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An Introduction to Wareham United Reformed Church

Welcome to Wareham United Reformed Church; God has been
worshipped here for many generations. If you would like to sit a
few moments in prayer, be assured that God will hear you.

Wareham United Reformed Church has its origin in the Prayer
Book Rebellion of 1662. A new, revised prayer book was
introduced to the Anglican Church, which was the main
denomination and the established church. This was enforced by
the Act of Uniformity making the prayer book obligatory in
worship.

However the vicar of Wareham, Thomas Chaplyn, and many
other clergy across the land, felt that they could not accept the
new prayer book, that it tied the church too closely to the State
and asserted the Divine Right of Kings. These dissenters were
thrown out of their churches. Many parishioners broke away
from the Anglican church to form their own congregations.

Consequently, the Vicar of Wareham, Rev Thomas Chaplyn,
was removed from his parish; many of his congregation sided
with him and left the local church. Originally the Wareham
group, led by Thomas Chaplyn, would have met in each others'
houses, barns or even in the open air.

In 1672 with the Act of Indulgence, which gave dissenters or
Nonconformists a legal position in the land, one of those
registering her home as a Meeting House was Mrs Dorothy
Chaplyn, widow of Thomas. In 1694 a new church was built on
the current site. This was gutted by the Great Fire of Wareham
in 1762, when two thirds of the town was destroyed. Afterwards,
the charred walls were retained, but with a new interior and roof,
which exist today. The pillars were each made from a single
piece of wooden timber.

William Clark, son of a Dorchester clothier, is generally regarded
as the first minister of the Old Meeting House, as it was called.
He continued until his death in 1722 aged 73. In 1739 the
Rev Simon Reader, an erudite and pious man, became Minister.