The Devon FHS WWWBoard

Romanists of Northleigh

Posted by Kim Turner on 5/7/2026, 12:36 am

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.

Re: Romanists of Northleigh

Posted by Deborah on 6/7/2026, 6:44 am, in reply to "Romanists of Northleigh"

Romanists was a term sometimes used to describe Roman Catholics. Papists was another description.

Re: Romanists of Northleigh

Posted by Kim Turner on 7/7/2026, 12:22 am, in reply to "Re: Romanists of Northleigh"

Thanks for that Deborah. I thought that might be the case, but was wondering if there might be any documents out there that provide evidence of this? I am aware of the Prayer Book Rebellion that occurred in Devon in the 1500s, so was aware that were some people that clung onto the Catholic faith. However this reference is some 200 years later, so would be interesting to see what they were doing at the time.

« Index

[ The Devon FHS WWWBoard ]