Clerical self-expression

[Andrew Tarr]

These two entries from the early 18th century are amusing for their expansiveness or possibly irritation ...

[Maiden Stone]

The curate of Formby was extremely irritated by the "Popish priests". I did some research after your previous thread about Formby parish registers and came across a letter from the curate on the vexing topic. He became curate of the next parish as well and faced the same situation there. Exacerbating his problem was that the patron of one living was Catholic and only allowed him a part of his stipend. The rest of the money went to the R.C. clergy; there were more of them and they had more work. The parish churches were in a poor state because the R.C. patrons and gentry wouldn't spend money on them, and the congregations, being small and not well-off, couldn't afford to. I have some sympathy for the curate. He must have felt like a soldier in a lonely outpost in hostile territory.