New Book on English Bishops

We have received the following communication from Chris Larsen which we produce in full below, regarding an important new publication:

I am pleased to announce that my book, Catholic Bishops of Great Britain: A Reference to Roman Catholic Bishops from 1850 to 2015, will be published this week by Sacristy Press of Durham. This essential reference catalogues the biographical history and significant events of all Roman Catholic diocesan bishops who have been in office since the Restoration of the Catholic Hierarchy in England and Wales in 1850, and in Scotland since the Restoration in 1878. The work has developed over a number of years into a comprehensive reference guide to over 300 men, ordained in the episcopal order, who have given their life in service to the Church.

Copies of the book can be ordered direct from Sacristy Press by clicking the link below.

Book Shop

The book includes:

– A foreword by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor
– Descriptions and a brief history of each diocese, including coats of arms
– Biographical details of all former and current bishops
– Translations of the Letters Apostolic
– Contact details of all serving bishops
– Chronological listing of significant episcopal events
– Indexes of titular sees and cardinal titles
Drawing on a wide variety of sources, this book will appeal to all those interested in the general history and origins of the post-Restoration Roman Catholic dioceses in Great Britain, and be of particular use to diocesan archivists and yearbook editors. It presents the information as completely, concisely and consistently as possible.

As this book records the episcopal milestones of the last two hundred years, it also stands as a respectful testament to those bishops who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith, who continue to inspire and encourage their living successors in the Roman Catholic Church in Great Britain today.

“The names of our bishops are to be found in so many local places: in parish histories, on foundation stones, in portraits and in so many memories and retold stories. This book gathers much of that information together, bringing into one volume the briefest details of those many shepherds who have worked among the flock in these lands. Their names continue to live on, and we give thanks to God for the foundations they laid and the work they did: we continue to reap a rich harvest today from their sowing.”
– Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Archbishop Emeritus of Westminster

You may also find extra information on my Twitter account @bishbrit, which sends daily messages with “bishop trivia” of what happened on this day in the history of the Roman Catholic church in this country.

Many thanks for your interest and support.

Best wishes,
Chris Larsen

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St Cuthbert, Withington New CD

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baptism, Manchester, registers

The early baptism registers of St Cuthbert, Withington, Manchester in the Diocese of Salford have been released on CD by the Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society.

The CD can be purchased from their online bookshop

New CFHS Publications on CD

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Confirmations, GENFair, London District, Midland District, registers

The Catholic Family History Society occasional publications numbers 3 and 4, are available to purchase on CD

• Number 3 is The Bishops’ Register of Confirmations in the Midland District of the Catholic Church in England 1768-1811 and 1816′.

• Number 4 is The Bishops’ Register of Confirmations in the London District of the Catholic Church in England 1826-1837 and 1843′.

The CD is available to buy through Genfair for £5

Lists Of Papists

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jacobites, Non-jurors, papists, recusancy, recusants

The problems for Roman Catholics started with Henry VIII falling out with the Pope over Henry’s desire to divorce his first wife, Catherine. Henry declared himself Head of the Church in England.

Successive monarchs and their Governments were concerned about a take-over of England by Catholic powers in Europe.Between 1559 and the Emancipation Act of 1829 many Acts of Parliament were passed in order to prevent Roman Catholics practising their Faith and to force them into conforming to the newly established Anglican Church and its rites. They were barred from many occupations and activities.

Those who refused to conform were called recusants. People who followed the Pope in Rome were papists. All those who refused to take the required Oaths to prove their loyalty to the British monarch were described as non-jurors. Not all of these were Roman Catholics. Jacobitism was a political movement working towards restoring the Catholic Stuart King James II of England and VII of Scotland, and his heirs, to the throne, leading to various uprisings and support from Catholic monarchs in Europe. Followers of James were called Jacobites and many of them were also Roman Catholic.

Roman Catholics who came into any of these categories were sought out by the local Anglican Church wardens and constables in order to be punished usually by fines or by double land taxes. To facilitate this, local officials were ordered to make lists of papists/recusants/Jacobites in their area and send such lists to the higher authorities. Such lists may be found in the archives of the Anglican Diocese or local Record Offices. A complete set for 1767 is in the House of Lords Archive. They are not kept in any Catholic Archives, though copies of transcriptions may be.

Two lists have been transcribed by Sylvia Dibbs as part of a long term project undertaken by Brother Rory Higgins of the De La Salle Brothers to build a database of pre-1837 Roman Catholics, mainly in England. The lists have names of adult men and often women. Sometimes children are named or just the number of children in a family. Some lists include occupations. Addresses did not exist then, but locations, necessary for land taxes, areas are often given. As marriages and usually burials had to take place in Anglican Churches this can be a useful pointer to a parish register. The lists are available for download from GENfair by following the links below where more details of the areas covered can be found.

Lists of Papists for Some Counties

List of Papists for the London area

The originals of these lists are in London, England at The National Archives Kew, The London Metropolitan Archives, and The British Library

Bishops’s Registers of London and Midland District Confirmations

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London, Midlands

A (comparatively) long time ago our society produced printed publications of register transcriptions. Obviously the stocks that we hold go down over the years as items are sold. The source documents for many of these publications are now lost and so it would be very difficult to arrange a reprint, and even if we had the originals printing costs have risen and it might be uneconomic.

I’ve just completed scanning the Bishops’ Registers as they had gone out of print, and these are now available as PDFs on CD-ROM via GENfair here. Apart from keeping the information available there is an additional benefit for our customers in that we can make both publications available on a single disk at the same price that one of the printed books was sold for.

Index Of Nuns

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index, nuns

Work is progressing with a view to making our Index of Nuns ready for publication this year. The scripts that extract details of almost 14,000 nuns from the database and then reformat the data into a PDF and generate indexes have been written and have passed initial testing. The next steps will involve final testing and tweaking of the format, writing introductory and explanatory texts, and preparing artwork.

Further posts will provide updates as we progress.

Our Latest Publication

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Manchester, records

St.Mary’s RC Church, Mulberry Street, Manchester. Full transcriptions with register images.

• Baptisms : 1794-1812, 1812-1819, 1820-1831, 1832-1841 & 1842-50
• Marriages : 1831-1836
• Burials : 1816-1825 & 1832-1837
• plus a List of Parents, extracted from the Baptism Registers

St.Mary’s is the oldest existing Catholic Church in Manchester and Salford. The Manchester Mission first began in 1773, in a room in Roman Entry (off High St.). In 1776, it moved to Rook Street Chapel (off Market St.). The Mission finally moved, in 1794, to Mulberry Street and remained on the same site, as a functioning parish church, to the present day. The Registers have been fully transcribed and, with the exception of the Marriages, are presented in Surname sorted order in searchable PDF format.

Baptisms are contiguous from 1794 to 1850. The Burial ground is under the floor of the church (now sealed). The Registers have a seven year gap, with a further 18-month break within the second register. Legal marriages were not permitted here until 1837, but the Register records the Sacrament of Marriage for a five year period. In the absence of a full Marriage Register, there is a list of Parents, extracted from the five Baptism Registers and presented as two (father & mother) surname sorted tables with the child’s Baptism date to help fix a time frame. Also the parents list is supplied as an unformatted (CSV) text file, which may be copied into a spreadsheet for personal analysis. The Clergy are listed, with the date of their first appearance in a register.

These records are presented in DVD format and the publication can be ordered on our GENfair site.

Catholic History Podcasts by the ECHA

The English Catholic History Association have launched a series of podcasts which are available in the iTunes Store.   By subscribing to this free podcast you will be able to download the talks to a media player of your choice.  In the forthcoming months they will be sending each talk to the podcast on a weekly basis.

The current podcast is described below and  they all can be found by following this link.

Recusant Liturgy by Michael Hodgetts

Michael Hodgetts reviews the 300 years of liturgical practice of Catholics under penal conditions in England from the mid 1500s to early Victorian times. Music, missals, primers, chapel architecture and decoration, official and unofficial records of one sort or another, contribute to our knowledge of the quite elaborate rites that took place in wealthy country houses, despite unfavourable circumstances. We also get an impression of the secrecy and isolation under which priests laboured in order to bring the sacraments to Catholics in towns and villages.

Botthian and Amphian, De La Salle Brothers in Australia 1864-1867

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Apphian, Bothian

Sylvia brought this book by Brother Rory to my attention.

From the jacket:

The establishment of a De La Salle Bothers’ school in Perth [Australia] in the 1860s was part of the missionary thrust by the Catholic Church throughout the world during that century. It also coincided with the influx of religious congregations of men and women to Australia which established a system of education, health and social services that continues to the present day.

This study tells the story of two men who left Europe for a better life in America. There they became Brothers of the Christian Schools and set out to establish and conduct good schools in India and South East Asia. Eventually they arrived in Australia where they became pioneers of Catholic secondary education for boys in the colony of Western Australia. Using extensive archival resources, the study investigates the product of personality, prayer and partnership in moulding men and institutions; some of which were highly successful.

Sylvia’s comments:

There are lots of illustrations; some family background of Br. Bothiam, a German, and Br Amphian, an Irishman; background history of the era and the trials of being ahead of their time in education in developing recognizably modern and enlightened methods. There are 344 pages.

HIGGINS, Rory, FSC.  Botthian and Amphian, De La Salle Brothers in Australia 1864-1867, published by De La Salle Brothers District of Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Papua New Guinea 2011

Catholic Miscellanea

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catholic, miscellanea

S&N Genealogy have a number of data discs that will be of interest to those who have traced their ancestors back to the 16th century. You can view the details by going to their web site and entering ‘Catholic’ in the search box.  There are four volumes in the series.