He was educated first at Dame Alice's School, Fernyhalgh,[2] and then at Douai, where he was ordained priest and made professor of philosophy (1778) and afterwards of theology.
[3] Over the next three month, fifteen managed to escape from the citadel, by descending at night a rope let down from the ramparts, and made it back to England.
As Douglass was unable to make a similar arrangement for the Douai students, they proceeded north to join their friends, many of whom resided in the Northern District.
William Gibson, Vicar Apostolic of the Northern District, lodged them for a time in his house at Little Blake Street in York.
[4] Daniel retired to Lancashire till 1802, when he went to Paris in order to recover the property of Douai College and other British establishments.
John Daniel", minutely tracing the history of the whole affair and citing authorities and documents, both English and French.