Michael William Hodgetts KSG (29 March 1936 – 12 December 2022) was an English Catholic historian who became a leading expert on priest holes and on Harvington Hall.

Early life

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Hodgetts was born in Birmingham on 29 March 1936, and was raised a Catholic. He attended King Edward's School, Birmingham and then studied classics at Worcester College, Oxford, as well as studying for three years as a seminarian at the Venerable English College, Rome, before becoming a teacher at St Thomas More Catholic School, Willenhall.[1]

Career

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In the 1970s and 1980s, he sat on the International Commission on English in the Liturgy,[2] alongside his work as a teacher, and his translation of the hymn Pange lingua is now used in the English-language Catholic liturgy for Good Friday.[1]

In 1984, he was appointed to the management committee of Harvington Hall, a former manor house and centre of Recusancy that had been given to the Archdiocese of Birmingham in 1923.[2] He edited the volumes series of the Catholic Record Society and the society's journal, Recusant History (now British Catholic History).[1] In 1989 he retired from school-teaching and joined the staff of Maryvale Institute, a Catholic college of further and higher education.[2]

Personal life

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He married Barbara in 1969. They had four children.[3]

Hodgetts died on 12 December 2022, at the age of 86.[2][3]

Works

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Books/Chapters
Date Title
1989 Secret Hiding Places
1990 Revising the Order of Christian Funerals in Peter C. Finn & James M. Schellman edd., Shaping English Liturgy: Studies in Honor of Archbishop Denis Hurley
1994 Recusant Liturgical Music in Christopher Francis & Martin Lynch edd., A Voice for All Time
1996 History of Blackmore Park 1596-1846-1996
1999 (with V Alan McCleland) edd., From Without The Flaminian Gate: 150 years of Roman Catholicism in England and Wales 1850-2000
1999 The Iron Form: Catholics and Philosophy between the Councils in McCleland & Hodgetts edd., From Without The Flaminian Gate: 150 years of Roman Catholicism in England and Wales 1850-2000
1999 The Godly Garret, 1560-1660’, in Marie B. Rowlands ed., English Catholics of Parish and Town, 1558-1778
2000 History of St Joseph's Upton upon Severn 1850-2000
2002 History of Erdington Abbey
2002 History of St Joseph's Nechells
2004 Nicholas Owen in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2006 Introduction to John Gerard: The Autobiography of an Elizabethan, tr Caraman, 2nd edition
2008 Art and Thought in J. J. Scarisbrick ed., History of the Diocese of Birmingham, 1850-2000
2009 Coughton and the Powder Plot in Peter Marshall & Geoffrey Scott, edd. The Catholic Gentry in English Society: The Throckmortons of Coughton from Reformation to Emancipation
2011 (with Aileen M. Hodgson), Little Malvern Letters—I: 1482-1737
2024 Secret Hiding Places 2nd Edn, ed Paul Hodgetts
2024 (with Aileen M. Hodgson) Little Malvern Letters—II: 1737-1870
Journal Articles
Date Journal Title
1959 The Venerabile Priests' Hiding Holes
1959 Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society New Series Adam of Harvington
1960 The Venerabile Blessed John Wall - I
1960 The Venerabile Blessed John Wall - II
1962 Staffordshire Catholic History Staffordshire Priest Holes
1962 The Month Nicholas Owen In East Anglia
1962 Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society New Series The Priest-Holes at Harvington Hall
1963 Worcestershire Recusant John Wall’s Execution: An Eyewitness
1963 Worcestershire Recusant The Recusant History of a County
1964 Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society New Series The Priest-Holes at Hindlip Old Hall
1965 Recusant History John Wall at Harvington?
1965 Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society Third Series Elizabethan Recusancy in Worcestershire I
1965 Worcestershire Recusant A Certificate of Warwickshire Recusants 1592 I
1965 Worcestershire Recusant A Certificate of Warwickshire Recusants 1592 II
1966 Worcestershire Recusant The Priest Holes at Harvington: Some Further Notes
1967 Worcestershire Recusant John Wall’s Juramentum
1967 Worcestershire Recusant Recusant Houses of Warwickshire and Worcestershire I
1967 Worcestershire Recusant Recusant Houses of Warwickshire and Worcestershire II
1967 Worcestershire Recusant Two Harvington Letters
1968 Staffordshire Catholic History The Royal Hiding Places at Boscobel and Moseley
1968 Worcestershire Recusant Recusant Houses of Warwickshire and Worcestershire III
1970 Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society Third Series Elizabethan Recusancy in Worcestershire II
1970 Worcestershire Recusant Priests At Harvington 1660-1690
1972 Recusant History Elizabethan Priest Holes I : Dating and Chronology
1973 Recusant History Elizabethan Priest Holes II : Ufton, Mapledurham and Compton Wynyates
1973 Recusant History Elizabethan Priest Holes III : East Anglia, Baddesley Clinton and Hindlip
1973 Worcestershire Recusant Long Live King James: A Satirical Poem
1974 Worcestershire Recusant Jesuits at Baddesley Clinton October 1591
1975 Recusant History Elizabethan Priest Holes IV : Harvington Hall
1975 Worcestershire Recusant Register of Thomas Butler of Much Wenlock I
1976 Music and Liturgy Translating Liturgical Texts
1976 Recusant History Brough Hall Caterrick and Thorpe Hall Norwich: A note
1976 Recusant History Elizabethan Priest Holes V : The North
1976 The Clergy Review Recusant Liturgical Music
1976 Worcestershire Recusant Register of Thomas Butler of Much Wenlock II
1977 Canon Law Society of Great Britain and Ireland Newsletter The English Church without Bishops: 1559-1623
1977 Recusant History Elizabethan Priest Holes VI : The Escape of Charles II
1977 The Clergy Review The English Tradition and Liturgical Reform
1977 Worcestershire Recusant Register of Thomas Butler of Much Wenlock III
1978 Worcestershire Recusant Charles II at Bromsgrove?
1980 Recusant History Tanner on Nicholas Owen: A Note
1980 Worcestershire Recusant Seventeenth Century Priests at Harvington
1981 Worcestershire Recusant An Inventory of Harvington Hall 1826
1981 Worcestershire Recusant Harvington Hall 1929-1979: A Study In Local Historiography
1982 Recusant History A Topographical Index of Hiding Places
1982 Worcestershire Recusant Paradisus Redivivus?
1982 Worcestershire Recusant Park Hall, Castle Bromwich
1983 Worship Sense and Sound in Liturgical Translation
1984 ECA Journal Priest-Holes and Recusancy
1985 Eighteenth-Century Life (Williamsburg, VA) Secret Hiding Places: A Narrative of Tradition and Truth from the Restoration to the Regency
1985 Liturgy Rejoicing in Psalms?
1985 Worcestershire Recusant An Inventory of Harvington Hall 1797
1986 Worcestershire Recusant Recusants in the Midlands
1986 Worcestershire Recusant Shropshire Priests in 1605
1989 Recusant History Loca Secretiora in 1581
1991 Midlands Catholic History De Angelis on the Barrel-Organ, 1819
1991 Midlands Catholic History Recusant Contributors to the Worcester Cathedral Organ 1613
1992 Midlands Catholic History Mrs Packington and a Shakespearian Emblem
1993 Music and Liturgy De Angelis on the Barrel-Organ, 1819
1994 Midlands Catholic History ‘Wharton’s Ghost’ 1785
1994 Midlands Catholic History Thomas Belson’s Complaint
1994 Recusant History The Yates of Harvington 1631-1696
1995 Liturgy Revising the Missal: Introit and Communion Antiphons
1995 Midlands Catholic History Origins of Recusancy: The Pakingtons 1530-80
1998 Recusant History A Topographical Index of Hiding Places II
1999 Recusant History The Owens of Oxford
2000 Midlands Catholic History Campion in Staffordshire and Derbyshire 1581
2002 Recusant History The Throckmortons of Harvington 1696-1923
2003 Midlands Catholic History The Holtes of Aston Hall Birmingham
2004 Midlands Catholic History Rushock Court 1595
2005 Midlands Catholic History The Chimney Hide at Mapledurham
2005 Recusant History A Topographical Index of Hiding Places III
2006 Midlands Catholic History The Gunpowder Plot in Warwickshire and Worcestershire
2006 Recusant History Mille Maeandris Nicholas Owen 1606-2006
2006 Recusant History The 1958 Conference in Context
2007 Music and Liturgy Recusant Liturgy 1559-1791
2008 Midlands Catholic History Itinerant Priests in Oxfordshire 1592
2009 Midlands Catholic History Worcester Conformity certificates 1614-27
2009 The Basilican (St Chad's Cathedral Magazine) Papistry and Brewing: The Malt House at Harvington
2010 Midlands Catholic History Recusant Liturgy 1559-1791
2010 Recusant History Campion in the Thames Valley 1580
2011 Midlands Catholic History Greys Court, Oxfordshire
2012 Midlands Catholic History Barsford Bridge 1584
2012 Midlands Catholic History Thomas Strange and the Powder Plot
2012 The Basilican (St Chad's Cathedral Magazine) Pugin & Newman
2013 Midlands Catholic History Francis Martyn (1782-1838) and St Mary’s The Mount
2014 Midlands Catholic History Midland Recusant Altars
2014 The Basilican (St Chad's Cathedral Magazine) ‘Firmness to this Glass’: The Stonework at Harvington
2015 Midlands Catholic History Lyford Grange 1581-1681
2015 Midlands Catholic History The Jesuits in Sutton Coldfield: A Note
2016 Midlands Catholic History Hides and Hinges: Boscobel and Harvington
2016 Music and Liturgy Recusant Hymnody 1559-1800
2016 The Basilican (St Chad's Cathedral Magazine) Franciscans in Birmingham, 1656-1716
2017 Midlands Catholic History The Simeons of Britwell House, Oxfordshire, and Aston-By-Stone, Staffordshire
2018 Midlands Catholic History Charles II in Warwickshire 10 September 1651
2019 Midlands Catholic History Henry Garnet’s Pilgrimage to Holywell, 1605
2019 The Basilican (St Chad's Cathedral Magazine) Birmingham Catholics, 1560-1660
2020 Midlands Catholic History The Layout of Elizabethan Recusant Houses
2020 The Basilican (St Chad's Cathedral Magazine) ‘Lead, Kindly Light’: Newman’s Hymns
2021 Midlands Catholic History Rycote, Thame Park and Waterperry 1530-1800
2021 The Basilican (St Chad's Cathedral Magazine) Georgian Chapels
2022 Midlands Catholic History Lady Yate's Fund for Harvington
2022 Midlands Catholic History The Elizabethan Catholic Underground
2022 The Basilican (St Chad's Cathedral Magazine) Benedictines in Worcestershire and Warwickshire, 1600-1800
2022 The Basilican (St Chad's Cathedral Magazine) The Jesuit Residence of St George, 1580-1780
2023 Midlands Catholic History Dodd and his History
2024 Midlands Catholic History Nicholas Owen: Jesuit Lay Brother?
Archdiocese of Birmingham Historical Commission
Date Title
1987 St Chad's Cathedral
1990 Midlands Catholic Buildings
1991 Harvington Hall guidebook (repub.1998 and 2011)
2002 Life at Harvington
2017 Midland Martyrs
Unpublished / Works in progress
Title
Eighteenth Century Chapels in the Archdiocese of Birmingham
Elizabethan Catholic Gentry: Portraits in Settings
Elizabethan Catholics in Leicestershire
Elizabethan Catholics in Lincolnshire
Elizabethan Recusancy at Eynsham
Grafton Manor, Badge Court and Purshall Hall
Hindlip House 1606
Linen on Hedges
Recusant Houses of the Midlands and East Anglia
Robert Persons in the Welsh Marches 1580
The Comptons of Compton Wynyates
The Fortescues of Cookhill
Tixhall Hall and Gatehouse
Words for Music Perhaps: The Mechanics of Texts for Hymns

Awards

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Michael Hodgetts, teacher and historian who studied the struggles of persecuted Catholics in the 16th century". The Daily Telegraph. 25 January 2023. (subscription required)
  2. ^ a b c d "Michael Hodgetts: distinguished recusant historian who oversaw the restoration of Harvington Hall". Catholic Herald. 26 December 2022.
  3. ^ a b "Michael Hodgetts, teacher and historian who studied the struggles of persecuted Catholics in the 16th century – obituary". The Telegraph. 25 January 2023. Retrieved 26 January 2023. (subscription required)