Introduction

Summary

The system of registration of dissenters’ meeting houses (including Roman Catholic buildings), later described as the registration of places of religious worship, appears to be confined to England and Wales. It is a typical English institution, in having evolved slowly over two centuries, and being a voluntary system. It began in 1672 when Charles II, wishing to help his Roman Catholic subjects, issued a Declaration of Toleration for Protestants dissenting from the Church of England. This was a short-lived experiment which never achieved his goal of toleration for Roman Catholics, but it left behind an invaluable record in the form of lists of meeting houses and preachers who had registered with the Secretary of State. A second Declaration of Toleration issued by James II in 1687 was strenuously opposed by Anglicans and dissenters and has left few or no records at all. In 1689, when William III rewarded with a Toleration Act the dissenters who had supported him, the same precedent of voluntary registration was followed. However the responsibilty of receiving applications was placed on the courts of quarter sessions and the bishops. Registration was popular because it provided protection against persecution and riot. Magistrates, however unsympathetic, were obliged to protect them - a duty which could be enforced by mandamus from superior courts. Until the mid-eighteenth century most registrations were made by quarter sessions probably because of objections to Anglicanism, but then registrations with bishops and archdeacons became more popular. This was because the licence was issued by the registrar at any time (rather than four times a year with the clerk of the peace), and the registrar made fewer objections to the certificate than the magistrates.

As persecution slowly declined in England and Wales the system of registration might have disappeared but for various pieces of legislation introduced in the nineteenth century. The first permitted registered buildings to claim exemption from poor rates. Another released them from the control of the Charity Commission, and a third allowed the Registrar General to license the building for the performance of marriages. The system remained voluntary because even when the Act said otherwise no provision was made for enforcing it. However it became difficult for an active congregation to avoid registration. Therefore when in mid-century bishops complained of being obliged to register Mormon and similar buildings the duty was transferred to the Registrar General.