On the Genuki page for the village of Northleigh, Devon is a link to “Rectors of St Giles, Northleigh, Devon, transcribed by John Williams” (under the Church Records heading). The page is located here:
https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DEV/Northleigh/Rectors
On this page for the year 1726 is recorded “William Ford of Oxford University.” Next to this is recorded “Patrons being Romanists”. As most of the patrons at the church at that time were my ancestors, I am curious to find out more about them being Romanists – what this was, what it involved and if there any documents available that provide evidence for this. The only though I had was this was a throw back to Devon’s involvement in the Prayer Book Rebellion in 1549. Any information that anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated.