XII. EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY CHAPELS.
The Wesleyan Methodists were the first to commence Chapel building in Dover in the Nineteenth Century. John Wesley's earnest desire was that the members of his Societies should not be classed as Dissenters, but that they should continue their membership of the Church of England. He, however, found it very difficult to restrain some of his extreme followers, and he had quite as much trouble to circumvent the action of some of the Bishops who strove to drive the Wesleyans out of the Church. In applications for licences for preachers and preaching places, Mr. Wesley strongly advised his leaders not to describe themselves as Dissenters, but as Preachers of the Gospel; yet certain Bishops refused to grant licences unless, in accordance with the wording of the Toleration Act, they described themselves as Protestant Dissenters. In the last year of his life John Wesley wrote a strong letter of protest to a Bishop in whose Diocese persecution was prevalent, but, receiving no satis- faction, an attempt was made to repeal the Conventicle Act, which rendered licences necessary. John Wesley died, leaving that project unaccomplished, and soon after his death it became the custom for the Wesleyans to obtain licences for their Chapels and other preaching places as Dissenters. That was the case at Dover in 1806, when a licence was obtained for a preaching place at Buckland in the following terms : — ' ' Memorandum : That a certificate under the hands of William Clayton, William Farr, Ann, Russell, Rebecca Popkiss, William Rogers and William Francis, Dissenters from the Church of England, commonly called Protestant Dissenters, certifies that a certain building in the occupation of William Farr, in the parish of Buckland, in the County of Kent, intended to be set apart for the worship of Almighty God, according to the rules and ceremonies of the Church of England, was registered in the Consistory Court of Canterbury, according to Act of Parliament, this 6th day of September, 1806." That meeting place was rot a chapel, but four years later, in 1810, a Wesleyan Chapel was built at Buckland on the east side of the London Road, and that was the first movement for providing accommodation for religious worship in Dover, outside the Church of England in the Nineteenth Century. The Baptists took next step, in 1819, when the foundation was laid of a new General Baptist Chapel just below the town wall, off Adrian Street, to take the place of the smaller structure built in Market Lane by Captain Tavener's successors. In 1823 the Particular Baptists built a Chapel on the Pent Side to accommodate 500 persons. The members of that section of Baptists fell off in the latter part of the Nineteenth Century, and it being thought the locality was disadvan- tageous, the congregation migrated to Zion Chapel, which, owing to the erection of a larger and more central fabric, had become vacant.
Also, in 1823, St. John's Chapel in Middle Row. at the Pier, was built by Mr. Iggulden for a congregation of Wesleyan Dissentients, who, a few years later, transferred it to the Independents. In 1839 an evening service in con- nection with Trinity Church was commenced there, and con- tinued until November 1842. In 1843 the Rev. F. Richardson of the Countess of Huntingdon's connexion, preached there and conducted a service in which the Liturgy of the Church of England was used. The Chapel was then intended for the benefit of mariners, and was maintained by Captain Marryatt (of literary fame) and his .sister. Want of success induced the Marrj-atts to abandon their efforts, and then General Cosmo Gordon and Admiral Sir W. G. Parry, being anxious that the services for sailors should be continued, the Rev. William Yate, a clergyman of the Church of England, was installed there in 1846. Mr. Yate subsequently established the National Sailors' Home on an adjoining site, and the Mariners' Chapel was carried on by Mr. Yate in connection therewith, although on an independent financial basis, for about 30 years. In the year 1877 the Rev. William Yate died, ripe in age and full of honours, but after his day, partly owing to the loss of his influence and also on account of the decrease of the residents in the Pier District, the congregation fell off and eventually St. John's Mariners' Chapel was closed.
The Wesleyans entered on another building enterprise in June, 1834. Their Chapel built forty-five years previously in Elizabeth Square was too small, and too far from the centre of population. Their new Chapel was built under the cliff in Snargate Street, adjoining the Grand MiUtary Shaft. The Duke of VVeUington and his assistant Com- missioners of Dover Harbour granted a lease of the site for 99 years. The foundation was laid on the 3rd June, 1834, by Mr. Whitje, who had been a member of the Society when John Wesley preached in Elizabeth Square new Chapel in 1789. The building was quickly raised, and was opened for public worship on the 3rd October, 1834.
Five years later the Wesleyans built another large Chapel at Buckland, opposite the smaller one erected in 1810. This was one of the many Chapels built, in various parts of the world, in 1839, in celebration of the Centenary of Wesleyan Methodism. It was commenced in June and finished in December, 1839. The cost of the building was ;j£^i,839; the figures representing the cost and the date of erection forming a curious coincidence.
The Independents — now better known as Congregationalists — in 1838, built a large Chapel in Russell Street at a cost of _;^ 1,700, which, owing to the building of a larger and more central fabric in High Street, is now used for Sunday School and Mission purposes.
Salem Chapel, in Biggin Street, was built in 1840 by a portion of the Pent-side congregation, who were described as " Open Communionists, " and who seceded from Pent- side on that point. The Chapel was built and opened in the year 1840, the first service in it being held in thje month of August. The Rev. James P. Hewlett was the first Minister, and there have been seven since, including Major Passingham, an Army officer, who, finding the cause at a very low ebb in 1871, took charge, without stipend; and having, in the course of about five years, brought together a large congregation with a flourishing Church and Sunday School, he transferred the charge to a regular Minister.
In the year 1850, Mr. Steriker Finnis, who built the first part of the district known as Tower Hamlets, gave to the Wesleyans a site to build a Chapel, on the north side of Tower Hamlets Street. The Chapel, which is a small one, was built and opened in 1850; a Sunday School as well as Sunday evening services are carried on there.
The Roman Catholics — who first (since the Reformation) had public services in Dover in 1822 — in the year 1835 purchased the old Wesleyan Chapel in Elizabeth Street, which had been vacated when Snargate Street Wesleyan Chapel was opened in 1834. The CathoUcs gave ^425 for the Chapel, and spent ;£75o more in restoring it and building a priest's house. This old Chapel, originally opened by John Wesley in 1789, was used by the Roman CathoHcs from 1835 until their new Church was opened in the Maison Dieu Road thirty-three years later.
The Jews opened their first Synagogue in Hawkesbury Street, Dover, a small but neat building, on the ist April, 1836, and it continued to be used until 1862.
The Primitive Methodists first missioned Dover in 1848, but at that time they had only two small preaching places, one in Round Tower Lane at the Pier, and another in a cowshed loft at Brook Street, Charlton, their ministers being Messrs. J. Calvert and W. Jull. At the same time there was a meeting place of Hyper-Calvinists, in a building called " The Ark," near the Stembrook Mill in Castle Street, and a meeting house of the Latter Day Saints in Chapel Place. Thus it will be seen that in the first half of the Nineteenth Century congregations of nearly all the religious sects had meeting places in Dover.