George Leo Haydock (1774-1849), 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 and a struggle to complete his priestly studies in the years before Catholic Emancipation. He would go on to serve poor Catholic missions in rural England.
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George Leo Haydock was born on April 11, 1774 in Cottam, in the Fylde area of Lancashire, the heart of Catholic resistance to the Penal Laws that the English government used to enforce Anglicanism. 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 (1772-1859), became a prominent publisher of Catholic books. Among three daughters, Margaret (1767? - 1854), joined the Augustinian nuns, 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" during the Elizabethan persecution, beatified in 1987. While attending a school established for Catholic students at Mowbreck Hall, Wesham, George received Confirmation, taking the name Leo, after the fifth-century saint, Pope Leo I, 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, 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. After a stay at St. Edmund's College, Ware, Old Hall Green in Hertfordshire, Haydock was able in 1796 to resume his studies in earnest at a seminary established at Crook Hall, near Consett in County Durham (not to be confused with present day Crook Hall & Gardens in Durham 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, Yorkshire, 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.
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, one of the first professors at the English College, Douai (University of Douai). It was revised and newly annotated in the 18th century by Richard Challoner (1691-1781), a scholar at University of Douai 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 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.
In 1816, Father Haydock was given a new assignment at nearby Whitby. 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 (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, 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 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.
Immediately upon his reinstatement, Haydock was given a new assignment at Penrith, Cumbria (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: (Latin: "Tristitia vestra vertetur in gaudium," meaning "Your sorrow shall be turned to joy") from St John 16:20.
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:
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.
Father Haydock's other published books are devotional:
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 is provided by Simon Nuttall, a descendant of the Gillow family of Catholic Recusants, who kindly gave permission for its reproduction.