The worshippers at both these two original meeting houses called themselves, and were called “Presbyterians,” used as the antithesis to “Episcopalian,” although they were really “Independent” in their form of church government. In theology both congregations were at first Calvinistic, but Mr. Howell, the sixth in succession of the ministers of the Old Meeting, having become an avowed Arian, the more orthodox minority withdrew in the year 1747, and founded the church in Carr’s Lane--(see “Congregationalists.”) It is creditable to the good feeling of the separatists that none of them sold their shares in the “Old Meeting” and one of them was re-appointed a trustee thirty years afterwards. From Arianism the congregations of both the Old and New Meetings gradually became Unitarian and are henceforth treated under that title. =Unitarians.=--The Old Meeting House, built in 1689, was burned in the riots of 1791, and afterwards rebuilt. It had attached a burial ground which was used by both the congregations of the Old and New Meetings, and in which were interred the remains of many of the foremost men in the public life of Birmingham for two centuries.[38] As before stated the meeting house and ground were sold to the London and North Western Railway Company in 1882, and the remains of the dead were transferred to a separate piece of ground in the Borough Cemetery at Witton, and the Congregation have built a new OLD MEETING CHURCH, in the Bristol Road, which was opened in 1885. THE NEW MEETING HOUSE, of which Dr. Priestley was the minister from 1780 to 1791, was destroyed in the riots of 1791 and rebuilt on its original site in Moor Street. The situation having become inconvenient it was (1861) sold to the Roman Catholics and became St. Michael’s, Moor Street (_q.v._), and the New Meeting congregation removed to THE CHURCH OF THE MESSIAH, Broad Street, opened 1st January, 1862. The Rev. H. W. Crosskey, LL.D., is the minister. NEWHALL HILL CHAPEL was next in order of time to the Old and New Meetings, and was built in 1840 by members of both congregations, who had previously a house for worship and Sunday schools in Cambridge Street. HURST STREET CHAPEL was built in the year 1844 as a mission chapel and has been since enlarged. Another mission more immediately connected with the New Meeting is LAWRENCE STREET CHAPEL, which was originally built as a place of worship for the Baptists then occupied by the disciples of Zion Ward, and afterwards used by the followers of Robert Owen, who were at one time numerous in Birmingham. THE BIRMINGHAM FREE CHRISTIAN SOCIETY have a chapel in Fazeley Street, served by Lay preachers.