Nonconformity
John White of Combe
was sentenced to execution during the Catholic
uprising of 1549. (fn. 75) A recusant woman was reported in 1592-3, (fn. 76) and a will made by a Combe
man in 1619 was Catholic in tone. (fn. 77) There was
one recusant in 1642, (fn. 78) and one, a convert, in the
1670s and 1680s. (fn. 79)
Several Quakers were reported to be living in
Stonesfield and Combe in 1682, but only one is
likely to have been from the latter. The Presbyterian Thomas Whateley preached in Combe in
the later 17th century, (fn. 80) and in 1685 there was a
Particular Baptist group with its own minister,
Henry Sanders, meeting at a malthouse near the
later Meeting House Farm, c. 500 yd. west of
Bolton's Lane. Up to 200 people attended,
mostly from Woodstock. (fn. 81) In 1740 a house was
registered for meetings by Timothy Sanders, (fn. 82)
possibly Henry's son. Baptists and their pastor
were still meeting in Combe in 1763, (fn. 83) but no
later record has been found.
There was a Methodist meeting in Bolton's
Lane, at the house later called Wedgehook, in
the 1770s, attended by a preacher from Witney, (fn. 84) and there were probably Methodists continuously in the parish from that time. A Primitive Methodist group active c. 1827, when the
chaplain complained of the riotous behaviour of
'ranters', (fn. 85) may have been short lived. References to a Primitive Methodist chapel in the
later 19th century seem to repeat a mistake in
the Ordnance Survey map; no such chapel is
known, and Combe was not part of the local
Primitive Methodist circuit. (fn. 86) The popularity of
Wesleyan Methodism was for long periods unchallenged by the Established Church which
generally neglected the parish, and, in the 1820s,
in the figure of Edward Tatham, rector of
Lincoln College, alienated a large part of the
population. (fn. 87) A meeting house at East End was
registered in 1823, and two others in the parish
in 1827 and 1829. (fn. 88) The chaplain claimed in
1834 that there were only a few Methodists,
most of whom also attended church, (fn. 89) but in
1835 a chapel was built on the eastern outskirts
of the village attended by 34 members and 2
local preachers. (fn. 90) Membership rarely exceeded
25 but attendances were much higher, and on
Census Sunday 1851 there was a congregation of
60 adults and 20 Sunday school children for
morning service, with 120 and 20 respectively in
the evening; the figures were high relative to
total population. (fn. 91) The reported closure of the
Sunday school in the 1840s, in the face of a more
successful Church school, (fn. 92) had clearly been
temporary. As at Bladon the Wesleyan Reform
movement split the congregation, and membership of the chapel, which reached a peak of 42 in
1861, fell to 24 in 1868, and thereafter exceeded
30 only once, although congregations remained
high. The chapel was rebuilt in 1893, the new
foundation stone being laid by Charles Spencer Churchill, duke of Marlborough. (fn. 93)
A United Methodist Free chapel was built
south-west of the village green in 1861-3, on a
site obtained by Alderman Gabriel Banbury of
Woodstock. Its position just in front of a row of
cottages is said to have been tolerated by the
householders, who were prominent in its congregation. (fn. 94) It was claimed in 1872 that of 48
professed dissenters in the parish 28 attended
the free chapel, (fn. 95) though congregations were
larger, and in 1882 the chapel was extended. (fn. 96)
In the later 19th century some of the most
prominent families in the parish were nonconformist. William Davis of Akeman Street Farm
was a Wesleyan Methodist preacher. (fn. 97) Methodists at that time usually no longer attended the
parish church. (fn. 98) At the Methodist union of 1932
the free chapel was closed and the congregation
transferred to the Wesleyan chapel. Attendances
declined, as elsewhere, in the later 20th century,
but in the 1980s joint monthly services were
held with the parish church, and in 1988 the
chapel was extensively refurbished. Combe belongs to the Oxford circuit. (fn. 99)