The History Group

Leader:  Ronald (Yogi) Godwin - history@ashbyu3a.co.uk - phone 01530 467840

Yogi is ably assisted by Jane Barnett, Barbara Ball, Colin Ellis, Jane Harris and Isobel Salt

All Ashby u3a members are welcome at our meetings.

All meetings with speakers will be held at Packington Memorial Hall on the 4th Thursday of the month.
Doors open for Packington meetings at 2.15pm. Admission £2

Details of visits will be advised closer to the time.
The following dates have been arranged, but may be subject to changes which will be announced as and when they are known.

Thursday 23rd April.

'A Stroppy Lotte' - Tales of Leicestershire Dissenters

Another excellent presentation from our very own Andy Jones with lots of history and informative slides.

A ‘Dissenter’ was a Protestant who refused to conform to the Church of England, often called a Non-Conformist, or Breakaway, especially during the 17th century when the country was in turmoil after Good Queen Bess passed away.

James I (Of England, VI of Scotland) wanted to make them fall into line with his version of the Church, which involved the appointment of bishops by the crown. The Dissenters felt they should not be told how to worship by the King. But he insisted under pain of imprisonment.

Life wasn’t easy for the head that wears the crown and even the Catholics tried to blow him up.

Things were no better under Charles I who went even further and reinstated the idea of the Divine Right of Kings. Which did him no good at all and he lost his head.

Sadly for our Dissenters, Cromwell was no better either and he removed bishops and ‘scandalous and malignant‘ priests altogether. He imposed a form of Protestantism called Presbyterianism, which some non-conformists didn’t like. This is partly because the movement in general was prone to splintering into slightly different sects. The upshot was that within the 17th-century Westminster Assembly, 'dissenting brethren' opposed the majority of Presbyterians. They believed a national Presbyterian structure was just as stifling as the episcopal structure of the Church of England, arguing for the autonomy of each local congregation.

Following the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 things changed yet again, seemingly, and the Clarendon Code (several Acts from 1661 to 1665) tried to insist that they fall into line with the Anglican Church as Charles would like to see it. But subsequent Acts on 1672 and 1673 showed just how difficult that was to enforce.

Well, he didn’t last long as James II succeeded him in 1685 but his blinkered and absolutist approach to ruling generally brought about his removal and replacement by William of Orange (King Billy) in the Glorious Revolution in 1688.

The Crown now passed to Willam and Mary, the curious joint Monarch who at last seemed sympathetic, passing the Act of Toleration in 1689 which granted freedom of worship to Protestant nonconformists (such as Baptists, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians) who dissented from the Church of England. It allowed them to hold services in licensed meeting houses but excluded Roman Catholics, Jews, and non-Trinitarians.

Andy now turned to the effect on Ashby.

The Great Ejection followed the Act of Uniformity 1662 in England. Several thousand Puritan ministers were forced out of their positions in the Church of England following the Restoration of Charles II. Some of these came to Ashby.

Samuel Shaw (not stroppy) was Master of Ashby Grammar School, and held secret meetings at night, although it seems he could have been licensed to practice openly. In 1689 he was able to operate from a licensed schoolhouse in what is now Bath Street, but then was very probably in more open ground, being in the lower part of town and more likely to be flooded by the Gilwiskaw Brook. He also preached openly in St Helens Church. In 1675 he gathered a congregation around him having been ejected from his living in Smisby, establishing a chapel in Smisby Street in 1725 after the Act of Toleration. This is the original of the one we now use for our monthly meetings. The reason for it being set back from the street front is conjectural but could be to provide a calm respectful approach from the hurly burly of the main street. Other explanations are available.

Reverend Richard Evans (stroppy) preached illegally at his day school and was liable to fines of 12 pence a day, which would be worth around £15 today. If he didn’t pay up, he had personal goods taken to the value to be sold off. The story goes that nobody wanted to buy his stuff!

Other stroppy Ashby non-conformists were the St Helens Churchwarden who was fined but later let off; William Wood whose house was registered as a licensed preaching house; likewise the Doughty Brothers Samuel and Thomas; The Brinsley father and son; The Reverend John Hartley who had a following of 200 in 1692 which fell away to 50 in 1715.

There was much more in Andy’s talk but there is no space here to elaborate further on it.

A really interesting canter through a very complex period of our history.

Earlier history meeting