Wateringbury petitions against Roman Catholics (1827)

Post date: Mar 30, 2012 9:24:58 AM

Extract from Norfolk Chronicle of 3rd March 1827 reporting on proceedings in The House of Lords on Friday 23rd February 1827:

The Lord Chancellor presented petitions against any further concessions to the Roman Catholics, from the inhabitants of the following parishes in the county of Kent, viz. Leyburn, Deptford, Burren, Honiton, Malling, Wateringbury, Birling, and Blackstone.

The Lord Chancellor presenting Wateringbury's petition was Lord Eldon, pictured below

Source: Wikipedia

Hansard does not record Wateringbury's petition but says that the Lord Chancellor declared ,

that in his conscience he thought, though he did not say that other noble lords might not conscientiously think differently, that to grant the Catholics any further concessions would be to betray the civil and religious liberties of this country.

The House of Lords' Journal records:

Upon reading the Petition of the Inhabitants of Wateringbury, in the County of Kent, whose Names are thereunto subscribed; praying their Lordships “to make no Alteration in the Laws which exclude the Roman Catholics from a Share in the Legislature of the Country” It is Ordered, That the said Petition do lie on the Table.

The issue of Catholic Emancipation was closely tied to Ireland with whom there had been an Act of Union in 1800 and many Irish Roman Catholics had understood that the the restrictions imposed on them by the so-called Test Acts would be repealed in return for their acceptance of the Union. It would in fact take a further two years to 1829 until the Test Acts (of 1673 and 1678) were fully repealed: the necessity of receiving the sacrament as a qualification for public office was repealed in 1828 and the taking of oaths and declarations against transubstantiation were repealed by the Catholic Relief Act 1829.

Wateringbury's anti-Catholic petition reflected a general popular anti-Catholic sentiment in much of England at the time.

See also Wateringbury's petition to House of Lords in 1846 on another religious issue.