Jane Lowe, Superintendent of Birkdale Palace Hotel 1882-1883

[contarini]

I am trying to uncover details of Jane Lowe's time as Superintendent. Is there any evidence that she may have converted to Roman Catholicism during her time in Southport? She was originally from Kincardineshire in Scotland, and later ran Hotels in Rhyl and Colwyn Bay. Is there any clue to her career history before the Palace Hotel - I suspect she may have been the housekeeper at the Ilkley Wells Hydro.

[ShaunJ]

She was confirmed as the licensee of the Palace Hotel in Birkdale in October 1881 (Liverpool Daily Post 8 October 1881, page 7). Initial application granted 27 September 1881 ( Liverpool Mercury 28 September 1881 page 6)

[wilcoxon]

She is referred to as Mrs Jane Lowe in some newspapers. 

[Mabel Bagshawe]

Can't help with the Southport connection, but I do like the fact she's always Mrs Lowe in advertising and news reports in North Wales, although always recorded as single in the census. Presume it was better for business in those days.

I had hoped something about her past history would come up when she took on the hotels to provide assurance to customers, but nothing much. THis is interesting for the attitudes of the time though
https://newspapers.library.wales/view/3636236/3636240/27/

[CaroleW]

Re conversion to Catholicism.  There would be no records but when she died - did she have a Catholic burial?

[contarini]

Indeed she did - at St. Joseph's Colwyn Bay 4th August 1931. What I am hoping to establish is when and where she converted as she was not from a Catholic family...

[Gibel]

The nearest RC church to the Palace Hotel would be St Joseph’s in York Road. I would imagine that converts would be recorded in their Parish Registers. Their registers up to 1941 are held at Lancashire Record Office.

[lancaster.jim]

You wrote -
“I am trying to uncover details of Jane Lowe's time as Superintendent. Is there any evidence that she may have converted to Roman Catholicism during her time [1882 - 1883] in Southport? “

If Jane became a Roman Catholic, then one would expect a baptism entry in a church somewhere, probably close to where she lived.  Baptism can only be received once and as most people are baptised as infants, this is not a problem.  For adults seeking admission to the Catholic Church, this raises the question - “Has this person been baptised already?”  At this time there was not agreed understanding of “Baptism” and so the priest would baptise the person 'Conditionally' -  In this, the usual form of baptism was/is preceded by “If you have not already been baptised, I baptise you ...”  This procedure has become much less frequent since ca 1970 when the main Christian churches reached a common understanding of Baptism.

Using Genuki Church Database (https://www.genuki.org.uk/churchdb ) to find churches in Southport and then filtering for Roman Catholic churches shows that in 1882, the only Catholic church in Southport was St Mary on the Sands, established in 1841.  The entry for this church (https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/LAN/Southport/StMaryontheSands  ) shows that the early baptism registers have been deposited in Lancashire Archives in Preston.

Original Registers
Baptisms
1831-1897 held by Lancashire Record Office RCSO
Copies of Original Registers
Baptisms
1831-1941 held by Lancashire Record Office MF 9/136 264-265 - Microfilm
1831-1959 held by Lancashire Record Office Searchroom - Transcript

As far as I can see there are not any published transcripts of these registers.

[Gibel]

As I posted earlier about St Joseph’s RC being the nearest to the Palace Hotel I checked Lancashire Archives and they have a copy register for baptisms from 1867 which was the year the church opened.
The church was designed by EW Pugin and is very near where I live.

Jane was apparently only a short time in Birkdale. Have you checked the RC registers in Ilkley, and the places in North Wales where she lived?