This two volume set offers the first in-depth study of the origins of the Baptist church in Oxford in the seventeenth century, charging the people, the places and the events which helped to forge the Baptists into a dissenting congregation over a fifty year period (1641- 91). It chronicles the rise of the Baptist conventiclers during the early days of the Civil War, when Parliamentarians clashed with royalist interests in the city of Oxford and proceeds to discuss the significance of the Dissenters during the years of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, and the struggle that they faced during the Restoration period as a resurgent Church of England sought to stamp its authority on all such 'seditious sectaryes'. Although the study is essentially biographical in nature, it drives the reader back inexorably to primary source materials, many of them identified and discussed here for the first time: Volume One: People and Places Introduction 1. The Tanner: Richard Tidmarsh 2. The Glover: Lawrence King 3. The Soldier: Roger Hatchman 4. The Gardener: Ralph Austen 5. The Milliner: Thomas Williams 6. Tom Pun’s House and the Antiquated Dancing School: The Search for Early Baptist Meeting Houses Concluding Observations Appendices Bibliography Indexes List of Entries in the Chronological Source Catalogue Volume Two: Sources Chronological Sources Catalogue