Three churches in the county still remain under Jesuit control, but many more have been passed on to diocesan or other authorities.
Lancashire was the most Catholic county in England in the 17th and 18th centuries. The reason for this was the solid phalanx of Catholic landowners in the county, particularly, but not exclusively, in West Lancashire. In 1781 it was calculated that there were 69,373 Catholics in England and Wales; 27,000 of these were in the Anglican Diocese of Chester, which at that time included Lancashire. In the 19th century Catholic numbers in the county were bolstered by some converts, and many Irish immigrants: in the 1851 census the Irish-born population of Lancashire was 191,000, some 10 per cent of the county’s inhabitants.
