Quakers, Sutton Benger

There was a rise in the popularity of nonconformist religious practices across the whole of North Wiltshire in the seventeenth century, and for Sutton Benger this was also true. Zephaniah Fry lived in Sutton Benger and embraced the doctrines of the Society of Friends. His home became a centre of Quakerism and his son John published a Quaker book of 'Selected poems Containing Religious Epistle etc.' which was prefaced "Sutton Benger 25 March 1774".

Quakers were also living in Draycot Cerne in the later 17th and early 18th century. They were described as 'numerous' in 1669 but totalled only seven!