Bank Street Chapel has its origins in a congregation established by the
ejectedPresbyterian minister
Richard Goodwin at
Great Bolton,
Lancashire, in 1672. He began preaching there after taking advantage of the
Royal Declaration of Indulgence which relaxed the stipulations of the
Five Mile Act 1665.[1] Bolton had gained a reputation as a bastion of
Puritanism during the
English Civil War, when the attacking
Cavalier forces called it the Geneva of the North, supposedly because of its similarities to the
Calvinist stronghold of
Geneva, although historian Malcolm Hardman notes that the sobriquet was "more out of irritation than accuracy".[2] On his death in 1685, Goodwin was succeeded as minister by John Lever, who had also suffered ejection. Throughout this time, the congregation was based at a
meeting house on the corner of Deansgate and Mealhouse Lane, which later became the Woolpack Inn.[1][3]
Information varies regarding Lever's successor, Robert Seddon, who came from
Prestolee[4] and had attended the
University of Cambridge.[5] He had been ordained in 1854 and was a minister at
Gorton before at some point moving to either
Langley[4] or
Kirk Langley,[5] both in
Derbyshire. It was from there that he was ejected in 1662.
Edward Baines says that he began preaching in Bolton in 1688,[4] although his role as minister is agreed by other sources to have begun in 1692.[1][3] He bought a house at Windy Bank, which later became known as Bank Street. He donated that to the congregation but died according to one account just before it opened as a chapel in 1696.[1]Franklin Baker, who later became a minister at Bank Street, says Seddon ceased being minister in 1695.[3] However, Baines says he lived to see the opening of the chapel and was the first minister there but died in 1696,[4] and Herbert McLachlan, a Principal at the
Manchester Unitarian College, says he donated the building in either 1695 or 1696 and died in 1699.[5] He was succeeded by his nephew,
Samuel Bourn.[4]
The congregation, which by the 1720s amounted to over 1,000 people,[6] initially followed the precepts of
Presbyterianism but moved to Unitarianism around the time of the short ministry of
Thomas Dixon junior, prior to
Philip Holland taking charge. Hardman notes that the Bank Street ministers had "long been wrestling with problems of human morality in relation to divine grace" up to that time and that Dixon's changes caused a break-up among the congregation that "since 1672 [had been] the spiritual home of many of the old mercantile families of the neighbourhood". Some members left to join a congregation at Duke's Alley because of these changes.[1][7]
In 1789, the incumbent minister, John Holland, the brother of Philip, established both a Sunday school and a library at the chapel.[8] The congregation split in 1821 due to disagreements concerning appointment of a minister. While some people stayed at Bank Street, others moved to an alternate place of worship until in 1843 the two sides united once more.[9] As at
Renshaw Street Unitarian Chapel in
Liverpool[10] and at
Cross Street Unitarian Chapel in
Manchester, the congregation was predominantly liberal in politics and socially elite. They were also tight-knit: the alliances formed by marriage, mutual business interests and friendships were numerous and notable. One minister - Franklin Baker - married into the
Crook family, who were members of the congregation.[11]
Building
The original Bank Street building, from Seddon's gift in the 1600s, was T-shaped but was replaced in 1856 by a
George Woodhouse-designed structure, incorporating three
pew doors from the original.[12]
The building today carries a plaque commemorating its association with
Eagle Street College, a group of local people who admired
Walt Whitman and counted the chapel and its school among their meeting venues.
Ministers
According to the book published on the occasion of the chapel's bicentennial in 1896, the early ministers of the congregation were:[13]
^The health of Noah Jones, who was born in 1801, recovered sufficiently for him to live until 1861. After Bolton, he was at some time a minister in
Northampton and
Derby and at
Gateacre in
Liverpool from 1848. He had been forced to leave the
dissenting academy at
Wymondley due to alleged doctrinal misconduct in 1820, just prior to his appointment at Bank Street.[14][15]