ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



all the parish officers, was fortunate enough to secure the testimony of 

 three of the justices.' 



Northamptonshire attained to an unenviable notoriety in her dealings 

 with the Society of Friends. In March, 1685, a return was made of the 

 Quakers then in prison in each county ; Northamptonshire, with fifty-nine, 

 was the worst when its area and population are taken into consideration. 

 Six other counties had a higher total, but they were all considerably larger 

 than this midland shire. 



After the passing of the Toleration Act the Quakers cease from 

 prominence of any special kind in the county. The vigour and eccentric 

 zeal of their early days passed into that special type of shrewd and kindly 

 quietism which has marked them since. Their numbers declined, especially 

 in the last three generations, and though they have always possessed in their 

 ranks citizens of influence, they have now only four meeting houses : 

 Northampton, Wellingborough, Finedon, and Kettering. 



The newer dissenters, as those who were expelled by the Act of 

 Uniformity may conveniently be called, were naturally drawn into closer 

 touch with the older Nonconformists, who had never been in possession 

 of the parish churches. Both the Independents and Baptists had separate 

 communities in Northamptonshire before the Restoration. The influence ot 

 Browne of Thorpe Achurch, referred to already, had not died out, and 

 there were several Independent meetings formed during the Commonwealth. 

 That at Rothwell has an unbroken history from 1655,^ and six others, 

 including Northampton (Doddridge), which date from 1662, represent not 

 only Presbyterians or Independents retiring from the parish churches after 

 the Restoration after a brief period of occupation, but a strain of earlier and 

 more individual dissent. So, too, with the Baptists, though to a less degree. 

 The Queen's Street congregation, Peterborough, dates from 1653, and there 

 are reasonable traditions of Baptist communities at Ravensthorpe and at 

 St. James' End, Northampton, about the same date. 



The actual cases of ejected ministers becoming the heads of Noncon- 

 formist congregations are very few.* When the temporary and illegal 

 Indulgence of Charles II was issued, in 1672, the Northamptonshire licences 

 for preachers and teachers required by the edict included twenty-three 

 Presbyterians, sixteen Independents, and five Baptists, while of houses 

 licensed for regular services there were forty-three Presbyterian, twenty-five 

 Independent, and two Baptist.* 



In the next few reigns, the Presbyterians in the county gradually 

 disappeared and were largely absorbed into the Independents, and there is 

 some reason for thinking that there were some, though not nearly so great, 

 leakages from the Independents to the Baptists. For example. College Lane, 

 Northampton, only gradually became Baptist.^ The communities at North- 



' Besse, op. cit. i, 550. 



* Coleman, Memo, of Independent Churches in Northants (Chapter on Rothwell Church), p. 47. 



' The vicar of Desborough (Browning) became minister at Rothwell. Maidwell, rector of Kettering, 

 tecame minister there. The tradition that the vicar of St. Giles's, Northampton, became minister in the 

 town is unreliable. 



* S. P. Dom. Chas. II, Entry Book 38 A. 



' See the ' Church Book ' of College Street Baptist Church and ' Church Book ' of Baptists at Kettering 

 ■whose origin was a secession in 1695 from the Independents there. 



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