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‘No Law Would be Granted Us’: Institutional Protestantism and the problem of Catholic poverty in England 1839–42*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
After the Rebellion (of 1745) a soldier, on return from Manchester, called at Stretford and tarried at a public house. A man who was a bitter enemy to my parents because they were Papists, dropt into the soldier’s company, and they drank till they were intoxicated. The man told the soldier that if he would go to my father’s house, and demand a sum of money he might have it because we were Papists and no law would be granted us. The soldier came and without apology entered the house. Providentially my father was from home, or it would have cost him his life. The soldier having loaded his fire-lock, clapped it to my mother’s breast and demanded money…. As the soldier was putting the money into his pocket my mother laid hold of the fire-lock, and giving it to me, I immediately ran away and hid it. She then seized the robber by the collar of his coat and shook him, tho’ he was a lusty man and thrusting him out of the door locked it. My father came home and procured a constable to apprehend the soldier and he was brought to our house; but upon acknowledging his fault and returning the money, he was dismissed.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1984
Footnotes
*
I am indebted to the Leverhulme Foundation for financial support during the writing of this short paper.
References
1 Arminian Magazine 17 (Jan 1795) p 19 (quotation abbreviated). Ibid pp 18–23, (Feb) pp 71–6, (Mar) pp 122–6 for Morris’s Life.
2 Ibid (Jan) pp 19–20 (quotation abbreviated).
3 Ibid (Feb) pp 71–4.
4 For two early attempts to assess such legislation, C. Butler, An historical account of the laws respecting Roman Catholics, etc. (London 1795) and J. B. Brown, An historical account of the law enacted against Catholics (London 1813).
5 As far as I am aware public hospitals never gained the notorious reputation for religious sharp practice amongst Catholics as did the Workhouse network. I attribute this to their broadly independent status and a possible Irish disinclination at first to exploit in-patient treatment.
6 [G. P.] Connolly, ‘Catholicism in Manchester [and Salford 1770–1850’,] (unpublished PhD thesis, vols 1–3 Manchester University 1980), see here 2 pp 178–247 especially p 193 et seq. Also [J. Morris (no relation), The] English Poor Laws [and the Catholic Poor] (London 1860).
7 See Reports of the Manchester and Salford District Provident Society (Manchester 1833–58) and Rules and By-Laws of the Manchester and Salford Asylum for Female Penitents (Manchester 1823) as examples of the ‘private enterprise’ to which I refer. Compare here Rules for the Government of the Poor House in Manchester (Manchester 1800).
8 The comparison with the overworked concept of institutionalized violence is tempting, Connolly ‘Catholicism in Manchester’ 2 pp 193–4, though I now think less convincing.
9 [G. B.] Hindle, [Provision for the Poor in Manchester 1754–1826] (Manchester 1975) pp 1–39, and Connolly ‘Catholicism in Manchester’ 2 p 196 et seq. Also D. A. Farnie, ‘The Establishment of the New Poor Law in Salford 1838–50’, (unpub BA dissertation, Manchester University 1951) p 5 et seq, and J. R. Wood, ‘The Transition from the old to the new Poor Law system in Manchester’, (unpub BA dissertation Manchester University 1938) pp 1–97 esp. pp 8–16. Compare here N. C. Edsall, The Anti Poor Law Movement 1834–44 (Manchester 1971) pp 105–218.
10 Connolly ‘Catholicism in Manchester’ 2 pp 212–14.
11 [G. P.] Connolly, [‘“With more than ordinary devotion to God”: The] Secular Missioner of the North [in the Evangelical Age of the English Mission’] North West Catholic History 10 (1983) pp 8–31.
12 Connolly ‘Catholicism in Manchester’ 2 pp 200–1 and also Manchester Poor House Book, (1790) pp 122–3, M3/3/5, City Archives, Manchester.
13 Connolly ‘Catholicism in Manchester’ 2 pp 201–4.
14 See 18344 & 5 Will. iv c76. (An act for the better Administration of the laws relating to the Poor in England and Wales).
15 Fifth [Annual] Report [of the Poor Law] Commissioners, 1839 (239) xxi. Appendix A pp 43–6. Also Seventh [Annual] Report [of the Poor Law] Commissioners, 1841 (327) xi. Appendix B pp 134–5, and Eighth [Annual] Report [of the Poor Law] Commissioners, 1842 (389) xix. Appendix A p 50.
16 Fifth Report Commissioners pp 43–6. Also Connolly ‘Catholicism in Manchester’ 2 pp 214–5. Here compare [O.] Chadwick, [The Victorian Church,] (3 edn London 1971) l pp 95–8.
17 Seventh Report Commissioners p 136, and also Hindle p 41; Connolly ‘Catholicism in Manchester’ 2 pp 202–4.
18 Connolly ‘Catholicism in Manchester’ 2 pp 204–5, and [Salford Union] Minute Book, (1841) pp 42, 89, 250. L/GS/AM/2 [Metropolitan Council Archives, Salford]. Also here [L.] Woodward, [The Age of Reform, 1815–70,] (Oxford 1979) pp 454–5.
19 For Brown, Connolly ‘Catholicism in Manchester’ 3 pp 437–45.
20 W. Gillespie The Christian Brothers in England 1825–1880 (Bristol 1975) p 97, and see Connolly ‘Secular Missioner of the North’ pp 12–14, 18–21. It seems likely that standards of Catholic practice recovered only slowly and with fluctuations in Liver pool. Gillespie’s sources may have exaggerated totals, but not necessarily proportions.
21 [Royal Commission on the condition of the Poorer Classes in Ireland Appendix G, The State of the] Irish Poor in [Great] Britain, 1836 (40) xxxiv. pp 44, 45–50.
22 Ibid pp 44–5. See also List of Children sent to the Poor School at Swinton (1846–64), M4/20/1, City Archives, Manchester.
23 Connolly ‘Catholicism in Manchester’ 2 p 206.
24 (George Brown) Status Religionis (Lancashire District 1840–1?) p 5, Wiseman Papers, Archives of the Archdiocese of Westminster.
25 For McCartney, [The] True Tablet 10 June 1843 p 360; T. Curley, A Catholic History of Oldham (Market Weighton 1911) p 13.
26 Connolly ‘Catholicism in Manchester’ 2 pp 201–26.
27 Ibid pp 205–6.
28 Ibid pp 206–8, and True Tablet 19 Mar 1843 pp 51–2. See also Manchester Chronicle 19 Mar 1842, and Manchester Guardian 2 Apr 1842, and Hansard (Third series) 60 (Feb-Mar 1842) col 1284, 61 (Mar-Apr 1842) cols 598–604.
29 Connolly ‘Catholicism in Manchester’ 2 p 219.
30 Ibid pp 219–23.
31 For Lucas, [E.] Lucas, [The] Life [of Frederick Lucas, MP,] 2 vols (London 1886) which does not mention this contretemps save in passing at 1 p 78. But see also 1 pp 45–57, 114–22.
32 Ibid 1 pp 72–7 and The Tablet 24 July 1982 pp 737–8.
33 Connolly ‘Catholicism in Manchester’ 2 p 209, and True Tablet 14 May 1842 pp 193, 194–5.
34 See True Tablet 23 April 1842 p 131 for McCartney’s invaluable approval against Cox.
35 As, for example, ibid 11 June 1842 p 253 and supplement, 2 July 1842 pp 306–7.
36 Ibid 11 June 1842 p 253 and supplement, 25 June 1842 pp 290–2, 20 Aug 1842 p 421.
37 Ibid 25 June 1842 p 292.
38 Ibid p 290.
39 Ibid p 291.
40 Ibid pp 290–2. His insinuations against the Methodist Governor of the Manchester Poor House, p 291, seem near libellous. McCartney, by contrast and in more sober mood, took the trouble to exonerate the House schoolteachers, ‘kind and human’, ibid 2 July 1842 p 306.
41 Connolly ‘Catholicism in Manchester’ 2 pp 203–4, 205, 217. All named clergy belonged to known Evangelical societies in the towns. Compare also here Chadwick 1 p 96 and especially at note 3 which unfortunately provides ammunition for Lucas.
42 Minute Book (1841) L/GS/AM/2 pp 229, 233–4 and Eighth Report Commissioners p 50. See also True Tablet 25 June 1842 p 291. Want of consecrated altars made in-House Catholic services a problem, though apparently not an insurmountable one.
43 Connolly ‘Catholicism in Manchester’ 2 pp 224–5, and True Tablet 20 Aug 1842 p 421.
44 See here [J.] Bossy, [The English Catholic Community] (London 1975) pp 349–50. By 1842 George Brown was probably already determined to curtail the activities of the lay orientated Catholic Institute; though McCartney had some praise for its contribution, True Tablet 27 Aug 1842 p 440. But see too his comments ibid 19 Mar 1842 p 241. Also here G. P. Connolly, ‘Vocation or Profession? English Catholics and the origins of clerical ascendancy 1790–1840’, paper read before the Catholic Record Society conference, Oxford 1983, forthcoming.
45 Morris predictably sees the issue wholly in pastoral/political terms, English Poor Laws pp 3–48.
46 True Tablet 25 June 1842 p 292, and also Lucas Life pp 45–57. Here compare R. K. Donovan, ‘The denominational character of English Catholic charitable effort 1800–65’ Catholic Historical Review 62 (1976) pp 200–23.
47 Bossy pp 323–63, 391–401.
48 Irish Poor in Britain p 47.
49 Ibid p 62 for the above declaration (concerning the calling of Catholic banns in Protestant churches and others). Hearne certainly fits Gardiner’s inditement. For Hearne G. P. Connolly, ‘Little brother be at peace: the priest as Holy Man in the nineteenth century ghetto’, SCH 19: The Church and Healing, ed W. J. Sheils (Oxford 1982) pp 191–206.
50 See J. Bossy ‘Challoner and the Marriage Act’ in Challoner and his Church, ed E. Duffy (London 1981) pp 126–36 for the gist of clerical objections.
51 Connolly ‘Catholicism in Manchester’ 2 pp 220–1.
52 True Tablet 25 June 1842 pp 291–2.
53 Woodward p 455. See also Connolly ‘Catholicism in Manchester’ 2 pp 226–9, and English Poor Laws pp 5–32. A sympathetic assessment of pastoral constraints can be found in S. W. Gilley, ‘English Catholic Charity and the Irish Poor in London, part 1: 1700–1840’ Recusant History 11 (January 1972) pp 179–95.