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Papists’ Horses and the Privy Council 1689–1720
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2015
Extract
- Horses by Papists are not to be ridden,
- But sure the Muses horse was ne’er forbidden.
- For in no rate-book was it ever found,
- That Pegasus was valued at five pound.
- John Dryden
These lines, written at the end of the seventeenth century, were a wry comment on the ban on the ownership of horses valued at over five pounds which was imposed upon Catholics from 1689 by the Whig ministry of William and Mary and which remained in force, in theory, until the abolition of the penal laws in 1844. Like most of the penal laws its application had all but ceased by the middle of the eighteenth century but in the period under consideration the Privy Council made considerable efforts to ensure the enforcement of the ban. It did so sometimes through a genuine fear of Jacobite uprising and subversion, on other occasions to stir up a renewed paranoia about popery (and thus encourage loyalty from all Protestants) and always to try to weaken the resolve of Catholics to retain their faith. Alexander Pope tells the story of Thomas Gage of Shirburn who had his team of Flemish coach horses seized by the authorities in 1715. Visiting London, he became so jealous of the sight of other people’s coach horses passing by that he apostatised then and there and took the Oath of Abjuration.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1973
References
Notes
1 The Act forbidding Catholics to own horses valued at over five pounds was repealed, with many others against Catholics, 7–8 Victoria (1844) C. 102.5.10.
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4 1 William & Mary P.R.O., C.15 vol. VI p. 73.
5 30 Car. II (1679/80) C.1.
6 PC2/73 p. 258.
7 PC2/73 p. 200.
8 PC2/73 p. 289.
9 PC2/73 p. 282.
10 PC2/73 p. 311.
11 PC2/73 p. 315.
12 PC2/73 p. 315.
13 PC2/73 p. 87.
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15 PC2/73 p. 469.
16 PC2/73 p. 477.
17 PC2/73 p. 481.
18 PC2/73 p. 483.
19 PC2/73 p. 526.
20 PC2/74 p. 31.
21 28 July 1690, PC2/73 p. 500; 30 July 1690, PC2/73 p. 505.
22 4 August 1690, PC2/73 p. 510 and 15 September 1690, PC2/74 p. 15.
23 30 July 1690, PC2/73 p. 504.
24 3 September 1690, PC2/74 p. 2.
25 PC2/74 p. 390 and PC2/74 p. 392.
26 PC2/74 p. 395.
27 PC2/74 p. 402.
28 PC2/74 p. 411.
29 23 July 1692, PC2/74, p. 424.
30 PC2/75 p. 73.
31 PC2/74 p. 448.
32 11 Oct. 1692, PC2/75.
33 PC2/75 p. 125.
34 PC2/75 p. 190.
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36 PC2/75 p. 126.
37 23 January 1695/6, PC2/76.
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63 House of Lords Library 2249 (C), printed in Philip Coverdale, ‘Papist Horses—1704’, Essex Recusant 2 pp. 14–15; the returns for Devon and Cornwall have been printed in The Buckfast Chronicle 32 pp. 28–36 and those for part of Durham are in Bond, M. F., The Records of Parliament; a Guide for Genealogists and Local Historians (Canterbury, 1964) p. 28 Google Scholar. Interestingly, similar returns were only received from twenty-six other counties and cities in England and Wales, far short of the total.
64 A fusil or light musket.
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66 PC2/80 p. 291.
67 12 February 1704/5, PC2/80 p. 276.
68 PC2/80 p. 287.
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70 PC2/80 p. 300.
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75 PC2/80 p. 376.
76 PC2/80 p. 400.
77 PC2/80 p. 401.
78 PC2/80p. 411.
79 11 April 1706, PC2/81.
80 5 March 1707, PC2/82.
81 1 April 1708, PC2/82.
82 PC2/82 p. 149.
83 15 March 1710, PC2/83.
84 PC2/84.
85 PC2/84 p. 386.
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93 Our examination of the Privy Council records ceased at 25 August 1720.
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109 PC2/76 p. 429.
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114 G.E.C. Complete Peerage 2 pp. 51–2.
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117 PC2/76 p. 435.
118 G.E.C. Complete Peerage 3 pp. 66–7.
119 PC2/75.
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122 PC2/82 p. 149.
123 PC2/80 p. 363.
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128 PC2/80 p. 276.
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131 PC2/76, p. 393.
132 Dictionary of National Biography and Burke’s Landed Gentry 1937 p. 732–3.
133 PC2/80 p. 300.
134 PC2/80 p. 324.
135 G.E.C., Complete Peerage 5 p. 528.
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149 Burke’s Commoners 3 pp. 302–3.
150 PC2/80 p. 287.
151 Burke’s Landed Gentry 1952 Suppl. And A. R. J. S. Adolph, ‘The Last Viscountess Montagu’, Catholic Ancestor 6 no 2, June 1996.
152 PC2/80 p. 276.
153 G.E.C., Complete Peerage, 9 p. 48.
154 PC2/80 p. 276.
155 PC2/73 p. 510.
156 G.E.C., Complete Peerage 9 p. 308.
157 PC2/80 p. 302.
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159 PC2/80 p. 300.
160 Burke’s Peerage (1980) p. 1899.
161 PC2/74 p. 15.
162 G.E.C., Complete Peerage 9 p. 514.
163 PC2/80 p. 414.
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168 PC2/80 p. 287.
169 G.E.C., Complete Peerage 10 p. 509.
170 PC2/80 p. 302.
171 Burke’s Landed Gentry 1893 p. 1190 and see also Burke’s Anecdotes, of the Aristocracy.
172 PC2/73 p. 504.
173 Essex Recusant 18 p. 32–5.
174 PC2/80 p. 317.
175 His will was dated 30 June 1705; see Payne, J. O., Records of the English Catholics of 1715, 1900, p. 102.Google Scholar
176 Burke’s, Extinct Peerages p. 447.Google Scholar
177 PC2/80 p. 291.
178 PC2/80 p. 302.
179 Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica 3 423 and Stemmata Chicheleana (1765) p. 97.
180 PC2/80 p. 317.
181 PC2/80 p. 317.
182 Rev. Morant, P., History and Antiquities of the County of Essex, 1768, 2 pp. 108–10.Google Scholar
183 PC2/80 p. 400.
184 Burke’s Peerage (1980) p. 457.
185 PC2/75 p. 153.
186 G.E.C. Complete Peerage, 12/1 p. 359.
187 PC2/76 p. 399.
188 For which see Anstruther O.P., G., The Seminary Priests 3 p. 223.Google Scholar
189 PC2/80 p. 401.
190 Burke’s, Landed Gentry (1972) p. 887.Google Scholar
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192 G.E.C., Complete Peerage 12/1 p. 683.
193 PC2/76 p. 448.
194 Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica 3 pp. 424, 464–71.
195 PC2/80 p. 317.
196 Burke’s, Extinct Baronetcies p. 540.Google Scholar
197 PC2/80 p. 317.
198 G.E.C., Complete Baronetage 2 p. 221.
199 PC2/80 p. 317.
200 G.E.C., Complete Baronetage 2 p. 221.