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The Penal Laws: Origins, Purpose, Enforcement and Impact

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Law and Religion in Ireland, 1700-1970

Part of the book series: Palgrave Modern Legal History ((PMLH))

Abstract

Public perception of the eighteenth-century Irish penal laws, and the people who enacted them, remains problematic even in the twenty-first century. Enacted between 1695 and 1750, these laws continue to resonate in popular memory, which feeds off two centuries of myth-making and political polemic. With a view to trying to address the many misconceptions and misconstructions on the subject that abound in wider society, this chapter provides an overview of existing academic knowledge on the key areas of the origins, purpose, enforcement and impact of the penal laws, while also assessing what gaps remain in our knowledge and what research still needs to be carried out.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A Letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, MP, … to Sir Hercules Langrishe, … on the subject of Roman Catholics of Ireland (London, 1792), in The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke, ed. R. B. McDowell (9 vols, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981–2000), 9: 637.

  2. 2.

    See for example R. Dudley Edwards, Church and State in Tudor Ireland: A History of Penal Laws against Irish Catholics 1534–1603 (London: Longman, 1935), 192–303; S. A. Meigs, The Reformations in Ireland: Tradition and Confessionalism, 1400–1690 (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1997), 69–70, 90–1, 144.

  3. 3.

    See James Kelly and Mary Ann Lyons, eds., The Proclamations of Ireland: 1660–1820 5 vols (Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, 2014), 1: xxxiii–xxxviii.

  4. 4.

    Act of Supremacy (Ireland), 1537, 28 Hen. 8, c. 5.

  5. 5.

    Act of Supremacy (Ireland), 1560, 2 Eliz. 1, c. 1.

  6. 6.

    Act of Uniformity (Ireland), 1560, 2 Eliz. 1, c. 2.

  7. 7.

    For these Acts being interpreted as penal laws, see, for example, Dudley Edwards, Church and State in Tudor Ireland, 14, 181–3; Meigs, Reformations in Ireland, 69–70, 90–1.

  8. 8.

    Act of Supremacy, 1534, 26 Hen. 8, c. 1.

  9. 9.

    Act of Supremacy, 1559, 1 Eliz. 1, c. 1.

  10. 10.

    Act of Uniformity, 1552, 5 & 6 Edw. 6, c. 1.

  11. 11.

    Act of Uniformity, 1559, 1 Eliz. 1, c. 2.

  12. 12.

    For a more detailed consideration see C. I. McGrath, Ireland and Empire, 1692–1770 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2012), 15–23.

  13. 13.

    Act of Supremacy, 1534, 26 Hen. 8, c. 1.

  14. 14.

    Act of Uniformity, 1552, 5 & 6 Edw. 6, c. 1.

  15. 15.

    Act of Supremacy, 1559, 1 Eliz. 1, c. 1.

  16. 16.

    See, for example, An Act against the bringing in and putting in Execution of Bulls and other Instruments from the See of Rome, 1571, 13 Eliz. 1, c. 2; An Act to retain the Queen’s Majesty’s subjects in their due Obedience, 1581, 23 Eliz. 1, c. 1; An Act against Jesuits, Seminary Priests and such other like disobedient Persons, 1585, 27 Eliz. 1, c. 2; An Act against Popish Recusants, 1593, 35 Eliz. 1, c. 2. For extracts from and discussion of these Acts, see G. R. Elton, The Tudor Constitution: Documents and Commentary (2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 419–42.

  17. 17.

    M. A. Mullett, Catholics in Britain and Ireland, 1558–1829 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998), 1–2, 10, 13–14; John Morrill, “The Causes of the Penal Laws: Paradoxes and Inevitabilities” in New Perspectives on the Penal Laws, ed. John Bergin, Eoin Magennis, Lesa Ní Mhunghaile and Patrick Walsh (Dublin: Eighteenth-Century Ireland Society, 2011), 55–60, 64; John Miller, Popery and Politics in England, 1660–1688 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973), 52–6, 67–93, 100; Edward Norman, Roman Catholicism in England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), 12–15, 33–4.

  18. 18.

    An Act for preventing Dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants, 1673, 25 Car. 2, c. 2 [First Test Act].

  19. 19.

    An Act for the More Effectual Preserving the King’s Person and the Government by Disabling Papists from sitting in Either House of Parliament, 1678, 30 Car. 2, st. 2, c. 1 [Second Test Act].

  20. 20.

    An Act for removing Papists and reputed Papists from the Cities of London and Westminster and Ten Miles distance from the same, 1698, 1 Will. & Mar., c. 9; An Act for better securing the Government by disarming Papists and reputed Papists, 1689, 1 Will. & Mar., c. 15.

  21. 21.

    An Act for the Further Preventing the Growth of Popery, 1698–9 [1700], 11 Will. 3, c. 4. Although a newly-elected Westminster parliament had commenced sitting in December 1698, sixty of the sixty-two Acts drafted during this parliament’s short life-time only received the Royal Assent in April 1700, including this latter penal law. See Henry Horwitz, Parliament, Policy and Politics in the reign of William III (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1977), 268.

  22. 22.

    Miller, Popery, 90, 93, 121, 125, 163; Norman, Catholicism, 38–41; Mullett, Catholics, 145.

  23. 23.

    Proclamation. By the King, James Rex, Dublin, 1605, SP 63/217/127–8, the National Archives, London (TNA); Kelly and Lyons, Proclamations, 1: 306–10, 393–9, 403–4, 406–8, 418–19; C. I. McGrath, “Securing the Protestant Interest: The Origins and Purpose of the Penal Laws of 1695”, Irish Historical Studies 30, no. 117 (1996): 27–8.

  24. 24.

    Sean Connolly, Religion, Law and Power: The Making of Protestant Ireland, 1660–1760 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), 17–24; Miller, Popery, 56, 67–93, 106, 121, 125, 163.

  25. 25.

    Extract of letters, orders and proclamations, 1678, Add. MS 27382, ff 20–1, British Library, London (BL).

  26. 26.

    John McCavitt, Sir Arthur Chichester: Lord Deputy of Ireland 1605–16 (Institute of Irish Studies: Belfast, 1998), 178.

  27. 27.

    J. E. Aydelotte, “The Duke of Ormond and the English Government of Ireland, 1677–85” (PhD thesis, Iowa University, 1975), 78.

  28. 28.

    An Act for Abrogating the Oath of Supremacy in Ireland and Appointing Other Oaths, 1691, 3 & 4 Will. & Mar., c. 2.

  29. 29.

    Patrick Fagan, Divided Loyalties: The Question of an Oath for Irish Catholics in the Eighteenth Century (Four Courts Press: Dublin, 1997), 9; Eoin Kinsella, “In Pursuit of a Positive Construction: Irish Catholics and the Williamite Articles of Surrender, 1690–1701”, Eighteenth Century Ireland 24 (2009): 20–1.

  30. 30.

    The following penal laws were enacted between 1695 and 1709: An Act to Restrain Foreign Education, 1695, 7 Will. 3, c. 4; An Act for the Better Securing the Government, by Disarming Papists, 1695, 7 Will. 3, c. 5; An Act for Banishing all Papists exercising any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, and all Regulars of the Popish Clergy out of this Kingdom, 1697, 9 Will. 3, c. 1; An Act to Prevent Protestants inter-marrying with Papists, 1697, 9 Will. 3, c. 3; An Act to Prevent Papists Being Solicitors, 1699, 10 Will. 3, c. 13; An Act to Prevent Popish Priests from Coming into this Kingdom, 1703, 2 Ann., c. 3; An Act to Prevent the Further Growth of Popery, 1704, 2 Ann., c. 6; An Act for Registering the Popish Clergy, 1704, 2 Ann., c. 7; An Act to Explain and Amend an Act, entitled, an Act for Registering the Popish Clergy, 1705, 4 Ann., c. 2; An Act to Explain and Amend an Act, entitled, an Act to Prevent Papists Being Solicitors, 1707, 6 Ann., c. 6; An Act for Explaining and Amending an Act, entitled, an Act to Prevent the Further Growth of Popery, 1709, 8 Ann., c. 3.

  31. 31.

    The main penal laws enacted between 1716 and 1750 were as follows: An Act to restrain Papists from being High or Petty Constables, and for the better regulating the Parish Watches, 1716, 2 Geo. 1, c. 10; An Act for exempting the Protestant Dissenters of this Kingdom from certain penalties, to which they are now subject, 1719, 6 Geo. 1, c. 5; An Act to prevent delays in Writs of Error, and for the further Amendment of the Laws, 1719, 6 Geo. 1, c. 6, ss. 16–17; An Act to prevent marriages by degraded clergymen and Popish priests, and for preventing marriages consummated from being avoided by pre-contracts, and for the more effectual punishing of bigamy, 1726, 12 Geo. 1, c. 3; An Act for the further regulating the election of Members of Parliament, and preventing the irregular proceedings of Sheriffs and other officers in electing and returning such Members, 1728, 1 Geo. 2, c. 9, s. 7; An Act for regulating the admissions of Barristers at Law, Six-Clerks, and Attornies, and of other persons, into offices and employments; and for preventing Papists practising as Solicitors; and for further strengthening the Protestant interest in this Kingdom, 1728, 1 Geo. 2, c. 20; An Act for the amendment of the Law in relation to Popish Solicitors; and for remedying other mischiefs in relation to the practitioners in the several Courts of Law and Equity, 1734, 7 Geo. 2, c. 5; An Act to prevent persons converted from the Popish to the Protestant religion, and married to Popish wives, or educating their children in the Popish religion, from acting as Justices of the Peace, 1734, 7 Geo. 2, c. 6; An Act to explain, amend and make more effectual an Act, passed in the seventh Year of the Reign of his late Majesty King William the Third of Glorious Memory, entitled, an Act for the better Securing the Government by Disarming Papists, 1740, 13 Geo. 2, c. 6; An Act for the More Effectual Preventing His Majesty’s Subjects from Entering into Foreign Service and for publishing an Act of the seventh Year of King William the Third, entitled, An Act to prevent foreign Education, 1745, 19 Geo. 2, c. 7; An Act for annulling all Marriages to be celebrated by any Popish Priest between Protestant and Protestant, or between Protestant and Papist … 1746, 19 Geo. 2, c. 13; An Act for explaining and making more effectual an Act, entitled, An Act for the more effectual preventing of clandestine Marriages; and another Act passed in the twelfth Year of his late Majesty’s Reign, entitled, an Act to prevent Marriages by degraded Clergymen and Popish Priests, and for preventing Marriages consummated from being avoided by Pre-Contracts, and for the more effectual punishing of Bigamy, 1750, 23 Geo. 2, c. 10.

  32. 32.

    Connolly, Religion, 263.

  33. 33.

    Connolly, Religion, 263–4; James Kelly, “The Historiography of the Penal Laws” in New Perspectives, 29–35.

  34. 34.

    McGrath, “Penal Laws”, 25–6, 28–42; Morrill, “Paradoxes and Inevitabilities”, 2–3; Mullett, Catholics, 86; Norman, Catholicism, 40–1.

  35. 35.

    C. I. McGrath, The Making of the Eighteenth-Century Irish Constitution: Government, Parliament and the Revenue 1692–1714 (Four Courts Press: Dublin, 2000), 95–103.

  36. 36.

    An Act to Restrain Foreign Education, 1695, 7 Will. 3, c. 4 [Foreign Education Act].

  37. 37.

    Irish Privy Council to English Lords Justices, June 17, 1695, Add. MS 40771, f. 33, BL.

  38. 38.

    An Act for abrogating the Oath of Supremacy in Ireland and Appointing Other Oaths, 1691, 3 & 4 Will. & Mar., c. 2.

  39. 39.

    An Act for the Better Securing the Government, by Disarming Papists, 1695, 7 Will. 3, c. 5 [Disarming Act].

  40. 40.

    Ibid.; McGrath, “Penal Laws”, 39–41.

  41. 41.

    An Act for abrogating the Oath of Supremacy in Ireland and Appointing Other Oaths, 1691, 3 & 4 Will. & Mar., c. 2.

  42. 42.

    An Act for the Better Securing the Government, by Disarming Papists, 1695, 7 Will. 3, c. 5; C. I. McGrath, “The Provisions for Conversion in the penal laws, 1695–1750” in Converts and Conversion in Ireland, 1650–1850, ed. Michael Brown, C. I. McGrath and T. P. Power (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2005), 36–8.

  43. 43.

    An Act for Banishing all Papists exercising any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, and all Regulars of the Popish clergy out of this Kingdom, 1697, 9 Will. 3, c. 1 [Banishment Act].

  44. 44.

    J. G. Simms, “The Bishops’ Banishment Act of 1697 (9 Will. III, c. I)”, Irish Historical Studies 17, no. 66 (1970): 187–92.

  45. 45.

    An Act to Prevent Protestants inter-marrying with Papists, 1697, 9 Will. 3, c. 3.

  46. 46.

    See An Act to prevent marriages by degraded clergymen and Popish priests, and for preventing marriages consummated from being avoided by pre-contracts, and for the more effectual punishing of bigamy, 1726, 12 Geo. 1, c. 3; An Act for annulling all Marriages to be celebrate by any Popish Priest between Protestant and Protestant, or between Protestant and Papist … 1746, 19 Geo. 2, c. 13; An Act for explaining and making more effectual an Act, entitled, An Act for the more effectual preventing clandestine Marriages; and another Act passed in the twelfth Year of his late Majesty’s Reign, entitled, an Act to prevent Marriages by degraded Clergymen and Popish Priests, and for preventing Marriages consummated from being avoided by Pre-Contracts, and for the more effectual punishing of Bigamy, 1750, 23 Geo. 2, c. 10.

  47. 47.

    W. P. Burke, The Irish Priests in the Penal Times (1660–1760) (Shannon: Irish University Press, 1969), 186–8.

  48. 48.

    For double-taxation legislation in England in the 1690s, see Statutes of the Realm, vi, 366, 436, 555; vii, 56, 181, 360, 492, 573, 705. For a detailed consideration of the actual enforcement of the double assessment on English Catholics see Donald E. Ginter, A Measure of Wealth: The English Land Tax in Historical Analysis (London: Hambledon Press, 1992), 52–75.

  49. 49.

    McGrath, Eighteenth-Century Irish Constitution, 24–5, 31–2, 42–4.

  50. 50.

    An Act for abrogating the Oath of Supremacy in Ireland and Appointing Other Oaths, 1691, 3 & 4 Will. & Mar., c. 2.

  51. 51.

    Taxation Act, 1697, 9 Will 3, c. 8.

  52. 52.

    An Act to Prevent Papists Being Solicitors, 1699, 10 Will. 3, c. 13.

  53. 53.

    See An Act to Explain and Amend an Act, entitled, an Act to Prevent Papists Being Solicitors, 1707, 6 Ann., c. 6; An Act for regulating the admissions of Barristers at Law, Six-Clerks, and Attornies, and of other persons, into offices and employments; and for preventing Papists practising as Solicitors; and for further strengthening the Protestant interest in this Kingdom, 1728, 1 Geo. 2, c. 20; An Act for the amendment of the Law in relation to Popish Solicitors; and for remedying other mischiefs in relation to the practitioners in the several Courts of Law and Equity, 1734, 7 Geo. 2, c. 5.

  54. 54.

    An Act for abrogating the Oath of Supremacy in Ireland and Appointing Other Oaths, 1691, 3 & 4 Will. & Mar., c. 2.

  55. 55.

    McGrath, “Conversion”, 40.

  56. 56.

    An Act to Prevent Popish Priests from Coming into this Kingdom, 1703, 2 Ann., c. 3.

  57. 57.

    An Act for Registering the Popish Clergy, 1704, 2 Ann., c. 7 [Registration Act]. This Act along with several other penal laws enacted during the ensuing decades can on occasion be misdated to a year earlier than their actual enactment. This is owing to the continued use in the British isles until 1751 of the old Julian Calendar and the legal year-ending of March 25. From 1751–2 onwards the modern Gregorian Calendar was adopted, with the year commencing on January 1, as had been the case for much of the rest of Western Europe since 1583. As a result, prior to 1751 all legislation enacted during the months of January to March of any given year were listed as being enacted in the previous year. Hence Acts passed in the Irish parliament during January to March 1704 can on occasion be recorded incorrectly as 1703. This is especially important for the Irish parliament, given that in the first seven decades of the eighteenth century it usually convened late in a given year, recessed over Christmas and New Year, and then enacted the majority of its legislative programme in the first three to six months of the next calendar year.

  58. 58.

    An Act to Explain and Amend an Act, entitled An Act for Registering the Popish Clergy, 1705, 4 Ann., c. 2.

  59. 59.

    An Act for Explaining and Amending an Act, entitled, An Act to Prevent the Further Growth of Popery, 1709, 8 Ann., c. 3, ss. 17–18; McGrath, “Conversion”, 44; Connolly, Religion, 274–6; Burke, Priests, 167–8, 181–3; T. P. Power, “‘A Weighty, Serious Business’: The Conversion of Catholic Clergy to Anglicanism”, in Converts, 183–213.

  60. 60.

    An Act to Prevent the Further Growth of Popery, 1704, 2 Ann., c. 6 [Popery Act].

  61. 61.

    Ibid., ss. 1, 3–5, 12; McGrath, “Conversion”, 40–41.

  62. 62.

    An Act to Prevent the Further Growth of Popery, 1704, 2 Ann., c. 6, ss. 6, 10, 12, 25–6; W. N. Osborough, “Catholics, Land and the Popery Acts of Anne” in Endurance and Emergence: Catholics in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, ed. T. P. Power and Kevin Whelan (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1990), 23–5; McGrath, “Conversion”, 40–44.

  63. 63.

    An Act for abrogating the Oath of Supremacy in Ireland and Appointing Other Oaths, 1691, 3 & 4 Will. & Mar., c. 2.

  64. 64.

    An Act to Prevent the Further Growth of Popery, 1704, 2 Ann., c. 6, ss. 15–18; McGrath, “Conversion”, 42–4; Fagan, Divided Loyalties, 24–5.

  65. 65.

    An Act for preventing Dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants, 1673, 25 Car. 2, c. 2 [First Test Act].

  66. 66.

    J. G. Simms, “The Making of a Penal Law (2 Anne, c. 6), 1703–4”, Irish Historical Studies 12, no. 46 (1960): 112–16; Connolly, Religion, 162–3.

  67. 67.

    Eileen O’Byrne, ed., The Convert Rolls: The Calendar of the Convert Rolls, 1703–1838, with Fr Wallace Clare’s Annotated List of Converts, 1703–18, edited by Anne Chamney (Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, 2005), xi–xiii; T. P. Power, “Converts” in Power and Whelan, Endurance, 101–27.

  68. 68.

    An Act to Explain and Amend an Act, entitled An Act for Registering the Popish Clergy, 1705, 4 Ann., c. 2.

  69. 69.

    An Act to Explain and Amend an Act, entitled, An Act to Prevent Papists Being Solicitors, 1707, 6 Ann., c. 6.

  70. 70.

    Ibid., ss. 1–2; McGrath, “Conversion”, 44–5; Fagan, Divided Loyalties, 25–6.

  71. 71.

    An Act for Explaining and Amending an Act, entitled, An Act to Prevent the Further Growth of Popery, 1709, 8 Ann., c. 3.

  72. 72.

    Osborough, “Popery Acts”, 25–6; McGrath, “Conversion”, 45–7.

  73. 73.

    An Act for Explaining and Amending an Act, entitled, An Act to Prevent the Further Growth of Popery, 1709, 8 Ann., c. 3, ss. 20–21.

  74. 74.

    An Act for the relief of the Earl of Clanricarde (lately called Lord Bophin) of the Kingdom of Ireland, in relation to his estate; and for the more effectual selling or setting the estate of the said Earl to Protestants, 1709, 7 Anne, c. 29; Eoin Kinsella, Catholic Survival in Protestant Ireland 1660–1711: Colonel John Browne, Landownership and the Articles of Limerick (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2018), 139–40; T. P. O’Neill, “Discoverers and Discoveries: the Penal laws and Dublin Property”, Dublin Historical Record 37, no. 1 (1983): 3; Osborough, “Popery Acts”, 26.

  75. 75.

    Osborough, “Popery Acts”, 26–43; Emma Lyons, “Morristown Lattin: A Case Study of the Lattin and Mansfield Families in County Kildare, c. 1600–1800” (PhD thesis, UCD, 2011), 209–47.

  76. 76.

    An Act to restrain Papists from being High or Petty Constables, and for the better regulating the Parish Watches, 1716, 2 Geo. 1, c. 10; McGrath, “Conversion”, 48.

  77. 77.

    An Act to prevent delays in Writs of Error, and for the further Amendment of the Laws, 1719, 6 Geo. 1, c. 6, ss. 16–17; McGrath, “Conversion”, 49–50.

  78. 78.

    An Act for the further regulating the election of Members of Parliament, and preventing the irregular proceedings of Sheriffs and other officers in electing and returning such Members, 1728, 1 Geo. 2, c. 9, s. 7; J. G. Simms, “Irish Catholics and the Parliamentary Franchise, 1692–1728”, Irish Historical Studies 12, no. 45 (1960): 28–37.

  79. 79.

    An Act for regulating the admissions of Barristers at Law, Six-Clerks and Attornies, and of other persons, into offices and employments; and for preventing Papists practising as Solicitors; and for further strengthening the Protestant interest in this Kingdom, 1728, 1 Geo. 2, c. 20; McGrath, “Conversion”, 50–1.

  80. 80.

    Kenneth Milne and Paddy McNally, eds, The Boulter Letters (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2016), 234; Colum Kenny, “The Exclusion of Catholics From the Legal Profession in Ireland, 1537–1829”, Irish Historical Studies 25, no. 100 (1987): 353–4.

  81. 81.

    An Act for the amendment of the Law in relation to Popish Solicitors; and for remedying other mischiefs in relation to the practitioners in the several Courts of Law and Equity, 1734, 7 Geo. 2, c. 5; McGrath, “Conversion”, 52–3; Fagan, Divided Loyalties, 26.

  82. 82.

    An Act to prevent persons converted from the Popish to the Protestant religion, and married to Popish wives, or educating their children in the Popish religion, from acting as Justices of the Peace, 1734, 7 Geo. 2, c. 6; McGrath, “Conversion”, 54.

  83. 83.

    An Act for the More Effectual Preventing the Enlisting of His Majesty’s Subjects to Serve as Soldiers in Foreign Service without His Majesty’s Licence, 1738, 11 Geo. 2, c. 7.

  84. 84.

    An Act for the More Effectual Preventing His Majesty’s Subjects from Entering into Foreign Service and for publishing an Act of the seventh Year of King William the Third, entitled, An Act to prevent foreign Education, 1746, 19 Geo. 2, c. 7.

  85. 85.

    An Act for the Better Securing the Government, by Disarming Papists, 1695, 7 Will. 3, c. 5.

  86. 86.

    An Act to explain, amend and make more effectual an Act, passed in the seventh Year of the Reign of his late Majesty King William the Third of Glorious Memory, entitled, an Act for the Better Securing the Government, by Disarming Papists, 1740, 13 Geo. 2, c. 6.

  87. 87.

    An Act for the More Effectual Preventing His Majesty’s Subjects from Entering into Foreign Service and for publishing an Act of the seventh Year of King William the Third, entitled, An Act to prevent foreign Education, 1746, 19 Geo. 2, c. 7.

  88. 88.

    An Act for annulling all Marriages to be celebrate by any Popish Priest between Protestant and Protestant, or between Protestant and Papist…, 1746, 9 Geo. 2, c. 13.

  89. 89.

    An Act for explaining and making more effectual an Act, intituled, An Act for the more effectual preventing clandestine Marriages; and another Act passed in the twelfth Year of his late Majesty’s Reign, intituled, an Act to prevent Marriages by degraded Clergymen and Popish Priests, and for preventing Marriages consummated from being avoided by Pre-Contracts, and for the more effectual punishing of Bigamy, 1750, 23 Geo. 2, c. 10.

  90. 90.

    Minutes on the Growth of Popery bill, May 9, 1716, Add MS 9715, f. 235, BL; PC 2/85, pp. 359–61, 395, TNA.

  91. 91.

    The Journals of the House of Commons of the Kingdom of Ireland 21 vols (3rd edition, Dublin, 1796–1800), 3: 111–12.

  92. 92.

    Lord Lieutenant Bolton to Secretary Craggs, August 25, 1719, SP 63/377/42–3, TNA; E. Webster to C. Delafaye, August 26, 1719, SP 63/377/44–5, TNA.

  93. 93.

    Lords of the Committee for Irish bills, Whitehall, September 24, 1719, PC 2/86, pp. 333–8, TNA.

  94. 94.

    See Secretary Craggs to Earl of Stanhope, September 22, 1719, SP 63/378/51–2, TNA.

  95. 95.

    Ian McBride, Eighteenth-Century Ireland (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 2009), 201.

  96. 96.

    Connolly, Religion, 281. See also Secretary Craggs to Lord Lieutenant Bolton, November 3, 1719, SP 63/378/133–4, TNA.

  97. 97.

    An Act for the Better Securing the Government, by Disarming Papists, 1695, 7 Will. 3, c. 5.

  98. 98.

    An Act for Registering the Popish Clergy, 1704, 2 Ann., c. 7.

  99. 99.

    An Act for the Better Securing the Government, by Disarming Papists, 1695, 7 Will. 3, c. 5.

  100. 100.

    A Journal of the Life of Thomas Story: Containing, an Account of his Remarkable Convincement of, and Embracing the Principles of Truth, as held by the People called Quakers (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1747), 131–2.

  101. 101.

    An Act to explain, amend and make more effectual an Act, … for the Better Securing the Government, by Disarming Papists, 1740, 13 Geo. 2, c. 6.

  102. 102.

    Kelly and Lyons, Proclamations, 2: 455–7.

  103. 103.

    Kelly and Lyons, Proclamations, 2: 504–5, 535, 605; 3: 4, 22, 28, 37.

  104. 104.

    Kelly and Lyons, Proclamations, 2: 470, 481–5, 493, 568, 574–8, 645–6, 682–9; 3: 94.

  105. 105.

    An act to explain, amend and make more effectual an Act, … for the better securing the Government by disarming Papists, 1740, 13 Geo. 2, c. 6.

  106. 106.

    An Act for Banishing all Papists exercising any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, and all Regulars of the Popish clergy out of this Kingdom, 1697, 9 Will. 3, c. 1 [Banishment Act].

  107. 107.

    Burke, Priests, 120.

  108. 108.

    Add. MS 18022, f. 69, BL; Burke, Priests, 120–9, 144; Maureen Wall, “The Penal Laws 1691–1760” in Catholic Ireland in the Eighteenth Century: Collected Essays of Maureen Wall, ed. Gerard O’Brien (Dublin: Geography Publications, 1989), 10. Simms gives the secular figure as 872 (Simms, “Banishment”, 197).

  109. 109.

    Wall, “Penal Laws”, 12; Burke, Priests, 132; Simms, “Banishment”, 198.

  110. 110.

    Joseph McMahon, “The Silent Century, 1698–1829” in The Irish Franciscans 1534–1990, ed. Edel Bhreathnach, Joseph McMahon and John McCafferty (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2009), 77.

  111. 111.

    Bernadette Cunningham, “The Poor Clare Order in Ireland” in Franciscans, 166–7. See also John Brady and P. J. Corish, “The Church under the Penal Code” in A History of Irish Catholicism 5 (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1971), 12–13.

  112. 112.

    Kelly and Lyons, Proclamations, 2: 410–11.

  113. 113.

    An Act for Registering the Popish Clergy, 1704, 2 Ann., c. 7.

  114. 114.

    Kelly and Lyons, Proclamations, 2: 463–5.

  115. 115.

    Kelly and Lyons, Proclamations, 2: 505–6, 523–8.

  116. 116.

    An Act for Registering the Popish Clergy, 1704, 2 Ann., c. 7.

  117. 117.

    Tomás Ó Fiaich, “The Registration of the Clergy in 1704”, Seanachas Ardmhacha 6 (1971): 48–69; Burke, Priests, 182–4; Connolly, Religion, 150.

  118. 118.

    L. P. Murray, “Shanroe Barrack (1795–1821)”, Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society 9, no. 1 (1937): 20; Ó Fiaich, “Registration”, 48.

  119. 119.

    Burke, Priests, 213. Burke provides primary source extracts of other individual arrests, presentments, examinations and informations against Catholic clergy which all warrant greater detailed analysis. See, inter alia, 207–453.

  120. 120.

    Burke, Priests, 309. See 207–453 for a range of examples of the successful use of intimidation by Catholics, which also warrants further analysis.

  121. 121.

    Kelly and Lyons, Proclamations, 2: 605.

  122. 122.

    Ibid.

  123. 123.

    Ó Fiaich, “Registration”, 48–9.

  124. 124.

    An Act for Explaining and Amending an Act, intituled, An Act to Prevent the Further Growth of Popery, 1709, 8 Ann., c. 3, s. 18.

  125. 125.

    Connolly, Religion, 276.

  126. 126.

    Kelly and Lyons, Proclamations, 2: 655, 657–8; Burke, Priests, 333–5.

  127. 127.

    Kelly and Lyons, Proclamations, 2: 665–7; Cunningham, “Poor Clare”, 168–9; Brady and Corish, “Penal Code”, 13.

  128. 128.

    Burke, Priests, 220–36; Connolly, Religion, 280; Wall, “Penal Laws”, 25–7; Power, “Serious Business”, 202, 207, 210; Brady and Corish, “Penal Code”, 19–21; Kevin McGrath, “John Garzia, a Noted Priest-Catcher and His Activities 1717–23”, Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 72 (1949): 494–514.

  129. 129.

    Burke, Priests, 212–13.

  130. 130.

    Burke, Priests, 210, 213.

  131. 131.

    Burke, Priests, 209–16, 218.

  132. 132.

    Archbishop King to Lord Sunderland, January 12, 1715, Add. MS 61635, f. 155, BL.

  133. 133.

    Ibid.

  134. 134.

    Ibid.

  135. 135.

    King to Sunderland, February 8, 1715, Add. MS 61635, ff 159–60, BL.

  136. 136.

    King to Edward Southwell, November 12, 1719, MS 2056 [no ff], National Library of Ireland, Dublin (NLI).

  137. 137.

    Connolly, Religion, 276.

  138. 138.

    Burke, Priests, 212–13.

  139. 139.

    Ó Fiaich, “Registration”, 47–8.

  140. 140.

    A Report Made by His Grace the Lord Primate, from the Lords Committees Appointed to Enquire Into The Present State of Popery in the Kingdom of Ireland (London, 1747), 4.

  141. 141.

    Connolly, Religion, 150; David Fleming, “The “Mass Rock” in Eighteenth-Century Ireland: The Symbolic and Historical Past” in Church and Settlement in Ireland, ed. James Lyttleton and Matthew Stout (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2018), 185; “Report on the State of Popery, Ireland, 1731”, Archivium Hibernicum 1 (1912): 10–11.

  142. 142.

    Report Made by His Grace, 4–6; “State of Popery”, 10–11. Fleming has adjusted these figures on analysis of the individual returns to 841 mass houses, 50 friaries and seven convents (Fleming, “Mass Rock”, 185).

  143. 143.

    Report Made by His Grace, 7–11.

  144. 144.

    Ciarán MacMurchaidh, “‘My Repeated Troubles’: Dr. James Gallagher (Bishop of Raphoe 1725–37) and The Impact of the Penal Laws” in New Perspectives, 152, 164.

  145. 145.

    See generally in this respect P. J. Corish, The Catholic Community in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Dublin: Helicon, 1981), 73–139; McBride, Eighteenth-Century Ireland, 215–70; Essays of Maureen Wall, 73–114.

  146. 146.

    Oliver P. Rafferty, Catholicism in Ulster 1603–1983: An Interpretative History (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1994), 66–7; Brady and Corish, “Penal Code”, 6–7; MacMurchaidh, “Repeated Troubles”, 150–1, 154.

  147. 147.

    MacMurchaidh, “Repeated Troubles”, 152, 157–60, 163–5; Rafferty, Catholicism, 75.

  148. 148.

    See for example Patrick Fagan, An Irish Bishop in Penal Times: The Chequered Career of Sylvester Lloyd OFM, 1680–1747 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1993); Burke, Priests, 207–453.

  149. 149.

    Brady and Corish, “Penal Code”, 7–9.

  150. 150.

    Kelly and Lyons, Proclamations, 2: 690; 3: 11, 55, 317–18.

  151. 151.

    Notes on the History of the Borough of Youghal, MS 2062, f. 49, NLI.

  152. 152.

    Rafferty, Catholicism, 75.

  153. 153.

    Connolly, Religion, 291–2.

  154. 154.

    Connolly, Religion, 293.

  155. 155.

    An Act for the Better Securing the Government, by Disarming Papists, 1695, 7 Will. 3, c. 5.

  156. 156.

    Report made by His Grace, 4; Connolly, Religion, 151–2; Corish, Catholic Community, 102–3.

  157. 157.

    See for example Lyons, “Morristown Lattin”, 248–80; McBride, Eighteenth-Century Ireland, 223–9.

  158. 158.

    See for example Mary Ann Lyons and Thomas O’Connor, eds, Strangers to Citizens: the Irish in Europe, 1600–1800 (Dublin: NLI, 2008); Thomas O’Connor and Mary Ann Lyons, eds, Irish Communities in Early Modern Europe (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2008); Liam Chambers and Thomas O’Connor, eds, Forming Catholic Communities: Irish, Scots and English College Networks in Europe, 1568–1918 (Leiden: Brill, 2018).

  159. 159.

    See for example Vincent Morley, “The Penal Laws in Irish Vernacular Literature” in New Perspectives, 173–96; Vincent Morley, The Popular Mind in Eighteenth-Century Ireland (Cork: Cork University Press, 2017).

  160. 160.

    See for example Essays of Maureen Wall, 73–102; Power and Whelan, Endurance, ch. 3–4, 6–7; L. M. Cullen, “Catholics Under the Penal Laws”, Eighteenth Century Ireland 1 (1986): 23–36; T. P. Power, “Conversions Among the Legal Profession in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century” in Brehons, Serjeants and Attorneys, ed. Daire Hogan and W. N. Osborough (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1990), 153–74; Kenny, “Exclusion”, 337–57.

  161. 161.

    See for example Connolly, Religion, 308–10; Osborough, “Popery Acts”, 22–3; Cullen, “Penal Laws”, 26.

  162. 162.

    See J. G. Simms, The Williamite Confiscation in Ireland 1690–1703 (London: Faber & Faber, 1956).

  163. 163.

    Connolly, Religion, 147–8, 309–10; Cullen, “Penal Laws”, 27–8; Lyons, “Morristown Lattin”, 37–9.

  164. 164.

    Lyons, “Morristown Lattin”, 209–47; Karen Harvey, The Bellews of Mount Bellew: A Catholic Gentry Family in Eighteenth-Century Ireland (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1998); Osborough, “Popery Acts”, 26–51; Connolly, Religion, 308–10.

  165. 165.

    T. P. O’Neill, “Discoverers and Discoveries: the Penal laws and Dublin Property”, Dublin Historical Record 37, no. 1 (1983): 2.

  166. 166.

    T. P. O’Neill, “Discoverers and Discoveries – a Preliminary Note”, unpublished paper, 2–3, NLI.

  167. 167.

    George Fitzgerald to his niece, May 27, 1738, MS, private collection. My thanks to Carlos Cólogan Soriano and John Bergin for bringing this letter to my attention.

  168. 168.

    O’Neill, “Preliminary Note”, 2–3.

  169. 169.

    See Osborough, “Popery Acts”, 21–56.

  170. 170.

    G. E. Howard, Several Special Cases on the Laws Against the Further Growth of Popery in Ireland (Dublin, 1775), 35, 108, 135, 272, 275. Another key collection of this nature is Josiah Brown, Reports of Cases, Upon Appeals and Writs of Error, in the High Court of Parliament … (7 vols, London, 1779).

  171. 171.

    Kelly and Lyons, Proclamations, 2: 606–7.

  172. 172.

    Connolly, Religion, 294–309.

  173. 173.

    See O’Byrne, Convert Rolls; Connolly, Religion, 298.

  174. 174.

    Fleming, “Mass Rock”, 195–207.

  175. 175.

    Kelly, “Historiography”, 35–52.

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  1. School of History, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Charles Ivar McGrath

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    Kevin Costello

  2. Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Niamh Howlin

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McGrath, C.I. (2021). The Penal Laws: Origins, Purpose, Enforcement and Impact. In: Costello, K., Howlin, N. (eds) Law and Religion in Ireland, 1700-1970 . Palgrave Modern Legal History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74373-4_2

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