A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



' steeple house ' and waited till the ' priest of that house,' Thomas Andrews, 

 had done, and then spake to the people. Dewsbury was hauled out of the 

 church into the churchyard, where he again preached to the people, till the 

 high constable came and removed him to the market-place. On 28 December 

 he was arrested on a warrant on a charge of blasphemy, and lodged in 

 Northampton gaol, where he was kept ' 'tween steps underground with 

 thieves and murderers' till quarter sessions on 10 January. The justices 

 remanded Dewsbury and two other Quakers to the March assizes. At the 

 assizes he was charged with going into the congregation at Wellingborough 

 and disturbing the minister and congregation by standing with his hat on all 

 the time of the sermon and prayer and for railing on the minister, calling 

 him a hireling and making a great disturbance. The judges wished 

 to deal leniently with him, and asked for a bond for his appearance at 

 the next assize. Dewsbury and his companions refused, and were 

 accordingly carried back to gaol. At the July assizes, they again refused 

 to find bonds for good behaviour, and were again taken back to gaol, where 

 they continued till January, 1656, when they were released by order of the 

 Protector.^ 



In 1657 one William Ireland went into Finedon 'steeple-house' and 

 spake ' when the priest had done ' ; for which offence he was sent to Bride- 

 well for six months, where he was so unmercifully whipped and so cruelly 

 used that he became exceedingly weak, so that he hardly survived the time 

 of his imprisonment, but presently after died. 



Northamptonshire afforded shelter and hospitality during the Common- 

 wealth to that learned and pious divine, Thomas Morton, successively 

 bishop of Chester, Lichfield, and Durham. On the abolition of episcopacy 

 ;(^8oo a year was assigned to the bishop of Durham, who was then of the 

 age of fourscore. But this income he never received, and in 1648 he was 

 driven from Durham House by the soldiery. When on horseback on his 

 way to London he encountered Sir Christopher Yelverton, who, Puritan 

 though he was, had compassion on the old man, and invited him to his seat 

 at Easton Maudit. He so endeared himself to the family that the invitation 

 lasted for his life. He died in 1659 at the age of 94, 'with perfect intel- 

 lectuals and a cheerful heart.' During his long sojourn at Easton Maudit 

 he helped to maintain the ministerial succession of the church by secret 

 ordinations." The celebrated divine and historian. Dr. Thomas Fuller, for 

 some time in his poverty enjoyed the hospitality of the Montagus at Boughton. 

 Archbishop Ussher also obtained sanctuary in the county during a part of this 

 period. 



' Besse tells us that the mayor of Northampton for that year ' was Peter Whaley, a man of an nasty and 

 cholerick disposition, when one Walter Ferr came before him with his hat on, he threw it into the kennel.' 

 Sufferings of the Quakers, i, 528. Other accounts, however, represent him as a man of peace esteemed for his 

 public spirit. Cf. Northampt. Borough Records, ii, 496. 



' He was buried in the church of Easton Maudit on Michaelmas Day, 1659, and his funeral sermon 

 preached by Dean Barwick. It was afterwards published with a brief 'Life.' Dr. Barwick boldly referred in 

 the sermon to the bishop being faithful to his office to the very last gasp — ' Witness his late ordinations of 

 priests and deacons here among you, whereof some here present received the benefit, and many more can give 

 the testimony. . . . Witness also his great care and earnest prayers that the sacred order and succession of 

 bishops might never fail in thit poor afflicted and distressed church.' That part of his will in which he made 

 a solemn declaration of his faith was also read in the church at the time of his death, wherein he denied any 

 lawful ordination through presbyteries, and asserted that if he had not believed that the succession of bishops 

 in the Church of England had been legally derived from the Apostles, ' I had never entered into that high 

 calling, much less continued in it thus long.' 



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