Thomas Weld (1750–1810), of Lulworth in Dorset, is remembered today principally on three counts: his rôle as the founder of Stonyhurst College in 1794; his benefactions to religious orders at the height of the French revolution as they fled from political upheaval and danger in continental Europe; and his friendship with George III, including his hosting of several visits of the king to Lulworth Castle in the 1790s. Weld’s munificence in making available his Lancashire seat, Stonyhurst, to the English ex-Jesuit ‘Gentlemen of Liège’ has received attention from historians. In contrast, his own education as a young man, at the hands of the English and French Jesuits in continental Europe, has hitherto received little more than passing notice.

Among the bishops of the restored hierarchy of 1850, the name of Joseph William Hendren holds a special place for three reasons. On his appointment as Vicar Apostolic of the Western District in 1848, he was the last of the Vicars Apostolic in England and Wales to be nominated prior to the restoration; he was the only member of the restored hierarchy to be the first bishop of two new sees—Clifton, in 1850, and Nottingham in 1851; and the duration of his episcopal career was the shortest of any of his confrères around the time of the restoration.

The advent of State intervention in education in the early Victorian period and the creation in 1839 of the Committee of Council on Education, a Select Committee of the Privy Council, brought with it new duties and responsibilities. One of the first tasks confronting the Committee of Council was to determine the manner in which the new grants of money to schools should be distributed. In June 1839 the Committee issued a Minute announcing that all future building grants to schools would involve the right of inspection:

THE SUPPRESSION of the Society of Jesus by Clement XIV in 1773 brought an abrupt end to Jesuit activity in many parts of the world. However, after 1773 many ex-Jesuits of the former English Province stationed in England, Wales, Maryland and Pennsylvania continued their work as chaplains and missionaries. On the continent the English ex-Jesuits, having been obliged to transfer their college from Saint-Omer first to Bruges and later to Liège, were protected by the prince bishop of the latter city in their work of educating boys. Even after the college's final migration to Stonyhurst in 1794 as a result of the upheaval of the French Revolution, the English ex-Jesuits continued operating without total loss of their pre-Suppression way of life.’