Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/84



invasion or intrusion of the said Isaac Ambrose, disabled and deprived as above said by the said act, and the churchwardens are also required upon sight hereof to show this order to the said Isaac Ambrose, and cause the same to be published next Sunday after in the Parish Church of Garstang, before the congregation, as they will answer the contrary.—Given under my hand this 29th day of August, 1662.

"Geo. Cestriens.

"To the Churchwardens of Garstang, in the County Palatine of Lancaster."

In this county sixty-seven ministers refused to submit to the mandate, and were removed from their churches by the authority of documents similar to the above, and prohibited from officiating in their priestly capacity anywhere within the diocese. Amongst the number, so interdicted, were the Rev. W. Bullock, of Hambleton, the Rev. Joseph Harrison, of Lund chapel, and the Rev. Nathaniel Baxter, M.A., of St. Michael's-on-Wyre. The Nonconformists were subsequently subjected to even greater harshness and injustice by an act which decreed that no clergyman, belonging to any of their sects, should reside within five miles of the town or place at which he had last preached, unless he took an oath as under:—

"I do swear that it is not lawful, upon any pretence whatsoever, to take arms against the king, and that I do abhor the traitorous position of taking arms against his authority; against his person; or against those that are commissioned by him, in pursuance of such commissions; and that I will not at any time endeavour any alteration of government either in church or state."

The sufferings experienced by those ministers who had been deprived of their benefices are described as having been extreme, nay, almost intolerable, and it was doubtless owing to the great severity practised towards the body of Nonconformists that the old creed gained such little popularity for some time after its re-establishment.

Charles II., soon after the restoration of monarchy at his coronation, determined to create a new order of knighthood, to be called the "Royal Oak," as a reward to some of the more distinguished of his faithful adherents, and amongst the number selected for the honour were Col. Kirkby, of Upper Rawcliffe, Richard Butler, of Out Rawcliffe, and Edward Tyldesley, of Fox Hall, Blackpool. The design was shortly abandoned by the advice*