Michael William Hodgetts (29 March 1936 – 12 December 2022) was an English Catholic historian who became a leading expert on priest holes and on Harvington Hall.
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]
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]
He married Barbara in 1969. They had four children.
Hodgetts died on 12 December 2022, at the age of 86.[2] [3]
| 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 |
| 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? |
| 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 |
| 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 |