Diocese of Nottingham

It was one of twelve English dioceses created at the restoration of the hierarchy by Pius IX in 1850, embracing the counties of Nottingham, Leicester, Derby, Lincoln and Rutland. These had comprised part of the Apostolic Vicariate of the Midland District, when at the request of King James II in 1685, the Holy See divided England into four vicariates: the London, the Northern, the Midland and the Western. Before 1840, when the number of vicars apostolic was increased from four to eight, the Midland District consisted of fifteen counties. In 1850 Nottingham had 24 permanent missions, many of these little better than villages. For the most part they originated from chaplaincies which had…