George Leo Haydock
Encyclopedia
George Leo Haydock scion of an ancient English Catholic Recusant family, was a priest, pastor and Bible scholar. His edition of the Douay Bible with extended commentary, originally published in 1811, became the most popular English Catholic Bible of the 19th century on both sides of the Atlantic. It remains in print and is still regarded for its apologetic value.

His eventful early years included a narrow scrape with the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

 and a struggle to complete his priestly studies in the years before Catholic Emancipation
Catholic Emancipation
Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in Great Britain and Ireland in the late 18th century and early 19th century which involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics which had been introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the penal laws...

. He would go on to serve poor Catholic missions in rural England.

Early years

George Leo Haydock was born on April 11, 1774 in Cottam, in the Fylde
The Fylde
The Fylde ; Scandinavian: "field") is a coastal plain in western Lancashire, England. It is roughly a 13-mile square-shaped peninsula, bounded by Morecambe Bay to the north, the Ribble estuary to the south, the Irish Sea to the west, and the Bowland hills to the east...

 area of Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

, the heart of Catholic resistance to the Penal Laws that the English government used to enforce Anglicanism
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...

. His parents were George Haydock and second wife, Anne (née Cottam), who produced a generation that would become outstanding in Catholic service. Their eldest son, James (1765-1809), became a priest who died caring for the sick of his congregation during an epidemic; the next, Thomas Haydock
Thomas Haydock
Thomas Haydock , born of one of the oldest English Catholic Recusant families, was a schoolmaster and publisher. His dedication to making religious books available to fellow Catholics suffering under the English Penal Laws came at great personal cost...

 (1772-1859), became a prominent publisher of Catholic books. Among three daughters, Margaret (1767? - 1854), joined the Augustinian nuns
Augustinian nuns
Augustinian nuns are the most ancient and continuous segment of the Roman Catholic Augustinian religious order under the canons of contemporary historical method. The Augustinian nuns, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , are several Roman Catholic enclosed monastic orders of women living...

, taking the name Sister Stanislaus. George was the youngest son. He and his father were namesakes of an illustrious ancestor, Blessed George Haydock (1556-1584), a martyred "seminary priest
Seminary priest
Seminary priests were Roman Catholic priests who were trained in English seminaries or houses of study on the European Continent after the introduction of laws forbidding Roman Catholicism in Britain. Such Seminaries included that at Douay, from 1568, and others at Rome from 1579, Valladolid from...

" during the Elizabethan persecution, beatified in 1987. While attending a school established for Catholic students at Mowbreck Hall, Wesham
Wesham
Medlar with Wesham is civil parish on the Fylde in Lancashire, England. It lies within the Borough of Fylde, and had a population of 3,245 in 1,294 households recorded in the 2001 census....

, George received Confirmation, taking the name Leo, after the fifth-century saint, Pope Leo I
Pope Leo I
Pope Leo I was pope from September 29, 440 to his death.He was an Italian aristocrat, and is the first pope of the Catholic Church to have been called "the Great". He is perhaps best known for having met Attila the Hun in 452, persuading him to turn back from his invasion of Italy...

, whose liturgical feast was at that time celebrated on Haydock's birthday (see General Roman Calendar as in 1954). In 1785, at eleven years of age, he was sent to further his education at the English College, Douai
English College, Douai
The English College, Douai was a Catholic seminary associated with the University of Douai . It was established in about 1561, and was suppressed in 1793...

, France, established in the 16th century for Catholic exiles, where provision was made for secondary education.
George Haydock’s studies were interrupted in 1793, when United Kingdom declared war on France. Authorities of the French revolutionary government closed the English College and imprisoned some of its pro-England students. George Haydock managed to avoid capture and escaped back to England in the company of his brother and fellow student, Thomas. There was an unsettled period while English Catholic bishops made hasty provision for the continuing education in England of the many refugees from Douai
Douai
-Main sights:Douai's ornate Gothic style belfry was begun in 1380, on the site of an earlier tower. The 80 m high structure includes an impressive carillon, consisting of 62 bells spanning 5 octaves. The originals, some dating from 1391 were removed in 1917 during World War I by the occupying...

. After a stay at St. Edmund's College, Ware
St. Edmund's College, Ware
St Edmund's College is the oldest post-Reformation Roman Catholic school in England. It is an independent school in the British public school tradition set on in Ware, Hertfordshire. During two periods of its history, it has also incorporated a seminary....

, Old Hall Green
Old Hall Green
Old Hall Green is a village in Hertfordshire, England.In 1793, an academy, St. Edmund's College, Ware, was established there which provided a school for Catholic boys and a seminary to train priests serving England's recusant community. St Edmund's College was one of two facilities which replaced...

 in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

, Haydock was able in 1796 to resume his studies in earnest at a seminary established at Crook Hall, near Consett in County Durham
County Durham
County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

 (not to be confused with present day Crook Hall & Gardens in Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...

 City). He was ordained a priest there in 1798, and remained as a professor until 1803, when the pastoral phase of his career began.

During the period of Penal Laws there was no official Catholic hierarchy in England, so there were no Catholic dioceses or parishes. A Bishop was called a Vicar Apostolic and presided over "missions" in his jurisdiction. Haydock’s first assignment was at Ugthorpe
Ugthorpe
Ugthorpe is a village and civil parish in the Scarborough borough, situated near Whitby, North Yorkshire, England. According to the 2001 UK census, Ugthorpe parish had a population of 201.-History:...

, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

, a poor rural mission. It is interesting to note that despite the legal disabilities of Catholics during this time, the Haydock family had retained a measure of local influence and wealth, providing Haydock with an independent source of income. This he often used to subsidize the missions he served.

The Haydock Bible

While at Ugthorpe, Father Haydock completed the work for which he would be best remembered: commentary for a new edition of the English Catholic Bible. That Bible was called the Douay Version (Douay-Rheims Bible), originally translated from the Latin Vulgate in the 16th century chiefly by Gregory Martin
Gregory Martin (scholar)
Gregory Martin was an English Catholic scholar, the translator of the Douai Version of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate....

, one of the first professors at the English College, Douai
English College, Douai
The English College, Douai was a Catholic seminary associated with the University of Douai . It was established in about 1561, and was suppressed in 1793...

 (University of Douai
University of Douai
The University of Douai is a former university in Douai, France. With a Middle Ages heritage of scholar activities in Douai, the university was established in 1559 and lectures started in 1562. It closed from 1795 to 1808...

). It was revised and newly annotated in the 18th century by Richard Challoner
Richard Challoner
Richard Challoner was an English Roman Catholic bishop, a leading figure of English Catholicism during the greater part of the 18th century. He is perhaps most famous for his revision of the Douay Rheims translation of the Bible.-Early life:Challoner was born in the Protestant town of Lewes,...

 (1691-1781), a scholar at University of Douai
University of Douai
The University of Douai is a former university in Douai, France. With a Middle Ages heritage of scholar activities in Douai, the university was established in 1559 and lectures started in 1562. It closed from 1795 to 1808...

 and then Vicar Apostolic of the London District, and later by Father Bernard MacMahon (1736?-1816). Haydock took his text from the Challoner-MacMahon revision, but added a substantially extended commentary. This commentary was partly original and partly compiled from Patristic writings and the writings of later Bible scholars. The Bible had long been used to advance the Protestant cause. However, Catholics used it effectively in their counteroffensive. As Haydock states in his Preface, "To obviate the misinterpretations of the many heretical works which disgrace the Scripture, and deluge this unhappy country, has been one main design of the present undertaking."
George's brother, Thomas, was the Bible’s publisher. Production began in 1811 and was completed in 1814, in a large, folio edition. As were many editions of the Bible at the time, Haydock’s was published and sold by subscription, a few leaves at a time. Subscribers would accumulate the sets of leaves over the years and ultimately have the completed Bible bound. Different copies have general title pages dated 1811, 1812, or 1813, showing variously Thomas Haydock’s Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

 or Dublin locations. Given the enormous scope of annotating the entire Bible, Father Haydock was unable to maintain his brother’s demanding production schedule in addition to his pastoral duties at Ugthorpe. Therefore, another Douay alumnus, Father Benedict Rayment (1764-1842), was called on for assistance. He and a group of colleagues compiled the New Testament portion of the commentary. There was contemporary criticism that haste in preparation of the commentary resulted in some errors. However, given the spartan resources available for Catholic publishing in England at the time, the Haydock Bible must be considered a remarkable achievement. English Catholics enthusiastically welcomed this impressive volume that symbolized a reinvigorated Catholicism on the verge of winning its long fight to repeal the Penal Laws. At least 1,500 copies of the first edition were sold.

Pastoral Troubles

In 1816, Father Haydock was given a new assignment at nearby Whitby
Whitby
Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a combined maritime, mineral and tourist heritage, and is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey where Caedmon, the...

. He moved to that mission, but continued also to serve Ugthorpe for most of the period until 1827 when a permanent successor was assigned. At this point, a series of problems ensued, beginning with a dispute between Haydock and the new Ugthorpe pastor, Father Nicholas Rigby
Nicholas Rigby
Nicholas Rigby , was an English Catholic priest.He was born in Walton-le-Dale near Preston, Lancashire. At the age of twelve he went to Ushaw College, where he was for a time professor of elocution. Ordained priest in September, 1826, he was sent to St. Mary's, Wycliffe, for six months, and was...

 (1800-1886), regarding responsibility for a debt owed by the mission. In addition, Haydock disputed the transfer of a donation originally intended for his Whitby mission to the recently established Ushaw College
Ushaw College
Ushaw College was a Roman Catholic seminary near Durham, England that closed in 2011. Ushaw was the principal seminary in the north of England for the training of Catholic priests.-History:...

, Durham. Given the generosity Haydock had shown in providing financial support from his own funds to his assigned missions, he felt ill used by these actions. His objections, not always tactfully expressed, irritated his superiors, Thomas Smith (1763-1831), Vicar Apostolic of the Northern Vicariate, and Smith’s Coadjutor Thomas Penswick (1772-1836), a former classmate of Haydock’s at Douay. As a result Smith transferred Haydock to a private chaplaincy at Westby Hall, Lancashire, in 1830. Smith died in 1831 and was succeeded by the sterner disciplinarian Penswick, who immediately interdicted Haydock from saying Mass.

While these events were unfolding, English Catholics finally won passage of the Catholic Emancipation
Catholic Emancipation
Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in Great Britain and Ireland in the late 18th century and early 19th century which involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics which had been introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the penal laws...

 Act of 1829. Ironically, just after this victory so long sought after by him and his ancestors, Father Haydock was forced into retirement by his own Catholic superior. In 1831 he dutifully settled at The Tagg, a Haydock family dower-house in Cottam. He remained there for eight years, "devoting himself to study, with his books all around him, lining the walls, and piled in heaps on the floors." He made an unsuccessful appeal to Rome of his interdiction. Penswick appears to have conspired to prevent Haydock’s case from being heard. Another appeal after Penswick’s death was successful, resulting in restoration of Haydock’s priestly faculties in 1839.

Final Assignment and Death

Immediately upon his reinstatement, Haydock was given a new assignment at Penrith, Cumbria
Penrith, Cumbria
Penrith was an urban district between 1894 and 1974, when it was merged into Eden District.The authority's area was coterminous with the civil parish of Penrith although when the council was abolished Penrith became an unparished area....

 (then known as Cumberland), another poor mission with discouraging prospects. His meticulous records give an idea of the contemporary Catholic population, consisting primarily of laborers and peddlers, plus two "beggars" and one "pauper." His letters during this period indicate a lengthy history of suffering from an apparent heart ailment. Haydock nonetheless worked zealously at the mission and began work on a new church, a red sandstone gothic structure named for St. Catherine. He died November 29, 1849, just a few months before its completion, and is believed buried in an unmarked grave on church grounds. St. Catherine's still exists, its congregation now part of the Lancaster Diocese. The church at one time featured a memorial tablet erected in Father Haydock's memory with his family motto: from St John 16:20.

Haydock’s Enduring Legacy

2011 is the bicentennial anniversary of the Haydock Bible. Its substantial and continuing popularity is reflected in its long history of varied editions. It would remain continuously in print until at least 1910 with a long series of publishers in England and America, and would enjoy a renewal of interest at the end of the 20th century, spurring a new series of reprints and modern digital reproductions. Present day Traditional Roman Catholics who see uncertainty of purpose in the post-Conciliar Church have found inspiration in the English Catholic Recusant movement and in Father Haydock’s confident expression of Faith. The following history of editions shows how the Haydock Bible with its changes over the years has made a continuing contribution to Catholic apologetics:
  • 1811-1814: the first edition, folio. Despite successful sales, this expensively produced edition was a financial loss to George's brother Thomas, whose enthusiasm for publishing Catholic books far exceeded his business acumen, and to George, who personally subsidized the project.
  • 1822-1824: an octavo
    Octavo
    Octavo to is a technical term describing the format of a book.Octavo may also refer to:* Octavo is a grimoire in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett...

     edition. Undismayed by the above experience, Thomas took on several partners to produce this smaller edition. It states on its title page that it is revised and diligently compared with the Latin Vulgate by the Rev. Geo. Leo Haydock. However, it lacks the extended commentary and is poorly printed with many errors, including an egregious one in II Corinthians 10:4, where the word fornications appears in place of fortifications.
  • 1823-25: the first American edition, folio. The Haydock Bible’s popularity quickly spread across the Atlantic. Irish immigrant Eugene Cummiskey of Philadelphia published this edition that remains to this day the only folio Catholic Bible ever published in America.

  • 1831: the New Testament portion of the original folio edition issued with a new title page by Thomas Haydock. It is unclear whether he reissued the entire Bible at this time.
  • 1845-48: a quarto
    Quarto
    Quarto could refer to:* Quarto, a size or format of a book in which four leaves of a book are created from a standard size sheet of paper* For specific information about quarto texts of William Shakespeare's works, see:...

     edition begun by MacGregor, Polson & Company of Glasgow and Charles Dolman of London, and completed by A. Fullarton and Co. of Dublin, London, and Edinburgh. This series remained in print with a series of publishers into the 1870s. This was the last edition published during Father Haydock's lifetime.
  • 1852-54: a quarto edition by American publisher Edward Dunigan and Brother of New York. This edition includes a revised New Testament text. This revision was begun by Father James Bayley
    James Roosevelt Bayley
    James Roosevelt Bayley was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as the first Bishop of Newark and the eighth Archbishop of Baltimore .-Early life and education:...

     (1814-1877), who was appointed Bishop of Newark during publication, and completed by Father James McMahon (1814-1901), who was responsible for most of the work. This edition was frequently reissued by a series of publishers into the 1880’s.

  • ca. 1853: a quarto edition by George Henry and Co. of London, and initially distributed in America by George Virtue of New York. In this edition the commentary was abridged by Canon F. C. Husenbeth (1796-1872). This was the probably the most successful of the Haydock editions, remaining in print at least through 1893. Circa 1880, The National Publishing Company of Philadelphia imported the stereotype plates from England and mass marketed editions over the imprints of wide range of local booksellers and printing companies, and got the recently established Montgomery Ward
    Montgomery Ward
    Montgomery Ward is an online retailer that carries the same name as the former American department store chain, founded as the world's #1 mail order business in 1872 by Aaron Montgomery Ward, and which went out of business in 2001...

     national mail order firm to include it in their catalogue. An extraordinarily large number of copies must have been printed, judging by how frequently surviving copies are met with in the second hand book trade. A copy of this edition was used in the Inauguration of President John F. Kennedy
    John F. Kennedy
    John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

     (1917-1963) in 1961, coincidentally the 150th anniversary of Haydock’s first edition.
  • ca. 1868: a quarto edition by P. O'Shea of New York. Some copies appeared in large (Imperial) quarto. This obscure edition features an abridged version of the commentary.
  • ca. 1874-1878: a large (Imperial) quarto edition by Virtue and Company Limited, of London. In this edition, two converts from the Oxford Movement
    Oxford Movement
    The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...

    , Frs. Frederick Oakeley
    Frederick Oakeley
    Frederick Oakeley was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England the sixth son of Sir Charles Oakeley, second baronet, and educated at Christ Church, Oxford. He was ordained in 1828 and in 1845 converted from Church of England to Catholicism, whereupon he became Canon of Westminster in 1852....

     (1802-1880) and Thomas Law (1836-1904) thoroughly revised the commentary to incorporate advances in Biblical scholarship since Haydock's time. An American edition by P. F. Collier of New York, founder of Collier's Weekly
    Collier's Weekly
    Collier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Fenelon Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. With the passage of decades, the title was shortened to Collier's....

     magazine, appeared ca. 1884. British editions remained in print until 1910.
  • 1988: a quarto reproduction of the New Testament portion of the ca. 1853 (George Henry) edition supra by Catholic Treasures, Monrovia, California.
  • 1992: a quarto reproduction of an 1859 reprint of the Edward Dunigan and Brother edition supra by Catholic Treasures, Monrovia, California. This edition has been reissued in 2000, 2006, and remains in print.
  • 1999: a CD entitled Douay Bible 99 issued by Catholic Software of Murray, KY, featuring text and commentary that can be displayed on a computer in a split-screen format.
  • 2007: On Line Edition; see link below.


Beginning with the ca. 1874-1878 (Virtue and Company) edition, title pages to the New Testament sections incorrectly credit Father Haydock with the New Testament commentary. Since the names of Father Rayment and his associates were never mentioned, even in the earliest editions, their contribution was forgotten over the years. This error also occurs on the later printings of the ca. 1853 (George Henry) edition.

The Haydock name became so popular and so closely associated with English Catholic Bibles in the 19th century that at least one publisher ca. 1886 "pirated" it for an edition that included only the standard Challoner annotations by adding the statement to the spine of his edition, Challoner’s Notes and Other Important Features of the Haydock Bible. During the 1940’s and 1950’s, some "pocket" editions of the Catholic New Testament (usually referred to as the Rheims Testament when published separately) appeared, erroneously crediting "Canon Haydock" with the annotations.

Other Published Works

Father Haydock's other published books are devotional:
  • Prayers before and after Mass, Proper for Country Congregations, 1822
  • A Key to the Roman Catholic Office, 1823
  • A Collection of Catholic Hymns, 1823
  • A New Collection of Catholic Psalms, Hymns, Motettos, Anthems, and Doxologies. 1823
  • The Method of Sanctifying the Sabbath Days at Whitby, Scarborough, &c., The Second Edition, with Various Additional Instructions, by the Rev. George Leo Haydock, 1824


In 1809 Haydock published a table entitled The Tree of Life, depicting a summary of Church history from Adam to the current time. He also authored a large body of works in manuscript form that were never published, including a paraphrase of the Psalms and Canticles in the Roman Office, and several volumes of Biblical Disquisitions intended as a supplement to the Bible.

Portrait

Portrait is provided by Simon Nuttall, a descendant of the Gillow family of Catholic Recusants, who kindly gave permission for its reproduction.

See also

  • Douay-Rheims Bible
  • Roman Catholicism in Great Britain
    Roman Catholicism in Great Britain
    Roman Catholicism in the United Kingdom refers to the practice of Roman Catholicism in Great Britain and Ireland since the creation of the United Kingdom....

    (The Eighteenth Century & The Catholic Revival in the Nineteenth Century)

External links

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