ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 
divine service,’ and for not wearing a surplice at the time of common 
prayer. Oliver, the vicar’s son, was also presented for being absent from 
evening prayer on Sundays and robbing an orchard. The quarrel between 
the vicar and churchwardens continued for a long time, as similar pre- 
sentments were made against the former in 1616, which were not pro- 
ceeded with. At the same time the vicar presented John Barnes, the 
churchwarden, for refusing to forbid the playing of ‘stooleball,’ football 
and swearing on Sunday.’ 
The visitation of Archbishop Laud in 1634 (deputed to Sir Nathaniel 
Brent) showed Puritan influence to be strong in the county ; but only 
one deprivation is recorded at this time—that of Peter Bulkley, rector of 
Odell, ejected for refusing to wear the surplice or to use the sign of the 
cross in baptism. The visitation was especially directed to the restora- 
tion of the chancels ; but very few details are preserved.” Conspicuous 
among those who sympathized with the reforms of Laud were Hugh 
Reeve, rector of Ampthill, Dr. Pocklington, rector of Yelden and fellow 
of Pembroke Hall, and Giles Thorne of St. Mary’s, Bedford ; the two 
latter were deputy commissioners for the archbishop in the ecclesiastical 
courts of the county.” It was therefore not surprising that when the 
tables were turned, and the Parliament undertook to reform the Church 
by measures even more drastic than Laud’s, these three men should be 
reckoned under the head of ‘superstitious, innovating and scandalous 
ministers,’ and removed accordingly. 
The county of Bedford was one of those which sent in a petition 
for the abolition of episcopacy on 25 January 1640-1." Several private 
petitions came in at about the same time. The first was against Dr. 
Pocklington, whose books, A/tare Christianum and Sunday no Sabbath had 
made him a marked man. The Lords were asked to call him to answer 
the charge of idolatry and superstition, and for defending in his pamph- 
lets those ‘innovations unhappily introduced into the Church.’’ The 
next was a petition from one parishioner of Ampthill, on behalf of the 
rest, praying for an inquiry into the popish doctrines and practices of 
Hugh Reeve, and annexing articles ‘ whereby it doth plainly appear that 
he is at heart a popish recusant.’® A third came from John Wallinger, 
churchwarden of St. Paul’s, Bedford, complaining of the treatment he 
had received from Giles Thorne, Dr. Pocklington, and others in the 
ecclesiastical courts.’ Another was sent in by the vicar of Stevington 
against Dr. Walter Walker, late ecclesiastical commissary for Bedford- 
shire, because of his exactions, and his enforcing of ‘ceremonials of 
bowings, wearings of surplices, officiating within the communion rails,’ 
1 Hist. MSS. Com. iii. 275. 
2 Cal. of 8S. P. Dom. Chas. I. 1634 p. 205 ; and History of the Willey Hundred, W. M. Harvey, 
p- 366 (for the deprivation of Peter Bulkley). The entry in the parish register of Pertenhale under 
the date 1634, recording that the church possessed ‘a Communion table and rails, a silver chalice and 
paten, a pewter flagon and a holland surplice,’ has evidently some reference to this visitation (Beds” 
N, and Q. ii. 319). 
3 §. P. Dom. Chas. I. ccccxcix. No. 89, 1643 (Depositions of John Wallinger). 
4 Hist. of the Engl. Church under the Commonwealth, Dr. W. A. Shaw, i. 26. 
5 Hist. MSS. Com. iv. 39, 13 Jan. 1640-1. ® Ibid. 16 Jan. 7 Ibid. p. 48, 8 Feb. 
I 337 43 
