Clarkson of Lancs, Beds. & London

This book is the first in which we have followed the fortunes of a Roman Catholic family. The Clarksons were strongly Catholic from a strongly Catholic area, the Preston area of Lancashire. Their faith is amply demonstrated in this history. Successive Clarksons married outside their faith but all spouses were converted.

The English state did not hold Roman Catholics in England in great esteem for some 300 years from the time of Henry VIII. They were regarded with suspicion and as such were forced officially to "register their interest", to use a modern term in addition to being taxed at a higher rate than their Protestant neighbours. The regulations forced upon them actually helped our search, for many of these official lists of Catholics survive. We have included here as many as we thought relevant.

The Clarksons were until the mid 19C relatively well-off yeoman farmers. As such they occupied land and, surprise, had to pay tax on it. Fortunately, many of these land tax assessments also survive and are included here. 

At the end of the 18C our family moved from Lancashire to the Bedfordshire countryside, a place with a strongly Puritan population. Why did they do it & how did they know that land was available there? They stayed for a generation and one at least made his mark there as a local parish official.

From there our Clarksons moved to London, Bermondsey to be precise where in 1867 Ann Clarkson married William Faulkner. The later history is included in this series in the "Faulkner" book.

We have included here the brief histories of two Catholics, one a Clarkson priest with a mysterious tale to tell, the other a Benedictine monk whose mother was a Clarkson. They surely must be related. If only we could see just how....

This history was first produced in hard-back form and copies are deposited with Lancashire & Bedfordshire Record Offices and the Society of Genealogists in London. Hopefully it will prove of interest to others.

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