Quakers are members of the Religious Society of Friends, a
Christian religious movement whose roots lie in 17th century
English dissenters. Locally the Quakers had roots in Coppull,
through a linen weaver called Heskin Fell, whose aunt and uncle
were earnest supporters of the movement's founder, George Fox. With
two local brothers, John and Roger Haydock, they founded the
Coppull and Standish Quaker movement in around 1660.
As Dissenters, the Quaker's suffered greatly under the 1662 Act
of Uniformity, which forbade any act of worship other than that
prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer. The government, suspecting
subversion in these secret meetings, decided to stamp out the
dissenting forms of worship, and so began twenty seven years of
harassment and persecution of Nonconformists under the First
Conventicle Act of 1664.
The First Conventicle Act prohibited meetings of of more than
five persons over 16 (over and above members of the household when
in a private house) "for the purpose of holding a religious service
in a manner other than that laid down in the Prayer Book". The
penalties went from a fine of 5 pounds or three months imprisonment
for the first offence, to a fine of 100 pounds for the third
offence, or in default transportation for seven years, with the
condemned having to pay the cost of shipping or to be sold into
slavery for 5 years. Informers were to be giiven one third of the
fines imposed.
In spite of the heavy penalties imposed by these laws, religious
meetings were still held sercetly in private houses and barns. Many
dissenters were caught and fined, their property being distrained
upon to meet the fines, but still the worship went on.
The Haydocks, a prominent local family formerly of Bogburn Hall
and latterly of Langtree Hall, were imprisoned several times for
their dissention. Even after the William III and Mary's 1689 Act of
Toleration, Quakers were still imprisoned, often when they refused
to take an oath on the bible.
In 1693, the Haydocks allowed a piece of their land near
Langtree Hall to be a Quaker Burial Ground. Upon this site a Quaker
Meeting House was erected in 1717, which was used until 1803, when
a new building was erected in the centre of Standish. John Haydock
died whilst in Lancaster Prison in 1719, and was buried in The
Quaker Burial Ground.
The Quakers, never as numerous as the local Church of England
and Catholic congregations, slowly decreased in numbers as their
cause faded. Their meeting house was rented to the growing Wesleyan
Methodist congregation, who eventually moved to their own Chapel on
the high street, and the Quaker Meeting House was converted into
cottages, and demolished in 1904.
The Quakers' Burial Ground still exists, preserved as a garden
by the side of the A49. Nothing remains of the Meeting House other
than a blue Heritage plaque and the road name, Quakers Place.
(From "The Dissenters in Standish 1600-1800", by H.
Walsh & G. W. Bird)
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