Battle of Sedgemoor site and monument

Nicholas Scadding, his wife Anne and their children lived in the small village of Pitminster, a few miles south of Taunton in Somerset. In the spring of 1688 there was still a tension in the air following the failed attempt of James Scott, the Duke of Monmouth, to overthrow the Catholic King James II in 1685 and return England to Protestantism. Men from all over Somerset and Dorset had joined Monmouth to fight against the King's army but, although they put up a brave fight, they were massacred at the Battle of Sedgemoor. Those who survived the massacre but were unable to escape were tried at what became known as the "Bloody Assizes". Thousands were put to death or transported to the West Indies on the orders of Judge Jefferies. More than fifty men from Pitminster joined Monmouth including Nicholas and John Scadding. Although a General Pardon was given the following year the list of exceptions included those who were leaders in the rebellion and also a school of young ladies later known as The Maids of Taunton, one of whom was named Scadding. [1]

Anne's husband Nicholas may not have been the same man as the rebel Nicholas because Anne and Nicholas were Quakers[2] and as such generally refused to take up arms - however it is known that there were some Quakers in Monmouth's army. Quakers were seen as a threat to government. They threatened the rule of the upper classes because they believed all people were equal and they threatened the rule of the church because they believed that a relationship with God did not need the intervention of a priest or the ritual of the church. Persecutions of Quakers was common place; many died of their wounds from being beaten whilst others were imprisoned and some transported.

In April 1687 King James II had issued the Declaration of Indulgence. Although it was meant to allow all people freedom from the penalties of not worshipping in the Church of England and to enable them "to meet and serve God after their own way and manner, be it in private houses or in places purposely hired or built for that use"[3] it was unpopular with many as it looked like another way of undermining Protestants and favouring the Catholics and nonconformists (including Quakers).  On 27 April 1688, King James II re-issued the Declaration of Indulgence and ordered all clergymen to read it in their churches - but toleration was not in the minds of all Pitminster folk.

Three days later, at about six or seven o’clock in the morning, Anne Scadding was at home with her 16-year old son, Samuel, and a servant. Anne was heavily pregnant with a baby due in less than a month and was still upstairs in her night clothes. The windows were bolted but Samuel heard the support being broken and saw a man, who he knew to be William Reeves, violently breaking into his house through the window. Samuel quickly shut one of the inner doors but Reeves pushed it open to gain access to the main door where he let in two more bailiffs, Matthew Tucker and William Pursey. Anne, hearing the commotion, sent her servant Susannah Major to a neighbour’s house before coming downstairs to ask what the intruders wanted. They replied that they wanted her husband but when Anne refused to tell them where Nicholas was Tucker and Reeves started hitting her on her head, face and arms with cudgels. Neighbour Elizabeth Gale came to the house, probably called by the servant, and saw Anne battered and bleeding.  Anne told her that the rogues wanted to kill Nicholas and that they were still in the house. Elizabeth went in, put a rug around Anne and asked the bailiffs to act like men and to allow Anne to get dressed especially as she was so close to having her baby. One of the bailiffs threatened Elizabeth saying that they would "swear against her" - presumably swearing that she too was a Quaker. Elizabeth was frightened; she explained that she only came in to put clothes on Anne and not to hurt them and she quickly left the house. Jone Gale also saw the men at Nicholas and Anne’s house early that morning but when she went to the house she found Anne crying and in a very bad state from being beaten so badly. By the time Anne’s servant returned the bailiffs were leaving. Anne’s arms and shoulders were badly bruised and she lost a lot of blood.[4]

Two weeks later Anne was still bruised and very ill from the beating she had received.

	Pitminster Parish Church

At the end of May Anne gave birth to a son, Richard, who was baptised on 1 June 1688 in the parish church of St Mary and St Andrew in Pitminster.[5] Perhaps the beating had frightened her into conforming and having the baby baptised in the Church of England.

A few weeks later James II was deposed in the "Glorious Revolution" by the Dutch King William and Queen Mary. On 2 October 1688 a second ‘Gracious and General Pardon’ was issued to the former rebels - it had fewer exceptions and no specific exclusion of the Maids of Taunton.

Six months later, on 24 May 1689, the Tolerance Act was passed which gave the nonconformists the right to hold meetings, albeit with certain conditions, and the violence against Quakers and other nonconformists, excluding the Catholics, started to abate.

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Sources

1. W. McD. Wigfield, The Monmouth Rebels, Alan Sutton Publishing Limited, 1985
2. Burial record for Nicholas Scadding 19 January 1724 at St. Mary and St. Andrew, Pitminster, Somerset Record Office, D/P/pitm 2/1/1
3. The Jacobite Heritage, www.jacobite.ca/documents/16870404.htm, accessed 26 October 2008
4. Somerset Quarter Sessions, Witness statements, Somerset record office Q/SR/174/23-26
5. Baptism record for Richard Scadding 1 June 1688 at St. Mary and St. Andrew, Pitminster, Somerset Record Office, D/P/pitm 2/1/1

Bibliography

1. Dunning, Robert, Editor, Christianity in Somerset, Somerset County Council,1975
2. Earle, Peter, Monmouth's Rebels The Road to Sedgemoor 1685, Morrison and Gibb Ltd. London and Edinburgh,1977
3. Locke, Richard, The Western Rebellion, Somerset Archaelogical and Natural History Society, 1888
4. Tincey, John, Sedgemoor 1685 Marlborough's First Victory, Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2005
5. Wigfield, W. McD., The Monmouth Rebels, Alan Sutton Publishing Limited, 1985