THE UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Protestant Dissenters in Hampshire, c. 1640-c. 1740 Rosalind Noreen Johnson Doctor of Philosophy June 2013 This Thesis has been completed as a requirement for a postgraduate research degree of the University of Winchester UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER ABSTRACT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Doctor of Philosophy PROTESTANT DISSENTERS IN HAMPSHIRE, c. 1640-c. 1740 Rosalind Noreen Johnson This thesis demonstrates that the experiences of Protestant dissenters in the period from c. 1640-c. 1740 were of significant importance in the religious history of Hampshire. Modern scholarship has overlooked the value of Hampshire as a case study of Protestant nonconformity in the period, and this thesis therefore represents a major contribution to an understanding of provincial dissent in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The thesis demonstrates the extent of dissatisfaction with the national church in the period 1640 to 1660. This period also saw the rise of radical religious groups, whose success in the county is examined. After the Restoration, persecution of dissenters became widespread, with occurrences often influenced by national events and legislation. But a close examination of the Hampshire evidence shows variations in the persecution of dissent across the county, due to local factors. Hampshire’s dissenters represented a significant minority in the population of the county, but no previous study has demonstrated how the distribution of dissent varied throughout the county. The distribution appears to have been influenced by many factors, but, in Hampshire as elsewhere, dissent was strong in towns, increasingly so in the eighteenth century. Previous studies of the social status of dissenters have not encompassed Hampshire, so this study makes an important contribution to existing analyses of social status by examining the evidence to demonstrate that the county’s dissenters were of the ‘middling sort’, but that this status did broaden in the years following Toleration. The experience of Hampshire dissenters after the Toleration Act has not been the subject of extensive study. This thesis examines unused sources to show how far the county’s dissenters were affected by external challenges from the Anglican church and by internal controversies. The conclusion is that Hampshire’s overall experience of dissent was influenced in some respects by national events, but at the same time not inevitably swayed by them. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract 1 Table of Contents 2 List of Tables in Appendix 3 List of Maps in Appendix 4 Abbreviations 5 Declaration and Copyright Statement 6 Acknowledgements 7 Introduction 9 Chapter one: literature review, primary sources and methodology 17 Chapter two: dissatisfaction with the national church, 1640 to 1660 46 Chapter three: radical protestant religious movements, 1640 to 1660 66 Chapter four: the persecution of dissent, 1660 to 1689 82 Chapter five: the distribution of dissent, 1660 to 1740 122 Chapter six: the social status of dissenters, 1660 to 1740 164 Chapter seven: challenges to dissent, 1689 to 1740 182 Conclusions 214 Appendix: Tables 222 Appendix: Maps 337 Bibliography 345 2 LIST OF TABLES IN APPENDIX Table 1: Hampshire parishes and the purchase of bread and wine for communion, 1645-60 222 Tables 2a-d: Social status of dissenters 223 Tables 3a-j: Diocese of Winchester: Roman Catholics and Protestant nonconformists as percentage of adult population, 1676 226 Table 4: Diocese of Winchester: Percentage of conformists, Roman Catholics and Protestant nonconformists in parishes, by deanery, 1676 266 Table 5: From Compton Census (1676): percentage of Roman Catholics and Protestant nonconformists in large Hampshire parishes (1000+ inhabitants) 268 Table 6: From Compton Census (1676): percentage of Roman Catholics and Protestant nonconformists in Southampton parishes 269 Table 7: From Compton Census (1676): percentage of Roman Catholics and Protestant nonconformists in Winchester parishes 270 Table 8: Diocese of Winchester: Fordingbridge Deanery. Comparison of Compton Census figures with churchwardens’ presentments 271 Table 9: Comparison of 1669 Conventicle Returns with 1676 Compton Census 273 Tables 10a-l: Indicators of dissent in parishes with over five per cent adult population dissenting 276 Table 11: Hampshire and Isle of Wight: ministers ejected 1660-2 290 Table 12: Changing numbers of dissenters: evidence from surviving meeting minutes and accounts 303 Table 13: Social status of male dissenters, 1715-18 304 Table 14a: Hampshire dissenting meetings and hearers, from the Evans List of 1715-18 305 Table 14b: Total hearers in Hampshire by denomination, from the Evans List of 1715-18 306 Table 15: Roman Catholics and Protestant Dissenters in Hampshire: Summary of replies to bishop’s visitation, 1725 307 Table 16a: Hampshire meeting house certificates: evidence from Quarter Sessions records 324 Table 16b: Hampshire meeting house certificates: bishop’s court records 326 3 LIST OF MAPS IN APPENDIX Map 1: Market towns in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, 1625-1700 337 Map 2: Places of ejection in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, 1660-2 338 Map 3: Hampshire settlements with conventicles, 1669 339 Map 4: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight settlements with more than 5% adult population as Protestant dissenters, 1676 340 Map 5: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight main Quaker meetings, 1690 341 Map 6: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Presbyterian and Independent congregations, c. 1715-c. 1718 342 Map 7: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Baptist congregations, c. 1715-c. 1718 343 Map 8: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Protestant dissenting meetings (all denominations), 1725 344 4 ABBREVIATIONS AL Angus Library, Regents Park College, Oxford BL British Library CSPD Calendar of State Papers Domestic DWL Dr Williams’s Library FHL Friends House Library HRO Hampshire Record Office IWRO Isle of Wight Record Office LSURC London Street United Reformed Church, Basingstoke LPL Lambeth Palace Library ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography PHC Portsmouth History Centre SAS Southampton Archives Services SHC Surrey History Centre TNA The National Archives VCH Victoria County History 5 DECLARATION AND COPYRIGHT STATEMENT I, ROSALIND NOREEN JOHNSON, do declare that the Thesis entitled Protestant Dissenters in Hampshire, c. 1640-c. 1740 and the work presented in the Thesis are both my own, and have been generated by me as the result of my own original research. No portion of the work referred to in the Thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. I confirm that this Thesis is entirely my own work. Copyright in text of this Thesis rests with the author. Copies (by any process) either in full, or of extracts, may be made only in accordance with instructions given by the author. Details may be obtained from the RKE Office. This page must form part of any such copies made. Further copies (by any process) of copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the permission (in writing) of the author. Signed: Rosalind Johnson Date: 10 June 2013 6 Acknowledgements I am grateful to the following for permission to use material in this thesis: The British Academy for permission to use material from the following work for which the Academy is the copyright holder: Anne Whiteman (ed.), The Compton Census of 1676: a critical edition (London, 1986). Hampshire Record Office for permission to use material from W. R. Ward, Parson and Parish: replies to bishops’ visitations (Hampshire Record Series, vol. 13), (Winchester, 1995), and from 21M65/F2/1/1-143 Diocese of Winchester: Dissenters’ meeting house certificates, 1702-1761. Oxford University Press for permission to use material from A. G. Matthews, Calamy Revised: being a revision of Edmund Calamy’s ‘Account’ of the ministers and others ejected and silenced, 1660-2 (Oxford, 1934). The Trustees of Dr Williams’s Library for permission to publish extracts from MS 38.4 John Evans List of Dissenting Congregations and Ministers in England and Wales, 1715- 1729. 7 Work on this thesis has been greatly assisted by the generosity of several organisations. I am particularly grateful to the University of Winchester for its award of a three-year fully-funded studentship. I would also like to thank the Institute of Historical Research for a Ruddock Bursary, Friends Historical Society for its conference grant, Quaker Peace and Social Witness for a higher education grant at the start of the project, and the Ecclesiastical History Society for a postgraduate bursary to attend its 2011 summer conference. I was fortunate to have Professor Elizabeth Stuart as my Director of Studies. She provided encouragement and excellent strategic advice. Dr Jean Morrin and Dr Colin Haydon also provided advice and feedback. I am grateful to Professor Tom James for his advice and support. Professor Andrew Spicer of Oxford Brookes University conducted my upgrade, giving me good advice on the direction of the thesis. Tom Olding displayed great patience with my attempts at Latin translation. I am indebted to all the staff at the several archives and libraries used during this project for their assistance, and for pointing me in the direction of relevant sources. The Hampshire Record Office staff were helpful throughout my research; I am particularly grateful to Sarah Lewin for her advice. Dr David Wykes of Dr Williams’s Library gave valuable advice on Presbyterian and Congregational records. Jean Holton of London Street Basingstoke URC gave generously of her time that I might have the opportunity to work through the congregation’s archives.The library staff at the University of Winchester deserve especial thanks, as do the administrative staff, particularly Chrissie Ferngrove. I have been touched by the interest shown in this project by so many different people. My fellow students have been a particular source of encouragement and friendship; it has been a real pleasure to know you all.