Margaret Haydock (Sr. Stanislaus, O.S.A.; 1767? – 1854) was a Roman Catholic nun and teacher, whose life exemplified the plight of English Catholic nuns in exile on the Continent during theFrench Revolution.

Margaret Haydock continued the long tradition of her family in standing firm for her Faith during the Penal Period against Catholics in England. Her ancestors include William Haydock, O. Cist. (1483?–1537) who suffered execution for his participation in thePilgrimage of Grace, and BlessedGeorge Haydock (1556–1584) executed for serving as a priest. Her parents were George Haydock and his second wife, Anne (née Cottam).^[1] Along with her brothersJames Haydock andGeorge Leo Haydock, both priests, andThomas Haydock, a noted Catholic publisher, she was a member of a remarkable generation that made an extraordinary contribution to the preservation of Catholicism in England.

Little is known about Margaret Haydock's early life. She felt the same call to a religious vocation as her brothers James and George Leo. Since Catholic orders were not allowed to serve in England, she went to the convent of Saint Monica that had been established for English Catholic exiles inLouvain. A kinswoman, Jane Haydock, was already serving there and an ancestor, Father Gilbert Haydock (1682–1749) had served there as chaplain. There, on 2 February 1790, she professed as a canonesses regular of theWindesheim Congregation, taking the name Sr. Stanislaus, O.S.A.^[2] The nuns there followed the Rule of Saint Augustine and maintained a boarding school for girls.

Hostilities related to theFlanders Campaign precipitated by theFrench Revolution forced evacuation of the convent in 1794. Sister Stanislaus and her fellow nuns left on 28 June that year and settled inHammersmith Convent near London, after a perilous escape over land and water viaBreda,Rotterdam andGravesend. In 1800, the nuns moved west toAmesbury, near the prehistoric monument ofStonehenge. After one year there, they settled inSt Monica's Priory, Spetisbury inBlandford, Dorsetshire,^[3] where they began a boarding school for girls.

Known as Peggy by her family, Sr. Stanislaus frequently wrote to her brothers, although failing eyesight in her later years required her to have others write on her behalf. She died at Spetisbury on 11 April 1854, the last surviving member of St. Monica's convent at Louvain.^[4]

• Roman Catholicism in Great Britain

• Gillow, Joseph:
  • A Literary and Biographical History, or Bibliographical Dictionary, of the English Catholics, 5 vols., 1895–1902
• The History of St. Monica's Priory, Spetisbury, Dorset
• The Tablet, Vol. 101, June 20, 1903
• Guilday, Peter,The English Catholic Refugees on the Continent 1558-1795, Vol. I
• Who Are the Nuns?
• Williams, Richard G., Mannock Strickland 1683-1744 Agent to the English Convents in Flanders. Letters and Accounts frm Eile
• Haydock Family Papers, Ushaw College, Durham

• Hammersmith inOld and New London: Volume 6, 1878 – via British History Online

• 19th-century English Roman Catholic nuns
• 1760s births
• 1854 deaths
• 18th-century English Roman Catholic nuns

• Source attribution