The Toleration Act of 1689 allowed for freedom of worship to Protestants who dissented from the Church of England, (but not to Roman Catholics or Jews), provided that they accepted oaths of allegiance and registered their meeting houses with the clerk for the county. Records show that meeting houses were registered in Armitage and Handsacre from 1705 and a wide range of denominations are represented including Independent, (later called Congregational), Primitive Methodists, Wesleyan and Methodist New Connexion.
Very few baptism records can be found – the only ones currently available for study are from the Wesleyan and Congregational Churches covering 1809 to 1837.
Until the Marriage Act of 1836 all marriages had to take place at a Church of England place of worship and be presided over by a Church of England minister. The Marriage Act allowed non-conformists and Catholics to be married in their own places of worship and for non-religious civil marriages to be held in Register offices. The first marriage in Armitage Congregational Church took place in 1900.
Until cremations became popular most burials for non-conformists took place at St. John the Baptist under the Burial Law Amendment Act – under the comment section of the St. John’s burials will be a statement to that effect. Some burials took place at Armitage Congregational Church but records do not seem to be available at the moment.