ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



In 1655 'the priest of Basingstoke,' in company with a justice of 

 the peace, caused certain Quakers to have the oath of abjuration tendered 

 them, and on their refusing they were committed to gaol for fifteen 

 weeks. In 1656 Ambrose Rigg, 'for uttering a Christian Exhortation 

 to the people in the place of publick Worship at Southampton ' or, in 

 other words, for interrupting authorized service was sent to prison, 

 where he was soon joined by others, including two women, for a like 

 cause. In the same year other Quakers were imprisoned at Winchester 

 for giving ' Christian Advice ' in the steeple-houses at Southwick and 

 Baughurst. Between 1658 and 1660 divers Quakers were imprisoned 

 and ill-used for refusing to pay tithes or steeple-house rates, and for 

 declining the oath of abjuration at Winchester, Southampton and 

 Portsmouth. 



Their treatment did not improve with the restoration. At the 

 Winchester Sessions, January, 1663, a pitiful petition was presented to 

 the justices from six of the imprisoned Quakers at Portsmouth, com- 

 plaining bitterly of their treatment, and of the foul places at Portsmouth 

 where they were detained ' in Felton's Hole the waves of the sea have 

 so beat in on one of us in winter seasons that he has stood in water up 

 to his ankles, for the which things the Lord God hath and will visit 

 them that were the actors therein.' In the next few years many were 

 imprisoned, especially in the Southampton district, under the Con- 

 venticle Act, and usually provoked the magistrates by insisting on 

 wearing their hats in the courts. The cattle of others were seized at 

 Bramshott and Headley for refusing to pay towards the charge of the 

 militia. In 1672 nine Quakers were released from prison in this county 

 in accordance with the King's Declaration. Distresses for tithes and 

 occasional imprisonments for attending meetings continued year by year 

 in different parts of the county up to I688. 1 



When the restoration of monarchy and episcopacy came in 1660, 

 Bishop Curie was dead, as well as Dean Young, and just half of the 

 whole cathedral staff. A considerable number of the old beneficed 

 clergy were at once reinstated in their former livings, but upwards of one 

 half of the parochial clergy of Hampshire had been appointed during 

 the Commonwealth, many of them by the direct interference of parlia- 

 ment, who claimed to present to all the livings whose patrons were 

 delinquents. Nine of the old bishops survived. Among them was the 

 pious Brian Duppa, who had been successively Bishop of Chichester and 

 Salisbury. He had lived in privacy during the Commonwealth at 

 Richmond, Surrey, being chiefly engaged in the writing of doctrinal 

 books, and in secretly preparing and ordaining young men for the 

 ministry. At the restoration, he was translated to Winchester, but only 

 held the see for two years. 



His successor was George Morley, who went into exile during the 

 Commonwealth, and acted as chaplain at the Hague to the Queen of 



1 Besse's Quakers, \. ch. 1 6. 

 93 



