The History of St. Mary’s College

1 Sep 2023

Thank you to our Head of History, Mr Rothnie, who wrote ‘Fidem Vita Fateri’, a book on the history of our College for our Centenary in 2019. We were able to retrace the makings of St. Mary’s.

St. Mary’s College owes its existence to the Christian Brothers, an order founded in Waterford, Ireland in 1802 by Edmund Ignatius Rice with the intention of setting up schools for poor Irish Catholic boys at a time when the minority Protestant Ascendancy dominated. Such schools soon spread to Catholic areas of England and by the mid 19th century there were six Christian Brother schools in Liverpool. By 1900 there was a single school left, the Catholic Institute in Hope Street but this was thriving under Brothers Leahy and Robinson. This Institute, which later became St. Edward’s College, soon became almost too popular amongst the Catholics of Merseyside and after World War One was said to be over crowded with some 700 pupils (and these were all boys – it was to be many years before girls put in an appearance). At the same time the location of the Institute meant that it was most convenient for boys from the south and centre of Liverpool. It was felt that parents from the North of Liverpool were put off by the distance to travel to the Institute; as one account from the Christian Brothers’ Educational record of 1937 put it: “parents feared the smoke and street accidents of Liverpool.” Possibly even worse, clever Catholic children were being “tempted” into the Protestant school of Merchant Taylors’ in Crosby.

Wilf Hammond, the first lay head of St. Mary’s recalls the story told by Raymond Leatherbarrow who was one of the original pupils in 1919 and attended the 75th reunion in 1994. As Raymond remembered, his father had been a purser on an ocean liner, the family living locally in Seaforth Avenue, Crosby. His mother had proposed sending Raymond to Merchant Taylors’ Boys School – so clearly they could afford the fees. However the Leatherbarrows were good Catholics and apparently the parish priest had said “oh no, you can’t do that”. It was the Archbishop of Liverpool, Dr. Whiteside, who therefore asked the Christian Brothers to provide a new opportunity for Catholic education in North Liverpool; as the College prospectus of 1934 somewhat grandly puts it: the Archbishop “felt it was of paramount importance that the Catholic boys of this populous and important locality should have the benefits of Higher Education.” It appears that the Archbishop first asked the Brothers in the early 1910s and a school had been planned to open in 1915 but World War One had put all such plans on hold. At the end of the war the plans were revived and as an initial start the Brothers purchased Claremont House, along with two acres of land. (A very detailed account puts this at North 530 feet x East 125 feet x South 623 feet x West 190 feet).

The house had been built between 1861-2 by the Portuguese Liverpool ship owner John De Costa on land described in the Deed of Covenant as “that piece of parcel of land, part of a field called the School Field.” (No one has discovered why it was known as School Field). Its name reputedly came from De Costa’s American wife. Claremont House was built on only part of the School Field – other parts were sold off separately, including the parcel of land that later became – after many years and changes of use – the Sports Hall.De Costa was at one time the Honorary Consul to the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. There was much support for the Southern states during the Civil War, despite the Confederacy’s support of slavery, as Liverpool bought most of its cotton from the South and wished to continue this trade during the war. The American Eagle can still be seen on both gates at the front of Claremont House at the entrance from Liverpool Road. According to one account the gates were actually a gift from Liverpool Corporation in grateful recognition of De Costa’s promotion of trade between Liverpool and the Confederate States. The house went through a number of further owners after De Costa until the final inhabitants were the Hughes family who owned a chain of grocery shops in Liverpool. Hughes was an Irish Catholic and very successful – but during the latter stages of World War One he had engaged in widespread bribery of officials to ensure both his sons and some of his employees were not conscripted into the army. Hughes was sent to jail for a year and afterwards felt so ashamed that he sold up and moved back to Ireland. Father Brown, a retired prison chaplain residing in Crosby and a former Christian Brothers pupil raised the fact that Claremont House was for sale and thus it was purchased by the Christian Brothers.

When the Brothers took over they took possession of the house along with its stables and greenhouses. The first Head was Brother Leahy. Originally from Cork in Ireland he had come to Liverpool in 1900 as Director of the Christian Brother Mission and had helped to revive the Catholic Institute in Hope Street. It was on 22 September 1919 that pupils and Brothers assembled for the first ever day at school at St. Mary’s College (although at this point its official title was the “Catholic Institute of Crosby”).

If you wish to read the entire book ‘Fidem Vita Fateri’, a brief history of St. Mary’s College written by Niall Rothnie. You can purchase the book from the school office for £10.00.