Presbyterians, Ramsbury

After the Restoration the curate, John Dent, was ejected and set up a Dissenters' meeting and school, having previously run the school in the church. Ramsbury became a centre for dissent and, because there were many small landowners in the village not dependent on church or lord of the manor, many villagers became Presbyterians. In 1669 the Prebyterian conventicle numbered 50-60 people and Henry Dent and other ejected vicars preached in local fields and woods. Dent's house was licensed for meetings in 1672 when he also received a license to preach there, or at any other licensed house. There was violent opposition and harrassment, led by the vicar, John Wilson, but after his death in 1680 things became easier with a new and friendlier vicar, although there was still some local persecution. In 1689 Dent took the oath under the Toleration Act but was moved to London and died shortly afterwards, having served Ramsbury for 30 years. In 1715 the congregation bought a piece of land on the north side of Oxford Street, for £5, and a chapel was built. A visiting preacher attracted a gathering of 160 people. The chapel is mentioned again in 1747 but was a dwelling house in 1765 and probably pulled down shortly afterwards. It was gone by 1775. Independent worship revived in the village in the 1820s with the Congregationalists.