John Daniel (priest)
John Daniel (1745–3 October 1823) was an English Roman Catholic priest and the last effective head of the English College, Douai. He was born in 1745 in Lancashire, the son of Edward Daniel of Durton and the great-nephew of the historian Hugh Tootell. He studied at Dame Alice’s School, Fernyhalgh, and later at Douai, where he was ordained and taught philosophy (from 1778) and then theology.
When the Douai college president Edward Kitchen resigned in 1792 because of fears about the French Revolution, Daniel became president. During the war between England and France, most British colleges fled, but Daniel and the college stayed in an attempt to save it. On the night of 12 October 1793, revolutionary soldiers seized the college. Those who hadn’t already escaped were moved to the Scottish College or kept as prisoners. Daniel, the teachers, and the students were held first at Arras and then at Doullens in Picardy.
Over the next three months, fifteen people escaped by lowering a rope from the ramparts and made it back to England. In November 1794, the remaining members were sent back to the Irish College at Douai, and in February 1795 they were allowed to leave for England. Daniel and about twenty‑five professors and students arrived at Dover on 2 March 1795, together with Gregory Stapleton and sixty‑four students from St. Omer’s. In London they met John Douglass, Vicar Apostolic of the London District. Stapleton took his students to Old Hall Green, while the Douai group went north to join other refugees in the Northern District. William Gibson hosted them in York for a time.
Daniel seems to have been installed as president at Crook Hall, but he resigned shortly after, effectively transferring the presidency from Douai to the new college. He was succeeded by Thomas Eyre, though some sources dispute this, and Edwin Burton finds the matter unclear in the archives.
Daniel returned to Lancashire and stayed there until 1802, when he went to Paris to recover Douai College’s property and other British church property. After 1815, the French government paid compensation, but the English government kept the money and did not return it to France or to English Catholics. Daniel remained the last de facto president of Douai, though Francis Tuite was named titular president to pursue the claims.
In February 1831, the Catholic Magazine published Daniel’s detailed account, “Claim of the Rev. John Daniel,” outlining the history and supporting documents. He argued that the claim had been denied by British Commissioners, though an appeal was upheld by Lord Gifford, the Lord Chief Justice and Privy Council member. The matter was connected to how funds were used, with some saying money was later used for Windsor Castle furnishings or the Brighton Pavilion.
Gifford’s decision was issued in 1825, and the Pavilion was completed two years later. Daniel died in Paris on 3 October 1823. He also wrote Ecclesiastical History of the Britons and Saxons, published in two parts (first in 1815 and the second in 1824).
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 13:16 (CET).