British Persecution of Catholics Leads to Searchable Ancestry Archive

Church Militant ^ | 10/10/17 | Anita Carey

[marshmallow]

Officials attempted to stop the spread of Catholicism

DETROIT (ChurchMilitant.com) - British anti-Catholic laws have resulted in the compilation of a searchable ancestry database of hundreds of thousands of Catholics.

Launched on October 7, the Catholic Family History Society provides resources and help for Roman Catholics to trace their ancestry. So far, the records of about 275,000 English, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Catholics living in England from 1607–1840 have been transcribed into a searchable database.

Brother Rory Higgins, an Australian monk, compiled the records and named the database after his mother. The Margaret Higgins Database is the online searchable record of over 200 years of British laws requiring the personal information of Roman Catholics submitted to the government to keep tabs on them.

In an effort to stop the spread of Catholicism, the House of Lords voted a number of times to demand that the bishops of England and Wales require parish clergy to list "papists or reputed papists." Parish priests had to submit to Parliament the age and gender, occupation and how long they have been in residence of all Roman Catholics. Some of the clergy understood that they were also required to include the names of Catholics and suspected Catholics in the submissions.

[kaehurowing]

Rule Britannia

[vladimir998]

Early Protestant England in some ways was very totalitarian. That’s to be expected.

[STJPII]

Thanks for posting. This is right up my alley. Burn everything English but their coal

[bgill]

None of the links in related articles work.

This one does - https://www.findmypast.co.uk/catholicrecords

[Jacquerie]

Seventeenth Century England was indeed a mess. Civil Wars, deposed and beheaded kings and religious persecution not just of Catholics, but also Presbyterians, Quakers, Puritans . . . any non-Church of England sect.

OTOH, the side benefit was the Christian foundation of a few of our earliest colonies.

[ABN 505]

I remember reading of secret hiding places in castles called Priest holes where noble families who were Catholic but pretended not to be would hide the clergy when they came to say mass. Also I believe Guy Fawkes was a secret Catholic who was accused of trying to blow up Parliament.