Page 247
A History of the County of Essex: Volume 4, Ongar Hundred. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1956.
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PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY
Nathaniel Ward, Rector of Stondon from 1626, was deprived of the living by Laud in 1632 for disobedience of the canons. (fn. 1) He had probably been presented to Stondon by Sir Nathaniel Rich, then lord of the manor, who was a zealous Puritan. (fn. 2) Nathaniel Rich the younger was also a Puritan. His religious view did not change in old age. In 1684 the churchwardens of Stondon presented that he had come to church only once in the past fourteen years, and that for a funeral. (fn. 3) His will provides the only evidence of organized nonconformity in the parish: he left £10 to a Mr. Paget 'minister of Stondon meeting'. This meeting appears to have been short lived. (fn. 4)