Yorkshire Almanac 2026

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

There came down the declaration for liberty of conscience, gilded over with tenderness to his Majesty’s subjects, in general invitation to strangers of different opinions, improvement of trade, and promising all this time to protect the bishops and ministers of the Church of England in their functions, rights, and properties and free exercise of their religion in the churches. But the design was well understood, viz. to divide the Protestant churches, that the Papists might find less opposition. The Presbyterians or Calvinists, who most of them had begun to conform, continued to come to our churches. The Anabaptists, Quakers, and Independents made addresses of thanks to the King for this indulgence. Several gentlemen in addition to those before named had lost their employments for refusing to give their votes for taking away the penal and test laws, being all members of Parliament. After which, the Parliament being prorogued, the question how men inclined as to that matter was not so frequently put; nor did any number of Protestants, considerable either as to estates or quality, go over to the Roman Church, as yet neither invited by great preferments that waited on them, nor frightened with the King’s frowns, and the loss of their employments. So far did honour help religion, that gentlemen were the more firm, lest the world might think that they changed their religious opinions for reward.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Anabaptism (1) W/G ·
• Calvinism (8) W/G ·
• Catholic Church (57) W/G ·
• Church of England (94) W/G ·
• Congregational church (9) W/G ·
• Declaration of Indulgence (1687) (2), issued by James II, an early step towards establishing freedom of religion, cut short by the Glorious Revolution. W/G ·
• Freedom of religion (3) W/G ·
• James II (20) W/G ·
• Nonconformism (47) W/G ·
• Presbyterianism (20) W/G ·
• Protestantism (25) W/G ·
• Quakers (14) W/G ·
• Reresby, John (1634-89) (23), Thrybergh-born, politician and diarist, governor of York 1682-88, 2nd baronet W/G ·
• Test Act (5) W/G ·

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Similar

24 April 1688: At Pontefract, the new Catholic and Dissenting members of the judiciary send James II, a Catholic, thanks for allowing freedom of religion, leading him to believe he has popular support

6 January 1687: Perhaps violating the discriminatory Test Acts, James II replaces Protestant justices of the peace by Catholics in the West Riding

29 November 1673: A verse warns Charles II against his brother James, six days after the latter’s marriage to an Italian Catholic

25 August 1662: Following Charles II’s purge of Presbyterian ministers, Roundhead Captain John Hodgson of Coley Hall (Halifax) is again harassed as a suspected plotter

30 April 1704: Whitby’s Church of England parish register records a wedding celebrated, perhaps illegally, at the Quakers Meeting

7 February 1685: Notables at York await the death of Charles II, planning to prevent anti-papists and other dissidents from disrupting the accession of James II

24 June 1687: John Reresby, governor of York, protests James II’s plans to turn his residence into a Catholic school

21 February 1688: On Shrove-Tuesday, cock-throwing York apprentices break a Catholic window, and the militia intervenes, torturing citizens and violating their civic rights

2 January 1673: Despite Charles II’s Declaration of Indulgence, Presbyterians Oliver Heywood and Christopher Richardson are detained while preaching at Lascelles Hall (Kirkburton)

2 August 1680: William Dolben, perhaps reluctantly, condemns Thomas Thwing to death at York for his part, without co-conspirators, in a fictitious conspiracy – the Popish Plot

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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This is a Jesuit hagiography, and I don’t know to what extent the source reflects the substance of Dolben’s remarks. Wikipedia takes a more benevolent view of him:

In the aftermath of the Popish Plot, Dolben tried many of the accused, including Sir Thomas Gascoigne, 2nd Baronet and Sir Miles Stapleton; due to his impartial trait of pointing out inconsistencies in the prosecution’s evidence, both were acquitted.[4] At the trial of Mary Pressicks, who was accused of saying that “We shall never be at peace until we are all of the Roman Catholic religion”, Dolben saved her life by ruling that the words, even if she did speak them, could not amount to treason.[5] As a result of this and his opposition to Charles II’s removal of the City Corporation’s writs, he was “according to the vicious practise of the time” dismissed on 18 April 1683. Again working as a barrister, Dolben prosecuted Algernon Sidney in November 1683 before being reinstated as a Justice of the King’s Bench on 18 March 1689. Records from 29 April show him “inveighing mightily against the corruption of juries [during the Glorious Revolution]”,[1] and he continued sitting as a Justice until his death from an apoplectic fit on 25 January 1694,[6] and was buried in Temple Church.

Vulgar almanacs glory in death sentences and executions, but I suppose one (1) is called for.

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