The English Catholic Church and the Age of Mercantilism: Bishop Richard Challoner and the South Sea Company

Giada Pizzoni

doi:10.1163/15700658-12342654

Abstract

Abstract This article argues that the commercial economy contributed to sustain the English Catholic Church during the eighteenth century. In particular, it analyzes the financial dealings of Bishop Richard Challoner, Vicar Apostolic of the London Mission (1758-1781). By investing in the stock market, Challoner funded charitable institutions and addressed the needs of his church. He used the profits yielded by the Sea Companies for a variety of purposes: from basic needs such as buying candles, to long-term projects such as funding female schools. Bishop Challoner contributes to a new narrative on Catholicism in England and enriches the literature on the Mercantilist Age. The new Atlantic economy offered an opening and Catholics seized it. By answering the needs of the new fiscal-state, the Catholic Church ensured its survival, secured economic integration, and eventually achieved political inclusion.

Highlights

The years between the 1690s and the 1780s were ones of revolutions in Britain; some more “glorious” than others, but all ushering a new age in the country’s via free accessPizzoni politics, society and economy.[1]
This article argues that the commercial economy contributed to sustain the English Catholic Church during the eighteenth century
Bishop Challoner contributes to a new narrative on Catholicism in England and enriches the literature on the Mercantilist Age

Summary

Introduction

The years between the 1690s and the 1780s were ones of revolutions in Britain; some more “glorious” than others, but all ushering a new age in the country’s. These charitable families became the backbone of a Mission that lacked support; among them the most prominent benefactors were the Norfolks, who in 1758, through the 9th Duke of Norfolk, left “£120 to be distributed in and about Arundel.”[37] being well aware that the direct use of alms and donations would not fully serve his purposes and answer all the necessities of the Mission, Challoner found a new solution in the stock market He began to transform part of the funds into bonds, with return rates on his investments being used to support the English Catholic community. In 1751, the Caryll family left three funds valued at around £600, with the request that the recipient priests would have preached at “Harting and Battle” from 1767 to 1771; the priests in those parishes would have received a yearly salary of £10

25 Nov 1756

15 March 1760 14 March 1761 17 March 1762 20 Feb 1763 28 Jan 1764

Findings

12 May 1759 5 Aug 1759 19 Nov 1759