ABSTRACT
Between 1815 and the 1830s Dissenters often made a protest to the vicar at being forced to marry in a parish church, a requirement under Hardwicke's Marriage Act of 1753. Tithe was the payment, notionally a tenth of the value of agricultural produce, due to the Anglican incumbent of a parish. Quakers had traditionally refused to pay, as this statement from their Yearly Meeting explains, because of their fundamental religious principles. Smith, of Norwich, that noble advocate of the rights of conscience, particularly as affecting Unitarians, to bring the marriage question under the consideration of the legislature. Deeply impressed with a conviction of the truth of these considerations, the authors have felt it to be a religious duty to refuse active compliance with all Ecclesiastical demands which have been made upon us; or to be parties to any compromise whereby the payment of them is to be insured.
