Maycock 1938

Maycock, A. L. Nicholas Ferrar of Little Gidding. London: SPCK, 1938.

St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life

• known by Ferrar; was bound by the Little Gidding women

pgs 49-51: no good reason to think Ferrar came in contact with Oratorian Rule, although it bears a resemblance to how Little Gidding was run

Ferrar's prayer of thanksgiving, after delivering his family from near-ruin financially (108-9) (c.f. Skipton 1907)

life of the church during/after the civil wars (140-142)

house

• private bedchambers
• common sitting-room known as the Sisters' Chamber fo rht use of the Collett sisters; meetings of the Little Academy held here (146)
• dining room with an organ
• large apartments at opposite ends of the house, night oratories (one for men, one for women)
• infirmary and surgery
• suite of rooms acting as a miniature almshouse; permanent home for four poor widows (based on Dutch almshouses Ferrar saw during his travels) (147-8)
• Great Chamber; long Tudor gallery; hung with tapestry, with an organ on one side; table in the center with the Bible and a Book of Common Prayer (148)
  • this is where psalms were recited, religious exercises performed; chief public room
• Concordance Room, adjoining Great Chamber, used for making Harmonies (148-9)
  • decorated in green; long tables against the walls
  • two large presses, operated by iron bars, for stampin gthe folios as they were completed (149)
  • walls hung with inscripions -- text from Scriptures, aphorisms, exhortations

Nicholas was fond of inscriptions; kept a visitor's book, for visitors to inscribe sentences and aphorisms

• inscription hung over the mantlepiece the urging of Herbert (see 149) -- has IHS, Jesuit inscription (Jesus Hominum Salvator); used commonly at Little Gidding
  • IHS caused suspicions of popery; finally taken down at Bishop Williams' urging in 1641 (151)

names of family members living there (158ff)

• John Ferrar (brother to Nicholas) and Bathsheba; daughter Virginia, son Nicholas
• Susan Collett ("The Moderator") (sister to Nicholas) and John Collett; daughters Hester ("The Cheerful"; later a dressmaker/sempstress in London, 176), Margaret ("The Affectionate"), Joyce, Judith, Mary and Anna ("the two central feminine figures in the whole story of Little Gidding" (179))
  • Collett letters are preserved in the Bodleian (is this still the case?) (173)

pigeon-house turned into a schoolhouse (164-5)

• staffed by three resident masters (for English/Latin, for writing/math and for singing/music) who shared in the life of the community

Nicholas Ferrar Jr., John Ferrar's son, at age 14 trasnlated a devotional work, Mysinger's Devotions, from Italian; by the time he was 20, he had produced a Harmony of the Gospels in 24 languages, and a parallel version of St. John's Gospel in 21 languages (168)

Richard Crashaw was tutor to Ferrar Collett (169); Ferrar later became rector of Steeple Gidding (1659-1664) (169)