Page:Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham.djvu/254

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242
SHOWELL'S DICTIONARY OF BIRMINGHAM.

for preaching licenses for the schoolhouse, and for the houses of John Wall, and Joseph Robinson, and Samuel Taylor, and Samuel Dooley, and John Hunt, all the same being in Birmingham; and William Fincher, another "minister of the Presbyterian persuasion," asked for licenses to preach in the house of Richard Yarnald, in Birmingham, his own house, and in the houses of Thomas Gisboon, William Wheeley, John Pemberton, and Richard Careless, in Birmingham, and in the house of Mrs. Yarrington, on Bowdswell Heath. In Bradford's map (1751) Carr's Lane chapel is put as a "Presbiterian chapel," the New Meeting Street building close by being called "Presbiterian Meeting." It was of this "Presbiterian Chapel" in Carr's Lane that Hutton wrote when he said it was the road to heaven, but that its surroundings indicated a very different route. Perhaps it was due to these surroundings that the attendants at Carr's Lane came by degrees to be called Independents and the New Meeting Street folks Unitarians, for both after a time ceased to be known as Presbyterians The Scotch Church, or, as it is sometimes styled, the Presbyterian Church of England, is not a large body in Birmingham, having but three places of worship. The first Presbytery held in this town was on July 6, 1847; the foundation-stone of the Church in Broad Street was laid July 24, 1848; the Church at Camp Hill was opened June 3, 1869; and the one in New John Street West was began July 4, 1856, and opened June 19, 1857.

Salvation Army.—The invasion of Birniinghaui by the soldiers of the Salvation Army was accomplished in the autumn of 1882, the General (Mr. Booth) putting in an appearance March 18, 1883. They have several rendez-vous in the town, one of the principal being in Farm Street, from whence the "soldiers" frequently sally out, with drums beating and colours flying, much to their own glorification and other people's annoyance. Unitarians.—The building known for generations as the Old Meeting, is believed to have been the first Dissenting place of worship erected in Birmingham; and, as its first register dates from 1689, the chapel most likely was built in the previous year. It was doubtless but a small building, as in about ten years (1699) a "Lower Meeting House" was founded in Meeting House Yard, nearly opposite Rea Street. The premises occupied here were gutted in the riots of 1715, and the owner promised the mob that it should no more be used as a chapel, but when calmer he repented and services were held until the New Meeting House in Moor Street was opened. The rioters in 1715 partly destroyed the old Meeting and those of 1791 did so completely, as well as the New Meeting, which (began in 1730) was opened in 1732. For a time the congregations united and met at the Amphitheatre in Livery Stieet, the members of Old Meeting taking posses-ion of their re-erected chapel, October 4, 1795. New Meeting being re-opened April 22, 1802. The last-named building remained in the possession of the Unitarians until 1861, when it was sold to the Roman Catholics. The last services in Old Meeting took place March 19, 1882, the chapel and graveyard, comprising an area of 2,760 square yards, being sold to the L. & N.W.R. Co., for the purpose of enlarging the Central Station. The price paid by the Railway Company was £32,250, of which £2,000 was for the minister and £250 towards the expense of removing to private vaults the remains of a few persons whose friends wished that course. A portion of Witton Cemetery was laid out for the reception of the remainder, where graves and vaults have been made in relative positions to those in the old graveyard, the tombstones being similarly placed. A new church has been erected in Bristol Street for the