Excommunication - 1782

[BumbleB]

Inside the cover of Tadcaster parish records in 1782 is a notice which says that three ladies have been excommunicated - Catherine Archbell, Jane Wise and Elenor Willins.  My interest is Catherine.

My query is why were they excommunicated?  I do know that Catherine had two illegitimate children following the death of her husband, Thomas - George in 1776 and Sarah in 1780.  Thomas married Catherine on 8 June 1767 (as his third wife) and he died 20 April 1774.  He left a will which appears to say that Catherine will lose everything if she re-marries.  I also know that Catherine was buried at St Mary, Tadcaster on 23 August 1801. 

Any thoughts on the excommunication, please?

[Girl Guide]

The below refers to information regarding the Catholic Church.

https://tinyurl.com/2tjwfhb4

Not sure what the position is with regards to other faiths.

[GrahamSimons]

It could be that they didn't attend church, specifically communion service. From a bit earlier (1670s...) there were these presentments:

John Atkinson schoolmaster of Motherby and his wife, John Noble of Penruddock and his wife, Adam Bird of the same place and his wife, John Jack of the same place and his wife, John Todd of the same place and his wife, George Todd of Stoddy and his wife, Henry Winder of Hutton John and his wife, Anthony Slee of Graisdale and Ann his wife, John Jack of the same place and his wife, Miles Mallinson of the same place and his wife, William Phillipson of Horneby and his wife - Nonconformists and fanatics not hearing divine service and presented for not receiving the Eucharist.

[Davedrave]

This is from the Episcopal Church in the USA, so Anglican. Doesn’t really answer your question, but suggests that there may have been a number of possible reasons for excommunication.

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/glossary/excommunication/

[arthurk]

In view of what you know about Catherine and her illegitimate children, it may be that the other two women were in a similar situation; a scan through the parish register might answer this one way or the other.

I wondered if there might be anything useful about this in the diocesan Cause Papers. There wasn't, but I did find a Robert Archbell as a witness in a different case:

https://www.dhi.ac.uk/causepapers/causepaper.jsp?id=116222

[Redroger]

I am not sure of the relevance of this, but at Huntingdon in 1732 a female member with my surname was made to do penance in white before the whole congregation for some offence, which so far as I can work out was because she had described a woman "froma higher social station" as a very *friendly* person or whore.

[BumbleB]

Many thanks - I'm obviously going to have another deeper look at the parish registers. 

AND the Robert Archbell information looks very interesting - to be added to my Archbell archives if nothing else.

[Redroger]

I am not sure of the relevance of this, but at Huntingdon in 1732 a female member with my surname was made to do penance in white before the whole congregation for some offence, which so far as I can work out was because she had described a woman "froma higher social station" as a very *friendly* person or whore.

One term that was used was hussy!

[GrahamSimons]

My great-grandfather was involved in publicising a notorious case, that of Charlotte Jones, a collier's wife from Merthyr Tydfil. The Consistory Court had her imprisoned, unable to afford the £50 or £60 she needed to defend herself, with her husband only earning 15s a week. This was the leading case in a big campaign to remove the consistory courts' jurisdiction over cases of slander, which was achieved in the Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860.