Katharine Longley was born in Clapham, London in 1920. She was educated at Clapham Girls' High School and University College London. She became Archivist at York Minster Library until retiring in 1983. Miss Longley became an authority on recusant history and published articles on the subject in the Ampleforth Journal and Recusant History . In 1966 she published under the name of Mary Claridge (her mother's maiden name) Margaret Clitherow 1556-1586 , a biography of the Catholic saint. Her recusant papers and related research material are now deposited at Ampleforth Abbey. Miss Longely also wrote about the relationship between Ellen Ternan and Charles Dickens in the unpublished A Pardoner's Tale: The Story of Dickens and Ellen Ternan and in The Dickensian , notably The Real Ellen Ternan , vol. 81 (1985).
From the guide to the Longley, Katharine (b 1920), 1812-1993, (Senate House Library, University of London)
