The extraordinary growth of London's Catholic population in the first half of the nineteenth century and the effect the arrival of large numbers of Catholic migrants had on life in the capital is a topic often overlooked in local and national histories. How this largely impoverished Catholic community adapted to life in the capital during these years and how their needs were provided for, and the challenges they presented met, is the subject of this meticulously researched new study by Jean Maynard. Drawing on a wide range of disparate sources-parish, school, convent and diocesan archives, as well as those of religious orders and congregations, local newspapers, Catholic journals and almanacs, and the minute books of lay associations and fund-raising committees-Maynard tells us the stories of these Catholic communities scattered across London as they struggled to build their churches, schools and orphanages, organise parishes, and provide networks of care and support for their members. Fleshed out with a wealth of absorbing detail-providing an invaluable resource for local historians-they make for fascinating reading.
The opening of the century had found London's Catholics barely ready to emerge from the shadows. Since Tudor times the practice of their faith had been proscribed under severe Penal Laws. Only since 1778 had they been permitted legally to worship as they wished, even in the privacy of domestic chapels, or of clandestine Mass centres hidden away in back alleys. Only after 1791 could their chapels be registered and made fully public. Catholic marriages were not legally recognised, and although dying Catholics were always anxious to receive the Last Rites, their burials usually had to take place in Anglican churchyards and burial grounds where only Anglican prayers were allowed.
By 1850, however, the picture was looking markedly different. The right of Catholics to sit in Parliament was achieved in 1829, though the legalisation of Catholic marriages had to wait till 1836. The heroic efforts of many individuals-priests, religious and laity-meant that schools and parishes, had been established, convents opened, and projects for the construction of large churches, previously thought impossible to achieve, were underway.