Nonconformity in Derbyshire: A Study in Dissent, 1600-1800

Nonconformity in Derbyshire has been little researched and what has been published about it is scattered through many sources, ancient and modern. There is no standard nineteenth-century history as there is for many other counties. Yet there is an important story to be told. Derbyshire was the birthplace of John Cotton; the minutes of its Wirksworth Classis are a rare survival from the Commonwealth period; from Duffield in Derbyshire Roger Morrice, whose significant Journal has been published, was ejected. The book England’s Remembrancer (1663), published sermons by ejected country ministers, as distinct from London ones, is dominated by ministers from Derbyshire or with connections there. An important Dissenting Academy was established at Findern, near Derby, and the diary of James Clegg, dissenting minister, has been published. This book provides the context for these events and tells the stories of the county families who promoted Dissent. An evaluation of Nonconformity in Derbyshire also provides a case study for a wider assessment of the impact of Dissent out of London and its eventual decline through the eighteenth century. The story concludes with the attempts of Thomas Wilson, an important founder of modern Congregationalism, to revive dissenting causes in his home county as the eighteenth century drew to a close.