I can't comment on the 17th century, but there were a substantial number of landed gentry and middle-class professionals who were more or less openly Catholic - that is to say, their religion was no secret, and their Catholicism was something in the nature of a family tradition. The men of these families were excluded from public office, from the higher ranks of the Army and Navy, and from the English universities, by virtue of their religion. The Test Act of 1673 made it a legal requirement to forswear transubstantiation as a condition of holding any public office, and thus Catholics were effectively shut out.

However, they could still hold land, trade as merchants, and carry on a large number of professions. A good example is the gentleman-connoisseur Sir Charles Townley (sometimes spelled Towneley), of Towneley Hall in Lancashire. Incidentally, Lancashire, Essex, North Wales and London seemed to hold the highest numbers of Catholic recusants. Sir Charles was a substantial landowner and extremely wealthy. Barred from public life, and with a passion for the arts, he invested much of his fortune in artworks and antiquities, and was a respected authority on classical sculpture. He also had a London townhouse, and was painted there, among his collection, by the artist Johann Zoffany - see here https://www.artfund.org/supporting-museums/art-weve-helped-buy/artwork/1215/charles-towneley-and-his-friends-in-the-park-street-gallery-westminster. Understandably, many wealthy Catholics had strong connections with Italy, especially Rome, which was also the centre of the 18th century European art world.

These Catholic families were, in the late 18th century at least, more or less tolerated by their sophisticated and educated peers. Some had covert links with Jacobitism, which in the 1740s and the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden, led to some ostracism, suspicion and occasional confiscation of property, but by the next decade this had more or less dissipated.

The situation was somewhat different among poor Catholics in England and Wales. Their numbers were not especially large, but they were primarily drawn from the thousands of Irish migrants who settled in London for work. In 1780, the Gordon Riots broke out in London, and over the course of several days a number of private houses and public buildings (including a prison) were burned down. They were sparked by anti-Catholic sentiment among (Protestant) London labourers and artisans, which had in turn been provoked by the prospect of legal emancipation for Catholics, and much of the rioting consisted of battles between these labourers and Irish Catholic workmen. However, I know of no contemporary evidence for large numbers of Catholics converting as a result of social pressure in the second half of the 18th century, at either end of the social spectrum.