Joseph Gillow

Contents

Joseph Gillow (5 October 1850, Preston, Lancashire – 17 March 1921, Westholme, Hale, Cheshire) was an English Roman Catholic antiquary, historian and bio-bibliographer, "the Plutarch of the English Catholics".[1]

Biography

Born in Frenchwood House, Lancashire,[2] to a recusant English Roman Catholic family able to trace an uninterrupted pedigree back to Conishead Priory in 1325, Gillow was the son of a magistrate, Joseph Gillow (1801–1872), and his wife, Jane Haydock (1805–1872), a descendant of Christopher Haydock, a Lancashire politician and a member of another prominent recusant English Roman Catholic family, the Haydocks of Cottam.[2][3]

Joseph Gillow was educated at Sedgley Park School, Wolverhampton (1862–1863) and St Cuthbert's College, Ushaw (1864–1866), where his brothers and uncles had studied for the priesthood.[4] At Ushaw, Gillow developed an abiding interest in Lancashire Catholicism, resulting in the publication of The Tyldesley Diary in 1873.[2]

In 1878 Gillow married Eleanor McKenna, daughter of John McKenna, of Dunham Massey Hall,[2] with whom he had seven children.[5] In marrying into the McKennas, Gillow secured himself a private income which allowed him to pursue his antiquarian interests.[6]

Cardinal Gasquet described the dictionary as a ‘veritable storehouse of information’, however, until 1986, no index was available.[7]

Gillow was appointed honorary recorder of the Catholic Record Society at its foundation in 1904, and was a frequent contributor.[8]

Works

  • A Literary and Biographical History, or Bibliographical Dictionary, of the English Catholics, from the Breach with Rome, in 1534, to the Present Time, New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1885.
  • The Tyldseley Diary (editor)
  • The Haydock Papers: A Glimpse Into English Catholic Life Under the Shade of Persecution and in the Dawn of Freedom, New York: Burns & Oates, 1888.
  • St. Thomas's Priory, or, The story of St. Austin's Stafford, London: Burns & Oates, 1894.
  • Lancashire Recusants
  • 'Lord Burghley's Map of Lancashire', Miscellanea of the Catholic Record Society, 4 (London, 1907), pp. 162–216 and frontispiece
  • A Catalogue of the Martyrs in Englande for Profession of the Catholique Faith since the yeare of Our Lord 1535[9]

References

  1. 1.Thomas Bridgett, in The Catholic Who's Who and Yearbook, 1908; quoted in ODNB.
  2. 2.[2.2][2.3][2.4]"Gillow, Joseph (1850–1921), biographical lexicographer and genealogist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/41282. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  3. 3."HAYDOCK, Christopher (by 1499–1566 or later), of Preston, Lancs. | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org.
  4. 4.Mann, Stephanie A. (12 March 2016). "Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: William Haydock of Whalley Abbey".
  5. 5."Gillow Family Tree: Gillow Genealogy – Keith Gillow's Home Page". people.maths.ox.ac.uk.
  6. 6.J.F.X. Bevan, ‘Gillow, Joseph (1850–1921)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; accessed 1 August 2008
  7. 7.Bevan, J. F. X., Index and finding list to the bibliographical dictionary, 1986
  8. 8.Catholic Records Volume List 1–76 Archived 2008-08-28 at the Wayback Machine, catholic-history.org.uk; accessed 21 October 2014.
  9. 9.Burnand, Sir Francis Cowley (12 February 1908). "The Catholic Who's who and Yearbook". Burns & Oates – via Google Books.