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A Catholic Community: Shrewsbury. Part I: 1750–1850

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Peter Phillips
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Extract

Shrewsbury, like many towns of eighteenth century England, bears witness to the slow emergence of an urban Catholic community. The fact that its first Catholic chapel could be built as early as 1776, two years before the first Relief Act, and thus laying the community open to serious reprisals, is an indication of the easing of relations between the Catholic and his neighbours. It was not until 1791 that the building of chapels was permitted, but after 1778 most of the penal restraints were removed from the statute book. This, too, is a reflection of growing toleration rather than its cause, although it was prompted immediately by the need to recruit Catholic highlanders into the army. The ’45 could now be forgotten and the Catholic tended to be regarded as a somewhat quaint, though harmless, figure. This was a time of transition from country to town and perhaps the Catholic community, unencumbered by the social restraints of the establishment from which it had been excluded for so long, was to gain particularly from the change. The Catholic Brook family of Madeley Court, for example, felt free to turn its attention to industry, opening the first iron forge in Coalbrookdale, the cradle of the Industrial Revolution.

Type
Other
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , October 1990 , pp. 239 - 261
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1973

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References

Notes

1 Catholicism in Shrewsbury, p. 7.

2 Alec Gaydon, ed., History of Shropshire, Victoria County History, vol. 2, Oxford 1873, p. 8.

3 White, J. H., ‘The Vicars Apostolics’ Returns of 1773’, Recusant History, vol. 9, pp. 213–214.Google Scholar

4 Owen & Blakeway, p. 476.

5 BAA, A 739.

6 Catholicism in Shrewsbury, p. 9.

7 Refer to Anstruther, The Seminary Priests, vol. 4, Meyhew McCrimmon, 1977, p. 153.

8 J. Cosin, List of Catholics and Non-Jurors 1715, John Russel Smith, 1862, p. 110.

9 Catholicism in Shrewsbury, p. 8.

10 There is a memorial tablet preserved in the sacristy of the Cathedral.

11 Kirk, p. 49.

12 Lichfield Joint Record Office, D 56. Published by kind permission of the Bishop of Lichfield.

13 Aveling, J. C. H., The Handle and the Axe, Blond & Briggs, 1976, pp. 256–257.Google Scholar

14 Kirk, p. 86.

15 Catholicism in Shrewsbury, p. 9.

16 Smythe Papers, 1514/1/138. Shropshire County Record Office. The printed version of this document, in Catholicism in Shrewsbury, differs somewhat from the original.

17 The Diary of The Blue Nuns, ed. Joseph Gillow & Richard Trappes-Lomax, CRS, vol. 8, 1910, p. 342.

18 Douai College Documents 1639–1794, ed P. R. Harris, CRS, vol. 63, 1972, passim.

19 ibid., p. 353.

20 Owen & Blakeway, p. 476.

21 John, Bossy, The English Catholic Community 1550–1850, Darton, Longman & Todd, 1975, pp. 341–346, pp. 334–337.Google Scholar

22 Eamon, Duffy, ‘Ecclesiastical Democracy Detected’, Recusant History, vol. 10, pp. 193–209, 309–331 Google Scholar; vol. 13, pp. 123–148.

23 Derek Holmes, J., More Roman than Rome, Burns & Oates, 1978, p. 163.Google Scholar

24 See Duffy, Recusant History, vol. 10, p. 324.

25 BAA, C 1520.

26 Douai College Documents 1639–1794, ed P. R. Harris, CRS, vol. 63, 1972, p. 342.

27 BAA, C 1487.

28 BAA, A 1291.

29 BAA, C 2162. Revd. James Bramston writing to Revd. John Roe in 1816.

30 ibid..

31 Latourette, K. S., Christianity in a Revolutionary Age, Eyre & Spottiswoode, vol. 2, 1960, p. 283.Google Scholar

32 BAA, C 2185. James Corne’s Will, dated February 4th 1817.

33 BAA, A 32a, no date.

34 Birmingham Archdiocesan Directory, 1915, p. 60. I am most grateful to Dom Aidan Bellenger of Downside Abbey for this and other helpful references to the French émigré priests associated with Shrewsbury. See his The French Exiled Clergy, Downside 1986.

35 Aidan, Bellenger, ‘The French Revolution and the English Benedictines, Part 1: The French Exiles’, The Downside Review, July 1989, p. 195.Google Scholar

36 Downside Abbey Archives, Burt Papers, C 364.

37 Downside Abbey Archives, Burt Papers, C 241.

38 Owen & Blakeway, p. 255 note 1.

39 Family papers in the possession of Mrs. Phillipa Gray, of Shrewsbury. I am grateful to her and the Misses Bourlay for access to family papers.

40 ibid..

41 ibid..

42 ibid..

43 Birt, H. N., Obit Book of the English Benedictines 1600–1912, privately printed, Edinburgh, 1913, p. 162.Google Scholar

44 H. N. Birt, op. cit., p. 145.

45 Catholicism in Shrewsbury, p. 11.

46 Salopian Annals

47 Local Studies Department of the Shropshire County Library, D 97/5322.

48 Salopian Annals from which much of the following account is taken.

49 ibid..

50 ibid..

51 ibid..

52 BAA, C 2559.

53 ibid..

54 Salopian Annals.

55 Brenda, Walsh, Father Spencer, Catholic Truth Society, 1981.Google Scholar

56 I am indebted to Mrs. Phillipa Gray for acquainting me with this fact.

57 Anna Maria Reynolds, C.P., Heralds of Hope: The Sisters of the Cross and Passion, Editions du Signe, France 1989, p. 4.

58 BAA, B 611.

59 BAA, B 1304.

60 BAA, B 1304.

62 Shrewsbury Chronicle, beginning with the edition of 25th March 1836.

62 Shrewsbury Chronicle, April 1836.

63 Shrewsbury Chronicle, August 1836.

64 Shrewsbury Chronicle, 19 August, 1836.

65 ibid..

66 ibid..

67 ibid..

68 BAA, B 1388.

69 BAA, B 1388.

70 Ecclesiastical Census, 1851.

71 CA, letter dated 25th February 1847.

72 ibid..