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1662 and on: an early beginning

Long before 1662, there were dissenters like John Wycliffe and the Lollards. There were still dissenters after Henry VIII had made the break with Rome as there had been before, but it was never an easy choice to want something different.
When Henry died, the boy Edward followed his father’s Protestant line, then his half-sister, Mary, turned back to Rome, while the other half-sister, Elizabeth, made a more firm break and was excommunicated. After Good Queen Bess’s long reign, as she left no heir, it was off to Bonnie Scotland to get James VI to become James I of a United Kingdom. That brought even more of a clergy mix as the Church of Scotland was influenced by Geneva – and there were Presbyterians!
When Charles I was on the throne, the explosive mix erupted and civil war took place. Maidenhead was not the scene of any major battles, but when the fighting ended, Charles was brought to
Maidenhead to say farewell to his children. Then off to the Tower and off with his head, poor man. The Commonwealth saw the Puritans in the ascendant but after Cromwell died, another messy period occurred. By the time Charles II arrived there were all sorts of ministers in charge of churches when the !662 Prayer Book was introduced. All clergy, teachers and academics were required to use the Prayer Book: failure to agree meant the loss of position but many decided not to stay.
As a result, nearly two thousand clergy were forced to leave their posts as theyrefused to assent to the Act of Uniformity. Although there is no firm evidence that a new ‘church’ was formed in Maidenhead in that year, it is recorded that Revd William Brice left the Henley living. It is known that he and his son, Revd John Brice, were preaching locally and that a group of dissenters bought some land in Back Lane (West Street) in order to erect a place of worship in about 1696. From this, we claim to be a ‘1662’ church.
David Finch