58-583: Alexander Shields or Sheilds or Sheills (January 1661 – 1700) was a Scottish, Presbyterian, nonconformist minister , activist, and author. He was imprisoned in London, in Edinburgh and on the Bass Rock for holding private worship services. After his escape from prison he wrote A Hind Let Loose which amongst other things argues for the rights of people to resist tyrants including the bearing of arms and
116-470: A century and a half. Culturally, in England and Wales , discrimination against Nonconformists endured even longer. Presbyterians , Congregationalists , Baptists , Calvinists , other "reformed" groups and less organised sects were identified as Nonconformists at the time of the 1662 Act of Uniformity. Following the act, other groups, including Methodists , Unitarians , Quakers , Plymouth Brethren , and
174-559: A great part of the more active members of society, who have the most intercourse with the people have the most influence over them, are Protestant Dissenters. These are manufacturers, merchants and substantial tradesman, or persons who are in the enjoyment of a competency realised by trade, commerce and manufacturers, gentlemen of the professions of law and physic, and agriculturalists, of that class particularly who live upon their own freehold. The virtues of temperance, frugality, prudence and integrity promoted by religious Nonconformity...assist
232-564: A major role in English politics. In a political context, historians distinguish between two categories of Dissenters, in addition to the evangelical element in the Church of England. "Old Dissenters", dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, included Baptists , Congregationalists , Quakers , Unitarians , and Presbyterians outside Scotland. "New Dissenters" emerged in the 18th century and were mainly Methodists. The " Nonconformist conscience "
290-463: A non- Anglican church or a non-Christian religion. More broadly, any person who advocated religious liberty was typically called out as Nonconformist. The strict religious tests embodied in the laws of the Clarendon Code and other penal laws excluded a substantial section of English society from public affairs and benefits, including certification of university degrees, for well more than
348-443: A paper renouncing all previous engagements "in so far as they declare war against the king". This was accepted as satisfactory, but he was still detained in prison. A letter to his friend John Balfour of Kinloch , expressing regret for his compliance, fell into the hands of the authorities. They sent the two archbishops, Arthur Ross and Alexander Cairncross , with Andrew Bruce , bishop of Dunkeld , to confer with him. On 6 August he
406-534: A psalm, he explained that it was the same as had been sung by Robert Bruce at the cross of Edinburgh, on the dispersion of the Spanish Armada . On 3 March 1689, with Thomas Lining and William Boyd , he took part in a solemn renewing of the covenants by a concourse of people at Borland Hill, parish of Lesmahagow , Lanarkshire. After the Revolution Shields joined the Church of Scotland, and
464-489: A registrar was present. Also in 1836, civil registration of births, deaths and marriages was taken from the hands of local parish officials and given to local government registrars. Burial of the dead was a more troubling problem, for urban chapels rarely had graveyards, and sought to use the traditional graveyards controlled by the established church. The Burial Laws Amendment Act 1880 finally allowed this. Oxford University required students seeking admission to submit to
522-632: A series of disabilities on Nonconformists that prevented them from holding most public offices, that required them to pay local taxes to the Anglican church, be married by Anglican ministers, and be denied attendance at Oxford or degrees at Cambridge. Dissenters demanded removal of political and civil disabilities that applied to them (especially those in the Test and Corporation Acts). The Anglican establishment strongly resisted until 1828. The Test Act 1673 made it illegal for anyone not receiving communion in
580-546: Is mainly from 2 books: An Enquiry into Church-Communion and A Hind Let Loose . The second of these, A Hind let Loose , is divided into a historical part and a theoretical part. At the beginning of the historical survey of the history of the Scottish Church from the Culdees downward. It is (says MacPherson) in the second half of the book that Shields’ power as a thinker is manifested. Under seven heads, he discusses
638-580: Is used in a broader sense to refer to Christians who are not communicants of a majority national church , such as the Lutheran Church of Sweden . The Act of Uniformity 1662 required churchmen to use all rites and ceremonies as prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer . It also required episcopal ordination of all ministers of the Church of England—a pronouncement most odious to the Puritans ,
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#1732782813334696-650: The Apologetical Declaration issued by James Renwick in November 1684. On Sunday, 11 January 1685, he was apprehended, with seven others, while preaching from the words in Genesis xlix., 21 : "Naphtali is a hind let loose," — afterwards the title of his famous Treatise. Captured by the city marshal at this conventicle in Embroiderers' Hall , Gutter Lane, Cheapside , he was brought before
754-981: The Baptists , Brethren , Methodists , and Quakers . In Ireland, the comparable term until the Church of Ireland 's disestablishment in 1869 was "Dissenter" (the term earlier used in England), commonly referring to Irish Presbyterians who dissented from the approved Anglican communion. English Dissenters such as the Puritans who violated the Act of Uniformity 1558 – typically by practising radical, sometimes separatist , dissent – were retrospectively labelled as Nonconformists. By law and social custom, Nonconformists were restricted from many spheres of public life – not least, from access to public office, civil service careers, or degrees at university – and were referred to as suffering from civil disabilities . In England and Wales in
812-494: The English Moravians were officially labelled as Nonconformists as they became organised. The term dissenter later came into particular use after the Act of Toleration 1689 , which exempted those Nonconformists who had taken oaths of allegiance from being penalised for certain acts, such as for non-attendance at Church of England services. A census of religion in 1851 revealed Nonconformists made up about half
870-737: The Irish Catholics in an otherwise unlikely alliance. The Nonconformist conscience was also repeatedly called upon by Gladstone for support for his moralistic foreign policy. In election after election, Protestant ministers rallied their congregations to the Liberal ticket. (In Scotland, the Presbyterians played a similar role to the Nonconformist Methodists, Baptists and other groups in England and Wales.) Many of
928-498: The Peace of Ryswick he returned home, was called to St Andrews on 4 February 1696, and admitted 15 September 1697. On 21 July 1699 he was authorised by the commission of the general assembly to proceed, with three other ministers, Francis Borland, Alexander Dalgleish and Archibald Stobo, and a number of colonists, to Darien , this being the second expedition in pursuance of the ill-fated scheme of William Paterson . They sailed in
986-591: The Rising Sun on Sunday 24 September 1699, his charge at home being supplied by brethren in his absence. Shields and his companions were really the first foreign missionaries of the Church of Scotland, the Commission of Assembly having, on 21 July, charged them "particularly that you labour among the natives for their instruction and conversion, as you have access." He was appointed senior minister; they reached Darien late in November 1699. There were quarrels among
1044-626: The Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England. Cambridge University required that for a diploma. The two ancient universities opposed giving a charter to the new London University in the 1830s, because it had no such restriction. London University, nevertheless, was established in 1836, and by the 1850s Oxford dropped its restrictions. In 1871 Gladstone sponsored legislation that provided full access to degrees and fellowships. The Scottish universities never had restrictions. Since 1660, Dissenters, later Nonconformists, have played
1102-552: The 20th century, until only pockets of nonconformist religiosity remained in England. Nonconformity in Wales can be traced to the Welsh Methodist revival ; Wales effectively had become a Nonconformist country by the mid-19th century; nonconformist chapel attendance significantly outnumbered Anglican church attendance. They were based in the fast-growing upwardly mobile urban middle class. The influence of Nonconformism in
1160-475: The Church of England to hold office under the crown. The Corporation Act 1661 did likewise for offices in municipal government . Although the Test and Corporation Acts remained on the statute-book, in practice they were not enforced against Protestant nonconformists due to the passage of various Indemnity Acts , in particular the Indemnity Act 1727 , which relieved Nonconformists from the requirements in
1218-583: The Council, to come under this engagement, he was recommitted to the tolbooth of Edinburgh, but he succeeded in making his escape from it disguised in women's clothes." In a footnote he comments: "Howie, in his Scots Worthies, erroneously says that it was from the Bass that Shields made his escape." Shields made his way at once to Renwick, whom he found on 6 December 1686 at a field conventicle at Earlston Wood, parish of Borgue , Kirkcudbrightshire. On 18 October 1687
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#17327828133341276-672: The Nonconformists elected to Parliament were Liberals. Relatively few MPs were Dissenters. However the Dissenters were major voting bloc in many areas, such as the East Midlands. They were very well organised and highly motivated and largely won over the Whigs and Liberals to their cause. Gladstone brought the majority of Dissenters around to support for Home Rule for Ireland , putting the dissenting Protestants in league with
1334-629: The Old group supported mostly Whigs and Liberals in politics, while the New, like most Anglicans, generally supported Conservatives . By the late 19th century, the New Dissenters had mostly switched to the Liberal Party. The result was a merging of the two groups, strengthening their great weight as a political pressure group. After the Test and Corporation Acts were repealed in 1828 , all
1392-574: The Privy Council put a price of 100 Sterling on the heads of Shields, Renwick and Houston. On 22 December, at a general meeting of Renwick's followers, he publicly confessed the guilt of "owning the so-called authority" of James VII of Scotland . His Hind Let Loose is a vindication of Renwick's position on historical grounds. The two became fast friends, and collaborated in writing the Informatory Vindication, for which Renwick
1450-707: The Test Act 1673 and the Corporation Act 1661 that public office holders must have taken the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in an Anglican church. In 1732, Nonconformists in the City of London created an association, the Dissenting Deputies to secure repeal of the Test and Corporation acts. The Deputies became a sophisticated pressure group, and worked with liberal Whigs to achieve repeal in 1828. It
1508-441: The arguments in detail, applying them to various scandalous divisions. Shields published: Posthumous were: [REDACTED] This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : " Sheilds, Alexander ". Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. Nonconformist (Protestantism) Nonconformists were Protestant Christians who did not "conform" to
1566-445: The authority as ordination is done at Presbytery level; they did not claim to be a separate church. James Renwick was sent by them to be ordained by Dutch ministers. When Renwick was killed, also on the scaffold, Shields became their leading minister. After Renwick's execution (17 February 1688) Shields pursued his policy of field meetings, preaching on a celebrated occasion at Distincthorn Hill, parish of Galston , Ayrshire. He became
1624-525: The colonists. In a letter to the Presbytery of St Andrews, dated 2 February 1700, Shields wrote :"Our meetings amongst ourselves are in the woods, where the chattering of parrots, mourning of pelicans, and din of monkeys is more pleasant than the hellish language of our countrymen in their huts and tents of Kedar ; and our converse with the Indians, though with dumb signs, is more satisfying than with
1682-613: The early part of the 20th century, boosted by the 1904–1905 Welsh Revival , led to the disestablishment of the Anglican Church in Wales in 1920 and the formation of the Church in Wales . In other countries, the term Nonconformist is used in a broader sense to refer to Christians who are not communicants of a majority national church , such as the Lutheran Church of Sweden . The largest Nonconformist church in Sweden,
1740-622: The faction of the church which had come to dominance during the English Civil War and the Interregnum . Consequently, nearly 2,000 clergymen were "ejected" from the established church for refusing to comply with the provisions of the act, an event referred to as the Great Ejection . The Great Ejection created an abiding public consciousness of nonconformity. Thereafter, a Nonconformist was any English subject belonging to
1798-529: The first MPs elected for the Labour Party in the 1900s were also nonconformists. Nonconformists were angered by the Education Act 1902 , which provided for the support of denominational schools from taxes. The elected local school boards that they largely controlled were abolished and replaced by county-level local education authorities that were usually controlled by Anglicans. Worst of all
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1856-473: The fundamental social, political, and ecclesiastical questions of the day. These heads are concerning (i) hearing of curates, (ii) owning of tyrants’ authority, (iii) unlawful imposed oaths, (iv) field meetings, (v) defensive arms vindicated, (vi) the extraordinary execution of judgment by private persons, and (vii) refusing to pay wicked taxations vindicated . The last-named section was added, Shields tells us, as an afterthought. Some Scottish Presbyterians were at
1914-585: The governance and usages of the established church in England, and in Wales until 1914, the Church of England . Use of the term Nonconformist in England and Wales was precipitated after the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660, when the Act of Uniformity 1662 renewed opposition to reforms within the established church. By the late 19th century the term specifically included other Reformed Christians ( Presbyterians and Congregationalists ), plus
1972-500: The hated Anglican schools would now receive funding from local taxes that everyone had to pay. One tactic was to refuse to pay local taxes. John Clifford formed the National Passive Resistance Committee . By 1904 over 37,000 summonses for unpaid school taxes were issued, with thousands having their property seized and 80 protesters going to prison. It operated for another decade but had no impact on
2030-477: The house of Isabel Murray at Port Royal , Jamaica. He left property valued at £6,483 16 s . 10 d . On the failure of the Expedition, he sailed for Scotland, heart-broken by the profligacy of the settlers and the little success his labours had met among them, but died of malignant fever in the house of Isobel Murray, Port Royal , Jamaica , 14 June 1700. All attempts to identify his burial-place have failed. He
2088-486: The household, religion, and moral behaviour. Religiosity was in the female sphere, and the Nonconformist churches offered new roles that women eagerly entered. They taught Sunday school , visited the poor and sick, distributed tracts, engaged in fundraising, supported missionaries, led Methodist class meetings , prayed with other women, and a few were allowed to preach to mixed audiences. Parliament had imposed
2146-469: The interval. Without trial in England, Shields and his friends were sent to Scotland on 5 March, arriving at Leith by the yacht Kitchen on 13 March. Shields was examined by the Scottish privy council on 14 March, and by the lords justices on 23 and 25 March, but persisted in declining direct answers. At length, on 26 March, under threat of torture, he was drawn to what he calls a "fatal fall". He signed
2204-466: The late 19th century the new terms " free church " and "Free churchman" (or "Free church person") started to replace "Nonconformist" or "Dissenter". One influential Nonconformist minister was Matthew Henry , who beginning in 1710 published his multi-volume biblical commentary that is still used and available in the 21st century. Isaac Watts is an equally recognised Nonconformist minister whose hymns are still sung by Christians worldwide. The term
2262-613: The linkage between the Nonconformists and Liberal Party was weakening, as secularisation reduced the strength of Dissent in English political life. Today, Protestant churches independent of the Anglican Church of England or the Presbyterian Church of Scotland are often called " free churches ", meaning they are free from state control. This term is used interchangeably with "Nonconformist". The steady pace of secularisation picked up faster and faster during
2320-474: The lord mayor, who took bail for his appearance at the London Guildhall on the 14th. He attended on that day, but being out of court when his name was called, his bail was forfeited. Duly appearing on the 20th, he declined to give any general account of his opinions, and was committed (by his own account, decoyed) to Newgate Prison till the next quarter sessions (23 February). King Charles II died in
2378-535: The most part of our own people. Several of them came to our meetings for worship, and we have exercised in their families when travelling among them, where they behaved themselves very reverently, but we have neither language nor interpreter. But our people do scandalise them, both by stealing from them and teaching them to swear and drink." Shields made some expeditions inland; at length, with Francis Borland, he crossed over to Jamaica , but had scarcely arrived there before he went down with fever. He died on 14 June 1700 in
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2436-521: The number of people who attended church services on Sundays. In the larger manufacturing areas, Nonconformists clearly outnumbered members of the Church of England. Nonconformists in the 18th and 19th century claimed a devotion to hard work, temperance, frugality, and upward mobility, with which historians today largely agree. A major Unitarian magazine, the Christian Monthly Repository asserted in 1827: Throughout England
2494-640: The recognised leader of the United Societies , and to the general meetings of the Societies his brother Michael acted as clerk. He certainly approved of the Cameronian insurrection, under Daniel Ker of Kersland, at the end of the year, when the incumbents of churches in the west were forcibly driven from their charges. He was present at the gathering at the cross of Douglas, Lanarkshire , where these proceedings were publicly vindicated; giving out
2552-657: The resistance of taxes. It even argues that assassination, in extreme cases, is sometimes justified. Shields was one of the ministers who supported the Cameronians who disowned the king. They were brutally put down. All three of the Cameronian field-preachers, of which Shields was one, rejoined the church after the Revolution . Shields served as a chaplain to King William's armies in the Low Countries . Shields
2610-571: The school system. The education issue played a major role in the Liberal victory in the 1906 general election , as Dissenter Conservatives punished their old party and voted Liberal. After 1906, a Liberal attempt to modify the law was blocked by the Conservative -dominated House of Lords ; after 1911 when the Lords had been stripped of its veto over legislation, the issue was no longer of high enough priority to produce Liberal action. By 1914
2668-412: The temporal prosperity of these descriptions of persons, as they tend also to lift others to the same rank in society. The emerging middle-class norm was for women to be excluded from the public sphere—the domain of politics, paid work, commerce and public speaking. Instead, it was considered that women should dominate in the realm of domestic life, focused on care of the family, the husband, the children,
2726-403: The time refusing to pay their church rates, which went to support the establishment episcopal church, and Shields defended their practice. The first book is an appeal to the people of the "United Societies" to join the Church of Scotland which was reconstituted after the revolution. Shields made his case for unity, and against schism, in the book An Enquiry into Church-Communion . Vogan discusses
2784-439: Was a major achievement for an outside group, but the Dissenters were not finished. Next on the agenda was the matter of church rates , which were local taxes at the parish level for the support of the parish church building in England and Wales. Only buildings of the established church received the tax money. Civil disobedience was attempted but was met with seizure of personal property and even imprisonment. The compulsory factor
2842-471: Was accepted on 25 October, and the three signatories were received into fellowship, with an admonition "to walk orderly in time coming". Shields was appointed on 4 February 1691 chaplain to the Cameronian regiment ( 26th Foot ), raised in 1689 by James, Earl of Angus (1671–1692), son of James Douglas, 2nd Marquess of Douglas . He served in the Netherlands, and was present at Namur and Steinkerk . On
2900-475: Was again before the lords justices, and renewed his renunciation, adding the words "if so be such things are there inserted". A few days later he was sent to the Bass Rock ; he escaped in women's clothes, apparently at the end of November 1686. Anderson says: "About the autumn of 1686, he with the other ministers imprisoned in the Bass were brought to Edinburgh, and had their liberty offered them, provided they would engage to live orderly. Refusing when brought before
2958-602: Was condemned. Shields was asked to superintend its publication, but failed to find a printer. He crossed to Holland, saw the work through the Press there, and busied himself with the completion of his Hind. He went to Holland (1687) to get it printed, but returned to Scotland, leaving it at press. After the death of Donald Cargill on the scaffold, the United Societies were left without a minister. They could not ordain their own ministers because in their own eyes they lacked
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#17327828133343016-623: Was educated at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated M.A., "with no small applause," whilst in his fifteenth year (7 April 1675), writing his surname Sheils . He later wrote it Sheilds ; it is often printed "Shields". He began the study of divinity under Lawrence Charteris , but his opposition to prelacy led him, with others, to migrate in 1679 to Holland. He studied theology at the University of Utrecht , entering in 1680 as "Sheill". On returning home he made his way to London and
3074-421: Was finally abolished in 1868 by William Ewart Gladstone , and payment was made voluntary. While Gladstone was a moralistic evangelical inside the Church of England, he had strong support in the Nonconformist community. The marriage question was settled by Marriage Act 1836 which allowed local government registrars to handle marriages. Nonconformist ministers in their own chapels were allowed to marry couples if
3132-425: Was later called to be a minister at St Andrews but did not stay there long as he joined the second Darien Expedition . After its failure he died on Jamaica under 40 years of age. Alexanders Shields was born in 1661, the son of James Shields, a miller, from Haughhead in the parish of Earlston , Berwickshire. His mother was Helen Brown. He was the brother of Michael Shields, author of Faithful Contendings Displayed. He
3190-526: Was private secretary to John Owen . He came into close touch with some of the leading Puritans . Supported by Nicholas Blaikie, minister of the Scottish church at Founders' Hall, Lothbury , he was licensed as preacher by Scottish presbyterians in London, declining as a Covenanter the oath of allegiance. Strict measures being taken shortly after (1684) for the enforcement of the oath, Shields proclaimed its sinfulness, and his licensers threatened to withdraw their licence. Shields appears to have bound himself by
3248-555: Was received into communion, 25 October 1690, with his associates, Thomas Lining and William Boyd. On the meeting of the first general assembly under the Presbyterian settlement, Lining, Shields, and Boyd presented two papers, the first asking for redress of grievances, the second (an afterthought, according to Shields) proposing terms of submission. The paper of grievances the assembly received, but declined to have publicly read, as contentious. The submission, dated 22 October 1690,
3306-518: Was their moral sensibility which they tried to implement in British politics. The "Nonconformist conscience" of the Old group emphasised religious freedom and equality, pursuit of justice, and opposition to discrimination, compulsion, and coercion. The New Dissenters (and also the Anglican evangelicals) stressed personal morality issues, including sexuality, family values, and temperance . Both factions were politically active, but until mid-19th century
3364-512: Was unmarried. Descendants of his brother Michael, who accompanied the Expedition, and of other members of his family are still found in Jamaica. Shields was "of low stature, ruddy complexion, quick and piercing wit, full of zeal, and firm in the cause he espoused; pretty well skilled in most branches of learning, in arguing very ready, only somewhat fiery; but in writing on controversy he exceeded most men of that age." According to MacPherson this
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