Richard William Enraght SSC (23 February 1837 – 21 September 1898) was an Irish-born Church of England priest of the late nineteenth century.

These practices resulted in Enraght being prosecuted by the Church Association's lawyers and put to trial by the presiding Judge, Lord Penzance.

[5] The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church states, "This attempt at suppressing Ritualism so discredited the Act (in fact it created Anglo-Catholic martyrs) that it led to its being regarded as virtually obsolete."

The railway, coincidentally or otherwise, linked all the large and growing centres of Anglo-Catholic worship spreading from London to Brighton and then east and west along coast of Sussex to the neighbouring counties of Kent and Hampshire.

Legislation was proposed to halt the Catholic Revival in Brighton by taking away Wagner's authority to install Anglo-Catholic priests as vicars in the five churches which he had financed.

Enraght clearly directed his text at the Church Association to counter their campaign against Anglo-Catholic priests: "I have now, then, I think, sufficiently demonstrated what I undertook to prove.

I have proved that the last Revision and Settlement in 1662 of the Formularies of the English Church, by which the Bishops and Clergy are bound, both by their Ordination promises and by Act of Parliament, was distinctly Catholic.

Enraght also served as the Organising Secretary for the National Association for the Promotion of Freedom of Worship and campaigned for the abolition of "pew-rents.

Enraght continued to publish pamphlets and letters to The Brighton Gazette promoting adherence to the English Catholic Tradition within the Church of England.

Another example of the Gazette's biased reporting, for Thursday 21 May 1874: In 1874 the Government, under the leadership of Disraeli, with the backing of both Primates and many Bishops, decided to crush ritualism in the Church of England by passing the Public Worship Regulation Act to control religious belief.

From the Brighton Gazette's editorial for 23 April 1874 on the topic of the Public Worship Regulation Act, quote, "Let us have the law obeyed and let there be an easy mode of redress from offending clergyman".

Enraght left Portslade to take on a new challenge in the City of Birmingham as Vicar of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, an area much like Brighton where the Church Association were very active.

In one parish in the north of England, the Association bribed parishioners to speak out against their priest; in one instance, a churchwarden was offered £10,000 to give evidence.

Charles Fuge Lowder, the founder of the Society of the Holy Cross, was threatened with prosecution under the Public Worship Regulation Act.

Enraght having to face the full force of the Law from its defenders: the Church Association's lawyers and the presiding Judge, Lord Penzance.

Enraght refused to attend his own trial on 12 July 1879 on the grounds: as I could not recognize Lord Penzance or his court, which derives its authority – not from "this Church and Realm", but solely from an Act of Parliament, as having any spiritual jurisdiction over me, I was unable conscientiously to defend myself before it.

It was difficult to credit the fact that a Consecrated Wafer, after having been sacrilegiously secreted by a pretended communicant, had actually been delivered to Mr. Churchwarden Perkins, the prosecutor, produced in Court as evidence, marked with pen and ink and filed as an exhibit!

Thanks to some members of the Council of English Church Union, the Consecrated Wafer was obtained from the court and given over to the care of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who reverently consumed It in his private chapel at Addington on Friday December 12, 1879.

So ended the arrest of one of the best men who ever suffered for his Master, and the impression it has left upon our minds seems to be "disestablishment", for it is too great a price to pay for the advantages of being united to the State.

[24]The persecution of English priests over these issues captured international attention, especially in the United States where the Oxford Movement had attracted many followers.

On 19 December 1880 Revd Dr. Ewer, S.T.D., preached a sermon in St. Ignatius Church, New York, on "The Imprisonment of English Priests for Conscience Sake".

Four other priests in England also served prison sentences under the PWR Act: Arthur Tooth, T. Pelham Dale, Sidney Faithorn Green and James Bell Cox.

Three months later, under the provisions of the PWR Act, church authorities declared the benefice of Holy Trinity, Bordesley as vacant, although it was still canonically held by Fr.

Enraght's dismissal and his family's eviction from Holy Trinity vicarage by order of Bishop Philpott, a crowded meeting of the congregation was held in the Highgate Board School, on 28 March, to say good-bye.

When Bishop Philpott preached at Holy Trinity two months later on 6 May 1883, the churchwardens handed him a formal protest condemning the removal of Enraght and stating that "We, the truly aggrieved, have been left as sheep without a shepherd."

[36] The Royal Commission of 1881 studied the issues and made a report in 1883 that marked a historic turning point for the Church of England.

A statue of St. Swithun above the porch is inscribed: "It is placed as a memorial to a great and good priest Richard William Enraght.

For his long and dedicated service to his Diocese of Norwich, the Revd Hawtrey Enraght was awarded the honorary title of Canon in 1928.

To these brave priests and many others who suffered we owe a great tribute of thankfulness and praise, for it was through their determination to stand by the Church in her hour of peril that we have won the tolerance and liberty we have today.

Richard Enraght, whom they described as a "Priest, fighter for religious freedom", as a candidate for a blue plaque to be erected in his memory on his former home in Station Road, Portslade.