‘Fanatic magistrates’: Religious and political conflict in three kent boroughs, 1680–1684

Abstract

This article examines religious and political conflict in the Kent boroughs of Dover, Canterbury and Sandwich in the early 168os. Section II describes the personal, political and religious divisions in Dover which lay behind a local campaign to persuade the crown to force the surrender of the town's charter. Section III charts the growth of concerted anglican opposition to the dissenting group which controlled the corporation of Canterbury. The activities of the dissenting mayor of Sandwich which aggravated political differences within the town are described in section IV. The final part of the article suggests some implications of the three case studies for understanding of English politics in the period. It argues that the government took action against the town charters principally in response to the demands of local loyalists, rather than as part of a policy of centralization. It concludes that anglican royalists within the towns were the principal agitators for, and beneficiaries of, the new charters. © 1992, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.