Odd Title - to me anyway!

[clematised]

Sue

Protestants are so-called because they protested against the Catholic religion which was of course the national religion for many centuries in England.

Wesley's Methodism was originally considered a branch of the C of E and indeed still today there is a branch called the Church of England Methodists.

My research experience is that there was quite a lot of tolerance, official or otherwise, to all religions EXCEPT Catholicism! Even that was a matter of how strong the catholic influence was in the area and my ancestors from Stoneyhurst in Lancashire were prtty much protected under the umbrella of the great Catholic centre there.

Freedom to xpress your religion depended a lot on how much you had to rely on society's approval. If you didn't, you could worship as you wished.

OC

OC interestingly I visited Stoneyhurst College with my group a couple of years back and had a guided tour and learned a lot about the era and there was so much interest there names carved into the school desks of so many famous people from the history books I think I have photos on SD cards from the trip.

[clematised]

Sylvia C

I am researching for a friend her Fathers line and the name Hayhurst in Lancashire comes up pre 1900 in her ancestors

Edna

[Sylvia C]

Edna

That is interesting!

My Hayhursts were all in and around Whittington ........... let me know if you think there might be a connection

[Sue1]

You mentioned tolerance ................I went, years ago, on a school trip as an accompanying "parent/helper" to Hampton Court Palace. Beautiful chapel there. This visit was a school history trip and the children were learning about the Reformation in this country. Whilst there with "my group" this chaplain-type (he was wearing his collar back to front which gave me the clue) came over and chatted to the children and because of what they were learning at school I asked about the time when HCP had been RC - he said it had never been RC always C of E - I explained that the children had been learning about the times of Henry VIII etc and that they had learned about the religious changes and surely, because it was so old, it must have been RC once ...............not a happy bunny - "That was all a long time ago" was the dismissive answer and he walked away. I am not sure what the children learned on that day!

Sue

[Olde Crone Holden]

It is also very obvious, certainly in Lancashire, that many of the gentry spoke with forked tongues, lol - outwardly C of E, but had private chapels and kept a priest to celebrate RC mass. This was tolerated simply because these families were too wealthy/influential to bring down AND they contributed greatly to the C of E coffers!

Some of the land at Stoneyhurst was originally owned by the Holdens and the Holdens "gave" many of their sons to the RC priesthood. This ensured the umbrella protection of Stoneyhurst (and the Pope, of course) but gradually over the centuries the Holden lands were sequestered by the Crown and by the late 1800s, the openly RC Holdens around Stoneyhurst were living in dire poverty. It's a good clue that your ancestors were RC if they turn up around Stoneyhurst.

If you were a landless ag lab, you worshipped how your employer worshipped. Outwardly, of course.

As for INTOLERANCE - I have one branch of my family who were nonconformist and a more intolerant lot you couldn't have met! Their own groups sundivided and subdivided over and over again, all on fine points of dogma which pass right over my head, I'm afraid.And one local historian who was a mine of information otherwise, said "I shall not speak of papists and the like". He did mention one local toff who "married a papist and was therefore lost to us for ever".

I remember a Sunday School teacher, a methodist, who told us she had never married because she had once been engaged to a man who was C of E and as they could not reconcile their religious differences, they parted. So sad.

OC

[Sue1]

OC - you have just reminded me of a paternal relative I found during my family history researches who started up a "new" religion in Lancashire. I think it probably came from overseas originally but have never looked into it - it was the "New Jerusalemites" or "Swedenborgian" church. My paternal grandmother, when interviewed by a local newspaper, felt able to boast (in her late 90s) that she was the oldest member of that church .................her husband, however, married her in the C of E and all the children were baptised C of E.
I believe there is still a church in Accrington - they are a nightmare for family history researchers of older deaths because they don't believe in death - then, presumably in 1837 they had by law to register deaths!

Somebody once told me that if you worked in the Lancashire Mills you worked for a Master - it didn't stop there ...............you voted with the Master and you worshipped with the Master. You presumably had to do whatever you really wanted to do quietly.

Sue

[Janet in Yorkshire]

You mentioned tolerance ................I went, years ago, on a school trip as an accompanying "parent/helper" to Hampton Court Palace. Beautiful chapel there. This visit was a school history trip and the children were learning about the Reformation in this country. Whilst there with "my group" this chaplain-type (he was wearing his collar back to front which gave me the clue) came over and chatted to the children and because of what they were learning at school I asked about the time when HCP had been RC - he said it had never been RC always C of E - I explained that the children had been learning about the times of Henry VIII etc and that they had learned about the religious changes and surely, because it was so old, it must have been RC once ...............not a happy bunny - "That was all a long time ago" was the dismissive answer and he walked away. I am not sure what the children learned on that day!

Sue

I don't think HCP can have served the RC church for very long. if at all.

http://www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace/sightsandstories/timelineofHamptonCourtPalace

What always comes to my mind is the song "The Vicar of Bray"

http://www.britainexpress.com/attraction-articles.htm?article=29

Jay

[Sue1]

I should have taught them the Vicar of Bray obviously except, although I have heard of him and maybe heard the song, I always thought it referred to Bray in Ireland!
I notice on one of the links you give, there is a history quiz .......................grandchildren beware on your next visit!

Sue