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Four Catholic Congregations in Rural Northumberland 1750–1850

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

John Bossy
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Extract

In the following essay I have tried to put into practice some ideas about the investigation of English Catholic communities outlined in a paper which I gave to the recusant history conference in 1965. These were much indebted to the school of sociologie religieuse inaugurated in France by M. Gabriel le Bras; I have tried to adapt its approach and methods for use in the different conditions of an English nonconfortning body. The assumptions made are that the congregation is a major object of study in the history of any Christian tradition; and that congregations, being secial entities, may best be studied by methods, including statistical methods, proper to the study of societies. In applying these assumptions to the history of English Catholicism I do not claim to be doing something different from what historians of the subject have usually done, but to be asking about single cells questions which have traditionally been aimed at the body as a whole. How big was it, and was it getting bigger or smaller? Who belonged to it, and why? Where did its members live? What relations had they with one another, outside religious belief and practice? With how much enthusiasm, with what particular emphases did they believe and practise? How did they get on with the community at large? I have sought here to answer some of these questions for four congregations in rural Northumberland between the mid-eighteenth and the mid-nineteenth century: Hesleyside alias Bellingham, Biddlestone, Thropton and Callaly. I chose this period because materials of the sort one needs were available for it; and also because it is a period of peculiar importance in the history of English Catholicism, covering the transition from its ancient to its modem phase, and providing a point of departure for enquiry in either direction. There is little significance in the communities chosen. It is incidental that the region in question should have provided most of the English support and much of the English scenery for the rebellion of 1715, or that Biddlestone should have a small niche in literary history as the original of Osbaldistone Hall in Scott’s Rob Roy. One of the characteristics of this type of investigation is that it does not much matter where one begins. Another is, however, that the value of conclusions drawn depends on. the number of cases studied. I hope to pursue some myself, but should be most happy if others were inspired to do the same. One might, in this way, reach a more intimate and comprehensive understanding of the whole English Catholic community than has so far been achieved or, I suspect, is possible for any other religious community in the country.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , April 1967 , pp. 88 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1967

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References

1. le Bras, G., Études de sociologie religieuse (2 vols., Paris, 1955–56);Google Scholar this incorporates most of his Introduction à Ihistoire de la pratique religieuse en France (2 vols., Paris, 1942–45),Google Scholar which remains valuable in itself. See also Boulard, F., Premiers itinéraires en sociologie religieuse (Paris, 1955);Google Scholar and, for useful comparisons, Léonard, E.-G., Le Protestant français (2 ed., Paris. 1955).Google Scholar

2. See also Philip, Hughes, “The English Catholics in 1850”, in Beck, G. A. (ed.). The English Catholics, 1850-1950 (London, 1950).Google Scholar

2a. Payne, J. O., Old English Catholic Missions (London/New York, 1889)Google Scholar contains a list of these, with some rather scrappy details.

3. Trevelyan, Cf. G. M., “The Middle Marches”, in Clio, a Muse, and other Essays (London, 1930), 21fGoogle Scholar The sources for this topographical section are the references to locality in the 1767 returns and the mission registers, which usually note the place of birth of those baptised, etc. Neither of these sources provides references to locality for the Hesleyside congregation; the first does not at Biddlestone, but this gap may be made up by lists of communicants, with dwelling-places, compiled in 1837-40.

4. Divided in 1811: Northumberland County History, xv (ed. Dodds, M. H., 1940), 173.Google Scholar

5. Thropton and Rothbury—1767, 9 Catholics returned from Rothbury, 17 from Thropton; 1767-1840, 52 children baptised from Rothbury, 34 from Thropton. Callaly and Whittingham—1767, 98 and 12; 1796-1840 baptisms, 62 and 22. For Hesleyside and Bellingham, see below.

6. Rowlands, Cf. M., “Catholics in Staffordshire from the Revolution to the Relief Acts, 1688-1791” (Birmingham Univ. M.A. thesis, 1965), 98f, 178f & Appx. I.Google Scholar

7. In fact the Stourtons, to whom the house was being let, not the Selbys.

8. Northumberland County History, xiv (ed. Dodds, M. H., 1935), 528f;Google Scholar Catholic Record Society, vol. vii, 320; Pevsner, N., The Buildings of England: Northumberland (Penguin Books, 1957), 109f;Google Scholar Surtees Society, cxxxi, 100.

9. The Recollections of a Northumberland Lady (ed. Charlton, L. E. O.. London. 1949), 257, 270.Google Scholar

10. Surtees Society, vol. cxxxi (1918), 29f, 100f, 116f.

11. Rowlands, “Catholics in Staffordshire”, 140f.

12. Barbara Charlton, Recollections, 124.

13. Edward Hughes, Cf., North Country Life in the Eighteenth Century: the North-East, 1700-1750 (London, 1952), xvi f.Google Scholar

14. Dixon, D. D., “Notes on the Jacobite Movement in Upper Coquetdale, 1715”, Archaeologia Aeliana, 2nd series, xvi (1894), 111 f.Google Scholar

15. George Rutherford, John Reed, John Grey, John Sprote. William Wallace, Alexander Luke, John Brown, Thomas Davison and Francis Scott.

16. George Brown, ?brother of John.

17. John Robson and Robert White, 1717 tenants; Mr. Robson, landowner and farmer, and James White, farmer, Catholics in 1767.

17a. Dixon, D. D., Upper Coquetdale (Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1903), 206. 209.Google Scholar

18. Snowdon, Moody, Atkinson, Blacklock.

19. Bolam.

20. Anderson, Peary.

21. Forster, Snowdon, Avery.

22. “Survey of the Archdeaconry of Northumberland, 1663”. Archaeologia Aeliana, 2nd series, xvii (1895), 247.Google Scholar

23. House of Lords Record Office, Returns of Papists, 1767, Diocese of Durham, Ellingham parish.

24. Rogan, J., “Episcopal Visitations in the Diocese of Durham, 1662-71”, Archaeologia Aeliana, 4th series, xxxiv (1956), 96;Google Scholar Dixon, “Notes on the Jacobite Movement in Upper Coquetdale”, 11 ff.

25. Northumberland County History, xiv, 518.Google Scholar

26. Charles Cawley, labourer, and John Brown, joiner, 1767; Wm. Cowley and Matthew Brown, householders in 1715.

27. Mary How of Whittingham, widow of 65 with a daughter; James and George Heslop, husbandmen, of Glanton.

28. C.R.S., vii, 346

29. Surtees Society, cxxxi, 31; Northumberland County History, xv, 424.Google Scholar

30. Two baptisms at Biddlestone, three at Thropton (four including son-in-law); the death of Ann Rutherford, mother of two of the children baptised at Thropton, grandmother and godmother of another, recorded in the Thropton obituary, but not at Biddlestone. It seems equally significant that Alexander Rutherford voted in the election of 1721: Dixon, Upper Coquetdale, 261,

31. C.R.S., vii, 322; Joseph, Curr, The Fox and the Goose: or a comico-serious address to the Good People of Whittingham (Newcastle, 1835: in British Museum), 5:Google Scholar “I trust in the wisdom and justice of the British people, that the day is not far distant, when the extinction of glebes and tythes will withdraw from the Curate (of Whittingham) the inducement and power which they now give him, to promote religious intolerance and dissensions …”

31a. The Catholics in Rothbury parish were specifically noted in 1793 as being “of inferior rank”: Dixon, Upper Coquetdale, 409,

32. Northumberland County History, xv, 339.Google Scholar

33. Ibid.

34. Thos. Davison, Wm. Hedley, Edward Luke, James Dixon, and Thos. Rutherford, probably brother of John Rutherford of Burradon.

35. Dixon, “Notes on the Jacobite Movement in Upper Coquetdale”, 101, 109, 111.

36. Below, note 82.

37. Those in and around the household of Edward Haggerston “refused to answer any questions” (loc. cit. above, n. 23).

38. Northumberland County History, xv, 340.Google Scholar

39. Equals Hesleyside: see below for the moving of the chapel.

40. Thomas Ord, “a strong character, and … justice of the peace … for many years”: C.R.S., vii, 323.

41. Parliamentary Papers, no. Ixxxix of 1852-3, 120.

42. P.R.O., H.O. 129, nos. 555, 558. Greenslade, Cf. M. W., “Staffordshire Catholics in the 1851 Religious Census”, Staffordshire Catholic History, no. 8 (1966-7), 23.Google Scholar

43. Hoskins, W. G., Local History in England (London, 1959), 143.Google Scholar

44. The baptismal estimates for Thropton also agree admirably with the Anglican visitation estimate in 1793 of “about 100 papists” in Rothbury parish: Dixon, Upper Coquetdale, 409.

45. Northumberland County History, xiv, 486.Google Scholar

46. C.R.S., vii, 320.

47. The first three figures represent only the congregation living in the chief parish; Callaly includes Ingram as well as Whittingham.

48. These figures include those of ten years old in the first figure, and exclude those aged 50 from the second; the return was presented in this way.

49. I should mention that a prevalence of mixed marriage (see below) at Thropton means that the demographic community may differ somewhat from the congregation (e.g. there will be some concealed males). But this does not seem to affect the argument very seriously.

50. Nor can the difference be explained by a general rise or fall, through migration or otherwise, in the populations of the localities in question, since all rose during this period: between 1801 and 1851. Bellingham by 47%, Alwinton-with-Holystone and Rothbury by 14% each, and Whittingham by 30%. Census figures from Northumberland County History, xv, 222,Google Scholar 405, 454, 308; xiv, 482.

51. The sources for these figures are the introductions to the printed registers, and the signatures in the baptismal lists. The difficulty arises in distinguishing between short-lived permanent priests and priests supplying from elsewhere.

52. The priest at Hesleyside, George Turner, actually functioned between 1804 and 1830.

53. London, 1780: 116f.

54. C.R.S., xiv, 239; Barbara, Charlton, Recollections, 194f.Google Scholar

55. Ibid., 126-8; Surtees Society, cxxxi, 116—Wm. Charlton died in 1797.

56. C.R.S., xiv, 252f.

57. Northumberland County History, xv, 405.Google Scholar

58. C.R.S., vii, 320; Northumberland County History, xiv, 499f.Google Scholar

58a. Surtees Society, cxxxi, 100; Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Northumberland, 110; Northumberland County History, xv, 532.Google Scholar

59. C.R.S., vii, 321; xiv, 253.

60. C.R.S., vii, 321f.

61. Ibid., 320.

62. C.R.S., ii, 355.

63. C.R.S., xiv, 253; and below.

64. C.R.S., vii, 320f.

65. Northumberland County History, xv, 340;Google Scholar mission register; the chapel was enlarged, and an adjacent burial ground added, in 1842: Dixon, Upper Coquetdale, 461.

66. Northumberland Countv History, xv, 232f: C.R.S.. ii. 355.Google Scholar

67. C.R.S., vii, 323f.

67a. Aveling, Cf. H., Post-Reformation Catholicism in East Yorkshire (E. Yorks Local History Soc, 1960), 53f.;Google Scholar and Northern Catholics (London, 1966), 383f.Google Scholar One of the objections made by the vicars-apostolic to the Relief Bill sponsored by the Catholic Committee in 1789-91, was that it left unaltered the legislation prohibiting trusts for superstitious uses: that is, the endowment of missions: Ward, B., The Dawn of the Catholic Revival in England, 1781-1803 (2 vols., London, 1909), i, 160.Google Scholar

68. Le, Bras, Études de sociologie religieuse, ii, 588f.Google Scholar

69. Admittedly, seven of the children were Charltons, all baptised immediately.

70. Callaly: first decade, 52 of 61 baptisms immediate; last decade, 4 out of 40. Biddlestone: first full decade, 25 out of 27; last decade, 10 out of 30.

71. Dorothy, wife of James Burn of Callaly; Mary, wife of Thomas Bolam of Whittingham; Mary, wife of William Chisholm of Eslington; Catherine, wife of James Selford of Glanton.

72. Mary White of Foxton to Percival Clennell of Rothbury; Christopher Davison of Yelden to Ann Frizzel of the same place, subsequently repudiated; John Athy of Harbottle to Elizabeth Redhead—married in the parish church, without consent.

73. The 20 cases include nine Protestant and eleven Catholic husbands.

74. Taking the dwelling-place of the couple at the first baptism in the register; no locality given for one couple.

75. Mary, wife of John Richardson of Rothbury, weaver; Mary, wife of Martin Ilderton of Cartington; Barbara, wife of John Watson of Snitter; Ann, wife of William Snowdon, farmer, of Ryehill; Elizabeth, wife of Alexander Briggs, labourer, of Great Tosson.

76. The first case seems to be Edward Clavering, who married a Protestant in the 1830’s: C.R.S., vii, 344.

77. Rowlands, “Catholics in Staffordshire”. 239.

78. C.R.S., vii, 320.

79. Northumberland County History, xv, 425: Taite is later described as a groom.Google Scholar

80. C.R.S., xiv, 292.

81. Similarly at Netherwitton: the 1767 return gives six converts, all marital partners, all born elsewhere, four converted on arrival at Netherwitton or at marriage, two later.

82. Northumberland County History, xv, 363; Thropton Register.Google Scholar