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New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 59, 13 June 1874, Page 13

Death op the Oldest Nttn in Scotland.— There has just pssseJ away, at an advanced age, a religious lady, whose name ife may, perhaps, be worth while to record here as having been the first nun " professed" in Scotland since the time of the Reformation. We refer to Mrs Margaret Wemyss Laing-Meason, whose death occurred lately at the Greenhill Convent, near Swansea. She came of a good Scottish family, rtnd was ♦' clothed" by the late Bishop Oarruthers, then Vicar Apostolic of the eastern district of Scotland, as far back as the year 1834 or 1835, the late Bishop Gillies, of Edinburgh, preaching the sermon on the occasion. She was obliged to go abroad on account of ill-heath ; and having spent twenty -five years, byway of probation, in the Ursuline Convents at La Rocholle, and other places, in I*6o, at the request of the Bishop of Newport and Menevia, Dr. Brown, she brought over to England a body of religious ladies with whom she had been associated, and over whom she presided as the Rev. Mother and Superioress for fourteen years. She devoted herself to the most indefatigable labors among the poor of Swansea and its neighborhood, by whom her loss is deeply lamented. On the 11th March, the ceremony of reception took place at tho Convent of the Infirmarian Sisters, in Wexford. The two young ladies who had the happiness of receiving the white veil on this occasion were Miss Connick (in religion, Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque), daughter of Mr W. Connick, of Wexford, and Mi9B C. Byrne, county Wicklow (in religion, Sister M. Teresa). Most Rev. Dr. Furlong officiated, attended by Rev. J. Maddock, chaplain to the convent, ami Bey. R. Sinnott, C.C. Tho Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, Most Rev. Dt; Powt r, now resides at John's Hill, adjoining St. John's new College.