A HISTORY OF DORSET 



' having used his function of a minister in the town as a preacher to the 

 garrison almost two yeares,' the mayor, aldermen, bailiffs, and burgesses were 

 anxious to secure him as their pastor,"' and to this end sent a petition to- 

 Parliament ' to settle some mayntenance on the towne for a minister, nothing 

 arising out of the towne (being very poore and populous) but what the people 

 please voluntarily to contribute.' A promise of >Ci°° P^f annum 'to be 

 settled upon this and Radipole which is but one pastorall charge,' was 

 obtained, and the townsmen generally promised to make a contribution 

 according to their abilities and to provide a house, but Mr. Ince in the mean- 

 time had been negotiating with the parishioners of Donhead in Wiltshire, and 

 had promised himself as their minister. The ' souldiery and the townesmen ' 

 were very much troubled and discontented upon receiving this news, and 

 efforts were made to induce Mr. Ince to break, his promise to the people of 

 Donhead. The matter was referred at last to the House of Commons who 

 again referred the case to certain members of the Assembly of Divines, but 

 their decision is not given. -'^ 



The confidence of the Puritan party in the sincerity of the promises 

 contained in the Declaration of Breda, 1660, assuring ' liberty to tender con- 

 sciences, and that no man shall be disquieted or called in question for differ- 

 ences of opinion in matters of religion which do not disturb the peace of the 

 kingdom,' "^ was speedily banished after the Restoration had become an 

 accomplished fact. Of the 2,000 ministers — composing about a fifth of the 

 entire number — who, in obedience to their consciences on the passing of the 

 Act of Uniformity, laid down their offices ^^* some seventy or eighty belonged 

 to this county.''^' The very date fixed for the Act in 1662 to come into 

 operation (24 August) seems to have been designed with the object of making 

 its severity most keenly felt, for it was appointed for a time when a whole 

 year's tithe was due but not yet paid.'""^ Many of the ministers thus forcibly 

 retired from their cures continued to reside in the places where they had 

 officiated until they were driven from their homes by the Five Mile Act, 

 holding services where they could in private houses and meeting with much 

 persecution. Of these, Calamy notes Thomas Rowe, ejected from Lytchett 

 Matravers, ' twice imprisoned with some other ministers tho' not above a 

 fortnight either time. On the Five Mile Act he removed to Little Canford 

 near Wimborne and preached several times in his own house without any 

 persecution or disturbance, the reason of which was supposed to be the great 

 number of Papists in those parts who lived under the countenance of a con- 

 siderable knight of that religion, for they who were disposed could not for 

 shame disturb him and leave them unmolested.''"^ Mr. John Weeks of 

 Buckland Newton, for six months twice imprisoned for Nonconformity, 

 during his confinement ' preached out of the prison windows to any that were 

 disposed to hear him.' '"" Other ejected ministers were Mr. John Hardy of 



''^ This was in November, 1646 ; the previous year on 11 March the authorities of the town sent a 

 petition to the Standing Committee stating that ' being deeply affected with the necessity of having an able 

 godly preacher of the Word to be settled amongst them, and a sufficient mayntenance for such a minister, doe 

 conceive itt their duty to present their petition to that end unto youre high Court of Parliament ' ; ibid. 



"* Ibid. 588-9. "" Clarendon, Hist, of the Rebellion, xvi, 193. 



*" Calamy, Nonconformist Memorial, vol. i, Pref. iii. 



**' Calamy records some 64 or 65 (ibid, ii, 115—76). W. Densham and J. Ogle in an appendix to 

 their valuable work Congregational Churches in Dorset (407—15) give a list with some nine more. 



*" Ibid. Introd. x. "" Nonconformist Memorial, ii, 133. '" Continuation, i, 415. 



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