FIRST CATHOLIC RELIEF ACT

The First Catholic Relief Act 1778

The Laws passed by the Government against Catholic recusants continued to be in force during the 18th Century. In fact they had been emphasized by Act of Parliament in 1699. Catholics of N. Lincs managed to live with these restrictive laws. It was still forbidden to send students abroad to be educated, but young men from N. Lincs. continued to go overseas for educational purposes. The Catholic Bishop , James Talbot was twice brought to trial at the Old Bailey in 1769 and 1771 for exercising episcopal functions. He was acquitted for want of evidence. Evidence would have been available in 1771 at Kingerby Hall where the bishop confirmed 29 Catholics on May 16!

Records of the 18th Century show the penal code against Catholic recusants was gradually, though unsystematically relaxed. Catholics felt they were being less persecuted; they felt more secure as a result. There exists a personal register, made by Fr. Thomas Wright, priest in Hainton. This records the names of the people under his care. In former times it would have been a great danger for such a record to exist. The record begins by naming Fr. Wright’s predecessor, Fr Huddlestone, in 1773.

This gradual relaxation of the anti-Catholic penal code culminated in 1778 by Parliament passing the Roman Catholic Relief Act. The Act enabled English Catholics to acquire property and priests were allowed to reside in England and could no longer be prosecuted on evidence of an informer. Life imprisonment for keeping a Catholic school was abolished. This relief however was not popular with many Protestants. John Wesley, in a pamphlet published 1780, spoke of “the purple power of Rome advancing by hasty strides to overspread this more happy nation”.

Before Wesley’s words appeared, trouble had broken out in Scotland; chapels were burned and plundered. Opposition to the Relief Act was so vehement that the Government was forced to allow the Act to be withdrawn from Scotland. In London, opposition to the Act was organized by the Scottish laird, Lord George Gordon, which resulted in five days of fierce rioting and destruction of Catholic property. Two hundred and eighty-five people died during the riots and 21 were executed in their aftermath. The cities of Bath and Hull suffered a similar fate. In spite of all this mayhem Parliament maintained its decision to grant relief to English Catholics. North Lincs. escaped rioting on this occasion. It was said of the Catholics of Lincoln that “their worship had to be carried out with great care because of local bigotry”

Catholics in N. Lincs. reacted to the 1778 Relief Act by adapting or constructing buildings where Mass could be celebrated and premises to be used for education. A school was set up by a Doctor Shuttleworth in Market Rasen for educating local Catholic children. Francis Brewster was one of the first pupils to attend this school; he later went abroad to become a priest of the Carmelite Order.

A priest in Lincoln, Fr Richard Knight S.J., decided to build a house chapel in Market Rasen. He came from Kingerby Hall, where he had been born in 1720. The establishment of this chapel house is described in detail by Mary Finch in her booklet: Market Rasen Chapel 1782. Her narrative begins with a description of Fr Knight. “Mr Knight was dressed in a grave suit of snuff colour, with a close neat wig of dark brown hair, a cocked hat almost an equilateral triangle, worsted stockings and little silver buckles. The architect E.J. Willson, who lived at the time, describes the building. “The Catholic chapel was, as usual, above stairs, very small indeed and approachable by two staircases. The altar turned towards the north and close by it in the west wall was a secret door by which the priest may escape from the chapel into concealment if there was any search made by pursuivants in persecuting times. There were a good many books here.”

Fr Knight took the oath of allegiance, necessary to qualify for the benefits of the Act at Louth Quarter Sessions on October 9th 1778. He could now use the chapel for private devotions. No doubt he invited and encouraged the Catholic Mr. Wildbore, who kept a shop in Rasen, to attend whenever he celebrated mass. Others too like Dr. Shuttleworth and the Brewster family may also have attended.

Similar buildings would have appeared in Brigg, Gainsborough and Louth after the Act which became Law in 1778. It is clear, however, that Catholics were severely restricted in their religious duties. It was, also, still an offence to fail to attend the services of the Established Church. Schools in Claxby, Hainton and Lincoln became legitimate by the 1778 Act, which meant that the children of Catholic Recusants could be educated in England for the first time in a Catholic environment. Further relief for Catholics would come 13 years later when a second Relief Act was passed by Parliament in 1791.