Our Churches and Chapels: Their Parsons, Priests, & Congregations: Being a Critical and Historical Account of Every Place of Worship in PrestonAtticus
History
Our Churches and Chapels: Their Parsons, Priests, & Congregations: Being a Critical and Historical Account of Every Place of Worship in Preston
Atticus
Preston (Lancashire, England) -- Church history
"Easy does
it" is a phrase plucked from the plebeian lexicon of life, which we
recommend for his consideration. If he doesn't attend to it we shall
have a case of spontaneous combustion to record; and we want to
avoid that if possible. There is not a more sincere man, not a man
more anxious to do good in Preston than Mr. Lee, only he piles Ossa
upon Olympus too stiffly, and that was a job which the gods couldn't
manage properly.
The building where the Parker-street brethren meet is used for
school purposes regularly--barring the periods when worship is being
conducted in it. On week days about 100 scholars attend it; and on
Sundays about 150. The school and the chapel have done much good in
the locality, and we wish both prosperity. Whatever maybe the
character of the building, and however difficult it may be for
strangers to get to it, those living in the neighbourhood know its
whereabouts, many having derived improvement from it, and if more
went to it, pigeon-flying, gambling, Sunday rat hunting, tossing,
drinking, and paganism generally--things which have long flourished
in its locality--would be nearer a finish.
GRIMSHAW-STREET INDEPENDENT CHAPEL
Long before two-thirds of the people now living were born there was
a rather curious difficulty at the Unitarian Chapel in this town. In
1807, the Rev. W. Manning Walker, who at that time had been minister
of the chapel for five years, changed his mind, became "more
evangelical," could not agree with the doctrines he had previously
preached, got into water somewhat warm with the members, and left
the place. He took with him a few sympathisers, and through their
instrumentality a new chapel was built for him in Grimshaw-street,
and opened on the 12th of April, 1808. It was a small edifice, would
accommodate about 850 persons, and was the original ancestor of the
Independent Chapel in that street. In 1817 the building was enlarged
so as to accommodate between 500 and 600, and Mr. Walker laboured
regularly at it till 1822, when declining health necessitated his
retirement. The Rev. Thomas Mc.Connell, a gentleman with a smart
polemical tongue, succeeded him. Mr. Mc.Connell drew large
congregations, and for a time was a burning and a shining light; but
in 1825 be withdrew; became an infidel or something of the sort, and
subsequently gave lectures on theological subjects, much to the
regret of his friends and the horror of the orthodox.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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