During the sixteenth, seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, those who refused to attend
Anglican church services were known as recusants.
Most were Roman Catholics. Despite draconian
legislation, Roman Catholicism survived in
England because of a deliberate strategy. In July
1586, a secret conference at Harleyford Manor,
across the river from Hurley, determined that
priests would be based in the homes of the
recusant gentry. Harbouring a priest could incur
the death penalty and merely being a priest
constituted high treason. Nonetheless, the
Harleyford strategy worked well in many parts of
Berkshire. Various factors contributed to this:
- Recusancy among the gentry was relatively
strong in neighbouring Hampshire and
south Oxfordshire.
- Most conforming gentry did not invoke
anti-Catholic legislation against their
recusant neighbours.
- The Thames provided an efficient link
with London, with recusant manor houses
every few miles along the Oxfordshire
bank of the river.
- Catholic priests returning via the
Hampshire coast from the Continent often
passed through Berkshire.
- Berkshire was far away enough from London
to make casual raids unlikely.
- Until the reign of Charles I, there was a
steady supply of local martyrs to provide
spiritual inspiration.
Hence, after two centuries of repression,
there were still nearly 600 Roman Catholics in
Berkshire. The Catholic Relief Act of 1778 put a
formal end to the prosecution of priests by
informers and allowed Roman Catholics legally to
purchase and inherit land. Thirteen years later,
a second act re-opened the professions to Roman
Catholics and permitted the legalisation of
Catholic chapels.
During the recusancy period, Roman Catholics
could not officially be buried in Anglican
churchyards. In practice, recusant gentry were
still interred in family vaults and commemorated
by memorials in parish churches. Lesser mortals
would be buried in the churchyard at night, with
a blind eye turned by the authorities. In the
absence of civil registration, Roman Catholics
often had their children baptised by the vicar as
well as by the Catholic priest. Similarly, even
when the law did not require an Anglican wedding,
Roman Catholics might undergo one to guarantee
legitimacy.
Let us now look more closely at some of
Berkshire's recusant enclaves:
Englefield & Sonning
Englefield
House
Sir Francis Englefield, one of Mary Tudor's
strongest supporters, went into exile on the
accession of Elizabeth I. His refusal to return
led to forfeiture of the family seat, Englefield
House. His nephew, another Francis Engiefield,
became a baronet and bought the Whiteknights
estate in Sonning parish. This became a recusant
centre for the Reading area, served by
Franciscans until the seventh baronet sold up in
1783. There were 21 Roman Catholics in and around
Whiteknights when, in 1767, the Anglican
authorities attempted a national census of
'papists'.
After the Civil War, the recusant arch-royalist
John Paulet, formerly of Basing House, retired to
Englefield House, which he inherited through
marriage. Paulet died in 1675, first marquis of
England, and lies in Englefield parish church.
Ufton Nervet, Padworth & Beenham
Adjoining Englefield parish is Ufton Nervet.
The recusant Perkins family had their main seat
at Ufton Court. Francis Perkins was the, son of
Cardinal Pole's usher and a nephew of the
martyred Swithun Wells. Ufton was served by
Franciscans and has priest-holes where the
recusant Thomas Vachell of Ipsden, Oxon. (formerly
of Coley Park) hid his treasure. Arabella Fermor,
the subject of Alexander Pope's poem The Rape of
the Lock married a Perkins and became mistress of
Ufton. In 1767 there were 43 Roman Catholics in
Ufton parish and a further 32 in the adjoining
parishes of Padworth and Beenham. In 1741 George
Brownlow Doughty had his own chapel in Beenham.
Woolhampton, Bucklebury & Thatcham
Abutting Padworth and Beenham is Woolhampton
parish. William Wollascott was half-brother of
Edmund Plowden, Sir Francis Englefield's lawyer.
Plowden's eventual main seat was Shiplake Court,
Oxon. Wollascott held the Shalford estate,
centred on Woolhampton. He was a 'church papist'
- a secret Roman Catholic who outwardly conformed
to Anglicanism - and founded an enduring recusant
dynasty. In 1757, the Woolhampton estate passed
by marriage to Arthur James Plunkett, Earl of
Fingall, who was related to the martyred
archbishop of Armagh. In 1767 there were 84 Roman
Catholics in Woolhampton parish and another 30 in
adjoining Bucklebury. In Elizabethan times, there
was recusancy in the Winchcombe families of
Bucklebury and Henwick (Thatcham). In the
seventeenth century, several Winchcombe daughters
married into local recusant families.
Hampstead Norreys, Shaw, Binfield
& Warfield
Adjoining Bucklebury is Hampstead Norreys. In
the seventeenth century, the Dancastles held
property at various places including Hampstead
Norreys and nearby Shaw. The Dancastles also held
property in east Berkshire at Binfield in Windsor
Forest until they died out in the mid-eighteenth
century. Their recusant neighbours included the
parents of the poet Alexander Pope.
There were 25 Roman Catholics in Binfield
parish in 1767 and another 12 in the adjoining
parish of Warfield where another recusant family
(possibly Coxe or Milton) had a private chapel.
The recusant John Vachell died at Warfield in
1641.
Buckland & Lyford
Recusant branches of the Yate family lived in
the Vale of White Horse at Buckiand Manor and
Lyford Grange. It was at Lyford that Edmund
Campion, the first Jesuit to be executed in
England, was arrested in 1581. There was a secret
convent there, more than 40 years after the
suppression of the monasteries. Buckiand remained
a recusant base and passed through marriage to
the Throckmorton family. In 1767 there were 42
Roman Catholics in Buckland parish.
Denchworth, Purley & Brimpton
Hyde
Hall, Purley
Close to Lyford is Denchworth, which at the
time of Campion's arrest was the main seat of the
Hyde family. There were recusant Hydes at Hyde
Hall, Purley in the seventeenth and early
eighteenth century and subsequently at Hyde End,
Brimpton. In 1767 there were 29 Roman Catholics
in Brimpton.
Milton, Drayton, Sutton Courtenay
& Marcham
Milton
Manor
In 1764, Bryant Barrett, lacemaker to George
III, bought Milton Manor near Abingdon. Barrett
was a convert to Catholicism and a secret
Jacobite. The house was attacked by a mob during
the Gordon Riots. Barrett's friend Richard
Challoner, a clandestine Roman Catholic bishop,
died following the riots and Barrett had him
buried in the parish church at Milton. In 1767
there were 23 Roman Catholics in Milton and the
nearby parishes of Drayton, Sutton Courtenay and
Marcham.
East Hendred
Adjoining Milton is East Hendred, where the
Eystons quietly but steadfastly maintained the
Old Faith. In 1688, their newly restored chapel,
then served by a Franciscan chaplain, was
desecrated by William of Orange's invading army
but subsequently restored. Through marriage the
Eystons added the bloodline of the martyr Sir
Thomas More to their pedigree. In 1767 there were
32 Roman Catholics in the parish of East Hendred.
Fawley
Sir Francis Moore was a highly successful
Elizabethan lawyer who gave no hint of recusancy.
Yet at Fawley he established a Catholic mission
that lasted until the family sold up in 1765. It
was the only Berkshire mission served for any
length of time by Benedictines. It transferred to
nearby Whatcombe where the Franciscans took over.
Whatcombe was at various times home to the
recusant Young, Hyde and Deariove families. In
1767, despite the Moores' departure, there were
19 Roman Catholics in Fawley and nearby
Brightwalton.
West Shefford, East Garston &
Lambourn
Abutting Fawley are West Shefford and East
Garston. In Elizabethan times, George Browne, son
of the staunchly Catholic first Lord Montague,
acquired property here. The neighbourhood
retalned a recusant population well into the
eighteenth century. Between them, the adjoining
parishes of West Shefford, East Garston and
Lambourn had 41 Roman Catholics in 1767.
East Illsley & Littlestoke
The recusant Hildesley/Hilsley/Ilsley family
had its roots in East Ilsley. Throughout most of
the recusancy period, their main seat was at
Littlestoke, Oxon., across the Thames from Papist
Way, Cholsey. The main male line died out by the
eariy eighteenth century but one of the junior
lines apparently remained Catholic. Joseph Ilsley
of Mapledurham, born in 1805, became a priest and
president of the English College, Lisbon. The
second Roman Catholic bishop of Birmingham was
also an Ilsley.
Although we know most about the gentry
families on whom recusancy depended, there is
increasing interest in recusants of lower rank
whose names are harder to trace. Apart from
servants and estate workers, these included the
relatively independent self-employed, such as
innkeepers, shoemakers, paper makers, wig makers,
tailors and blacksmiths.
Principal sources:
Hadland, T. Thames Valley Papists (revised
online edition at www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~hadland/
Hadland Books, 2001
Gandy, M. Catholic Missions and Registers,
Volume 1, Gandy, 1993
Worrall, E.S. (ed.) , Catholic Record Society,
1989
