C SERIES

The collection consists mainly of the Howard, Stonor and Kirk papers, dealing with the business of the Vicars Apostolic in the Midland District, their correspondence with Roman authorities and financial transactions over wills and bequests. Much of the Kirk collection is concerned with the controversial issue of the Oath of Allegiance, both before and after the first Catholic Relief Act (1778), and with Kirk's lengthy correspondence with the Rev. Joseph Berington.

More information is also contained in this collection about the Common Fund of the Secular Clergy, later known as the Johnson Fund, and an almost complete series of its accounts is extant.

This Second Report of the Archives of the Archbishop of Birmingham deals with a collection of papers formerly kept at St Mary's College, Oscott, and covering the same period as the First Report [A Series], viz. c.1600-1829. To these have been added further documents found at Cathedral House, Birmingham, and at Cotton College, North Staffordshire.