Congregational/Independent Churches

[Ann12]

Hi all,

I have a question, my ancesters from Ware, Herts seemed to have been involved with the Old Independent Chapel, Dead Lane, Ware.  At some point it changed to the Ware Congregational Church and then Ware United Reformed.

Why did people go to Independent Chapels instead of C of E churches?  What was the difference?  Were these churches also Methodist or something completely different?  Were they even allowed to attend the churches openly?

Sorry so many questions!!  I have googled for info but can only find info. about specific churches rather than an overall study.

If anyone could help I would appreciate it.

Thanks
Anna

[jorose]

What you need to search for is 'nonconformist'.  This covered Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Quakers, Roman Catholics and Unitarians as well as smaller groups.  All these groups disagreed with various parts of CoE church law.

Some groups were prominent in different areas; the Methodists were very strong in Cornwall, for example.  As to whether they attended 'openly', that depends on the time scale, there's a good coverage of laws etc over time here.  Nonconformists for many years couldn't hold public office, or legally marry in their church.

[Ann12]

Hi Jorose,

Thanks for your reply.  It should keep me busy for a while!

Anna

[kerryb]

Anna

They were also called Dissenters in some parts of the country.  I am currently reading a local book about a Vicar in Burwash, East Sussex.  He left his diaries for 1854 to 1888 which have been published.  In Sussex there were a lot of Baptists and Bretheren.

He talks about the Dissenters in a very scathing tone.  A lot of his diary is full of his pastoral duties such as visiting ill parishoners but on one particular day he mentioned that "Mrs .... was ill but I did not visit as she is a Dissenter".

It is quite amusing. 

Baptists and Brethren believe in adult baptism which is different from the child baptism held in the C of E so as jorose says they did not conform with the beliefs held by the C of E and set up their own denominations.  Interestingly most of the dissenting beliefs are much the same between the denominations.

Kerry

[suttontrust]

Just to add that the Congregationalists joined up with the Presbyterians in the mid 20th century to form the United Reformed Church.  It is a complicated subject but well worth coming to grips with, as many "dissenters" (dissenting from the established church) suffered a great deal for their beliefs.

[Nick Carver]

If you read Garrison Keilor's book Lake Woebegone Days, which is based on real life, he explains how the Brethren often had differences of opinion on their interpretation of scripture. The end result was often a split. A change of name might result from a further schism or even after the resolution of a split, with two congregations

If you are trying  to follow your ancestors through various different churches, you can either try to trace the evolution of those particular congregations, or just accept that it's often a real mess and try to pick up the pieces.

[Ann12]

Hi all,

I think I will base it on a mess and try and pick up the pieces. 

If I understand it correctly, they were all believers in God but not in what direction the C o E was trying to persuade them!

A thought to ponder!!

Anna

[suttontrust]

This is no time for a history lesson, but it's well worth studying the history of religious dissent.  It wasn't just about small groups disagreeing with the Church of England, or petty squabbles over points of doctrine.  I don't agree with Nick that it's a mess.

[linmey]

Since starting my family history research I have been particularly interested to discover the importance to many of my ancestors of the Moravian church that was built in their village in the 19 century.
    The actual chapel is now a house but I have some pictures of what it looked like inside and out thanks to a kind Rootschatter. It has been interesting to find out about the origins of the Moravian church and to trace its influence in lives of the village people.
     I have found this to be a worthwhile and fascinating exercise and a big part of understanding what made them tick.