A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



were evidently fulfilled. No circuit was formed for the county until 1824, 

 when that at St. Albans became part of the Second London District,'^ the 

 minister changing once every month with the preachers at Luton.'* In 

 1825 the congregation numbered 145," and 192 in 1830™; the minister 

 was to live at Watford.^ The Watford congregation dated from 1808, itJ 

 first chapel in Water Lane being built six years later." It became a circuit 

 tov/n in 1869." New Barnet attained that status at a still later date. New 

 Barnet, Watford and St. Albans are now the heads of circuits in the First 

 London District, the sixth circuit of which is known as that of London 

 (Hertfordshire Missions).^* 



Great as were the hardships encountered by members of all the non- 

 conforming bodies in the 17th century, none can equal the sufferings of 

 those who belonged to the Society of Friends. Though Fox visited Hert- 

 fordshire soon after his conversion," he does not seem to have imparted his 

 peculiar tenets to any at that time, and no mention of Quakers in the county 

 has been found before 1656." By this time the distinctive features of 

 their belief had fully developed. The Quaker held that there was no 

 warrant from Scripture for a paid ministry, that tithes were without justifi- 

 cation, that sacraments were unnecessary. Doctrine such as this earned 

 for them the hatred and execration of all the other sects, while the civil 

 authorities looked with distrust on a body which asserted the sinfulness of 

 oaths, the unmeaningness of rank and the unlawfulness of resistance in any 

 shape or form. The principles of the Friends, indeed, cut at the root of all 

 that both Royalist and Parliamentarian held most essential to the adminis- 

 tration of Church and State. 



In 1704 Henry Sweeting, who must then have been an old man, 

 declared that ' the first Publick friend that came into Hertford ' was James 

 Navlor. He lodged with Sweeting, and at a meeting in his house his host 

 and hostess with their two daughters were convinced." This must have 

 been before 1658, when Nicholas Lucas of Ware was imprisoned for seven 

 months for non-payment of y. tithe.'* Henry Stout of Ware was also 

 imprisoned in this year," and it seems probable that a meeting there was 

 already in existence. The Quakers were especially strong at this time in 

 the east of the county, and seem to have roused the popular hatred,*" for in 

 1659 the rabble broke up meetings at ' Standborne ' (? Standon) and Saw- 

 bridgeworth.*' It would seem that at the latter place the Quakers already 

 had a meeting-house, for the report describes how the mob after ' striking 

 them as they came thither, throwing them off their Horses, and Wallowing 

 them in the Mire, daubing their Faces and Clothes, filling their Hats with 

 Dirt, and so putting them on their Heads,' then broke down the tiles, 

 boards, windows and walls of the meeting-house. The assault continued for 

 the three hours the meeting lasted.*' In 1660 the authorities broke up 



«' Mivuus of tie Methodbt Conferences, v, 476. ** Ibid, vi, 16. •» Ibid. 38. 



''" Ibid. 580. " Ibid. 560. " Urwicic, op. cit. 363-4. " Ibid. 364. 



''^ Wesley an Methodist Church: Karnes and Addresses of Circuit Stewards, 191 2. 



'' Joum. (ed. 1901), 1, 3. '* Besse, J Coll. of the Sufferings of the People called Quakers, i, 240. 



"■ The First PubBshers of Truth (Friends' Hist. Soc.), 342. '"■ Bessc, op. cit. i, 241. ^» Ibid. 



^ Perliaps owing to their ' testimonies.' Henry Fest and Thomas Harris would seem to have ' borne 

 testimony' in 1658, for both were convicted of having disturbed ministers {Extracts from State Papers relating 

 to Friends [Frienda' Hist. Soc. Ser. i]), 52. *i Besse, op. cit. i, 241. ** IbicL 



