Registration and Early References in Shillington

In 1672 Charles II issued a Declaration of Toleration for Protestants dissenting from the Church of England; this had the effect of some dissenting meeting houses registering with the Secretary of State. The Toleration Act of 1689 enshrined the right of protestants to dissent from the Church of England and, once again, encouraged meeting houses to register voluntarily with local quarter sessions and Anglican church. Registration provided protection against persecution, laying a duty of protection upon magistrates and so was popular with nonconformists. Most registrations were made with quarter sessions until the middle of the 18th century, presumably due to the mutual antagonism of nonconformists and established Church. However, from that point registration with the Church, via the local archdeaconry began to become the favoured method, because the archdeaconry Registrar would issue a licence at any time rather than during the days each quarter when the quarter sessions met.

Visitations by the Bishop of Lincoln to Bedfordshire in the early 18th century give some idea as to the number of nonconformists in each parish from returns made by the vicar or rector. Former County Archivist Patricia Bell has compiled returns from 1706 to 1720 for the Bedfordshire Historical Records Society (Volume 81, published 2002); information for Shillington includes the following:

• 1706: The parish, with its hamlets of Lower Stondon, Pegsdon and Little Holywell, contained about 200 families of whom ten "are Dissenters, all Baptists, but there is no Papist, or reputed Papist in it".
• 1709: "Families 210. Souls about 860, of which 12 men and 30 Women and Children Dissenters, Anti-Paedo-baptists [i.e. those opposing infant baptism]. But Absentees from all divine worship much more Numerous. There are one or two licensed Houses, but seldom, or never, made use of".
• 1712: "Two families of Dissenters".
• 1720: "two hundred and ten Families. Not one Family of Dissenters, But about five persons so. Of what sect I (and I believe they themselves) cannot tell. No Meeting House".

Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has a reasonable number of registrations of nonconformist meeting houses in both the Quarter Sessions and Archdeaconry of Bedford archives. Registration continued through the 19th century even though persecution faded away - this was because registered buildings were allowed to claim exemption from parish poor rates, were exempt from control by the Charity Commission and were allowed to be licensed to carry out marriages. These things meant that registration became almost compulsory in practice for well established nonconformist meetings. This is fortunate for the local historian because sometimes the only surviving references to a nonconformist meeting occur as registrations. One drawback with the registrations are that they do not usually inform the reader of the particular type of denomination involved, though sometimes it is possible to infer it from other evidence.

Edwin Welch researched the history of registrations in Bedfordshire for Bedfordshire Historical Records Society Volume 75 Bedfordshire Chapels and Meeting Houses [published in 1996] and found the following for Shillington:

• 1788: the dwelling house of Thomas Hare was registered by James Bowers, John Savile and John Foster [ABN1/1; ABN2/60]. A James Bowers was Baptist pastor in Biggleswade so this may have been a Baptist meeting, as can be seen above Baptists were present in the village earlier in the century though no 19th century Baptist place of worship is recorded;
• 1798: the dwelling house of Ann Haire was registered by John Foster and Edward Foster [ABN1/1; ABN2/96];
• 1798: the dwelling house of John Foster was registered by Foster himself, David Tompson and Edward Foster [ABN1/1; ABN2/99];
• 1814: "a building" was registered by persons unknown [ABN1/1];
• 1815: "a chapel" was registered by persons unknown [ABN1/1];
• 1822: premises on John Flint in his own occupation were registered by Flint himself [ABN1/2; ABN2/193; ABN3/3].