The gentry of North-East Wales were steadfastly loyal to the Church of England throughout the period 1640 to 1688, including the Interregnum, when many traditional rites and rituals were banned alongside the use of the Prayer Book. John Morrill and Judith Maltby have demonstrated that such loyalty existed in England too, although the impression given within their work is one of pockets of loyalist resistance rather than the persistent survival of a significant episcopalian community. When faced with a choice in the late seventeenth century of supporting James II or the Church, the North-East Welsh gentry (like many across England and Wales) chose the Church. It is important, therefore, to consider firstly why the Church of England became the focus of such loyalty, and secondly how and why North-East Welsh loyalty was retained throughout the seventeenth century.

Chapter 5 will propose three main reasons for the defence of the Church of England. The Church was a key component of Welsh society, and part of both its historical and contemporary culture. It was one of the pillars of Welsh gentry ideals and formed part of the notion of an ordered society. The protection of the Church of England as an institution (particularly one with the monarch at the head) was the duty of the gentry. The Church was also part of Welsh history, operated in the Welsh language, and was, it was argued, a distinctly Welsh institution – the descendent of the Celtic Church. As such, it needed to be maintained and treasured by the Welsh as a key aspect of their heritage – and defended against ‘foreign’ incursions or attempts to change its rituals and form. The familial relationships between many of the personnel of the Church and the gentry meant that the protection of the Church was also encompassed within the wider concept of kinship and allegiance. Church buildings were the sites of displays of ancestral patrimony such as funeral monuments, and pew ownership as a denotation of status was guarded jealously. Finally and importantly, the North-East Welsh gentry had genuine religious as well as historical and political motives for defending the Church of England.