On this day … 22 November 1716

November 22, 2023November 22, 2023 ~ Peter Smith

Christopher Tootell, the priest at Fernyhalgh Chapel, and other local Catholics were ordered to present themselves at Preston to swear an oath of loyalty that would have included a disavowal of their faith.

Such oaths were regularly used to bar Catholics and dissenters from public office. This meant, for example and as yesterday’s post noted, they were unable to serve in the militia. The oaths were most strictly enforced at times of national crisis. Thus, shortly after the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, James I introduced an oath that the pope ordered English Catholics to refuse. But in this case, on the instruction of the leader of England’s recusant community, Catholics ignored the pope’s order; such was their urgent desire to distance themselves from Guy Fawkes and his fellow plotters.

What such oaths meant for Catholics in the parish of Preston is recounted in great detail by Peter Whittle in his History of Preston, in which he includes Christopher Tootell’s account of the difficulties that local Catholics faced around the time of the first Jacobite Rebellion in 1715. As he writes:

‘Mr. Tootel, with an amiable spirit of piety, moderation, good humour, and perspicuity, draws an affecting picture of his own immediate sufferings and persecutions, at a period of civil discord and religious animosity. Authentic documents of this description, are worthy the notice of every antiquarian, and are deserving of publication.’

The following is taken from that account, in which Tootell writes of himself in the third person:

‘A certain faction prevailed much in the latter days of the late gentle governess of these realms, (Queen Anne) and a proclamation was made at the town of Preston, on Whitsun-eve, in the year 1714, for putting into execution the penal laws against Catholics; which gave some disturbance to the Catholics of Fernyhalgh. But more ensued after the government fell into the hands of Queen Anne’s successor; for at the Quarter Sessions, holden at Preston, in January following, the vicar of Preston (who in the year 1700, molested Christopher Tootel, and a neighbour of his with a warrant for apprehending them as seducers,) procured them an indictment, and an order of the court, for apprehending Christoper Tootel, and Edward Melling [another priest], with seven of their neighbours, as seducers and popish recusants.’

Respite came from the Tory magistrates who were more sympathetic and lenient in their dealings with Catholics than the Whigs, who included among their number the vicar of Preston, Samuel Peploe. That respite did not survive the aftermath of the Jacobite Rebellion, as Tootell writes:

‘These truly civil and good magistrates, were displaced soon afterwards; their successors were active and severe in their office, symptoms looked violent in this case, which at last broke out into an horrific storm, the discharge of which came with redoubled fury on our neighbourhood, and gave us such a shock as will not be recovered in many years, if ever.

‘For after the brisk defence, fatal surrender, and eager plundering of the inhabitants of Preston, on the 12th, 18th, and 14th of November, 1715, our secret enemies, who were our neighbours, envying the quiet we had enjoyed under the late magistracy, directed and conducted the enraged and greedy soldiers to plunder, strip, and disfurnish the houses of all Catholics round about, and more especially our habitation, their greatest eye-sore in these parts.

‘And indeed they came upon us with fury, in which they marched hitherward, time after time, threatening no less than the destruction of our dwelling place, so that as often as any considerable body of soldiers sallied this way, the observers of their motions stood watching to see our house all in flames before they left it. But providence had otherwise ordained, and suffered their malice to proceed no further, even against our oratory, than to the destroying of some ornaments, as pictures, &c. and carrying away with them some utensils belonging to it, as one thurible, six large candlesticks of brass, &c. Whereas they made stables of the under-rooms, whilst they laboriously searched and plundered severely the rest of the house, and the barn, day after day, for a fortnight together.

‘And when one company of soldiers had carried away, what another had left, till nothing easily removeable remained upon the premises, those that came afterwards were so severely disappointed, that they fiercely demanded money of the house-keeper, and her assistant, that they were forced to quit their post, and make shift for their own safety elsewhere; leaving the doors unlocked, lest they should be entirely demolished in their absence. But no other harm was done to the house after they left it, although it remained five months without any person inhabiting the same.’