A-Z Challenge 2016: R is for Recusant Rolls

This subject is close to my heart, as many in my family tree were recusants.  No, it's nothing horrific - that is, unless you were a parish priest of the established church.  Recusants didn't go to church.  At least, not the established parish church they were supposed to go to.  Some were Roman Catholics, and did not want to worship in a Protestant service.  Others (like my ancestors) were Protestant Dissenters.

At first (in about 1560) the fine was 12 pence per time-he-did-not-attend.  By 1581, the fine rose to 20 pounds per month.  Much later, the fine was all his goods and two-thirds of his property (that's maybe why I'm not rich now; there was nothing to hand down).  The Recusant Rolls, as a source, may help you discover a little more about your ancestors: what they owned, what they had to pay, and so on.

If you were an upper-class recusant, it seems as though the law looked the other way.  If you were a really poor recusant, you couldn't really be prosecuted anyway, because you had nothing to surrender.

© 2016 Ros Haywood. All Rights Reserved