Rev. James Bean

James Bean lived on his Homestead located 3 miles south of Exeter, and 1 mile from East Kingston, in a narrow valley. He was a Quaker Minister and the organizer of the Quaker Meeting at Brentwood. He was too independent-minded to fit well into the ecclesiastical authority of the then Quaker Annual Meeting. When he was persuaded that those "over him in the lord" were in error, he flatly refused to submit to their orders. When the Committee from the Hampton Meeting came to investigate at the Brentwood Meeting, and ordered him to recant, he refused, and was, as a consequence, disowned from the regular meeting. He re-organized the Brentwood Meeting as the Division Quaker Meeting of Brentwood and continued as before. His same independence was shown to the Civil Authorities over the episode. When he was disowned, he lost his Ministerial Tax Rates, but refused to pay the tax assessed against him. He actually went to jail, rather than pay a tax that he felt was punitive. Through his fight with the Annual Meeting at Hampton and the Town Fathers over the Tax, he continued to have the loyalty of the Church and of the community. James Bean and his congregation at Brentwood continued as Quakers even after the Disowning, but as Division Quakers. James was elected as Town Selectman in 1762, showing the esteem in which he was held by his neighbors. In 1776, he refused to sign the Test Act on the grounds of his objection to war as a Quaker.