NONCONFORMITY. Roman Catholicism. A Roman Catholic gentleman and his wife were recorded in 1603, and in 1624 four members of the Ewer family, lessees of the manor house, were fined for recusancy, together with Thomas Tempest, one of a prominent local recusant family.¹ The Ewers were still recorded as recusants in the early 1640s, together with at least one of their servants.² No further evidence of Roman Catholicism has been found, though the Heylyn family of Little Minster was on friendly terms with the Trinders of Westwell and Holwell (in Broadwell), another prominent Oxfordshire recusant family.³

Protestant Nonconformity. The 17th to Mid 19th Century. In 1663 two Anabaptists were excommunicated; the same two were recorded as dissenters in 1676 and 1685, together with family members. In 1683 two excommunicate Quakers were mentioned, perhaps through confusion with the Anabaptists.⁴ During the 18th and early 19th centuries the vicars denied that there were any dissenters, and in 1820 the curate reported 'very few ...[with] no place of worship';⁵ in that he may have been mistaken since, in 1816, Henry Leake was licensed to 'set aside a building on his premises, as a place of religious worship', though that chapel, presumably in an outbuilding, had closed by 1851.⁶ Thereafter the presence of nonconformists was grudgingly admitted, the curate alleging in 1854 that the 'O'Connor cottages' (i.e. Charterville) formed 'another parish almost, the generality of the occupiers being bigoted dissenters'; they had a 'large building on the O'Connor Estate', where the number of dissenters was 'upward of 200', and a Baptist meeting there was noted in 1861, together with the nearby Wesleyan chapel.⁷ In 1872 half the parish was claimed to be dissenters, and three-quarters in 1878 and 1881.⁸

Wesleyans. The Witney Wesleyan circuit did not include Minster in 1848, although a probably inaccurate claim was later made for the building of a chapel in 1845. No such chapel existed in 1851, though a site was conveyed in 1858 and a chapel opened in 1861.⁹ Subscriptions for a chapel were taken in 1862, and a more suitable place was being sought two years later.¹⁰ Membership rose from 11 in 1864 to 16 in 1868, but fell to between 7 and 11 in the 1870s.¹¹ A large stone-built chapel in Gothic style was erected before 1870 on the Burford road near Charteville's northern end, perhaps the earlier site; major repairs between 1907 and 1909 included new pews for 80 people, and installation of a harmonium.¹² It remained open in 2000, with a congregation of around 25 people.

Primitive Methodists. Primitive Methodists were preaching in Minster by 1851, and a chapel was being contemplated in 1858.¹³ A small stone chapel was eventually opened in Charterville in 1893, incorporating a gate with reset scrolled

Charterville: Primitive Methodist chapel

supports and 18th-century wrought-iron railings.¹⁴ After the Methodist unification of 1932 it continued, like the former Wesleyan chapel, as a United Methodist chapel, and closed in 1965; in 2000 it was derelict and used for storage.¹⁵

Baptists. A chapel for Baptists and Congregationalists, served from Witney, was established in 1852 on the property of a small farmer, presumably in an outbuilding.¹⁶ Walter Wheeler, a local farmer, was a Baptist 'preacher' in 1861 and 'minister' in 1871, though another Baptist minister also lived in the parish.¹⁷ Members included one of the main Charterville farmers, and Joseph Abraham of Ringwood Farm: the leading Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon preached every year at Ringwood Farm between 1864 and 1875.¹⁸ No later reference to Baptists has been found.