7 
The Prayer Book and surplice were thus again brought into 
use at Wrington, and so affairs remained through 1644, and until 
the great victories of Sir Thomas Fairfax, in 1645, once more 
restored Somersetshire to the Parliament. The King being then 
beaten everywhere, was soon without an army strong enough to 
cause anxiety, and the attention of the Parliament was busily 
turned to the completion of the Presbyterian Establishment. 
A new Assembly of Divines was called, but Mr. Crooke was 
not now one of the Members for Somerset ; Mr. Humphry 
Chambers, of Claverton, being appointed in his stead. The 
Parliament took care, nevertheless, to retain the entire manage- 
ment of all Church affairs, and from this cause the new system 
adopted was allowed to remain incomplete. No Presbyteries 
were created, by which vacancies in the Assembly could be filled 
up, until some time in the year 1648, when the county of Somerset 
was made a “Province” in itself, and for the “better settling 
the Presbyterial Government,” was divided into nine Classes, or 
districts, of which nine Bath and Wrington were two.* But as 
there were not “ fitting members” enough, these nine were 
reduced to four, and Bath and Wrington were united. The 
boundary of this united district extended from Axmouth across 
by Chilcompton to Brackley, on the borders of Wiltshire, and 
included a hundred and forty-one parishes and hamlets. To 
superintend this large part of the county there were eleven 
Ministers only appointed, besides those for the City of Bath, and 
the first named on the list is Mr. Samuel Crooke de Wrington. 
Besides the Ministers there were thirty-two Elders, and amongst 
them were John Amery and Edmund Keene, of Wrington. 
This “long looked for” settling, came however, too late, for 
besides that many were tired of the Parliamentary dictation, there 
had now arisen that ‘“‘Great Goliah,” Cromwell, and with him 
the Independent party, ‘“‘ Dissenting Brethren” as they were 
* The County of Somerset Divided, &c. 
