At the time of the passing of the Act referred to, in 1662, the village was favoured with the ministry of Mr. Joseph Newell, who was sufficiently conscientious not hastily to submit to the requirements of this Act, for he suffered himself to be ejected from his living, though he subsequently conformed; but the minister by whose labour this Church was formed was the Rev. Michael Harrison, who preached in the parish Church of Caversfield, Bucks, and resided in the vicarage there, where he had performed the duties of a faithful minister of Christ for a number of years. He became dissatisfied with the terms of conformity; maintained familiar intercourse with evangelical Dissenters; and at length became fully prepared to recede from the Church. Dr. Calamy, who was then studying at Oxford, says: "There were at this time monthly fasts appointed by authority, and generally observed very regularly, to implore the divine blessing in order to the success of our forces. At one of these fasts I was at Bicester, and assisted old Mr. Cornish, who was indisposed, at his Meeting House, in the morning; and afterwards walked over to Caversfield, about a mile distant, the Dissenters in a body bearing me company. There I preached in the public Church in the afternoon, and had a crowded Church from the country round. Mr. M. Harrison preached in the Church, of which Mr. Beard was patron; and he lived in the house adjoining. But Mr. Harrison was now from home, in Northamptonshire, where he was gathering a congregation of Dissenters about Potterspury, designing to quit the Church and settle among them." Mr. Harrison's efforts were successful; he soon gathered around him some friends, removed to reside amongst them, formed a Congregational Church, and purchased a property, on which he fitted up a place of worship. When Mr. Harrison removed to Pury, a Mr. John Warr, who formerly lived in the neighbourhood of Caversfield, came with him to enjoy the benefit of his ministry. And connected with this circumstance is another, which will show something of the spirit of the times. "When Mr. Harrison came to Pury, he brought a pulpit with him, which he deemed it necessary to conceal; therefore, to prevent it being known, Mr. Warr, being a shoemaker, contrived to fill it with shoe-pegs, and brought it among his own goods in a waggon from Bicester."