Michael Hodgetts


Michael William Hodgetts was an English Catholic historian who became a leading expert on priest holes and on Harvington Hall.

Early life

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.

Career

In the 1970s and 1980s, he sat on the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, 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.
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. He edited the volumes series of the Catholic Record Society and the society's journal, Recusant History. In 1989 he retired from school-teaching and joined the staff of Maryvale Institute, a Catholic college of further and higher education.

Personal life

He married Barbara in 1969. They had four children.
Hodgetts died on 12 December 2022, at the age of 86.

Works

DateJournalTitle
1959The VenerabilePriests' Hiding Holes
1959Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society New SeriesAdam of Harvington
1960The VenerabileBlessed John Wall - I
1960The VenerabileBlessed John Wall - II
1962Staffordshire Catholic HistoryStaffordshire Priest Holes
1962The MonthNicholas Owen In East Anglia
1962Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society New SeriesThe Priest-Holes at Harvington Hall
1963Worcestershire RecusantJohn Wall’s Execution: An Eyewitness
1963Worcestershire RecusantThe Recusant History of a County
1964Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society New SeriesThe Priest-Holes at Hindlip Old Hall
1965Recusant HistoryJohn Wall at Harvington?
1965Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society Third SeriesElizabethan Recusancy in Worcestershire I
1965Worcestershire RecusantA Certificate of Warwickshire Recusants 1592 I
1965Worcestershire RecusantA Certificate of Warwickshire Recusants 1592 II
1966Worcestershire RecusantThe Priest Holes at Harvington: Some Further Notes
1967Worcestershire RecusantJohn Wall’s Juramentum
1967Worcestershire RecusantRecusant Houses of Warwickshire and Worcestershire I
1967Worcestershire RecusantRecusant Houses of Warwickshire and Worcestershire II
1967Worcestershire RecusantTwo Harvington Letters
1968Staffordshire Catholic HistoryThe Royal Hiding Places at Boscobel and Moseley
1968Worcestershire RecusantRecusant Houses of Warwickshire and Worcestershire III
1970Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society Third SeriesElizabethan Recusancy in Worcestershire II
1970Worcestershire RecusantPriests At Harvington 1660-1690
1972Recusant HistoryElizabethan Priest Holes I : Dating and Chronology
1973Recusant HistoryElizabethan Priest Holes II : Ufton, Mapledurham and Compton Wynyates
1973Recusant HistoryElizabethan Priest Holes III : East Anglia, Baddesley Clinton and Hindlip
1973Worcestershire RecusantLong Live King James: A Satirical Poem
1974Worcestershire RecusantJesuits at Baddesley Clinton October 1591
1975Recusant HistoryElizabethan Priest Holes IV : Harvington Hall
1975Worcestershire RecusantRegister of Thomas Butler of Much Wenlock I
1976Music and LiturgyTranslating Liturgical Texts
1976Recusant HistoryBrough Hall Caterrick and Thorpe Hall Norwich: A note
1976Recusant HistoryElizabethan Priest Holes V : The North
1976The Clergy ReviewRecusant Liturgical Music
1976Worcestershire RecusantRegister of Thomas Butler of Much Wenlock II
1977Canon Law Society of Great Britain and Ireland NewsletterThe English Church without Bishops: 1559-1623
1977Recusant HistoryElizabethan Priest Holes VI : The Escape of Charles II
1977The Clergy ReviewThe English Tradition and Liturgical Reform
1977Worcestershire RecusantRegister of Thomas Butler of Much Wenlock III
1978Worcestershire RecusantCharles II at Bromsgrove?
1980Recusant HistoryTanner on Nicholas Owen: A Note
1980Worcestershire RecusantSeventeenth Century Priests at Harvington
1981Worcestershire RecusantAn Inventory of Harvington Hall 1826
1981Worcestershire RecusantHarvington Hall 1929-1979: A Study In Local Historiography
1982Recusant HistoryA Topographical Index of Hiding Places
1982Worcestershire RecusantParadisus Redivivus?
1982Worcestershire RecusantPark Hall, Castle Bromwich
1983WorshipSense and Sound in Liturgical Translation
1984ECA JournalPriest-Holes and Recusancy
1985Eighteenth-Century Life Secret Hiding Places: A Narrative of Tradition and Truth from the Restoration to the Regency
1985LiturgyRejoicing in Psalms?
1985Worcestershire RecusantAn Inventory of Harvington Hall 1797
1986Worcestershire RecusantRecusants in the Midlands
1986Worcestershire RecusantShropshire Priests in 1605
1989Recusant HistoryLoca Secretiora in 1581
1991Midlands Catholic HistoryDe Angelis on the Barrel-Organ, 1819
1991Midlands Catholic HistoryRecusant Contributors to the Worcester Cathedral Organ 1613
1992Midlands Catholic HistoryMrs Packington and a Shakespearian Emblem
1993Music and LiturgyDe Angelis on the Barrel-Organ, 1819
1994Midlands Catholic History‘Wharton’s Ghost’ 1785
1994Midlands Catholic HistoryThomas Belson’s Complaint
1994Recusant HistoryThe Yates of Harvington 1631-1696
1995LiturgyRevising the Missal: Introit and Communion Antiphons
1995Midlands Catholic HistoryOrigins of Recusancy: The Pakingtons 1530-80
1998Recusant HistoryA Topographical Index of Hiding Places II
1999Recusant HistoryThe Owens of Oxford
2000Midlands Catholic HistoryCampion in Staffordshire and Derbyshire 1581
2002Recusant HistoryThe Throckmortons of Harvington 1696-1923
2003Midlands Catholic HistoryThe Holtes of Aston Hall Birmingham
2004Midlands Catholic HistoryRushock Court 1595
2005Midlands Catholic HistoryThe Chimney Hide at Mapledurham
2005Recusant HistoryA Topographical Index of Hiding Places III
2006Midlands Catholic HistoryThe Gunpowder Plot in Warwickshire and Worcestershire
2006Recusant HistoryMille Maeandris Nicholas Owen 1606-2006
2006Recusant HistoryThe 1958 Conference in Context
2007Music and LiturgyRecusant Liturgy 1559-1791
2008Midlands Catholic HistoryItinerant Priests in Oxfordshire 1592
2009Midlands Catholic HistoryWorcester Conformity certificates 1614-27
2009The Basilican Papistry and Brewing: The Malt House at Harvington
2010Midlands Catholic HistoryRecusant Liturgy 1559-1791
2010Recusant HistoryCampion in the Thames Valley 1580
2011Midlands Catholic HistoryGreys Court, Oxfordshire
2012Midlands Catholic HistoryBarsford Bridge 1584
2012Midlands Catholic HistoryThomas Strange and the Powder Plot
2012The Basilican Pugin & Newman
2013Midlands Catholic HistoryFrancis Martyn and St Mary’s The Mount
2014Midlands Catholic HistoryMidland Recusant Altars
2014The Basilican ‘Firmness to this Glass’: The Stonework at Harvington
2015Midlands Catholic HistoryLyford Grange 1581-1681
2015Midlands Catholic HistoryThe Jesuits in Sutton Coldfield: A Note
2016Midlands Catholic HistoryHides and Hinges: Boscobel and Harvington
2016Music and LiturgyRecusant Hymnody 1559-1800
2016The Basilican Franciscans in Birmingham, 1656-1716
2017Midlands Catholic HistoryThe Simeons of Britwell House, Oxfordshire, and Aston-By-Stone, Staffordshire
2018Midlands Catholic HistoryCharles II in Warwickshire 10 September 1651
2019Midlands Catholic HistoryHenry Garnet’s Pilgrimage to Holywell, 1605
2019The Basilican Birmingham Catholics, 1560-1660
2020Midlands Catholic HistoryThe Layout of Elizabethan Recusant Houses
2020The Basilican ‘Lead, Kindly Light’: Newman’s Hymns
2021Midlands Catholic HistoryRycote, Thame Park and Waterperry 1530-1800
2021The Basilican Georgian Chapels
2022Midlands Catholic HistoryLady Yate's Fund for Harvington
2022Midlands Catholic HistoryThe Elizabethan Catholic Underground
2022The Basilican Benedictines in Worcestershire and Warwickshire, 1600-1800
2022The Basilican The Jesuit Residence of St George, 1580-1780
2023Midlands Catholic HistoryDodd and his History
2024Midlands Catholic HistoryNicholas Owen: Jesuit Lay Brother?

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