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The Roman Catholics and the Cumbrian Religious Censuses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2016

John Burgess
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Extract

In a region of sparse population and little culture it is hardly surprising that organised religion has never been strong in Cumbria. During the Middle Ages the Church's main influence was via the several monastic settlements, particularly the powerful Furness Abbey, which possessed a real economic empire. The influence of the clergy was restricted when population was so dispersed and parishes so massive, and the conclusion must be that Roman Catholicism possessed only a tenuous hold at any point in its history. That the Cumbrians so easily and swiftly on the surface adopted the new Anglican Establishment of the sixteenth century did not reflect the attractions for the new faith or the coercion of authorities; it was simply that no Christian denomination was taken to heart by the native Cumbrians. By the mid-seventeenth century it has been estimated that there were about 500 Roman Catholics in the whole of Cumbria out of a population of towards 100,000. A number of prominent Cumbrians retained the old faith—the Stricklands of Sizergh (who suffered greatly for it) and most of the Howards of Corby and Naworth (who enjoyed considerable honours) and their households being the most prominent. Generally, the remaining Catholics were left alone, though in case of emergency their loyalty might be questioned.

Type
Articles
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , May 1980 , pp. 372 - 378
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1980

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References

Notes

1 Bouch, C. M. L., Prelates and People of the Lake Counties (1948),Google Scholar a history of the Diocese of Carlisle by an Anglican author forced to concede the weakness of Roman Catholicism and later Anglicanism.

2 Jones, G. P. and Bouch, C. M. L., A Short Economic and Social History of the Lake Counties, 1500-1830, ch. 1 and pp. 54–58.Google Scholar

3 Ibid., p. 174.

4 ‘Miscellany Accounts of Bishop Nicolson with additions by Archdeacon Waugh’, 1703 and 1747 respectively, MS. in Carlisle Record Office; see also J. Burgess, ‘Dissent in the Diocese of Carlisle’, typescript volume, Carlisle Record Office; see Table 1.

5 Diocese of Chester Visitation Returns 1789, EDV 7/2/166 to 254. See Table 2.

6 John, Addy, ‘Two 18th Century Bishops of Chester and Their Diocese’, Leeds University Ph.D., 1972, p. 233;Google Scholar see Table 3.

7 Mannix and Whellan, History, Gazetteer and Directory of Cumberland, 1847, p. 103. Paragraphs were given to the history and development of each of the Roman Catholic chapels and their congregations.

8 See Table 4: Return of Sectaries for Lancashire North of the Sands, Lancashire Record Office QDV 9/1 to 245; for Kendal, see Nicholson, C., Annals of Kendal (1861), p. 162.Google Scholar

9 See Table 5.

10 See Table 6; Burgess, J., ‘The Growth and Development of Methodism in Cumbria’, University of Durham M. Litt., 1979,Google Scholar Appendix 11 gives the details for all denominations at this and the other Cumbrian Censuses.

11 Mannix and Whellan, pp. 131, 385.

12 See Table 7; West Cumberland Times (December 1902).

13 Marshall, J. D., ‘The Economic and Social History of the Furness Area, 1711-1875’, London University Ph.D., 1956.Google Scholar

14 For example, the Wetheral case reported in the Carlisle Journal of 17 April 1874 and throughoutsecceeding months; and the attempt to establish a retreat in Caldewgate foundered in the face of a stormof protest from Anglicans, Carlisle Journal, (24 May 1872) etc.

15 Wesleyan Methodist Magazine (1865), pp. 277,Google Scholar 468; (1868), pp. 276, 468.

16 Carlisle Circuit Primitive Methodist Quarterly Meeting Minutes 1823/52, Carlisle Record Office FCM 1/1/1.

17 A number of Methodist Trusts, when forced to sell their chapels after the Methodist Union of 1932made a number of chapels redundant, found only the Roman Catholics would pay a proper price. Inevitably the trusts refused their approaches and sold at a ridiculous price to commercial users.