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‘Englishmen in vaine’: Roman Catholic allegiance to George I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Eamon Duffy*
Affiliation:
Magdalene College Cambridge

Extract

Of the many problems confronting post-reformation English catholics, that of national identity was among the most acute. For the nation at large, to be English was to be protestant, and to be papist was to be an alien.’ That catholics owed primary allegiance to the pope, to Spain, to France, was an axiom throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the exile of the catholic Stuarts at the revolution of 1688 merely varied the form in which the national tradition expressed itself. In his last public utterance William III equated ‘a Popish Prince, and a French Government’, judicial proclamations spoke of ‘papists and disaffected persons’, and George I’s first parliament declared that catholics

take themselves to be obliged by the Principles they profess to be enemies to His Majesty and to the present happy Establishment, and watch for all opportunities of fomenting and stirring up new Rebellions and Disturbances within the Kingdom and of inviting Foreigners to invade it.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1982

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References

1 On this, see my ‘Poor protestant flies’, SCH 15, especially pp 289-90 and references there cited.

2 The Parliamentary History of England 5 (1809) p 1331; [Basil], Williams, Stanhope (Oxford 1932) p 137 Google Scholar; Rupert C., Jarvis, Collected Papers on the Jacobite Risings (Manchester 1972) 2 p 304 Google Scholar.

3 See for the example the ‘Prediction’, from which the phrases quoted are taken, inscribed in the end papers of a fifteenth-century manuscript at Upholland College (MS 165) by an early eighteenth-century missioner, Thomas Jameson. I owe this reference to Mr Peter Doyle.

4 Aveling, J. C. H., The Handle and the Axe (London 1976) pp 238-52Google Scholar.

5 A[rchives of the] A[rchbishop of] Westminster], Ep[istolae] Var[iorum], 8, 15, G. Haydocke, 10 April 1723. (All letters in Ep Var are addressed to Laurence Mayes); Ep Var 2, 56, Edward Dicconson 22 December 1708; 5, 48, Edward Dicconson 27 March 1714; 4, 43, same 8 September 1711; AAW ‘A’ series, 36 no 181 (1698). I am grateful to his eminence the cardinal archbishop of Westminster, and to Miss Elizabeth Poyser his archivist, for permission to quote from material at Archbishop’s House, Westminster.

6 Ep Var 5, 100, Edward Dicconson 16 August 1715.

7 Bernard, Ward, The Dawn of the Catholic Revival (London 1900)Google Scholar; E. Duffy, ‘Ecclesiastical Democracy Detected’, Recusant History, 10 and 13.

8 [Wolfgang], Michael, [The Quadruple Alliance] (London 1939) pp 5763 Google Scholar: Williams, Stanhope pp 395-8; Williams, , The Whig Supremacy (2 ed Oxford 1962) pp 72-3Google Scholar; [Basil], Hemphill, [The Early Vicars Apostolic] (London 1953) pp 105-17Google Scholar.

9 Ep Var 6, 1, reverend John Ingleton Almoner’ to queen Mary of Modena, 17 January 1716.

10 Ep Var 5, 81, Edward Dicconson 27 December 1714; 5, 100, Dicconson 16 August 1715; Ushaw College, Durham U[shaw] C[ollection of] M[anuscripts] i, no 103, Edward Blount to Nathaniel Piggott September 1714. I am grateful to the president of Ushaw College and to its librarian for permission to quote from material there.

11 The English Catholic Nonjurors of 1715, ed Estcourt, E.E. and Payne, J. O. (London, nd) p 8 Google Scholar; Sherburn, G., Correspondence of Alexander Pope 1 (Oxford 1956) pp 320-1Google Scholar, Edward Blount to Alexander Pope 11 November 1715.

12 UCM i, no 143, P. Southcote to the Duke of Norfolk 7 April 1716.

13 Ep Var 6, 19, Robert Witham, President of Douai College, 20 July 1716; 6, 21, John Talbot Stonor 9 August 1716.

14 Brady, W. Maziere, Annals of the Catholic Hierarchy (Rome 1877) pp 206-9Google Scholar; Kirk, J., Biographies of English Catholics in the Eighteenth Century (London 1909) pp 220-1Google Scholar; Godfrey, Anstruther, The Seminary Priests 3 (Great Wakering 1976) pp 212-13Google Scholar; Ep Var 5, 79, J. Ingleton December 1714; 5, 82, Henry Howard 13 January, 1715.

15 Stonor, R. J., Stonor (Newport 1951) pp 282-5Google Scholar; Ep Var 6, 31, J. T. Stonor, 25 November 1716.

16 Ep Var 5, 106, Ingleton 12 October 1715; 6, 12, Thomas Witham 27 April 1716.

17 Hemphill pp 50-4; DNB; Scott, [D.], [The Stricklands of Sizergh Castle] (Kendall 1908) pp 189-95Google Scholar; Ep Var 6, 19, R. Witham 20 July 1716.

18 Ep Var 5, 96, Edward Dicconson June 1715; 5, 97, Robert Carnaby 23 July 1715; Hemphill pp 41-57.

19 Ep Var 6, 38, Stonor 4 February 1717.

20 Ep Var 5, 97, Robert Carnaby 23 July 1715.

21 UCM i no 44, Stonor to Robert Witham 5 June 1716.

22 UCM i no 115, Edward Dicconson to William Dicconson at St Germain, undated; Ep Var 6, 18 J. Ingleton 6 July 1716; 6, 19 R. Witham 20 July 1716.

23 Ep Var 6, 27, J. Ingleten 22 September 1716; 6, 31, Stonor 25 November 1716; BL Add Ms 20310 fol 173 J. Ingleten to Monseigneur Nairne, secretary to the Chevalier at Avignon 15 December 1716.

24 Ep Varo, 31, Stonor 25 November 1716.

25 UCM i no 128, duke of Norfolk to Edward Blount 3 December 1716. Text of the document sent to the catholic princes, UCM i no 126, ‘The State of the Case’.

26 ‘Bishop Stonor’s Querys’—manuscript bound up with a collection of late eighteenth-century pastoral letters (Bishop Walmesley) and other miscellanea Ushaw College, Old Library pressmark X.E.27.

27 UCM i no 126, ‘The State of Case’.

28 Ep Var 6, 31, Stonor 25 November 1716: UCM i no 106, ‘Mr Blounts Mss on Allegiance’.

29 Ep Var 6, 31, Stonor 25 November 1716.

30 Ep Var 6, 37, R. Witham 31 January 1717.

31 Ep Var 6, 33, R. Witham 20 December 1716; 6, 27, J. Ingleton 22 September 1716; 6, 35, Ingleton 26 December 1716; BL Add MS 20310 fol 173, Ingleton to Nairne 15 December 1716.

32 Ep Var 6, 41. R. Witham 27 February 1717.

33 Ep Var 6, 43. Ingleton 27 March 1717; 6, 44 Ingleton 19 May 1717.

34 Ep Var 6, 50, R. Witham 15 July 1717.

35 Ep Var 6, 48, bishop Giffard 28 May 1717.

36 Ep Var 5, 47, Stonor 13 May 1717.

37 Ep Var, 6, 55. Giffard 5 August 1717; UCM i no 130 duke of Norfolk to Edward Blount 18 January 1718; Ep Var 6, 67, Giffard 21 November 1717.

38 Ep Var 6, 83, R. Witham 24 April 1718; 6, 109, Witham 22 February 1719. Strickland had arrived in Paris from Spa, where he had appeared ‘in poor condition’ having been mugged and robbed en route from Italy.

39 PRO SP 104/219b fol 161. Stanhope to Lord Stair 29 April 1718; Ep Var 6, 98, R. Witham 21 September 1718; Ep Var 6, 109, R. Witham 22 February 1719; HMC, Stuart Papers at Windsor, 7 pp 255, 545; Scott pp 190-1.

40 Michael pp 59-61; PRO SP 43/57 no 83 Craggs to Stanhope 30 June 1719; no 107 same to same 7 July 1719; BL Stowe MS 121.

41 Charles, Howard, Historical Anecdotes of some of the Howard Family (London 1969) pp 127-30Google Scholar.

42 The Complete Peerage 9 (ed 1936) p 631.

43 PRO SP 43/57 no 109 Norfolk to Craggs 1 July 1719.

44 UCM i no 104, Edward Blount to Norfolk 8 July 1723 (the manuscript has ‘1718/1719’ but internal evidence makes the date 1723 virtually certain).

45 Williams, Stanhope p 398.

46 UCM i no 134, Blount to Norfolk 8 August 1719; BL Add MS 28252 fols 96-7. This document incorporates verbatim parts of Sir Henry Englefield’s declaration of 1715 (above, note 11).

47 PRO SP 43/64 Stanhope to Craggs 23 October 1719.

48 Ep Var 6, 133, Stonor 6 December 1719; 6, 134, Giffard 31 December 1719. UCM i no 135, Edward Blount to Norfolk 3 October 1719.

49 Ep Vart, 131, R. Witham 8 December 1719; 6, 133, Stonor 6 December 1719; 6, 132, R. Witham 29 December 1719; 7, 1, Ingleton 1 January 1720; 7, 9, Witham 22 February 1720; 7, 13, Witham 11 April 1720; 7, 17 Witham 3 July 1720; UCM ii nos 15 and 16, Powis, Shrewsbury & Thomas Stonor to Stonor and Strickland, 8 December 1719.

50 Ep Var 7, 6, Stonor 14 February 1720; 7, 9 and 10, Witham 22 February, 7 March 1720.

51 Ep Var 7, 3, Witham 25 January 1720; 7, 12, Stonor 23 March 1720; 7, 39, R. Witham 7 January 1721; 7, 40, Giffard 28 January 1721; 7, 62 Stonor 9 June 1721.

52 Ep Var 7, 15, Witham 3 May 1720; 7, 22, Witham 23 September 1720; 7, 23, 26 September 1720.

53 Ep Var 7, 49, Ingleton 21 March 1721.

54 Bennett, G. V., The Tory Crisis in Church and State (Oxford 1970) pp 223-75Google Scholar; Williams, J. A., Catholic Recusancy in Wiltshire, CRS (1968) pp 60-2Google Scholar; Plumb, J. H., Sir Robert Walpole, the King’s Minister (London 1960) p 46 Google Scholar; Ep Var 7, 138, Giffard 12 November 1722; 7, 140, Ingleton 16 November 1722; 7, 142, Ingleton 30 November 1722; UCM ii 24, Edward Blount (French) to M. Hoffman, Imperial Envoy in London, 2 November 1722; ii no 25, count Gazola (envoy of duke of Parma) to Blount (French) 8 November 1722; HMC Polworth 3, pp 190, 199-204.

55 UCM i no 104, Blount to Norfolk 8 July 1723; ii, no 1 Blount to Sir Joseph Jekyll, 1 July 1723; ii, nos 26, 27, Blount to his wife 20 December 1722. For Strickland’s subsequent career, DNB and Scott.

56 On Waldegrave, DNB; Ep Var 7, 97, Stonor 3 March 1722; Ep Var 8, 28, Stonor 21 June 1723.

57 UCM i no 104, Blount to Norfolk 8 July 1723.

58 Ushaw College, Eyre MSS 2, fol 807 seq. James Booth to Lord Langdale, 4 February 1763.

59 UCM ii no 3, Edward Blount to William Pulteney 23 July 1723.