Reign of King Charles l 1625 to 1649
‘Commonwealth’ of Oliver Cromwell 1649 to 1660
Reign of King Charles ll 1660 to 1683
Cromwell’s death and Bradshaw’s ejection
After the monarchy was restored under King Charles ll, most non-conformist clergy were deprived of their livings, and Bradshaw was ejected from Willingham Rectory, ‘leaving 90 devout families at my ejectment’. He promptly changed his allegiance and founded the first non-conformist church in Willingham. A Congregational Chapel and its Baptist successor were founded in the same year. Bradshaw carried on preaching in Willingham and surrounding villages for a further five years, until he moved to London, just after ‘The Great Fire’ there. He later returned to St Ives after the Act of Toleration, and preached in a non-conformist capacity in Willingham until his death in 1690 (from scorbutic dropsy). In effect, he had preached in the village for the greater part of 43 years. Bradshaw must have retained some kind of favourable relationship with the Rectory after all this time, as he managed to arrange for his own burial in the chancel of Saint Matthew’s Church, in Willingham, as it was still known.
Royal Restoration
After Cromwell’s death and the coronation of King Charles II in 1660, there was inevitably a reaction against all things Cromwellian. While Nathaniel Bradshaw had been enjoying the living at Willingham during Cromwell’s Commonwealth, the royalist Bishop of Ely, Matthew Wren, had been imprisoned for 18 years in the Tower of London. When Wren was released in 1660 he wasted no time in compensating his children for the hardships they had suffered during his imprisonment.
Nepotism thrived! His second son, Thomas Wren, had been admitted to Cambridge University as an undergraduate, but was forced to leave when his father was taken to the Tower. Despite being denied any financial support from his father, he had somehow managed to transfer his studies to Oxford, where he was said to have became ‘much addicted to musick’.
After his father’s release from the Tower, Thomas Wren’s career was nothing short of meteoric. He was ordained by his father in 1661, appointed as Rector of Willingham and Canon of Ely in 1662, Archdeacon of Ely in 1663, and a Canon of Southwell in 1664. He retained all these appointments until his death in 1679.
Next time: Willingham Agriculture Thrives.
