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

Description: 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.

Brief description: Stephen Orchard is a former Principal of Westminster College, Cambridge, and President of the Cambridge Theological Federation. He has served as a local minister in the United Reformed Church, Assistant General Secretary of the British Council of Churches, General Secretary and Director of the Christian Education Movement, and Moderator of the General Assembly of the United Reformed Church 2007-2008. He was born and grew up in Derbyshire, where he now lives.

Review Quotes: 'This study helps to reclaim the central place taken by Protestant Dissent in the evolution of British society from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries.'
- Clyde Binfield, Professor Emeritus in History, University of Sheffield, from the Foreword

'Stephen Orchard's study of Derbyshire Nonconformity in the century after the Civil War is a pioneering work of local history. It also illustrates the primary importance of the local, rather than the denominational, in trying to understand the ways in which those who followed the original Dissenters had to rethink their nature and purpose in changing times. It therefore has many resonances for the contemporary Church in a society that continues to change.'
- David M. Thompson, Professor of Modern Church History, Fitzwilliam College, and Director, Centre for Advanced Religious and Theological Studies, University of Cambridge

'Derbyshire is one of those really interesting counties in the history of Dissent; a new comprehensive study is therefore particularly to be welcomed.'
- David Wykes, Director, Dr. Williams's Library, London