During the 1600s, increasing numbers of Christians were disaffected with the current state of the Church of England and sought its reform. This overlapped with parliament's struggle with the Stuart Kings, which culminated in the execution of Charles I in 1649, and the brief period of the Commonwealth, when Britain was ruled as a republic led by Oliver Cromwell, and briefly his son Richard. The monarchy was restored in 1660. Those who sought reform of the Church of England in the 1600s were known as Puritans. Some Puritans wanted the national church to be reorganised along Reformed/Presbyterian lines, and this is what more or less what happened during the Commonwealth period. Others, sometimes known as "Separatists", rejected the whole idea of a national church, and organised independent churches - what would later be known as the congregational churches. In the Lancashire town of Bury, in 1645, the incumbent parish vicar Travers, also a Puritan, was removed for suspecte...
The origins of Baptist churches go back to the 1600s. The very first Baptist church began in 1609 and was for English speaking Christians based in the Netherlands, relocating to London in 1611 (Thomas Helwys). These churches were known as "General Baptists" and followed the theology of Arminius and the Anabaptists. A second genesis of Baptist churches was in London in about 1638 (John Spilsbury). These churches followed the Reformed Theology of John Calvin and the Synod of Dordt. In 1644, the First London Baptist Confession was signed by seven Baptist churches in the capital. Baptist churches later spread from London outwards. During the time of the English Civil War (1642-1651), there were Baptist Christians in the New Model Army of Oliver Cromwell. In 1648 the New Model Army campaigned in Lancashire during the Second Civil War. From about 1649/50, John Wigan (d. 1665) was pastor of a Baptist church meeting in Chetham's hospital which is now part Chet...