Nonconformity in Northill
former Wesleyan Chapel Jul 2007
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.
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.
Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has a number of registrations of nonconformist meetings in the village of Northill, the first being in 1831 in a barn belonging to Robert Morris [ABN1/2, ABN2/259 and ABN3/3, 108], registration being by Thomas Middleditch of Biggleswade and John Hutchins.
Wesleyan Methodists
The first record of Wesleyans in the area is in the circuit book for the Biggleswade & Hitchin Wesleyan Circuit of 1838 to 1852 [MB834] where a chapel at Beeston is mentioned, though it seems reasonable to suppose that there had been Wesleyans in the vicinity for some time previous to this. A Wesleyan meeting was first registered in 1855 by Thomas Wood of Biggleswade, the minister.
The chapel at Northill was built in 1902 by Langford builder Charles Wright. Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has a few records from the chapel as follows:
- MB1442: subscription list for erection of chapel: 1902-1904;
- MB982: trustees' account book: 1902-1967;
- MB981: Sunday School minute book: 1903-1920;
- MB979: trustees' minute book: 1915-1919;
- MB980: trustees' minute book: 1923-1967;
- MB1424: Biggleswade Circuit property register: 1965;
- MB1443: correspondence concerning closure of chapel: 1965-1967
The records reveal that the chapel closed in 1965 and was sold to the Church of England two years later. It now forms a parish hall.