Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2015
I am not one to follow in my own footnotes, but a number of correspondents have wondered how the shockingly poor relations between the Catholic gentry and their chaplains described in ‘Priests and Patrons in the Eighteenth Century’ (Recusant History Vol. 20, No. 2 pp. 207–22) could have arisen. One instance might be ascribed to the overbearing demeanour of a squire, or his wife, another to a clash of temperament, and yet another to a differing perception of the proper rôle of a chaplain, but the lack of cordiality between the clergy and the gentry was so widespread that a predisposition to incompatibility might reasonably be suspected. This paper traces the origins of their antipathy to the experience each gained of the other in early life, particularly during their schooldays.
1 Douai College Documents 1639–1794, ed. Harris, P. R. (CRS 63) pp. 139ff. (See also note 23 below).Google Scholar
2 Gillow, J., A Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics vol. V, p. 458;Google Scholar Upholland College Manuscripts: Banister/Rutter Correspondence (identified here by originator and date of letter) Rutter 25 Feb 1779.
3 Burke's Landed Gentry (1952) p. 189; Girouard, M., ‘Lytham Hall’ Country Life 28 Jul 1960;Google Scholar Ward, B., The Dawn of the Catholic Revival in England 1781–1803, 1, p. 65;Google Scholar Lancashire Registers II, ed. Smith, J. P. (CRS 16) 421 ff.Google Scholar
4 Rutter 25 Feb 1779; 6 Feb 1781; Banister 13 Mar 1781.
5 Rutter 6 Feb 1781; Banister 13 Mar 1781; 24 Aug 1781.
6 Banister 11 Aug 1780; Rutter 6 Feb 1781.
7 Banister 9 May 1779; 11 Aug 1780; 13 Mar 1781; Rutter 6 Feb 1781.
8 Banister 13 Mar 1781; 27 Apr 1781.
9 Banister 11 Aug 1780; 27 Apr 1781; Rutter 2 Apr 1781.
10 Banister 24 Aug 1781; Rutter 4 Jan 1782; 24 Apr 1782.
11 Banister 24 Aug 1781; 25 Jan 1782; 19 Apr 1787. The latter was written in exasperation at the behaviour of the two sons of Vincent Eyre whom Banister had undertaken to educate at Mowbreck Hall.
12 Banister 25 Jan 1782; Rutter 22 Apr 1782. Mr. Mumford is evidently a priest at St. Omer, but cannot otherwise be identified.
13 Rutter 4 Jan 1782; 22 Apr 1782; 25 Jun 1782. Black, J., The British Abroad: The Grand Tour in the Eighteenth Century (1992) xii, pp. 18, 21 ff.Google Scholar Black notes (p. 189) that ‘tourists were generally young, healthy and wealthy and were poorly, if at all, supervised’. He also suggests (p. 190) that the record of sexual exploits in a tourist's journal were sometimes expunged by descendants, e.g., that of Marmaduke William Constable-Maxwell [Hull University Library DDEV 61/1].
14 Banister 25 Jan 1782. Clifton went to Douai in 1743, Banister was 2 years ahead of him.
15 Rutter 22 Apr 1782; 25 Jun 1782; Banister 1 Jun 1782; 1 Nov 1782. James Bruno Finch was in the Charterhouse of Sheen Anglorum, Nieuport, Flanders; he was distantly related to the correspondents.
16 Rutter 16 Oct 1782; Banister 1 Nov 1782.
17 Banister 1 Nov 1782; 7 Feb 1783; 10 Apr 1783.
18 Banister 19 Apr 1782.
19 Banister had already (28 May 1780) recommended his nephew to Joseph Shepherd, Rector of the English College, Valladolid. Despite the crisis, Banister asked Rutter (19 Apr 1783) to bring over for him one long or two short white nightcaps of Segovia wool, six pairs of white linen socks and two scapulars.
20 Rutter 1 Sep 1793 enclosing a note from Thomas Eyre describing Rutter's new job.
21 Banister 13 Mar 1781; 27 Feb 1786; Rutter 1 Jan 1786, 23 Aug 1787. Anstruther, G., The Seminary Priests1716–1800 (1977)Google Scholar sub Strickland; The English Jesuits 1650–1829, G. Holt SJ (CRS 70) sub Le Hunt.
22 Banister 16 Jan 1794; 12 May 1794; 17 Sep 1798; Brown, W. ‘Crook Hall’, Ushaw Magazine vol. 4 (1894) p. 3;Google Scholar Doyle, P., ‘Seminary Education: A Conservative 18th Century View’, North West Catholic History 1 (1969) p. 26.Google Scholar
23 Rutter 3 Feb 1794, 31 May 1794, 18 Feb 1795; Banister 5 Mar 1795; Gillow, J., The Haydock Papers (1888) 129–41.Google Scholar I would like to thank, without implication, Fr. D. Milburn for clarification of one or two points covered in this paragraph.
24 Rutter 19 Nov 1783; 3 Feb 1794; Ushaw College Mss. Lingard Correspondence, Lingard to Gradwell 17 May 1820.
25 Rutter 1 Jan 1786; Gillow, Haydock Papers 237/8.