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Papists’ Horses and the Privy Council 1689–1720

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Anthony R. J. S. Adolph
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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.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , May 1998 , pp. 55 - 75
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1973

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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1 The Act forbidding Catholics to own horses valued at over five pounds was repealed, with many others against Catholics, 7–8 Victoria (1844) C. 102.5.10.

2 Hadland, T., Thames Valley Papists from Reformation to Emancipation priv. pr 1991, pp. 118–119.Google Scholar

3 Technically there were forty-four Catholic licensees, Mrs. Prujean of Hornchurch being a Protestant married to a Catholic.

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.

14 PC2/73 pp. 104, 107.

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.

35 PC2/75 p. 153.

36 PC2/75 p. 126.

37 23 January 1695/6, PC2/76.

38 PC2/76 p. 296.

39 PC2/76 p. 330.

40 PC2/76 p. 340.

41 PC2/76 p. 344.

42 PC2/76 p. 349.

43 PC2/76 p. 381.

44 PC2/76 p. 310.

45 PC2/76 p. 346.

46 G.E.C., Complete Peerage 1 p. 52.

47 PC2/76 p. 387.

48 PC2/76 p. 399.

49 PC2/76 p. 413.

50 PC2/76 p. 429.

51 PC2/76 p. 435.

52 PC2/76 p, 447.

53 PC2/76 p. 355.

54 PC2/76 p. 578.

55 15 April 1696, PC2/76 p. 393; 27 April 1696, PC2/76 p. 408 and PC2/76 p. 448.

56 PC2/76 p. 430.

57 2 March 1699, PC2/77.

58 PC2/78 p. 70.

59 PC2/76 p. 172.

60 PC2/80 p. 253.

61 PC2/80 p. 255.

62 PC2/80 p. 276.

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.

65 1 March 1704, PC2/80 p. 287.

66 PC2/80 p. 291.

67 12 February 1704/5, PC2/80 p. 276.

68 PC2/80 p. 287.

69 PC2/80 p. 291.

70 PC2/80 p. 300.

71 PC2/80 p. 302.

72 PC2/80 p. 324.

73 PC2/80 p. 317.

74 PC2/80 p. 363.

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.

86 Cambridge R.O., Q/S 03 pp. 208–9, 8 April 1715 qu. In O’Leary, J. G., ‘Recusants among our Neighbours; Cambridge and Ely’, Essex Recusant p. 66.Google Scholar

87 20 July 1715, PC2/85.

88 8 November 1715, PC2/85.

89 Burke’s Landed Gentry, 1937, p. 555.

90 Payne, J. O., Records of the English Catholics of 1715, 1889, p. 92 Google Scholar, quoting the report of William Baines of Preston.

91 Burke’s, Landed Gentry, 1937, pp. 554–5.Google Scholar

92 Ibid, p. 144, report of Nathan Marsh 1 January 1715/6.

93 Our examination of the Privy Council records ceased at 25 August 1720.

94 Le Neve’s notes, quoted in Essex Recusant 18 p. 32.

95 Her husband took his seat in Parliament immediately after the death of his father the Earl of Mount Alexander in 1717, indicating that he had taken the Oaths, G.E.C., Complete Peerage, 9 p. 308,

96 G.E.C., Complete Peerage, 12/1 pp. 682–4.

97 Burke’s, Extinct Baroneticies, p. 478 Google Scholar.

98 Burke’s Peerage, 1980, p. 2397.

99 G.E.C., Complete Baronetage, 5 p. 93.

100 G.E.C., Complete Peerage, 1 p. 265 and 9 p. 48.

101 Burke’s Landed Gentry, 1893, p. 1190.

102 ‘Tichborne of Tichborne co. Hants’, The Herald and Genealogist 4 p. 65.

103 30 November 1693, PC2/75 p. 126.

104 25 May 1696, PC2/76 p. 435.

105 Anthony Williams, J., The Catholic Laity of Wiltshire 1600–1791 (1968)Google Scholar, C.R.S. occasional publication, 237.

106 PC2/78 p. 172.

107 G.E.C., Complete Peerage 1 p. 176.

108 PC2/76 p. 413.

109 PC2/76 p. 429.

110 ‘Musgrave’s Obituary’, Harleian Society 44 p. 53.

111 PC2/80 p. 276.

112 Genealogist N.S.25 and G.E.C. Complete Peerage 1 p. 265.

113 PC2/76 p. 310.

114 G.E.C. Complete Peerage 2 pp. 51–2.

115 PC2/76 p. 345.

116 PC2/75 p. 126.

117 PC2/76 p. 435.

118 G.E.C. Complete Peerage 3 pp. 66–7.

119 PC2/75.

120 PC2/76 p. 578.

121 PC2/76 p. 355.

122 PC2/82 p. 149.

123 PC2/80 p. 363.

124 Burke’s Landed Gentry 1937 p. 545.

125 PC2/80 p. 300.

126 Burke’s Landed Gentry 1937 pp. 554–5.

127 PC2/74 p. 2.

128 PC2/80 p. 276.

129 M. H. Massue, Marquis de Ruvigny, The Jacobite Peerage (1904 & 1974) pp. 42–3.

130 PC2/80 p. 287.

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.

136 PC2/76 p. 387.

137 Burke’s Commoners, 4 p. 196.

138 PC2/73 p. 505.

139 William, Shaw, The Knights of England (1906) 2 p. 264.Google Scholar

140 PC2/76 p. 374.

141 PC2/76 p. 391.

142 PC2/76 p. 408.

143 PC2/80 p. 276.

144 Burke’s, Extinct Baronetcies p. 223.Google Scholar

145 PC2/76 p. 399.

146 PC2/78 p. 70.

147 PC2/80 p. 317.

148 PC2/80 p. 376.

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.

158 Anthony Williams, J., The Catholic Laity of Wiltshire 1660–1791, C.R.S. occasional publication, 1968.Google Scholar

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.

164 ‘Lincolnshire Pedigrees’, Harleian Society 52 p. 913 and Payne, J. O., Records of the English Catholics of 1715 (1900) p. 31.Google Scholar

165 PC2/73 p. 500.

166 Crisp, F. A., Visitation of England and Wales (1902), Notes 4 pp. 50–53.Google Scholar

167 PC2/76 p. 447.

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

191 PC2/80 p. 216.

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.