In Vineam Domini: Bishop Briggs and His Visitations of the North

Abstract

Thomas Penswick, titular Bishop of Europum, and Vicar Apostolic of the Northern District, died at his brother’s house, The Manor House, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire on 28th January 1836. He was aged sixty-three. His funeral in Liverpool was followed by his burial in the Catholic cemetery at Windleshaw, near St. Helens. He was succeeded by his coadjutor bishop, John Briggs. He inherited a district which stretched from the Scottish Border in the north to a line from the Humber to the Dee in the south. It encompassed the counties of Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland, Westmorland, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire and the Isle of Man, and although perhaps less in size geographically than the Western District, which took in the whole of Wales, it was nevertheless the largest in the number of missions, clergy and people. When Bishop Thomas Smith made his return to Propaganda in 1830, he reported 172 missions served by 115 secular priests, 31 Benedictines, 23 Jesuits or ‘Stonyhurst Priests’, 2 Franciscans and 1 Dominican, and an estimated Catholic population of 185,000. In addition there were three colleges, Ushaw, Ampleforth and Stonyhurst and four convents of nuns.