October 2012 – Francis Young

Catholic Family History Society Conference 2012

On Saturday 20 October I spoke to the annual conference of the Catholic Family History Society at the City of Westminster Archives Centre on the theme, ‘How did Catholic families survive and flourish under the penal laws?’ Using examples drawn from five Catholic gentry families – the Savages of Long Melford, the Rookwoods of Stanningfield, the Rookwoods of Euston, the Gages of Hengrave and the Tasburghs of Flixton – between 1605 and 1791, I argued that Catholic gentry families were remarkably inventive at finding ways around the laws against recusancy and ways to exploit the system in order to flourish and survive. The text of my paper will be printed in the next edition of Catholic Ancestor, the journal of the CFHS.

Today, on Saturday 27 October, I led a guided tour around the Old Bishop’s Palace in Ely for the Ely Society.

The History of the Bishop’s Palace at the Ely Society

Yesterday evening I spoke on the subject of ‘The History and Development of the Bishop’s Palace, Ely: 1486-1781’ to a packed gathering of the members of the Ely Society and other visitors in Ely Museum’s Vernon Cross Room. The publication of my book on the Palace was publicized last Thursday in the Ely Weekly News, and attendance was apparently higher than it has been at a meeting of the Society for some years.

My talk offered some new ideas on the possible original ground plan of Bishop Alcock’s Palace, built in 1486, together with the evidence that might support them, and described the architectural history of the Palace in four stages: Bishop Alcock’s Palace (1486-1549), Bishop Goodrich’s Palace (1549-1667), Bishop Laney’s Palace (1667-1771) and Bishop Keene’s Palace (1771 to the present day). A number of members of the audience had interesting contributions to make concerning the Palace’s more recent history.

Last week my book on the Palace topped the ‘bestseller’ list at Topping and Co.