Harlington: Roman catholicism

A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3, Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1962.

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'Harlington: Roman catholicism', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3, Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington, (London, 1962) pp. 273. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol3/p273 [accessed 24 April 2024]

ROMAN CATHOLICISM.

Julian, wife of William Byrd, the composer, was reported to be a recusant in 1577, (fn. 1) and was repeatedly indicted for recusancy at Quarter Sessions between 1581 and 1586. Byrd was himself indicted several times between 1585 and 1591 and a servant of theirs between 1581 and 1592. (fn. 2) The suggestion, (fn. 3) based upon her absence from the records after 1586, that Julian Byrd died at about that time, does not seem to be true, for she was still alive when Byrd sold his Harlington property in 1595. (fn. 4) One person was indicted in 1611 and three more in 1663, (fn. 5) but there were no recusants in Harlington in 1640 or 1706. (fn. 6) Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, who was a Roman Catholic, did not live at Harlington, and his brother, the lord of the manor, belonged to the Established Church. (fn. 7) There has been no Roman Catholic church in the parish since the repeal of the penal laws.

Footnotes

  • 1. 'Recusants, 1577', Miscellanea, xii (Cath. Rec. Soc. xxii), 48.
  • 2. Mdx. Cty. Recs. i passim (see index).
  • 3. C. H. Fellowes, William Byrd (1948 edn.), 11.
  • 4. C 142/286/176.
  • 5. Mdx. Cty. Recs. ii. 72; iii. 333.
  • 6. B.M. Add. MS. 38856, f. 29; Guildhall MS. 9580.
  • 7. See pp. 262, 271.