William Robert Brownlow

William Robert Brownlow, Fourth Bishop of Clifton, 1894 to 1901

The future Bishop was born at Wilmslow, Cheshire, on 4 July 1830. His father, Canon William Brownlow, was vicar of the parish church. Robert Brownlow was educated at Cambridge and after graduating was ordained in the Anglican Church. He served at the parish church at Torquay for four years but resigned in 1861. He was received into the Catholic Church in 1863 and ordained priest in 1866. As a priest of the Diocese of Plymouth, Father Brownlow became well known for his writings in defence of the Catholic Church. He was consecrated Bishop of Clifton at the Pro-Cathedral on 1 May 1894.

Bishop Brownlow, lacking the wealth of his predecessor, was unable to give Prior Park the financial support the college had enjoyed under his guidance. Accordingly, he invited the Irish Christian Brothers, who had opened a grammar school for Catholic boys in Clifton, to be responsible for Prior Park. The Brothers agreed to take the college for a trial period of seven years and made a success of the venture, having almost one hundred boarders at the college by the end of the century.

In addition to the several new churches he opened in the diocese during his short time as Bishop, he had a special care for the spiritual well-being of the many Irish labourers who came to Avonmouth to work on the construction of the new dock. For this reason, St Bernard's Church in Shirehampton is dedicated to his memory. For many years, both during his time as an Anglican and after his conversion, the Bishop had exchanged letters with Father (later Cardinal) John Henry Newman, and many of the letters are still preserved in the diocesan archives. Among the Bishop's other works are, ‘A History of the Catholic Church in England', and, in collaboration with Dr Northcote, ‘Roma Sottoranea', a history of the Roman Catacombs.

Bishop Brownlow died at Clifton on 9 November 1901.