GRAVEL-LANE, SOUTHWARK General Brptist. April 25, 1799. About a year after his settlement, his people were deprived of their meeting-house, in consequence of which they removed to Gravel-lane; where we shall take up the thread of our history.* GRAVEL-LANE, SOUTHWARK. GENERAL BAPTIST. THIS place was originally a kind of Assembly, or Club room, belonging to a public-house. It was fitted up as a place of worship for the use of the General Baptist Society, formerly meeting in the Park, under the care of Mr. John Brittain Shenston; they having been dispossessed of their meeting-house. The present place was opened on the 11th of April, 1800. Messrs. Driver, Jarrow, and George Hampstead, of Haarson, near Cambridge, engaged in prayer; and Mr. Dan Taylor preached from Amos vii. 2. After Mr. Shenston had been settled here about nine years, he followed the example of his predecessor, and became a Calvinist. In consequence of this, his connexion with the people in Gravel-lane was dissolved at Lady-day, 1809. For most of the particulars relating to the above place we are indebted to the late Mr. Stephen Lowdall, of Queen-street in the Park, an ancient and respectable member of the General Baptist connexion, who died Nov. 18, 1809, at the venerable age of 92. See his funeral sermon by the Rev. John Evans, his pastor. ZOAR-STREET.-Presbyterian. ZOAR-STREET. PRESBYTERIAN. THE meeting-house in Zoar-street was erected in the year 1687, at the expense of three hundred and sixty pounds. The original lease bears date January 30, 1687, probably for 1687-8, and was assigned by a Mr. Williamson, the ground landlord, to Messrs. Arthur Shallet, Samuel Warburton, and Ferdinando Holland, three gentlemen whose names are well known as the original projectors of the Gravel-lane Charity-school. The terms of the lease were for forty years, from Christmas, 1687, at the yearly rent of three pounds, clear of all taxes, excepting parliamentary taxes. It describes a piece of ground, and a building erected thereon, and used for a school-house, and a meetinghouse, situated in Southwark Park, near Gravel-lane. By a clause in the lease, it was made renewable by any one of the trustees who should survive the expiration of the term, but in case they all died, the buildings were to fall to the ground landlord. Great care has, therefore, been taken to renew the lease from time to time before its expiration. Since the second renewal of the lease, in 1709, the trustees have been seven in number. The minister of the meetinghouse for the time being was to superintend the concerns of the charity-school, and to make collections for its support. For this purpose, an annual sermon was preached here by different ministers in rotation; and when the meeting-house was closed, the service was removed to St. Thomas's. This place some times went by the name of Shallet's meetinghouse, from the worthy person whose name appears in the first indenture. It was a good building, of a moderate size, with three galleries. The first minister at this place was a worthy Presbyterian Divine, who was Mr. John Chester ejected on the re ZOAR-STREET.-Presbyterian. turn of Charles II. and underwent much persecution on the score of nonconformity. It is probable that Mr. Chester had a congregat on prior to 1687, the year of King James's Indulgence. We find him very assiduous in preaching during the time of the great plague, and afterwards as he found opportunity. After his death, the congregation was served by a variety of ministers till the year 1740, when Dr. Marryat, who was then pastor, removed his people to Deadman's-place. There they continued to assemble under different ministers for nearly half a century, and maintained a respectable station amongst the societies of Protestant Dissenters. Shortly after the settlement of Mr. Humphries, the present pastor, his people built a new meeting-house, in Union-street, at no great distance from the former place. Under that article we shall take up the lives of the different ministers who have served the society. After the departure of Dr. Marryat's congregation, the meeting-house was let out successively to different persons, and the profits appropriated to the support of the charityschool. About the year 1755, it was occupied by Mr. SAMUEL LARWOOD, one of Mr. Wesley's preachers, who leaving that connexion, settled in London, in 1753, and died Nov. 1, 1756.* For a considerable time past, the meeting-house has been let to a brewer, and the profits arising therefrom devoted to the support of the charityschool. Before we dismiss this article, it may not be unacceptable to the reader, if we present him with a brief account of the origin of the charity-school that was attached to the meeting-house. The crafty methods employed by King James II. in order to delude the Protestants, and to accomplish his design of bringing in Popery and arbitrary power, are known to most of our readers. Offices of trust and emolument, both in church and state, were disposed of to * Wesley's Journals, vol. 2. p. 30. ZOAR-STREET.-Presbyterian. reputed Papists; the army was officered after the same manner; and seminaries were artfully established for the avowed purpose of instilling popish principles into the minds of the younger part of the nation. One Poulter had opened a school in Southwark with this direct view, and gave public notice that he would teach the children of the poor gratis. In order to counteract his designs, and to afford the poor an easy opportunity of having their children educated in Protestant principles, three worthy gentlemen, Mr. Arthur Shallet, Mr. Samuel Warburton, and Mr. Ferdinando Holland, members of Mr. Nathaniel Vincent's church, embarked in the laudable design of founding the institution, known by the name of "The Gravel-lane Charity-school." It was instituted in 1687, and was the first of the kind in which Protestant Dissenters were especially concerned. From that time to the present it has been gradually increasing both in the objects and in the means of benevolence, and has doubtless been instrumental in rescuing the minds of many from barbarism and vice. The number of scholars at first was forty; it afterwards increased to fifty; from thence to one hundred and forty, and has since been two hundred. The charity has been all along supported by voluntary contributions, by legacies, and by annual subscriptions and collections. Here objects are received without distinction of parties. They are taught to read, write, and cypher, and are instructed in the principles of the Christian religion according to the Assembly's Catechism. The managers have been enabled to give the children Bibles, Testaments, and Catechisms; and to place out some of them as apprentices to useful trades, without any expence to their parents. EWER-STREET.-Particular Baptist. EWER-STREET. PARTICULAR BAPTIST. EWER-STREET extends from Duke-street to Gravel-lane, in what was formerly called the Park. On the site of the present meeting-house there formerly stood a similar building of ancient date, and occupied for a long series of years by a society of Quakers. When they left it, the Countess of Huntingdon took a lease of the place, and supplied it for some time by students from her own college. One of these, a Mr. Causton, preached here about nine months, but her ladyship wishing him to go over to America, and he comply ing with her request, Mr. Smith, another of her students, succeeded him, and as nearly as can be ascertained, preached at this place about the same time, and was then removed by death. Mr. William Crawford being requested by the people to preach his funeral sermon, a way was prepared for his settling amongst them. This connexion took place in 1776, and in the following year the present building was erected. Mr. Crawford being of the Particular Baptist denomination, a regular society was formed there upon similar principles; but it was agreed to allow mixed communion. There is a small burial-ground behind the meeting-house.* Private information. |