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CHINLEY
CHAPEL AND THE APOSTLE
OF THE PEAK
THE
story of Chinley Chapel, its Congregation and its Pastors is so closely
bound up with that of our Parish that it naturally calls for a place in
our history.
The formation of the original body of Nonconformists
from whom the present congregation is spiritually descended, the erection
of the Chapel and much subsequent support is due to the family of Bagshawe
of Ford Hall.
On 16th January 1627—8 there was born at Litton near Tideswell
William the eldest son of Mr. William Bagshawe1 of
Hucklow Hall, Abney and Litton by Jane, daughter of Ralph Oldfield of
Litton. This son was baptised by the Vicar of Tideswell. After early
education at various schools he went to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,
where he took the B.A. degree in 1646. After leaving Cambridge we are told
he had an earnest desire to become a preacher of the Gospel and
“opposed successfully the views of his Family, who sought to
divert his mind to some other pursuit”. For a time he assisted in
ministerial work at Wormhill and Sheffield and finally on New Year’s Day
1650¾1
he was ordained at Chesterfield “by
the laying on of hands of the Prestbytery” Immanuel Bourne Rector of
Ashover being the Moderator.
1 Until towards the end of the eighteenth
century this family usually omitted
the final ‘e’. I
have adhered to the modern spelling throughout.
CHAPEL-EN-LE-FRITH
This was of course under
the Cromwellian regime. Shortly afterwards he became Vicar of Glossop.
Early in 1650 the Parliamentary Commissioners had reported that then there
was “no minister for the present” at Glossop so he does not appear to
have actually supplanted an extruded Vicar. He remained for some ten and a
half years at Glossop where he was much loved by the people. When the Act
of Uniformity of 1662 came into force, which required all incumbents of
benefices to conform to the Book of Common Prayer and Services of the
Church of England it is said that over two thousand Ministers who had
during the Commonwealth Period obtruded themselves into benefices formerly
occupied by the clergy of the Church, resigned or were ejected. Mr.
Bagshawe refused to conform and being an honest man resigned and retired
to Ford Hallwhich had been acquired by his father some time previously,
and here he remained until his death some forty years later; he having
succeeded his father in the estates in 1669.
Although Mr. Bagshawe ceased to be an official
minister he still continued to preach and organise congregations of those
whose theological views accorded with his own. At that day, unfortunately,
religious intolerance, to some extent fostered by political considerations
probably more imaginary than real, was
rife and nonconformists, whether Protestant or papist, had to walk very
circumspectly. Accordingly Mr. Bagshawe and his family attended the
services at Chapel Church every Sunday morning and afternoon. “At night
he preached the truths of the Gospel privately in his own house and
elsewhere, delivering another address to a few persons every Thursday. He
also
CHINLEY
CHAPEL
assisted frequently at
conferences and secret gatherings for prayer.” The late Mr. Greaves
Bagshawe once told me that in his youth there was, in a field on the Bank
Hall Estate, an old tree surrounded by a stone wall under which “the
Apostle” used to preach but some time about 1860 all traces of this tree
had disappeared. It was in a field, now part of “Owlgreave” Farm lying
between the Railway and Bank Hall Drive which is shown on the Estate Map
as “Gospel Brow”.
From various sources of information it is clear that
in the middle and latter part of the seventeenth century Puritanism, and
particularly the Presbyterianism followed by Mr. Bagshawe was exceedingly
strong in Derbyshire. A careful computation suggests that quite 40 per
cent of the yeomen of Chapel and Chinley were supporters of Mr. Bagshawe
and later of Chinley Chapel, as not a few of their descendants are to this
day. Amongst these we find several families of the Kirkes particularly
those of Spire Hollins and Martinside, Gee of Lydgate, Moult of The Naze
in Chinley, Lingard of Hull, Carrington of Ashen Clough, Bennetts of
Hayfield, Chinley and Whitehough and Bradbury of Coldwell Clough.
Presbyterian congregations were formed at Malcoff Hucklow, Bradwell,
Ashford, Charlesworth and several other places and Mr. Bagshawe’s
“labours were attended with such signal success that a spirit of
seriousness and devotion such as is believed had not before been
witnessed, pervaded the wild regions insomuch that he was called among his
contemporaries ‘The Apostle Of the Peak’.”
The Declaration of Liberty of Conscience Act 1672
CHAPEL-EN-LE-FRITH
brought for a time some
respite to the Apostle and his flock and he commenced to give a monthly
lecture on a week day and a service once a month on a Sunday to his former
congregation at Glossop. “There the people flocked to his sermons as
doves to a window and Mr. Sandiforth his successor was often one of his
hearers.” Under this Act amongst the fifty-four Presbyterian
Meeting-houses licensed in Derbyshire was one at Chapel-en-le-Frith. This
Statute was subsequently revoked and until the Revolution of 1688 he had
to walk warily” prudently changing the locality” of the meetings
“almost every Lord’s Day”.
However, after the
accession of William and Mary a better state prevailed and at the
Translation (July) Quarter Sessions 1689 at Derby eighteen, “Protestant
Dissenting Ministers” took the oaths and were licensed in accordance
with the then new, “Toleration Act”. Sixteen of their number, one of
whom was Mr. Bagshawe, were Presbyterians. At the same Sessions the
dwelling-house of John Lingard in Chinley was registered as a dissenting
place of Worship but the building at Malcoff is not mentioned. It may have
been covered by the licence under the Act of 1672.
Mr. Bagshawe’s sister had married Mr. William Barber
of Malcoff and, now that the Congregation were able to meet openly, that
gentleman allowed them to meet in a large building on his estate and there
they happily remained until the events occurred which led to the erection
of Chinley Chapel. As his health failed the Apostle more and more confined
himself to this meeting-house and in his last winter to his own house.
“Yet he desisted not wholly from his public ministrations
CHINLEY CHAPEL
more than one Lord’s
Day before his decease.” His last sermon was at Ford Hall on 22nd March
1701/2, on the occasion of the death of William III, from Romans viii. 31
and he died on the 1st April following. The old oak pulpit used
by the Apostle at Malcoff was for many years preserved at Ford until it
was presented to Chinley Chapel on 17th January 1931 by Mr.
F.E.G. Bagshawe of Ford Hall and it is now fulfilling its original
purpose.1
The congregation at Malcoff was by now strong
enough to need a resident pastor and in the July following the Apostle’s
death a young Lancashire man about twenty-three years of age, James Clegg,
“was called to preach an approbation sermon” and in the following
month he “settled there after a very unanimous call the people gave
me”. For some time all went uneventfully at Malcoff; Mr. Samuel Bagshaw
the son of the Apostle had been succeeded by his son William and Mr.
William Barber by his nephew John Barber. The latter, however, had married
“a wanton high-flown widow of Salford” in 1710 and as Dr. Clegg
complains, at this lady’s instigation “the doors of our meeting place
were locked upon us the Lord’s Day night as soon as ye public worship
was over without giving us the least notice before; this brought us into a
strait we had no place near suitable for the purpose but Mr.Bagshawe of
Ford allowed us the use of his house for a time.”
CHAPEL-EN-LE-FRITH
Personal application to
Mr. Barber was unavailing, the lady had her own way, " our friends
then consulted together, determined that each one that had a seat in the
place should commence a separate action at law for their seats which were
made at yr own charge and which Mr. Barber had seized on. This brought him
to submit to let us have the use of it till the year was out. “Any legal
proceedings were, however, considered unfitting for members of their body
so they began seriously to consider the erection of a place of worship of
their own. With the commendable zeal which has always been so
characteristic of this Society they at once set to work. Many members of
the congregation were prepared to contribute considerably in work and
materials, Mr. Bagshawe and others subscribed £5 each and with the help
of friends in London and elsewhere £115 10s. 0d. was raised
in cash. The total money cost of the finished building was £126 5s.
0½d., a not inconsiderable sum at that day. When it came to the
question of where to build trouble began. Those who have served on
committees—and in these days who has not-will sympathise with the
Minister’s pathetic remark that he found it very difficult to avoid
offending some one or other. There were many meetings” much time spent
and many warm debates before it could be agreed where to build, all stood
pretty stiff for their own convenience “but at length all were, or
seemed to be well satisfied!
In 1711 a plot of land was purchased for £10 from
John Hadfield of Chapel Milton in the names of Mr. Bagshawe of Ford, James
Carrington of Chinley Houses and Robert Middleton. It was “in the south
west corner of a field on
CHINLEY CHAPEL
which part of the old
smithy was formerly built and having the lane leading to the Milne Marsh
on the one side and the lane leading from Milnetowne to Hayfield on the
other side”. The lane leading to the Marsh was known as Callaway Lane or
Ward Lane. The Milne Marsh was a stretch of waste or common land on the
north side of the Hockholme Brook extending roughly from the railway main
line to the Wash and backwards to the site of the present Breck Farm. It
seems to have been enjoyed as an open space for Dr. Clegg records on
November 15th, 1740, “many came to hear David Taylor who at noon
preached on the Common” near Gorsty Low to a great multitude" and
he also mentions in September 1742 a race being held at Wash.
On 3rd July 1712 the land was conveyed to eleven
trustees namely Mr. William Bagshawe of Ford, The Revd. James Clegg,
Minister, Arnold Kirk of Martinside, Robert Middleton, Mercer, John
Bennett of Whitehough Head, Ralph Gee of Lydgate, William Carrington of
White Knowle, John Carrington of Bugsworth, William Carrington of Ashen
Clough, Thomas Moult of Chinley and John Lingard of Hull. This number of
trustees is still maintained on each appointment of new Trustees. On this
plot of land was erected a place of worship. The building of the Chapel
seems to have been somewhat annoying to some people and there is a story
that Mr. Bradbury of Coldwell Clough—a member of a family down to the
present day staunch supporters of the Chapel—patrolled the precincts with a shot
gun to keep off marauders.
Derbyshire memories are long—two and a quarter centuries
CHAPEL-EN-LE-FRITH
ago this was the New
Chapel in succession to the chapel at Malcoff and to-day it is still
spoken of by the descendants of the founders and by many of the old
families in the neighbourhood as “The New Chapel”. The smithy was
removed a few hundred yards to the west. It has long since disappeared but
its site is still commemorated by the hamlet of New Smithy. The new
building—one of the earliest Nonconformist
chapels in the country—was made capacious enough to hold a much larger
congregation than we had at Malcoff. At first multitudes flocked to it and
I hope some good was done. “An appeal issued in connection with the
restoration of the Chapel in 1908 refers to a MS. of about 1712 which
states the Chapel was” Reared upon St. James Day and therefore called
St. James Chappell”. There is also an oral tradition that the Chapel was
dedicated to St. Luke. The giving of a title to the Chapel must have been
unique at that day and no suggestion of any formal dedication has been
made. The tradition of a dedication to St. James or St. Luke may have been
in compliment or reference, to Dr. James Clegg or his medical attainments.
Things went on pretty quietly until 1750. By this time
as we shall see in the next chapter—Dr. Clegg who had many years previously gone
to live at Stodhart was not likely to continue much longer as Minister and
as it appeared to Mr.William Bagshawe, the grandson of the Apostle, that a
proper residence should be provided for the Minister, he was desirous of
building a house for the purpose. At a meeting of the Trustees Mr.
Bagshawe laid down certain conditions to which some of the Trustees
demurred and thereupon Mr. Bagshawe
CHINLEY CHAPEL
withdrew his offer and
for the time being nothing was done. However, he left a legacy to the
Chapel as did his successor Colonel Samuel Bagshawe, M.P. and finally in
1794 the present Manse was erected at a cost of £300. The Chapel was in
part rebuilt or restored in 1809 and again in 1908 care being taken on
both occasions to preserve the original work both internally and
externally.
The body of Congregationalists or Independents
worshipping at Chinley Chapel are thus the representatives, as in many
instances the lineal descendants, of the original body founded by the
Apostle of the Peak and can fairly claim to be one of the oldest
Nonconformist bodies in the country. Their rise and fortunes have been
briefly dealt with as the story is so nearly allied to that of our own
parish, but, of course, a much more comprehensive history could be given
and it is to be hoped that some day this may be done by someone connected
with the Chapel.
It may be useful to those interested in Malcoff and
Chinley Chapel to record a Memorandum in the handwriting of the Revd.
Ebenezer Glossop, Minister in the first half of the nineteenth century
“Memorandum copied from the Register of Chinley Chapel in the
handwriting of the Revd. Dr. Clegg: ‘No Register was kept while the
congregation continued at Malcoff and for many years after, since it was
removed to Chinley-Chappell, no account was taken of births and burials,
but as many as can be recovered with certainty are now inserted in the
proper places.’ The Register began to be regularly kept 26th
Oct. 1729.”
The above extraction is taken from
the local history book titled:
Chapel-en-Le-Frith
Its People & Its History.1940.
Author William Braylesford
Bunting
To download the entire book please visit
the site at:
www.marchington.org
highpeak@blueyonder.co.uk
Extracted,
transcribed & made available Robert P Marchington.
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