ABSTRACT
Dissenters greeted news of the death of Queen Anne on 1 August 1714 with relief. For more than a decade their liberties had been under attack from the Tories, resulting in the passing of the Occasional Conformity Act in 1711, intended to prevent Dissenters from qualifying themselves for office by taking the Anglican sacrament, and, even more seriously, the Schism Act in 1714, which sought to prevent Dissenters from educating their own children or students for the ministry. Even the Toleration Act itself seemed under threat. The accession of George I was therefore met with relief by Dissenters, but also with expectation. They had been betrayed by their Whig allies in 1711 when political expediency had seen their interests sacrificed. As a result of a bargain with the Earl of Nottingham over the peace negotiations, the Whigs in the House of Lords agreed to back the Occasional Conformity Bill which they had previously rejected. Despite pleas for support, Dissenters were told that
the agreement was made and there was no going back; it was the only way to prevent the Peace; and we should be relieved in some other way; these were the most favourable answers we could obtain from such as we thought we might have expected the most from.2
