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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2015
The Catholic population of the Thames Valley in the period 1660 to 1780 was scattered and small when compared with that of Lancashire or the North East of England. Yet, despite the community being dispersed and inhabiting an area close to the centre of government, the recusant population thrived, growing from an estimated 729 in 1676 to 1362 by 1767. The Thames Valley, for the purpose of this study is taken to include Berkshire, most of Oxfordshire and parts of South Buckinghamshire, North Surrey and Western Middlesex (see maps). The main centres of Catholicism throughout this period congregated around gentry households, such as the Stonors of Stonor Park in Oxfordshire and the Wollascots of Woolhampton in Berkshire.
1 As this article does not specifically refer to particular parishes in Thames Valley Middlesex and Thames Valley Surrey, maps of these areas have not been included. For Middlesex and Surrey, however, the Thames Valley includes the Archdeaconry court of Middlesex, while in Surrey parishes not further than five miles from the Thames in the deaneries of Stock and Ewell, from Egham in the west to Kew in the east are considered.
2 For the penal laws, see Williams, J.A., ‘English Catholicism under Charles II: the legal position’, Recuscant History, vol.7 no.3 (October 1963), pp. 123–143 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Williams, J.A., Catholic Recusancy in Wiltshire, 1660–1791 (Catholic Record Society, 1968) pp. 1–68 Google Scholar; Norman, E., Roman Catholicism in England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985) chapter 3Google Scholar; Leys, M.D.R., Catholics in England 1559–1829; A Social History (London: Longmans, 1961) chapters 7–8.Google Scholar
3 Statutes at Large (Printed by Bentham, Joseph, Cambridge, 1763), volume 7, 3 James I c.4.Google Scholar
4 Fines of £20 a month were imposed for absence from church from 1581; Statutes of the Realm, volume 5, pp. 10–11.
5 Albers, J. ‘“Papist traitors” and “Presbyterian rogues”: religious identities in eighteenth-century Lancashire’, in Walsh, J., Haydon, C. and Taylor, S.J.C. (eds). The Church of England c.1689-c.1833 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) p. 317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6 Sidney, and Webb, Beatrice, The Parish and the County (London: Longmans, Green and Co, 1906) p. 463.Google Scholar
7 ORO, B IV/9–11.
8 Stonor, R.J., Stonor: A Catholic sanctuary in the Chiltems from the fifth century till today (Newport: R.H. Johns Limited, 1951), p. 288 Google Scholar; Oxfordshire Record Office, Register of Papists’ Estates, QSD/E/1, pp. 20–32.
9 Haydon, C., Anti-Catholicism in Eighteenth-century England, c.1714–1780 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993), p. 89. p. 92Google Scholar.
10 The Assize records for this period are very patchy. Those papers that do exist indicate that there was little anti-Catholic activity in those years during and after the popish plot. Public Record Office, ASSI 5/4, 5/5.
11 PRO, ASSI 5/6.
12 Mullett, M.A., Catholics in Britain and Ireland (London: Macmillan, 1998) pp. 81–82 Google Scholar.
13 Humphreys, A.L., East Hendred: A Berkshire Parish (London: Hatchards, 1923), p. 296.Google Scholar
14 London Metropolitan Archives, MJ/SR 2256.
15 PRO, ASSI 5/34, 5/35.
16 ORO, CJ/IV/22.
17 London Metropolitan Archives, MJ/SR 2386.
18 PRO, SP 35/33/18.
19 Pittock, M.G.H., Jacobitism (London: Macmillan, 1998) p. 95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20 ORO, CJ IV/23.
21 ORO, Oxford Quarter Sessions Rolls, Grand Jury Presentments, Easter 1744, Epiphany and Easter 1746.
22 PRO, ASSI 5/64, 5/65.
23 PRO, KB 8/69.
24 PRO, ASSI 5/64.
25 PRO, ASSI 5/6.
26 Chapman, C.R., Ecclesiastical Courts, their Officials and their Records (Dursley: Lochin Publishing, 1992) pp. 54–55 Google Scholar.
27 J.A. Williams, ‘English Catholicism under Charles II: the legal position’, p. 131.
28 M.G. Smith, Pastoral Discipline, p. 31.
29 ORO, MS. Oxford Diocesan Papers, c.2137, p. 55 and c.2139, p. 13.
30 ORO, MS. Oxford Diocesan Papers, d.12, c.5, c.17.
31 ORO, MS. Oxford Diocesan Papers, c.4, p. 133rev., p. 226rev.
32 Statutes of the Realm, vol. 5, pp. 10–11; Statutes of the Realm, vol. 6, pp. 323–372; Ginter, D.E., A Measure of Wealth. The English Land Tax in Historical Analysis (London: Hambledon Press, 1992).Google Scholar
33 BuRO, Q/RPL/6/4. Chipping Wycombe Borough and West Wycombe.
34 ORO, QSD/L/130, E12/E/49.
35 D. Ginter, A Measure of Wealth, p. 65.
36 PP. p. 236.
37 BRO, D/ED/034, RRp 1, pp. 40–42; a John Doncastle Esq died in 1740 and was probably succeeded by a son of the same name who was buried in 1780. BRO, Binfield Parish registers.
38 ORO, QSD/L/19, 38, 49, 51, 172, 173, 188, 189, 202, 218, 221, 230, 296. BuRO, Q/Rpl/6/7 and 17. Unfortunately few Berkshire tax assessments exist to act as a comparison and assessments for those parts of Buckinghamshire, Surrey and Middlesex in the Thames Valley are lacking in gentry Catholic names.
39 ORO, QSD/L/188, MS. Oxf. Dioc. Papers, b. 101, c.430.
40 PP, p. 249.
41 The low assessments of Thomas Stonor and Charles Greenwood may alternatively be due to the number of units taxed in each parish. In Pyrton, there were twenty two holdings listed in the assessment and of these, Thomas Stonor owned three. In Brize Norton, there were thirty five holdings listed, with only six owned by Greenwood. This is in sharp contrast to Mapledurham where Michael Blount owned twelve of the fifteen listed holdings and in Waterperry, where the Cursons owned eight out of ten. It is significant, however, that Stonor and Greenwood had some of the largest assessments (Stonor had the third and fourth largest payments in Pyrton while Greenwood had the fourth and fifth in Brize Norton) which suggests the possibility of double assessment.
42 J.A. Williams, Catholic Recusancy in Wiltshire, 1660–1791, p. 57.
43 BuRO, Q/SO/10, p. 266.
44 Henry Martin, a barrister who owned an estate in Nottinghamshire previously held by Catholics had complained about being double assessed in 1828 but believed he paid the same as his neighbours for the county rates. PP, p. 244.
45 William Blount (no relation to the Blounts of Mapledurham) mentions Mr. Brown Mostyn of Kiddington, who attempted and failed to obtain relief for his mother Lady Mostyn. The Land Tax assessments for Over and Nether Kiddington do not have an entry for the Mostyns before 1796 although Edward Gore, Esquire, who married Lady Mostyn, is included. His entry in 1760 and 1786 for £59 12s in Nether Kiddington and in 1786 for £80 4s in Over Kiddington remained the same after 1794. ORO, QSD/L/172, 173. It is assumed that these are the estates to which Blount was referring.
46 PP, p. 247.
47 PP, pp. 241–251.
48 D. Ginter, A Measure of Wealth, pp. 65–6.
49 Beckett, J.V., ‘Land Tax administration at the local level, 1693–1798’, in Turner, Michael and Mills, Dennis (eds.), Land and Property: The English Land Tax, 1692–1832 (Gloucester: Alan Sutton, 1986), pp. 161–179.Google Scholar
50 M. Rowlands, ‘The Iron Age of double taxes’, Staffordshire Catholic History, no.3, 1963, p. 40; D. Ginter, A Measure of Wealth, pp.65–6.
51 J.M. Davenport, Lords Lieutenant and High Sheriffs of Oxfordshire 1086–1868 (1868); The High Sheriffs of Berkshire: 1000 Years of Shrievalty in the Royal County (Berkshire Record Office publication, 1997)Google Scholar; ORO, Quarter Sessions Records, RI1687 Trinity 12, 1688 Epiphany 16.
52 ORO, CH/5/1/1–4; Allnutt VII/2; Henley Borough Records DI/1.
53 BRO, D/Ebut/Fl, D/Eby/E56.
54 BRO, RRpl (MF20).
55 Hadland, T., Thames Valley Papists. From Reformation to Emancipation, 1534–1829 (Privately published, 1992)Google Scholar; Thomas Stonor’s Watlington estates registered in 1731 are not mentioned in the 1785 tax assessment, ORO, QSD/L/299, QSD/E/1 pp. 195–203.
56 Blount Archives, Mapledurham House, C. 61.
57 The main example found of an apostate with connections in the Thames Valley is Thomas Gage of Firle, Sussex, whose family owned Shirburn Castle in Oxfordshire for part of the early eighteenth century.