Chapter IX: Religion (3)

This petition was signed by eighty-four ministers who had in their charge the principal parishes in the county. The other paper is quite as rabid in its tone, and bears the signature of nearly as many divines as the "Harmonious Consent." It sets forth clearly the points at issue, one of which was that it was proposed that "such as profess faith in God by Jesus Christ (however differing in judgement from the doctrine, worship or discipline publiquely held forth) shall not be restrained from, but shall be protected in their profession of their faith and exercise of religion, according to their consciences." To this proposition the minister of the province of Lancaster exclaims: "Thus all damnable heresies, doctrines of devils, idolatrous, superstitious and abominable religions, that ever have been broached, or practised, or can be devised (if the persons owning them will but profess faith in God by Jesus Christ) are set at liberty in this kingdom; nay, not only granted toleration, but enfranchisement, yea, protection and patronage."

We now find practically all the churches and chapels in the hands of the Presbyterians, and governed by the various classes, which met periodically at central places. These classes sent delegates to attend the provincial synod which met at Preston twice a year. In little less than three years after the formation of these classes difficulties arose in their working, not only because some places, such as Denton, Salford and Oldham, became disaffected, but in other places several members declined to continue their membership. A great cause of division amongst the various congregations was the conduct of the ministers and elders as to the admission of communicants. Oliver Heywood gives an account of the proceedings on this point at Bolton; he says: "There were two ministers, with whom were associated twelve elders, chosen out of the parish. These sat with the ministers, carried their votes into effect, inquired into the conversation of their neighbours, assembled usually with the ministers when they examined communicants, and though the ministers only examined, yet the elders approved or disapproved. These together made an order that every communicant, as often as he was to partake of the Lord's Supper, should come to the ruling elders on the Friday before, and request and receive a ticket which he was to deliver up to the elders immediately before his partaking of that ordinance. The ticket was of lead, with a stamp upon it, and the design was that they might know that none intruded themselves without previous permission. The elders went through the congregation and took the tickets from the people, and they had to fetch them again by the next opportunity, which was every month. But this became the occasion of great dissension in the congregations, for several Christians stumbled at it, and refused to come for tickets; yet ventured to sit down, so that when the elders came they had no tickets to give in."

This state of things was not confined to a single parish, but was widespread, so that in some churches, rather than administer the Sacrament "promiscuously," the minister declined to administer it at all, and it was in a few places suspended for several years.

Whatever may be said as to the general dogmatical and narrow-minded views of the Lancashire Puritan clergy, they certainly did make great efforts to institute and maintain a high moral tone amongst their flocks. The every-day life of each member was subjected to rigid inquisitorial supervision, and his sins were dealt with in no half-hearted manner, excommunication being a frequent punishment, and even after the offender's death a funeral sermon was preached and the "occasion improved." Lancashire is fortunate in having had preserved several of the diaries of her Puritan divines, and these all bear strong testimony to the almost childlike faith which these men held as to the special interference of Providence in the events of everyday life. If a minister was to be tried at Lancaster, God graciously took away the judge by death; if he journeyed to London, the weather was specially arranged to suit; and if anyone was more than ordinarily rebellious against the Church's discipline and he thereabouts died, it was without the slightest hesitation attributed to a special judgment of God. We have seen with what signs of rejoicing the people of Lancashire (see p. 157) welcomed the restoration of Charles II. The country had got tired of the Commonwealth, and as to the religious feeling, the Episcopalians and Presbyterians were alike glad to have a return to the old form of government; yet the old rancour against Papists was still there, and to it was added a hatred of Anabaptists, Quakers and Independents: against the latter the Puritans were specially exercised.

The passing of the Act of Uniformity in 1662 put the clergy of the county to a severe test, the result being that sixty-seven of them refused to conform, and were summarily ejected from their livings. This act of injustice led to the commencement of Nonconformity in Lancashire, for amongst the ejected were many zealous and pious men, who through honest conviction could not conform to all the conditions required, and were not willing to abandon the views which they held.

Amongst these were Nathaniel Heywood, John Angier, Harry Newcome, Henry Pendlebury, Isaac Ambrose, Robert Bath, Richard Mather, John Harrison, and many others, all of whom soon had around them the nucleus of a future congregation. At first these men preached in private houses with impunity, but the passing of the Conventicle Act and the Five Mile Act, and the presence of large numbers of Roman Catholics, pressed hard upon them, and the amount of persecution and suffering which followed was extreme. For the next few years Nonconformists were persecuted with a vindictiveness worthy of the Dark Ages. Surrounded with spies on every hand, they were driven to hold secret meetings in out-of-the-way places, where they often met in the night-time. Those who were most zealous, or the most careless of discovery, were often apprehended at once, marched off to Lancaster, and sometimes, as in the case of Thomas Jolley (ejected from Altham), detained nearly twelve months in prison.

Perhaps no sect suffered more severely in Lancashire than the Quakers, who took no care to hide their meetings, and from them not only were fines enforced and goods sold, but many of them were for long periods locked up in gaol with felons and other criminal prisoners. Dr. Halley[211] says that although "their sufferings were cruelly severe, it must be acknowledged that they provoked much of the persecution which they so patiently endured, and repelled the assistance which good men of other parties would have been ready to afford them. A modern Friend, mild, pleasant, neatly dressed, carefully educated, perfected in proprieties, is as unlike as possible, except in a few principles, to the obtrusive, intolerant, rude, coarse, disputatious Quaker of the early days of their sect." The Society of Friends may almost be said to have arisen in Lancashire, so great was the support which it received here in the days of its infancy. In 1652 George Fox made a visit to Swarthmore Hall, near Ulverston, when he made a convert of the young wife of Judge Fell, and by their united efforts they soon obtained a considerable number of followers in the district of Furness and Cartmel, whose sympathies were no doubt quickened by the knowledge of the cruel persecutions of these "children of the light" (as they were sometimes called) constantly being enacted in Lancaster Castle. Margaret Fell, after the judge's death, became the wife of George Fox, and she was subsequently the writer of several treatises, and journeyed to London to deliver a copy of one of them to the King. The Lancashire Quaker literature of the seventeenth century is remarkable not only for the quantity of it, but for the light it throws on the religious thought of those writers for and against the teachings of the early pioneers of the sect.[212]

Of the cruel persecutions to which many of this sect in Lancashire were subjected, many examples might be cited; indeed, at one time the castle at Lancaster was said to be almost full of them, that town being one of their centres. In November, 1660, the Quakers of Lancaster, being assembled at one of their meetings, were surprised by a party of soldiers, who entered the room where they were with "drawn swords and pistols cockt," and took the whole of them prisoners. A Lancaster Quaker called John Lawson, in 1652, was seized at Malpas (in Cheshire), where he had been preaching in what he called "the Steeple House[213] Yard." He was set in the stocks for four hours, and afterwards imprisoned for twenty-three weeks; but shortly after his release he repeated the offence in the Lancaster churchyard, for which at the assizes he was fined £20 or in default one year's imprisonment; and again in 1660 he was sent a prisoner to the castle for refusing to take the oath tendered to him in court. Another example of the treatment which the early converts in Lancashire to this sect met with is found in the case of John Fielden, of Inchfield, near Todmorden, who in 1664 was fined £5 for attending a Quakers' meeting, and his goods were seized by the churchwarden and sold to pay the church-rate. In 1668 he was kept in prison thirty-one weeks for being absent from church, and this kind of persecution continued until he was quite an old man, as seventeen years later we find him in Preston House of Correction, where he was retained for eight weeks, the offence being his having attended a meeting of the Society of Friends at Padiham. Very many similar cases might be quoted.

In 1689 the Toleration Act was passed, which recognised all the various forms of Dissent, which now became entitled to a place amongst the religious institutions of the county.

No time was now lost in establishing meeting-houses all over the county, and in almost every parish there soon arose Presbyterian or Independent chapels; many of the former ultimately passed to the Unitarians.

From a list prepared for Dr. Evans in 1715, it would appear that there were then in Lancashire forty-three Presbyterian and Independent congregations, consisting of 18,310 regular hearers; and that in Manchester there were 1,515 Dissenters, in Liverpool 1,158, in Bolton 1,094, and in Chowbent 1,064. Bishop Gastrell,[214] writing a little later, reports that in Rochdale there were no Papists, but about 200 Dissenters, who had a meeting-house; Bolton he puts down as having only 400 Dissenters, and to Manchester he gives 233 Dissenting families.

Many of these early chapels have interesting histories, which cannot be dealt with here.[215] Amongst the oldest ones may be named the following: Elswick Chapel, in the parish of St. Michael's-on-Wyre, was built as a sort of chapel-of-ease to the parish-church, by a party of Presbyterians a little before 1650, and a minister appointed by the classis. At the Restoration it was probably vacated; but in 1671-72 it was duly licensed as a place to be used for such as did not conform to the Church of England, who were "of the persuasion commonly called Congregational". Shortly after this an Act was passed repealing this and similar licenses, whereupon the meeting at Elswick became illegal, and the chapel was closed until the passing of the Act of Toleration in 1689, since which time it has been regularly used as a Nonconformist chapel. At Wymondhouses a small chapel was built by the Rev. Thomas Jolley (who was ejected from Altham) in 1689. The chapel of the Presbyterians at Cockey Moor was one which obtained a license in 1672. The first Dissenting chapel in Manchester was in Cross Street; it was built in 1672 for the congregation of the Rev. Henry Newcome. This chapel was destroyed in 1714 (see p. 242). The Independents had no chapel in Manchester until 1761, when the one in Cannon Street was erected.

Toxteth Park or Dingle Chapel, near Liverpool, existed certainly in the early part of the seventeenth century, and is believed to have been built by the Puritans living in the district. Richard Mather (the grandfather of Dr. Cotton Mather) was for some time minister here, but was silenced by the Archbishop of York in 1633, and his successor was a Conformist, who was probably removed by the Presbyterian classis, 1646; in 1671-72 it was licensed under the Indulgence Act. From this congregation arose the Renshaw Street Unitarian Chapel in Liverpool[216] about the year 1687. Meeting-houses, as they were called, were established in almost every town under the Indulgence Act, and in most cases before the close of the century regular chapels were erected.

The Society of Friends, notwithstanding the persecution to which they were subjected, began to build meeting-houses even before the indulgences were granted. At Lancaster a Quakers' meeting-house was erected in 1677, at which time there was no other Nonconformist place of worship in the town.

A few years later the Mayor found it necessary to place a guard at the door of the house to prevent a meeting being held. In 1708 this meeting-house was found to be small, and a much larger one was erected. The meeting-house at Swarthmoor was built in 1686 upon land given by George Fox, who also endowed it with land free from tithes, so that (to quote his letter) "Friends may be sure of a meeting-house for ever that is free and will maintain itself, and which is the Lord's." In this meeting-house is still preserved George Fox's folio Bible, to which is attached the chain with which it was formerly fastened to the pulpit. The number of meeting-houses of the Society of Friends was never very great in Lancashire, and in the larger towns there were very few built before the early part of the eighteenth century. Most of them had graveyards attached, and in some cases (as in Manchester) these remain, whilst the meeting-houses have been pulled down.

Wesley made many visits to all parts of Lancashire; but the growth of Methodism was at first slow in the county, as it met with much opposition from many quarters, and in several towns the appearance of its founder led to disorder and riots. Methodism began in a very humble way in Lancashire, the handful of converts forming themselves into "classes," and often meeting in small cottages. In Manchester the first gatherings were held in a small room in a house near the Irwell, where a woman lived, having in the room her spinning-wheel, her coals, her bed, chair and table. Some of the earlier societies (about the year 1744) were called "William Darney's societies." Another man who assisted Wesley in Lancashire was John Bennet of Derbyshire, who introduced Wesleyanism into Rochdale a little before 1746.

Methodism was not introduced into Preston until 1750, and in some districts it did not obtain a footing until a much later period; but long before the close of the century its chapels were found in almost every large town as well as in isolated rural districts.

Early in the seventeenth century Baptist chapels were erected in several parts of the county. Of the many sects which have arisen within the last hundred years, it is not our province to record either the origin or progress, as Lancashire, in common with all the country, has now inhabitants who worship under many forms; but there no longer exists that bitter, antagonistic feeling between one denomination and another which has for so many centuries been a blot upon the pages of England's history.

In 1819 there were in Lancashire 77 Roman Catholic chapels, and in 1823 the Dissenting chapels included: 68 Independent, 27 Baptist, 32 Unitarian, 4 Scotch Kirk, 3 Scotch Presbyterian, and 180 Wesleyan.

[Footnote 169: Bright's "Early English Church History," p. 111.]

[Footnote 170: Lancashire was subsequently included in the Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry until the establishment of the See of Chester, in 1541, the northern portion being in the Archdeaconry of Richmond, in the Diocese of York.]

[Footnote 171: Lancaster parish is partly in Lonsdale and partly in Amounderness.]

[Footnote 172: Symeon of Durham's "Life of St. Cuthbert," _Surtees Soc._, li. 141.]

[Footnote 173: See _Lanc. and Ches. Ant. Soc._, vol. ix.]

[Footnote 174: Aldcliffe Hall is on the south of the river. Of Newton all trace is lost. See "Materials for History of the Church of Lancaster," _Chetham Soc._, xxvi., new series.]

[Footnote 175: Calendar of Papal Reg., A.D. 1193-1304, and chartulary of the priory.]

[Footnote 176: Calendar of French Rolls; 48th Report of Deputy-Keeper of Records.]

[Footnote 177: Worthings = manure.]

[Footnote 178: "Antiquities of Furness."]

[Footnote 179: Probably granted for a term of years.]

[Footnote 180: Printed by the Chetham Society (new series, vols. xiii., xiv., xv.).]

[Footnote 181: A compound of "kirk," the Danish or Scandinavian for church, and the Anglo-Saxon "ham," a village or a dwelling.]

[Footnote 182: Whitaker's "History of Whalley."]

[Footnote 183: Chetham Society, Coucher Book of Whalley.]

[Footnote 184: See Whitaker's "History of Whalley," from which this description is taken.]

[Footnote 185: Recently forms have been placed in the church.]

[Footnote 186: For detailed drawing of Stydd Church see "The History of Stydd Chapel and Preceptory," by George Latham; London, 1853.]

[Footnote 187: Warrington Church Notes.]

[Footnote 188: For details of remains of Burscough, see _Lanc. and Ches. Hist. Soc._, 1889.]

[Footnote 189: Dom. Gilbert Dolan, O.S.B. (_Lanc. and Ches. Hist. Soc._, vols. vii., viii., p. 231).]

[Footnote 190: Partly printed by Chetham Society, cvii. and cxiii.]

[Footnote 191: Bridge = a kind of thread.]

[Footnote 192: Communion-cloths.]

[Footnote 193: A glass bottle to hold oil.]

[Footnote 194: Created in 1848, and includes all Lancashire, except parts of West Derby which are in Chester Diocese, and the Furness and Cartmel districts, which were added to Carlisle.]

[Footnote 195: Near the door of the dining-room is a small hole in the flag floor, somewhat like the impress of a human foot, which tradition says marks the place where George Marsh stamped his foot as he protested to the truth of his faith.]

[Footnote 196: State Papers, Dom. Ser., 1547-1565.]

[Footnote 197: State Papers, Dom. Ser., addenda xix., p. 525.]

[Footnote 198: _Ibid._, p. 161.]

[Footnote 199: _Ibid._, cxxxviii., p. 18.]

[Footnote 200: See "History of Poulton-le-Fylde" (Fishwick), Chetham Society, viii., new series.]

[Footnote 201: _Chetham Society_, xcvi., p. 1.]

[Footnote 202: Chester Presentments at York. See also "History of Kirkham" (Fishwick), _Chetham Society_, xcii. 45.]

[Footnote 203: State Papers, Dom. Ser., Eliz., vol. cclxxix., No. 86.]

[Footnote 204: "A True and Exact Relation of the Death of Two Catholics," etc.; London, 1737.]

[Footnote 205: See "History of Kirkham," _Chetham Society_, xcii., also article in "Bygone Lancashire"; London, 1892.]

[Footnote 206: "Bygone Lancashire": London, 1892.]

[Footnote 207: Including North Meols, which is omitted in the survey.]

[Footnote 208: The names were those who were considered "fit to be of the classis."]

[Footnote 209: St. Michael's-on-Wyre and Lytham are left out.]

[Footnote 210: Written by the Rev. Richard Heyricke. Both these tracts are now very scarce.]

[Footnote 211: "Lancashire: its Puritanism, etc.," i. 465.]

[Footnote 212: "Lancashire Quaker Literature" (Fishwick), _Trans. of Lanc. and Ches. Ant. Soc._, 1887.]

[Footnote 213: They so designated the church.]

[Footnote 214: "Notitia Cestriensis," _Chetham Society_, xix.]

[Footnote 215: See "Lancashire Nonconformity," by the Rev. B. Nightingale also Dr. Halley's "Lancashire Puritanism," etc.]

[Footnote 216: The original meeting-house was at Castle Hey.]