A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE George Greene of Theddingworth *" died before the fatal day ; Yaxley of Kibworth Beauchamp had been engaged in a long suit with Hunt, the previous incumbent, all through the Interregnum, and was ejected in 1660 for causes more political than religious. 848 There were, therefore, only twenty-three who can be fairly said to have resigned on principle, because they would not receive episcopal ordination or accept the Prayer Book. Most of these seem to have been quiet peaceable men, and it is recorded of a few that they willingly went to church on Sunday mornings and preached only in private houses in the afternoons. Only eight were university men. John Shuttlewood, who had been at Ravenstone, was the most prominent among them, preaching in several places in the county, and maintaining some kind of organization among those who were Presbyterian by conviction ; he was imprisoned at Leicester for a short time in 1668 under the Conventicle Act. Matthew Clarke, once a chaplain in Colonel Hacker's regiment, and minister of Narborough, continued an active preacher, and was imprisoned three times in Leicester gaol. 34 ' The return of conventicles in 1669 shows a number of small gatherings in private houses, mostly Presbyterian, Anabaptists, and Quakers. Only at Stoke Golding, Great Bowden, Kibworth Beauchamp, Ashby Magna, and Market Harborough did the congregations amount to a hundred or more. The Anabaptists are nearly all described as of the ' meaner ' or ' poorer sort ' ; the ' Presbyterians are of the ' middle ' or ' ordinary sort ' ; the Quakers usually of the ' vulgar ' or ' poorest sort,' and not numerically very strong. 860 In 1672 licence was granted for the holding of Presbyterian conventicles in thirty-eight places ; the Independents received eighteen licences, and the Anabaptists eight. 251 The Quakers asked nothing, as it was contrary to their principles. They received a good deal of rough usage throughout the reigns of Charles II and James II, one of the worst cases being at Long Clawson in 1679, when men and women were dragged along the street by their hair or by their clothes ; and in 1680, when a number of rough lads set upon them under a pretended warrant from the parish priest. 868 The period of the Restoration has many features of interest as regards the Church. It was a time marked not merely by zeal for the repression of Nonconformity, but also by much personal generosity and sacrifice. Clergy and laity alike had suffered heavy losses, yet now the churches were in need of restoration, often at considerable expense. The work seems to have been '" Nichols, Lett, ii, 828. The lecturer and the curate are struck off the list merely to balance the list of those ejected under the Commonwealth, where such cases have not been reckoned.
- 8 Hunt was sequestered in 1645, but compounded with the committee to retain his benefice, and
though Yaxley was invited by the parish was again settled in his place in 1 647. Later Yaxley obtained a presentation from the Protector; but before 1655 Hunt again recovered his rights bylaw. It was finally agreed that Yaxley should serve the cure, making some compensation to Hunt. These facts are summarized from Add. MSS. 15669-71, and S.P. Dom. Inter, vol. xciv, under 9 Feb. 1655. In 1660 Yaxley wasaccused before the Lords of having proclaimed in the pulpit, ' Hell is broke loose ; the devil and his instruments are coming in to persecute the saints and godly party.' Nichols, Leic. ii, 652. '" See Calamy in he. fit. and Lambeth Libr. Tenison MSS. 639 (Conventicles in Leicestershire, 1669). Both these authorities show George Fox's old enemy, Nathaniel Stevens, keeping a conventicle at Hinckley, where he lived till 1678, and wrote many books, of which one deserves to be remembered : A Plain and Easy Calculation of the Number of the Beatt!
- so Lambeth Libr. Tenison MSS. 639.
81 S.P. Dom.Chas. II, 1672.
- 1 Besse, Sufferings of Quakers (ed. 1753), i, 332-46. We can accept Besse's account of the rough treat-
ment without being so ready as he was to suppose that it was instigated by the clergy. 388
