Jackie gave us an all-encompassing talk about the different ways to research our nonconformist ancestors with illustrations and personal experiences. During her family history research she found her own nonconformist ancestors in West Yorkshire, some from the Moravian Church, one of the oldest Protestant denominations in Christianity.
A nonconformist is a Protestant Christian who did not ‘conform’ to the governances of the established church, the Church of England, after the English Reformation. After Henry VIII split with the Church of Rome there was much religious instability under Edward VI and Mary until Elizabeth I introduced the Act of Uniformity (1558) and Elizabethan Religious Settlement (1559) – recusants were those who remained loyal to the Roman Catholic Church. The Act of Uniformity of 1662 precipitated the term ‘nonconformist’; clergy who refused to adhere to this act were ejected from the Established Church. At least 2,000 clergymen refused to take the oath and therefore could no longer hold civil or military office after the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy. Nonconformity took many forms including Methodist, Baptist and Congregational, to name but a few.
The first sign that your ancestors might be nonconformist is that they are not found in the parish registers. It is worth looking at a local map to find all the churches and chapels in the locality and good sources of burial grounds are the Alan Godfrey Edition of old OS maps and the National Library of Scotland’s geo-referenced maps. By 1851 it is thought that a quarter of the English population were nonconformist. Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act of 1753 tried to stop bigamous and under age marriages, the numbers of which had grown enormously. Marriages had to be conducted by a minister in a Church of England church or chapel and, although Quakers and Jews were exempt, religious nonconformists and Catholics had to be married in Anglican churches. Marriages were then recorded on printed forms in a separate book from baptisms and burials.
Jackie said that many nonconformist records were online with Ancestry, Find My Past and the Genealogist and some records were available from The National Archives. Baptism records may have different information, usually birth and baptism dates, possibly mother’s maiden name, godparents or sponsors and the name of the priest which may be important. Burials may give you the date of death and burial, position of grave, even the undertaker and cost! Headstones may often be simpler e.g. Quaker gravestones often give the death in 1st month or 2nd month rather than January or February. TNA is a useful source for research guides telling you how many records are online and TNA Discovery has a multi-archive search facility. Other information may be gathered from University Special Collections, nonconformist preacher circuits and subscription records for new chapels etc. Another source, the Surman Index is searchable online for 32,000 Congregational ministers; you can browse the index by surname, career, education or county.
Genuki has a facility for searching churches local to an area and Trade Directories often give the number and denomination of chapels in each town and their ministers’ names. Using the British Newspaper Archive may give you information on local preachers, raising funds for new foundations and general articles about nonconformist meetings. A new website, Dissenting Academies online has a browsable database for academies, tutors and students whilst Historic England will have records of old chapels and meeting houses. The information and sources covered by Jackie in her talk are too numerous to mention here but hopefully this review has given you a flavour of the wealth of knowledge out there that you can use to investigate your nonconformist ancestors. After this review is a link to Jackie Depelle’s website and a few other websites that may be useful.
Records of historic buildings in England
Records of historic buildings in Wales
Government publication containing official statutory notices
Report by Lesley Smith - Deal Branch Secretary KFHS