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his animosity toward Cornelia changed Wiseman’s good opinion of
her character forever. Finally, Melia was removed from All Souls,
but not before fomenting a war with the Society which ended only
in 1864, twelve years later.
Cornelia was not the villain of the piece painted by Melia. She
too wanted the good of the mission. When Grant took over, she
begged him to persuade Towneley to give the mission unlimited
access to the chapel, land for a boys’ school and a cemetery.
In December, Grant visited the community for the first time
and interviewed each Sister. (Southwark was in London just south
of the Thames, so it meant a journey of some distance to the south
coast.) His manner was friendly and simple compared to Wiseman’s
which was somewhat pompous. Grant and Towneley reached an
easy understanding and together they conceived a charitable trust
forthe educational works of the Society into which Towneley would
put everything Jones had left him in his will.
In January 1852, Towneley sent Grant a draft of the document,
and in June it was formally executed. Seven trustees were named,
Grant being the only one with lifetime tenure. The trust favored the
Society but also made generous provision for the mission. A true
friend to the Society, Towneley had studied how to guarantee the
binding force of the trust legally so as to protect the Society’s inter-
ests. He deliberately did not consult Cornelia because he wanted
to shield her from Duke’s and Wiseman’s accusations of manipulat-
ing the trust in her favor. When this did happen, Towneley could
roundly and truthfully deny Cornelia’s complicity.
In the midst of these difficulties—the Case and the All Soul’
wrangling—the Society continued to expand. Postulants arrived, and
theeducational authorities praised the work of the young teachers in
the London poor schools. The boarding school at All Souls brought
some of the outstanding Catholic families into Cornelia’ orbit and
created a circle of loyal friends. She was acquiring a reputation as an
educator to offset the notoriety created by the press. Even Wiseman
had to recognize the contribution the Society was making to Catholic
education. And in the public sector, she had won the admiration of
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