A man from Evesham was the second person in England to burned at the stake for his religious beliefs in 1409, a historical society revealed.

Thomas Badby, a tailor and follower of the teaching of the 14th century reformer John Wycliffe, was burned at the stake for his Protestant beliefs at Smithfield in March 1409.

The tragic incident was discussed at a talk given by Vale of Evesham Historical Society committee member Gerry Harte at the Friends’ Meeting House last month.

Gerry revealed that Thomas Badby was accused of heresy and brought before the Bishop of Worcester at the beginning of the 15th century, he was burned at Smithfield in March 1409.

Gerry led her audience through a brief account of the reformation proper, starting with Martin Luther’s nailing of his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenburg in 1517.

Thanks to the media revolution which had taken place in the century after Badby’s execution, namely the invention of the printing press, Luther’s ideas spread quickly, and both sides in the debate used cheap pamphlets to promulgate their ideas.

Towards the end of the 16th century, many reformers, who were as dissatisfied with the Church of England as they were with Catholicism, and who were persecuted for not attending Church of England services, fled to Holland.

It was in Holland in 1609 that the first recognisable non-conformist denomination was formed by an ex-Anglican clergyman called John Smyth, namely the Baptists.

This new religion spread very quickly, with the very first Baptist chapel in England being established at a house in Tewkesbury, bought by members of the faith in 1623.

The house may still be visited today as part of the John Moore Museum.

The earliest non-conformists to establish themselves in Evesham were the Religious Society of Friends, better known as Quakers.

They used at first to meet, during the 1650s, at a private house in Bengeworth belonging to a former Mayor of Evesham called Edward Pitway.

This was on the site of the present Northwick Hotel. The Quakers were non-conforming in social as well as religious matters and were determinedly persecuted by the authorities in Evesham.

By the 1670s, however, the climate in the town seems to have become more tolerant to the extent that the Friends were able to purchase the site of their current Meeting House in Cowl Street (which of course is where the VEHS talks are held).

It is not known how much of the original 17th century building survives. Gerry reviewed the history of the Baptists and the Methodists in Evesham up to the 19th century, when, with the repeal of the Test Acts and Catholic Emancipation, religious freedom was established.

She finished her talk with a look at the Evesham returns for the census of religious worship carried out in 1851.

The government wished to compile comprehensive information on all religious meeting places, what services were held, and how many people attended, so ministers of religion or their representatives were asked to provide details of services and church attendance on Sunday, March 30 that year.

It transpired that though attendance at individual non-conformist places of worship was considerably lower than that at the three Church of England churches (St Peter’s, Bengeworth, All Saints’ and St Lawrence), overall numbers of non-conformists were not dissimilar to numbers of members of the established church. (Hampton, by the way, was not considered to be part of Evesham in 1851; there were separate returns for St Andrew’s.)

The next meeting will take place at the same venue on the evening of Thursday February 23 at 7.30pm, when Ian Lloyd-Oswell will be speaking about ‘Charles Voysey: the last genius of the Arts and Craft Movement’. As usual, everybody is welcome to attend.