Dissenting Places of Worship.
THE OLD CHAPEL.
The Congregational Church of Protestant Dissenters now assembling in the Old Chapel, Arthur-Street, was formed in the township of Sweeney, in the year 1662, and the Rev. Rowland Nevet, A, M., ejected from the vicarage of Oswestry by the Act of Uniformity, was its first pastor. Mr. Nevet laboured in the ministry for thirty years; seventeen as a clergyman of the established church, and thirteen as a dissenting preacher. Calamy, in his “Nonconformists’ Memorial,” mentions to his honour, that when the Plague prevailed at Oswestry, he still continued with his people, extending to them both temporal and spiritual aid. He died December 8th, 1675, and was succeeded by the Rev. James Owen, a distinguished minister, who bore part, as we have already mentioned, in a theological controversy which took place in the Oswestry Guildhall, in the year 1681, in the presence of Bishop Lloyd. He was appointed pastor at Sweeney in November, 1676, the duties of which office he faithfully discharged, as well as those of chaplain to Mrs. Baker, a pious lady residing on her own estate at Sweeney Hall. Vestiges of the ancient burial-ground of the first Nonconformists are yet to be seen near the site of the old mansion at Sweeney, enclosed within iron railings by the late T. N. Parker, Esq. The following inscriptions are still legible:—
“Here lieth Mrs. Abigail Chetwood, daughter to Sir Richard Chetwood, who died the 1st May, 1658.”
“Thomas Baker, Esq., deceased March 19, aged 68, A.D. 1675.”
The above Thomas Baker served the office of High Sheriff of the county, in 1649, the first year of Cromwell’s Protectorate; and in the parliament of 1653 he was summoned by Cromwell, with John Brown, of Little Ness, as a knight of the shire. In 1692 the place of worship was removed, for convenience, from Sweeney into the town of Oswestry. The room fitted up for religious worship was part of a house in Willow-Street, now known as the Butchers’ Arms. Here Mr. Owen laboured for eight years, and then removed to Shrewsbury, where he was soon placed at the head of the dissenting theological seminary. He was succeeded by the Rev. Jenkyn Evans, who died in 1709, and his funeral sermon was preached by the celebrated Mathew Henry. The Rev. Joseph Venables was the next minister appointed; and after Mr. Venables came the Rev. Thomas Morgan. During his ministry the site on which the present chapel and chapel-house stand was purchased, with an old maltkiln upon it, for £38. The sum of £200 having been given for the purpose by Mrs. Sarah Lloyd, a chapel was erected, and opened for public worship in July, 1750. The immediate successors of Mr. Morgan were Mr. Davies and Mr. Dewhurst; the latter became Socinian or Arian in his doctrines, and soon left. In September, 1777, the Rev. Dr. Edward Williams removed from Ross to Oswestry. In 1783 he enlarged the chapel; and the Collegiate Institution at Abergavenny having been removed to Oswestry, Dr. Williams became its Tutor, and for the accommodation of the students he enlarged the chapel-house also. In 1791 he removed to Carr’s-Lane, Birmingham; afterwards to Rotherham College, of which he was appointed Principal, and there he died. The Rev. John Whitridge, who had been minister of the Congregational Church at Newcastle-under-Lyme for nine years, succeeded Dr. Williams, and he remained the kind and benevolent pastor of his congregation, which greatly increased under his ministry, till the period of his death, October 11th, 1826. On the west side of the chapel, and over the spot where the pulpit then stood, in which for thirty-five years he had dealt out the bread of life to his congregation, a plain marble tablet was erected, bearing the following inscription:—
“In Memory of the Rev. John Whitridge, this Tablet is affectionately inscribed by the Church over whom for 35 years he was the devoted Pastor. An example—in word—in conversation—in charity—in spirit—in faith—in purity. ‘Whose praise is in the Gospel throughout all the Churches.’ He was born 23rd March, 1760. Died 11th October, 1826. His body reposes in a tomb beneath, waiting the spirit’s union at the resurrection of the just.”
Dr. Jenkyn, of Wem, succeeded to the pastoral office, and afterwards the Rev. W. Reeve. The Rev. J. Davies was followed by the present able pastor, the Rev. James Matheson (son of the Rev. Dr. Matheson, the indefatigable Secretary of the Home Missionary Society), who entered upon his ministerial labours in September, 1851, and who, by his distinguished talents, great urbanity, and ardent zeal for the spiritual prosperity of his people, has succeeded in greatly increasing the number of his hearers, and in commending himself to the good opinion of all classes of his fellow-townsmen.
The present Chapel (of which we give a sketch) was built during the ministry of the Rev. Dr. Jenkyn. The old Chapel having become too small for the increased number of hearers, it was pulled down, with the exception of part of one wall, and the present one was erected. It is a substantial and commodious place of worship, and capable of containing, when closely seated, about eight hundred persons.
THE BAPTIST CHAPEL,
Situated on the English Walls (opposite the Cattle Market), was erected by voluntary contributions, in the year 1805, and enlarged in 1818. It contains two galleries, and will accommodate between 300 and 400 persons. The Baptist Church in Oswestry was formed September 6th, 1806, and then consisted of a few members dismissed from the Baptist Church, at Shrewsbury, at that time under the pastoral care of the late Rev. John Palmer, who, with other Baptist Ministers, preached the Gospel in Oswestry and its neighbourhood some time prior to the erection of the Chapel. The Rev. William Pain was the first Pastor, and was succeeded by the Rev. Thomas Cooke, in the year 1817, who, for twenty years, honourably sustained the office to which he had been chosen. In 1838 the Rev. Robert Clarke (late of Bridgnorth) became the Pastor; and his successor was the late Rev. H. G. Grainger, who settled in Oswestry, in the year 1846. The present Pastor, the Rev. David Crumpton, took the oversight of the Church in the year 1852. There is a Sabbath-School connected with this congregation. The Chapel is free from debt, as is also the Baptist Chapel at Sweeney, erected by this Church and congregation in the year 1831.
THE WESLEYAN-METHODIST CHAPEL
Is a plain brick building, situated in the Coney Green, and was erected in the year 1813. The interior is without galleries, but will accommodate on the ground floor about 500 persons. The Wesleyan body in Oswestry is included in the Wrexham Circuit, the present Superintendent being the Rev. Samuel Atkinson.
ZION CHAPEL.
Throughout the Principality the Calvinistic Methodists are the most numerous body of dissenters, and their annual meetings, or associations, are seasons of much interest and excitement. In 1814 a small chapel was erected on the Welsh Walls for the accommodation of persons of this persuasion resident in Oswestry, and this was occupied as a place of religious worship until 1836, when the great increase of the congregation rendered the erection of a larger chapel necessary. Accordingly the present building was commenced in Gatacre Place, and opened for public worship on the 6th of July, 1836.
It is a substantial stone structure, of rather imposing appearance, and affords accommodation for upwards of 500 persons.
THE PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHAPEL.
The first chapel erected by this body was on the site of the Bath in Upper Willow Street, and was opened in 1825. So rapid has been the increase of the members of this denomination, that from the summer of 1825, when their first travelling preacher visited Oswestry, to the present time, they have built in this circuit no fewer than sixteen chapels; and the number of preachers on their quarterly plan amounts to 120. Their place of worship in Willow Street having become incapable of accommodating their increasing numbers, the present chapel and chapel-house were erected in 1840, in Castle Street. It is a neat and convenient building, and will seat about 450 persons. The Superintendent is the Rev. Thomas Parr.
BETHESDA CHAPEL
Is a small neat building in Castle Street, erected in the year 1844, for the use of the Welsh Congregationalists, or Independents. The Rev. Robert Thomas is the present Minister.
THE INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHAPEL
Stands below the Horse-Market, and was built in 1848 by a body of seceders from the Primitive Methodists. It is a plain brick building, and capable of seating about 300 persons.
Besides the above, there is a small but highly-respectable body of Christians who hold their meetings in the Assembly Room at Osburn’s Hotel, under the ministry of the Rev. J, Stewart; and also a congregation of Welsh Wesleyan-Methodists, who assemble in a school-room at Black Gate.
Municipal and Civil Government.
The Corporation of Oswestry is of great antiquity. Its civic honours, primitively, flowed from its Barons or Lords, who, exercising themselves the power of petty sovereigns, appointed Bailiff’s and other officers to superintend the civic affairs of the borough. Its first assumption of civic dignities appears to have been in the reign of Henry II., when William, Earl of Arundel, granted to the town a short charter (called by the Welsh “Siarter Cwtta”), denominated also a Charter of Protection. A clause in this ancient document sets forth that “I (the Earl of Arundel) have received in Protection my Burgesses of Blanc-Minster” (Oswestry). Richard de Chambre was Constable at this period. Here was subsidiary power given to the inhabitants of Oswestry, for the government of the town; but in the reign of Richard II., August 14th, 1399, that monarch granted to Oswestry its first royal charter, incorporating the Burgesses by the name and title of “The Bailiffs and Burgesses of Oswestry, infra Palatinatum Cestriæ, in marchia inter Angliam et Walliam.” In 1407, as heretofore noticed, Thomas, Earl of Arundel, granted a comprehensive and valuable charter, showing that still the exercise of power, in his lordship or barony, for the good government of the burgesses, &c., was fully recognized by the crown.
The rights and privileges granted by Richard II. seem to have been strictly guarded and maintained by the inhabitants down to the reign of Elizabeth, when they were confirmed by that sovereign. It would appear, however, that subsequently “divers doubts and ambiguities” arose concerning the ancient liberties, franchises, &c., of the borough, and in the reign of James I., 1616, the king granted a charter to the town, extending its liberties and privileges, and confirming the Bailiffs, Burgesses, &c., as a body corporate, by the name of “The Bailiff and Burgesses of Oswestry, in the countie of Salop.” The charter of Charles II., granted January 13th, 1673, to “the ancient borough and corporation of Oswestry, alias Oswaldstrey, in the county of Salop,” enacted “That they be incorporated by the name of the Mayor, Aldermen, Common-Councilmen and Burgesses of Oswestry.” This charter, it will be seen, was the instrument which first called into existence the offices of Mayor, Aldermen, Common-Councilmen, and Recorder. That charter was immediately acted upon, and Mr. Richard Pope was elected the first Mayor of Oswestry. Sir John Trevor, Knight (afterwards speaker of the House of Commons, and Master of the Rolls), Morgan Wynne, Esq., Edward Owen, Richard Edwards, Richard Lloyd, the before-mentioned Richard Pope, gentleman; Gabriel Edwards, woollen-draper; Hugh Price, woollen-draper; John Jones, mercer; Richard Jones, John Blodwell, gentlemen; and John Lloyd, mercer, were chosen as the first Aldermen. Richard Price, brewer, Richard Jones, mercer, John Glover, tanner, Richard Jones, glover, Edward Evans, apothecary, John Jones, glover, John Muckleston, shoemaker, Thomas Edwards, gentleman, Thomas Edwards, baker, Nathaniel Jones, brewer, Hugh Edwards, shoemaker, Timothy George, mercer, Thomas Vaughan, chandler, William Price, butcher, and Thomas Felton, brazier, were the first Common-Councilmen. Morgan Wynne, Esq., was the first Recorder of the town, and John Worral, Esq., first Common Clerk of the Borough, and Clerk of the Court. It may be mentioned as a fact worth knowing, that Sir John Trevor was the second Mayor of Oswestry, under the charter of Charles II. Sir John was an eminent man, and his history, connected as he was with the borough of Oswestry, is worthy of brief record in these pages. He was the second son of John Trevor, Esq., of Brynkinalt, in the county of Denbigh, by an aunt of Sir George Jeffreys. He was born about the year 1637, and it is supposed never received educational advantages beyond those furnished by a village school. He was sent to London to his uncle, Arthur Trevor, a leading barrister, who employed him as his clerk in his chambers in the Inner Temple. The Rev. Robert Williams, in his careful and elaborate “Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Welshmen,” says of him, that—
“On his first arrival he displayed very lively parts, although his manners were rather uncouth, and he could not speak a sentence of correct English. His diligence, however, was so great, that being entered a student of the Inner Temple, he rendered himself well versed in all branches of his profession, and soon acquired extensive practice. Through the interest of his cousin, Sir George Jeffreys, he was made a king’s counsel, in 1678, and he obtained a seat in the House of Commons. Here he acquired considerable influence among the members, and such was his reputation as a high prerogative lawyer, that at the meeting of James II’s. parliament in May, 1685, he was elected Speaker. In October of the same year he was appointed Master of the Rolls, and in July, 1688, he was sworn a Privy Councillor. On the accession of William and Mary, Sir John Trevor was dismissed from the office of Master of the Rolls. In the Convention Parliament he sat for Beraldstone, and opposed by every means in his power the measures of the Government. In the next Parliament, called in 1690, he made his peace with the Court, and was unanimously elected Speaker. In May, 1691, he was made first Lord Commissioner of the Great Seal, which office he held until May 2nd, 1693, and in January, 1693 he was restored to his office of Master of the Rolls. Such was his talent for managing party, and of recommending himself to the Government by his bold and dexterous measures, that had it not been for his great indiscretion, he would probably have reached the great object of his ambition, which was to become Lord Chancellor, and to be created a peer. In 1695 a violent outcry was raised against bribery, and a committee was appointed by the House of Commons, to inquire into the charges, which were made against members, and it reported that Sir John Trevor had received a bribe of a thousand guineas for furthering a bill called the ‘Orphan’s Bill,’ promoted by the City of London. Accordingly, March 12th, 1695, he was subjected to the unparalleled humiliation of putting the resolution from the chair, and declaring himself guilty. He then resigned the chair, and was expelled from the House. Receiving money for voting in parliament was in those days so common, that his offence was not regarded in a very serious light, and he was permitted to retain his high judicial office of Master of the Rolls, for the long period of twenty-two years after his expulsion from the House of Commons. By the death of his elder brother he succeeded to the paternal estates of Brynkinalt, which, with large possessions of his own acquisition, have descended through his only daughter Anne to the present Viscount Dungannon. Sir John Trevor died May 20th, 1717, being nearly eighty years of age, at his house in Chancery Lane, and was buried in the Rolls Chapel.”
Yorke, in his “Royal Tribes of Wales,” relates a droll anecdote of Sir’ John, which is worthy of transplantation.
“Among his other virtues,” says Yorke, “Trevor was an economist. He had dined by himself one day at the Rolls, and was drinking his wine quietly, when his cousin Roderic Lloyd was unexpectedly introduced to him from a side door. ‘You rascal,’ said Trevor to his servant, ‘and you have brought my cousin Roderic Lloyd, Esquire, Prothonotary of North Wales, Marshal to Baron Price, and so forth, and so forth, up my back stairs. Take my cousin Roderic Lloyd, Esquire, Prothonotary of North Wales, Marshal to Baron Price, and so forth, and so forth; take him instantly back, down my back stairs, and bring him up my front stairs.’ Roderic in vain remonstrated, and whilst he was conveyed down one, and up the other stairs, his Honor removed the bottle and glasses.”
Trevor had an obliquity of vision, or, in plainer words, he squinted abominably! When he was expelled from the House of Commons for bribery, pasquinades were issued against him, in one of which it was wittily said, that “Justice was blind, but Bribery only squinted.”
The charter of the 25 Charles II. (which was the governing charter previous to the passing of the Municipal Reform Act,) granted to the Borough of Oswestry a general Court of Quarter Sessions, to be held before the Mayor, the Steward, and the Recorder, or any two of them, of whom the Mayor was to be one. On the passing of that Act the Government refused to renew the grant of a separate Quarter Sessions, although strong and unanimous petitions from the town were presented in favour of this privilege. In 1842, however, when the Ministry of Sir Robert Peel was in office, Sir James Graham being Secretary of State for the Home Department, the application was renewed, and was ultimately complied with. The grant is dated the 27th May, 1842, and under it John Robert Kenyon, Esq., was appointed Recorder. The first Quarter Sessions, under this grant, were held on July 8th in the same year. Mr. Kenyon has ably and impartially discharged the duties of Recorder since that period; and to his legal acumen and zealous interest for the borough the inhabitants are indebted for many advantages.
The Corporation are chosen from the respectable and enterprising classes of the borough, so that all men who by perseverance and success in trade or commerce, in the learned profession of the law, or medical science, or who move in the quieter and more elevated ranks of life, where the otium cum dignitate is to be seen in perfection,—if to be seen anywhere,—are in the legitimate path to Magisterial authority and Aldermanic greatness.
The Municipal Act came into operation in Oswestry in January, 1836. James Edwards, Esq., was elected Mayor of the borough in 1834, and held office, pursuant to the new Act, until January 1st, 1836, on which day John Croxon, Esq., was elected the first Mayor under the Municipal Reform Act, and continued in office till November 9th, 1836, when Francis Campbell, Esq., was elected as the second Mayor of the borough under the same Act.
The Hon. Thomas Kenyon (second son of the celebrated Lord Kenyon, and father of the present Recorder of Oswestry) was appointed High Steward of the Borough in the year 1823. Mr. Richard Jones Croxon (who had succeeded Mr. Lewis Jones to the Town-Clerkship in 1834) was appointed Town-Clerk under the Municipal Act, and has continued to perform the duties of that office to the present time, with great credit to himself and satisfaction to the town.
Under the New Corporation Act the borough was divided into two Wards, viz., the East Ward, comprising 148 burgesses, and the West Ward, numbering 166 burgesses.
The Corporation of Oswestry, for the year 1854–5, consists of the following gentlemen:—
G. H. WILLIAMS, Mayor.
Aldermen:
| Thomas Longueville Longueville, Peploe Cartwright, Thomas Hill, | Thomas Rogers, Edward Morris, Thomas Minshall. |
Councillors:
| William Hodges, William Edwards, Edward Wynne Thomas, David Lloyd, George Morrall Bickerton, William Hayward, Francis Roberts, George James Saunders, | Thomas Edwards, James Thomas Jones, William Isaac Bull, William Morris, Richard Kyrke Penson, John Lacon, John Minshall, John Phillips, John Roberts. |
Town-Clerk:—R. J. Croxon.
Clerk of the Peace:—Robert Simon.
Coroner:—John Miles Hales.
Treasurer:—George Cooper,
We subjoin a full List of the Mayors of Oswestry, from the earliest period, with the names also of the entire body of other Corporate Officers, Aldermen, and Common-Councilmen, elected under the Municipal Reform Act:—