Rev George NUGEE MA [22268]

  General Notes:

George Nugee
Birth Date: 24 Jul 1819
Baptism Date: 18 Aug 1819
Baptism Place: Saint James,Westminster,London,England
Father: Francis Nugee
Mother: Mary
FHL Film Number: 1042310

George Nugee
Adm. pens. at TRINITY, Mar. 18, 1838. [3rd s. of Francis James, Esq., of Brighton. B. July 24, 1819, in London. School, Shrewsbury.] Matric. Michs. 1838; Scholar, 1840; Members' prize, 1841 and 1843; B.A. 1842; Sir Peregrine Maitland prize, 1845; M.A. 1846. Adm. at the Inner Temple, May 9, 1842. Ord. deacon (London) 1845; priest, 1846; C. of St Paul's, Knightsbridge, 1847-55. R. of Widley with Wymering, Hants., 1858-72. Founded the nursing sisterhood of St Mary-the-Virgin at Wymering. First Warden of the Lambeth Diocesan Penitentiary. Founder and Provost of St Austin's Priory, 1872-92. Author, Sermons, etc. Died Oct. 5, 1892, at his brother-in-law's home, Talaton rectory, Devon. (Shrewsbury Sch. Reg.; Boase, II. 1186, which gives s. of 'Francis James of St James's, London, tailor'; Inns of Court; The Guardian, Oct. 12, 1892.)
Cambridge University Alumni, 1261-1900

Winchester.
Saturday Evening, March 26.
The Rev George Nugee, to the Rectory of Widley, with Wymering Vicarage, on presentation of Francis James Nugee, Esq, and death of Andrew Nugee, clerk
Hampshire Chronicle 26 March 1859.

In December, 1858, the Reverend George Nugee became (following the death of his younger brother Andrew) Vicar of Wymering. He apparently purchased the Manor House choosing to reside there in the company of 12 young men belonging to his recently re-created Order of St. Augustine. The nearby vicarage was set aside as accommodation and base for his Sisterhood of St. Mary which had accompanied him from his previous appointment in London.
The Rev. Nugee was a colourful personality of independent means, having a distinct propensity towards particularly high church services and ritual. During his incumbency at Wymering, he built a private chapel in the Manor House and, in addition, what is apparently an oratory concealed within the walls of an upstairs room. In 1872 after appearing before a Royal Commission on Church Ritual and later enquiries into his questionable morality, he was ordered to resign his living and leave the parish. He died at Talaton, Devon, in 1892.
Ref: http://history.inportsmouth.co.uk/events/billys_and_charleys.htm

Mr Nugee Before the Ritual Commission.
The Times of Tuesday contains an elaborate summary of the evidence taken before the Commission on Ritualism, from which we take the following extracts referring to the doings of the Rev Mr Nugee the Vicar of Wymering (and others)
This long report was published in the Hampshire Telegraph 11 September 1867 & Hampshire Advertiser 14 September 1867

Resignation of a Clergyman
The Rev G Nugee, the well-known ritualistic clergyman, has resigned the livings of Wymering and Widley, for the purpose of devoting himself to more general work in the church.
Manchester Evening News 12 August 1872.

Crowning the Rose Queen.
The annual crowning of the Rose Queen by the Rev Father Nugee, of St Austins Priory, New Kent Road, took place on Saturday at Epping Forest . . . . .
Cambridge Independent Press 11 October 1884

Father Nugee's Lifework.
We understand that the Rev Father Nugee has now fully recovered from his serious illness. He has recently undergone a dangerous operation, and by its success another valuable life is spared to the Church and the poor. It has been well said of his life that it is "three lives rolled into one," such have been his aunt wearied labours for the last 50 years in almost every department of church work and charity. Beginning with Bishop Blomfield, he founded the London Diocesan Penitentiary at Highgate. This he always speaks of as the first and best work of his life. When Bishop Kate succeeded to the See of London, Mr Nugee addressed a pamphlet to him which led to the formation of the London Diocesan Home Mission and the establishment of St Paul's Mission College, of which he himself was appointed the first principle by the Bishop and Council at the Deanery, Westminster. One result of his college work was the starting of the Clare Market Mission. After this his life took a parochial turn, and at his family living in Hampshire he restored both the church at Widley and Wymering, with the National Schools, to which he added a chapel. It is a middle-class school under the "Sisters" and that (for boys) of St Paul's Mission College, were most successful at the time. At the invitation of the Government he supplied the female military hospitals at Aldershot and Portsea with nursing sisters. It was about this time that he conceived the idea of a convalescent home for poor clergy on the Portsdown hills. To this end he visited all the Cathedral and other large towns in England, and enlisted the interests of the bishops and clergy. The two Archbishops and the Bishops of London and Winchester accepted the office of trustees, in order to make it a national work, whilst Mr Gladstone and many of the leading nobility and laity became patrons. Mr Nugee handed over the whole scheme to the English bishops, and, in a special sense, to Bishop Wilberforce. Unhappily the noble plan fell to the ground at the sad death of that prelate.
On returning to London he began his mission work in Lock's Fields, then the haunt of garotters and every kind of evil. By the aid of some of his brothers, whom he established in the New Kent Road, and three or four sisters, to whom he gave a house in Salisbury Crescent, he attacked the stronghold of wickedness. The effect was soon to be seen in the transformation of the whole neighbourhood, as the police themselves freely acknowledged. We may state that the outcome of that mission is now found in the formation of a new parochial district with a church and clergy, at the cost of St John's College Cambridge, to which he, with the sanction of the late Bishop of Rochester, handed over the fruits of his labours.
The last crowning act of Father Nugee's benevolence was the formation of the Work Girls Protection Society, with its London and seaside homes, the foremost of which had its centre in St Marys, New Kent Road, and has become a model for many other like institutions in England, and even in New York. Mr Nugee's free breakfasts are well known and highly appreciated by the working classes, as many as 500 at a time receiving his bounty and teaching on a winter's morning.
Such is a brief sketch of what we may well call Father Nugee's social scheme, on which vast sums of money have been expended during the last 40 years. We may add that out of the members of his brotherhood he has already given more than 20 ordained clergy to the Church of England, and that Dr Thorald, the late Bishop of Rochester, before leaving the diocese, wrote to Father Nugee conveying the expression of his goodwill.
Ref: South London Press 8 August 1891

Deaths.
Nugee.- October 5th 1892 at Talaton Rectory, Devon, at his brother-in-law's, the Rev. George Nugee, M.A., aged 73.

Death of a Remarkable Man.
A very remarkable cleric has passed away in the person of the Rev George Nugee, who carried off many prizes at Cambridge in his day. He was ordained by Bishop Blomfield to the curacy of St Paul Knightsbridge, and he and the present Dean of Exeter were Mr Bennetts first curates. In 1845 he became the first warden of the London Diocesan Penitentiary at Highgate, and from 1852 to 1878 was rector of Widley cum Wymering, where he established a sisterhood and obtained immense influence over the officers at Portsmouth Garrison, who appreciated alike the music in his church and the recherche luncheons at the Rectory. Of late years he has carried on a great work for shop and factory girls in the south of London, at St Austins Priory, on which he has lavished his large means, and the public have known little of his work save when the Rose Queen has been crowned at the Crystal Palace.
Lichfield Mercury 14 October 1892.

The death is announced of the Rev George Nugee, who was well-known throughout Portsmouth and the district a few years since as Vicar of Wymering and Rector of Widley. The deceased clergyman was a Ritualist of the most advanced order and soon after coming to Wymering established a sisterhood at the vicarage in the Churchyard, he and the clergy taking up their residence at the Manor House in Wymering, where a sort of monastic brotherhood was carried on for some time. During his occupation of the living his energy and zeal were untiring and he was regarded as one of the most finished and powerful preachers in the diocese it was Mr Nugee who established the Wymering May Fetes or crowning of the May Queen, which attracted so much attention at the time throughout the country.
On giving up the living in 1872 to the present holder, the Rev H R Smith, Mr Nugee devoted himself to more general work in the church. He became the founder and Provost of St Austins Priory, Walworth, an organisation independent of parochial limits, where he conducted various branches of philanthropic and religious effort for the benefit of the poor of the neighbourhood. The deceased was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, obtaining a second class in the Classical Tripos in 1842. He gained a prize for the Members Latin Essay in 1841, and the Bachelors Latin Essay prize in 1843. Ordained by the Bishop of London in 1845 to the curacy of St Paul's, Knightsbridge, he subsequently became the first warden of the London Diocesan Penitentiary and came to Widley and Wymering in 1858.

Nugee the Rev George of Street Austins New Kent Road Surrey Clerk died 5 October 1892 at Talaton rectory Ottery Probate London 3 December to Henry Robert Waller solicitor effects £483 15s 3d.
National Probate Calendar.

  Research Notes:

Father Nugee is frequently reported in the newspapers of the time.

Image Courtesy of J Nugee - 2019