A Nonconformist’s ‘Super Parish’: The Itinerant Ministry of Rev. Oliver Heywood

Oliver Heywood (1630–1702) was a Nonconformist minister who lived through periods of alternating religious persecution and toleration after the Restoration in 1660. As a moderate Presbyterian, he favoured further reform to the Church of England, seeking a simple worshipping style based on sermons and was against the hierarchy of the bishops. This position provoked local opposition from some of his congregation in Coley, near Halifax and caused his suspension from office in June 1662. He was formally ejected under the Act of Uniformity later that year, as he would not swear to uphold its demands. However, supported by lay hearers, sympathetic gentry and an informal network of like-minded Nonconformist clergy, he continued to preach across a broad area of Yorkshire and Lancashire for the next thirty years. He experienced bouts of fierce persecution, harassment and even imprisonment, which he survived through sustained and, at times, dramatic acts of resistance. Heywood’s archive consists of a wealth of first-person primary sources, including an autobiographical work, diaries and reflections in the tradition of Puritan self-scrutiny, alongside published treatises, sermons and letters. Using this material, this article focuses on one area of Heywood’s experience: his itinerancy. It argues that his influence over an extensive area of the North of England results, in part, from his constant travelling. Heywood thus deserves greater recognition from historians of post-Restoration religion for a number of reasons: his substantial literary output, his success in sustaining Presbyterianism under challenging circumstances and his influence and legacy over a wide geographical area.