No. III
A LIST OF CONVICTED RECUSANTS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. British Museum , Additional MS. 20739 THIS collection of the names of Recusants from schedules of the Pipe Rolls for specified years , a portly volume , bound in red gilt leather, needs no description , as it is not an original document , being only a copy of returns from parts of England made by the clerks of the peace in their respective administrativeareas . There are many blanks . When attention was first called to it , it was understood to cover the whole of England. This is clearly shown in the preamble not to be so . But there are other lists, which the Society will be able to print later, covering the whole of England and Wales at different periods. The returns for Lancashire are the amplest , containing more than half of the whole . No one more competent to deal with these exists than Mr Gillow, our Recorder , who has annotated a large number from the garner of his vast researches of over thirty years . Catholic Lancashire is fortunate in having such an historian amongst its natives . As regards the rest it has not been easy to know where to turn to for help , and it is better to leave blanks than do the work badly. The loss of the Lancashire notes might be irreparable . At the same time annotating is in no sense necessary, our great object being to saverecords from oblivion. The present writer has ventured to add a few notes, and is indebted to a few persons for information about their families. Yorkshire's part, although the second longest , is disappointing. The City of York and theNorth Riding are not mentioned ; but some places in the latter and the West Riding are misplaced under the East Riding. These defects are emphasized when we turn to Hist. MSS Commissioner's ninth Report, Part , and find a list of one thousand seven hundred and fifty-five North Riding Recusants presented at Thirsk on February 24, 1690. Other counties seem inadequatelydealt with. The preamble of the paper is so explicit that comment is unnecessary ; but it is interesting to see the distinction drawn between " Papists and fanaticks by men of affairs at the time. It has been necessary to curtail the work. No useful purpose could be served by repeating the convictions , names of places ( sometimes repeated to each person), amounts of fines , etc. , some of which had previously been abbreviated . The original sequence has been kept, although inconvenient when the names of places are repeated at intervals or for repeated convictions . They are here transposed above the names of the persons. Corrections are made by footnotes and in square brackets . The object is to obtain the names of the Catholics , occupation , status and residence with dates, in the simplest form for ready reference. The fine was uniformly £20 per mensem for each adult , except one half for a wife ; but in some entries , notably in the York shire part, £20 is wronglyput down as their fine . It will be seen that twelve calendar months are computed instead of thirteen lunar months . As a dry, statistical, sordid exchequer document prepared for financial purposes, it lacks much of the interest contained in local ones , such as Peacock's Yorkshire Catholics , 1604, and the Masham Recusants (Cath. Rec. Soc. , III, 82 ) . But such informationmust be important to genealogists ; and, above all, it saves from oblivion the names of those who dared all things for the one Faith and conscience. J. S. H.
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