History Today Article

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On 24 August 1662 those clergy who refused to accept the Book of Common Prayer were to be ejected from the Church of England. How many paid the price for their non-conformity?In the Declaration of Breda of April 1660, Charles II promised ‘liberty to tender consciences’. But his first parliament, summoned the following year, was less keen. In May 1662 it passed an Act of Uniformity demanding all clergymen accept the newly issued Book of Common Prayer by 24 August, St Bartholomew’s Day, that year. Those that didn’t would be evicted from their livings.

There were problems with that. Some were doctrinal. Charles’ religious settlement required the return of the episcopacy, something anathema to the presbyterians. Other problems were practical: the first copies of the revised prayer book didn’t come off the presses until 6 August. How was every churchman to receive a copy by the deadline, never mind square it with their conscience? Even in Middlesex, it was said, very few places received it until ‘a week, a fortnight, three weeks, or a month after’.

For non-conformists, the deadline would be remembered as ‘Black Bartholomew’s Day’ or the ‘Great Ejection’. But how great an ejection was it? Edmund Calamy, whose father and grandfather both lost their livings, tried to work it out. In total, he would name 1,897.

But, as A.G. Matthews, Calamy’s 20th-century editor, found, that number was far from reliable. Matthews noted 47 individuals listed who were dead by August 1662, 41 who were duplicated, and 113 for whom he could find no record at all. Moreover, Calamy also included those churchmen who were evicted at the Restoration in 1660 when returning loyalists wanted their livings back. Matthews calculated 695 of those.

Still, Matthews’ final total of 936 is higher than that calculated by high-church clergyman John Walker, who was so incensed by Calamy’s work that he set out to rebut it. His work, ten years in the writing, was published in 1714; Matthews calls it a ‘monumental piece of hate and patience’. Walker generously allowed that as many as 50 non-conformists might have lost their livings in 1662; although, he noted, ‘I do not at present remember to have met with an instance of more than one’. 

Numbers

The number ejected is sometimes disputed. In my book I write

Estimates vary but it seems that, including those ejected before 1662 and some who jumped rather than waiting to be pushed, nearly two thousand ministers and others were silenced or ejected. There will always be some vagueness about the figure as some changed their minds. A G Matthews says that some 210 later conformed. A contemporary writer, John Walker, says of an Evan Griffiths of Oxwich in South Wales, who was ejected but then conformed, that he became as violent against dissenters as he had once been against royalists. Also, the ejection included not only ministers but also lecturers and even private tutors. Further, some such as Cornishman Francis Howell 1625-1679 present anomalies. Howell, “a man mighty in the scriptures” according to Calamy, was expelled both as Principal of Jesus College, Oxford in 1660 and as incumbent of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant in North Wales in 1662.

In his Nonconformist Memorial Calamy deals with some 2,465 people altogether. Matthews and Watts say that the number unwilling to conform in 1662 was 2029, around 936* in England and 120 in Wales. Some 200 of these were university lecturers. Matthews points out that a further 129 were deprived at an uncertain date between 1660 and 1663 and with the ejections of 1660 as well, he gives a total of 1760 ministers (which is about 20% of the clergy) thrust out of the Church of England, silenced from preaching or teaching because they could no longer conform by law and so deprived of a livelihood.

Gerald Bray comments that “almost all of these were Puritans, and so the Act may be said to represent the expulsion of Puritanism from the national Church. "On the other hand, John Spurr points out that Puritans remained within the state church and others, like Quakers and General Baptists, were ejected. He quotes John Corbet 1620-1680, saying, " it is a palpable injury to burden us with the various parties with whom we are now herded by our ejection in the general state of dissenters."
* That figure I'm sure should be 1909

The Compton Census of 1676

The Compton Census was an ecclesiatical census taken in 1676 and named after Henry Compton, the Bishop of London. The incumbents of the parish were recorded as either Conformists, Papists or Nonconformists. In many cases the number of Conformists may have been the total population of the parish over 16. What it could not account for is Nonconformists who also conformed! (ie went to the parish church as well as to conventicles). It covered about 70% of the country. Brown says it suggested that 5% were Dissenters and 1% Romanists (p 31). Being an ecclesiatical census it collected by ecclesiastical parishes which aggregated into arch-deaconeries and dioceses rather than the civil hundreds and ancient counties.

How many ejected?

From my book on 1662

Estimates vary but it seems that, including those ejected before 1662 and some who jumped rather than waiting to be pushed, nearly two thousand ministers and others were silenced or ejected. There will always be some vagueness about the figure as some changed their minds. A G Matthews says that some 210 later conformed. A contemporary writer, John Walker, says of an Evan Griffiths of Oxwich in South Wales, who was ejected but then conformed, that he became as violent against dissenters as he had once been against royalists. Also, the ejection included not only ministers but also lecturers and even private tutors. Further, some such as Cornishman Francis Howell 1625-1679 present anomalies. Howell, “a man mighty in the scriptures” according to Calamy, was expelled both as Principal of Jesus College, Oxford in 1660 and as incumbent of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant in North Wales in 1662.

In his Nonconformist Memorial Calamy deals with some 2,465 people altogether. Matthews and Watts say that the number unwilling to conform in 1662 was 2029, around 936 in England and 120 in Wales. Some 200 of these were university lecturers. Matthews points out that a further 129 were deprived at an uncertain date between 1660 and 1663 and with the ejections of 1660 as well, he gives a total of 1760 ministers (which is about 20% of the clergy) thrust out of the Church of England, silenced from preaching or teaching because they could no longer conform by law and so deprived of a livelihood.

Gerald Bray comments that “almost all of these were Puritans, and so the Act may be said to represent the expulsion of Puritanism from the national Church.” On the other hand, John Spurr points out that Puritans remained within the state church and others, like Quakers and General Baptists, were ejected. He quotes John Corbet 1620-1680, saying, " it is a palpable injury to burden us with the various parties with whom we are now herded by our ejection in the general state of dissenters."