A brief account of our diocesan history
This section was added in October 2004, containing chapters in the history of the Diocese.
At present we cover the period 1500 - 1844. The history has been written by Rev David Milburn
- Under the Earlier Tudors (1500-1558)
- Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
- James 1 (1603-25)
- Charles I (1625-49)
- The Protectorate (1649-1660)
- Charles II (1660-1685)
- James II (1685-88)
- 18th Century (i)
- 18th Century (ii)
- 19th Century
8. The 18th Century (i)
Churchmen like Bishop Challoner of London who lived through this period thought it an age of stagnation and even regression. Certainly there were further defections among the Catholic nobility and gentry and on occasion horrendously violent outbursts against Catholics, but it now seems that the slight but steady growth in the Catholic community from the Restoration period onwards actually continued through that of the Hanoverians particularly marked in the new urban centres created by the century's passion for commerce and industry. It is true that the first half of the century witnessed two important rebellions in support of the Catholic Stuarts, but only the Catholic (and Anglican) gentry of Lancashire and north-east England took part, costing some of them their lives as well as their property, like the Radcliffes of Dilston.
It is also true that new anti-Catholic measures were introduced and old ones revived, but the pragmatic Hanoverian anti-Catholic Whig regime saw little point in enforcing them whilst the majority of the Catholic community refused to be drawn into rebellion. The nation was in fact at last slowly learning the virtue of toleration, a doctrine expounded by the philosophers of the day. This more liberal spirit, matched by a certain discretion among Catholics, seems to have given Catholics a chance to put down deeper roots. This is not to say that the nation as a whole had ceased to harbour strong anti-Catholic resentment. The 1715 and 1745 rebellions proved how easily it could be revived. But on the whole it remained below the surface. Given the changed conditions it is not surprising to learn that during the century Catholics in England increased from 60,000 to 80.000, many of them converts.
Though the time was ripe for Catholics to be relieved of their heavy yoke, the first step was quite unexpected, arising as it did from the need of the English government to recruit Scottish Catholic highlanders to fight against the American colonists. Indeed, it proved to be premature. Though the first Relief Act of 1778 merely repealed the penal laws introduced under William III, it led, as some had feared, to the 1780 violent outbreak of Protestant bigotry known as the Gordon riots, during which the London embassy and other chapels were wrecked and Catholic houses looted and destroyed. But the more liberal attitude won the day, and a measure of sympathy for Catholics brought about further easement for them in 1791 when they were allowed to have their own duly registered, unobtrusive chapels as well as their own schools. Catholic morale received a further boost when events in France forced their compatriots in schools and religious houses under French jurisdiction to seek sanctuary on home ground, benefiting from the enormous good will which Protestant England had already shown towards French Catholic émigrés clerical and lay fleeing persecution. The tide really had begun to turn.
In regard to our northern counties, Catholics probably numbered no more than just over 2,000 at the beginning of the century with concentrations in Durham (several Mass centres within the city and its immediate neighbourhood), Stella, and south Tynedale. Gateshead was provided for by the Riddell and other families, Newcastle, after the destruction of its 1685 chapel had its centre in the Nuns (again Riddell property). Though most missions were still tied to the houses of the gentry, as time went on independent missions were established, beginning with Newhouse (present Esh Winning) endowed by the Smythe family of Esh as far back as in 1651, but with no resident priest until the 1690s. Later important centres of Catholicism like Sunderland, Stockton and Darlington still depended (as did lesser populated places) on occasional visits from the established Mass centres like Durham.
Copyright 2004 Roman Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle