EARLY NONCONFORMITY IN DEVON

Prepared by Jean E. Harris from:

Original Records of Early Nonconformity under Persecution and Indulgence

Transcribed & Edited by Professor G. Lyon Turner, M.A.

Published T. Fisher Unwin, Adelphi Terrace. London - 1911/14

These three volumes are very informative about the early Nonconformist documents that, at the time that Prof. Lyon Turner did this work, were held at the Lambeth Palace Library and Public Record Office (now National Archives). Those web sites should be consulted for details of accessing any of these old records.

EPISCOPAL RETURNS
STATE PAPERS - Cha. II 320
STATE PAPERS - Cha. II 321

These three volumes are available from the Internet Archive.

VOLUME I - TEXT

https://archive.org/details/originalrecordso01turnuoft

PREFACE vii - xx
This is quite extensive and should be read in order to understand and know of the history of those early Nonconformists of England and Wales. The official documents relating to the years 1665,1669 and 1672, not only give information about the clergymen who were ejected from their Anglican livings but also of the many others (including women) who wished to have their houses designated as Meeting Places.

Pages xv & xvi:
"The Editor has therefore added three alphabetical Indexes; the first of Place-names; the second of the names of the Teachers; and the third a somewhat miscellaneous one, of Householders, and others who cannot be reckoned as either Teachers or as Householders in the technical sense of owning a house used as a Meeting Place for Nonconformist services. In this last list of 'Householders, etc.', will be found also the names of (1) 'Abettors', or influential supporters of Conventicles reported in 1669, indicated by an A printed in the margin; (2) Signatories of Petitions presented in 1672, and preserved in 320 and 321, indicated by SP in the margin; and (3) Licence-Agents, or, more precisely, those who, in 1672, personally presented applications for Licences at Whitehall, or took them away from Whitehall when granted, for themselves or others, indicated by a marginal L.
In the first and second Indexes the references will be found to be direct to the Classified Summary in the bulk of Vol. II, and only indirectly (through the references given under each name) to the Original Documents reproduced in Vol. I. And it is the same with the names of licenced Householders in Index III. But in the case of 'Abettors,' 'Signatories of Petitions,' and 'Licence-Agents,' the references are direct to the pages of Vol. I, in which (1) the Episcopal Returns report the 'Abettors,' - (2) the Petitions are given to which the names of the Signatories are attached; or (3) the Licence-documents occur, which are either signed by the Licence-Agent referred to, or are manifestly in his handwriting. These references are made direct, because to have included all these names in the Classified Summary would have unduly swollen its bulk."

County of Devonshire is found in the following section:

VOLUME 2 - CLASSIFIED SUMMARY & INDEXES

https://archive.org/details/originalrecordso02turnuoft

The place names are given in a geographical sequence by county and each of these groups is then subdivided by denominations. The references given for individuals named in this volume lead to the documents as recorded in Volume I.

To quote the Editor from his Preface in Vol I (xvi) :

"In these Alphabetical Indexes, moreover, the student will observe that the name is not followed immediately and simply by numerals indicating all references to a name. To spare the student unneccessary toil, the Editor has interposed between the name and the numerals two symbols which he hopes will economize time and faciliate research. The first capital letters - in accordance with a List of Abbreviations prefixed to Classified Summary as a whole (p.628) - indicate the County to which the place or the person belongs, so that the student will look up only the references to the County with which he is concerned; the second (enclosed within brackets) indicate the Sect or Denomination represented either in place or by the person named, so that the special denominational interest of the student may find a guide to that of which he is in search."

ABBREVIATIONS used by the Editor (as pages 627/8)

VOLUME III - HISTORICAL AND EXPOSITORY

https://archive.org/details/originalrecordso03turnuoft

PREFACE x-xv
"This Third Volume is not a sequel, but an Introduction. I should like to say more. In issuing it, I want it to be understood that even for me it is not 'the conclusion of the whole matter'; and that for many I hope it may prove merely a 'beginning'. Years of work have convinced me that round each personal name, linked as it is in those 'Original Records' with a place name, or the names of several places, there may be built up a story full of interest and stimulus if only local records and local tradition could be made to yield their information."

Page 67 records that
"In Devon, colonies of the ejected were to be found in Thorncombe (four of them), Ottery St Mary (four), Totnes (two), Dartmouth (three), Plymouth (four), Exeter (eight in addition to those who had been ejected from livings in the city) and two from Western Central portion of the county."

Prof. Lyon Turner gives something of the histories of the more prominent early Nonconformist clergymen and he has these Devonians:

The index that follows relates only to those individuals clearly identified as being of (or in) Devon. It is entirely possible that more can be found for them in other counties given that these men were ejected from their livings all over the country.