Bruntingthorpe is 6 miles north-east of Lutterworth, and about 10 miles south of Leicester.
No illegal religious meetings were noted here in 1669,[1] and in 1676 only three nonconformists were noted as living in the village.[2] Rector David Brunning informed Bishop Wake in 1706 that ‘there are only 3 dissenters, who sometimes go to the Presbyterian, sometimes to the Anabaptist meetings. They had formerly a conventicle in this parish, but lately it has been disused’. There were still three dissenters in 1709.[3]
Robert Bingley’s house was licensed for dissenting meetings in 1729, but the denomination which met here is not recorded.[4]
Forty Baptists were said to meet in a house here in 1829.[5] They built a chapel in 1845, with 50 free and 50 other seats. There was just one service on 31 March 1851, attended by 94 people.[6]
Notes
[1] R.H. Evans, ‘Nonconformists in Leicestershire in 1669’, Trans LAHS 25 (1949), p. 133
[2] A. Whiteman, The Compton Census of 1676: A Critical Edition (London, 1986), p. 335
[3] J. Broad (ed.), Bishop Wake’s summary of visitation returns from the diocese of Lincoln, 1706-1715. Part 2, Outside Lincolnshire (Huntingdonshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Leicestershire, Buckinghamshire) (Oxford, 2012), p. 841
[4] ROLLR, QS 44/1/1, rot. 3v
[5] ROLLR, QS 95/2/1/7
[6] TNA, HO 129/408/41