Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Drane, Augusta Theodosia
DRANE, AUGUSTA THEODOSIA (1823–1894), historian, biographer, and poet, born at Bromley St. Leonard's, Middlesex, on 28 Dec. 1823, was the youngest daughter of Thomas Drane, managing partner in an East India mercantile house, by his wife Cecilia (d. 19 April 1848), daughter of John Harding. When she was fourteen years old the family removed to Babbicombe, Devonshire. Brought up in the established church, she came early under the influence of tractarian teaching at Torquay, and in June 1850 she was received into the Roman catholic church at Tiverton. At this period she published anonymously an essay, the authorship of which has been often attributed to Newman, questioning the morality of the tractarian position. In the autumn of 1851 she went to Rome and passed six months there. Mother Margaret Hallahan received her as a postulant in the Dominican convent at Clifton on 4 Oct. 1852, and she was clothed in the habit of religion on 7 Dec. in the same year, taking the name of Sister Francis Raphael. In 1853 all the novices were transferred to the new convent of Stone, Staffordshire, which since that time has been the mother house of the whole congregation. There she pronounced the solemn vows on 8 Dec. 1856. She was prioress of Stone from 1872 till 1831, and mother provincial of the order from 25 Nov. 1881 till 11 April 1894. She died in the convent at Stone on 29 April 1894.
Miss Drane was well known as an authoress both in prose and verse. Her works are : 1. 'The Morality of Tractariauism : a Letter from one of the People to one of the Clergy' (anonymous), London, 1850. 2. 'Catholic Legends and Stories,' 1855. 3. 'The Life of St. Dominic, with a Sketch of the Dominican Order,' London, 1857, 8vo; reprinted 1867; translated into French by the Abbe A. H. Chirat (Tournai), and into German by Monsignor Matthias Count Spee (Düsseldorf), 1890. 4. 'The Knights of S. John: with the Battle of Lepanto and Siege of Vienna,' London, 1858, 8vo; reprinted 1881; translated into German by Baron von Wangenheim, Aix-la-Chapelle, 1888. 5. 'The Three Chancellors, or Sketches of the Lives of William of Wykeham, William of Waynflete, and Sir Thomas More,' London, 1859, 8vo. 6. 'Memoir of Sister Mary Philomena Berkeley, Religious of the Third Order of S. Dominic,' 1860, printed for private circulation. 7. 'Historical Tales,' 1862. 8. 'Tales and Traditions,' 1862. 9. 'A History of England for Family Use,' London, 1864, 8vo; 5th edit. 1881; 6th edit. 1887, written up to the jubilee of Queen Victoria. 10. 'Christian Schools and Scholars, or Sketches of Education from the Christian Era to the Council of Trent,' London, 1867, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1881. 11. 'Biographical Memoir of the Hon. Henry E. Dormer,' London, 1868. 12. 'The Inner Life of Pere Lacordaire,' London [1868], 8vo; reprinted 1878 and 1892; a translation from the French of Père Chocarne. 13. 'Life of Mother Margaret Hallahan,' London, 1869, 8vo; translated into German (Mainz, 1874) and into French by Sister Dominique du Rosaire de Graverol (Tournai, 1875). 14. 'Songs in the Night, and other Poems' (anonymous), London, 1876 and 1887, 8vo. 15. 'The New Utopia,' a tale published in the 'Irish Monthly, 1876, and reprinted by the Catholic Truth Society, London, 1898, 8vo. 16. 'The History of St. Catherine of Siena and her Companions. . . . Compiled from original sources,' London, 1880, 8vo; 2nd edit., 2 vols., London [1887], 8vo; 3rd edit., 2 vols., London, 1899, 8vo; translated into German by Baron von Wangenheim (Dülmen, 1884), and into French by the Abbe Cardon (Paris, 1893). 17. 'Lady Glastonbury's Boudoir, or the History of Two Weeks' (anonymous), London, 1883, 8vo. 18. 'Uriel, or the Chapel of the Angels,' London, 1884, 8vo. 19. 'Aroer: the Story of a Vocation,' a novel, London, 1888, 8vo. 20. 'Dalmeny Brothers,' written for the 'Lamp,' 1890. 21. 'The History of S. Dominic, Founder of the Friar Preachers,' London, 1891, 8vo; translated into French by the Abbe Cardon (Paris, 1893), into Italian by Emilia Stocchi (in the 'Rosario'). 22. 'Catholic Readers,' 5 vols., London, 1891. 23. 'The Autobiography of Archbishop Ullathorne, edited with Notes,' London, 1891. 24. 'Letters of Archbishop Ullathorne, edited with Notes,' London, 1892. 25. 'The Imagination: its Nature, Uses, and Abuses,' privately printed 1893, and reprinted in the 'Month.' This was written for the literary department of the World's Congress Auxiliary, Chicago. 26. 'The Spirit of the Dominican Order, illustrated from the Lives of its Saints,' London and Leamington, 1896, 8vo.
[Memoir of Mother Francis Eaphael, O.S.D., by the Rev. Bertrand Wilberforce, London, 1895, 8vo (with portrait), 2nd edit. 1897; Times, 10 May 1894, p. 6, col. 5; Tablet, May 1894, pp. 691, 751.]