The history of Watts & Co. is bound up with an encounter between one of the 19th century’s most influential thinkers, writers and churchmen and George Gilbert Scott Jr, the eminent Victorian architect and founder of Watts & Co.
.
.
John Henry Newman and ‘the Commentator’
.
The 19th century in Britain was a period of rapid change and saw developments in many areas of life, including in the religious landscape. Against this background, John Henry Newman (1801–90) stood out as a highly influential churchman and writer and as a key figure in the development of religious thought in the Church of England. His eloquence both in person and in his writings meant that, even in his own lifetime, his influence was felt far and wide.
.
.
When Newman eventually converted to Roman Catholicism in 1845 he became a source of scandal and inspiration to many in England and far beyond. In his Apologia Pro Vita Sua (‘A Defense of His Life’) Newman charts the progression of his religious journey from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism and pays homage to another churchman, the Rev. Thomas Scott (1747–1821), who was no other than the great-grandfather of George Gilbert Scott Jr (1839–97).
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The Rev. Scott had written a highly popular commentary on the Bible, which earned him the epithet of ‘Scott the Commentator’. Newman described Scott as:
...the writer who made a deeper impression on my mind than any other, and to whom (humanly speaking) I almost owe my soul... I so admired and delighted in his writings that, when I was an Undergraduate, I thought of making a visit to his Parsonage in order to see a man whom I so deeply revered......
The visit never happened. But years later, regretting that he had never made the journey to the parsonage in his youth, Newman would gladly accept the opportunity to meet the Commentator’s great-grandson, George Gilbert Scott Jr.
.
The meeting of these two men was facilitated by a mutual acquaintance, Henry Fitzalan-Howard, the 15th Duke of Norfolk.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk
.
As the most prominent Catholic in the country, it was quite natural for Howard to come into contact with Newman. Howard’s father, the 14th Duke, was a pious Catholic and generous architectural patron. On Newman’s return from his trip to Rome in 1847, it was the 14th Duke who paid for the building of the Oratory House in South Kensington (which includes the Little Oratory chapel) for the newly established London Oratorian community. The 14th Duke had also chosen to educate his son at Cardinal Newman’s Oratory school in Edgbaston.
.
After the 14th Duke’s early death in 1860, Howard inherited the family title. Once he was of age, he made it his mission to help and encourage fellow Catholics who, despite the 1829 Catholic Emancipation Act, were still largely at a disadvantage in many areas of life. Reflecting the general suspicion and distrust that most Catholics lived under at the time, the former British prime minister William Gladstone publicly questioned the loyalty of Roman Catholics to the state. It was Howard who encouraged Newman to respond publicly to the attack. This he did in his Letter to the Duke of Norfolk, published in 1875. Their mutual support and admiration was further strengthened a few years later when the Duke played an active role in petitioning Rome for Newman to be made a cardinal.
.
.
Gilbert Scott Jr meets Cardinal Newman
.
The 15th Duke also continued his father’s generous patronage of architects. He was an enthusiastic church builder and in thanksgiving for his marriage in 1877 (which took place at the London Oratory) he wanted to offer a church to the town of Norwich in Norfolk, ‘bearing in mind the title that I hold’. In his own professional world, Scott Jr would have been well aware of the Duke of Norfolk’s enthusiasm for church building and of the generosity of his patronage. Scott Jr was also on his own journey of faith and was experiencing turmoil in his own religious convictions. He sought Newman’s guidance, as many others did at the time.
.
A meeting was arranged through the Duke with Cardinal Newman, who was delighted to meet the descendant of the Rev. Thomas Scott. A while later, in 1880, Scott Jr shocked his family and colleagues by announcing his conversion to Catholicism. After attending a morning mass offered by the Cardinal, Scott Jr recounts that ‘all the difficulties, uncertainties and indecision of the years was but a phantom’. He was received into the Roman Catholic Church by Newman.
.
.
The Duke of Norfolk’s new commission
.
With this move Scott Jr effectively burnt his professional bridges as a builder of Anglican churches. But true to his mission, the Duke of Norfolk stepped in to support the new convert and chose him as architect for the impressive project that was to be the church of St John the Baptist in Norwich (now Norwich Cathedral). The choice was not a surprising one, as Scott Jr was the son of one the most prolific and successful Victorian architects, but also a gifted and visionary architect in his own right. Sadly, it was to be Scott Jr’s final project before his health took a severe downturn. His brother, John Oldrid Scott, eventually took over the project.
.
.
.
.
Newman and Watts in the 21st century
.
But the connection between the Scott family, Watts & Co. and the Cardinal would continue. In 1896, a few years after the death of Gilbert Scott Jr and Cardinal Newman, the 15th Duke organised a committee to erect a memorial to the Cardinal in front of the London Oratory. The memorial was designed by Scott Jr’s colleagues and co-founders of Watts & Co., George Frederick Bodley and Thomas Garner.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Watts & Co.’s range of vestments includes one designed on those worn by the Cardinal, along with the ‘Neri’ shape, reflecting Newman’s devotion to St Philip Neri and his Oratorian legacy. In the 21st century Watts & Co. is proud to continue the legacy of its founders and honour the personal and professional connection with the now canonised St John Henry Newman.
.
Left: Neri chasuble in purple. Right: Newman chasuble in green.
.
.
.
Bibliography
.
Sheppard, E. H. W., ed. "The London Oratory." Survey of London, Vol. 41:
Brompton (1983). Web. 20 Jan. 2011.
Brompton (1983). Web. 20 Jan. 2011.
Newman, John Henry, Apologia Pro Vita Sua, first published 1864
Stamp, Gavin, An Architect of Promise: George Gilbert Scott Jr (1839–97)
and the Late Gothic Revival, 2002
Jenkins, Simon, England’s Cathedrals, London, 2016