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Religious Faith
in Wolverhampton Roman Catholicism | 1 | 2 | The Roman Catholic religion has always been strong in Wolverhampton and the surrounding townships. Staffordshire had the largest number of recusants outside London in the 1670s. In the 17th century the town was known as Little Rome (Roma Parva) because of the number of Catholics who lived in the area. As early as 1624 Wolverhampton was described by Richard Lee, a Puritan Preacher in Wolverhampton, as a place where "Rome's snaky brood roosted and rested themselves more warmed and safer and with great countenance…than in any other part of this kingdom". The first record of a secular priest in the town is 1692 when John Miller (alias Crump) held the position. Together with Edward Coyney, he was administrator of the Common Fund. Miller had a congregation of about 150 in Wolverhampton and others in Sedgley, Gornal, Dudley, Tipton, Bilston and other nearby villages. From 1720 he lodged at the house of Elizabeth Giffard in Tup Street, (now North Street) Wolverhampton. Since priests could not appear publicly (it was still illegal at this stage to practise as a catholic), Peter Giffard, a prominent local Catholic and brother of Elizabeth Giffard, became their agent. Following the death of Elizabeth in October 1727 the clergy and Peter Giffard set to work to build a place of worship for Catholics in Wolverhampton. The building became known as Giffard House and took thirteen years to complete. It was not fully furnished until March 1736.
Giffard
House, Wolverhampton, 1980 (A writer described the house in 1729
as having been used "time out of mind by Catholics to meet
for their devotions") (N3/GIF/E/8) When Giffard House was completed two priests took up residence - Mr Sutton the in-priest (or town priest), and Mr Williams the out-priest. Around 1743 the chapel was extended, and in 1765 was decorated and embellished by Italian craftsmen. In 1778 the Catholic Relief Act was passed, which suspended the penalties for saying Mass and Giffard House became known as a place of prayer, meaning that for the first time in 250 years Catholics could go to mass publicly without fear of fines or extra taxes. The Catholic population continued to grow during the latter part of the eighteenth century: in 1764 there were 346 and in 1826, when the chapel at Giffard House was enlarged, there were nearly 600 members. The extended Giffard House, which became the Ss Peter and Paul church, officially opened in May 1828.
SS Peter & Paul Church, Wolverhampton, exterior 1846 and interior 1962 (E2/SSPE/E/1 and E2/SSPE/I/1) In 1830 when Patrick O'Sullivan arrived to take up office as parish priest there were 382 communicants; by 1866 the figure had increased to 1500. It
was around this time that there was considerable debate over the
rights of Catholics. Until the passing of the Catholic Emancipation
Act of 1829 they had fewer rights than their protestant neighbours.
Throughout the preceding centuries they had experienced much hostility
and during the debates over the Emancipation Bill there was considerable
local argument about whether it should be passed, as evidenced by
the documents below:
This address calls on protestants to defend their religion against 'that Church which is bent upon their destruction', 1829 (DX-634/145)
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