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‘The Religion for a Gentleman’: The Northern Catholic Gentry in the Eighteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Leo Gooch
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Extract

When, in 1834 Lord Macauley called on Cardinal Wiseman at the Venerable English College in Rome, he was most surprised to find the cardinal's room fitted out in the English style and very like the rooms of a senior fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. On the same occasion Macauley was introduced to Lords Clifford and Shrewsbury and thought them not at all what he imagined Catholics of old family to be: proud and stately and with an air of being men of rank but not of fashion. John Henry Newman, too, had a notion that the old English Catholic gentry moved silently and sorrowfully about and lived in old-fashioned houses of gloomy appearance, closed in with high walls, iron gates and yew trees, cut off from the populous world around them. On his entry into ‘the narrow community of the English Catholics’, the other future cardinal, Henry Edward Manning, said he felt as if he ‘had got into St. James's Palace in 1687. It was as stately as the House of Lords …’ These reactions show that Macauley, Newman and Manning cannot have come across many English Catholic gentlemen before and that they had gained very little idea of the social history of English Catholicism, however much they may have learned about its political and ecclesiastical past. This paper will point out what they should, and might easily, have picked up.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , October 1997 , pp. 543 - 568
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1997

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References

Notes

1 Gwynn, Father Dominic Barberi (1947) 47; The Second Spring 1818–52 (1942) 12; Purcell, E.S., Life of Cardinal Manning (2 vols. 1896) II, 631.Google Scholar

2 Many examples are given by Gooch, L., From Jacobite to Radical: The Catholics of North-East England 1688–1850 (unpub. PhD thesis, University of Durham 1989) eh 1.Google Scholar

3 Colman, F.S., ‘A History of Barwick in Elmet’ (Thoresby Society 17, 1908) 154n2.Google Scholar

4 Gooch, L., The Durham Catholics and Industrial Development 1560–1850 (unpub. MA thesis, University of York 1984) eh IV;Google Scholar Colman, 158; Gillow, J., Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics (5 vols. 1885–1902) III 440;Google Scholar Roebuck, P (ed.), ‘Constable of Everingham Estate Correspondence 1726–43’ (Yorkshire Archaeological Journal 136 1976)Google Scholar passim; Aveling, J.C.H., The Handle and the Axe (1976) 275/6.Google Scholar

5 Hughes, E., North Country Life in the Eighteenth Century (1952) xvii.Google Scholar

6 Mitford, N., Love in a Cold Climate (1949) eh. 1.Google Scholar

7 Blundell, M. (ed.), Blundell's Diary and Letter Book 1702–28 (1952) 216–8;Google Scholar Lancaster, M.E., The Tempests of Broughton (1987) 95;Google Scholar Greene, G., Collected Essays (1970) 260.Google Scholar

8 Colman & Roebuck, op. cit; Smith, G.R., In Well Beware (1978) 95;Google Scholar Gooch, L., The Desperate Faction?: The Jacobites of North-East England 1688–1745 (1995) 38–41, 63–8.Google Scholar

9 Aveling (1976) 277.

10 Aveling, J.C.H., Catholic Recusancy in the City of York 1558–1791 (CRS Mono. No. 2, 1970) 125/6.Google Scholar

11 The Memoirs of the Life of Edward Gibbon by Himself (1990) 50–67;Google Scholar Collins, I., Jane Austen and the Clergy (1994) 37;Google Scholar Hans, N., New Trends in Education in the Eighteenth Century (1966) 23/184; J. Lawson & H. Silver, A Social History of Education 91973) 203 Google Scholar and Ch VI passim; Bence-Jones, M. The Catholic Families (1992) 42.Google Scholar

12 Gentleman's Magazine May 1766, 226. The letter is dated: Paris, 21 March 1766.

13 Harris, P.R. (ed.), Douai College Documents 1639–1794 (CRS 63, 1972) 146;Google Scholar Bellenger, D.A., English and Welsh Priests 1558–1800 (1984) 246;Google Scholar O'Brien, S., ‘Women of the “English Catholic Community”: Nuns and Pupils at the Bar Convent, York, 1680–1790’, (ed.) Loades, J., Monastic Studies (1990) 270–2.Google Scholar O'Brien notes that the school run by the Blue Nuns in Paris took ‘only 155 girls — many of them French — between 1732 and its closure in 1792’.

14 Sharratt, M., ‘Copernicanism at Douai’, Durham University Journal 67 (1974) 48;Google Scholar O'Brien 273.

15 Austen-Leigh, J.E., A Memoir of Jane Austen (1867) ch 1.Google Scholar He also relates that his grandfather, the Revd George Austen was once referred to by a squire ‘of many acres’ for an answer to the perfectly serious question: was Paris in France or France in Paris? (loc. cit.)

16 Aveling, H., Northern Catholics (1966) 368/9.Google Scholar

17 Gooch (1995) 175; (1989) 250; BLEL W Constable to Sir Geo. Savile nd (c.Sept. 1780); also to Mr Duncombe 11 Sept 1780. Savile introduced the Catholic Relief Bill enacted as 18 Geo.II c. 60. His house was fired and plundered in June during the Gordon riots. Although the Catholic gentry kept out of politics, the Catholic nobility did not. The Duke of Norfolk spent a great deal trying to get Henry Howard into the Commons (D/Sa/C 78.107, 7 Feb 1789); and see n 22 below re. Lord Petre.

18 BLEL draft of a letter to c. 1780, Tunstall to Charles Butler, Secretary of the Catholic Committee.

19 Bence-Jones 45; BLEL Tunstall to Constable 1 Aug 1789; DRO National Coal Board Papers I/JB/1297, G. Silvertop to J. Buddie, 29 May 1798.

20 Colman, loc. cit; BLEL Tunstall to Constable 7 Jan 1789.

21 Bence-Jones 45/78; Lang, C.Y., The Swinburne Letters (4 Vols. 1959–62) I, 11;Google Scholar Henderson, P., Swinburne (1974) 6/7;Google Scholar Hodgson, J.C. (ed.), Six North Country Diaries (Surtees Society 118, 1910) 306.Google Scholar

22 By 1809, the Petre family had given some £15,000 towards the election expenses of Lord Grey's Whigs, Linker, cf R.W., ‘The English Roman Catholics: The Politics of Persuasion’ (JEH vol. 27, no. 2 (1976) 160.Google Scholar Linker pursues a similar theme in ‘English Catholics in the Eighteenth Century’ (Church History 35 (1966) 288–310.

23 H Stubbe, Legends no Histories (1670) 19/20; Andrade, E., A Brief History of the Royal Society (1960) 25;Google Scholar Hartley, H., The Royal Society: Its Origins and Founders (1960) 204; Purver, M., The Royal Society: Concept and Creation (1967) ch. 6;Google Scholar Mulligan, L., ‘Civil War Politics, Religion and the Royal Society’ (Past & Present, (1973) 108.Google Scholar

24 Webster, C., ‘Richard Towneley (1629–1707), The Towneley Group in Seventeenth Century Science’ (Trans. Lanes. & Cheshire Historic Society 118 (1967) 68.Google Scholar (Half of the members of the group were Catholics.)

25 DNB; Wilton, A. & Bignamini, I., Grand Tour: The Lure of Italy in the Eighteenth Century (Tate Gallery 1966), esp. 257–62.Google Scholar

26 Exhibited in the Towneley Hall Art Gallery. A detailed analysis of the picture is given by Webster, M. in Burlington Magazine 106 (1964) 316–23.Google Scholar

27 Gillow; Bence Jones 92/3; Feijfer, J. & Southworth, E., The Ince Blundell Collection (1991).Google Scholar

28 Evans, J., A History of the Society of Antiquaries (1956) 93, 152, 187, 196, 206, 211/3/9, 441.Google Scholar

29 Cf. Gillow, V, 35 no. 20.

30 E.g., Bishop Charles Walmesley, DD, OSB, a mathematician of European standing; Bishop John Milner a distinguished architectural historian; the Revv. Alban Butler, John Needham and another erudite priest - the convert Yorkshireman Theodore Augustus (‘Abbé’) Mann (1735–1809) who was elected FRS in 1788 and an honorary member of the Antiquaries in 1792.

31 Report of the Commissioners to Enquire into the Estates of Certain Traitors and Popish Recusants (1719) App. 2, 20–2. The Duke of Norfolk (£4,217), Lord Fauconberg (£4,677) and the non-resident Thomas Stonor (£1,567) were the wealthiest. Of the national total of £375,284, the Yorkshire Catholics were worth £47,259 p.a. Burke's The Landed Gentry (1952) and I. & Hall, E., Burton Constable Hall (1991)Google Scholar give the basic genealogical information on the family but are not always accurate; Hemphill, B., The Early Vicars Apostolic of England 1685–1750 (1954) 127n1.Google Scholar

32 Schachner, N., The Medieval Universities (1938) ch 26.Google Scholar The medical faculty at Montpellier always enjoyed a high reputation. The Wycliffe estates brought £1,714 a year, shared between Marmaduke and Cuthbert.

33 Paul, J.B. (ed.), Scots Peerage (1906) III, 299.Google Scholar 300; East Yorks County Record Office, Burton Constable Archive DDCC 135/54 & 55 (29 June & 2 Oct 1716).

34 Report of Commissioners, loe. cit; Aveling, H., ‘The Catholic Recusancy of the Yorkshire Fairfaxes’ Pt III, Recusant History 6/1 (1961) 16–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 Hall, 11; Burton Constable and Marton are often conflated in missionary history but no resident chaplain can be placed in the mansion whereas an uninterrupted succession of priests at Marton can be identified, Gooch, cf. L., Paid at Sundry Times: Yorkshire Clergy Finances in the Eighteenth Century (St Laurence Papers, Ampleforth, 1997)Google Scholar passim.

36 Worrall, E.S. (ed.), Returns of Papists 1767 vol. II (CRS Occ. Pub. No. 2, 1989) 54;Google Scholar Burton, E.H. & Nolan, E. (eds.), Douay College Diaries. The Seventh Diary 1715–78 (CRS 28, 1928) 213/21; Hall 25.Google Scholar

37 Aveling (1961) 43–5.

38 The wording of her memorial tablet is given in Yorkshire Genealogist II (1890) 183.

39 Harris, sub nomen.

40 William Constable to Elizabeth Constable his stepmother (nd but endorsed ‘1761’ by her), EYCRO Constable Papers DDCC 144/9, from which all the following is taken.

41 The lady and Mitchel are unidentified; but the latter may be the York solicitor Thomas Mitchell who acted for the mission on occasion (cf Gooch (1997) No 65).

42 One or other of Catharine, Barbara or Julia, daus. of Robert Lord Petre (VIII).

43 Black, J., The British Abroad: The Grand Tour in the Eighteenth Century (1992) 248–50Google Scholar and passim.

44 A. Butler (posth.). Travels Through France & Italy & Part of Austrian, French and Dutch Netherlands During the Years 1745 & 1746 (ed. C. Butler 1803) 422. [Gillow I, 354, no. 9].

45 Wilton & Bignamini, 29n4 citing Sir Brinsley Ford's notes on Butler's Travels, but I cannot find thereference; it does, however, reflect Butler's prudery.

46 Lancaster 94.

47 Gillow for Butler, Needham and the Beringtons.

48 Gooch, L., The Revival of English Catholicism: The Banister-Rutter Correspondence 1777–1807 (1995) No. 35.Google Scholar He withdrew the remark in No. 40.

49 Ford, B. ‘William Constable, An Enlightened Yorkshire Patron’, Apollo Magazine 99 (1974) 409.Google Scholar This was a special edition devoted to ‘Six Notable Patrons in Rome 1750–1800’, and contained articles on Constable, Thomas Jenkins, Frederick Hervey, Sir Watkin Williams-Wyn, Sir John Coxe Hippisley and James Byers.

50 BLEL Constable to (‘Dear Duke!’) Tunstall, Lyons, 15 May [1770].

51 ibidem; BLEL Constable to Tunstall, Rome nd [Lent 1771]. This letter was addressed to Tunstall and his wife and John Sawrey Morritt of Rokeby Park. Ford 409. Perhaps the pernicious climate dissuaded the Constables from going on to Sicily which was becoming popular at the time. Henry Swinburne, the Northumbrian Catholic, wrote two important books about southern Europe: Travels inthe Two Sicilies in the Years 1777, 1778, 1779 and 1780 (1783–5) and Travels Through Spain in the Years 1775 and 1776 (1779).

52 Ibidem

53 Bushkhl, M., Great Britain and the Holy See 1746–1870 (1982) 19–21.Google Scholar

54 Apollo ed. cit. 399, 405/6; BLEL Tunstall [to Charles Butler] 21 Apr 1778; D/Sa/C/78.8 Tunstall to William Thomas Salvin, 14 June 1788.

55 BLEL: Constable to Tunstall, Lyons 15 May [1770]; same to same, Lent 1771.

56 Ibidem Apollo, ed. cit., 401/2/9/14/21/48/58.

57 Mr Michael Boyd communicated this figure and the one in the next paragraph from Constable's summary of accounts.

58 Hall, passim; Apollo, ed. cit., 414.

59 BLEL Constable to Revd J. Needham, nd [c. 1769].

60 Hall, passim; Gooch (1997) Nos. 27/95. The notice is reproduced in the Burton Constable guide book.

61 BLEL: Constable to Needham nd [c. 1769); to Miss Stapleton, London 6 Feb 1780; to Tunstall 15 May 1770; to Mr. Wyvil 5 Feb 1780. Gooch (1997) No. 95; Williams, J.A., ‘Hull, Burton Constable andthe Gordon Riots’, Northern Catholic History No 38 (1997) 42;Google Scholar Kirk, J., Biographies of the English Catholics in the Eighteenth Century (1909) 57.Google Scholar Aveling [(1976), 264] has Constable'buried without ceremony in his front garden’. That was not in itself an anti-religious act; he left meticulous instructions for the erection of a family mausoleum, but that was not completed until 1802; he had to be put somewhere meanwhile.

62 BLEL: Tunstall to Constable, 13 Jan 1788; 10 Jun 1789; 20 Jun 1789; 18 Feb 1790; 23 Mar 1790. D/Sa/C 78 to W.T. Salvin, 14 Jun 1789; D/Sa/C 277 to same, 19 Feb 1782; Jan 1790; 12 Mar 1790; 21 Apr 1790.

63 BLEL Tunstall to Thomas Pennant nd [1782]. His collections were bought for £700 by the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle on Tyne and are now in the Hancock Museum in Newcastle.

64 BLEL: Tunstall to Constable 12 Feb 1788; 10 Dec 1788; 17 ?Aug 1789; 18 Feb 1790. D/Sa/C 277 to W.T. Salvin 26 Apr 1786.

65 BLEL: Tunstall to Constable 10 June 1789; 20 Jun 1789.

66 Ibidem 18 Aug 1787; 8 Jun 1789. D.Sa.C 277 to W.T. Salvin 26 Apr 1786; 14 Jun 1788.

67 Revv. J. Holden (1735–43); J. Dixon (1745–59); J. Wilson (1760–3); T. Penswick (1763–91), cf. Gooch (1997) sub nomen. ”8 BLEL: Tunstall to Constable, 8 Jun 1790; 17 Jul 1790; cf. Goch (1995) No. 31.

69 D/Sa/C 277 to Salvin, 14 Oct 1783; 14 Jun 1788; and passim.

70 Bossy, J., The English Catholic Community 1570–1850 (1975) 325–7;Google Scholar Mingay, G.E., English Landed Society in the Eighteenth Century (1982) 26.Google Scholar

71 Nicholls, J., Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century (1825) V, 510;Google Scholar Aveling, H., Post Reformation Catholicism in East Yorkshire 1558–1790 (East Yorks Local History Society 1960) 52;Google Scholar Gooch (1989) 58.

72 Gooch (1984) 120n4.

73 Bence Jones ch. 5; Linker 154.

74 Gwynn (1942) 12; Aveling (1976) 265.