Marion Rebecca Hughes

The first woman to dedicate herself was Marian Rebecca Hughes, who made her vows at St. Mary's, Oxford, on June 5, 1841, though she did not enter a community until her father's death eight years later. She survived until 1912 as the venerable Mother Superior of the Convent of the Holy Trinity at Oxford, founded in 1849. A year earlier Priscilla Lydia Sellon had founded the Society of the Holy Trinity at Devonport, with the express approval of the Bishop of Exeter, Dr. Phillpotts, and in 1854 the little sisterhood at Regent's Park was merged in this. The story of Miss Sellon and her work will be told in a later booklet in this series. Here it is only necessary to say that throughout her devoted labours Pusey was her constant counsellor, gave her his keenest sympathy, and helped materially to shape her course.