Another  community  was  founded  in  1848
at  Devonport  under  Miss  Priscilla  Lydia
Sellon  (1821-76),  with  the  direct  approval
of  the  bishop,  Phillpotts  (q.v.).  It  was
called  '  The  Society  of  the  Holy  Trinity  of
Devonport.'  It  early  provoked  attack  from
Protestant  quarters,  partly  because  the  view
of  holy  obedience  held  by  Miss  Sellon
was  of  an  abnormal  description.  A  vivid
pamphlet  literature  exists  on  the  subject;
and  alleged  eccentricities  of  the  early  days
at  Devonport  have  been  the  basis  of  later
attacks  on  sisterhoods  in  general,  e.g.  Sister-
hoods in  the  Church  of  England,  2nd  ed.,  1863  ;
The  Anglican  Sister  of  Mercy,  etc.  The
sisterhood  in  Park  Village,  whose  Superior
and  other  sisters  went  out  to  the  Crimean
War  as  nurses  with  Florence  Nightingale
in  1854,  was  broken  up,  and  the  surviving
members  joined  the  Devonport  Society.
The  Society  of  the  Holy  Trinity  began  a
Home  at  Ascot  in  1861,  and  finally  with-
drew from  Devonport  c.  1902.
The  community  of  St.  Thomas  the  Martyr,
Oxford,  was  founded  in  1847  by  Canon
Chamberlain.  Other  communities  followed,
chiefly  in  the  diocese  of  Oxford,  where  Bishop
S.  Wilberforce  (q.v.)  was  sympathetic,  or  they
grew  up  round  churches  which  were  centres  of
revived  life.  Thus  in  1848  began  the  famous
Sisterhood  of  St.  Mary  the  Virgin,  Wantage,
under  the  guidance  of  the  vicar,  W.  J.  Butler.
