Francis William Tremlett

Sewanee’s first honorary degree – a Doctor of Civil Law – went to the Rev. Francis William Tremlett, vicar at St. Peter's Church in Belsize Park, London. His home was nicknamed "Rebel's Roost" because of the hospitality Tremlett offered Confederate leaders visiting England. He was outspokenly pro-Confederacy and hosted Confederate naval officers at his home, as well as preaching sermons lionizing slaveholders:

"Now, you will perhaps have anticipated me when I say, that of all the wails of woe which the breezes are wafting to us from the different parts of the habitable globe, there is one which has a special claim upon us, and that is the wail from brothers and sisters whom the demon of war has made orphans and widows in the Southern section of the once great and flourishing American Republic. This wail is the cry of a brave, but peace-loving people, praying and striving to be allowed to live in amity and friendship with all the world,—to cultivate the arts of industry and peace; and appealing to us in bleeding hearts for Christian sympathy and succour…”

“...they are a people who have cultivated in no ordinary degree the domestic affections,—nay, to such an extent as to have inspired a servile race, which we originally planted on their shores, with a love and affection for their masters, which have astounded the whole world. We know too that they have Christianized that race...and further, that of those whom capture of bribery has carried away, many have gone, like Onesimus, the friend of St. Paul, voluntarily back to their masters..." Francis William Tremlett 13-14

Tremlett was married to Josephine Bonella Tremlett, heir to Jamaican “slave property.”

He was honored with the University of the South’s first honorary degree in 1869.

The image of Tremlett is courtesy of the American Civil War Museum.

Benjamin J. King, “Church, Cotton, and Confederates: What Charles Todd Quintard’s Fundraising Trips to Great Britain Reveal About Some Nineteenth-Century Anglo-Catholics.” Anglican and Episcopal History 90, no. 2 (2021): 109–33. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27086765: 132.

Edwin W. Besch, Michael Hammerson, Dave W. Morgan, "Raphael Semmes, the English "Confederate Parson," and his Maiden SIster Louisa: A Cased Presentation Revolver, a Magnificent Silver-Mounted Sword, and a "Mammoth" Silk Confederate Second National Flag." Military Collector & Historian Vol. 53 (Winter 2001-2002) 146-160: 147-148.

Francis William Tremlett, Christian Brotherhood: its claims and duties, with a special reference to the fratricidal war in America (London, Bosworth and Harrison 1863): 13-14.