Warnham: Nonconformity

A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6 Part 2, Bramber Rape (North-Western Part) Including Horsham. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1986.

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'Warnham: Nonconformity', in A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6 Part 2, Bramber Rape (North-Western Part) Including Horsham, (London, 1986) pp. 217-218. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/sussex/vol6/pt2/pp217-218 [accessed 18 March 2024]

NONCONFORMITY.

The Caryll family of Warnham Place were recusants at least between 1577 and 1637, as were some of their household. (fn. 1) Rose Barttelot of Denne and others were presented for recusancy in the 1620s, (fn. 2) and four recusants were listed in 1642. (fn. 3)

Three parishioners presented in 1662 for not baptizing their children were presumably nonconformists. (fn. 4) In 1724 there were five Baptist families and one female Presbyterian in the parish. (fn. 5) The Baptist congregation survived in the 1780s, when c. 26 parishioners belonged to the Horsham Baptist church, remaining with it at the schism of c. 1818. (fn. 6) Two buildings were registered for Protestant worship in 1824, one of them in the name of John Harm, the Independent minister of Horsham. Two other buildings were registered in 1839 and 1843, the second in Kingsfold. (fn. 7)

In 1865 Brethren were meeting in a cart shed, (fn. 8) and in 1870 they registered a building for worship; (fn. 9) it was succeeded by another building in Friday Street registered in 1921, which ceased to be used apparently between 1957 and 1964. (fn. 10) A congregation of the sect of Dependents called Cokelers (fn. 11) was meeting in the parish in the early 1870s and built a chapel in 1874 in Byfleets Lane. (fn. 12) In 1884 both congregations were said to be small and to consist chiefly of poor people. (fn. 13) There were up to 50 Cokelers in the parish in the early 20th century, when the sect ran a co-operative store in the village. By 1976 only five were left; in that year the chapel ceased to be used, and it was afterwards sold and converted into a house. (fn. 14)

Footnotes

  • 1. Miscellanea (Cath. Rec. Soc. xxii), 81; W.S.R.O., Ep. I/22/1 (1584); Ep. I/23/5, f. 57v.; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1636-7, 470.
  • 2. S.R.S. xlix. 9, 25, 58, 67, 124; Elwes & Robinson, W. Suss. facing p. 218.
  • 3. S.R.S. v. 187.
  • 4. W.S.R.O., Ep. I/22/1 (1662).
  • 5. Ibid. Ep. I/26/3, p. 19.
  • 6. E. Kensett, Hist. Free Christian Ch., Horsham, 1721- 1921, 74, 85, 111; cf. above, Horsham, protestant nonconf.
  • 7. P.R.O., RG 31/1, Chich. archdeac. nos. 133-4, 217, 228.
  • 8. W.S.R.O., Ep. I/22A/2 (1865).
  • 9. G.R.O. Worship Reg. no. 19672.
  • 10. Ibid. no. 48283; Kelly's Dir. Horsham (1957); cf. O.S. Map 6", Suss. XIII. NE. (1913, 1932 edns.).
  • 11. Rest of para. based mainly on V.C.H. Suss. ii. 41; S.C.M. v. 717-22; W. Suss. Gaz. 17 Nov. 1977.
  • 12. W.S.R.O., MP 1994; O.S. Map 6", Suss. XIII (1880 edn.), wrongly describing it as belonging to Plymouth Brethren.
  • 13. W.S.R.O., Ep. I/22A/1 (1884).
  • 14. Ibid. SP 637.