The following is a list of standard histories which may be available through your library system (most of them are out of print). The list has been prepared by the Catholic Family History Society.

Aveling, J.C.H.

The Handle and the Axe, 1976

Beck, G.A.

The English Catholics 1850-1950, 1950   List of articles

Bennett, Canon

Father Nugent of Liverpool, 1949; reprinted 1993

Bossy, J.  

The English Catholic Community 1570-1850, 1975

Caraman, P.  

The Other Face: Catholic Life under Elizabeth I 1960

Caraman, P.  

The Years of Siege: Catholic Life from James I to Cromwell, 1966

Dufly, E.  

The Stripping of the Altars: Traditonal Religion in England 1400-1580   1992.

Guilday, P.  

The English Catholic Refugees on the continent 1558-1795, 1914

Gwynn, D.   T

The Second Spring 1818-1852, n/d

Gwynn, D.   A

Hundred Years of Catholic Emancipation 1829-1929, 1929

Havran, M.J.  

The Catholics in Caroline England 1962

Hibbert, C.  

King Mob, 1959

Hodgetts, M.  

Secret Hiding Places, 1989

Kenyon, J.  

The Popish Plot, 1972

Leys, M.D.R.  

Catholics in England 1559-1829: A Social History, 1961

Loomie, A.J.  

The Spanish Elizabethans, 1963

Magee, B.  

The English Recusants, 1938

Mathew, D.  

Catholicism in England 1535-1935, 1936

Norman, E.  

Roman Catholicism in England from the Elizabethan Settlement to the Second Vatican Council, 1986

Watkin, E.I.  

Roman Catholicism in England from the Reformation to 1950, 1957

Of these Norman is the most modern but Leys is probably th best on the lives of ordinary Catholics over the whole of our period. Magee has a great many interesting statistics and lists all the Catholic nobility and gentry of the 17th century, information not brought together anywhere else. Caraman's two books are compilations and Hodgetts investigates the reality of 'priest-holes', that mainstay of manor hour mythology. Kenyon is about the Titus Oates Plot of 1678-1681 and Hibbert covers the Gordon Riots of 1780. Gwynn's Second Spring is about that extraordinary group of Anglicans from the late 1820s onwards who talked themselves into being Catholics, often without having actually met any.

Beck's The English Catholics 1850-1950 is a compendium of articles and, at
over six hundred pages, the best guide to the English Catholic world of the
immediate past. The following are some of the articles it contains:

• Hughes, P.  The English Catholics in 1850
• Albion, G.   The Restoration of the Hierarchy
• Sweeney, M.V.   Diocesan Organisation and Administration
• Wheeler, 0.   The Archdiocese of Westminster
• Hughes, P.   The Bishops of the Century
• Mathew, D.   Old Catholics and Converts
• Johnson, J.T.   Cardinal Newman
• Gwynn, D.   The Irish Immigration
• Evennett, H.O.   Catholics and the Universities
• Battersby, W.J.   Secondary Education for Boys
• Battersby, W.J.   Educational Work of the Religious Orders of Women
• Beales, A.C.F.   The Struggle for the Schools
• Gwynn, D.   Growth of the Catholic Community
• Cruise, E.   Development of the Religious Orders
• Dwyer, J.J.   The Catholic Press
• Hutton, E.   Catholic English Literature
• Bennett, J.   The Care of the Poor

Most of these authors were the well-known experts of their day and, for the most part, their work has not been superseded. It would be nice to think work of similar quality could be produced today.