Printed letter of resolutions, sent to Wood, from a “Meeting of Delegates from Congregations of the several Denominations of Protestant Dissenters in the County of Devon” on 1 October 1789, Samuel Milford, chairman.

[Wood has even edited this-- concerning the 2nd resolution, where “That it is the unalienable right of all mankind to judge for themselves in matters of religion, without suffering any civil inconvenience on that account,” he has added “the natural and unalienable right .. .”]

“At a numerous and respectable Meeting of Delegates from Congregations of the several Denominations of Protestant Dissenters in the County of Devon, convened by public advertisement, and held at the Globe Tavern in Exeter, on Thursday the 1st day of October, 1789, to consider what constitutional measures may be adopted for obtaining the repeal of the Test and Corporaton Acts . . .” 

Again, the usual resolutions against the prophaning of the Lord’s Supper by using it for qualifying someone for civil employment.  The third and fourth resolutions state:

“That the Protestant Dissenters of this kingdom maintain no principles, and have done nothing as a body, that can justly render them unworthy of the confidence of Government; that they have ever been zealously attached to the civil constitution of their country, which they have always been forward to defend, whenever it has been in danger; and are, and ever have been, strenuous supporters of all the Princes of the royal House of Brunswick, because they have considered them as friendly to the cause of civil and religious liberty.”  

That to render Protestant Dissenters ineligible to all places of trust, honor and profit under their Sovereign, in corporate bodies, or commercial companies, by imposing a religious test with which, from motives of conscience, they cannot comply, fixes upon them a mark of infamy which they have by no means merited, deprives them of the rights to  which they are entitled as good citizens, and is manifestly impolitic and unjust.”

The Devon committee thanks the London committee, whose actions they approve, and note that they are ready to “cooperate” with them by forming a committee as well.  They also remind Dissenters “to shew a particular and marked attention at the ensuing general election, to the interest of such candidates as are believed to be well affected to civil and religious liberty.” They note that a similar committee is about to be formed in Cornwall, and they are trying to get the ministers in Dorset to start one.  They will be forming one in Exeter and for the surrounding country villages and towns. 

Text: Test Acts Papers, no. 34, Unitarian Collection, UCC 3/6/6, John Rylands University Library of Manchester.