The story of the Church of England over the course of the seventeenth century is complicated and multifaceted, and the most complex period, both at the national and local level, is from 1660 to 1700. The latter period has had the sometimes doubtful privilege of being endowed with a heavy burden of historical opinion. Charles II was restored to his kingdom in 1660 and the Church of England was re-established by law in 1662, but it was a fractious kingdom and the church was not universally accepted. The period from 1660 to 1663 was characterized by small rebellions, many executions for treason, large-scale movements of parish incumbents and the persistence of dissent. This Introduction is intended to assist in the understanding of a single document which is itself devoted to a comparatively small number of parishes located, in the main, within the confines of a small area of England. Attention is therefore directed at what the document says and whether any revelations of shortcomings should or could have been remedied in the years immediately following the Restoration, rather than attempting to discuss national issues. Many historians have explicated the national political and religious problems and a few have examined local communities, but this document reveals the problems facing the re-established local church hierarchy, at the parish level.

The Church of England had been officially banned for nearly twenty years and while some of the Canterbury diocesan parishes clung on to their ministers or individuals continued to use the old rites clandestinely, the majority of the parishes, if they had a pastor at all, were subjected to an ever changing mélange of presbyterians, congregationalists, baptists, quakers and itinerant preachers. By 1663, it was apparent that church attendance was alarmingly low and nonconformists survived in numbers and influence, despite the national laws enacted between 1660 and 1663 designed to control matters. The machinery of the church courts was not yet fully operational, making local control more difficult, and support from county leaders was not always guaranteed. Adding to these challenges were the structural problems caused by pluralism, non-residence, low clerical incomes, ruined churches, dilapidated clerical residences and vacant livings.

The document popularly referred to as the ‘Sheldon survey’ presents a blurred and flawed view but assists our understanding of the state of the church, by the end of 1663, in the diocese of Canterbury and the archbishop’s peculiars.