Ann Fenwick of Hornby: British Catholicism and the State in Hanoverian England

Abstract

In eighteenth-century Britain, Roman Catholics were formally disabled by the restrictions imposed upon them by the penal laws. Under these laws, Catholics could not inherit land, dispense with their property as they wished, or obtain justice in the courts. However, the penal laws were not as rigid as they appeared in formal legislation. Ann Fenwick, a woman from Hornby, Lancashire, inherited her father’s estate at a young age and lived her life openly as a Catholic without facing any legal repercussions for her violations of these laws. However, when her husband died intestate, her brother-in-law, Thomas Fenwick, a lawyer and Member of Parliament for Westmorland from 1768-1774, took advantage of the disabilities imposed by the penal laws to deprive Ann of money she was owed. Despite this, Ann continued to live unabashedly as a Catholic, using what little money she had to finance the Catholic mission she began in her home. After her brother-in-law failed for years to pay her according to the annuity agreement the two had struck, Ann sued Thomas and received relief through a private Act of Parliament passed in the House of Lords. By investigating the life experiences of Ann Fenwick through previously underutilized archival material, including correspondence, financial ledgers, written prayers, legal petitions, and a private Act of Parliament, this thesis reveals a thriving Catholic community in Hanoverian England, a community that drew upon connections made in economic, religious, and familial spheres to live fruitful and faithful lives with limited fear of state persecution. The growing toleration from the landed Protestant elite towards Catholicism was born out of discussions of liberty and property. This interpretation challenges the traditional view of the English Catholic community in Hanoverian Britain as a group which was forced to act clandestinely to eke out a meagre subsistence.