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‘Rome’s Snaky Brood’: Catholic Yeomen, Craftsmen and Townsmen in the West Midlands, 1600–1641

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Marie B. Rowlands
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Extract

At the beginning of the seventeenth century the neighbouring parishes of West Bromwich, Sedgley and Wolverhampton in South Staffordshire were notorious for popery. Although they lay close together they differed from each other in economy and organisation. West Bromwich was a rural parish with available water power, Sedgley was a rural parish on the coal outcrop with metal working, quarrying and lime burning. Wolverhampton was an ancient Minster with a market town, a seignorial borough set in a large Foreign containing three chapelries and many hamlets.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , October 1998 , pp. 147 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1973

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References

Notes

1 S.R.O. Quarter Sessions Rolls Q/So 4,5,6. (1627–1653) M. Greenslade, ‘The 1607 returns of Staffordshire Catholics’ S. Cath Hist, 4, (winter 1963–4), pp. 6–32; Harpartumian, J., ‘Staffordshire recusants in 1635’ S. Cath Hist, 22 (1984), pp. 5–24 Google Scholar; A Kettle ‘A list of Staffordshire recusants 1641’ S., Cath Hist, 22 (1984), pp. 5–24; Calendar of Quarter Sessions Rolls ed. S. A. Burns S.H.C., 1 (1929) 2. (1930), 3 (1932), 4 (Part 2, 1935), 5 (1940), 6 ed. D. G. Salt (1940); Petti, A. G., ‘Roman Catholicism in Elizabethan and Jacobean Staffordshire’, S.H.C, fourth series, 9 (1979), passim, V.C.H. Staffs. 3, p. 104 Google Scholar; P.R.O. Recusant Rolls of the Exchequer E377/12–50 1603–1641; Calthrop, M. C. (ed.), ‘Recusant Roll No. 1 1592–3’, C.R.S. 18. (1916)Google Scholar; H. Bowler, (ed.), ‘Recusant Roll 2 1593–4’ C.R.S. 57 (1965); H. Bowler, (ed.); ‘Recusant Roll 3 and 4 1594; 5 C.R.S. 61 (1970).

2 M. B. Rowlands, ‘Continuity and change in an industrialising society’ in Pat, Hudson, Regions and industries, (Cambridge, 1989) pp. 103–113.Google Scholar

3 H. Bowler, Recusant Roll number 2 C.R.S. 57, (1965) p. 150.

4 V.C.H. Staffs, 17 pp. 16–27.

5 V.C.H. Staffs, 17 pp. 21, 30.

6 Hypomena (The commonplace book of Simon Rider 1579–1639), William Salt Library Stafford Salt Mss, 336, Mss 117/108/49. Family references are scattered throughout the notebook. For the mill see p. 46 verso p. 47 recto also Dilworth, D. The Tame Mills of Staffordshire (London 1976), pp. 153–162 Google Scholar. V.C.H. Staffs, 17, pp. 21, 31.

7 Talbot, C. (ed.), ‘Miscellanea’ C.R.S. 53, (1961), pp. 332–4.Google Scholar

8 Hypomena, op. cit., pp. 1–11, 46 verso.

9 Calendar of Staffordshire Quarter Sessions Rolls, (ed.), S. H. Burns. (S.H.C. 1935), p. 41.

10 Hypomena, op. cit., p. 40, recto, Aug 1612.

11 Petti, A. G., ‘Roman Catholicism in Elizabethan and Jacobean Staffordshire’. S.H.C, fourth series, 9 (1979), pp. xiv–xv.Google Scholar

12 L.J.R.O., B/V/l/1.

13 V.C.H. Staffs, 17, p. 60.

14 L.J.R.O. Visitation papers 1630 B/C/1 1629.

15 V.C.H. Staffs, 17, p. 16.

16 House of Lords R. O. Protestation Rolls, West Bromwich 1641–2.

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21 Sedgley Register 1558–1684, (ed.), H. R. Thomas, Staffordshire Parish Register Society. (1941.)

22 Greenslade, M., ‘The 1607 return of Staffordshire Catholics’ S. Cath Hist, 4, 1963, pp. 6–32.Google Scholar

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24 Kettle, A., ‘A List of Staffordshire Recusants 1641’, S. Cath Hist, 5, Autumn 1964, p. 19.Google Scholar

25 L.R./J/0 B/C5 1629. The population estimates are based on the studies of the parish register by A. Barnet and the Cambridge Group for Population Studies.

26 L.R./J/O B/C/5, 1626.

27 D.R.O. Dudley Mss. Manorial Survey, 1613/7/9.

28 Visitations of Staffordshire in 1614 and 1663/4, (ed.), H. Grazebrook S.H.C., 5, Part 2, 1885.

29 L.J.R.O. B/C/5, Sedgley 1626.

30 H. Foley ii, 231–2; vii, 489; ‘Catholic Chapels of Staffordshire’, Catholic Magazine, v and vi 1834 and 1835; Facsimile edition Staffs Cath Hist, 14 (1974) pp. 183, 298. These relics, now in St. Chad’s Cathedral Birmingham, have recently been subjected to radio carbon dating and osteological analysis by Angela Boyle of Oxford University. They were judged to be of the seventh century and to be the remains of an elderly man, giving a ‘high degree’ of authenticity, M. Greenslade, St. Chad (Diocesan Historical Commission 1996), pp. 75–85. The container was also examined and the probable date of the late seventeenth century was confirmed.

31 C.A.M.P.O.P. is engaged in a reconstitution of Sedgley parish. Printouts of families were kindly provided by them for this article. Thomas, H. R., ‘Sedgley Parish Register’, Staffs Parish Register Society (1914), p. 134 Google Scholar; C. Gilbert, D. ‘William Hodgetts of Woodsetton’, Midland Catholic History, 2 (1992), pp. 32–37.Google Scholar

32 Smith, T. S., ‘Sequestrations for Recusancy in Staffordshire’, Staffs Cath Hist, 18 (1978), p. 4.Google Scholar

33 D.R.O., Dudley Mss Manor Court Rolls of Sedgley; West Bromwich library Lissimore transcripts; Manor Court Rolls of West Bromwich (Originals in the P.R.O.). On the prevalence of subletting, see Harrison, C., ‘English Village Surveys, a Comment’, Agrie. H. Rev., 19, (1971), p. 36.Google Scholar

34 D.R.O. Dudley Mss. 7/9, Survey of Sedgley Manor 1613/14.

35 Peel, A., ‘A puritan survey of the Church in Staffordshire in 1604;, English Historical Review, 102, (April 1911), pp. 338–353 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; M. C. Calthrop (ed.), ‘Recusant Roll no. I, 1592–3’, C.R.S. 18, (1916).

36 Landor, W. N., ‘Staffordshire Incumbents and Parochial Records 1530–1680’, Staffs Hist Collections, 1915/16, pp. 321–356.Google Scholar

37 The senior branches of the Leveson family were based in West Halling, Kent and in North Staffordshire, while an even more junior branch lived in Willenhall which was part of the parish of Wolverhampton but not the manor. Staffs. R.O. The Deanery manor court rolls (Borough and Foreign including Wednesfield) D 1766, Stowheath manor (including Bilston) D 0/2/1–5 and D 1766. Prebendai manors D 593/J/5. Wordie, J., Estate Management in Eighteenth Century England ‘Royal Historical Society (Oxford 1982), pp. 1–53 Google Scholar; Wrottesley, G., ‘The Giffard family from the Conquest to the present time’, S.H.C, new series, 5 (1902)Google Scholar.

38 Foley, 2, p. 234, col 5, 119, 420, 449, 450.

39 Mander, G. P. and Tildesley, N.. A History of Wolverhampton to the Early Nineteenth Century, (1960), p. 62.Google Scholar

40 The Chronicles of the Canonesses of St. Augustine at Louvaine, 1, (1904), p. 200.

41 Kettle, A., ‘The list of Staffordshire Recusants 1641’ Staffs Cath Hist, 5, (Autumn 1964), pp. 1–38.Google Scholar

42 S.R.O. Quarter Sessions Q.So Epiphany 1949 Manor court Roll of Stowheath D/0/2/, 1–23, D 593/J22/7/1–27, Poll Tax Bilston 1611 P.R.O. E 179/178/284; Lawley, G. T., A History of Bilston (Bilston 1893), pp. 127–1564.Google Scholar

43 Tax assessments, Staffordshire Seisdon Hundred, 1641. H.O.L. Main Papers. (These appear to be a stray from the subsidy returns in the P.R.O.).

44 Mander, G., A History of Wolverhampton Grammar School, Wolverhampton, (1914), pp. 116–117.Google Scholar

45 Johnson, D. and Vaisey, D., Staffordshire and the Great Rebellion (1964), pp. 15 and 21Google Scholar.

46 Lee, R., The Spiritual Spring (London 1625)Google Scholar, William Salt Library, S 1132. There is also a copy in the Bodleian Library.

47 Catholic Recusancy in the City of York 1558–1791, C.R.S. Monograph, 2, series 2, 1970, Underdown, D., Fire From Heaven (1993)Google Scholar; Levine, D. and Wrightson, J., Poverty and Piety in an English Village (1978)Google Scholar.

48 Chronicls of St. Monica’s, p. 58, Cal. SPD 1624, p. 187.

49 H. Foley 2, 231–2; 7, 489; Anon, (probably J. Kirk) ‘Catholic Chapels of Staffordshire’ Catholic Magazine, v and vi 1834 and 1835. Facsimile edition Staffs Cath Hist, 14 (1974).

50 Wheeler, T, The Boy of Bilston, facsmile edition, Staffs Cath Hist, 11, (1968)Google Scholar, passim.

51 Staffs RO Q/SR/ (E) 1641; G. Anstruther, 1, pp. 6, 77, 341–342; R. Challoner, Memoirs of the Missionary Priests, (First edition 1742, repr. 1924.)