indecorous in her conduct every day, and that
finally, deponent was obliged to dismiss her from the
Asylum; that the said Maria before her dismissal
did appear discontented with her residence there, but
deponent would not consent to her withdrawal, without
the consent of the said Mrs. Monk, who was accordingly
informed of her daughter's conduct, and her desire to
withdraw from the Asylum. And deponent further de-
clared that she had reason to believe that the man with
whom the said Maria communicated during her stay at
the Asylum was .... having been informed thus by
the said Maria herself.

" And deponent further declared that she had reason
to believe that the said Maria was in a state of
pregnancy at the time she entered the Asylum ; and
deponent further declared that the said Maria was
dismissed from the Asylum at the beginning of the
month of March, 1835, and withdrew, as this de-
ponent has been informed, to her mother's house.
And deponent further declared that she had read the
pamphlet entitled, " Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk,"
and that deponent was thereby informed for the first
time, that the said Maria had been at any time the in-
mate of a convent ; that the said Maria, at the time she
was in the Magdalen Asylum, did never pretend to
deponent or anyone else, according to the information
and belief of the deponent, that she had been an inmate
of the Hotel Dieu Convent, or of any convent whatever;
but that deponent had always understood and believed
that she had for many years led the life of a vagrant
and disorderly person. And deponent further declared
that she had reason to believe that the name " Fougn^e "
mentioned in the said Disclosures^ is mis-spelt for
'< Fournier." That at the. same time the said Maria

26

The True History

was at the Asylum, Miss Hypolite Fournier and Miss
Clotilde Fournier, two sisters, were assistants to deponent
in the management of the Asylum, and that deponent
believed them to be identical with the persons mention-
ed in the Disclosures as the two Misses "Fougndes."
"And deponent further stated that she had reason
to believe the person named "Miss Howard" in the
Disclosures to be identical with a person bearing that
name who lived in the Asylum contemporaneously
with the said Maria, and deponent further declared that
she had reason to believe and therefore did believe the
person named "Jane McCoy" in the said Disclosures
to be identical with a person bearing that name who
lived contemporaneously with the said Maria, and
deponent further declared that she had reason to believe
and did believe the person designated in the said
I)isclosures as "one of my cousins who lived at
Lachine named Reed" to be identical with a per-
son bearing that name who lived contemporaneously
with the said Maria, and deponent further declared
that many ot the rules and habits of conventual life
were in use and practice before, since, and at the
time the said Maria Monk was an inmate thereof, and
that she had reason to believe and did believe that
the description given in the said Disclosures of the
interior of the H6tel Dieu Nunnery is an incorrect
description of the apartments of the said asylum, of
which the said Maria was for some time an inmate, as is
hereinbefore mentioned ; and further deponent declareth
not.

(Signed)
" Agatha Henrietta Huguet Latour.
" Widow of D. C. McDonnell.

"Sworn before me, the 27th day of July, 1836.
(Signed)

"Adam L. MacNider,

" Justice of the Peace."

of Maria Monk,

27

III. MARIA MONK'S DEATH.

Maria Monk furnishes a dreadful illustration of the
saying, " As a person lives, so will he die." She found
her way several times into gaol. At length when arrested
for the last time on a charge of stealing from a wretched
paramour of hers, and cast into prison, she ended there
her miserable career. The account of her death may
be found in DolmatCs Register of October 9th, 1849.
"Two months ago or more, the police book recorded
the arrest of the notorious but unfortunate Maria Monk
whose book of Awful Disclosures created such excite-
ment in the religious world some years since. She was
charged with picking the pocket of a paramour in a den
near the Five Points. She was tried, found guilty and
sent to prison, where she lived up to Friday last, when
death removed her from the scene of her sufferings and
disgrace. What a moral is here indeed!"

[Note to new edition, April, 1895.] As adding to the
evidence in this tract it is only right to mention a little
book of which we were not aware when first writing, but
which contains still fuller proofs of the imposture. An
Awful Exposure of the Atrocious Plot formed . . . through
the intervention of Maria Monk (Jones and Co., Montreal,
1836) traces step by step and authenticates with eighteen
affidavits from her successive employers, etc., the places
where Maria Monk was in fact residing during the years
when according to her story she was in the H6tel Dieu,
at Montreal.

Still, although there is this fuller evidence to be had
the present tract contains more than enough to convince
every sane mind that Maria Monk^s Awful Disclosures
is a bare-faced and slanderous fiction. What then are
we to think of publishers, who, like Mr. Kensit, of Pater-
noster Row, still continue to circulate it with the object
of prejudicing English minds against Catholic Convents?
What are we to think of the Committee of the Protestant
Alliance, who, notwithstanding their active support of

28

Maria Monk

this gentleman's publications, have never yet felt called
to administer to him an indignant rebuke ? What are
we to think of Mr. Walter Walsh — the prominent ultra-
Protestant lecturer and editor of the Protestant Observery
a cherished organ of this self-same party, who, in his
issue for April, 1895, admits a letter in defence of the
imposture under the title of "The Story of Maria Monk,
New Evidence?" And what are we to think of the
Nestor of ultra- Protestant lecturers, the octogenarian
Pastor Chiniquy, who, if " Chase Roys," the writer of
the aforesaid letter in the Protestant Observer is to be
believed, assured the latter that, only a few years after
the events he had himself been told by a nun in the
Hotel Dieu of Montreal, when she had first exacted
from him a promise to reveal nothing till after her death,
that " Miss Monk's statements in that book were true,""
and that "she had seen worse things done here than
anything she has told." Well, there is one thing which
we must think, and which we can think with great
satisfaction. It is that these gentlemen are over-
shooting their own mark, and are doing good service
to the Catholic Church by making it so palpable to
all that their persistent vilification of her doctrines and
institutions is not due to any very remarkable love of
truth or justice.

[Cardinal Newman's lecture, called " True Testimony
unequal to the Protestant View," containing much infor-
mation upon similar Protestant calumnies, may be had
from 21 Westminster Bridge Road, S.E., price 2d, by
post 2 Jd. : see also " Calumnies against Convents," by
the Rev. S. F. Smith, S.J.]

60^37

WHAT CATHOLICS BELIEVE.

Frioe One Fenny eaoh.

Before and After the Reformation.

The Continuity of the English Church. By

the Very Rev. Canon Croft.
The Popes and the English Church. By the

Rev. W. Waterworth.
The Old Religion In England. By Rev. P. Lynch.
Before and After Gunpowder Plot. By E.

Healy Thompson.
The Faith of the Ancient English Church.

concerning the Holy Eucharist. By the

Very Rev. Provost Northcote.
The Faith of the Ancient English Church

concerning the Blessed Virgin. By the same.
Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries.

By Cardinal Manning.
The Church Catholic. By B. F. C. CostelloCk.
The Mass. By the same.
The First Experiment In Civil and Relli?l-

ous Liberty. By James Carmont.
A Scriptural Life of the Blessed Virgin.

With notes by the Rev. W. H. Cologan.
dateohlsm of Christian Doctrine. [Vaughan.
The Conversion of England. By Cardinal
What Is the Bible? By the Rev. W. H. Anderdon.
-Confession to a Priest. By the same. [S.J.

The Catholic Church and the Bible.
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Friendly Advice, is lOO.

Why I am a Roman Catholic, is. lOO.

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What Joes the Bible say? is. lOO.

How can I find God's true Church? is. lOO.

What do Catholics believe? is. lOO.

Questions for one whom it concerns. 6d. loa

How " the Church of England Washed her
Face." By the Rev. Sydney F. Smith, S.J.

The Spanish Inquisition. By the same.

Mr. CoUette as a Historian. By the same.

Blessed Peter and the English People. By
Cardinal Vaughan. [Loughnani S.J.

St. Bartholomew's Day. By the Rev. W.

The Huguenots. By the same.

The Catholic Church. By the Rev. Dr. Gildea.

Catholic Truth Socibtv, i8 Wbst Square, London, S.E.

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EVERT PROTESTANT SHOULD READ

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21 Westminster Bridge Road, London, S.E.:
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