John Lingard (5 February 1771 – 17 July 1851)[1] was an English Catholic priest and historian, the author of The History of England, From the First Invasion by the Romans to the Accession of Henry VIII, an eight-volume work published in 1819.

They each migrated from their native Claxby in Lincolnshire, first to London, where they met once again and married, then, after a short return to their old home, to Winchester, where he was born.

Narrowly escaping attacks by mobs at the time of the French Revolution upon the declaration of war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and France, he returned to England in 1793 in charge of two brothers named Oliveira and of William, afterwards Lord Stourton.

[2] When Lingard learned that a number of his students from Douai had made it to Arthur Storey's school in Tudhoe, he asked leave of the Baron to join them, which was granted.

In 1794 Bishop William Gibson asked Eyre to take charge of the Northern students who had been expelled from Douai, and who were then temporarily at Tudhoe under John Lingard.

Nominally Lingard held the chair of philosophy; practically, besides the duties of vice-president to Eyre, he undertook in addition those of prefect of studies, procurator, and of professor of Church history.

[7] Lingard argued that "...By preserving the use of the Latin tongue, they imposed on the clergy the necessity of study, kept alive the spirit of improvement, and transmitted to future generations the writings of the classics, and the monuments of profane and ecclesiastical history.

"[8] In his discussion of saints and their holy books, Lingard implies a continuity between the Anglo-Saxon Christians and the English Roman Catholics of his own day, some of whom retained custody of the ancient manuscripts.

A substantial scholarly work which gave full treatment to the history of England, the book was later expanded by the author and the title changed to reflect the period covered.

Lingard himself argued that one of his chief duties as an historian was: "to weigh with care the value of the authorities on which I rely, and to watch with jealousy the secret workings of my own personal feelings and prepossessions.

)Lingard adopted a non-controversial and sober approach to history with the emphasis on incontrovertible fact and using primary rather than secondary sources.

Lingard's religion had to a large extent isolated him from the mainstream nationalism which surrounded Protestant historians, as well as from the growing "providentialist" concept of history.

Lingard's strength of argument, however, continued to be popular, and the influence of Protestant animosity for Catholic apologetic also led him to develop a keen critical judgement.

Lingard made extensive use of Vatican archives and French, Italian, Spanish and English dispatches, document collections and state papers – the first British historian to do so.

The History was abridged and revised adding material to bring its treatment up to the then present and used as a text in English Catholic schools during the nineteenth century.

His work would in turn be influential in the passage of the Catholic emancipation bill by preparing the way for public acceptance and the minimisation of sectarian violence.

Lingard departed from usual Catholic practice by using early Greek manuscripts rather than the Latin Vulgate as the principal basis for the translation.

The work influenced Francis P. Kenrick (1796–1863), Roman Catholic Bishop of Philadelphia, and later Archbishop of Baltimore, who published his own translation of the Four Gospels in 1849.