E - Exeter

Exeter is a town that has several appearances in our family tree. Mostly weddings and baptisms, but now a whole new event to research !

I received a letter the other day from England, passing on some pieces of information about the research done by earlier genealogists in the family. Some I had seen or heard before, some I hadn’t.

There has been talk over the years about members of the family being involved on the wrong side of an uprising – but which ? Monmouth was suggested. Records weren’t accessible, even to those living and researching in England, so it just remained “something’ in the back of my mind.

But now !! It seems there might be a connection to an event which took place in Exeter in a tumultuous religious time. The Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549. This is now thought to have been the most important attempt in England to oppose the Protestant Reformation of the reign of the boy-King, 9 year old Edward VI.

The rebels were protesting against the new Prayer Book, which had been translated from Latin to English. They wanted to keep the old Latin book, Cornishmen in particular (where the uprising began) were angered because they did not speak English and were used to the Latin services. The leaders sent a draft of their demands to the King. Unlike the petitions produced by some other rebellions, where protesters asked the King to grant what they wanted, these rebels insisted their demands be met. Among their demands were that Mass be in Latin and all Latin services and ceremonies be restored.

In 1539, concerned that the Catholic doctrine was under threat from the influence of the Lutheran Protestants who would remove all symbols of Catholic imagery from churches, Henry VIII gave his support to the passing of a parliamentary Act known as the Six Articles of Religion. He did this against the wishes of his Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer. Henry VIII remained a devout Catholic throughout his life and this Act aimed to enshrine some of the important element of Catholicism in law. In his will, Henry stipulated that these Articles should remain in force until his young son, the future King came of age.

Henry had been reluctant to introduce the sweeping changes that many Protestants were wanting, apart from where he could appropriate the wealth of the church by dissolving the monasteries. His last parliament, in the dying days of his reign passed an Act empowering him to take into his hands all chantries, hospitals, colleges, free chapel, fraternities, guilds and their possessions. Commissioners would be appointed to inquire into their revenue and inventories would be made of all their goods and certificates returned to the Court of Augmentations. It was left to the King to determine which should stand and which should be dissolved or refounded. Perhaps he still had misgivings, because this did not begin in earnest until after his death.

Cranmer however left no-one in doubt of his intentions proclaiming in his speech at the boy King Edward VI’s coronation that he would see idolatry destroyed and the tyranny of Rome banished.

The government decreed that the church in all parishes must use the new Prayer Book from WhitSunday on June 9^th. This caused widespread anger, in Sampford Courtenay the parish priest was prevented from saying the new service and urged to wear his popish robes and say the mass and all the service as in times past. Although the movement was supported by many clergy, it was predominately a layman’s movement by the people, who did not want to lose the devotional practices to which they had become accustomed.

Numbers grew and the Devonshire rebels were joined near Crediton by rebels from Cornwall about June 19^th. In July the combined force numbering 4,000-6,000 made the fateful decision to besiege Exeter which had remained loyal to the Crown. The siege dragged on for 5 or 6 weeks.  Vengeance followed with brutal executions.

There are some books I need to hunt down and read which involve the churches and parishioners in some of the parishes where our family lived. Maybe there will be further developments later in this challenge. (If the books arrive quickly enough and I can read them all in double quick time too)