The Little History of Essex by Judith Williams

Author:Judith Williams [Williams, Judith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Regional Studies, history, Europe, Great Britain, General
ISBN: 9780750985147
Google: JQBBDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2017-09-01T00:14:44.345523+00:00

Matthew Hopkins, who called himself the ‘Witchfinder General’.

QUAKERS AND CONGREGATIONALISTS

Eighteen-year-old James Parnell, a convert to Quakerism, came to Essex in 1655 to preach his religious ideas. He was arrested at Coggeshall in July 1655 and was tried at the Chelmsford Assizes. He refused to pay a fine of £40 and was imprisoned in Colchester Castle. Here, he was kept in a room little larger than alcove. The gaoler provided bread and water, for which James had to climb down a rope from his elevated cell. Eight months after his capture, James fell from the rope and died. However, Quakerism proved popular in Essex and meetings began to be held across the north of the county.

Richard and Mary Cutte are remembered in a magnificent tomb in Arkesden Church, dated 1592. Almost 100 years later, their descendant, also Richard Cutte, allowed the Congregationalists to sign an early covenant at his home, Wodehall, despite their meetings being illegal at that time.

Charles II’s 1662 Act of Uniformity was followed by the ‘ejection’ of any priests who would not accept the new prayer book. Some 114 priests lost their livings in Essex. They included John Ray of Black Notley, who lost his fellowship at Cambridge University but, instead, devoted his life to botany and drew up the world’s first scientific scheme for plant classification.

When William and Mary passed the 1689 Toleration Act, the Quakers opened one of the first Friend’s Meeting Houses in Stebbing. Another early chapel was built by the Congregationalists at Bocking in 1707.

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