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.
Francis Young 