Insofar as the term is used of people living today, recusant tends to be applied, as a term of pride, by the descendants of continuously Roman Catholic English gentry and peerage families.
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The Howard family who are the longstanding Dukes of Norfolk, are the most prominent recusant family in England.
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Other Recusant families include Ainscough, Arden of Longcroft, Throckmorton, Cary-Elwes, Coates, Gillibrand, Berkeley (of Spetchley), De Lisle (or de Lisle), Scrope (of Bolton), Weld, Weld-Blundell (or Weld Blundell), Ward, Holman, Fitzherbert (of Swynnerton), Fitzherbert-Brockholes, De Trafford (or de Trafford), Trappes-Lomax (Trappes of Nidd), Stourton, Vavasour, Clifford (of Chudleigh) - but only from conversion in 1673 -, Bedingfeld, Petre (some branches), Scarisbrick (some branches), Stukley (also spelled as Stucley, Stukely, Stukeley), Swarbrick, Talbot, Hornyold, Towneley and Stonor, as well as branches of non-wealthy families with such surnames as Pope, Payne, Wilson, Young, Simpson, Blount, Jerningham, and Turner, among others.
Shades of Brideshead, what wonderful names! I only wish I knew how to pronounce half of them. I wish I knew how to pronounce recusancy for that matter. Norman St John-Stevas would know.
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The obsession with appeasing minorities now includes Roman Catholics, who are apparently pining away for want of being able to become King of England, or to marry into the Royal family. I should have thought there were more important issues as Britain sinks into the swamp, but never mind. If we overturn the Act of Settlement then it seems to make sense to go the whole hog, and restore the Stuart (Catholic) line to the throne, from which it was debarred in 1701. This, as my colleague Mandrake discloses today, means turning the Duke of Bavaria, a descendant of James II, into King Francis II. This would be but a small undertaking for a Government that has already brought Britain to its knees, and how we must look forward to it.
Sayeth the Hefferlump
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