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Recusant (from the Latin recusare, 'to refuse') literally means one who refuses to attend the services of the established church, an offence under the Elizabethan Uniformity Act of 1559. In practice the term is used to refer specifically to Catholics rather than just to absenters from church in general. The word itself is not found in these returns. Instead, the term 'Papist' is normally used. In the eighteenth century it was deemed necessary to assess and regulate the strength of Catholicism, seen as a threat to the authority of the established church as well as to the state. These recusant returns, constituting censuses of Catholics by parish formed part of this process. The returns for 1767 & 1780 formed part of a countrywide survey ordered through the archbishops and bishops by parliament. Each diocese submitted summaries compiled from the returns, or sometimes submitted the returns themselves, to the house of lords. The York recusant returns for 1743 & 1765 (Doncaster Deanery) were obtained through the routine visitation of the diocese made by either the archdeacons or the archbishop.
A hard copy finding aid and place name index is available at the Borthwick Institute.
