England Religious Occupations, Roman Catholics, Nonconformists - International Institute

Roman Catholics
From 1534, except for the brief interlude of Mary’s reign (1553-1558), Roman Catholicism was not the established church and adherents, especially the mission priests and the Jesuits, were actively persecuted at times. Terms such as papist, and recusant were used, but the latter could mean any non-Anglican between 1662 and 1685. Catholics refer to the time between 1559 and 1829, when the last of the anti-Catholic statutes was repealed, as the penal period. It should be noted that freedom of worship was granted in 1778. During the penal period Catholicism was strongest in the northern counties and Catholic children were sent abroad to be educated. Obviously this applied only to the upper classes, but a disproportionate number of them were of the old faith - 25% of the gentry, compared with 4% for the whole population, of Yorkshire was Catholic.

The first college for English Catholics to train for the priesthood abroad was founded in 1568 in Douai in France and subsequently others in St. Omer, Paris, Dieulouard, Rome, Valladolid, and Seville. Convents for training English girls were located in Bruges, Cambrai, Dunkirk, Ghent, Gravelines, Pontoise, Paris and elsewhere. The Catholic Record Society has published many of these colleges’ and convents’ records containing much family detail (Gandy 1998).

Priests had to be sheltered by the Catholic gentry and their occupations disguised. They typically used false names and in order that these would be recognized by true followers but not government infiltrators they would use their mother’s or grandmother’s maiden name—a genealogical bonus. Some of the many compendia of priestly biographies noted by Gandy (Public Record Office Pocket Guide: Tracing Catholic Ancestors. Public Record Office, 2001) include:


 * Anstruther on Seminary Priests.
 * Bellenger on English and Welsh Priests 1558-1800.
 * Birt on Benedictines.
 * Fitzgerald-Lombard on English and Welsh Priests 1801-1914.
 * Foley on Jesuits.
 * Gumbley on Dominicans.
 * Thaddeus on Franciscans.
 * Zimmerman on Carmelites.

For nuns there is Steele on Convents and the Catholic Family History Society has an index of 14,000 nuns.

Very few English Catholic records were kept during the penal period because a priest so doing would have been signing his own and his parishioners’ imprisonment or death warrants if the book were found. Only from 1700 onwards can registers be found (Gandy 1994, 7 volumes). Catholic services and chapels again became legal by Relief Acts of 1778 and 1791, and worship was strengthened by several thousand Catholic priests who fled to England from the French Revolution. In England from 1700-1918 the church did not have a parish system as it did in predominantly Catholic countries; it was divided into areas called missions which had indefinite boundaries. Parish priests have been known as seculars from the 19th century. Gandy has done immeasurable service by publishing two Catholic bibliographies (Catholic Family History: A Bibliography of General Sources. Self published, London and Catholic Family History: A Bibliography of Local Sources. Self published, London, 1996) and summary information on the missions and parishes, as well as his introductory volumes (Basic Facts About… Tracing Your Catholic Ancestry in England. Federation of Family History Societies, 1998 and Public Record Office Pocket Guide: Tracing Catholic Ancestors. Public Record Office, 2001) which overlap but also contain different material. Titford’s series in Family Tree Magazine, ''Have You Tried…? John Titford’s Guide to Printed Sources for Family Historians''… (1998) reports on Roman Catholic college registers.

Protestant Non-conformists
Dissenters were excluded from higher education in universities before the 1689 Toleration Act, and several dissenting academies were founded after the Act of Uniformity of 1662 to fill the gap. The best of them were even regarded as superior to the universities (Hey) and boys entered between 15 and 17 years of age. In time colleges with specific denominational affiliations were founded at Oxford and Cambridge, and elsewhere; Titford (Have You Tried…? John Titford’s Guide to Printed Sources for Family Historians: University Registers: Family Tree Magazine. Oxford in Vol 14 #3, page 8-9. Cambridge in Vol 14 #6, page 11-12. London in Vol 14 #8, page 58-59. Universities in England and Wales in Vol 14 #10, page 25-26, 1998-1999) has a good summary of them and their records. Dr. William’s Library contains the libraries and collections of the former dissenting academies and theological colleges in Hackney, Highbury and Homerton (Shorney). The Gentleman’s Magazine listed many marriages and obituaries for Dissenting Ministers (Ruston 1996). Titford (Odd Vols: Unusual Printed Sources for Family Historians: Dissenting Ministers and Congre-gations. Family Tree Magazine Vol 17 #12, page 4-6, 2001) extols Evans’ 1896 volume about Dissenting Ministers and congregations as providing much detail not available elsewhere.

Baptists
Baptists started in 1611, but there was no central organization nor standard training for the ministry. Neither has there ever been a single directory of information about their ministers. Those churches included in the Baptist Union, which was formed in 1812, did have listings in what is currently called the Baptist Union Directory, and its forerunners since 1832. Other Baptist groups are listed by Breed, who gives details of the large number of lists of ministers that have been compiled since 1715, and where to find them. Pictures of many Baptist preachers are given by Titford (Odd Vols: Portraits of Baptist Luminaries. Family Tree Magazine Vol 17 #9, page 4-5, 2001).

Congregationalism
Congregationalism started in the mid-16th century and adherents were first called Brownists, or Separatists, and later Independents. They believed that each congregation should choose its own minister without the approval of a bishop. Clifford, the standard reference, does not mention either training or biographical indexes of ministers.

Methodism
Methodism was started about 1744 and after the death of its founder, John Wesley, in 1791 there were many secessionist groups, all detailed by Leary (My Ancestors Were Methodists: How Can I Find Out More About Them? Society of Genealogists, 1999). Each of the break-away denominations had its Theological Training Centre for ministers, but there are now only three of these with records housed in the Methodist Archives. The stations or circuits give dates of commencement and length of service in each one, and there are a number of indexes to them. Methodist magazines were strong on detailed obituaries and again, indexes of these exist (Leary). Rothery (There’s A Methodist in My Madness! Family Tree Magazine Vol 16 #11, page 11-12, 2000) tells of his Methodist preacher forebear.

Presbyterians
The Presbyterians were a group of Puritans who emerged in the late 16th century and later mostly became Unitarians. Ruston deems Presbyterianism a church government structure rather than a system of beliefs. Dr. Williams Library holds much of interest on English Presbyterians and Unitarians including the Surman Index of Dissenting Ministers. There is the extensive Johnston Index of Unitarian obituaries 1794-date and Ruston is the standard text (My Ancestors Were English Presbyterians/ Unitarians: How Can I Find Out More About Them? Society of Genealogists. ).

Society of Friends
The Society of Friends or Quakers arose in the late 1640s and were the most radical of the Puritans. The gift of vocal ministry in the otherwise silent worship services was encouraged but not trained, so there were no training colleges for ministers. From 1682 annual lists of deceased ministers were made and those for 1700-1843 are available together with an index (Milligan and Thomas).

Salvation Army
The Salvation Army was established only in 1865 and has full-time trained ministers. A soldier (regular member) accepted for ministerial training at the William Booth Memorial Training College is a candidate and records exist (Wiggins).

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