FAMILY
Walter s/o Walter Quaife and Constance Cossam chsitened in Hawkhurst on April 3, 1614.
He married Elizabeth Dale in Hawkhurst 15 Nov 1641.
Though Walter and Elizabeth Quaife christened four children in the established church, the dates of these events tell another story.
THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR
They christened their son John in Hawkhurst, on 21 Aug 1642, the day before the English Civil War broke out.
Assuming that they are non-conformists, it is worth noting that many of their co-religionists fought for Parliament.
The six-year-gap in the christenings of their children correspond to the duration of that conflict. The Scots delivered King Charles into the hands of his enemies on January 30th, 1647. Seventeen months later, Elizabeth Quaife gave birth to her second known son, William.
Another decade would pass before she and her husband christened another.
The Baptists and many other independent sects ceased to support Oliver Cromwell after he
During the 1650's towns like Cranbrook and Goudhurst, which are prominent in the Quaife's story, were centres of religious dissent. (Peter Elmer, WITCHCRAFT, WITCH HUNTING AND POLITICS IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND, Oxford University Press, 2015, p 147)
This was also the era of religious extremism and witch trials. A group of 5 women from neighbouring Cranbrook were burned during the Maidstone assizes of 1652. Anne Astley confessed that the devil had given them a piece of flesh that would grant all of their wishes. The women were all burned and the flesh displayed in Maidstone's Swan Inn. (John Ashton, THE DEVIL IN BRITAIN AND AMERICA, p 241.) In 1653, one of the county's prominent Baptists was a key witness in the trial that led to the execution of a mother and daughter in Goudhurst. (Elmer, p p. 146, 147) In 1656 Mary Allen, also from Goudhert, was condemned for keeping company with a spirit that took the form of a black dog ((R Trevor Davis, FOUR CENTURIES OF WITCH BELIEFS, edition of 1980, p 141).
Some ridiculed these superstitions. Sir Roger Sutton proclaimed that the witch hunters were crediting the devil with powers far beyond those described in Scripture. Parliamentary soldiers responded by plundering his house ten times during the Civil War. They imprisoned him in Leeds castle in 1644. (Davis, p 87)
As the Baptist movement began to fragment after 1653, the Quakers and other independent movements moved in. (Elmer, p 152) George Fox, founder of the Quaker movement, visited Cranbrook at least three times. He had "a great meeting," where "several turned to the lord," in 1655. Returning in 1663, after King Charles outlawed the Quaker faith, he had "blessed meetings" in Cranbrook and the surrounding area. Fox was arrested and only released after explaining that Parliament's supporters had arrested him for being a Royalist!" (JOURNAL OF GEORGE FOX, Cambridge at the University Press, 1952, oo. 209, 211, 437-440.)
Duncan Harrington, who I hired to peruse Kent's non-conformist records, explained the challenges of trying to reconstruct a genealogy from this era: "few records exist. Many of the early sects met in private houses which were later required to be licensed. For example: Cranbrook's Independent Chapel on the Hill was founded between 1700 and 1710, but didn't start supplying any records for births and baptisms until 1786."
We do not know how many children Walter and Elizabeth Quaife had, only that they christened our ancestor Walter a month after Oliver Cromwell's death. It was a time of great uncertainty. Some hoped there would be a second coming.
THE RESTORATION
Instead, the Monarchy was restored in 1660. King Charles II outlawed the Baptists, Quakers and all other sects. The resulting persecution lasted for two decades.
Walter Quaife owned a house with one chimney in Hawkhurst during 1664 (Duncan Harrington, KENT HEART TAX ASSESSMENT LADY DAY 1664, p 222) That same year he christened his son James in the established church.
Walter Quaife was buried in Hawhurst on January 13, 1685
CHILDREN