PARISH HISTORY - INTRODUCTION

On the fifth of August 2002 the parish celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the consecration of the present church.

Parish Priest Monsignor Gregory Turner has written this summary of the parish history based on the book Portrait of a Parish by Kevin Rafferty, published in 1997

Prior to the 19^th century, information about Catholics living in the Border district of the old County of Cumberland is rather scanty. What information exists is from hostile sources such as the Quarter Sessions and the records and papers concerning the 1745 Rebellion. There are few early Catholic records for the simple reason that it was risky for priests to keep lists of Catholic names for fear they should fall into the hands of the authorities.

Lord William Howard of Naworth (1563-1640) (known as ‘Belted Will’) was a Catholic recusant and a powerful figure on the Borders, so it is highly likely that a number of Catholic families would remain after his time. Bishop Leyburn confirmed 126 people at Corby Castle (just outside Carlisle) in 1687.

Lists of Catholics were compiled in 1767 by the Bishops of the Established Church – it was thought that Catholics favoured the Stuart cause and anxieties had been expressed about their number and whereabouts, especially in counties that bordered Scotland. These lists show that at that time only 162 Catholics lived in the whole county of Cumberland.

Few professions and careers were open to Catholics because of the penal laws and their being debarred from the Universities. The Army, however, did not require such qualifications, and there were proportionately more Catholics in the Army than one would expect. Carlisle, being a garrison town, had a nucleus of Catholic soldiers and their families which formed the basis of a new parish.  

In 1798 local Catholics obtained their first chapel. Mr Fairbairn the landlord of the Bush Hotel in English Street converted a small building he owned in West Walls. At first the congregation was thought to be too small to support a resident priest, but in December 1800 Fr Joseph Marshall arrived in Carlisle, a man from an old Yorkshire family with means of his own which helped to subsidise the establishing of a new parish. Fr Marshall was 33 years old when he came to Carlisle. The parish was very extensive, stretching from Penrith in the south to Annan in Scotland. Only when two other parishes were established, Penrith in 1833 and Wigton in 1837, did the parish become more manageable.

St Mary and St Joseph on Chapel Street, when built

Fr Marshall remained as Parish Priest of St Mary & St Joseph (as the parish was known in those days) until he died in 1854 at the age of 86. Antagonism to Catholics was common when he arrived (he was spat at in the streets, and the Carlisle Patriot wrote about the ‘pollution of Popery’ in the city); when he died there were 3000 Catholics in the city, a new church had been built on Chapel Street and a school with over 200 pupils had been erected nearby. He was respected by all (a portrait of him presented by the City Council hangs in the present Rectory) and a public dinner was held in his honour when he officially retired in 1845. He was allowed, however, to continue as Parish Priest as long as he permitted an assistant priest to help him out. There was a series of these in his latter years, one of whom, Robert Cornthwaite, was to become the Bishop of Leeds.