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The Stewardship of Resources: Financial Strategies of Roman Catholics in the Glasgow District, 1800–70

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

John F. McCaffrey
John F. McCaffrey*
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
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Extract

Too much of this world’s goods has traditionally been regarded as detrimental to Christians. But the experiences of a small, poor area like the Western District of the Scottish Roman Catholic Mission from the 1800s to the 1860s show that religion can become entangled with worldly questions of money through arguments over how to spend scarce resources. Scottish bishops in order to make the most effective use of the meagre funds they had (derived from grants from Rome, bequests and donations from laymen, and loans secured on church buildings) were forced to operate as bankers as well as pastors. Like bankers they had to provide stability and protect existing funds; at the same time they had to expand their credit basis laying out speculatively what they could to create new congregations, hoping that these new resource centres would, through their contributions, pay off the interest on the loans raised to erect their chapels. - Like all banking systems everything ultimately depended on credit and credibility, not only on trustworthiness, but also shrewd and cautious business management to keep the web of such monies as they had utilized to best advantage.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 24: The Church and Wealth , 1987 , pp. 359 - 370
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1987

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References

1 Campbell, R. H., ‘The Industrial Revolution in Scotland’, ScHR, 46 (1967), pp. 37–55 Google Scholar; L.J. Saunders, Scottish Democracy 1815–1840 (Edinburgh, 1950); I. Levitt and T. C. Smout, The State of the Scottish Working Class in 1843 (Edinburgh, 1979).

2 Cited in Johnson, C., Developments in the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland 1789–1820 (Edinburgh, 1983), p. 136 Google Scholar. See also for these changes, P. F.Anson, Underground Catholicism in Scotland (Mon trose, 1970); D. McRoberts, ed., Modern Scottish Catholicism 1878–1978 (Glasgow, 1979), cap. 1; J. E. Handley, The Irish in Scotland 1798–1845 (Cork, 1945).

3 William, A. Mac, ‘The Glasgow Mission, 1792–1800’, IR 4 (1953), pp. 84–91 Google Scholar; J. Lawlor, ‘Benefactors of the Early Glasgow Mission: 1793 and 1797’, IR 35 (1984), pp. 22–32; Handley, Irish in Scotland, p. 107.

4 Royal Commission on Religious Instruction, Scotland, 2nd Report, PP. 1837–8, 32, p. 92.

5 ‘… in 1816 this Cadiolic Chapel in Great Clyde Street must have been just as bizarre and exotic as was Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s School of Art in 1894’, P. F. Anson, ‘Catholic Church Building in Scotland, 1560–1914’, IR 5 (1954), p. 130.D. McRoberts,‘Ambula Coram Deo’, IR 6 (1955), pp. 46–8.

6 Renwick, R., ed., Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Glasgow, vol. x, 1809–1822 (Glasgow, 1915), pp. xvii, 348–9, 404, 645 Google Scholar. J. McUre (with additions by J. F. S. Gordon), Glasghu Facies, 4 pts (Glasgow, 1871–2) 3, pp. 864–7. Examples of how careful the Town Council were to keep down costs in maintaining the city’s churches are instructive when compared with Scott’s lack of resources, Burgh Records, ibid., pp. 327–30.

7 Estimates vary. Religious Instruction Commission 2nd Report, p. 36 gives £17, 000 and Johnson, Developments, p. 155, says,£20, 000. However, A. Scott to Bishop Paterson, 8 November 1826, SCA, Edinburgh (PL3, 106) indicates,£15, 000. This corresponds with that given by a well-informed local historian with access to source material for this church, J. Darragh, Andrew Scott, Catholic Truth Society pamphlet (Glasgow, 1946). Either way it was an enormous sum for the circumstances of that time.

8 The Catholic Directories for Scotland (annually from 1831) [hereafter CDS].

9 CDS. Michael Condon Diaries, Bishop Murdoch Papers, Glasgow Archdiocesan Archives [hereafter GAA].

10 CDS.

11 Aspinwall, B., ‘The Formation of the Catholic Community in the West of Scotland’, IR 33 (1982), p. 44.Google Scholar

12 Macdonald, R., ‘Bishop Scott and the West Highlands’, IR 17 (1066), p. 116.Google Scholar

13 Carmont, J., History of the Scottish Clerical Quota Fund… with Observations (Girvan, n.d. [?1882]), pp. 11, 35 Google Scholar;J. A. Stothert, ‘Life of Bishop Hay’, in J. F. S. Gordon, Scotichronicon and Monasticon, Journal and Appendix (Glasgow, 1867), p. 49.

14 Johnson, , Developments, pp. 124, 143–5.Google Scholar

15 History Quota Fund, p. 11.

16 Robertson, J. K., ‘Young Mr Kyle and His Circle’, IR 1 (1950), pp. 44–5.Google Scholar

17 Murdoch Papers (Maryhill Cash Book), GAA. Incidentally, the names of some of the donors indicate that not all Glasgow Catholics were poor: a P. Corrigan loaned £300, a P. Scanlon £200, and a J. Murray,£500.

18 Murdoch Papers (Advertanda et Memoranda Ledger), GAA.

19 For instance, in 1828 the Catholic bishops and senior priests, acting as trustees, raised £1, 000 on the security of the Paisley chapel property. By 1835 they had repaid the loan. Paisley Mission Box, GAA.

20 Ibid.

21 For these divisions see Handley and McRoberts cited above. Also J. E. Handley, The Irish in Modem Scotland (Cork, 1947), pp. 47–92, and J. F. McCaffrey, ‘Roman Catholics in Scotland in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries’, Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 21 (1983), pp. 278–91.

22 History Quota Fund. Before 1849 a policy of recognizing need in making the allocation had sustained a feeling of fairness; it was also regarded as being in line with the original intentions of the donors to the fund. GAA, Michael Condon Diaries also makes this point.

23 Letters on Scoto-Irish Divisions in Western District Box, GAA (for example, P. McCorry to H. Manning, 5 November 1867; also those to Manning by J. Danaher, 31 October 1867, D.Conway, 29 November 1867, M. O’Keefe, 19 November 1867, P. Rogan, 31 October 1867). Also, Condon Diaries, GAA.

24 Memoranda for Apostolic Visitor by Bishop John Gray, GAA, esp. pp. 1, 8–10, 13–18, 20–1.

25 J. F. Walsh, ‘Archbishop Manning’s Visitation of the Western District of Scotland in 1867’, IR 18 (1967), pp. 16–18.

26 Johnson, Developments, pp. 124ff.

27 MacWilliam, ‘Glasgow Mission’. Lawlor, ‘Benefactors of early Glasgow Mission’.

28 Bishop Murdoch Papers and Michael Condon Diaries, GAA.

29 Calculations from Religious Instruction Commission 2nd Report. Census of Religious Worship and Education, Scotland (London, 1854).

30 Aspinwall, , ‘Formation of Catholic Community’, p. 48 Google Scholar; Johnson, Developments, pp. 136–40.

31 Typescript history of Glasgow parishes, GAA.

32 Aspinwall, , ‘Formation of Catholic Community’. Also his ‘Robert Monteith and the Origins of Modern British Catholic Society Thought’, DRev 97 (1978), pp. 46–68 Google Scholar, and his ‘The Second Spring in Scodand’, Clergy Review 66 (1981), pp. 281–90 and 312–19.

33 Ibid.

34 Johnson, Developments, pp. 249–50.

35 For Scott see Darragh, Andrew Scott, and Handley, Irish in Scotland, pp. 284–5. For Forbes see Aspinwall, B., ‘A Glasgow Pastoral Plan’, IR 35 (1984), pp. 33–6.Google Scholar

36 Aspinwall, ibid. CDS.

37 J. Conway to H. Manning, 6 November 1867. GAA.

38 Carmont Case-Mitchell Trust Folder, SCA (SM 8, 6) and (Ed 12, 109). History Quota Fund.