Quakers in Studham

A Collection of the Sufferings of the People Called Quakers Volume I was published in 1753 and covers acts against Quakers from 1650 to 1689 throughout the country. Each county has a chapter and that for Bedfordshire notes that in 1678: "John Barton of Studham, in the County of Hartford, Taylor, for not paying 2s. 2d. toward repairing the Parish Church, so called, was taken by a Writ de Excommunicato capiendo, and kept a Prisoner at his own House for some Time, and about two Months after was taken by special Bayliffs and carried to Bedford Goal [sic], where he remained a Prisoner three Years and an half".

In 1706 the vicar of Studham, in response to a questionnaire sent out ahead of an episcopal visitation noted that there were 40 families in the parish: "6 of which are Dissenters, Quakers and Anabaptists". In 1709, in response to a similar questionnaire, he wrote that of 180 people: "35 Dissenters: 3 Quakers, the rest Anabaptists". In 1712 he noted thirteen "Anabaptists and Quakers". In 1717 this was translated as eight or nine families of "Dissenters, Quakers and Anabaptists". In 1720 he recorded six families of Baptists, but no Quakers.