Because of the unique history, they resolved to see what could be done to initiate a restoration program. The following year, 1934, the citizens of Maryland were celebrating the tercentenary of the founding of the Maryland Colony at St. Mary's City. Patriotism and civic pride were contagious, and buildings and landmarks were being restored, especially the old State House where the first colonists had laid the foundation of religious liberty in the colonies. Why not restore the site and the buildings where the later faithful had planted the fruit of that religious freedom - the foundation of religious life.
A PILGRIM'S CHAPEL
A new rose brick colonial chapel of our Lady was completed and dedicated during the Marian year on November 14, 1954 by Most Reverend Patrick A. O'Boyle, "Archbishop of Washington."
Public pilgrimages are made during the year. The Holy See grants a plenary indulgence to all who make a public pilgrimage, and five years for a private pilgrimage.
After many years absence, the Carmelites returned to Mount Carmel in 1976, where they continue their prayers and holy works.
The Restorers serve as a support group for the nuns and have responsibility for maintenance of the old monastery.Membership in the Restorers is as shown on the Membership page.
THE CARMELITE NUNS COME TO AMERICA
On the summit of Mount Carmel, Maryland, overlooking Port Tobacco Valley, there stands today, the restored buildings of the first convent of religious women established in the original thirteen colonies.
In 1754, a young lady, Ann Matthews, a descendant of one of the first families in Maryland, in religion Sister Bernadina Teresa Xavier of St. Joseph, left her home, Mt. Airy in Charles County to answer the call to the cloister in Hoogstraten, Belgium. As soon as the cessation of the American Revolution made it possible, she was joined by her two nieces, Ann Teresa and Susanna Matthews. In 1790 they, accompanied by an English woman, Sister Clare Joseph Dickenson, quietly took ship and sailed for their beloved land to establish a monastery.
Sailing from Antwerp, May 1, 1790, they reached New York July 2, 1790, accompanied by Father Charles Neale, S.J. their spiritual director. On July 4th they left New York and reached Brentfield, opposite St. Thomas Manor, landing 5 o'clock in the morning of the 10th. They proceeded to the home of Mr. Robert Brent where Father Neale celebrated Mass.
Upon leaving the Brent's, the nuns went to the home of Ignatius Matthews where they remained eight days, when they removed to Chandler's Hope, the paternal estate of Father Charles Neale. This property, lacking the seclusion suitable for a sanctuary, Father Neale exchanged it for a tract of land of 860 acres, known as Durham, owned by Baker Brooke, and about three miles north of Port Tobacco.
On this land, now known as Mount Carmel, the buildings more suitable to the needs of a cloistered Order were completed.
On October 15, the feast of the Carmelite foundress, St. Teresa, the nuns canonically established in the permanent monastery.
The nuns had come at the invitation of Father Ignatius Matthews, S.J., brother of the first Prioress, Mother Bernadina Matthews. The sub-prioress was Mother Clare Joseph Dickenson who became Prioress on the death of Mother Bernadina in 1800. Her successful administration until her death, March 27, 1830, won for her, in the estimation of the Carmelite Order, the title of Co-foundress. In 1831, Mother Angela (Mary Anne Mudd), the last Prioress at Port Tobacco had the sad responsibility of moving the nuns to Baltimore.
The Old Carmel 1933
At the time when Archbishop Whitefield transferred the community to Baltimore, the Mount Carmel farm was sold to Edward Sanders.
Arriving in Baltimore, the nuns went directly to the Archiepiscopal residence on Franklin Street where Archbishop Whitfield received them most kindly.
Aided by the Sisters of Charity, they opened a Carmelite school for girls in the 200 block of Aisquith Street. Bishop Carroll had obtained permission from the Pope to allow the Sisters to teach. They remained here for 40 years, when in 1873 they removed to their Carmel on Caroline and Biddle Streets. From it seven other Carmels were founded, and from these at least 35 more, all in the United States. In 1961, they moved to their present Carmel in the Dulaney Valley, Baltimore, Maryland.
THE OLD MONASTERY RESTORED
After 100 years, the original Mount Carmel Monastery had almost disappeared. In 1890, Bishop Charles W. Currier published a volume: ''Carmel in America" in which he made a sketch from authentic descriptions of the Monastery Buildings as they were in 1800.In that group can be seen the two surviving buildings.
Efforts of the late Mrs. Benjamin E. Talbottof Washington, DC (born Mary Cecelia Hamilton) and her daughter the late Mrs. John Hagerty, sparked the restoration campaign, which began in 1935. The Most Reverend Archbishop Curley heartily approved the project and named the Society "The Restorers of Mount Carmel in Maryland."
With the help of the Archbishop the property was purchased March 27, 1935, and plans for the restoration drawn.
On July 16, 1936 the first pilgrimage was made and Mass celebrated by the chaplain, Father Lawrence J. Kelly, S.J. On June 6, 1937, the Shrine was visited by the Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Cicognani.
Carmel Restored
Miriam Matthews Cappers, Historian, sister of Mary Clare Matthews and a collateral descendant of the three nuns.
This page was last updated on: April 15, 2009
Mary Clare Matthews,Sister of Miriam Matthews Cappers and a collateral descendant of the three nuns. Deceased - 8 October 2003 at age 95.
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The Founders
of
The Restorers of Mount
Carmel
in
Maryland
In August of 1933, Mrs. Benjamin E. Talbott, the former Mary Cecilia Hamilton of Charles County, and her daughter, Mrs. John Jenkins Hagerty, were visiting "Hawthorne," the ancestral home overlooking Port Tobacco Valley. She was eager to locate the grave of a Revolutionary ancestor, Colonel Edward Hamilton, in the small Catholic cemetery at Mt. Carmel. She found the Hamilton family plot, and with it, the graves of other well-known Maryland families. . .the Semmes, Spaldings, Davises, Jamesons, Brents, Brookes, Clements, Sanders and Farrels.
Courtesy of Mrs. Ellen Talbott
Courtesy of Mrs. Ellen Talbott
Mary Cecilia Hamilton Talbott
1876 -1946
Isabelle J. Talbott Hagerty
11/21/1905 - 8/25-1970
The Restorers of Mount Carmel in Maryland, Inc. Historical Resource Site
There were members of "old families" who might furnish substantially accurate historical data. The widow of Dr. Edward N. Sanders, herself an octogenarian, who inherited the best part of the large farm, remembered the chapel, the chaplain's cottage and other buildings that had disappeared one by one. The ruins of Father Neale's small house and the outline of the monastery chapel were still visible.
Mrs. Talbott and her daughter set to work to organize a society to restore the buildings as well as acquire sufficient land for pilgrimages. Underlying these plans was the fond hope that Carmelites would one day return. Archbishop Michael Curley of Baltimore approved heartily and appointed Mrs. Talbott president and Rev. John Farley, S.J., of Washington, chaplain. The officers now consisted of the Archbishop as Honorary President, a chaplain, president, two vice-presidents, secretary, treasurer, historian and a board of four governors.
Originally Brother William E. Carley, S.J., of Chapel Point, had served as custodian of the shrine. With the death of Father Farley, the Archbishop asked Father Laurence J. Kelly, S.J., then pastor of St. Aloysius Church, Washington, to accept the post. (It is to Father Kelly that we are indebted for this information regarding the Restorers which we have taken from his pamphlet, A Carmelite Shrine in Maryland, 1950.)
The organization of the Restorers was officially realized July 16, 1935. The legal name "Restorers of Mt. Carmel in Maryland" was suggested by the prioress of the Baltimore Carmel at that time, Mother Seraphim, with reference to St. Teresa of Avila, the great "restorer" of the Order of Carmel.
Negotiations were initiated with the Sanders family for the purchase of 6 3/4 acres, with right of way from the country road. This included a small cemetery used by the Catholics of Port Tobacco and Pomfret, not only during the time of the nuns' sojourn, but for several years after. The plot having been surveyed and the contract of sale drawn up by lawyers James F. Matthews of La Plata. It was signed by the President of the Restorers and by Mr. Eugene Sanders on behalf of the estate. The purchase price was $2,250.00 and the deed made to Archbishop Curley, was finally delivered April 21, 1936. The soil was being turned over slowly but surely.
The Restorers then engaged architect Philip Hubert Frohman of Washington to draw up plans for the restoration. Since the supporting beams had broken and the buildings were sagging perilously, it was necessary to use an entirely new foundation of concrete and brick. The weatherboarding was completely renewed according to the original pattern, and a slate roof added for safety and performance. The interior of the lower rooms was restored to its monastic simplicity. The walls were inlaid with brick, some of the original brick in sufficiently good condition to be reused. The well of clear water was bricked and covered and the twin "old oaken buckets" restored. The Restorers and the architect collaborated effectively, in a spirit of reverence for the sacred, and succeeded in a real restoration and not a substitution, the final touches being finished December 22, 1936. In the following year on November 7, a large cross, redolent of those along the wayside in Catholic European countries, was erected, and twelve years later in May, 1949 an outdoor set of Stations of the Cross was set up and indulgenced by a son of St. Francis.
CONSTITUTION
OF
The Restorers of Mount Carmel
In Maryland
SECTION 1. NAME
The name of the Association shall be: "The Restorers of Mount Carmel in Maryland"
SECTION II. OBJECTS
The principal object of this Association, besides the spiritual, shall be to take charge of the site of the first monastery of Discalced Carmelite nuns in America (1790), assist the nuns and maintain the two surviving buildings of the monastery.
The officers shall be a President, one Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Chaplain and five Governors. These shall constitute the Executive Committee for the transaction of the business of the Association. Five of the members of the Committee shall constitute a quorum
SECTION IV. DUTIES OF OFFICERS
The President shall preside at all general and special meetings and at those of the Executive committee, and shall call extraordinary meetings when necessary, appoint officers to serve for any unexpired term or terms, and name committees
The Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer shall perform the duties signified by their official titles.
The Chaplain shall as a rule, celebrate the Masses at the Shrine on pilgrimage days and on the more important feasts and anniversaries as indicated in Sec. VIII. He shall also offer Mass for deceased members on their death, and shall offer a Requiem Mass in November for all memorial and deceased members to which all the living shall be invited.
The Governors, besides acting as Executive officers, shall usually act as heads of committees for special duties.
There shall be a Historian whose duty shall be to collect and preserve all documents, relics, etc., pertaining especially to the early foundations of the first Carmel and its extension through the cities of the United States. The particular interest should be in the restored monastery buildings and their history.
SECTION V. ELECTIONS
Elections shall be held every two years in the month of April. The President shall not be eligible for re-election to that office for more than two terms in succession.
The other officers may be re-elected, but only for a second term in succession.
The term of the Governors shall be four years, after which they may be re-elected.
The Chaplain shall not be elected, but he shall be appointed. The historian shall not be elected, but chosen by the President.
SECTION VI. MEMBERS AND FEES
Annual membership shall be of two kinds: Active and Honorary. Active members shall pay an annual fee of 20 dollars. They shall be expected to take an active part in attaining the several objects of the Association. Honorary members shall contribute twenty dollars annually to further the ends of the Association. Perpetual membership in life and death shall be acquired by the payment of $200.00. All three classes of members have the right to vote in the Association.
Memorial membership shall be extended to any deceased person, whether former members or not, by the payment of $50.00 into the treasury on their behalf. This will entitle them to share in the Masses and other suffrages of the Association.
The annual dues are payable in the month of March in advance. The treasurer will send notice at that time. They who fall in arrears for more than two years lose Active membership and the spiritual benefits of the Association.
SECTION VII. MEETINGS
A General meeting shall be held each year, at which meeting biennially the election of officers shall be held, as provided in Sec. V. The newly elected shall take office immediately and shall hold an Executive meeting after the general one. At the April general meeting the Treasurer shall make a report of the finances of the Association for the entire preceding year to date. Not less than ten members shall constitute a quorum at the annual or other general meetings for the transaction of important business or for amendments to the Constitution. Such amendments must be submitted to the members at least two weeks before the meeting for adoption.
SECTION VIII. PILGRIMAGES
In keeping with its spiritual purpose members of the Association shall make pilgrimages to the restored Carmel at Port Tobacco, Maryland in May, July (16) and October (15). Other days of special devotion recommended to the members are:
March 12: Canonization of St. Teresa of Avila (1622)
March 27: Anniversary of the death of Mother Clare Joseph (1830) and recovery of the site at Mount. Carmel in Maryland(1935)
May 1: Departure of the Foundresses from Europe
July 16: Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
July 21: First Conventual Mass in Maryland at Chandler's Hope, (1790)
Oct. 1: Feast of St. Teresa of Lisieux (1873-1897).
Oct. 15: Feast of St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582).
Dec. 14: Feast of St. John of the Cross (1542-1591).
Groups in other areas may organize visits or pilgrimages to this monastery.
SECTION IX. SPIRITUAL BENEFITS
The Chaplain shall offer the Holy Sacrifice for all Active, Honorary and Perpetual members as provided in Section IV. Members shall share in all indulgences granted by the Holy See for pilgrimages and pious practices performed by similar Associations and in particular those already granted for pilgrimages to the Shrine, Mt. Carmel in Maryland. A Requiem Mass shall be offered as soon as possible for the soul of a deceased member.
Original Constitution
SECTION III. OFFICERS
The officers shall be a President, one Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Chaplain and Five Governors. These shall constitute the Executive Committee for the transaction of the business of the Association. Five of the members of the Committee shall constitute a quorum.
Some notes on the acquisition of the Monastery property by the Nuns.
By: Reverend Lawrence J. Kelly, S. J.
See, below, the original hand written document by Father Kelly which was written in 1933.
James Francis Matthews (11/28/1903 - 8/20/1946) lawyer for the Restorers of Mount Carmel in Maryland, and brother of Mary Clare Matthews and Miriam Matthews Cappers
Original Notes by Rev. Lawrence J. Kelly, S. J. documenting the sale of Restorer Property to the Nuns.
Typed "Some Notes on the acquisition of the Monastery property by the Nuns".
The original "Durham" property consisted of 750 acres. When the Carmelites came in 1790 Father Neale seems to have acquired it from Ignatius Baker Brooke (Jr.) in exchange for his own property "Chandler's Hope" plus a payment of (pounds).
Father Neale seems to have retained the title in himself for the nuns. The first recorded deed in the county offices was dated May 14, 1802, and recorded the same day. It recited that no indenture (contract of sale) had been signed April 2, 1800, by which Baker Brooke sold to Charles Neale a tract of 650 acres, comprising 375 acres on onehalf of "Durham:, 200 acres called "Keech Neck" and 75 acres called "May Day", for the sum of 900 pounds
Before his death (Nov., 1823) Father Neale must have deeded the property to the nuns but as yet no record of that transaction had been reported.
Baker Brooke was ordained. . . . . . . There must have been some question as to his ability to transfer the property to Father Neale, for the latter had . . . . . . .the registers of Abp. Mrechal to prove that the sale antedated Brooke's ordination. Roger B. Franeri, Dec. 25, 1829, wrote to the Prioress and assured her "that the court had confirmed the title of the nuns to the property. A religious corporation could not legally change a property without approval of the state legislature. The same impediment may have existed at the time in regard to an ordained minister.
The Carmelites (23) were incorporated in December 1831 shortly after their removal to Baltimore. After that they rented the property to one John Howard. In 1836 they sold the property to a Mr. Sanders (exclusive of the graveyard) and in 1839 they sold the barns on the place. On May 6, 1851 the nuns gave a deed to Henry A. Neale to certain houses and a lot and part of the tract called "Chandlers Hope" adjoining the town of Port Tobacco.
It would seem that either they or Father Neale had retained title to at least a part of that original Neale property.
Back in 1811 there is record of a deed from James Neale to Edward Sanders, but the description of the property then conveyed is hard to decipher.
The above items were obtained by Mr. James Matthews of La Plata who has been conducting the legal business of the Restorers of Mt. Carmel at the County seat.
By: Rev. Lauwrence J. Kelly, S. J.
Washington Chapter History
Original Constitution
Left to right: Mary Clare Matthews; Patrick Cardinal O'Boyle; Mrs. Irene Ord, president of the Restorers; Mrs. Louise MacKavanagh; Apostolic Delegate Luigi Raimondi; Henrietta Talbott; and Mrs. Burch
October 1976, Dedication at Mount Carmel. Return of the Nuns. Sister Mary Ann and Henrietta Talbott (deceased 15 March 2003 at age 87)
A gathering of the Restorers of Mount Carmel at Hawthorne on 15 July 1951. Henrietta Talbott is standing at the right of the center pole.
Pilgrim Hall was built by the Restorers and turned over to the nuns. It was divided into a kitchen, refectory and recreation room.
In the month of August 1933, Henriietta's mother, Mrs. Benjamin E. Talbott of Washington (born Mary Cecelia Hamilton, of a Charles County family) and her daughter Isabelle (Mrs. John J. Hagerty) were spending some days at "Hawthorne" , their former residence, an ancient manor overlooking Port Tobacco valley to the southwest, a few miles south of the old Carmel property.They heard about it and on September 2, as if by a providential inspiration, they decided to visit it. Learning its wonderful and Catholic history they then and there resolved to "do something"
about it.
The two buildings, pictured above, were the smallest of the group. The smallest of these two had probably been used as an infirmary and the two story building, the last to be erected, was used to house the nuns. They were located at different places on the property but during the restoration they were moved to their present site and joined together as pictured.
The two had been occupied during the long interval by tenants engaged by the Sanders family to farm the large property, acquired not long after the nuns had left. In 1933 these two survivors were little better than a ruin which any violent wind could have easily blown from the hill.
The next year, 1934, Marylanders were celebrating the tercentenary of the founding of the Maryland Colony at St. Mary's City. Buildings and landmarks of historic interest were being restored from a sense of patriotism and civic pride. Particular interest was centered on the restoration or rebuilding of the old State House, where, had been laid by the Catholic Pilgrims under Lord Baltimore the foundation of religious liberty in the colonies and, in fact, in the United States. Why should not the site of the buildings be restored and honored where the foundations of Catholic convent life had been laid in the young Republic a century and half later?
It had not been difficult to identify the site and the surviving buildings of the old Monastery. First there was the popular tradition: the place had never ceased to be known as "The Monastery.".The two surviving buildings corresponded perfectly to the description in the Carmelite records. The widow of Dr. Edward N. Sanders, an octogenarian, who inherited the best part of the large farm, remembered distinctly the chapel, the chaplain's cottage and other buildings that had disappeared one by one. The ruins of Father Neale's little house were still visible as well as the outline of the monastery chapel.
The monastery buildings (shown above) at Port Tobacco were all of frame construction, and Father Neale was preparing to replace them with brick. But his health became too enfeebled and he was unable to carry out the plan. In 1933 a century had passed since the removal of the nuns to Baltimore and all but two of the buildings (pictured below) had succumbed to the ravages of time.
Courtesy of Mrs. Ellen Talbott
Courtesy of Mrs. Ellen Talbott
Courtesy of Mrs. Ellen Talbott
The following obituary was received from Priscilla T. Laramie, niece of Ms. Henrietta P. Talbott.
I want to thank Miriam Cappers for obtaining this information from Pricilla Laramie. Also, my sincere thanks to Pricilla Laramie for providing the information and to Ellen Talbott for the photos of her grandmother, and of her two aunts, Ms. Henrietta P. Talbott and Isabelle T. Haggerty.
These two ladies had an important role in the founding of the Restorers of Mount Carmel in Maryland. Without them, there probably wouldn't be a Carmel of Port Tobacco.
Henrietta Priscilla Talbott, 87, died Saturday, March 15 in her home from a combination of congestive heart failure and cancer. She was born in Washington, D.C. to Dr. Benjamin Erlie Talbott and his wife Mary Cecelia Hamilton Talbott on January 30, 1916. Her 3 brothers and 2 sisters have preceded her in death. She lived her entire life here in the District of Columbia.
During World War II she had duties in North Africa and France while serving as a Major in the Army and under the directive of General Dwight D. Eisenhower as a liaison in the Office of Strategic Services. Upon returning to the United States after the War, she worked for the Federal government in a variety of positions, until her retirement in 1981 from the Department of Commerce. She was educated at Georgetown Visitation Convent for high school (class of 1933) and junior college (class of 1935), and graduated from each with high honors.
Henrietta was a novitiate with the Order of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration for several years, but withdrew prior to taking her final vows.
As a tenth generation American she was a very active member of the National Society of Colonial Dames, State of Maryland, Washington Committee; the National Society of Decedents of the Lords of Maryland Manors; the Society of the Pilgrims of St. Mary's County; the Restorers of Mt. Carmel, La Plata, Maryland; the National Christ Child Society and the Club of the Colonial Dames. She was a founding member of the Church of the Annunciation parish, Washington, D.C., and was active in the Sodality of Mary. She also volunteered for Meals on Wheels for several years, even though she personally never drove a car. Her hobbies included writing, painting and traveling worldwide.
Ten nieces and nephews, 29 great-nieces and nephews, and 30 great-great nieces and nephews survive her. Many cousins and other relatives and friends also survive her.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at Annunciation Church at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 19, with viewing beginning at 10:00 a.m. at the church. Interment will immediately follow at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Northeast Washington.
From left to right (in line) the Chaplain's cottage, the reception rooms, the choir (chapel to rear), the infirmary and kitchen. The two story structure below was moved up and attached to infirmary. These two surviving buildings are shown below, before and after restoration.
The Restored Carmel - 1937
Ground breaking ceremony for Pilgrim's Hall 40 years ago.
Courtesy of Carmelite Monastery. La Plata, Maryland
Because of the unique history, they resolved to see what could be done to initiate a restoration program. The following year, 1934, the citizens of Maryland were celebrating the tercentenary of the founding of the Maryland Colony at St. Mary's City. Patriotism and civic pride were contagious, and buildings and landmarks were being restored, especially the old State House where the first colonists had laid the foundation of religious liberty in the colonies. Why not restore the site and the buildings where the later faithful had planted the fruit of that religious freedom - the foundation of religious life.
