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A Note on some Eighteenth Century Statistics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

T. G. Holt, S.J.
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British Catholic History , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , January 1969 , pp. 3 - 9
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1967

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References

1. Burton — The Life and Times of Bishop Challoner, I, 81.Google Scholar

2. Kirk — Biographies of English Catholics, ix, xii.Google Scholar

3. Mgr. Ward in The Dawn of the Catholic Revival, I, 31 Google Scholar, gives some reasons to explain why the Vicars Apostolic were not certain about the number of priests in their Districts. It may be noted here that a document, dated 1774, in ihe Westminster archives (XLI, 136, 136a) entitled 'Breve Relazione dello Stato della Religione Cattolica in Inghilterra' gives the Catholic population of England and Wales as 100,000, and the number of priests as 350 (half or a little less Seculars, ninety Jesuits, eighty Benedictines and Franciscans together, eight or ten Dominicans, a few Carmelites and a few Capuchins in London). Another estimate for the Catholic population is that to be found in the Returns to Parliament; in 1767 there were said to be 67,916, in 1780 69,376.

4. Berington does not give the numbers of the other Regulars; presumably he mentioned the ex-Jesuits in view of the consequences he expected from the Suppression of the Society in 1773, See op. cit. pp. 111, 158-61, 176-8.

5. For the figures of 1803 see Brady, Annals of the Catholic Hierarchy in England and Scotland, A.D. 1585-1876 (London, 1883), pp. 184, 225, 269, 304.Google Scholar Mgr., Ward in The Eve of Catholic Emancipation, I, 18,Google Scholar states that the Catholic population in 1805 probably “did not exceed 200,000” and on page 186 he gives his reasons for this great increase on Berington's figures of 1780.

6. Dr. Gradwell sent a report to Propaganda in 1818; he reckoned there were 404 priests in England and Wales, 256 of them being Secular priests. See Brady, Annals, pp. 191, 235, 270, 311.

7. Quoted in Havran, The Catholics in Caroline England, p. 80.

8. Panzani's report is in Bibl. Barberini, LVI, 136/An. 2450. The reference is f.19.

9. Agretti's figures are given in Brady, Annals, p. 109.

10. Alexander Holt's estimate is quoted in The English Recusants by Brian Magee, Appendix I.

11. Op. cit, ibid.

12. The reference for the document in the Giffard papers is Westminster archives xxxviii, 2; for the memorial of 1704, Westminster archives, xxxviii, 25.

13. Dr. Betham's estimate is to be found in Westminster archives, Epist. Variorum, 1701-7, 251. It may be mentioned here that Edward Dicconson, the future Vicar Apostolic of the Northern District, reported to Rome in 1737 that there were then only 156 Secular priests on the English mission, in contrast to the 300 or 400 of former times. (Quoted in Dom, Basil Hemphill's The Early Vicars Apostolic of England, p. 139.)Google Scholar

14. The English Provincial, writing to the Master General in 1698, reported that there were ten members of the Order on the English mission, seven of them members of the English province — see Catholic Record Society, vol. 25, pp. 173-5.

15. See Zimmermann, Carmel in England, pp. 364–5 (the number in 1702).Google Scholar

16. See Thaddeus, The Franciscans in England, pp. 118, 124 and chapter 15.Google Scholar I owe the more modern estimate to the kindness of Fr. Justin McLoughlin, O.F.M.

17. See The Downside Review, vol. 79, p. 135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18. Fr. Thomas Glover, in a MS. account of the re-establishment of the English province of the Society of Jesus (the materials for which he collected in Rome between 1825 and 1849), considered that the average number of Jesuit priests in England during the century before 1773 was 150, but this appears to be too high.

19. There is a list in a volume entitled “Letters of non-Jesuits” in the archives of the English province S.J., f.154.

20. In The English Catholic Refugees on the Continent, 1558-1795, p. 253n.